What You Fear the Most

What You Fear the Most (abbreviated to WYFTM ) is the second album by Bulletrain, released on the 23rd of September 2016. The album was first announced on the 6th of October 2015, when Jonas Tillheden explained that Bulletrain would start the recording at Sound Division Studios in Riga, Latvia in November of that year. The idea to record in Sound Division Studios was made by RamPac since the studio featured the latest technology while being relatively cheap to rent. In Riga the music would be recorded while the vocals would be recorded in the studio Ramtitam in Stockholm, Sweden. The producers would once again be the duo RamPac (Johan Ramström and Patrik Magnusson). Tillheden also revealed that after the release of Start Talking a few record labels had expressed interest in the band. Bulletrain recorded some pre-production vocals on the 16th of October 2015 and some lead and rhythm guitar on October 30. On the 6th of November 2015 the recording started and an update video was released by the band three days later stating that they were currently recording drums, with one and a half song left, which would be followed by bass and guitars. On the 11th of November Bulletrain announced that they were halfway through the recording of the music for the album and the recording in Riga wrapped up on the 13th of November. On the 18th of November 2015 the recording of the vocals started at Ramtitam in Stockholm and it ended ten days later. On the 5th of April 2016 the band wrote that the album had been mixed by Tobias Lindell and that it was to be mastered by Vlado Meller. A video album was announced on the band's Facebook page on the 27th of June 2016 and was recorded in connection with this album but was later cancelled. The album title, cover, track listing and release date was announced on the 12th of August 2016. The release date had originally been set to sometime during the first half of 2016 but was later changed.

Bulletrain described What You Fear the Most as a darker and more vocal based album than Start Talking; this was credited to the fact that Tillheden, according to Robin Bengtsson, "was at some strange places in life during the [album] process". Nevertheless, the band pointed out that the heavy guitar and the sing-along choruses are still present. The release party was held at The Tivoli in Helsingborg on the 1st of October 2016. Just as with their debut album a limited Bulletrain beer was made by Helsingborgs Bryggeri for the release party.

Song meanings
In October 2016 Tillheden went into detail on every song on the album and their origin in an interview with Melodic Music Reviews :


 * "Memory Lane" is about growing up and when you realize life's damn serious stuff and all you wanna do is go back in time to when you were young, dumb and free.
 * "Love Lies" is a true story about an ex-girlfriend of mine. We had a seriously intense and crazy relationship. It was madness but it turned out to be a good song though.
 * "Can't Get Away" is actually about my bad romance with alcohol. Today I'm sober, haven’t had a drink for almost three months, and that’s how I felt when I drank.
 * "Fight with Me" was a song I wrote when I was fed up with my job and life of working 9 to 5 day in and day out. I wanna play rock 'n' roll and party every day, not being a puppet in a freakshow like Dave Lepard (Crashdïet, RIP) sang in "Riot in Everyone".
 * "We Salute You" is actually written by our producers, RamPac. I fucking love that song, it’s damn catchy with a killer chorus and melody. I’m proud and thankful that they wanted to share that song with us!
 * "Feed the Fire" is a song about preparing yourself for all the troubles in life. You gotta be strong mentally because one day [you] yourself is all you have.
 * "Wet, Tired & Lonely" lyrics came to Robin [Bengtsson] when he was riding his bike home one summer morning after his night shift at work. He was recently left by his girlfriend and the rain was pouring down as hell.
 * "Old Lighthouse" is actually the first and only lyrics we’ve written that is fictional. At the same time you can see it as a metaphor for drug abuse.
 * "Fear" was finished just before we entered the studio and it turned out killer! RamPac wanted just one more song and Matt[ias Persson] had this music we hadn't done anything with and suddenly Robin had these lyrics and together with Sebastian [Sundberg] they presented the song and vocals and then it was an easy decision to make it a part of the album!
 * "Far Away" is about Robin’s trip to India where he spent a couple of months trying to find himself but just ended up sick as fuck with typhoid fever realizing that he really was far away from home.

Track listing
It was announced on the 6th of October 2015 that the album will contain ten songs. The song "Far Away" was announced on the 20th of November. "Memory Lane", "Old Lighthouse" and "Fight with Me" were first mentioned in a blog post on the 4th of December 2010 with the latter one having previously been released on the 17th of November 2013. Parts of the demo version of "Love Lies" was posted on Instagram on the 22nd of February 2015.


 * 1) "Memory Lane" – 4:19
 * 2) "Love Lies" – 3:27
 * 3) "Can't Get Away" – 4:09
 * 4) "Fight with Me" – 3:31
 * 5) "We Salute You" – 3:54
 * 6) "Feed the Fire" (featuring Clare Cunningham) – 3:01
 * 7) "Wet, Tired & Lonely" – 3:26
 * 8) "Old Lighthouse" – 5:05
 * 9) "Fear" – 4:42
 * 10) "Far Away" – 5:28

Reviews
RockWorld24.com named What You Fear the Most the album of the week for week 39, 2016. It also became the fourth best-selling album in October 2016 at NEH Records, the largest online music store in North America specializing in AOR and melodic rock.

Personnel

 * Sebastian Sundberg – vocals, piano
 * Mattias Persson – lead guitar, backing vocals
 * Robin Bengtsson – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
 * Niklas Månsson – bass guitar, backing vocals
 * Jonas Tillheden – drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

 * Clare Cunningham – vocals on "Feed the Fire"
 * RamPac – producer
 * Ivars Ozols – audio engineer
 * Stefan Sundström – audio engineer
 * Tobias Lindell – mixing
 * Vlado Meller – mastering
 * Christian Wallin – cover artwork