The Book of Revelations (UK): Symphonic Prog

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   This project has already been added to Progarchives, so this is being posted here just to raise awareness and provide some information. The music will be of particular interest to fans of both early Genesis and 1970s progressive rock in general.

The Book of Revelations is a progressive rock project of London-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Gerard Freeman, who was subsequently raised in Sheffield, UK.

Although he was always interested in music from a very young age, Gerard didn't start his musical journey 'proper' until he was given a recorder at the age of nine. He subsequently had piano lessons for a short period of time as well, but wasn't a great fan of the Classical music he was being taught - his interests being focussed on more modern, contemporary styles of music instead. He also had some violin lessons in his early teens, but when he got his first guitar at the age of fourteen he found that a whole new World had suddenly opened up for him.

His older brother had been helping to move equipment for Curved Air in readiness for a concert they were giving at Sheffield City Hall in 1971, and advised him that he should go and see them perform. Gerard duly went along,  and was totally blown away by what he saw and heard over the next hour and a half, so much so that he subsequently started going through his brother’s record collection to see what other gems might lie hidden there.

After hearing the sounds of 'The Return of the Giant Hogweed' emanating from his brother's bedroom a few days later, Gerard discovered Genesis and became hooked, with his interest in early Genesis and progressive rock in general  having never waned right to this day.

Despite his interest in music, Gerard has never earnt a living as a musician. He has played in quite a few bands over the years, with several of them playing original material, but his longest stint was in an R.E.M. tribute band called The REM Raiders. However, all the time while he was playing with these various and quite diverse bands, he was also dabbling with other stuff at home, purely for his own amusement.

One of his friends suggested that they should perhaps try to recreate the Genesis song 'The Musical Box', and although it took them a long time, they thoroughly dissected the piece and analysed it from every possible angle. The end result was a highly passable copy of the song, and this left Gerard with a well-developed feel for how all the various instruments fitted together - along with the desire to have a go at creating something similar himself from scratch.

For his lyrics, he followed Peter Gabriel's lead by delving into Greek and Roman mythology and found that the possibilities that this offered were virtually endless, meaning that he was never going to run out of ideas from a lyrical perspective.

The process of writing each piece of music starting off with a blank slate was very much a labour of love, but he slowly built up the songs until he was happy that they sounded more or less like Genesis. This was very much helped by the fact that Gerard has a very Peter Gabriel-like vocal style, along with a hint of Marillion's former vocalist Fish.

Eventually he put some of his finished songs on YouTube as lyric videos, which Cliff Evans from Conquest Music subsequently saw and left a comment about. Gerard didn't actually see the comment until about a year later, but eventually the two of them met. Cliff had already played the material to Jerry Ewing at 'Prog' magazine who had immediately said that something should be done with it, and this is roughly where The Book of Revelations project began back in the summer of 2017, and work began on creating an album which was to be called 'The Plumes of Enceladus'.

For each song the keyboard parts were written first, along with a rhythm track laid down using a rudimentary drum machine, and this was then followed by bass and guitar. Real drums were eventually provided for these early tracks by Russ Wilson of the Genesis covers band Visible Touch, and the tracks were finally sent to multi-instrumentalist and engineer-producer Keith More in London to take care of the mixing during the summer and autumn of 2018.

Mastering of the album then began in January 2019, and in the meantime, Gerard had put together a live band during the spring of 2019 to perform the material in front of an audience for the first time. Andrew Christou was the initial live drummer, with Nick Gauntlett on second guitar, Dan Monaghan on bass and Ian Corlett on keys, though he was replaced by Chris Millwater in January 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the first half of 2021 put paid to any possibilities of live performances however, and Gerard posted a series of lockdown videos on YouTube and Facebook during this period, with some of these songs being released as part of a five-track EP called 'The Prologue' in December 2021. The band's debut live gig was eventually played at The Fiddler's Elbow in Camden, London, on April 7th 2022.

Further gigs were played at The Dublin Castle in London on May 12th 2022, and The Hampton Hub supporting The Gift on 25th Sept, where the whole of the forthcoming debut album 'The Plumes of Enceladus' was played. There were some changes in the live band line-up during 2022, with Daniel Monaghan moving from bass to second guitar to replace Nick Gauntlett, Paul Blackwell being recruited to play bass and Joe Donegan taking over from Andrew Christou on drums.

The Book of Revelations debut album was called 'The plumes of Enceladus' because Gerard is a science graduate with a love of astronomy who was captivated by the NASA's Cassini mission which launched in 1997, where for the first time they found unfrozen water elsewhere in the universe - around one of the moons of Saturn called Enceladus.

Somebody commented on one of the documentaries he was watching that Enceladus could be ejecting plumes of water vapour from its icy surface due to the existence of a liquid water ocean beneath, and referred to them as 'The plumes of Enceladus'. Gerard thought this description had a certain ring to it, as well there being the possibly that this could be the place where they eventually find evidence of life other than here on earth.

The album was eventually released with the full title of 'Chapter One: The plumes of Enceladus' on April 21, 2023 via Conquest Music, and to celebrate the release the live band performed music from the album at the HRH Prog 13 Festival at the Sheffield O2 Academy on April 14th, 2023. A further digital EP called The Epigraph' was released by The Book of revelations on July 1st 2024, and the sophomore full album 'Chapter Two: Olympus Mons' followed both digitally and as a CD on May 30th, 2025 - again via Conquest Records.

As of writing this in early June 2025, Mark Worledge is the project's live guitar player (replacing Daniel Monaghan), and a new live keyboard player is being sought to replace Chris Millwater.

The Prologue EP (2021):

1. Survival of the Wittest (2:48)
2. The Chthonic Deities (2:38)
3. Bacchus Up (6:32)
4. All Is Avenged (3:15)
5. Debacle in the Retirement Home, Pt. II (4:16)

Total Time: 19:29

- Gerard Freeman / all instruments (except drums), vocals

With:
- Russ Wilson / drums

Digital EP  December 21, 2021

Purchase/listening links (Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon): https://smarturl.it/BoRPrologueEP.
Spotify.
YouTube Music.

Chapter One: The Plumes of Enceladus (2023):

1. Malice A Forethought Part (i) The Hypocratic Oaf (9:30) 
2. Malice A Forethought Part (ii) Survival Of The Wittest (2:49) 
3. Malice A Forethought Part(iii) Revenge Is Sweet, So Slayeth The Lord (8:39) 
4. Malice A Forethought Part (iv) P And/or A (4:07) 
5. Malice A Forethought Part (v) Post Box (6:25) 
6. Love Letter From A Newspaper To A Coffee Cup (2:59) 
7. The Chthonic Deities Of Vengeance (18:42) 

Total Time 53:11

- Gerard Freeman / all instruments (except drums), vocals

With:
- Russ Wilson / drums

CD Conquest Music CNQ 102CD (April 21, 2023, UK)
Digital album April 21, 2023

Purchase/listening links (Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, Tidal YouTube Music): https://slinky.to/theplumesofenceladus.
Buy CD from Conquest Music: https://conquestmusic.tmstor.es/product/the-plumes-of-enceladus-cd.

The Epigraph EP (2024):

1. Grand Prix (7:22)
2. Safe as Sofas (4:14)
3. Prophecy (4:42)
4. Humdrum (3:49)

Total Time: 20:07

- Gerard Freeman / all instruments (except drums), vocals

With:
- Glenn Charles / drums (1,4)
- Russ Wilson / drums (2,3)

Digital EP July 1, 2024.

Purchase/listening links (Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, Tidal YouTube Music): https://slinky.to/TheEpigraph.

Chapter Two: Olympus Mons (2025):

1. Grand Prix (7:22)
2. Bacchus Up (6:26)
3. The Celebrated Axeman (7:40)
4. Debacle in the Retirement Home, Part 1 (3:22)
5. Debacle in the Retirement Home, Part 2 (4:10)
6. Debacle in the Retirement Home, Part 3 (8:47)
7. Safe as Sofas (4:15)
8. Theophilia and Theophobia (5:21)
9. All the Way to Cedar Life (2:29)
10.The Collapse of the Firewall (5:09)
11.The Liberated Labyrinth (4:34)

Total Time: 59:35

- Gerard Freeman / all instruments (except drums, and lead guitar on two tracks), vocals

With:
- Joe Donegan / drums (2-11)
- Glenn Charles / drums (1)
- Mark Worledge / lead guitar (2,6), backing vocals (2)

CD Conquest Music CNQ105CD (May 30, 2025, UK)
Digital album May 30, 2025

Purchase/listening links (Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, Tidal YouTube Music): https://slinky.to/OlympusMons.
Buy CD from Conquest Music: https://conquestmusic.tmstor.es/product/olympus-mons-cd.

Official website.
Facebook.
The Book of Revelations on Awesome Prog: https://awesomeprog.com/artists/21222.

Edited by yam yam - June 03 2025 at 21:13

Author	Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic
yam yam Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Crossover Team Joined: June 16 2011 Location: Kerberos Status: Offline Points: 7660	Post Options Post Reply Quote yam yam Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: The Book of Revelations (UK): Symphonic Prog Posted: June 03 2025 at 20:55
	This project has already been added to Progarchives, so this is being posted here just to raise awareness and provide some information. The music will be of particular interest to fans of both early Genesis and 1970s progressive rock in general. The Book of Revelations is a progressive rock project of London-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Gerard Freeman, who was subsequently raised in Sheffield, UK. Although he was always interested in music from a very young age, Gerard didn't start his musical journey 'proper' until he was given a recorder at the age of nine. He subsequently had piano lessons for a short period of time as well, but wasn't a great fan of the Classical music he was being taught - his interests being focussed on more modern, contemporary styles of music instead. He also had some violin lessons in his early teens, but when he got his first guitar at the age of fourteen he found that a whole new World had suddenly opened up for him. His older brother had been helping to move equipment for Curved Air in readiness for a concert they were giving at Sheffield City Hall in 1971, and advised him that he should go and see them perform. Gerard duly went along, and was totally blown away by what he saw and heard over the next hour and a half, so much so that he subsequently started going through his brother’s record collection to see what other gems might lie hidden there. After hearing the sounds of 'The Return of the Giant Hogweed' emanating from his brother's bedroom a few days later, Gerard discovered Genesis and became hooked, with his interest in early Genesis and progressive rock in general having never waned right to this day. Despite his interest in music, Gerard has never earnt a living as a musician. He has played in quite a few bands over the years, with several of them playing original material, but his longest stint was in an R.E.M. tribute band called The REM Raiders. However, all the time while he was playing with these various and quite diverse bands, he was also dabbling with other stuff at home, purely for his own amusement. One of his friends suggested that they should perhaps try to recreate the Genesis song 'The Musical Box', and although it took them a long time, they thoroughly dissected the piece and analysed it from every possible angle. The end result was a highly passable copy of the song, and this left Gerard with a well-developed feel for how all the various instruments fitted together - along with the desire to have a go at creating something similar himself from scratch. For his lyrics, he followed Peter Gabriel's lead by delving into Greek and Roman mythology and found that the possibilities that this offered were virtually endless, meaning that he was never going to run out of ideas from a lyrical perspective. The process of writing each piece of music starting off with a blank slate was very much a labour of love, but he slowly built up the songs until he was happy that they sounded more or less like Genesis. This was very much helped by the fact that Gerard has a very Peter Gabriel-like vocal style, along with a hint of Marillion's former vocalist Fish. Eventually he put some of his finished songs on YouTube as lyric videos, which Cliff Evans from Conquest Music subsequently saw and left a comment about. Gerard didn't actually see the comment until about a year later, but eventually the two of them met. Cliff had already played the material to Jerry Ewing at 'Prog' magazine who had immediately said that something should be done with it, and this is roughly where The Book of Revelations project began back in the summer of 2017, and work began on creating an album which was to be called 'The Plumes of Enceladus'. For each song the keyboard parts were written first, along with a rhythm track laid down using a rudimentary drum machine, and this was then followed by bass and guitar. Real drums were eventually provided for these early tracks by Russ Wilson of the Genesis covers band Visible Touch, and the tracks were finally sent to multi-instrumentalist and engineer-producer Keith More in London to take care of the mixing during the summer and autumn of 2018. Mastering of the album then began in January 2019, and in the meantime, Gerard had put together a live band during the spring of 2019 to perform the material in front of an audience for the first time. Andrew Christou was the initial live drummer, with Nick Gauntlett on second guitar, Dan Monaghan on bass and Ian Corlett on keys, though he was replaced by Chris Millwater in January 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the first half of 2021 put paid to any possibilities of live performances however, and Gerard posted a series of lockdown videos on YouTube and Facebook during this period, with some of these songs being released as part of a five-track EP called 'The Prologue' in December 2021. The band's debut live gig was eventually played at The Fiddler's Elbow in Camden, London, on April 7th 2022. Further gigs were played at The Dublin Castle in London on May 12th 2022, and The Hampton Hub supporting The Gift on 25th Sept, where the whole of the forthcoming debut album 'The Plumes of Enceladus' was played. There were some changes in the live band line-up during 2022, with Daniel Monaghan moving from bass to second guitar to replace Nick Gauntlett, Paul Blackwell being recruited to play bass and Joe Donegan taking over from Andrew Christou on drums. The Book of Revelations debut album was called 'The plumes of Enceladus' because Gerard is a science graduate with a love of astronomy who was captivated by the NASA's Cassini mission which launched in 1997, where for the first time they found unfrozen water elsewhere in the universe - around one of the moons of Saturn called Enceladus. Somebody commented on one of the documentaries he was watching that Enceladus could be ejecting plumes of water vapour from its icy surface due to the existence of a liquid water ocean beneath, and referred to them as 'The plumes of Enceladus'. Gerard thought this description had a certain ring to it, as well there being the possibly that this could be the place where they eventually find evidence of life other than here on earth. The album was eventually released with the full title of 'Chapter One: The plumes of Enceladus' on April 21, 2023 via Conquest Music, and to celebrate the release the live band performed music from the album at the HRH Prog 13 Festival at the Sheffield O2 Academy on April 14th, 2023. A further digital EP called The Epigraph' was released by The Book of revelations on July 1st 2024, and the sophomore full album 'Chapter Two: Olympus Mons' followed both digitally and as a CD on May 30th, 2025 - again via Conquest Records. As of writing this in early June 2025, Mark Worledge is the project's live guitar player (replacing Daniel Monaghan), and a new live keyboard player is being sought to replace Chris Millwater. The Prologue EP (2021): 1. Survival of the Wittest (2:48) 2. The Chthonic Deities (2:38) 3. Bacchus Up (6:32) 4. All Is Avenged (3:15) 5. Debacle in the Retirement Home, Pt. II (4:16) Total Time: 19:29 - Gerard Freeman / all instruments (except drums), vocals With: - Russ Wilson / drums Digital EP December 21, 2021 Purchase/listening links (Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon): https://smarturl.it/BoRPrologueEP. Spotify. YouTube Music. Chapter One: The Plumes of Enceladus (2023): 1. Malice A Forethought Part (i) The Hypocratic Oaf (9:30) 2. Malice A Forethought Part (ii) Survival Of The Wittest (2:49) 3. Malice A Forethought Part(iii) Revenge Is Sweet, So Slayeth The Lord (8:39) 4. Malice A Forethought Part (iv) P And/or A (4:07) 5. Malice A Forethought Part (v) Post Box (6:25) 6. Love Letter From A Newspaper To A Coffee Cup (2:59) 7. The Chthonic Deities Of Vengeance (18:42) Total Time 53:11 - Gerard Freeman / all instruments (except drums), vocals With: - Russ Wilson / drums CD Conquest Music CNQ 102CD (April 21, 2023, UK) Digital album April 21, 2023 Purchase/listening links (Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, Tidal YouTube Music): https://slinky.to/theplumesofenceladus. Buy CD from Conquest Music: https://conquestmusic.tmstor.es/product/the-plumes-of-enceladus-cd. The Epigraph EP (2024): 1. Grand Prix (7:22) 2. Safe as Sofas (4:14) 3. Prophecy (4:42) 4. Humdrum (3:49) Total Time: 20:07 - Gerard Freeman / all instruments (except drums), vocals With: - Glenn Charles / drums (1,4) - Russ Wilson / drums (2,3) Digital EP July 1, 2024. Purchase/listening links (Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, Tidal YouTube Music): https://slinky.to/TheEpigraph. Chapter Two: Olympus Mons (2025): 1. Grand Prix (7:22) 2. Bacchus Up (6:26) 3. The Celebrated Axeman (7:40) 4. Debacle in the Retirement Home, Part 1 (3:22) 5. Debacle in the Retirement Home, Part 2 (4:10) 6. Debacle in the Retirement Home, Part 3 (8:47) 7. Safe as Sofas (4:15) 8. Theophilia and Theophobia (5:21) 9. All the Way to Cedar Life (2:29) 10.The Collapse of the Firewall (5:09) 11.The Liberated Labyrinth (4:34) Total Time: 59:35 - Gerard Freeman / all instruments (except drums, and lead guitar on two tracks), vocals With: - Joe Donegan / drums (2-11) - Glenn Charles / drums (1) - Mark Worledge / lead guitar (2,6), backing vocals (2) CD Conquest Music CNQ105CD (May 30, 2025, UK) Digital album May 30, 2025 Purchase/listening links (Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, Tidal YouTube Music): https://slinky.to/OlympusMons. Buy CD from Conquest Music: https://conquestmusic.tmstor.es/product/olympus-mons-cd. Official website. Facebook. The Book of Revelations on Awesome Prog: https://awesomeprog.com/artists/21222. Edited by yam yam - June 03 2025 at 21:13