Northeast Regional embarked on making In the Desert, its new, sprawling studio album, almost as a dare to each other. Before its members had arrived at an album title or set the specific course they’d chart across varied sonic landscapes of dynamic — often explosive — post hardcore punk, The Richmond, Virginia-based band was at a crossroads.
 
By that time, the band had already evolved from the recording project of Jeff Byers (guitar and vocals) into a fully fleshed-out and functional going concern, composed of five friends with several decades worth of DIY touring and no shortage of ‘ex members of _____” to their credit. 
 
Shortly after the release of the band’s Fitness EP in 2024, Byers alongside Mike Morris (guitar and vocals), James Doubek (guitar), Tyler Worley (bass) and Zach Nelson (drums) faced the eternal question every band at one time or another contends with, “Okay, now what?”
 
Big life events informed the making of their most ambitious recording to date, and ultimately inspired its name. For Byers, it was the birth of his daughter and his father’s diagnosis of an aggressive form of dementia. 
 
“Not having the ability to recall most of your life story, good or bad, was very sad to me,” he says. “As guys in our 40s, being decidedly middle-aged, I think it’s natural to look out and think about what time you have left and what to do with it.” 
 
You can hear Byers working it out as if in real time on “Deconstructive Surgery,” the album’s opening salvo. He screams, “Time is water in the desert. A market with no future. You drink and drink ‘til supplies dry and stop.” 
 
For Morris — who penned and sings three songs — plans to move out of the country with his family to Oman were underway before the album was completely written. 

Today, the band shares one of Morris’ songs, “Alt Bounce.”

“‘Alt Bounce’ lives up to it’s name. It’s a bouncy number that took shape while paying tribute to Bully or The Breeders,” says Byers. “This song was written and sung by our guitarist Mike. I can’t put words in his mouth but I’m under the impression that the song is about spending time in the desert on a family vacation and sharing special moments with said family.”
 
With the band’s remaining time together in short supply, the band continued to meet week after week to develop the album’s 11 songs mainly for the love of making music together and as living proof of their shared experience. 
 
With expressive detours, explorative arrangements, and newfound flights of fancy, the album delivers a much-needed adrenaline shot for anyone that still loves guitar-based rock music. That enduring, adventurous spirit is captured in the vast Omanian desert Morris would eventually photograph for the album cover. Have a look: it’s stark, winding, and immense. It is a sweeping sequence sure to usher listeners through John Reis-like peaks and Revolution Summer-tinged valleys. 
 
It’s an album for a particular point in time. It’s not necessarily a beginning or an ending. It’s the moment where you acknowledge time is limited and have to answer the question, “what are you going to do about it?”

In the Desert sees release via Tor Johnson Records on April 10. Order it here.

Photo courtesy of Odd John Photography.