FANS of Welsh rock icons The Alarm will not only receive fresh insight into the lives of Mike and Jules Peters, but a record in which to find their own truths with the release of ΣSigma this week.

Not “one to sit back”, Mike and the band release the follow up to 2018’s =Equals on Friday, June 28 - an ode to the restorative power of music and life on the road.

While busy is a relative term for the Dyserth based frontman, the album’s release marks a particularly packed schedule for The Alarm, who host their Summer Gathering extravaganza at Cardiff University the following day before a packed touring schedule well into 2020.

Denbighshire Free Press:

The Alarm will release Sigma ahead of a packed touring schedule that takes band members James Stevenson, Mike and Jules Peters and Steve "Smiley" Barnard well into 2020

Speaking to The Journal after arriving home from a brace of dates in the North East, Mike said: “Of course it’s always intense when you have a new album coming - but that is very much the lifeblood of The Alarm.

“I spent a lot of time living in the future. I’m always planning the next album - or even two or three - and I’m not one to just sit back. I think it’s a very healthy way to live and it keeps myself and the band sane.”

The triumphant release represents something a cathartic healing process for Mike, who experienced relapse of his leukaemia while his wife Jules was also being diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer.

Originally conceived as a double album alongside =Equals - with both albums’ more internally driven tunes penned in a red book, while others reflecting more universal uncertainty in a black book as reflected in album opener Blood Red Viral Black - Mike instead opted to release the concept in two parts, to “give all of the songs their due”.

The result is an album which provides a lot of hard earned answers, both for the songwriter himself and his avid fans, to questions posed in in its predecessor and follows the band’s founding philosophy in their 1981 debut of declaring the past an Unsafe Building open for reinterpretation .

Mike added: “One of the key themes, which is noticeable in White Blood Count, is the idea that even though a door is closed, it doesn’t mean its locked.

“With ΣSigma, it’s the summation of all those questions asked on =Equals, like the uncertainty of Brexit and Donald Trump as this new challenge as president, and really moves The Alarm as a band forward in a year where we’re about to celebrate our 40th anniversary as a band and the 30th anniversary of Change.

ΣSigma really shines a new light on =Equals. it’s as though through all the pain on some of the songs, we’ve pinched ourselves to remind us that we’re alive.

“This record is more outward looking, because we’re so grateful to get through our situation on a personal level, and to still be making new music as a band and for the success of Love Hope Strength, we really wanted to share that gratitude with our community.”

To "pinch yourself" and share in the experience ΣSigma will be released on all major streaming services and record shops from Friday, June 28, or to pre-order

click here

.