Brace for Impact

Brace for Impact is the third album, released by Frontiers on 14 October 2022 and produced by the band themselves. The schedule is cleanly documented: writing began in August 2021 and was finished by the end of the year; the whole of January 2022 went to arrangements and pre-production; recording started in the first week of February. Kent Hilli called the record "Perfect Plan 3.0" and explained that they set no direction before writing — it simply came out with more rockers than before and slightly harder overall. There is exactly one ballad. The goal in writing an album, he said, is always the same: it should feel like choosing songs on a jukebox. "Surrender" opens the door, followed by the advance singles "If Love Walks In" and "Can't Let You Win." The push of "Gotta Slow Me Down" and "Stop The Bleed," a track called exactly what it sounds like in "Devil's Got The Blues," then "Bring Me A Doctor" and "Still Undefeated" lead through "Emelie" to "Walk Through Fire," closing eleven songs in 53 minutes. The line-up is the same five as before. Reactions split: some called it their best yet, while one French reviewer wrote that the freshness of the early records had settled into a mould.