Oliver Philipps is sat in his recording studio, talking about a new Everon Record, 'Shells', which the band will release through Music Theories Recordings on February 28.

Great news for fans of the band, who could have been forgiven for thinking the quartet had consigned themselves to the history books, given it's been a whopping sixteen years since the band last graced us with an album, 2008's 'North'.

"Everon didn't retire or anything, and we never even talked about it," Philipps reasons. "I always wrote all the music and the lyrics. So that would mean if I didn't do anything, we wouldn't do anything. So, for every new set of songs, I'd say, let's make an album. And after 'North', it just didn't happen."

So here we are then, with 'Shells', an album bristling with energy and verve, encapsulating everything that made Everon such a force to be reckoned with in the first place. With songs like the ebullient opener 'No Embrace' and the complex patterns of 'Broken Angels', the quirk of 'Pinnochio's Nose' and the more heartfelt tones of 'Monster', or the epic 14-minute grandeur of closing track 'Flesh', Everon have rarely sounded so good. Defiantly old school, packed full of progressive flourishes and Philipps' innate sense of melody set the band apart from many of their peers all those years ago. It's almost like the last sixteen years have never happened.

With the years passing by between the records, it's hard to wonder if personal material might be left on display on the record. "I believe all of it is, but it is not by intention," he ponders. "I think it is the inevitable consequence of relying entirely on my inspiration. I do not approach it from the angle of having a particular story or message that I want to turn into a song; for me, that would feel like reverse engineering. I write whatever comes to me naturally, and if it feels right and real, I roll with it; I can try to figure out later what it is about."