MORGANA LEFAY: More Concept Album Details Revealed

Swedish "heavy doom progressive" band MORGANA LEFAY have posted the first portion of the cover art for their new album, "Grand Materia", at their official web site.

Due on April 18 via Black Mark Records, the follow-up to 2000's "SOS" (released under the LEFAY band moniker) is said to be a concept album about Nicholas Flamel, an 14th century alchemist who supposedly lived on forever. The following concept outline was posted on the band's official web site:

"It all began a very long time ago.

"It was the year 1354. I was twenty-four years old and was working as a scribe in a small corner office on Rue de Marivaux in Paris. My job was to copy manuscripts for a paltry sum, but I enjoyed it, and I took pleasure in life as I had recently married my beautiful Pernelle, actually receiving a generous dowry in the bargain. I had for quite some time been fascinated by alchemy, pondering in all my spare moments the numerous texts I had acquired on this hermetic art. Countless nights were spent speculating upon the meaning of cryptic messages like the inscriptions on Trismegistus' emerald and the pictures in Mutus Liber or other writings, as well as musing about the secret rituals that occasionally were described or illustrated. I had obtained all that an alchemist required for the transmutation of ordinary metals, but to make gold I needed that which was desired by all and above all else, that which was enshrouded in mysterious lore: Prima Materia , or Grand Materia as I came to say.

"One night I dreamed I saw a book held by an angel. In a voice that defies description, the angel said, 'Behold this book, of which you understand nothing. To all but yourself it will remain incomprehensible; you and you alone shall one day discover what it reveals.'

"The book itself was bound in finely hammered copper, with pages neither of parchment nor paper, but thin bark. On the first page was a dedication in gilt script to the Jewish people. It was signed 'Abraham, Jew, prince, priest, astrologer and philosopher.' In my dream I reached for the book, but both it and the angel disappeared in a blinding flash. I awoke with a start, empty-handed and bewildered."