Alternative 4

The title comes from Leslie Watkins's book Alternative 3, which bassist and co-principal songwriter Duncan Patterson had read some years earlier. The book is about conspiracy theories, and most of the songs here follow from that into the subject of trust. Patterson later played in a band named after the book, writing about similar things. The cover keeps to the same theme. It is a modified photograph of the American astronaut Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon during Apollo 11 in 1969, altered to show him as an angel — a reference to the claim that the landings were faked. Everything is sung in a clean voice. It carries further what Eternity had begun, and it shows a band that started in death-doom standing somewhere else entirely. It is the last record with Patterson and the only one made without drummer John Douglas, who was replaced by Shaun Steels in 1997 and returned in 1998. The running order here is the original's as printed.