• Video: Behind the Scenes at Kings of Leon's "Sex on Fire" video shoot

The Kings of Leon are ready to blow up in the U.S. "I'm sick of being big everywhere else," says lead singer Caleb Followill. "For America to kind of turn its back on us is heartbreaking." Though the Tennessee foursome have released three well-received records here and can regularly fill 5,000-seat halls across the country, it's nothing compared to their level of stardom on the other side of the Atlantic. In England alone, their albums have sold nearly 1.5 million copies (in America, less than half that), and an upcoming show at London's 20,000-seat O2 arena sold out in an hour.

With their fourth full-length, Only by the Night, coming out September 23rd, the Kings hope they'll start to match those kinds of numbers at home. "Our growth has been incredible," says bassist Jared Followill. "I think this is our best album yet." The band's last disc, 2007's Because of the Times, found the four Followills already moving away from their taut Southern rock into a broader, more ambitious sound. That trend continues on Only by the Night, which they recorded at Blackbird Studio in Nashville. "We had the time, so we wanted to go further with effects and stuff on this one," says Caleb. "We all have full-on pedal boards now." Songs like the sweeping, U2-esque "Use Somebody," the spacey droner "Closer" and the Zep-style hard rocker "Crawl," which kicks off with a nasty distorted bass line, display the Kings' newfound penchant for booming drums, trippy effects and giant choruses.

To match their arena-ready sound, Caleb is singing with far more clarity now. "I could always sing, but I didn't want my mom to understand the lyrics," he says. "This was the first album where I felt the songs were too pretty to fuck them up." Inspiration for the tunes, which tackle subjects from vampires to a stalker-murderer, came out of some drunken band bonding. "This was the record where we consumed the most alcohol," Caleb says. "Before we knew it, we'd have our crew driving us home."

[From Issue 1062 — October 2, 2008]

• More from Issue 1062
• Review: Only by the Night
• Kings of Leon False Advertise With New "Sex on Fire" Video
• Kings of Leon Debut "Sex on Fire" at All Points West 2008