P.O.D. Is Putting Finishing Touches On 'Fun' And 'Catchy' New Album

Vocalist Sonny Sandoval of San Diego, California-based rockers P.O.D. (PAYABLE ON DEATH) has confirmed to Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio that the band is putting the finishing touches on its new album for a tentative late 2018 release via the Mascot Label Group.

"I just finished a couple of days of vocals," he said (hear audio below). "I think right now it's kind of just being all cleaned up and put together, and then once the label and everybody hears it, then it will go to mixing. And hopefully an album by the end of the year."

Regarding the musical direction of the new P.O.D. material, Sonny said: "We did something different this time. If you listen to [P.O.D.'s] early stuff from even early '90s, we had a DJ; we were mixing in certain sounds — mixed reggae music and punk and hardcore and rock and even poppy stuff — so it's not like a surprise. But on this record, we worked with the Heavy [the Los Angeles-based production/songwriting team consisting of Jason Bell and Jordan Miller]. And this is the first time that we really kind went in the studio vulnerable and open for more of a writing session, whereas we've always written our own music before. We still wrote our music, but it was more open to change, or at least them adding kind of their feel to it. These guys worked with a bunch of pop bands — they just did the DIRTY HEADS — and they just have more of a… I was gonna say 'younger,' but just more of a cleaner, poppier tone to it. So we went in really open-minded, and then, here we are at the end of the record, and we're, like, 'Man, we don't even have that many heavy songs.' [Laughs] Everything is fun — it's fun, it's experimental when it comes to programming and some drum loops and stuff like that. We've done that before, but it was always kind of hidden, whereas now it's, like, a whole verse could be just an electronic bass or a drum kit. So it's fun, it's catchy, and I definitely think it's just P.O.D. 2018."

Over the span of two decades, P.O.D. has released 10 studio albums, including the triple-platinum "Satellite". They have had several hit songs, including "Southtown", "Alive", "Youth Of The Nation" and "Boom", and most recently with their Active Rock singles "Higher", "Beautiful" and "Lost In Forever", which reached No. 1. The band has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, racked up four No. 1 music videos, and contributed songs to numerous major motion picture soundtracks.

P.O.D.'s 10th studio album, "The Awakening", was released in 2015.