Let's talk about local industrial metal solo project The Realignment Project in this single-topic post today, so what have they been up to since we last left off with them in November? Well, on the 7th of that month, project leader Matt Hicks revealed that their fourth EP would be called "Let You Fall", which he had already finished recording at that point (remember, T.R.P. released three EPs last year alone). On November 10th, Matt confirmed both the final album cover and the release date of January 2nd (this past Friday!), with the track listing following on the 16th, notably specifying that "Scatterbrain" was retitled from "Nitwit" for one reason or another. You can see "Scatterbrain", "Where Did You Go?", and "By Myself" from that album being tracked in vertical videos linked here, here, and here from their Facebook page that same month. In a surprise announcement on November 24th, Matt announced that The Realignment Project had signed a label deal!
As teased in this video, he is working with East London Recordings, a British indie label that help independent artists release physical albums, and they have released T.R.P.'s first two 2025 EPs "Afterthought" & "The Frustration Sessions" together on vinyl, one EP on each side! East London uses a print-on-demand method from ElasticStage for making albums, which is also what Mike Haggith's MorningStar Records utilizes for physical album pressings, but I have no idea if Matt was aware of that prior. It does appear that ElasticStage's 12'' vinyl records have a 23 minute limit per side, which affects "The Frustration Sessions". Rather than drop a song, Matt opted to edit down four of its songs to fit ("Minor Outburst" alone is chopped down by 50 seconds). Keep that in mind before buying, but if you want some local industrial rock on vinyl, it costs $43.90 at this link!
This would imply that their third EP ("War Songs") & "Let You Fall" will be similarly combined for a vinyl release, but if East London does release them thusly, note that both EPs exceed 23 minutes, so expect edits on both sides. "Let You Fall" was successfully released on Friday, and if you believe promotional postings, it is "available everywhere". Definitely not true, as it isn't even on Amazon Music at press time, among other services, but you can currently stream it on YouTube (with lyric video postings ongoing), Apple Music, Spotify, Boomplay, and KKBox, and it is buyable on Bandcamp (name your price) and iTunes ($5.94). Given our ongoing album review backlog, The Realignment Project are currently pencilled in for April, as No Arrow, Sykotyk Rampage, and Handsome Sandwich all had albums that beat the yet-to-be-reviewed "War Songs" to market.
In the event that "War Songs" and "Let You Fall" get a joint vinyl release by April 30th, I would review both at once, as that would be a singular local album release, but if this was a one-and-done, we'd just review "War Songs". Either way, I'll be looking at new music from The Realignment Project in the spring, and Matt never stops, as he was already working on his fifth EP as of December 13th! Also last month, Matt was interviewed about The Realignment Project by David Oman of the British blog PlayedByDavid, where David interviews various indie musicians, seemingly all being posed the same questions. In Matt's interview, he outlines his musical background, favourite original songs, his songwriting and recording process, favourite musicians, future plans, and more, and he gives some good detailed thoughts on the topics at hand! In terms of scoops, the biggest one is that he's planning to release T.R.P. CDs.
This would be through ElasticStage (no word on if he'd be combining them like on vinyl), and while Matt is not planning on playing live in this project, he hasn't ruled it out either. It's great to see The Realignment Project staying exceedingly productive, and hopefully 2026 sees more quality music from them, so stay tuned for more from Matt soon, and here's the lyric video for the opening/title track from "Let You Fall"! Thanks everyone!
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