Of Monsters and Men Talk 'Personal' Second Album 'Beneath the Skin'

Of Monsters and Men recently announced the follow-up to its 2011 debut My Head is an Animal. Beneath the Skin, due out June 9, already sounds promising with lead single "Crystals" making the rounds on radio and the Internet. Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson recently spoke to Billboard about the new release, which she promises will be more personal than the first.

"For the first album, being from Iceland, you could feel in the lyrics that we wanted to go out and explore," Þórhallsson said. "Because we've toured for two years, I think you can hear in this album that we're going more inwards. We're writing more about us instead of what's out there. It's much more personal."

The group toured nonstop behind My Head is an Animal until 2013 when the members decided to take a break and work on new material.

"The album is heavier, both lyrically and musically," Þórhallsson added. "I was in Denmark when I wrote some of [the new songs], and when we put our ideas together, we all kind of had a similar sound in mind. It was weird, in a way."

Of Monsters and Men will celebrate the release of the album with a tour that's scheduled to begin May 4 in Toronto. The band will be on the trek through August, making stops at the Sasquatch Music Festival, Fuji Rock Festival and Lollapalooza.

My Head is an Animal hit number six on the Billboard 200 behind "Dirty Paws," "Mountain Sound" and the monster hit, "Little Talks."

"This Icelandic six-piece pull off a neat trick: They make whimsical sound tough. Their debut is full of familiar indie-pop gestures: wintry, finger-picked guitars; lyrics full of woodsy imagery; tunes that swell into campfire-style singalongs," Rolling Stone wrote.

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