96 Bitter Beings

History

After leaving CKY in 2011, Deron Miller stepped back from music for a short time, then put out Acoustified! in 2013 and brought Foreign Objects back in 2014, releasing Galactic Prey the next year. That summer, Miller and his Foreign Objects bandmates—lead guitarist Kenneth Hunter, bassist Shaun Luera, and drummer Tim Luera—played shows as "Deron Miller's CKY + Foreign Objects," hinting he planned to keep using the CKY name. By October, the group was called MechaCKY, and Miller talked about re-recording CKY's 2005 album An Answer Can Be Found. In early 2016, he confirmed new MechaCKY material was coming, starting with a rough mix of "Conditioned or Unconditional" on SoundCloud in February.

Later that year, MechaCKY became 96 Bitter Beings, a name taken from the opening track of CKY's 1999 debut Volume 1. A crowdfunding campaign was launched for two albums: Camp Pain, meant only for backers, and Synergy Restored, a wider release. In a 2022 interview, Miller said both records were recorded around the same time and then split into two separate albums. In March 2018, the band put out "Throw Yourself Inside," the second song from these projects. Camp Pain arrived in November, and in June 2019, a music video for "On and On and On," directed by Chris Raab, came out. The band toured North America as a headliner in early 2020.

In May 2022, 96 Bitter Beings signed with Nuclear Blast for the long-awaited Synergy Restored, expected later that year, and announced another North American tour from July to August with Howling Giant as support. Right before the tour, Tim Luera needed surgery for a chronic medical issue and couldn't perform; Matt "Matty J" Janaitis, who had toured as a bassist and keyboardist for CKY, filled in. In July, a video for "Vaudeville's Revenge," the album's opener and again directed by Raab, was released. "Wish Me Dead" followed in August, then "Fire Skyline" in October, and Synergy Restored came out in November.