Arts & Entertainment

Glen Rock's Titus Andronicus Planning Rock Opera, Film

Frontman Patrick Stickles recently disclosed details of the band's fourth album, expected to drop next year.

Native Glen Rock punk band Titus Andronicus aren’t strangers to lofty lyrical concepts in their music.

The second of the band’s three full-length albums, The Monitor (2010), was a loose concept album about the American Civil War.

Their next, frontman Patrick Stickles told Missoulian, will be a multi-act rock opera inspired by the philosophy of Frederick Nietzsche and Stickles' own struggle with manic depression.

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The Montana-based newspaper reported that the upcoming album will be based on the storyline of a down and out character who learns he’s descended from an ancient superhuman race—posing some unique personal dilemmas when an average human woman sparks his romantic interest.

The key question, Stickles told the paper: “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.”

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"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?" he continued. "Mostly it's a metaphor for manic depression, is the thing."

If this seems a bit complicated, the band will have plenty of time to flesh out the concept. Stickles is planning over 30 songs for the project, as well as an accompanying film—low budget, similar to a single-shot rap video. But it won’t be “like a Puff Daddy video,” he said.

The album is expected to be released November 2014.


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