Shinedown frontman Brent Smith is now able to laugh at the health problems that contributed to the delay of their fifth album.
He suffered with nodules on his vocal cords after 21 months on the road – then had to deal with a fungal infection in his throat.
The singer won’t reveal the name of the follow-up to 2012’s Amaryllis, but says fans can expect its arrival in September.
Smith tells Loudwire: “We took a while mainly because my voice needed to rest. When we got off tour I had three nodules on my left vocal cord.
“I had to heal them. I was lucky enough to do so naturally – I didn’t have surgery, but it took two and a half months to get them where they needed to be.”
He continues: “I have to laugh about it now, but I got this thing called thrush, which is normally what babies will get. We have fungus in our bodies that’s dormant and sometimes it’ll unleash, and it unleashed on me.
“It went all the way down to my oesophagus, so that was another two months to heal from that. Four months in all after we got off the road, then we started writing the record.”
The extra time allowed Smith the chance to reflect, which he feels has lent a ferocity to his lyrics on Shinedown’s upcoming material.
“You have time to reflect and we go inside of our psyche, and that can be a very frightening place,” he says. “Especially for myself – I can only write about what I’m going through and what I know.
“We held absolutely nothing back on this record. It’s beautiful, but it’s also very brutal.”
Shinedown launched lead track Cut The Cord last month. They tour the US and Japan before returning to the UK in January:
Jul 09: St Petersburg Mahaffey Theater, FL
Jul 11: Woodlands Cynthia Woods Pavilion, TX
Jul 12: Abilene Civic Center, TX
Jul 14: Tulsa Brady Theater, OK
Jul 16: Cadott Rock Fest, WI
Jul 17: Madison Overture Hall, WI
Jul 18: Walker Moondance Jam, MN
Jul 20: Joliet Rialto Square, IL
Jul 21: Detroit Fillmore, MI
Jul 23: Upper Darby Tower Theatre, PA
Jul 24: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Jul 25: Syracuse Krokathon, NY
Jul 27: Bosont Shubert Theater, MA
Jul 28: Richmond National VA
Jul 29: Charlotte Ovens Auditorium, NC
Jul 31: Atlanta Tabernacle, GA
Aug 01: Maryland Heights Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, MO
Aug 02: Kansas City Arvest Bank, MO
Aug 04: Sturgis Buffalo Chip, SD
Aug 05: Sioux City Orpheum Theatre, IA
Aug 07: Davenport Adler Theatre, IA
Aug 08: Indianapolis Old National Centre, IN
Aug 09: Jackson County Fair Grounds, MI
Aug 28: Socorro Entertainment Center, TX
Aug 31: Tokyo Shibuya O-East, Japan
Oct 04: Lousville Louder Than Life festival, KY
Oct 24: Sacramento Aftershock, CA
Jan 28: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Jan 29: Nottingham Capital FM Arena
Jan 30: Liverpool Echo Arena
Feb 01: Glasgow SSE Hydro
Feb 02: Birmingham Barclaycard Arena
Feb 04: London SSE Wembley Arena
Feb 05: Leeds First Direct Arena
Feb 06: Manchester Arena
