Die kalifornischen Power Metaller sind im Moment dabei, Songs für den Nachfolger des erst letztes Jahres erschienenen "Portrait of a Hanged Man" Longplayers zu schreiben. Das achte Studioalbum der Band aus San Francisco wird auch gleichzeitig das Debüt der beiden neuen Bandmitglieder Rob Kowolski (Guitar) und Wayne DeVecchi (Drums) markieren. Es handelt sich um das erste Konzeptalbum von Imagika

Commented Rice: "The band is definitely ready to kick ass with the new material that has been developing since we've been back from our U.S. tour this past summer. 13 new songs are in the works, and as usual, it will be a departure from our past releases.

"The original idea was to approach this as a concept album, but we agreed that it’s been beat to death by so many other bands that there is no point. I mean, how can you top some of the great metal concept albums like "Operation: Mindcrime" (Queensryche) or "Abigail" (King Diamond)? It’s very hard to accomplish and not really our thing at the end of the day. But, after hearing our singer's seemingly endless collection of fruity, flowery Euro power metal while on the tour bus and sparing his iPod a horrible asphalt death, I definitely knew what I didn't want to do! HA! A CD full of progressive, complex and melodic thrash metal is more appealing to me and the band at this point and decidedly the definitive goal for this next release.

"By bringing new blood into the band, there's an aggressive attitude for making a bold statement with a lot to prove! Also being able to approach the recordings as a two-guitar band is inspiring since we haven't done that since our 'My Bloodied Wings' 2006 release.

"It'll be cool to kick it up a notch and bring more shred and harmony to the table this time. All in all, I'm expecting nothing but the best from the band." Quelle: Metal.de