Army of the Trees is the debut album from the melodic metal band Savage Lands. It’s one of those groups that leans heavily on guest stars: names such as Alissa White-Gluz, John Tardy, Andreas Kisser, and Dirk Verbeuren grace the record. And there’s music videos for over half the songs on the record, which you can watch below:
“The Last Howl”
“Black Rock Heart”
“No Remedy”
“Army of the Trees”
“Out of Breath”
“Ruling Queen”
While Verbeuren doesn’t play on the whole record, he and and guitarist Sylvain Demercastel started the band-as-nonprofit. The guitar player is joined by Poun on vocals and Etienne Treton on bass from the band Black Bomb A and Florian Pons from Loco Muerte on drums, along with a long cast of guest singers and players.
Through its good works, Savage Lands has protected more than a hundred acres of endangered forest, and different bands and organizations are getting on board. The group Heilung donated a dollar for every ticket sold on their U.S. tour to Savage Lands. The giant metal festival Hellfest committed to donating a million euro over five years. ESP is raffling off a custom, one-of-a-kind Savage Lands guitar, the proceeds funding more land protection. (Back in 2022, the band raffled off a guitar made from Costa Rican wood as well.) And even the Jane Goodall Institute is going to work with the band on some projects in the future.
If you’d like to support what the band is doing, you can donate and/or pick up Army of the Trees. All of the royalties from the album are going back into the nonprofit’s preservation work. It’s out on Season of Mist on CD, LP, and digital.
“By converting the land that we purchase into nature sanctuaries, Savage Lands will help set a precedent for environmental activism,” the band said in a press release.
Photo: Gornoss
Further reading:
I interviewed Dirk Verbeuren about playing in Megadeth.
