The Storm Corrosion second album is taking shape as one long piece of music. Steven Wilson told the UK’s Prog magazine that he and Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt have built a 45-minute framework for the follow-up to their 2012 album Storm Corrosion, as reported by Blabbermouth.
“We spent a week in Stockholm earlier this year and created a 45-minute framework,” Wilson said. “A single piece of music that is 45 minutes long.”
Storm Corrosion Second Album: One 45-Minute Piece
Wilson described the music as mostly acoustic, but far from gentle. “It’s almost entirely acoustic, but it’s very dark, very atonal in places, and very beautiful in places,” he said. “It has a vaguely nautical theme about an old guy shipwrecked on an island.”
He added that it is not all unplugged. “It’s not completely acoustic,” Wilson said. “Mike still plays some electric guitars. But Benny from ABBA has this incredible collection of instruments and we set them up in the studio and we basically just went around playing all manner of stuff. I was like a man possessed for a week, and we ended up with this amazing piece of music. We haven’t done the vocal tracking yet, but I’m really excited about it.”
No Vocals Yet, No Release Details
Vocals have not been recorded. No title, label or release date has been announced, and there are no Storm Corrosion live dates.
Wilson Told Innerviews It’s “Very Different”
Earlier in October, Wilson spoke about the project with Anil Prasad of Innerviews. “It’s very different, but also you will recognize the aesthetic, shall we say,” he said. “I don’t wanna say too much about it, ’cause we’ve still got a long way to go on it. It’s a massive chunk of music, and it’s almost entirely played on acoustic instruments. But a lot of them.”
He also tied the record to his own upcoming solo album. Wilson said some people who reviewed the playback events for Requiem For A Village said it reminded them a little of the first Storm Corrosion record. “So it’s definitely continuing on the vocabulary that we created with the first [Storm Corrosion] record, but it’s also very different, if that’s not a contradiction in terms,” he said. “And we wouldn’t do it otherwise.”
Storm Corrosion So Far
Storm Corrosion came out in 2012. Kscope reissued it in September 2024 on LP, CD and Blu-ray with a new Dolby Atmos remix by Wilson. The reissue added a bonus recording of “Drag Ropes,” the only song the duo has performed live to date, captured when Åkerfeldt guested with Wilson’s band at London’s Royal Albert Hall in September 2015.
“It remains one of my favorite releases in my whole catalogue,” Wilson said at the time of the reissue. Åkerfeldt called it “the exception” among his own records: “It’s such a lovely record to me.”
Opeth fans in Southern California can also catch guitarist Fredrik Akesson with Metal Allegiance at House of Blues Anaheim on Jan. 28, 2027.
Steven Wilson’s Requiem For A Village Comes First
Before any more news on the Storm Corrosion second album, Wilson has a solo release on the way. His ninth album, Requiem For A Village, arrives Nov. 6 via Fiction Records. With vocals still to record and no release details yet, the 45-minute Storm Corrosion piece remains a work in progress.
