Der plötzliche Tod von Mark Shelton hat die gesamte Metal-Welt erschüttert. Kurz vor seinem Tod hat er der Vergangenheit noch ein vergrabenes Projekt entrissen, auf das die Fans ewig gewartet haben.
Ja, es geisterte lange Jahre als Gerücht durch die Szene und es ist wahr! MARK SHELTON (MANILLA ROAD) und DAVID T. CHASTAIN (CHASTAIN) haben in den späten 80ern zusammen eine Reihe an Songs aufgenommen! Diese sollten damals eigentlich auch als Album veröffentlicht werden, aber viele Projekte der Musiker liefen nebeneinander und nach einiger Zeit passierte, was passieren musste: Das Material geriet in Vergessenheit….
David T. Chastain fand im Februar 2018 endlich die Originalbänder wieder und zusammen mit Mark Shelton haben beide bis kurz vor Marks Tod an den Aufnahmen gearbeitet und diese auch abgeschlossen. Die Begeisterung Mark Sheltons über die Aufnahmen hatte auch David Chastain mitgerissen und so wird in Erinnerung an Mark Shelton der Verlag Pure Steel Records dafür sorgen, dass diese Songs nicht nur den Fans zugänglich gemacht werden, sondern auch ihren verdienten Platz in der Geschichte von Mark Shelton und des Heavy Metal einnehmen!
Mark sagte kürzlich: “David had contacted me after my band, Manilla Road, had released the ‘Out of the Abyss’ album with his label, Leviathan Records. He had these songs written musically but no vocal parts. He set me on the task of putting lyrics and melodies to the songs. I remember feeling very flattered and honored that he had thought of me for this endeavor.”
“‘Edge of Sanity’ is a song that is about a curse on a Pharaohs tomb. ‘Fields of Sorrow’ is about the effects of nuclear holocaust. ‘Orpheus Descending’ is the huge epic of these songs that was quite the challenge to write. Primarily because of the topic I chose. It is a musical retelling of the Greek tale of Orpheus going to Hades and trying to bring back his love from death with his magikal music.”
“I personally have always thought that, even though these songs were demo recordings, all of them were maybe the heaviest stuff David had ever written. And I still think that his guitar work on these songs is some of the best he ever did. So I’m very pleased to see this music finally find the light of day and find its way to the ears of the public. I have always had high regard for David and his musical capabilities and it was and still is an honor to call this great musician friend. I hope you all enjoy this material as much as I do. Hammer Up and Nails Down.”
David fügt hinzu: “I have always been very impressed with Mark’s intelligent lyrics, melodies and his unique and dynamic voice. Mark and myself really weren’t worried about any sort of commercial success when we recorded this music and we were just having fun. I am not sure why we never went into a professional studio and recorded these songs other than maybe we didn’t want the distraction from our main bands. We more or less just forgot about the music over time as we both wrote and recorded mountains of material over the years. There are a few mistakes here and there that I would like to fix but we no longer have the multi-track tapes to do so. So it is what it is, warts and all!”
“I have always loved these songs and my band Zanister actually covered the track “The Edge of Sanity” back on our first album. All of these tracks are still cool to me. There are 2 versions of ‘Orpheus Descending’. One is around 12 minutes and we have a long version that is over 20! Definitely the longest songs I have ever released. It was cool to record such epically long tracks and try to make them cohesive. Especially with 2 different versions! Mark’s amazing epic lyrics tell the same story it is just the music that is expanded on the Extended Version. With Mark now gone I will always think very highly of this music and I still marvel at his talent.”
