SEVEN HILLS

Seven Hills is Anthem's eighth studio album and the first of their second era, released on 22 August 2001 by Victor Entertainment as VICP-61464 and produced by Naoto Shibata. Nine years had passed since the 1992 split. What set the return in motion was Heavy Metal Anthem, the 2000 project on which Graham Bonnet sang Anthem songs; that record and the Japanese tour behind it revived calls for a reunion, and Shibata began seriously weighing one. His condition was that it not be a reunion in the nostalgic sense - no gathering of old members for its own sake - but a band living in the present and making new music. On those terms the first person he approached was Akio Shimizu, whose playing he had rated highly since 1991. Eizo Sakamoto returned on vocals and Hirotsugu Homma joined on drums, and the four of them went on to work together for eleven years without a single change. "Grieve Of Heart" appeared as a single on 25 July 2001 and opens the album, ten tracks with the instrumental "D.I.M. 422" at their centre. Victor made an official music video for "Grieve Of Heart".