Mark Sheeky Artworks

About This Album

Over two years in development, Burn Of God is a progressive concept album on the theme of religion, a depiction of a night of anxiety, an examining of the eternal questions of meaning and existence. This album continued the evolution of Sheeky's music work from instrumental to vocal orientated rock or progressive music, and includes greater use of live instruments than in his work to date.

The project began as a series of solo piano works which aimed to depict a specific mood of darkness and emptiness, something like an Erik Satie nocturne. The music grew into a story with links to Ingmar Bergman's film Through a Glass Darkly. It was then that Mark knew he wanted to make a snapshot of religious belief as a unit, to explore the theme in a complete way.

The album is suffused with drama; thunder, choirs, organs and intense power, but is also, at times, meandering and searching. There are many musical influences here from Kate Bush, Roxy Music, and Scott Walker, to Satie and Handel, and even back to Sheeky's earliest works and Jean-Michel Jarre. Mark also worked hard on the album imagery, to make an 8-page physical CD of artistry and beauty. For Mark, a physical music format is very important, the art of the CD version of the album is as important as the totality of the album itself as an artwork. At a time where single tracks are short, and albums are rarely sold as complete artworks, he wanted to defy conventions; to make rock music of symphonic scale and ambition.