Kansas City’s celebrated rock band Shiner mark their long-anticipated return after 5 years with their explosive new single “Asleep in the Trunk.”
Spartan Records and Shiner are proud to announce the Friday, September 26 release of BELIEVEYOUME, the longstanding band’s brand new album. Having spent over three decades redefining heavy, melodic rock, evolving from the raw power of their early years into something more layered, dynamic, and emotionally resonant, BELIEVEYOUME finds the band channeling that evolution into a set of songs that feel immediate yet timeless, balancing their signature heaviness with newfound space and vulnerability. BELIEVEYOUME digs deep into aging, relationships, and self-deception, its title reflecting the ambiguity and contradictions at the heart of human connection. The result is Shiner at their most honest and self-aware — still heavy, still weird, and still pushing forward after all these years.
Shiner has always been about evolution, dodging genre labels and pushing musical boundaries since their inception in the early ’90s. Known for their punishing yet melodic approach to rock, the band’s sound has morphed from the raw, untamed energy of their early years to something more refined, layered, and introspective on their latest release, BELIEVEYOUME.
Schadenfreude, the band’s last record, released just as the world was shutting down in early 2020. “Great timing on our part,” says Josh Newton (guitar). “’Schadenfreude’ was dark and maybe a little claustrophobic, which makes sense, in retrospect. This new record feels more open and more immediate. We came in with fewer pre-written ideas and just reacted to each other in real time. Less brooding, more instinct. Still heavy, still weird — just breathing a little more.”
The title comes from a phrase in “Asleep In The Trunk,” one of the record’s standout tracks. “It’s one of those phrases that’s tossed around so much it’s lost its meaning,” Epley explains. “But when you step back and think about it, it can mean so many things in the context of a relationship. It could be about believing in yourself, in the other person, or in the relationship as a whole, or it could be about the loss of belief.” That ambiguity is central to the album’s themes, relationships that ebb and flow, and the complexity of human connection.
