Since their earliest beginnings, FINAL COIL have created music of substance, songs of inspired musical imagination and lyrical weight, carefully sculpted from deep wells of thought and emotion. Each release from this remarkable band is a sonic edifice to be admired, a monument of creativity to stand the test of time. New album, The World We Inherited, represents the crowning glory of a triptych of records begun with their vibrant debut The Persistence Of Memory and continued with the highly critically acclaimed The World We Left Behind For Others. As ever with FiINAL COIL it represents a huge stride forward into ever richer and more colourful landscapes of sound and more challenging, thought provoking lyrical exploration. It is an album for now and an album for the decades to come.
Whereas the albums that preceded it examined our past, the societal failings that have brought us to our troubled present, The World We Inherited turns its gaze to the future and the shadows of fear and division that bleed across its horizon. Inspired in no small part by a long and winding conversation with Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman and the prophetic, dystopian fiction of George Orwell, The World We Inherited wanders through a murky, broken world of conspiracy theories, authoritarian politics and chilling isolation. Yet while the lyrics and concepts provide the framework for the album, it’s the beautifully textured music that draws the listener into the world of FINAL COIL and enfolds them in a breath taking experience encompassing overwhelming melancholy, fierce intensity, passion, terror, confusion and starlit glimmers of hope. Drawing on the textures of post-rock, the emotional drive of grunge, the fire of heavy rock and the imaginative sorcery of progressive rock and metal the groups sound is both fresh and original and also rooted in an array of influences from across the musical spectrum. The fluid bass work of Jola Stiles both augments and anchors the entwined guitars of Phil Stiles and Richard Awdry, while the vibrant, instinctive drumming of Barry French steers the band through the exquisite song structures, as Phil’s emotive vocals tell each chapter of the unfolding tale.
To ensure that The World We Inherited benefitted from the very best sound quality possible, FINAL COIL recorded at Parlour Studios with producer Russ Russell (Amorphis, The Wildhearts, Napalm Death etc), who has also mixed and mastered the album, such was his enthusiasm for the project. The panoramic artwork that adorns the album was created for the band by Andy Pilkington (Mordred, Flotsam & Jetsam, Rock Goddess, Skindred etc), continuing a working relationship that began with The Persistence Of Memory album. Completing the visual presentation, Final Coil worked with renowned photographer Ester Segarra (Ghost, Tribulation, Venom etc) to capture an appropriate band image for the album’s apocalyptic vibe.