Titus Andronicus Put ‘LP4’ Up For Pre-Order, Announce Tentative Release Date

Gung-ho rock heavyweights Titus Andronicus are gearing up for the release their biggest album to date, in more ways than one.

A 2xLP, potentially 30-song long rock opera is being tentatively prepped for release in November 2014. It’s being promised alongside a feature film and a digital box set.

A short, tongue-in-cheek disclaimer is posted on the band’s website: ‘In event of Titus Andronicus breaking up or something, refunds will be given in a timely fashion.’ Pre-orders for the standard or ‘VIP’ editions are available now.

The full concept of this rock opera/ #ROCKOPERA is explained by frontman Patrick Stickles in an interview with Missoulian. It deals with Stickles’ own struggles with manic depression:

‘“Basically we meet a guy, a fella, and he’s a very depressed, sad guy, and he doesn’t have much hope about life,” Stickles said.

The character went through some sort of trauma he doesn’t fully understand that left him less outgoing, less ambitious than he once was.

A “mysterious, shadowy” figure appears, a “doppelgänger of our hero,” who reveals that the main character used to be part of an ancient race of humans.

“This superhuman race has this curse upon it, and the reason that they’re able to do all these great things is the same reason that they ultimately are doomed to destroy themselves. They’re a self-destructive race that’s dispersed amongst the regular population,” he said.

And so the source of all his power is the same thing that put him in the “bad state” at the beginning of the story.

After a love interest enters his life, the hero has to decide whether to reveal his true nature, and whether he wants to live like a regular person.

“So that’s the question, what’s he going to do? Is he going to become a human, or live out his true destiny? The true destiny is more painful, you understand? But it’s got bigger rewards but there are consequences,” Stickles said.

“It’s all a way of questioning, would you want to live your life in the middle … or would you accept the lows because they’re the price of the highs? Mostly it’s a metaphor for manic depression, is the thing,” he said’