Megalithic Symphony

Megalithic Symphony is the debut studio album by American rock band Awolnation, released on March 15, 2011 through Red Bull Records. The album is the band's first full-length release, following the release of the extended play Back From Earth (2010). Megalithic Symphony has since peaked at number 84 on the United States Billboard 200 and at number 57 on the Austrian Albums Chart. As of March 2015, the album sold 581,000 copies in the United States.^[9]

Megalithic Symphony
Standard edition cover. The deluxe edition features the same image at sunrise, while the 10th anniversary edition features it at sunset.
Studio album by Awolnation
Released	March 15, 2011 (2011-03-15)
Recorded	Red Bull Studios, AWOLSTUDIO, Avatar Studios, Main and Market, Gymnasium, Fireside Sound Studio
Genre	Electronic rock[1][2] electropop[3] alternative rock[3] indie rock[2] pop rock[4]
Length	52:52 (standard edition) 2:08:21 (deluxe edition)
Label	Red Bull
Producer	Aaron Bruno Jimmy Messer Brian West
Awolnation chronology
Back from Earth (2010) Megalithic Symphony (2011) Run (2015)
Singles from Megalithic Symphony
"Sail" Released: November 8, 2010 "Not Your Fault" Released: October 17, 2011 "Kill Your Heroes" Released: June 5, 2012

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Alternative Press	[6]
Classic Rock	[7]
Rock Sound	9/10[8]

On February 29, 2016, the RIAA certified Megalithic Symphony platinum.

In 2021, for the album's 10th anniversary, a special edition of it was released, including unreleased songs and live performances of some older songs, for a total of 27 bonus tracks.^[10]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Aaron Bruno, except where noted.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Megalithic Symphony"	0:58
2.	"Some Sort of Creature"	0:27
3.	"Soul Wars" (Bruno, Eric Stenman)	3:37
4.	"People" (Bruno, Stenman)	3:58
5.	"Jump on My Shoulders"	4:08
6.	"Burn It Down" (Bruno, Jimmy Messer)	2:45
7.	"Guilty Filthy Soul" (Bruno, Messer)	3:34
8.	"Kill Your Heroes" (Bruno, Brian West)	2:59
9.	"My Nightmare's Dream"	0:27
10.	"Sail"	4:19
11.	"Wake Up"	3:02
12.	"Not Your Fault"	4:02
13.	"All I Need" (Bruno, Messer)	3:37
14.	"Knights of Shame" (Bruno, Cameron Duddy) (fades out at 11:50, untitled hidden track starts at 13:51)	14:58
Total length:		52:52

Amazon bonus track

No.	Title	Length
15.	"Shoestrings"	3:09

iTunes bonus track (United Kingdom)

No.	Title	Length
15.	"I've Been Dreaming"	2:58

iTunes bonus track (United States)

No.	Title	Length
15.	"Swinging from the Castles"	3:04

Deluxe edition

No.	Title	Length
1.	"THISKIDSNOTALRIGHT" (From Injustice: Gods Among Us : The Album)	2:42
2.	"Some Kind of Joke" (From Iron Man 3: Heroes Fall Soundtrack)	4:52
3.	"Everybody's Got a Secret" (From Frankenweenie Unleashed! Compilation)	3:43
4.	"Soul Wars" (Live in Salzburg, Austria)	4:23
5.	"MF"	3:17
6.	"Swinging from the Castles"	3:04
7.	"I've Been Dreaming"	2:58
8.	"Shoestrings"	3:09
9.	"Not Your Fault" (Robert DeLong Remix)	5:52
10.	"People" (Thomas from Ghostland Observatory Remix)	5:41
11.	"Burn It Down" (Innerpartysystem Remix)	4:56
12.	"Guilty Filthy Soul" (Samantha Ronson Remix featuring Wale)	4:18
13.	"Jump on My Shoulders" (Thomas from Ghostland Observatory Remix)	4:06
14.	"Sail" (Borgore Pop The Sweating I'm Sailing Remix)	4:38
15.	"Sail" (Dan The Automator Remix)	4:34
16.	"Sail" (Feed Me Remix)	3:29
17.	"Sail" (TDE Remix featuring Kendrick Lamar and Ab-Soul)	4:00
18.	"Sail" (Unlimited Gravity Remix)	5:49

10th Anniversary Edition

No.	Title	Length
15.	"Cannibals"	2:28
16.	"I'm No Good"	3:13
17.	"Wichita Panama"	3:52

Lyrical content

Some Sort of Creature

In a live Facebook Q&A session, Aaron described “Some Sort of Creature” as something he truly experienced. “What you hear on that track, a sort of segue track, is really what actually happened! And that's really all I can describe; it's me speaking to myself, because I didn’t want to forget this thing I saw. And it's all right there in the song."^[11]

Personnel

Sourced from the original album liner notes.

Awolnation Aaron Bruno – vocals and synthesizer (all tracks except 2 and 9), drums (tracks 1, 4-12, 14), percussion (tracks 1, 3, 4, 11), keyboards (tracks 1, 12, 14), bass guitar (tracks 1, 5, 10), guitar (tracks 5, 7, 14), piano (tracks 10, 13), Fender Rhodes electric piano (track 7), synth bass (tracks 11, 12, 14); additional bass guitar and drums (track 3); string arrangement (track 10) Drew Stewart – guitar (tracks 3, 11) Christopher Thorn – guitar (tracks 5, 10, 11) Kenny Carkeet – synthesizer (track 5) Hayden Scott – drums (track 5) David Amezcua – bass guitar (track 14)

Additional musicians Jimmy Messer – guitar (tracks 3, 4, 6-8, 11-14), drums (tracks 6, 7, 13), synthesizer (tracks 6, 7), bass guitar (track 6), synth bass (track 7), keyboards (track 13) Billy Mohler – bass guitar (tracks 3, 4, 7, 8, 10-13) Tony Royster Jr. – drums (track 3) Brian West – Casio keyboards and synthesizer (track 8) Watts Choir – vocals (tracks 4, 9, 13) Arielle Verinis – vocals (track 11) Cameron Duddy, Curtain$ and Tarrah Toland – vocals (track 14) Eric Stenman - Engineer, Mixer, Additional Production; whistling (track 10)

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2011–13) Peak position Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12] 57 UK Albums (Official Charts Company)[13] 179 UK Independent Albums (OCC)[14] 16 US Billboard 200[15] 84 US Rock Albums (Billboard)[16] 21 US Alternative Albums (Billboard)[17] 16 US Independent Albums (Billboard)[18] 9

Year-end charts Chart (2011) Position US Independent Albums[19] 38 Chart (2012) Position US Billboard 200[20] 158 US Rock Albums[21] 42 US Independent Albums[22] 13 Chart (2013) Position US Billboard 200[23] 163 US Rock Albums[24] 45 US Independent Albums[25] 12 Chart (2014) Position US Independent Albums[26] 40

Certifications

}

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[27]	Gold	40,000^
United States (RIAA)[28]	Platinum	1,000,000‡
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region	Date	Format	Label	Catalog no.
United States	March 15, 2011[29]	Digital download	Red Bull	n/a
	March 29, 2011[30]	CD		RBR1086
Belgium	July 1, 2011[31]	Digital download		n/a
France
Germany
Netherlands
Spain
United Kingdom
Belgium	July 4, 2011[32]	CD		RBR1108
France
Germany
Netherlands
Spain
United Kingdom
United States	December 9, 2011[33]	2xLP		RBR1134
Australia	April 13, 2012	Digital download		n/a
New Zealand
Australia	May 25, 2012[34]	CD		Unknown
New Zealand	May 28, 2012[35]			Unknown
Deluxe Edition (First Issue)
Belgium	January 25, 2013[36]	Digital download	Red Bull	n/a
France
Germany
Netherlands
Spain
United Kingdom
Deluxe Edition (Second Issue)
Australia	November 15, 2013[37]	Digital download	Red Bull	n/a
United States	November 19, 2013[38]
United Kingdom	November 25, 2013[39]
10th Anniversary Edition
Worldwide	March 15, 2021[40]	Digital download	Red Bull	n/a