Riding the waves of his success with Anathema’s latest album The Optimist, which included an extensive headline tour, multiple summer music festivals and an Album of the Year nomination at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards, Daniel Cavanagh released his new solo album, Monochrome. Now he includes four new studio recordings featuring two completely new songs “Found” and “Scandinavia” on this special extended edition of the album.
Inspired by internal feelings of love and loss, Monochrome is a deeply reflective and personal offering. Cavanagh elaborates: “The album has a late-night, candlelit feeling, evoking the light of dusk as the summer sun sinks below the horizon, setting the scene for thoughts and meditations that many people will relate to.
“A lot of this material could easily have made it on to the last Anathema album or any future album; that’s how highly the band rate it. There are several highlights: “The Exorcist” and “The Silent Flight of the Raven Winged Hours” are among some of my best works of the last decade. Taking them from the band was not an easy decision but I am glad; they’re so personal as to not need more input.”
Monochrome features Anneke Van Giersbergen – ex-vocalist for The Gathering, who has since sung with Amadeus Awad, Devin Townsend, Árstíðir, Anathema, and Arjen Lucassen – and the exceptionally talented Anna Phoebe provides violin on three of the album tracks.
Recorded at Grammy Award-winning Parr Street Studios, engineered by Andrea Wright, mastered by Anathema’s Daniel Cardoso, and with artwork by illustrator Danny Branscombe, this album is a special addition to the Kscope family. Released as a CD presented in a digipack packaging complete with a 12-page booklet.
Tracklisting 1. The Exorcist (6:43) 2. This Music (4:50) 3. Soho (7:39) 4. The Silent Flight Of The Raven Winged Hours (9:03) 5. Dawn (2:42) 6. Oceans Of Time (8:14) 7. Some Dreams Come True (8:34)
Bonus Tracks 8. The Exorcist (Acoustic) (5:59) 9. The Silent Flight of the Raven Winged Hours (Acoustic) (7:07) 10. Found (5:09) 11. Scandinavia (7:47)
Band reveal first single and video for “Denigrate” (feat. Daniel Tompkins)
Godsticks open 2020 with their new and most accomplished studio album, Inescapable. Their mix of heavy rock, progressive and alternative metal with a dynamic range of angular riffs and emotional depth will leave listeners reeling. The band’s sound has refined over their releases on Kscope, beginning with the technically astounding metal on Emergence to the more industrial and progressive-influenced Faced With Rage. Now, with Inescapable, the band have channeled their energy and technical ability into the melody, phrasing and vocal performance, allowing emotion to take center stage.
The band found themselves wanting a definitive theme running through Inescapable, without turning it into a concept album, of being more open, more personal and ultimately one that shines an inquisitive light on Charles’s struggle with inner demons which gave the songs a new level of intimacy. “Lyrically, I’ve always shared personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences but in a very ambiguous way. For Inescapable – in a conscious effort not to repeat ourselves – I thought I’d be a little more self-reflective and perhaps examine some of my inner demons. I have a strange relationship with music, and especially playing guitar. I would struggle to survive without either, but equally, they have made my life mentally torturous because my own self-worth is completely wrapped up in them. I used to be very much a perfectionist in my early years, and whilst some people may wear that as a badge of honor, I eventually viewed it as a huge heavyweight dragging down. It was a long time before I arrived at the realization that perfection was impossible to achieve.” elaborates Darran Charles.
Perfectly highlighting the album’s leitmotif, the band reveals their first single “Denigrate”, “the writing of this song was a sort of analysis of my ongoing battle with perfectionism and the general feeling that nothing you do ever meets the impossibly high standards you set for yourself”. The song features additional vocals from TesseracT’s gifted vocalist Daniel Tompkins to record vocal harmonies, adding an extra layer of aggression and energy.
The shoot for the quirky video, directed by George Laycock (Blacktide Audio/Visual) proved to be a memorable day for the band as Godsticks drummer Tom Price recalls “Everyone in the band was so excited about the concept, but when we arrived on set and saw a large table full of cakes, sweets, chocolate, sugar, sprinkles, honey and all manners of confectionary, the magnitude of what we had all let ourselves in for finally dawned on us! By the end of the shoot we were completely covered in everything – it was like ‘The Great British Bake Off’ meets ‘Apocalypse Now’! It was so much fun to make, but despite several spins in the washing machine I still can‘t get that sweet sickly smell out of my jeans!” Charles chimes in “It wasn’t fun, it was horrible!”
Inescapable was produced by James Loughrey (Skindred) and recorded at the famed heritage Monnow Valley studio.
Godsticks are supporting the new material beginning in April with a UK tour followed by summer festivals
2/4/2020 – Cardiff – Fuel Rock Club 3/4/2020 – London – Black Heart 4/4/2020 – Edinburgh – Opium 5/4/2020 – Manchester – Gullivers
Inescapable will be released on CD, LP & digitally. (“Denigrate is available as an instant download on digital pre-orders) on 7th February through Kscope and is available to PRE-ORDER HERE NOW
Godsticks are: Darran Charles: Vocals, guitars, keys, synths Dan Nelson: Bass Gavin Bushell: Guitars Tom Price: Drums Backing vocals on ‘Denigrate’ – Daniel Tompkins
Following the release of Dissolution,The Pineapple Thief announce their new concert album Hold Our Fire captured during their 16-date European headline tour in September 2018.
Holding up a mirror to our chaotic, social media-fixated society, Dissolution is a modern masterpiece that pulses with charged emotion – the perfect album for the times.
Hold Our Fire features eight concert performances of Dissolution tracks, including the singles “Far Below“, “Try As I Might“, “Threatening War” & “Uncovering Your Tracks“, as well as “3000 Days” from 2010 studio album Someone Here is Missingwith extra guitars from new guitarist George Marios.
The band’s virtuoso drummer, also known for his work with Porcupine Tree and King Crimson, Gavin Harrison reveals more about their performances for Hold Our Fire“I feel this live recording really captures the energy and spirit of the band playing together in front of a great enthusiastic crowd.”
It’s a feeling shared by frontman, composer and guitarist Bruce Soord“It’s a great souvenir from such a memorable tour. I am really looking forward to taking the show over to North America in November and mixing the record reminded me just how much fun we have playing live.”
1. Try As I Might (live) [04:49] 2. Threatening War (live) [06:43] 3. Uncovering Your Tracks (live) [04:38] 4. All That You`ve Got (live) [03:26] 5. Far Below (live) [04:46] 6. Not Naming Any Names (live) [02:16] 7. White Mist (live) [10:35] 8. Shed A Light (live) [05:44] 9. 3000 Days (live) [07:17]
Bruce Soord – guitars and vocals Gavin Harrison – drums Jon Sykes – bass Steve Kitch – keyboards George Marios – guitars and backing vocals (live)
Mixed by Bruce Soord (drums mixed by Gavin Harrison)Mastering by Steve Kitch
Following the success of IAMTHEMORNING’s two studio albums for Kscope – Belighted, the award winning Lighthouse and their most recent live studio film Ocean Sounds, the Russian duo, comprising of virtuoso classical pianist Gleb Kolyadin and charismatic vocalist Marjana Semkina are releasing their new album entitled The Bell on 2nd August.
Their dedication to writing forward-thinking and thought-provoking music sees the duo create a new album of impressive depth and playability. A modern blend of rock, classical and folk, The Bell makes use of 19th Century song cycles – a style established by Schubert – that cohesively tells 10 individual stories.
Vocalist Marjana Semkina explains in more detail “The Bell is divided into two parts but each song is a story in its own right, all of them are fuelled by human cruelty and pain caused by it. Cruelty is the central theme of the album – together with all the different ways we respond to it and cope with it. This album is multi-layered and is, in many ways, a journey inwards, taking us inside of a mind of a person suffering from abuse or neglect or open hostility of the society or a specific person.
“Aesthetically, the album is based on themes taken from Victorian England’s art and culture, but more in a way of turning our attention to the fact that at its core, humankind isn’t making much progress in terms of emotional maturity.”
The Bell was recorded in March 2019 across Russia, the UK and Canada in several studios: Mosfilm in Moscow; Lendoc and Red Wave in St Petersburg; Noatune in London; The Studio at Sunbeams, Penrith; and Union Sound Company in Toronto. With engineering and mastering handled by Vlad Avy.
The beautiful album artwork for The Bell was created by the band’s favoured collaborator Constantine Nagishkin. Marjana explains the imagery “on the cover is a safety coffin bell – it’s a 19th century idea born from people’s obsessive fear of being buried alive, having been provoked by a lot of press attention to supposed cases of premature burials across the country. and the fact that Edgar Allan Poe frightened many readers by vividly describing the premature burial phenomenon in his short stories.
“One of the inventions to escape such a terrifying ordeal was a so called “safety coffin” that existed in many different configurations, including the one that had a bell attached to the gravestone with a thread that was attached to it and went all the way underground into the coffin so that the when the poor soul awoke and on realizing he’s been buried alive, could ring to let the people outside know what has happened.
“Although the idea is a bit morbid I feel there is hope in the artwork too – no matter how low you are or desperate you think your situation is, you can still call for help, but more than that you have to call for help if you need it”
1. Freak Show [07:09] 2. Sleeping Beauty [03:42] 3. Blue Sea [03:08] 4. Black And Blue [03:58] 5. Six Feet [03:56] 6. Ghost Of A Story [03:58] 7. Song Of Psyche [03:20] 8. Lilies[04:28] 9. Salute [07:27] 10. The Bell [05:04]
Taken from forthcoming new album Ramagehead (Release: Feb. 22, 2019 – Kscope)
O.R.k., featuring Italy’s celebrated vocalist, producer and award-winning film score composer Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari a.k.a LEF (lead vocals), King Crimson’s Pat Mastelotto (drums), Porcupine Tree’s Colin Edwin (bass), Marta Sui Tubi’s Carmelo Pipitone (guitars) have revealed their new single & video for “Black Blooms” which features their collaboration with the iconic System Of A Down frontman, Serj Tankian.
WATCH “BLACK BLOOMS (feat. SERJ TANKIAN)” HERE:
O.R.k bassist Colin Edwin explains how the collaboration with Serj Tankian came about “The involvement of Serj Tankian came about through legendary producer Bill Laswell, who played bass on Lef’s 2018 solo album ‘Hypersomniac’. Laswell passed a copy of ‘Hypersomniac’ to Serj, who was impressed enough to also check out O.R.k. and our previous two albums. This led directly to Lef and Serj connecting and discussing potentially collaborating at some point; it was just at the time we were working on ‘Ramagehead’, so of course a suggestion had to be made. Lef sent him the tracks as a ‘work in progress’ and from this, Serj himself chose ‘Black Blooms’ as the song he wished to sing and work with us on.”
Colin continues “The development of ‘Black Blooms’ took a few unexpected turns as we all contributed along the way, Pat Mastelotto’s masterful drumming added an underlying aspect of urgency I hadn’t anticipated on the original demo, and Carmelo Pipitone manages to strike a superlative balance between sensitivity and total fireworks as the song progresses. The atmosphere was always going to be a great context for Lef’s vocals, but the biggest surprise was Serj Tankian’s involvement, which really amazed me when I first heard it, he’s added, not simply a great vocal performance, but the exact amount of extra depth to the framework, to turn it into something truly special, and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought ‘Black Blooms’ was made with him in mind.”
The forthcoming album Ramagehead was created from the band’s collective vision, unique influences and a multi-layered reflection of their powerful and engaging live experience. The resulting epic contains all the ingredients of a fiery O.R.k. performance with dark and heavy riffing, mesmeric atmospheres. Recorded during 2018 at LefMusicStudio (Italy), The Wormhole (USA) and Nightspace (UK). The mixing for Ramageheadwas handled by Adrian Benavides and three-time Grammy-winning engineer Marc Urselli (U2, Foo Fighters, Nick Cave), the mastering by Michael Fossenkemper, engineering by Benavides and Bill Munyon (King Crimson), cover art by Adam Jones (TOOL) and design by Denis Rodier (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman). The recordings, and involvement of SOAD’s Serj Tankian on a forthcoming single, solidifies the band’s serious intent to use their musical chemistry in exploring the hard-edged possibilities within rock.
Ramagehead tracklisting: Kneel to Nothing (instant download on digital pre-orders) Signals Erased Beyond Sight Black Blooms (feat. Serj Tankian) Time Corroded Down the Road Some Other Rainbow Part 1 Strangled Words Some Other Rainbow
Ramagehead will be released on 22nd February on CD / 180g Black vinyl LP / Digital and is available to PRE-ORDER HEREhttps://ork.lnk.to/RamageheadPR
O.R.k. have an extensive live campaign planned in support of Ramagehead which will begin in February 2019 with a European and UK head line run as well as being special guests on the continuing “Dissolution Tour” from new label mates The Pineapple Thief.
Colin Edwin comments “’Ramagehead’ is our most intense, ambitious and accessible work to date and I am really looking forward to exploring the new material in a live environment and sharing our unique collective energy together. For me, O.R.k. is always a completely immersive and unforgettable experience in the live arena, so with new tracks to play and an opportunity to reach places and people we’ve yet to get to, this tour will be our best yet.”
Tour Dates: ** show with The Pineapple Thief 15.2 Ravenna (IT) – Bronson 16.2 Lugagnano di Sona/Verona (IT) – Il Giardino 17.2 Pisa (IT) – Lumiere 21.2 Bari (IT) – Garage Sound 22.2 Roma (IT) – Largo Venue** 23.2 Milano (IT) – Santeria Social Club ** 24.2 Pratteln (CH) – Z7 ** 26.2 Stuttgart (DE) – LKA Longhorn ** 27.2 Frankfurt (DE) – Batschkapp ** 28.2 Strasburg (FR) – La Laiterie ** 1.3 Zoetermeer (NL) – Borderij ** 2.3 Hamburg (DE) – Grosse Freiheit 36 ** 3.3 Copenhagen (DK) – Store Vega ** 5.3 Stockholm (SE) – Nalen ** 6.3 Oslo (NO) – Rockefeller ** 8.3 Iserhagen/Hannover (DE) – Blues Garage 10.3 Cologne (DE) – Yard Club 12.3 Munich (DE) – Backstage 13.3 Budapest (HU) – Durer 14.3 Nove Mesto nad Vahom (SK) – Blue Note 15.3 Berlin (DE) – Music & Frieden 17.3 Paris (FR) – Petit Bain 19.3 London (UK) – Borderline 20.3 Newcastle (UK) – o2 Academy ** 21.3 Glasgow (UK) – St. Luke’s ** 22.3 Manchester (UK) – o2 The Ritz ** 23.3 Birmingham (UK) – o2 The Institute 2 ** 24.3 Bristol (UK) – SWX *
O.R.k. are: Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari a.k.a LEF – lead vocals Pat Mastelotto – drums Colin Edwin – bass Carmelo Pipitone – guitars
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