Filter reconvenes for 'Damned' album, tour

Singer-guitarist Richard Patrick was serving as lead singer of Army of Anyone in 2007 when he made a life-changing decision: He wanted to return to Filter [ tickets ]. "I went out on the road with Army of Anyone and we were playing Filter's 'Hey Man Nice Shot' and 'Welcome to the Fold' live," Patrick said during an interview with LiveDaily. "I just thought to myself, 'I really miss Filter.' The crowd really dug it and I enjoyed singing it. It just felt like home. It felt like the right thing for me. I just went for it."So he called his management and asked if his deal with Warner Bros. was still in effect. It was not, so he is releasing the album "Anthems for the Damned" independently today (5/13). "It's got all the ingredients of the other records," Patrick said. "I love it. I'm really proud of it." Produced by Josh Abraham, "Anthems for the Damned" is a 12-song look into the world's problems, ranging from the Iraq war to American politics. "It's not necessarily a 'me' record, but a 'we' record, an 'us' record," Patrick said. "We're burning fossil fuel at a rate that's contaminating our atmosphere. We're destroying so much of our wildlife. We're at war with each other. Islamic fascists want to kill us. America will pretty much do almost anything for oil at this point. We refuse to try and start new technology. "This record feels like anthems for the damned. It feels like a record written for people that really don't want to make a difference or make a change. It's pitiful and it's sad and, by the end of the record, I'm saying, 'Only you can stop this.' The last two songs are literally 'Only You' and 'Can Stop This.' At the end of the ambient track, 'Can Stop This,' there's a huge explosion and it just kind of disappears and goes into silence. And that's the end."The songs were written over the course of the last five years, after Patrick's much publicized month-long rehab stint in 2002. "'In Dreams' was literally [written] a month after I got out of rehab. 'Kill the Day' was a couple weeks after that. 'Soldiers of Misfortune' was three years ago. This spans five years of time. Last summer was a big creative process, just kind of rebuilding everything."Patrick said he has been "clear of alcohol and drugs" since he exited rehab. He still participates in Alcoholics Anonymous-related events. "I still talk to people about drinking and I'm of service to a lot of people," Patrick said. "I've been clean for five years and I take it one day at a time. I'm coming up on six in September. I'm not there yet. I just take it one day at a time and, every day [that] goes by, I get stronger."He explained he was a "slave" to drinking, going to bed at 4 a.m. and getting up at 7 a.m. only to start drinking again. "I was so completely hung over that the only relief was to just have another drink and start the whole thing over," he said. "By 10 o'clock in the morning, I'm already wasted again and passing out and waking up at two in the afternoon and just being destroyed. My nervous system was just wrecked. It was horrible. I wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy."But now he's in a better place. A place where he can enjoy playing the new songs with his band--guitarist Mitchell Marlow, bassist John Spiker and drummer Mika Fineo. The group is in the midst of a spring tour that continues tonight (5/13) in New York City. The itinerary is shown below."We're enjoying the hell out of it," he said. "We play two or three new songs live. Then we actually play a lot of 'Title [of Record]' a lot of 'The Amalgamut' and a lot of 'Short Bus' and all the soundtrack stuff. It's a big hour-and-a-half concert, if you see us in a club. If you see us at a radio festival, it's kind of like a greatest hits--everything from 'Take a Picture' to 'Hey Man' to 'Trip Like I Do' to 'Soldiers of Misfortune,' 'Welcome to the Fold.' We're having a lot of fun live."