Old Shadows Linger Wiki

Old Shadows Linger
Studio album by The Last Aurora

Released 2008
Recorded Febrary-June 2008
Genre Classic Rock
Length 38:51

Old Shadows Linger is the second studio album of Singapore rock trio The Last Aurora, released on July 2008 in Singapore. It is the first The Last Aurora album with an epic.
[edit] Title Origin
According to Shen Le, the band's keyboardist and main composer, the album's title was named after Shen Le and Chen Yun’s dark past and experience. “It’s too raw and painful to talk about it. But it cast a great shadow on my heart,” Shen Le said.
Recording
The Last Aurora began writing the lyrics in December. The recording of the instrumental parts of The Last Aurora took place in January. Finally, the recording of the vocals took place in Febrary to June. The CDs and CD covers were provided by Shen Le, the CD booklet printed by Felicia Lau. The album took $3 to produce.

Music Style

Before the album's release, band leader Shen Le said in an interview that the album will have a lot of dark epic material, like Nightwish.

“There will be pop angst songs, piano ballads, and acoustic guitar songs, and twisted dark songs. I knew you would enjoy it! I love everything!” Shen Le said.

“It was fun recording this album! I get to make funny noises, talk, and scream.” Felicia Lau said. “I love the piano ballads most of all!”

Chen Yun declined to comment, saying “Fuck off!” when she was interviewed.

This marks the tension between Chen Yun and the other band members. Felicia Lau wanted to kick Chen Yun out, but Shen Le was afraid to tell her. Instead, she told Chen Yun that she is currently ‘in hiatus’.

The album's average track length is 3.9 minutes, with most of the songs lasting for about three minutes. There is one epic song, almost 11 minutes, that is the longest ever for a The Last Aurora record, a band that mostly had songs about 2-3 minutes and one or two longer per album. The track “The Songwriter And The String” is the longest song in the band's history, 10:58, 6:46 minutes longer than the song that used to occupy that position, “In That Time.

Track Meanings
1. The Songwriter And The String was inspired by Nightwish’s The Poet And The Pendulum. It is about how Shen Le is forced to write songs, because she is controlled by God like a puppet, by strings.
3. Eradication Of Pain is about how a sinner decides he wants to die because God cannot save him.
4. You Are My Sin is inspired by Nightwish’s She Is My Sin. It is about how a person has a split personality, and her dark side is trying to tempt her into darkness.
5. Nobody Knows is inspired by Martina McBride’s Concrete Angel, about Shen Le’s father who abuse her.
7. In A Darkened Room is written by a drug dealer, his personal account about how he regrets taking drugs. Now he is in jail, and he wishes that people can pity him, and God can save him. However, he is now dead
8. Lavia is about a girl killing her sister, because she wants to save her sister from the corruption and discrimination by men. Lavia is very ugly, like Shen Le, thus Men
might harm her. This song is inspired by Nightwish’s Eva.
9. Grendel’s Demise is written after Shen Le watched Beowulf. She does not think Grendel should be killed just because he is ugly. He should be pitied and loved. She hates Beowulf, because he is a horny, violent, stupid and proud idiot.
10. Our Farewell is about a girl saying goodbye to her grandmother. She wishes she could spend more time with her before she died. This song is a tribute to Chen Yun’s dead grandmother. This song is inspired by Avril Lavigne’s Slipped Away, and Evanescence’s My Immortal.

Band members

Shen Le-Lead vocals, lyrics, piano
Felicia Lau-Backing vocals, Recorder.
Chen Yun-Backing vocals

Guests:
Scott P Schreer “Eradication Of Pain”, “In A Darkened Room”, “Grendel’s Demise”
Pete Calandra “Eradication Of Pain”, “In A Darkened Room”
Thierry Chaze “The Sonwriter And The String”
Jim Klein “The Sonwriter And The String”
Arnaud Roy “The Sonwriter And The String”
Peter Hawkes “The Sonwriter And The String”
Nokia “Miasma”
Guillaume Wilmot “You Are My Sin”
Patrick James Slattery “Nobody Knows”
Andrew I Mendelson “Grendel’s Demise”