Turn Loose the Swans

From PandoraoceanbluPeaceville, October 1993, recorded at Academy Studios in Yorkshire that summer. It arrived just as Martin Powell, a classically trained violinist and pianist, became a full member rather than a session player, which is why the strings run through the music rather than sitting on top of it. Aaron Stainthorpe moves between death growls, spoken word and something closer to lament, and there is not a trace of irony anywhere in it. The closing lines of "Black God" are lifted directly from an eighteenth-century poem by the Scottish writer William Hamilton, which tells you the register they were reaching for.