Back to the Bones, new Haze studio CD out 4th July!

Back To The Bones

Price including postage

Finally, the wait is over! Haze release a new 10 track studio album on Saturday 4th July. Produced & engineered by Danny McMahon at home & in Cellar Studios the CD features all original compositions.

Full track listing:-

  1.  See You On The Other Side (6.03)

  2. Faces On The Wall (3.58)

  3. The Snake (8.04)

  4. The Last Post (6.38)

  5. Suzanne (2.31)

  6. To Us All (9.20)

  7. Lockdown (5.05)

  8. The Awakeners (6.54)

  9. A Call To Arms (8.25)

  10. The Summoning Dark (11.51)

Total time (68.55)

The first 100 orders come with a free double DVD of our 20th anniversary show at the Boardwalk in 1998, and our Christmas show there the same year, videoed by John Moorby & digitally enhanced by Jon Dunnington.

The album is also available as a digital download/streaming from Bandcamp, as well as all the usual places (itunes, spotify, etc, etc)

Back to the Bones back of sleeveBack to the Bones CD on bodyBack to the Bones inside sleeve

 NEWS The Cellar Tapes on CD Haze at HRH Prog 2018 by SD Photography
The Last Battle CD
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 Every gig we've ever done
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Velvet Thunder by Steve Pilkington

ProgArchives by Steve Conrad

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See You On The Other Side (P McMahon)

Paul McMahon (vocals, guitars) Chris McMahon (bass, keyboards) Danny McMahon (drums) Catrin Ashton (flute)

The opening guitar tune is one of the older pieces of music on the CD and was originally intended to be part of The Last Battle song. It was performed at the 30th anniversary show as an intro to 'Ophelia' as well as being played in The Outlandish Knights ceilidh set. The rest of the song was only finished in late 2019, and was written about a trip to Italy in 2014 - which included a bizarre gig on a boat on Lake Como.  

This is the first of a thousand miles, headed out in the world a while the diesel roar.
Here where the land and the sea collide, we are sailing against the tide to the jungle shore
Looking back the tall cliffs fade. White horses carry us away.
The sea is churning, the wind blows cold. The world keeps turning the tale unfolds
The water deep and the ocean wide
I’ll see you on the other side.

Here in the place where the plates collide, the peak rises up so high it’s lost in cloud.
There in the last of the fading light the snow on the mountainside makes a perfect shroud.
High above on wings of light. Three generations cross the sky.
One mile down on the mountain road, the night is falling, the pass is closed.
The snow is deep and the mountain wide.
I’ll see you on the other side.

This is the place where the journey ends as a stranger becomes a friend on a distant shore.
Here where the waves and the sky collide, in a boat on the waterside we breathe once more.
Stone by stone we build a wall. The echoes build until it falls.
Rhyme and Reason are long long gone. Time and Season will carry on
The sun is gone and the moon is high.
I’ll see you on the other side.

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Faces on the Wall (music P McMahon & C Ashton, lyrics C Ashton)

Paul McMahon (vocals, guitars) Chris McMahon (bass) Danny McMahon (drums) Catrin Ashton (fiddle & flute)

Written soon after the Last Battle CD was completed, Cat set out to write a song which would reveal its meaning forwards and backwards in time, simultaneously. We made a video for the song in the 2015 2weeks2 make it video competition, have a look here.  
 

As you're staring at the wall
Wishing cold clay lips could call
Sitting on a carpet bare
Under their eternal stare

And the faces on the wall
They will watch you as you fall

Longing for a far off shore
Or the heather on the moor
Somewhere high up in the sky
Somewhere sunny warm & dry

And the hand upon the faces
Point to all those different places
And the faces on the wall
They will watch you as you fall

Wishing you were someone else
Wishing you were somewhere else
Familiar language in your ears
Familiar faces without fears

And the jewels on the hands
Flash you to those other lands
And the hands upon the faces
Point to all those different places
And the faces on the wall
They will watch you as you fall

So you open up the clock
With the hole where it should tock
Pull the drawer out again
Take it from the case and then

Gather up your favourite tools
To suck the nectar from the jewels
And the jewels on the hands
Flash you to those other lands
And the hands upon the faces
Point to all those different places
And the faces on the wall
They will watch you as you fall

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The Snake (music P McMahon & C Ashton, lyrics C Ashton)

Paul McMahon (vocals, guitars) Chris McMahon (keyboards) Danny McMahon (drums, percussion, brass arrangement) Catrin Ashton (fiddle & flute)

Another one that's been in the set for a while with lyrics by Cat & a melody based on a tune played by a blind albino harmonium player she met in Kashmir. Again featured in the 2weeks2 make it competition of 2018, this time it won the Scott Speranza award for best video. It should be pointed out that Scott was 7! Watch it here. For this recording I wrote an extra keyboards introduction, well, wrote is a bit of a strong word for it, made it up more like!  
 

Into the night the grey snake runs.
Tortured by fire tormented by guns.
Only to flee from the fighting all around.
Ony to see where some sense can be found.
With no blood on the sea and no bones on the ground.

With the coming of dawn the sun shining pale.
Stories are passed from her head to her tail.
Tales of a time before the fields turned to brown.
Before the walls came to split up the town.
Before the fires came to burn it down.

On through the night the snake can’t pause.
Soldiers would come and snatch her in their claws.
With nothing to feed on and no place to lie.
Out in the darkness some piece of her will die.
Black cloaked on black earth underneath a black sky.

Over the sand the grey snake slides.
Scale upon scale is falling from her sides.
Until but a sliver of snake slithers on.
Through the black mounds of skin with its clothing still on.
Through the blackened mounds of corpses while the world watches on.

One man alone from the column still stands.
The others all lost on the journey to this land.
We’ve no place here for a man such as he.
We send him back to his own country.
Back to the bones and the blood on the sea.
Back to the bones, back to the bones,
Back to the bones and the blood on the sea.

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The Last Post (P McMahon)

Paul McMahon (vocals, guitars, guitar synth) Chris McMahon (bass, keyboards) Danny McMahon (drums, string arrangement)

One of the most recent songs on the CD, I think we played it live for the first time at Christmas 2019. John Gelley was talking to Paul about 'Turn Around' where an upbeat rock song crashes into a wall of prog halfway through, and we realised that we hadn't done that for a while! The bass intro is unashamedly stolen from Deep Purple's 'No One Came' where the bass starts on the off beat, then everyone else comes in on the beat to throw your internal metronome off (you do have an internal metronome?).  
A place that I no longer recognise
A world that’s leaving me behind.
Every wayward word is amplified and twisted.
The mood is savage and unkind.

As the innocent are crucified,
The guilty never take the blame.
Hate & Ignorance the virtues of the day.
They lack the grace to feel ashamed.

Beware the anti-social media.
Misinformation every day.
An echo chamber for the disconnected soul.
A force for chaos and decay.

I am a poltergeist in my own home
A ghost inside my own machine.
I can move things but I can’t be heard at all.
I can feel but not be seen.

How will I know when it’s time to go?
Will someone give me the nod?
When I’m tired, dull & uninspired.
When I’m just waiting for God.

‘Cos I’ve got used to rejection, it hardly hurts me at all.
Totally numb is what I’ve become, waiting for the curtain to fall.

If all your gods are made of paper, and all your castles of sand.
In this new age of truth decay and outrage
What do you have that will stand?

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Suzanne (P McMahon)

Paul McMahon (vocals, acoustic & lead guitars) Chris McMahon (mandolin, electric mandola, bass, mellotron) Danny McMahon (drums, rhythm, slide guitar, backing vocals, keys)  Catrin Ashton (flute)

Another very recent song, I heard it for the first time when Paul played it during our lockdown livestream on 5th April, so all the parts were recorded remotely & brought together by the magic of t'internet. It featured the one & only appearance of my very lovely Electric Mandola on the CD. The tune is dedicated to Suzanne Hoylaerts a 90 year old Belgian woman, who contracted Covid-19 and refused a ventilator, saying that she had had a wonderful life, and they should give the ventilator to a younger patient. Sadly she died from the virus.  
 

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To Us All (C McMahon, P McMahon)

Paul McMahon (vocals, guitars) Chris McMahon (backing vocals, bass, keyboards) Danny McMahon (drums, string arrangement)

There's old songs, and there's old songs! I was still in the 6th form when I wrote this, so that must put it at 1977. The song part is mainly channeling the Moody Blues, but the instrumental section is pure Rory Gallagher Irish Tour '74! Guitar, bass & drum parts were recorded live simultaneously, only vocals & keyboard parts were dubbed afterwards.The intro and outro sections were newly made up, sorry composed, for this recording, and in the spirit of magpie thieving the 70s give a big nod to Van Der Graaf Generator in the intro, and some sort of mutant Von Daniken (whatever happened to them?) new age prog in the outro.  
 

The morning sun shows clear my way
I see the path before me.
We must fight if we want to be free.
We must tear down the wall
Hear them whisper in silence to us all

I see the trees on the edge of my dream.
Calling me on they softly sigh.
Is this the road I should take?
Should I listen to their call?
Hear them crying in silence to us all.

Stars that shine so bright alone.
Watch the moon sail on ‘til dawn.
Far in the distance I hear the cries.
Bringing news of our fall.
Hear them screaming in silence to us all.
Bringing news of our fall.
Hear them screaming in silence to us all.

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Lockdown (lyrics P McMahon, music D McMahon)

Paul McMahon (vocals, slide guitar) Chris McMahon (bass) Danny McMahon (guitars, keyboards, drums)

From the very oldest, to the very newest! This is a post-lockdown Danny song, he'd played & recorded everything on it, Paul then wrote the words and replaced the slide guitar and I replaced the bass, the rest is Dan! I'm not even sure if we can play it live, but we'll have a go at some point!

Beautiful day, the sky is so clear today
The sun shining down.
Leaves on the trees, moved by a gentle breeze
That blows from the east, bringing shadows
So here am I, caught like a butterfly
Trapped in a jar, looking out through glass
Clinging on in vain
To memories of flight, helpless and paralysed
I wait for the pin.

Isolate Insulate Try not to congregate
Learn to appreciate don't forget to clap at eight
Time and again
Let go of vanity cling on to sanity
Deal with calamity show some humanity
We'll meet again

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The Awakeners (music P McMahon & C Ashton, lyrics C Ashton)

Paul McMahon (vocals, guitars, mandolin) Chris McMahon (keyboards, bass) Danny McMahon (drums) Catrin Ashton (flute, mandolin, backing vocals)

Cat wrote this song after reading 'The Awakeners' by Sheri S Tepper. Just when it seemed to be finished, Paul would add another instrumental section and  this went through a lot of arrangement revisions before we finally (hopefully?) got it right.

In a town with a tower, lit by three moons.
See a face in the water, light will come soon.
Workers in your pits, sleep while you may.
Come dawn, tears awaken you to toil one more day.

Chorus
Look to the girl who holds a slow baby
Follow her up to the split river pass
Past the teeth of the north, the ancient lady
Talkers and fliers will soon feast their last.

Northshore river boatman, sail your Gift through the night.
Lift a whisper from the water, safe from the blight.
Watch on you three mendicants, take the root ‘til you choke.
Yellow flame, black of stone, reality in smoke.

Chorus

Cruel beaks and talons, deadened by the years.
Feast on the flesh softened by tears.

Chorus

In the towers, the awakeners sleep one night more.
Already the widow’s son stands at the shore.

Chorus

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A Call to Arms (P McMahon)

Paul McMahon (vocals, guitars) Chris McMahon (keyboards, bass) Danny McMahon (drums) Catrin Ashton (flute)

A new song premiered at the 40th anniversary gig in 2018, we're deep in the prog here, notable live for me playing bass with one hand and a keyboards solo with the other (no I didn't do that in the studio!) Unintentionally, the song uses every chord in the scale at some point, as the keys change relentlessly throughout. The eagle in the lyrics at the end is, incidentally, the same one as in The Exiles Song!  
 

The snow is falling from a cloudless sky.
When did the summer turn so grey?
You pull the shutters down and dry your eyes.
Turn your head away.

The truth is buried in a shallow grave.
Just in case it’s still breathing.
Now is it justice or revenge you crave?
Suffering or healing?

I feel the earth shifting
Beneath my feet it’s drifting
The summer stars falling.
Another world calling, calling.

The perfect circle broken and twisted out of true.
The precious metal blistered, base metal showing through.
The vows have been unspoken, drowned in disbelief.
The veil has been lifted, dysfunction underneath.

And now you wonder where the cancer lies.
And hope it isn’t in your soul.
When all sensation is anaesthetised.
All you feel is cold.

I’ll take the blame everywhere.
How could I leave it lying there?
As if that ever mattered
Beside a world shattered, shattered.

The call to arms is screaming for a gathering of the clans.
They’re loading ammunition, preparing battle plans.
The livid sky is darkening, storm clouds block the sun.
The fury is unfolding, your enemy is gone.

Between the silence of the mountain.
And the violence of the sea
There is no hatred here, there’s nothing left to fear.
Watch the eagle rising free.

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The Summoning Dark (P McMahon)

Paul McMahon (vocals, guitars) Chris McMahon (keyboards, bass) Danny McMahon (drums, orchestral arrangements) Catrin Ashton (flute)

A suitably epic finish to the CD, this was premiered live at the end of 2019. The lyrics are based on the work of Terry Pratchett from the book Thud: "The Summoning Dark is a pan-dimensional creature and spirit of vengeance from dwarf mythology". The music evolved from a piece 'The Lost Ones' that me & Ceri were working on, but has gone to a much grander, darker place. It mixes prog, folk & metal influences in a way that perfectly sums up the CD. The final section is played live using a looper pedal, layering more & more guitars onto the underlying 15/8 riff. And the finale is pure Dan studio magic.

Into darkness we were born.
Underground our fathers lived their lives.
But we yearned for something more.
For it is written that all things strive.
We came to this city on the plain.
To build a home to find another kind of life.
A new race, never welcome in this place.
But we brought gold and she is always welcome underneath the sky.

Into the city the dark ones arrived.
The masters of religious law.
Looking for an ancient device.
Buried somewhere beneath these city walls.
We found, in a cavern underground.
A sound recording from millenia gone by.
We heard our forefathers speak the words,
That told us all of our history was lies, lies, lies.

When the dark ones heard the words.
With fear and hatred they were filled.
When they knew we too had heard.
They gave the order that we should be killed.
But there are signs that we use inside the mines,
And there are darker things that dwell much deeper down.
Dying in mud, with the last of my life’s blood.
I made the sign upon the wall that calls up
The Summoning Dark

(It comes in darkness, it comes in revenge.
It will not stop until the blood has been avenged.
It comes in darkness, it comes in disguise.
It will not stop until the last one dies.)

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Due to the current Covid-19 situation, we can't play a release show, but we will be livestreaming a performance of the CD from Cellar Studios on Sunday 5th July at 3pm from our facebook page. We've been broadcasting every Sunday at 3pm since 5th April, starting off with acoustic shows and building up to a 3 hour 42nd anniversary show on 31st May. You can still see all the broadcasts on facebook and on our youtube channel Haze playlist, and we're still continuing to livestream every Sunday, usually alternating an 'electric' show with an acoustic session each week.

 

Price including postage
 NEWS The Cellar Tapes on CD Haze at HRH Prog 2018 by SD Photography
The Last Battle CD
Newsletters
GIGS  Current Gig Guide
 Every gig we've ever done
MERCHANDISE  Buy CDs online
Full Discography
BACKGROUND  Biography
Reviews/Interview NEW!
Family Tree

Gabadon Music

YouTube
Flickr  ReverbNation FaceBook Bandcamp


 

Write to us via email!

Last updated 22 August 2020

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