AUGUST BURNS RED have returned with Season of Surrender, released June 5, 2026 through Fearless Records — the label the Lancaster, Pennsylvania quintet re-signed with in February of this year, following a period away. The album arrives as the follow-up to Death Below (2023) and marks another chapter in one of metalcore's most consistent and decorated careers.
The band — Jake Luhrs (vocals), JB Brubaker (guitar), Brent Rambler (guitar), Dustin Davidson (bass), Matt Grenier (drums) — has accumulated over 600 million streams, multiple Grammy nominations, and several Top 10 entries on the Billboard 200 over their career. They remain one of the genre's standard-bearers.
The album was preceded by the single "Behemoth," which Brubaker discussed candidly: "'Behemoth' probably went through more revisions than any song we've ever written." The careful process evidently paid off — the track has been received as one of the stronger recent singles in their catalog.
A second single, "Whispers Like Splinters," has been described as "a furious, fleet-footed metalcore rager with big hooks and a bigger heart" — capturing the dual nature of ABR's approach: technically rigorous without sacrificing emotional immediacy.
On the other end of the spectrum, the closing track "Forged by Failure" takes a darker and more grandiose turn, offering the kind of album-closing weight that lingers.
Jake Luhrs described Season of Surrender as "one of their classiest and heaviest statements to date" — a claim that aligns with early reception from critics and fans alike. The album's return to Fearless feels less like a business decision and more like a homecoming, and the material apparently reflects that renewed sense of purpose.
For a band that has been operating at a high level for over two decades, Season of Surrender arrives as a reminder that AUGUST BURNS RED have no intention of coasting. The metalcore scene has evolved considerably since their founding, but ABR's core strengths — precision, power, and genuine emotional weight — remain as effective as ever.