Autobituary
Some notes, thoughts & reminiscences
Martin:
The last cab off the rank, and straight away I'm liking this one. Quality. If this isn't the best track on the album, then I'm a Dutchman. It's got the same quirky charm as Circus Divine. Unusual -- less US southern-rock influenced? More aggressive. Closer to Sabbath and Priest than Lyny-Skyn. Anyway, there's loads of really good dynamics, particularly during the last quarter. All the different sections dovetail nicely. Again the vocals appear a bit louder, although still not sitting totally comfortably. It starts, and finishes, with a spoken section -- so that's always nice. Is there a Rainbow Rising at 5:49? On reflection, I would have liked to have seen this track open the Bleak Insight album. So, a quick amendment to a previous statement is now in order: Circus Divine, and Autobituary, are the definitive Sevenchurch songs.
Ollie:
This is one perhaps my favourite Sevenchurch song. It was also a live favourite and often used to end the set. I love the bassline at the start and I'm very proud of that title, a combination of auto-biography and obituary. What better title for the story of a man who comes back from the dead? I think the song is very accessible whilst still following the classic Sevenchurch symphonic song structure.
The lyrics were inspired by another Anne Rice story 'The Mummy' and I while writing it I spent quite a bit of time in the Ancient Egypt section of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.