For a dozen years, Hammerlock has been one of the pioneering bands to straddle the lines between hard rock, country and punk, influencing a whole new generation of bands with their unique brand of "Outlaw Music." Following up their recently released CD retrospective, True Grit: The First Five Years, the Bay Area legends return with Forgotten Range, their first disc of all-new material since 2003's Compromise Is For Cowards. Expanding their sound beyond the traditional power trio format with liberal doses of lap steel and acoustic slide guitar throughout, in addition to pedal steel and harmonica courtesy of special guests Bob Clic (The Lewd) and Jason Story, the band pulls out all the stops to conjure up what’s been described as ‘a wall of honky tonk,’ or, as the band puts it, “…Ernest Tubb or Roy Acuff on steroids.”

Hammerlock spent two and-a-half years writing the songs for Forgotten Range and three and-a-half months recording and mixing them. Singer/guitarist Travis Kenney explains the band’s approach to making the album: “Unlike past Hammerlock albums - where we would record basic tracks one day, a few leads and vocals and overdubs the next day, and mix the songs on the third day, this was done over the span of a few months. It’s the first time we’ve brought lap steel to an album since our first record, American Asshole; it’s layered all over the album.”

“We also brought in other people, special guests, which we hadn’t done before - with the exception of Tim Green (The Fucking Champs) and The Whiskey Rebel (Rancid Vat). I collaborated with Simon Stokes on the lyrics for a lot of the songs; he kind of coached me a bit. That’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like that. Liza’s got songs all over this one too. Even Mikey did a cover song on his own, playing acoustic guitar and singing. We just went out to prove what we could do on this one. We didn’t worry about the budget. If we heard a mistake, we made sure it got fixed. Every note on this one sounds exactly the way we want it to. We wanted to go in a slightly different direction, but still keep our sound intact. In the past we’ve come in thinking the standard to live up to was, maybe, the last album we’d made. The standard we used for this CD this was every album we love; every great album. We felt this album had to be better than any classic album - the great ‘70s rock albums or country albums that you just listen to the whole way though and you go, ‘Wow, that took me on a ride somewhere.’”

Over the course of making Forgotten Range the band overcame more adversity than they’d had to with all their previous albums combined. Travis explains, “There was blood making this album, there were tears, anger?not only in the lyrics, but in actually making the record. We tore ourselves to pieces making this album. Literally. We tore apart our lives, our families… everything got torn apart and thrown into this album.”

Through motorcycle wrecks, fistfights, dying relatives and more, Hammerlock has taken everything thrown their way and crafted fifteen songs that tell a story as only they can; painting a musical landscape more vivid than anything they’ve created thus far.

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