''Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose'' is the third studio album by English singer and rapper Plan B. It was released on 4 May 2018 by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most ...

and 679 Artists.

Background

In 2010, Plan B released his second studio album '' The Defamation of Strickland Banks'', a concept album about "the journey of a fictional soul singer who was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit". The following year, he announced a follow-up album, ''The Ballad of Belmarsh''. He told the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ci ...

'' that the album would be closer in tone to his debut, '' Who Needs Actions When You Got Words'': "It's an underground hip-hop album about Strickland Banks being banged up in Belmarsh. I won't be him singing anymore, I'll be rapping about him, commenting on the story." In September 2011, Plan B announced that ''The Ballad of Belmarsh'' had been put on hold in order to work on his then-upcoming film '' Ill Manors'' (2012). In April 2018, Plan B stated that the project never came to fruition because he got bored of the Strickland Banks character: "It's one of those lost albums. I'd shot ''Ill Manors'' and the label wasn't taking the film seriously. I'd written most of it before I put out ...''Strickland Banks''. I was living at RAK Studios and done the whole American thing where I've got different people working in different rooms. It was bollocks. It felt like I was only doing it to capitalise on the success of ''Strickland Banks'' and at that point I was sick of Strickland Banks. Fuck him. "You know them fuckers who get stuck in sitcoms, like the geezer from '' Steptoe & Son''? Apparently he was a sick up 'n' coming actor and he done ''Steptoe & Son'' and it blew up and he got typecast. I started to experience what that felt like by doing ''The Ballad of Belmarsh'' after ''Strickland Banks''. By that point, I hated the sight of Strickland Banks. I'm sure a lot of other people did too. I was plastered everywhere. That would've got on my nerves. It did get on my nerves!" "I can understand why it gets on other people's nerves, when someone gets so big you're just bombarded with their face all over the place. I was sick of the sight of my own face. That's why I did ''Ill Manors'' instead of ''The Ballad of Belmarsh''."

Track listing

Adapted from iTunes.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2018 albums 679 Artists albums Atlantic Records albums Plan B (musician) albums