Cork indie-rockers Waiting Room will finally return to the fold to launch the eagerly anticipated (and much delayed) follow-up to 2004s excellent Catering for Headphones. This one-time deal is the last chance for fans of the band to see the original line-up, the group having reformed especially for the launch of Battle Lines Are Gently Drawn, at Cyprus Avenue on Sunday, April 13.

The group, once touted as having serious potential to make a substantial breakthrough following the release of Catering for Headphones, some well received festival appearances and a national tour with the Frames, sadly disbanded leaving the follow up album, recorded in France's famed Black Box studios, under the astute guidance of Dave Odlum (formerly of The Frames and Kila and producer of records by Mic Christopher, Gemma Hayes and dUES among others), to linger in obscurity.

Thankfully, two years after recording, BLAGD is set to finally be unveiled and, yes, the results were worth waiting for. Sounding bigger and more ambitious then their much lauded debut, BLAGD is a fine amalgamation of soaring, twisted bittersweet melodies, lush guitar-led instrumentation, epic post-rock swells, skeletal low-key indie torch-songs, atmospheric sounds and smart time signatures. The wait is finally over, and the relief was tangible when the Cork Independent caught up with front-man Nigel.

"For sure, the overriding feeling for me personally would be one of relief, that the record will finally be released, even in a very small way, and it's also great that we will be releasing it together. At the time of getting the albums pressed just a couple of months back I didn't think that we would be doing an album launch together, but after I sent a copy to the others we all agreed that we should, especially considering the time and effort we put into making the record and also the fact that we're all really proud of it.

It's been a long time since our last gig together - I think it was the end of 2006. It's been great playing together again though, if a little strange at first maybe, but we seemed to settle into it quite quickly. The playing side wasn't too difficult for us I guess, it was more getting comfortable playing together again and getting the dynamics right. We're quite excited about playing the gig now," he says.

As fans of the group are no doubt. With just a few tracks posted on the bands myspace over the past few months, those eager to hear the results of the groups sojourn to the renowned Black Box Studio in France, with its vast array of vintage analogue gear, and their collaboration with noted producer Dave Odlum, have been kept waiting. Nigel explained the Odlum connection came to be.

"I contacted him to see if he would be interested in recording the album. We all liked the sound of I Am Brazil (Redneck Manifesto) and some other records he had worked on so we just decided to get in contact. We went to Black Box on David's recommendation as that is where he does most of his recording, and there seemed to have been only good reports from everyone who had recorded there.

Recording with Odlum paid off, as the album's huge sound and varied tones attests. For Nigel, it was a somewhat strange experience, due in part to the fact that they were working with someone other then long-time producer Ross O'Donovan. But, as Nigel says, the experience proved to be incredibly positive. "We actually recorded the drums and some piano and cello for the album with Ross to begin with, who recorded our first album. We were always extremely happy with everything we did with Ross and he is a great friend of ours but we just wanted to try something new, in a new setting.

Recording with David was great, he had endless ideas for each song, and puts as much emphasis on the actual recording of everything as he does on the mixing side of things. I don't think we used the same combination of amp, guitar or mic for any of the guitar parts, which was something very new for us, and as you mentioned already, the gear in the studio is pretty amazing so there was endless choice for us.

But in terms of what David brought to the songs themselves, we didn't change any of the arrangements or anything like that over there, it was more suggestions as to what we should leave out, or if he thought a particular part of a song needed something else he would say it. It would have been nice to have had some more time over there to work on each song but we recorded and mixed 16 songs in 14 days so it was a tight schedule and very long days."