A Tower of Silence

STUDIO ALBUM

Released 26th September 2011

Robert James Moulding
Vocal, Guitar, Percussion and additional Keyboards, Sound Effects

David Eaton
Keyboards, Guitars, Harmonies, Sound Effects

Steven Eaton
Drums, Percussion, Hamonies

Douglas Skene
Guitar, Harmonies

Dean Bennison
Guitar, Clarinet, Harmonies

Nick Antoinette
Bass, Harmonies

with

Martin Cook
Flute on 'A Tower of Silence', Tenor Saxophone on 'A Tower of Silence' and 'The Holy Innocent'

Katrina Shaw and Becky Bennison
Additional Vocals on 'All That Is'

Released 25th September 2011

Produced and Mixed by Dean Bennison
Assisted by Anubis

Mastered by Reece Tunbridge

Like it's predecessor, A Tower of Silence is a lengthy concept piece, however it differs in the sense that it is a fictional work, where 230503 was at least based on a real life-tragedy.

The album muses on the theme of limbo, specifically told through the narrative of an 11 year old girl who lived and died in a union workhouse in England in the early 19th century. A group of teens, trespassing in the abandoned buildings play seance in one of the abandoned wards, leading to the apparition of the girl, who proceeds to recount her life, death, and her inability to pass on to any form of afterlife. The album functions as a metaphor for any kind of entrapment, be it depression, loss or terminal illness. The theme of being caught between two places, within the unknown, is the central conceit. On the way, the album tackles alienation, social division between the rich and the poor and even the very concept of afterlife.

The album kicks off with the 17 minute The Passing Bell, and clocks in at over 65 minutes with three other tracks tipping the 10 minute mark. The album includes all of the elements that afforded 230503 much praise; the vocal harmonies (all six band members sing on AToS), the epic wash of mellotron and organ, the dynamic rhythm section, the incendiary guitar playing, (with a host of instruments, amps and stomp-boxes to boot) and the songwriting team of David Eaton and Robert James Moulding.

In contrast to 230503, A Tower of Silence was recorded very much as a performance album, in a traditional studio environment with microphones, amps, percussion instruments and old-school vintage keyboards. The album began life in the rehearsal room as the band got to grips with the new material that had been demoed by Robert and David, and it became infused with the personality of the 2011 band, before graduating to the studio where, for the most part, the whole band was in the studio together and all had a hands-on approach to the record.

David: "Robert and I scoured eBay looking for instruments that would help make this record - old analog gear that we thought we could get some novel sounds out of. There's a Farfisa organ and a Roland String Machine that we got for dirt cheap that's all over A Tower of Silence. On top of that, there's my old ARP Pro-Soloist, a Moog MG-1, a Hammond L122, my old upright piano, tons of mellotron - it's full to the brim with 70's sounds." 

The same approach was taken with the guitars, with Dean and Doug using a formidable arsenal of different guitars and amps for different sounds. Not to mention a smorgasbord of pedals and effects processors. It truly is a 21st century attempt to make a classic-era symphonic prog album.

The approach worked however, as A Tower of Silence quickly became Anubis' breakthrough album in Europe. With the epic The Holy Innocent featuring on Prog Magazine's cover CD, and the NME's website quoting the album as a 'masterpiece', the album picked up praise all over the continent, selling out in Germany in 5 days and earning a coveted top 10 slot on Progarchive's 'All time best Neo-Prog albums' chart, where it happily resides even now, over 8 years later, alongside IQ, Marillion, Arena and other luminaries.

The Passing Bell
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton/Steven Eaton/Dean Bennison/Douglas Skene)

II
Who are you to call me here?
Who are you to see these tears?
When, when I relive my life
When I had my love denied

I lived my life from day to day
With faith beyond the stars
And never had a chance to be - 
Be looked at through the scars
Maybe what we pray for 
Will never come true
Maybe who we live for
They never shine through


When will I be brought to life
When will I be by your side
You broke me down just like a rose
Through winter chills and harshest snow.

III
You choose this as my destiny
To witness my misery
Still frozen from my life to be
Between these plains in custody

Your words now mean nothing to me
I’ve lived through my life’s tragedy
Now I'm searching for my meaning
Revenge comes kicking and screaming

Where are those who pulled me down?
Where is he who can't be found?
Where is she who caused me fear?
Who are you to call me here?

IV
I made my wish
To see it all burn
Their fears & screams
await my return 
All of my chilling memories
You drag up through the mud
I’ve been looking for my redemption
in yearning for their blood

All my love has gone
There’s nowhere I belong
I’ve felt it all along
Where did I go wrong
I’m feeling all alone now
My soul cannot be found
My heart beat wants to roam
To where I’ll find my home
I’m feeling no connection
To those who caged me here
I’m feeling no protection
From the words that I hear


A flush of fury
Washes over me
I hold no remorse
For my blasphemy
They broke up my home and locked me away
They took my family
Everything you see before you 
Is a distant memory

V
Please hold my hand
Take me to the Promised Land
I don't want to be alone
I want to find my home
I wish I could stand
By your side again
Why can’t I rise? 
And look deep in your eyes
And tell you from the start
From the bottom of my heart
I wanted to love you
I wanted to obey you
Pray to you
Bathe in you
But all hope is gone


 

Archway Of Tears
(Douglas Skene/Robert James Moulding/David Eaton/Dean Bennison/Steven Eaton/Nick Antoinette)

My mother she gave birth to me,
I never felt her warmth,

Her ultimate sacrifice,
She never gazed into my eyes.
Father gave up on himself,
Handed over his own soul,
Removed his heart from his inside,
Left out in the cold.

Like the flowers from the ground,
They ripped my hand away from his,
An evil woman with dark stare,
Said I was the cause of this.
I lay upon the cobbled floor,
As the tears streamed down my face,
I shiver from the cold nights breath,
Whispering my name.

Bruised and broken
Without your love would I be living?
I pray to you- oh, merciful you...
But I can hardly breathe.
You and I feel the same way
when we are not the saviour
Guide me through this sickness of mine
Guide me to the light.


I walk around this yard alone,
Look out across the open field.
It’s dark and grey and doesn't sing, 
The bells above, they still don't ring.
I look up at the stained glass sky,
Bruised and Bent upon my knees,
I hope and pray for happiness,
It won't come for me.

Bruised and broken
Without your love would I be living?
I pray to you- oh, merciful you...
But I can hardly breathe.
You and I feel the same way
when we are not the saviour
Guide me through this sickness of mind
I can hardly fight.



This Final Resting Place
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton/Douglas Skene/Dean Bennison/Steven Eaton)

I hope this is not my final day
I hope this is not where I will stay
My joy has been taken I’m living life alone
With no one else to talk to I’m scared of the unknown

My concience is blistering they fill me with my guilt
I question all they tell me as I cough beneath this quilt
I worry about the future as the sand drips away
I wake and start to wonder if I'll see another day

My body is burning, I can't bring it down
Dirty rags and blankets caress my fevered brow
I could be wrong
I could be right
We’ll never know
Until that night

I live my whole life in your grace
I believed it's your love I craved
I wait forsaken for your embrace
I’m all alone here, this final resting place


What do I suffer for? Why do I care?
Why do I look and see only despair?
The footsteps are coming like thunder in my ears
The looks I’ve been given create dark atmospheres

I try to understand their meaning of life
I try to be brave with the words they recite
The black corner shadow it looms over me
Taking my hand and he says I'll be free

Silence surrounds me I drift off to sleep
I lay my body down and pray my soul to keep
My heart aches
My body wastes
To nothingness
I say goodbye

My wounds will weep
My soul asleep
The darkest night
My soul alight
Came too late
I'm left to wait

The Earth will shake
So soon it breaks
Fire and Lies
My Mother's Eyes
Ten Thousand Tears
Two Hundred Years



A Tower Of Silence
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton/Douglas Skene)

I've walked alone but I've hit the wall
I question if you're even here at all.
Why cant you be here in front of me
Guide me on to eternity

Let me out of your weathered cage
I’m trapped by words written on your page
What life is left to contemplate?
Trapped in this that you create 

This tragedy
In time we’ll see
What is to become of me


My petals fall upon the ground
Withered up, I make no sound
Reflected in scattered memory
This flower wilts in misery

The lights of change
Will light my way
The lights that feels so bright
Lights that change feel so alive
Bright, White

You cant see my legacy
Lost to me by powers that be

These words I breath, all that's left of me
This world I see, can't belong to me.

In time you'll see - no time to grieve

I cannot see
I cannot breathe
I cannot feel
My love 

I cannot see
I cannot breathe
I cannot feel
Your love in me….



Weeping Willow
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

I was laid to rest forever
Without absolution
(Affuse this rose)
With this heart no longer beating
And I'm no longer breathing 
(No credo of your own)

By the roots beneath this tree
I dream a silent dream
In the place they left me lie
Without ever saying why
Unmarked by any stone
No place to call my own


Who would bring me to this place
Then never show their face
They bid me to believe 
As they pushed me on my knees
But I never made it there
With the wrong cross to bear


I remain alone, unfaithful
Misguided by the angels
(Who blocked you from your way)
And this world that I created
Is the one that I am numb to
(As you waste away)



And I Wait For My World To End
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

Locked inside this soul of mine
Anger grows, turning me blind
Because of this rage they won't talk to me

Faithlessly shot to the heart
We pray we can take to the stars
Find our way out when we no longer breathe

And I wait for my world to end
Still I wait for this world to end


If you and I will never be
Together, to love and be free
I wonder how long I’m to be alone

I have had all this time away to cry
To drown myself in tears that never dry
I'm anxious for something and nothing I see

I'm calling you to come
I need to feel your warmth
I've got to look in your eyes
Take comfort from this storm

I broke my yesterdays
I swear I never lied
I've fallen from this world of yours
Into my dark inside

I pulled my soul from deep
To show you my despair
I held it up in front of you - 
You didn't seem to care

I only want run
I can't see what's ahead
I wrote it down a thousand times
But I've forgotten what it said

You had to put me here?
I still cannot think why
You pushed me down and tied me up
And left me there to die

So who are you to call me here
And drag this up and when
I left it lying years ago
It comes to haunt again



The Holy Innocent
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

When I passed away
My soul did not escape
I believed the words I heard
Wanted life to change

I feel alone
There is no use in hiding
I feel, my soul,
You have been misguiding
I dream a dream that has no sound
As I lay still beneath the ground

I am the holy innocent
As love speaks it makes no sound
And this one you put aside
No longer wants to hide
I cant tell what I did wrong


I want to hear your voice
Calling out my name
With your words I’m paralysed
I need to hear them  all the same

I broke no hearts
Yet I’m punished here forever 
I wait, enraged
We need to be together
It's in the dream that has no sound
As I lay still beneath the ground

I’ve lived inside this cage
As I lived upon the earth
It's hard for me to see
Which world has been the worst?

In time I see
That there is no point in changing
You don't want me
Too late for rearranging
This dream I dreamed that has no sound
As I lay still beneath the ground

And the bell takes its toll
And the field felt so cold
As I prayed my life away
I begged for the lights of change
But you never took my hand
As I wait for this world to end
Is this my final resting place?
Such a tragic waste of this holy innocent


All That Is
(Robert James Moulding/David Eaton)

i. Light Of Change
  
Bruised and Broken
My Absolution
The Limbo Of Infants
Fall Of Man
Lights Of Change    
Guide My Way
Onward
Onward

ii. The Limbo Of Infants

Never, in the end,
Will I be
Forgiven
I search in vain
Left to be
With the living 
and breathing

Caressed by eyes
Of judgemental hate
Where I’m to live
A Blinded fate
After this life
Through the archway
I will run
So far away 

Forevermore 
I will be
Bathed in sin
I’ll take this heart away
So I can feel
Your embrace 
surround me

I scale these walls
That I cant see
They make no sound
But they whisper to me
Rescue me
From within
You’ve cast on me
Near mortal sin

Time slows down
I have no pulse
Only poison
I wanted to be blinded
By the lights
That they said
Would guide me 

iii. Endless Opportunity

One night I'd hoped I'd meet you there
In front of me after all these years of 
Hurt and pain and suffering
So terrified and lonely. So unfair...
You're not satisfied
I had it all but broken in my life.

It seems that I may never leave
This never-ending silence in my head
I'm yearning deep inside
For closure and the promise I can
Fall asleep when I’m in your care
To feel your warmth from the coldness of my bed

Take Upon The Open Sea
Of endless opportunity
I never had the wings to fly
Away from all this pain that lives 
Inside my head and in my heart
And all that's ever broken in my life

And I broke it all when I said it all
I never knew it's worth 
I can hear when, the silence ends.
It’s always in my head.
You and I will never know
We lost that chance some time ago
Seen it all and I felt it all,
Until that night, we'll never ever know
.
 
Lyrics (c) 2011 R.J. Moulding and D. Eaton

A Tower of Silence

Anubis

'A Tower of Silence' was released on Bird's Robe Records on September 21st 2011.


The album muses on the theme of limbo, specifically told through the narrative of an 11 year old girl who lived and died in a workhouse in England in the early 19th century. A group of teens, trespassing in the abandoned buildings play seance in one of the abandoned
'A Tower of Silence' was released on Bird's Robe Records on September 21st 2011.


The album muses on the theme of limbo, specifically told through the narrative of an 11 year old girl who lived and died in a workhouse in England in the early 19th century. A group of teens, trespassing in the abandoned buildings play seance in one of the abandoned wards, leading to the apparition of the girl, who proceeds to recount her life, death, and her inability to pass on to any form of afterlife. The album functions as a metaphor for any kind of entrapment, be it depression, loss or terminal illness. The theme of being caught between two places, within the unknown, is the central conceit. On the way, the album tackles alienation, social division between the rich and the poor and even the very concept of afterlife.

The album kicks off with the 17 minute "The Passing Bell", and clocks in at over 65 minutes with three other tracks tipping the 10 minute mark. The album includes all of the elements that afforded 230503 much praise; the vocal harmonies (all six band members sing on it), the layering of all-vintage keyboards, the dynamic rhythm section, the incendiary guitar playing, (with a host of instruments, amps and stomp-boxes to boot) and the songwriting team of David Eaton and Robert James Moulding.

That's not to say there weren't any major changes on 'A Tower of Silence', having 230503's producer/engineer Dean Bennison join the band as another guitarist/vocalist and writer fleshed out the sound and added great depth to the arrangements, as well as adding his distinctive voice to the harmonies. The material was infinitely more collaborative too; with Douglas Skene emerging as part of the songwriting team, especially on the song 'Archway of Tears', and the whole band working much more as a unit in the studio arranging the compositions.

In the studio, Dean Bennison pushed the band to revert to a mainly retro way of working (save for the use of digital recording technology). As a result, there is not an amp sim nor a software synth to be heard. All the instruments were real, recorded in real time with microphones. All meticulously captured.

There was a sharpened focus on the lyrics too, with Robert and David having worked hard to be more direct and clear without losing any of the poetic effect. The preceeding 18 months of live performance also sharpened the vocals and as a result, AToS brimmed over with the most precise and passionate vocals Robert had ever committed to tape to that point.

Upon it's release, the album quickly gained a considerable following in Europe and South America, with it quickly topping internet charts all over Europe and regularly appearing in many publications' best of 2011 polls. On www.prograchives.com, over two years from it's release, it still sits in the top 10 Neo-Prog albums of all time alongside such luminaries as Marillion, IQ and Arena.

The penultimate track from the album, 'The Holy Innocent', was featured on Prog Magazine's cover CD in August 2012.
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