Trans-Siberian Orchestra have set the wheels in motion for their sixth studio album, Letters From the Labyrinth, which is now due out Nov. 13 on Universal Music. The album will extend the concept they began in 2009 with Night Castle with the band’s two creative visionaries, Savatage‘s Jon Oliva and producer Paul O’Neill, spearheading everything once again.
Letters From the Labyrinth boasts 14 new tracks, the fewest of any TSO release to date, but does offer an intriguing bonus track called “Forget About the Blame” that features Lzzy Hale of Halestorm. You can check out the full track listing for the disc below.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra are most celebrated for their fusion of heavy metal and an orchestra to create a unique Christmas-time experience, but the band have branched out from the holiday theme, starting with their previous album. This time, the inspiration comes from history. A collector of historical artifacts, O’Neill offered this insight, “Over the years I have been able to read and hold in my hands letters from people that have inspired me and left a mark on civilization. People like Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright — when I actually held a letter in my hand that President Lincoln wrote, it brought me into his world in a way I could never have imagined.”
The theme will be topical with lessons from the past being intertwined with hopes for the future. Expanding on this facet, O’Neill added, “I love making music and I love making it relevant. I always believed the arts have a way of inspiring and uniting people. We try to maintain that tradition on the albums and all the other projects we do. I think that when everything else is falling apart, people look to the arts to help make sense of things and put the events they are experiencing into some kind of context.” Pre-orders for Letters From the Labyrinth are currently underway at Amazon.