CHASTAIN guitarist David T. Chastain has issued the following statement regarding his forthcoming SOUTHERN GENTLEMEN album, Valley Of Fire, due for release in the US on May 13th via Leviathan Records:

"This line-up really clicked on the last CD, Third Time Is The Charm, so I wanted to carry forward and see what we could do with the guys contributing from day one of the recording process. In the past I had written everything, but this

time Eric wrote all of the lyrics and melodies and this really added a different ingredient to the mix that definitely moved the music to another level. Drummer Mike Haid and bassist Dave Swart really locked in together to form a foundation that powers each track.

With everyone in the band's metal roots it was just a natural progression to get a little heavier at times. While the music

may get heavier Eric made a concerted effort to keep the vocals sounding blues based to keep the band's sound centered on our core beliefs.

Either you get it or you don't. We don't really care what is happening around us musically and we don't really listen

to a lot of what is considered 'popular' or 'in'. Southern Gentlemen is having a great time playing classic music with a modern slant and neither we nor our fans would have it any other way."

According to a press release, "the band continued its style of keeping the recording as bare bones and live sounding as possible. The Cd was mixed and mastered by engineer extraordinaire Christian Schmid in Germany. Valley Of Fire is definitely the band's heaviest to date with a few tracks flirting with traditional metal more so than any of the band's previous three CDs."

As previously reported, Valley Of Fire will be available for pre-order as of April 1st at this location. The song 'Valley Of Fire' is available for streaming at this location. Complete tracklist and additional album details will be revealed soon.