{"product_id":"majestic-desolation","title":"Majestic Desolation","description":"\u003cp\u003eSeven years on from playing their final note onstage and unexpectedly ceasing all activity, seminal UK alternative hardcore band \u003cstrong\u003eBastions\u003c\/strong\u003e have announced their return. Eleven years on from the North Wales band's revered debut album, \u003cem\u003eHospital Corners\u003c\/em\u003e, Bastions will be releasing their second proper full-length, \u003cem\u003eMajestic Desolation\u003c\/em\u003e, via Church Road Records.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePrivately reuniting in 2020, the quartet - composed of Jamie Burne (vocals), Jamie McDonald (guitar), Gareth Davies (bass), and Kieran Brindley (drums) - began reconnecting and re-envisioning what a future could look like with Bastions in it, a future that held respect for their past efforts without bending to misguided nostalgia or revised history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDiscontent with simply resting on their discography's laurels, \u003cem\u003eMajestic Desolation\u003c\/em\u003e's eight tracks are the result of a dark rekindling. Returning to The Ranch Studios in Southampton, UK to record with long-time collaborator and old friend Lewis Johns in July 2021, \u003cem\u003eMajestic Desolation\u003c\/em\u003e is proof that time dulls nothing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs visceral as they ever were, Bastions' trademark darkened hardcore and unnerving melodicism still convulses and writhes with an air of disquietude. Lamentations of lost time, profound emptiness, and grief permeate throughout the entirety of \u003cem\u003eMajestic Desolation\u003c\/em\u003e's 25 minutes. No more earnestly is this showcased than the one-two punch of \"Slithering\" into \"Coalfields\" - with Burnes' howls of \"All this loss, all these years\" on the latter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMajestic Desolation\u003c\/em\u003e is less a comeback record as much as it is a continuation of all that made Bastions a highly influential UK act in the first place, taking personal hells and finding the universality within them against the backdrop of a sonically ceaseless push and pull. Bastions in 2022 remain as perceptive towards all that leaves us desolate and hurting, with \u003cem\u003eMajestic Desolation\u003c\/em\u003e knowing when to swing and when to swim in the malaise of it all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSeven years on from that final strangled note at iconic London venue The Black Heart, Bastions are back and that sinking feeling of desolation is here to stay.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Church Road Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50458768900427,"sku":"1159388","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50458771161419,"sku":"1159389","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/4a9456c7-7d72-4e33-9e80-604b6e05b566_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727213805","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/products\/majestic-desolation","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}