Virginia’s Croatoan have changed a lot since they formed in 2008. They never got the chance to record an album with their original drummer, and their replacement left just one month before their self-titled debut dropped. Even though there’s been a six-year, three-drummer gap between when they recorded their first album and its follow-up, the band’s mission has remained the same.

“We want to use our music as an opportunity to engage people in real, meaningful, non-partisan discussions about our modern world,” vocalist Emil Poss tells Consequence of Sound, “and not just as a platform to regurgitate some fake, satanic non-sense like so many bands do.”

As demonstrated on “Blind Nation”, the title track to their forthcoming sophomore effort, the band definitely takes Poss’ sentiment to heart. The pummeling speed metal track is full of imposing riffs and impossibly fast drumming (courtesy of newest member Will Sowdon), but it also packs a poignant message. “Disinformation, force fed lies, far past the time to rise,” Poss bellows. “Between the lines you’ll find their meaning/ Pull the blade on a blind nation.”

The track was the first one they wrote for Blind Nation, according to guitarist/songwriter Max Redding. As he tells CoS, “We’ve had the riffs laying around for years and the song itself, in one form or another, has been played live a handful of times going back just as far. When Will joined back in the fall of 2015, his style injected a much needed dose of adrenaline into the track and it became a bruiser… We’re proud of this one and we hope people dig the statement we’re trying to make.”

Take a listen below.

Blind Nation is out digitally April 7th, with a physical release coming on April 21st.

Blind Nation Album Art: