Warrel Dane’s Posthumous Solo Album ‘Shadow Work’ Receives Release Date
Ex-Nevermore and Sanctuary frontman Warrel Dane was working on his second solo album Shadow Work last December in São Paulo, Brazil when he died of a heart attack. Now, his label has announced that the 40-minute record will be released on Oct. 26 to celebrate his final accomplishment.
In a statement, the Brazilian musicians Dane was working with when he died -- guitarists Thiago Oliveira and Johnny Moraes, bassist Fabio Carito, and drummer Marcus Dotta wrote -- "To give birth to a work like this, is for us a tribute to someone that was like family and honor his memory by sharing some of the savage poetry that he created and was ultimately so proud of."
Dane's band finished the album by combining vocals recorded in various studios with tracks from pre-production sessions. "Warrel came into our lives like a storm [and] took us into a very intense ride," wrote his bandmates. "We roamed endless roads into the unknown, into places that we never dreamed of both inside and outside our minds, and left."
"He was someone who lived with us, dreamed with us and enjoyed our hospitality, and in return gave us so much back," they continued. "Some of us acted like his mother, some of us saw him as a father figure, some of us took care of him in some of his darkest moments. Yet he was a friend, and somehow, will be always there."
The musicians praised Dane's energy and talents and expressed pride in the completed record. "To record such an album, and to work alongside an artist as gifted as Warrel, is somehow like being enthralled by his brightest light, and, at the same time being engulfed by his darkest shadow," they wrote. "There is so much to say, and yet nothing to say. In the meantime, we are proud to share this portrait of the storm we went through in form of art. Light, peace and love."
Shadow Work will be released in various editions: a CD media book that features a 44-page booklet, gatefold LP plus CD with 12-page LP booklet and on digital media. Each song will feature an illustration by Travis Smith, who also provided the cover art.
"[Warrel] told me he wanted the cover for this one to be a personification of one of its songs, affectionately titled 'Sweet Madame Satan, and Why,'" wrote Smith. "I dug up the skeleton of an old idea we'd talked about once before, and with a few details and alterations of his own, it was exactly what he had envisioned. He 'loved it,' approved it, and then gave me an outline for what he wanted to do for the back cover to complement it as a sort of prologue.'
Smith added that he completed the artwork using ideas from "old conversations, titles, absorbing passages from his notebooks, and some lyrics" Warrel had previously given him. "Thank you for everything these past 20 years," concluded Smith. "It was an honor. It will be missed. You are missed. I know we did you proud."
The yet-unannounced first track from Shadow Work will be released on Aug. 31, the same day pre-sales begin.
Shadow Work Track Listing (according to Blabbermouth.net)
01. Ethereal Blessing
02. Madame Satan
03. Disconnection System
04. As Fast as the Others
05. Shadow Work
06. The Hanging Garden (THE CURE cover)
07. Rain
08. Mother Is the Word for God
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