A Solitary Plan

Thomas V. Jäger is best known as the vocalist / guitarist in Monolord, the hottest, most crushing melodic doom band in the world. So, releasing an intimate, deeply and boldly personal album of acoustic and synth based songs hot on the heels of the band's most successful and powerful album to date, No Comfort, might seem like a risky move. And yet, that's not even the most daring and inspiring thing about A Solitary Plan. Rather, this seven-song album is a cathartic depiction of how some very real and heart-wrenching situations were dealt with by the artist with musical therapy and, hopefully, provides a catharsis for the listener as well. "This album is me venting all of this emotional energy I've been carrying around," Jäger says. "Now I'm feeling more open about it, but at the start I had a hard time talking with friends and family. The record is what came out instead of talking about it."

The album began organically, as Jäger often writes and records at home, sketching out song ideas on acoustic guitar into a computer with no set goal for anyone else to hear them. RidingEasy Records chief and Monolord manager Daniel Hall cajoled the guitarist into sending him some of the home recordings he'd been working on, and he immediately pushed for them to be released in this stripped-down form. "I could've rearranged them to get a Monolord vibe, but I wanted the basis of just voice, guitar and synths," Jäger says. "Really laid back and mellow." He completed the album between tours, with mixing and mastering by Kalle Lilja at Welfare Sounds. Emil Rolof plays a real Mellotron on the title track, all other instruments and voices are Jäger himself.