Fear, Emptiness, Despair

Shane Embury recalls that by the time this album was being rehearsed the band was splitting into two camps: Barney Greenway lived in London and wrote for metal magazines alongside his work in Napalm Death, while the other four shared a house in Sparkhill, Birmingham. They decided to build the songs around slower and mid-paced parts rather than blast beats. By 1993 Earache had become involved with Columbia Records, and Embury says Greenway did not like the direction and made that plain. The line-up is Greenway on vocals, Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris on guitars, Embury on bass and extra guitar noise, and Danny Herrera on drums. The sleeve dates the recording to October and November 1993 at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool and November and December 1993 at Jacobs Studios in Surrey, with a remix at Battery Studios in London in January and February 1994. Pete Coleman produced and engineered with the band, and Colin Richardson did the remix. According to Embury, the first mix carried percussion samples in the manner of Skinny Puppy, and Earache's Dig Pearson hated it. He also remembers the vocal sessions as hard going for Greenway and the whole band feeling the expectations that came with a major-label licence. Earache issued the album in Britain on CD (MOSH 109CD), cassette (MOSH 109MC) and LP (MOSH 109), and Music Week listed it among the new albums for the week of 2 to 7 May 1994. The American edition came out on Columbia, catalogue number CK 64361. A limited digipak CD, MOSH 109 CDD, adds "Truth Drug" and "Living in Denial". The album did not enter the UK Albums Chart.