Drain Announce New Album '...Is Your Friend'

Hardcore Santa Cruz, CA trio DRAIN are back and announcing their new album ‘...IS YOUR FRIEND’ today, due for release on November 7th via Epitaph Records. After crushing all expectations with 2023’s ‘LIVING PROOF’ and spending the subsequent year on the road, the new record finds these best friends playing at the top of their game and flexing their instinctive chemistry.

Leading with bouncy hardcore banger 'Nights Like These,' vocalist Sammy Ciaramitaropauses to discuss the lifelong goals that have now become Drain’s average Tuesday: “Over the last decade of doing DRAIN, I've been able to see the world, meet incredible people, experience all sorts of incredible highs and even a couple of lows - but most importantly, I got to do all of those things with my best friends. No matter how much we accomplish and how big we grow - we are still just a couple of friends who get to play music together, make memories all over the world, and we are SO aware of how lucky we are to do it. THAT is what "Nights Like These" is about.”

The Derek Rathbun-directed music video splits between footage of the band’s rowdy live show in 2025 and fast-forwards to them displaying the same onstage energy thirty years later but utilizing the members’ dads and uncle as stunt doubles. “When we were coming up with ideas for this video, I thought it would be so cool to try and make us look old and play a show as seniors,” Ciaramitaro explained. “We could have gone the route of using make-up and practical effects, but then it clicked in my brain...I am going to look just like my dad when I get old - I should just use him.”

Enthused about witnessing his 61-year-old father stage dive for the first time, he adds, “The fact that we got to share this special night with the people who shaped us to be the men we are today - means SO much to all of us. I hope that everyone enjoys watching it as much as we all enjoyed getting to make it happen. Shout out to Stu, Frankie, and Donny!”

There’s no other hardcore band like DRAIN. The Santa Cruz band is an institution in their genre and an affable neighbor to their adjacent ones. Punks love Drain. Metalheads love DRAIN. Haters can’t help but love DRAIN. DRAIN is for everyone. Well, venue security guards might not love DRAIN. But to everyone else: DRAIN …Is Your Friend.

DRAIN (Ciaramitaro, guitarist Cody Chavez, and drummer Tim Flegal) formed back in 2014 and cut their teeth in Santa Cruz’s fertile DIY hardcore scene. COVID lockdown couldn’t stop their 2020 debut, California Cursed, from making waves, and their 2023 follow-up, LIVING PROOF, hit the hardcore scene like a Cali beach during hurricane season -- a torrential classic. Since then, DRAIN have blazed through hundreds of shows worldwide: headlining festivals, taking their friends and heroes on tour, and even playing arenas with Blink-182. Regardless of whether they're opening for pop-punk jukeboxes like Neck Deep or grabbing the stage-dive torch from Terror, DRAIN’s only goal is to make the crowd go buck wild.

With their third full-length album and second for Epitaph Records, …IS YOUR FRIEND, DRAIN had two primary goals in mind: to capture their quintessential live essence on recording, and to write new songs that’ll make their next shows even crazier. Their previous albums were written before DRAIN were on the road all year, and they spent the last few hundred nights onstage making note of which songs their fans respond best to. …IS YOUR FRIEND is designed to maximize their audience’s shit-losing abilities. Its ten songs include the heaviest mosh parts, the catchiest choruses, the tastiest thrash riffs, and the most scream-able lyrics DRAIN have ever written. Producer Jon Markson (The Story So Far, Drug Church, One Step Closer) tracked the whole album live -- 100% real-time drums, no metronome, no programmed bullshit. It sounds the way DRAIN was always meant to: crisp, serrated, animated. Over the years, they have gotten bigger, their crowds have gotten more diverse, and their music has become more eclectic. But Ciaramitaro underscores what this album makes abundantly clear: their founding ethos remains unchanged. “DRAIN is your friend, DRAIN was your friend, DRAIN will forever be your friend.” 

…IS YOUR FRIEND Tracklisting 
1. Stealing Happiness From Tomorrow 
2. Living In A Memory 
3. Scared Of Everything And Nothing 
4. Nothing But Love 
5. Can’t Be Bothered
6. Loudest In The Room
7. Nights Like These 
8. Who’s Having Fun?
9. Darkest Days
10. Until Next Time 

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