The long awaited debut from Eliminator hits the shelves March 23rd and it's been worth the wait. Eight tracks of pure British Heavy Metal, recorded at Skyhammer with Chris Fielding at the helm, to top it off it features stunning cover art from Simon PYE Parr of 2000AD and Realm Of The Damned fame! The art beautifully fits the album's science fiction themed title track, below Jack McMichael from the bands explains the concepts behind each song:

2019

2019 had existed as a demo for a couple of years and it's always been a favourite to play live. Lyrically, it's a homage to Blade Runner, probably one of the greatest works ever committed to celluloid, but you already knew that.

We often joked with each other that by the time the record was out, it would actually be 2019, but thanks to Dissonance, we're dodging that bullet by a year. Lyrical themes serve to pose the question 'what makes a human, human?'. We are all huge fans of science-fiction and subjects around artificial intelligence, advanced technology and dystopian futures are all drawn on for inspiration for not just this song, but others on this record too.

We've toyed with the idea of making a video for this song for quite some time and finally that ambition is being realised; at last we get to discover which member of the band is a replicant.

Last Horizon

The Last Horizon is the spaceship which you'll see in ruins on the front of our album sleeve. Read the short vignette on the back of the cover and you'll find out how this unfortunate situation came to be.

We thought about the naming of this song for some time, and as such, the title of the record. Two other candidates were 'Vanguard' and 'Architects & Navigators', but after coming up with the idea for the cover art, 'Last Horizon' seemed the most appropriate (and least rubbish).

This song is one of our group favourites from the record, and since completion has been played live at every opportunity. Usually, our lyrics are written by one or two persons, but this one was a three-way venture by Danny, Jack and Jamie. Being the flagship song, it was all minds on deck for this one.

Echoes

Echoes was featured on the vinyl release of our first EP, but we felt the rushed DIY recording really didn't do the song justice. It's been performed live at nearly every single gig since it was written and is ridiculously good fun to play.

The song is a continuation of a story that is explored on the songs Traitor and The Seer, which we released as a 7" single some years ago now. The concept was set out to be a trilogy (in four parts) that told the tale of a clairvoyant in the thrall of a tyrannical ruler who is overthrown by his own psychic servant. Echoes is the epilogue to this story and portrays the ethereal presence of these characters centuries after their deaths.

Although written just after the release of the 'We Rule the Night' EP, the songwriting was far more mature than anything we had done previously. Lyrically, it was our first real venture into the realm of writing a proper story, and was a seriously fun challenge. Many nights were spent rolling inspirational cigarettes for the whole saga - which is probably why it tooks years to get recorded properly.

Procession of Witches

Lancaster, our main base of operations in the North West of England, is home to the famous Lancaster Castle where five of the notorious Pendle Witches were tried. King James I imposed the death penalty "for making a covenant with an evil spirit, using a corpse for magic, hurting life or limb, procuring love, or injuring cattle by means of charms".

The lyrics and vocal melody for this song came before the music. The idea of the procession is to signify the solidarity of the 'sisterhood' that stereotypically would join together for ritualistic evil. The song serves as a dedication to those imprisoned, tortured, put on trial with no permitted defence counsel, and executed on the basis of speculation are hearsay.

Edge of a Dream

Shortly after Danny joined the band we were discussing his experiences with sleep paralysis and he described the sensation as being 'on the edge of a dream'. We had already liked the idea of writing a song about sleep paralysis but had struggled for suitable lyrics; everything fell into place after hearing about Danny having a terrible night's sleep.

Fall of the Seer

Remember the Seer mentioned in Echoes? Well, Fall of the Seer is another part of the same story. Maybe we should write a concept album.

The lyrics revolve around the once-great Seer having ultimately lost his power. Instead of being able to see the future, can now only see the past and the horrible tragedy of his existence. The only way out from the torment - death.

Again, as part of the Seer story, this was written in a slightly different style to other songs, incorporating our first 'spoken word' segment, found in the middle of the song. It's always good to try new things.

Pride and Ruin

This song was in fact the inspiration for the concept of the cover art. Whilst the song Last Horizon deals with the construction of the eponymous ship, this song is about the discovery of its ruins many years after the catastrophe that destroyed the ship and ultimately human civilization.

The lyrics are about the arrogance and lack of foresight of the last era of humans who caused their own demise.

The music of Pride & Ruin is loosely based on a song Matt had written in 2005, before Eliminator even existed and the guitar harmony is largely intact from the first incarnation.

Spoils of an Empire

In 2013 the day after we'd played Live Evil Festival we decided to kill some time and hopefully cure our hangovers by wandering around the British Museum. Whilst there, Steeny remarked that it was ''the world's largest collection of stolen goods". Not only did this get a laugh, but he also sparked the idea for a song about a powerful and wide-reaching Empire taking artefacts from distant and exotic lands for the sake of glorifying their own might.

In the end, the lyrics have taken a more fantastical turn than Victorians nipping over to the Middle East to pinch some statues, but the concept is still largely the same.

We felt that such a topic required a suitably epic atmosphere, so we set out to make it a long one worthy of closing the album.

ELIMINATOR BIOGRAPHY

Born out of a desire to play live, Eliminator began when guitarists Jack and Matt met and Lancaster University and started jamming together. Motivated entirely towards the aim of live performances, the first incarnation of the band played their first gig in 2008. After a couple of years of gigging a stable lineup of strong musicians eventually came together. With Jamie on bass, Dave on drums and Tak fronting the band, Eliminator had garnered enough live experience and written enough original material to begin recording. Entering into a hastily constructed DIY studio in late 2010, the band recorded their first release, the We Rule the Night EP. The EP was released on CD and vinyl during 2011 and proved to be popular with heavy metal fans, earning Eliminator gigs and festival slots across the UK.

Spurred on by the success of the EP, the band began working on new material and once again entered the studio in late 2011; although this time with a luxury of an experienced engineer and professional equipment. The result was two tracks which were released on The Seer 7" single in 2012, which was received well by those who heard it but suffered from a lack of promotion by the label. In summer 2012 after a successful performance at Muskelrock, front man Tak left the band and Eliminator were in limbo without a singer until 2013 when a friend of the band and former Skyclad guitarist, Dave Pugh stepped up to fulfill vocal duties. With Dave on board, Eliminator played a number of gigs and festivals throughout Europe and released a demo in 2015, titled (confusingly, in hindsight) 2019.

However, due to commitments with a reunited Skyclad Dave stepped down from Eliminator in 2015 and the band was once again left without a vocalist. A period of inactivity followed whilst the search for a suitable front-man went underway. In late 2016 the band received a tip that Danny, a long-time friend and supporter of Eliminator was an excellent heavy metal singer looking for a band. After auditioning, Danny impressed the band with his ability and he was asked to join Eliminator. With Danny at the helm, live performances were resumed and after a gig in London during March of 2017, Eliminator caught the attention of Dissonance Productions.

ELIMINATOR "LAST HORIZON" VIA DISSONANCE MARCH 23RD 2018 ' DISS0098CDD / VINYL VIA DISSONANCE / BACK ON BLACK ' BOBV539LP

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