Staind released Confessions of the Fallen on September 22, 2023, through Alchemy Recordings/BMG. Their eighth studio album followed 2011’s self-titled release, but the musicians changed how they worked together to make it. Producer Erik Ron helped introduce electronic elements, while “Lowest in Me” served as the first single from the returning band.
The return took shape well before the album arrived. Mike Mushok told Icon Vs. Icon that conversations about reconvening became more concrete around 2018. Staind played shows in 2019 and signed a record deal, only for the pandemic to interrupt their plans. Touring with Korn in 2021 gave Mushok time to work through ideas with Aaron Lewis. He set up Pro Tools in the mornings and spent much of each day writing. Several songs developed during that run, with Lewis’s reactions helping determine which ideas to pursue.
Lewis described a process built around exchanging material instead of spending months together in a studio. In the album’s release announcement, he said that the distance gave the songs time to develop between contributions. He had also held onto lyrics intended for Staind, keeping them separate from his solo work. The long interval between records did not mean he was starting with an empty notebook; some of that material had been waiting for the band to return.
Lewis wanted electronics to become part of the arrangements, an ambition that required help beyond Mushok’s usual approach to writing on guitar. “I play guitar!” the guitarist recalled telling him in the Icon Vs. Icon interview. Ron translated some guitar ideas into electronic parts, changing their textures while retaining the underlying writing.
Another change came from equipment they already owned. Searching for a clean guitar tone in their warehouse studio, Mushok noticed a covered Vox AC30 among gear Lewis had put into storage. He told Screamer Magazine that they miked it, switched it on and plugged in without adjusting the controls. The sound impressed him enough to text Lewis and revisit several completed clean guitar parts. Mushok also described waiting for Lewis’s vocal melodies before recording the guitar overdubs heard behind them, allowing those additions to respond to the singing.
On “Here and Now,” Lewis wrote about his wife and children, but he left room for someone else to interpret the song visually. Speaking with Audacy’s Jason Bailey in 2023, he said he handed it to the video’s creator without explaining its meaning. The resulting film dealt with Alzheimer’s disease, aging and the loss of a parent. Lewis said it moved him to tears despite departing from the family story he had written. He saw that difference as a valid response to the song, rather than something the video needed to correct.
Staind later revisited “Better Days” with Dorothy, releasing their collaboration on April 19, 2024. The new version paired her voice with Lewis’s on a song from Confessions of the Fallen. In the release announcement, Lewis described working with a female guest vocalist as a departure for Staind, but said the session required little discussion about how their voices should fit together. “We didn’t have to pick harmonies, we didn’t have to analyze parts, they just happened,” he said.
