THE Coral are to return in 2016 after a five-year hiatus, brandishing their eighth studio album, Distance Inbetween.

The March 4 release on Ignition Records will be accompanied by the Wirral band's March and April tour, whose Yorkshire dates will be at Leeds Brudenell Social Club on March 7 and Sheffield Leadmill on March 11. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday and the album is available to pre-order now from thecoral.co.uk

Distance Inbetween will be The Coral’s first album of original material since 2010’s Butterfly House, a gap punctuated by last year’s surprise release of their lost album, The Curse Of Love.

The tracks were recorded live and mostly in one take at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studio with co-producer Richard Turvey and the recordings are the first to feature new guitarist Paul Molloy, formerly of The Zutons.

He joins vocalist and guitarist James Skelly, percussionist Ian Skelly, keyboard player Nick Power and bass player Paul Duffy on a record whose 12 tracks are "purposely rough-hewn and pave the way for a new visceral sound from a totally re-energised band".

"Before we started making the album, we'd discussed that we wanted it to be more minimal and rhythmical,” says James. “We thought, ‘if you've got a rhythm section that’s been playing together for almost 20 years, why not make that the centre of the songs?’"

Then add Paul Molloy's guitar. “Paul was playing with Ian in their band Serpent Power, and we'd all been mates with him for years,” says James. “We already had a couple of tunes recorded and Ian suggested Paul add some guitar.

"His parts really enhanced the tracks; he understood where he needed to leave space. From that point we didn't look back. We had a full line-up and were confident we could make an album that would stand next to the others."

Distance Inbetween will invite listeners into The Coral’s world of Richard Yates’s books, Alan Moore comics, 1980s' toys, the sound of Krautrock compilations and Muddy Waters’ Electric Mud, accompanied by Gregory Crewdson’s darkly beautiful photographic artwork. The album is dedicated to Alan Wills, The Coral’s early mentor and Deltasonic label boss, who died in 2014.

The track listing will be Connector, White Bird, Chasing The Tail Of A Dream, Distance Inbetween, Million Eyes, Miss Fortune, Beyond The Sun, It’s You, Holy Revelation, She Runs The River, Fear Machine and End Credits.