THE DARKNESS: 'Easter Is Cancelled' Artwork Banned By Certain Platforms For Its Religious Connotations

British rockers THE DARKNESS have released the title track of their forthcoming quasi-sci-fi concept album "Easter Is Cancelled", due out on October 4 via Cooking Vinyl.

"Easter Is Cancelled" gives a taste of what to expect from the band's most diverse album yet. The song features almighty guitar solos and riffs, delicate acoustic touches, highflying falsetto, barbarian chants and space-age electronics.

Due to the album's artwork being banned by certain platforms for its religious connotations, the band has released a video for "Easter Is Cancelled" featuring both the original and censored artworks.

Regarding the creation of the song, drummer Rufus "Tiger" Taylor says: "That was the last song we wrote for the album. We needed a fast one. So Dan and I were given that challenge. We had a day of jamming. It was one of those things where we just sat down and bang — the first thing we played became the first four bars of the finished song."

Frontman Justin Hawkins says: "Rufus and Dan came up with this AC/DC boogie thing, except with all these weird, progressive time changes. Lyrically, it's one of the multiverse ones. You can't be angry about a multiverse. It makes everything more manageable. You have to be comforted by the fact that there's a reality somewhere it isn't all shit. Conversely, when everything is going right, there's a universe where it isn't, and you should be grateful."

Justin spoke to Planet Rock about the concept for the cover artwork for "Easter Is Cancelled", which features what appears to be members of THE DARKNESS beating down Roman guards as Jesus — played by Justin — attempts to escape from the bonds of crucifixion.

He said: "I'm depicting Christ in the artwork. I'm not suggesting for a minute that I'm Jesus. And the concept is multiverse theory. So, presumably, if we're allowed to talk about multiverse theory, as science folk, which we are, the idea of multiverse theory is that every eventuality that is possible to imagine exists somewhere in an alternate reality — like Schrödinger's cat times infinity. So, the idea is what happens if on the day that the Christ was to be crucified, he just said, 'Well, I'm gonna use my supernatural, wine-turning, water-walking abilities to fight back.' And the crucifixion doesn't happen, the Romans don't stand a chance — one of them is beheaded — and Jesus and three of the Marys, we're saying what if there's a universe like that? Imagine everything goes wrong. Isn't it comforting to know that in a universe somewhere, everything has gone right? Don't you find that comforting?"

The new album "Easter Is Cancelled" is THE DARKNESS's most exciting yet, a mini-rock opera examining the role of the musician in the barbarous culture of the world today. At the heart of the tale is love, loss and heartbreak, where redemption is ultimately found in the brotherhood of band friendship and the power of the guitar.

The title track is the latest song to be released from "Easter Is Cancelled" and follows the emotive "Heart Explodes", this week added to the Radio 2 playlist, and the five-minute epic "Rock And Roll Deserves To Die".

"Easter Is Cancelled" will be released digitally and in full technicolour physical glory as a standard CD, digipak CD with bonus tracks, gatefold LP, limited-edition color vinyl gatefold LP, picture disc and cassette. The album is available to pre-order now from the band's official store with special signed copies and exclusive album bundle offers.

THE DARKNESS will play "Easter Is Cancelled" in full, alongside a set of its very greatest hits, on its upcoming headline tour. They will play 19 dates across the U.K. starting in November, and the shows promise to be incredibly special. The band will reflect the grand scope and vision of the album, alongside the finest hits from its spectacular canon.