Severed Ties is the debut studio album by Australian post-hardcore band the Amity Affliction. It was released on 4 October 2008 through Boomtown Records, which debuted at No. 26 on the ARIA Albums Chart, and No. 6 on the related Australian Artists Albums Chart.
The album was the last release to feature guitarist Chris Burt and the first to feature drummer Ryan Burt.
Contents
Background
"Poison Pen Letters" was re-recorded for Severed Ties, it originally appeared on the demo compilation, State of Affairs – a collection of tracks by hardcore bands from the five mainland states of Australia. "Love Is a Battlefield" is a cover of a track by Pat Benatar. Three tracks contained samples from feature films, however due to copyright restrictions, the then-active label of Boomtown was forced to remove them. The first few thousand copies printed of the album retained the samples: "I Heart Roberts'" contains one from the film, Hot Rod, "The Blair Snitch Project" had a sample from True Romance in its intro, and "Stairway to Hell" contains sound samples from Hot Rod and Happy Gilmore. The group's insider joke is in the initialism, "B.D.K.I.A.F.", which stands for "Big Dick Know It All Fuck"; while "Do You Party?" is a reference to a joke in Hot Rod.
Personnel
The Amity Affliction
Joel Birch – vocals
Ahren Stringer – bass, vocals
Troy Brady – guitar
Chris Burt – guitar
Trad Nathan – keyboards, synths, programming, samples
Ryan Burt – drums
Additional musicians
Helmet Roberts (The Daylight Curse) – guest vocals on "I Heart Roberts'"
Lochlan Watt (Ironhide) – guest vocals on "Snitches Get Stitches"
Matthew Wright (The Getaway Plan) – guest vocals on "So You Melted..." and "Jesse Intense"
Michael Crafter (Confession) – guest vocals on "Jesse Intense"
JJ Peters (Deez Nuts) – guest vocals on "Stairway to Hell"
Production
Darren Thompson – Producer