The Wings of War

The Wings of War, the nineteenth album, came out on Nuclear Blast on 22 February 2019 as NB 4407-2. Ward Records issued the Japanese edition (GQCS-90689) the same day, with "In Ashes" as a bonus track. The band produced it, recording at Gear Recording Studio in New Jersey, SKH Studio in Florida and elsewhere, with D.D. Verni and Dave Linsk engineering, and Chris "Zeuss" Harris mixed and mastered it. It is the first album with drummer Jason Bittner, formerly of Shadows Fall and Flotsam and Jetsam, who had joined in 2017. The title came after the cover. The painting shows five figures that seem to be discussing something important, and Ellsworth overheard Verni and Linsk saying it looked like a council of war; the title grew from there. So there is no title track, and two weeks before the master was due at Nuclear Blast the album still had only a working title. "Welcome to the Garden State" takes its name from the nickname of the band's home state, New Jersey, and is a tribute to it; its video was released on the day of release. It entered the official German chart at number five, the band's best placing there, and the Billboard 200 at number 158. Spotify carries this album, but in this territory only two of its ten tracks will play, so this page shows the sleeve instead of a player. The running order here is the original's as printed.