[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/66/TheEmptiness_Alesana.jpg/200px-TheEmptiness_Alesana.jpg[/img] The Emptiness is the third full-length album by Alesana. It was recorded in the fall of 2009 and was released on January 26, 2010.[4] In the July of 2009 the band's myspace was changed by Justin Reich to foreshadow the story of The Emptiness. Photos were taken of all the members in a large abandoned room holding bloody weapons and wearing suits, and a digital newspaper on the myspace reads "Local Artist/ Draws Attention/ With Macabre/ Sketches" and "Town Beauty/ Annabel Lee/ To/ Cut/ Ribbon/ At Local Tavern".[5] The artwork for the album was commissioned to Pat Perry. The Emptiness is unique in being the only work by Alesana to have official singles: "To Be Scared By An Owl" & "The Thespian". On November 23, after showing teaser versions of the song, the band digitally sold "To Be Scared By an Owl" on their website. The second single "The Thespian" was released two weeks later in the same fashion, shortly after the filming of its music video. The Emptiness became available for pre-order on iTunes on January 14 and the full album was leaked on January 21, five days before it released[6]. It debuted at #68 on the Billboard 200 chart.[7] [b]Style[/b] [quote]Although the former albums have references to mythology of different cultures, this is the band's first concept album where the story is not based on anything else. While touring in Europe, Milke and Lee decided to create a horror theme for their third album as well as using Edgar Allan Poe as an influence for their work-- more specifically, the poems "Annabel Lee" [8]. Faint references are also made in the liner notes to "The Tell-Tale Heart" in that it describes a body hidden under the bricks in the main character's basement, in comparison to the floorboards in Poe's story.[4]. The story is said by the band to be set in the onset of the 20th century and is expounded greatly in the liner notes of the CD. In an interview, Milke included Poe, Stephen King, David Lynch, and the film Friday the 13th as influences for the story[9]. The album also differs from the previous albums musically. After the line-up confusion of 2009, Adam Ferguson left the band and Jake Campbell, who had temporarily replaced Shane Crump on bass guitar, became the new guitarist. Though Campbell increased the amount of dual guitars played throughout the album, he did not include any vocals as Ferguson had in the past and the only harmonies were left between layered recordings of Shawn and Melissa Milke.[/quote] [b]Track listing[/b] No. Title Length 1. "Curse of the Virgin Canvas/Interlude One" 4:49 2. "The Artist" 3:46 3. "A Lunatic’s Lament/Interlude Two" 4:05 4. "The Murderer" 4:33 5. "Hymn for the Shameless" 5:38 6. "The Thespian/Interlude Three" 4:42 7. "Heavy Hangs the Albatross" 3:51 8. "The Lover" 3:25 9. "In Her Tomb By the Sounding Sea" 3:41 10. "To Be Scared by an Owl/Interlude Four" 4:11 11. "Annabel" 7:19 Their tour name "You'd be Way Cuter in a Coffin" was originally the title for their first track. [14] The track listing and album artwork was released on a bulletin from Fearless Records on punknews.org, Alesana's myspace, and a news post on their official site[15]. Two string quartet compositions by Shawn Milke[16] ("Interlude 3" and "Interlude 4") appear after tracks 6 and 10 and aren't available for individual purchase on iTunes. [b]The story[/b] * The story that The Emptiness revolves around was written by Dennis Lee and Shawn Milke. It is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's last poem "Annabel Lee". The short story is included in the album jacket. [b]Plot[/b] The central character of the story, a sketch artist known simply as "The Artist" wakes up one day to find his lover, Annabel, dead, lying next to him. Heartbroken and terrified, he buries her in his basement and flees. He wanders aimlessly until he comes to a tavern, where he hears the sounds of merriment and laughter. He decides that if he can't be happy no one can and slaughters everyone in the tavern. After wandering through many places and finding Annabel's killer, "The Thespian", at the end of the story The Artist finally comes face to face with him to fight to the death. He is stabbed in his side with a dagger and finds himself in a room with Annabel holding a dagger in hand. From here on the story's point of view switches from The Artist to Annabel where she explains that The Artist had slowly been sinking into madness all this while, as he became more and more withdrawn and his sketches more and more violent. Though she loved him, in the end she had to take his life in the attempt to defend herself from him. [b]Singles[/b] * "To Be Scared by an Owl" - released November 23[17] * "The Thespian" - released December 8[18] [b]Music videos[/b] "The Thespian" video was filmed during the winter of 2009 and was released in March 17, 2010 [i]Source: Wikipedia[/i]