Memento Mori is the follow-up to their 2005 platinum debut. It contains 14 songs, which were selected out of 18 already written.[8] The band reunited with producer Howard Benson to make the album. The album was recorded at Bay7 Studios in Los Angeles, California.[9] It was released on November 10, 2009. The band debuted two songs, "Chasm" and "Circle", from Memento Mori live during a small acoustic tour in Afghanistan for United States Troops.[10]
Writing
The band began writing new music after their debut album was released. Most of the material was written while the band toured, but some songs date back as early as 2005 and 2006. "In The Dark" was written after the band released Flyleaf, though it was never played live. "Again", "Have We Lost", and "Beautiful Bride" were the first songs to be played live before they were released on the album.
"Again", the first single from Memento Mori, was released to radio and digital retail stores August 25, 2009.[11]Meiert Avis directed the music video for "Again", released at midnight September 30, 2009, on MTV.[12] Don Tyler directed the music video for "Beautiful Bride", released October 6, 2009. Diane Martel directed the music video for "Missing", released March 18, 2010. Giles Timms directed, animated and illustrated the animated viral music video for "Chasm", released on September 22, 2010.
The album premiered on the official Flyleaf MySpace page on November 6, 2009.
Promotion
To promote the album, the band partnered with the online calendar service Eventful for a series of fan-voted listening parties in various American cities, where they previewed songs from the album as well as music videos. There were eight such events beginning on September 28, 2009.[13]
"Tiny Heart" is a re-worked demo of a song that was written in the mid-2000s, before the release of Flyleaf's debut album.[22]
"Again" and "Have We Lost" were written in 2007 and often performed live. These songs underwent lyrical changes during the Memento Mori sessions.[23]
"Uncle Bobby" is a hidden track that is placed before "Beautiful Bride". The song can be heard by rewinding the disc to -4:28. On digital versions of the album, the song is track 15, after "Arise".