• News

• All

Mar 12, 2013 By Mike Hilleary Empire of the Sun

Austrialian electro-pop duo Empire of the Sun have announced the arrival of their sophomore album, Ice on the Dune. The follow-up to the band’s breakthrough debut Walking On A Dream, the new LP is slated to drop sometime in June. In their typical theatric fashion, members Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore introduce the album with a fantasy backstory, complete with its own movie trailer titled “Discovery”:

Once, the world was pure. It was the Emperor and the Prophet who kept it thus. Each day, they charted the sun’s course across the sky, guided rivers down from mountain peaks, brought rains to quench raging fires.
With the aid of their four priests, who possessed spirits of wild animals, they traveled the world tirelessly, maintaining nature’s delicate balance, allowing all things to grow and flourish—always with the aid of the sacred jewel held atop the Emperor’s crown…

But one night, as the Emperor slumbered, recovering from his labors, true darkness appeared. The King of Shadows, ever the bitter foe of the Empire, and all it had achieved, crept into their temple. Craving the Emperor’s power, he stole the jewel from his crown—and in an instant the world was changed.

Robbed of the bulk of his power, the Emperor and the Prophet watched helplessly as their temple was torn asunder, and their priests cast far out into the world.

But even in that moment, when all appeared lost, there was one thing that the King of Shadows’ black heart simply could not have imagined…The Emperor and the Prophet had never abandoned hope.

Empire of the Sun are scheduled to preview Ice on the Dune at SXSW this week on Friday, March 15. You can RSVP for the event here.

Empire of the Sun Tour Dates:

05-24 Joliet, IL - Electric Daisy Carnival
05-25 George, WA - Sasquatch! Music Festival
06-27-30 Rothbury, MI - Electric Forest
06-28-29 Kansas City, KS - Kanrocksas
08-08-11 Oxfordshire, England - Wilderness Festival

(www.walkingonadream.com)