A Prelude To Sorrow is a concept record, though not in the sense that most people have come to know the form. Ours is not a story where each song acts as a chapter. The inspiration lays in the supremely dark reality that was the passing of our drummer and one of our best friends Adam Sagan. These songs are raw emotional reflections, composed in the witching hours under the influence of wine and sorrow, while watching and helping our friend fight and ultimately lose his battle with Lymphoma. Nocturnes and Requiems was dedicated to Adam after the fact. A Prelude to Sorrow is written specifically about his and our personal tragedy. Like Nocturnes and Requiems the songs have been arranged to still have the peaks and valleys that any great record should. With Prelude these peaks just might be a little steeper and the valleys might be a little deeper, alternating between violence and beauty. The titles initials are an acronym for Adam Paul Sagan, He came up with Nocturnes and Requiems so we suppose it is kind of fitting that he also inspired this title. Hope he doesn't come knocking on our door for royalties. We hope that this will be a fitting requiem for our friend and talented musician.

Given its tragic background, main songwriters Joseph Michael (vocals, Sanctuary - live) and Jake Dreyer (guitars, Iced Earth) succeeded in perfectly combining the group's technical proficiency with an appropriate eerie and somber atmosphere, manifesting also in Kristian Wåhlin's majestic cover painting. For mix and mastering, WITHERFALL again worked with Chris Zeuss Harris (Sanctuary, Queensryche, Iced Earth).
About the Author: WITHERFALL are unstoppable! The dark melodic heavy metal juggernaut from Los Angeles are blazing new trails and weaving new tales on spectacular new album, Curse of Autumn. Although two years separate WITHERFALL's third opus from their celebrated A Prelude to Sorrow album, it feels like a long time. Even with the Vintage EP bridging the gap, the wait has been cruel. Well, WITHERFALL legions the tease of what's to come is out there. Fronted by a riveting, high-budget Zev Deans (Ghost, Behemoth) video for As I Lie Awake, a visualizer video for The Last Scar, and the premiere of the utterly wild Another Face, the Curse of Autumn finds vocalist/keyboardist Joseph Michael (Sanctuary), guitarist Jake Dreyer (Iced Earth), bassist Anthony Crawford (Chon), and drummer Marco Minnemann (The Aristocrats) with a genuine metal classic in their collective midst.

We wanted to out-do ourselves on Curse of Autumn, guitarist/songwriter Jake Dreyer says. That's really it. We brought on Jon Schaffer to produce. He wanted a heavy, dynamic sound for Curse of Autumn. The guitar tracks alone are way more insane than anything we've ever really done. We also had Jim Morris come in. He's a legend in the engineering field. He's such a pro that it made everything smooth for us. Then, we had Tom Morris do the mastering. Having Kristian do the cover again completed the cycle. We're creating our own little world with Kristian. The visual aspect works so well with the music we're creating.

We want everything we do in WITHERFALL to be its own piece of art, adds singer/songwriter Joseph Michael. The paintings are commissioned by us and therefore serve a symbolic purpose. Our merchandise also has equal importance to us. We're not a slap-on-a-logo type band. We want to put stuff out into the world that we would want. For instance, we put out sheet music, we've released our own wine, called Tempest Red Blend, and we spend a lot of time on the packaging of our albums. I mean, look at Ghost. They do merch very well. They have an art to what they do--a verifiable aesthetic. Look at Ghost's 'Dance Macabre' video. You can tell it's Ghost right away, but it's also cool to watch over and over. The song becomes something else with the video. That's exactly what we were looking for when we did the video for 'As I Lie Awake.'

The level up, so to speak, is evident from the moment the Curse of Autumn comes into view. Whether it's with WITHERFALL's first-rate video output and superlative production crew or Kristian Wåhlin's (King Diamond, Dissection) enchanting cover piece and accomplished studio musicians (featuring drummer Marco Minnemann and percussionist James Timbali Cornwell), WITHERFALL have pushed the edges of every boundary on Curse of Autumn. Where it matters most is in the songwriting, however. Michael and Dreyer spent the better part of the last two years writing, refining and perfecting their distinguished and musically-adept dark melodic heavy metal. Tracks like the thunderous The Last Scar, the dramatic Another Face, the somber The River, and the group's Miltonian epic ...And They All Blew Away are pedestaled to the highest standards. But it might be the heartfelt cover of Boston's Long Time that seals the greatness that is the Curse of Autumn.

An album artwork trailer can be seen here: https: //youtu.be/-P18I1viXGA