Official re-issue of this Psychedelic Doom Metal masterpiece originally released in 1987 and sold out (on vinyl) for almost 3 decades. This high quality edition has been entirely remastered and comes in a full glossy gatefold cover also including a two sided A3 poster with the creepy "Death devours men and beasts" art + two poems written by Giancarlo Bolther. Paul Chain started out in the horror-shock band Death SS in 1977, a band that combined evil occult Metal and theatrics. In 1979 he formed Paul Chain Violet Theatre while he was still in Death SS. He later (1983 to be precise) left Death SS to concentrate on Paul Chain Violet Theatre, shortening the name to Paul Chain in 1987. The various Paul Chain incarnations released a large number of albums ranging from Traditional Doom (often coming close to very early Black Sabbath) to more experimental music, and gained massive underground fame in doing so. Amongst others, he has worked with Lee Dorrian (Cathedral) and Wino (St Vitus etc). "Opera 4th" is an apocalyptic journey into the most deviated realms of this genius' creativity. It starts with the 30 minute long experimental madness of "Our Solitude (Birth, Life, Death)" a space-doom nightmare dragging the soul into a cryptic universe of psychedelic synths and vocal echoes. The 3 songs on Side B bring us back to a solid, Sabbath-tinged (doomish) Metal approach that at times recalls Paul's early steps with Death SS and at times develop into '70s rock strangeness, like the closing "Resurrection In Christ". All in all, Paul Chain is a musical genius and anybody into Traditional Doom and Metal in all its forms should check out his work.
