Miami, Florida's BLACK TIDE have issued the following update:

"We're happy to announce that we will be opening two shows for IRON MAIDEN this April in Florida! The dates are below and tickets are available now. Hope to see you all out there for what is sure to be an unforgettable night!"

Dates include:

April

16 - Bank Atlantic – Sunrise, FL
17 – St. Pete Times – Tampa, FL

Black Tide are featured in a recent video interview with Bryan Odell out of Lincoln, Nebraska. Check it out below.

BW&BK; scribe Greg Pratt recently caught up with bassist Zakk Sandler. The story appears below.

Florida-based melodic metal/glam/screamo (seriously, these guys sound like BANG TANGO bangin’ around with SHADOWS FALL, with Hot Topic tendencies all over the place… and, even weirder, it sounds pretty good) youngins Black Tide may not have made a huge impact on the headbanging masses with their debut release, 2008’s Light From Above, but they did manage to get a good mixture of just-above-ground buzz (hello, top half of the Billboard 200) and just-underground touring gigs (ALL THAT REMAINS, TRIVIUM, AVENGED SEVENFOLD), all of which added up to a whole lot of life experience to add to album number two. Said second album isn’t out just yet, but a new two-song EP is, containing 'Bury Me', which will be on the upcoming album, and Honest Eyes.

“I think the two-song EP is a good start for what kids can expect to hear on our new record,” says bassist Zakk Sandler. “The entire record is all over the place and I think that the new EP is a great setup. But with that, there are no two songs alike on this album, so there is a lot to expect from this album.”

Sandler agrees that with everything the band has been through over the past few years, it makes sense that the material on the new EP (and, presumably, the new album) is more mature than the band’s past output. If the EP is any indicator, the band’s thrashier and heavier leanings are taking a back seat to more melodic metal leanings. Either way, Sandler chalks it up to the usual artistic growth; I chalk it up to their singer no longer being a tween.

“We’ve definitely grown as writers, musicians, and people in general,” says Sandler. “I think that growing up on the road for the last three years has really given us something to write about and we have a lot of different views on life and everything since we wrote the first album. There were songs on Light From Above that were written when Gabriel [Garcia, vocals/guitar] was 12, and now being 17, his head, and all of ours, are in a much different place.”

The EP has a distinctly ‘80s hard-rock/metal vibe, not unlike a whole lot of 2010 post-screamo bands, but Sandler isn’t quite so sure that Black Tide’s ‘80s fixation is getting any bigger; it’s a huge part of the band’s background and will always be there to some degree.

“I don't know if the EP has more of an ‘80’s vibe or not, to be honest,” says Sandler. “I think the sound is just an evolution of where we were at before and a real growth from that ‘80s mentality. We grew up on METALLICA, MAIDEN, PRIEST... We will always have those influences, but we don't pigeonhole ourselves to listening to one style of music. We listen to everything from country to rap and everything in between. We are far from close-minded people when it comes to our musical exploration.”

The new album is the band’s first with guitarist Austin Diaz, an addition to the band that Sandler is overjoyed with. Sandler says that having Diaz in the band changed the songwriting in a big way.

“Austin really stepped it up when it came around to songwriting and he did some amazing work,” says Sandler. “He shares the same taste in music that we do, but at the same time he does come from a different place in how he hears things and that was a huge asset to us on the writing process. Hearing how he and Gabriel would come up with parts together was amazing as well; they really click as guitarists and writers together.”

Fans of the band will have a chance to hear how well everything is clicking when the new album drops. Sandler says the album “is pretty much done,” and fans can expect to hear material from the self-titled disc—due out in February of next year—from the band at live shows now.

“We’re just waiting to have it mastered and then all we really have to do is focus on artwork and touring. We finished it up about five weeks ago, and we’ve already started playing new material out on this run.”