THOMAS MILLER'S LAZARUS EFFECT have released "Closer To The Sun", the second single from the self-titled debut Sensory Records puts out on October 30. It is the fourth track on the record, and by Thomas Miller's own description it is a deliberate step away from the one that came first.
"'Closer To The Sun' takes a more progressive direction than the first single, 'When Darkness Falls'," the former SYMPHONY X bassist says. "This song represents the combination of mythological lyrics, middle eastern tonalities and aggressive guitar and bass rhythms. I also liked the idea of acoustic guitar and violin to add another layer to the musical atmosphere, setting the story line as a buildup to the main rhythmic themes."
We covered "When Darkness Falls" in August: a straight-ahead metal song with a harmonic-minor shadow, written in about an hour. "Closer To The Sun" is the opposite approach — built as an arc, with the acoustic guitar and violin doing the work of setting up the rhythmic payload rather than decorating it.
There is a detail the press materials leave out. Michael Pinnella, Miller's old SYMPHONY X bandmate, does not play across the whole album — the credits give him keyboard solos on exactly two tracks, and this is one of them. The other is "Sailing To Utopia", the five-part suite that closes the record. In other words, Pinnella's two appearances are on the most structurally ambitious song here and on this one.
Michael Romeo, the other returning SYMPHONY X name, handles guitars and digital programming. The vocalist is Howard "Hollywood How" Portney, whose 2017 recording project with Miller is what convinced him there was a band in this. Eric Rachel — who produced SYMPHONY X's first six albums, and has worked with BLACK SABBATH and THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER — mixed and mastered. The cover art is by Rodrigo Gudiña.
Worth noting for anyone reading the track listing: a song about flying closer to the sun, on an album whose closing suite opens with a part called "In The Palace Of Knossos". Miller said mythological, and he was not being vague about which mythology.
The album runs forty-nine minutes and arrives October 30 on CD, LP and digital. "Closer To The Sun" is streaming now at Bandcamp, with pre-orders through the label.