The fearsome New York band Bethlehem Steel are releasing a new self-titled album this Autumn. It’s the follow-up to 2017’s excellent debut, Party Naked Forever, and a new member has been added to the band this time around in the form of Christina Puerto, who wrote and sings on a handful of songs on the album. At the project’s center is still Becca Rsykalczyk, though, whose smoky voice grounds Bethlehem Steel’s lead single “Bad Girl”: “Woke up early to hate myself/ Am I a bad girl?” she wonders on it, her swirl of anxieties giving way to a terse, knotted breakdown.
“‘Bad Girl’ is about all the nights that my brain keeps me awake. Irrationally telling me I’m a terrible person. Going over and over and over all of the things I might have done to upset or inconvenience another human,” Ryskalczyk said in a statement. “Singing the line ‘am I a bad girl?’ to my bandmates or even just out loud to myself was definitely embarrassing. I wasn’t sure if I should even keep it as a lyric until I decided to just lean into it.
The song’s music video, which was directed by Ryskalczyk, takes place at a raucous New York City backyard party.
With “Empty Room” we get Bethlehem Steel as we’ve literally never heard them before, with lead vocals from the band’s own Christina Puerto (guitar/vocals), who joined the band shortly after the release of their last album. In Puerto, band mastermind Becca Rsykalczyk found not only a deep companionship, but also another strong song writer with an understanding of Bethlehem Steel’s aesthetic choices and impassioned soul searching lyrics, as explored in “Empty Room,” one of several Puerto contributed to the band’s self-titled album, due out next month. It opens with a caustic rumble and wriggles its way into crunching chords and sinewy guitar melodies from there, led by Puerto’s dazzling vocals and a few well placed harmonies.
Releases September 13th, 2019
Rebecca Ryskalczyk – guitar & vocals
Christina Puerto – guitar & vocals
Patrick Ronayne – bass
Jonathan Gernhart – drums
Additional Instrumentation:
Paul Swenson – cello
Mike Gagliardi – sax
All songs written by Bethlehem Steel
The Fat Angel Sings 