P.O.D. just released their new album!

Hard rockers P.O.D. PAYABLE ON DEATH) have set an August 21 release date for their new album, “The Awakening”. The CD’s first single will arrive later this month.

“We’re excited about the new record,” P.O.D. singer Sonny Sandoval told MikeJamesRockShow.com this past Saturday (May 10) in Plymouth, United Kingdom (see video below). “It’s a conceptual record, so it’s something different for us. It has a storyline to it. I mean, the songs… we love ’em. We had a chance to play a few new ones live. “The Awakening” was recorded at a Los Angeles-area studio with P.O.D.’s longtime producer Howard Benson.

In a recent interview with Loudwire, Sandoval stated about the MATERIAL for P.O.D.’s forthcoming album: “I’m digging it. We have a little something different. I can’t really say now, but we’re trying a different approach.” He continued: “I think what we’ve done, it’s such a collection of songs that not everybody gets. Some bands sound like one song the whole album through. We’ve been all over the place, because we are punk, hardcore, rock ‘n’ roll, metal, reggae, and I think sometimes it might be too much diversity and kids are lost. It’s too big of a buffet for them to go for and they want three chords sometimes. We’re never going to do that.”

Sandoval added: “We’re putting something together that tells a story. Maybe it’s just for us, maybe it’s not for your average listener, but it’s something we’re having a lot of fun doing. We’re excited.”

P.O.D.’s last release was “SoCal Sessions”, a collection of acoustic versions of some of the band’s most popular songs. The CD came out last November. A digital re-release of a special deluxe edition of P.O.D.’s latest studio album, “Murdered Love”, was made available in October 2013. Highlights included two previously unreleased studio tracks, “Burn It Down” and “Find A Way” (recorded with Benson) and an acoustic version of the band’s Top 5 hit “Beautiful”. Additional tracks include an acoustic version of “West Coast Rock Steady”, an alternate version of “On Fire” and “Lost In Forever (Scream)”, plus various music videos and behind-the-scenes footage from the “Murdered Love” album cycle.