The Smashing Pumpkins – ATUM - A Rock Opera In Three Acts

Standard Edition 4 LP's Black Vinyl in a Wide Spine Book Style Gatefold Sleeve.

American alternative rock institution The Smashing Pumpkins have announced their twelfth album "Atum - A Rock Opera In Three Acts". The extensive concept album will consist of three parts with eleven songs each and will be the conclusion of the story that the band started with "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" and "Machina / The Machines Of God".

Frontman Billy Corgan first announced his plans to release a follow-up concept album to the two band classics in October 2020. The idea for "Atum" is even a few years older, according to Corgan. Years later, when the Covid 19 pandemic broke out and much of the band's planned touring was canceled, Corgan had plenty of time on his hands and decided to revisit the concept. The album was recorded within two years.

"Atum - A Rock Opera In Three Acts" tells the story of the same character that was heard in the previous two albums, although the character is now much older. Similar to the previous albums, Corgan describes the story as "standing with one foot in reality and one foot in an invented world ... It's based on a lot of autobiographical things. But there are also a lot of things that I just want to explore that don't necessarily have anything to do with me."

In contrast to the electronic sound of The Smashing Pumpkins' last album, "Cyr," Corgan describes the sound of the new tracks as more guitar-heavy. According to him, about a third of the album sounds "heavy," a third "kind of more similar to what the band has been doing lately," and a third sounds more "esoteric," pushing the conceptual aspects of the album.