It's been eight long years, but Cold Meat Industry finally has confirmed the details on the new Sanctum album "Let's eat". The release marks the debut of new vocalist Sara-Lo av Ekstam and the sound is described as 'less bombastic, rougher and more powerful.' The release date is set for May 21 and the first 2000 copies will come in a 6-panel digipack. Read more: http://www.coldmeat.se/catalogue/cmi/cmi132.html

Cold Meat Industry has posted info on new releases from Desiderii Marginis and Ataraxia and has also revealed that the titled of the new Sanctum CD will be "Let's Eat": http://www.coldmeat.se/home.html

Janne of Crescens Collective says that they will be taking care of the last recordings for Sanctum in late February before sending em off to get pressed as their third album. They will follow-up the release with a number of shows around Europe this summer and have already confirmed one, the "Cybergothic Lifestyle Meeting" in Uutrecht, Netherlands on August, 13-15. More details when I get them.

The B2 Club in Moscow is hosting a Finnish Independence Day celebration concert on December 6 with performances by The Flaming Sideburns, Don Johnson Big Band, Puola, Huoratron, DJ Erkko, Kimmo Pohjonen Kluster, Cleaning Women, Eläkeläiset, and Alamaailman Vasarat. Eight hours and three stages!

The Information Wants to Be Free "spoken word, video-art, performances and experimental electronica musique" festival has announced more details of their lineup today. The international event takes place in three separate locations (Berlin, London and Stockholm) and features a myriad of speakers and performers. As mentioned before, representing Sweden in Berlin on December 6 is Sanctum sideproject Mago. They'll also be playing at one of the Stockholm shows which will take place December 4-6. A ton of other artists are also scheduled to appear, including Chicken el Diablo, Krister Linder, 4 x 3 Stockholms Saxofon Kvartett, and Memo. Full details: http://www.iwtbf.org/

Sanctum/Crescens Collective project Mago is set to perform at the "Information Wants to Be Free" festival in Berlin on December 6. The international 'spoken word, video-art, performance and experimental electronica' event also takes place at the same time in Stockholm and London with different performers at each. Details: www.iwtbf.org

Some nine days and 4000 miles (~6437 km) later, I'm back home and exhausted. We had a blast and I'm happy to report that everything went quite smoothly. Pictures will be forthcoming! For those that might be interested, I've got a bit of leftover KVLR merch to sell. How's $12 ppd sound? Order more items and I'll make it worth your while. The list:

KVLR - Great Collapse CD and/or 12" vinyl
KVLR - On Planted Streets CD
KVLR - Let Me Worry Some More 12" vinyl
The Crystal Committee - Forever Overhead

North American orders only, please. Everyone else can order direct from Chalksounds. Email me and we'll work out the details.

And now back to the news! Updates will be a bit slow today as I bring myself back up to speed and catch up with everything I missed.

Deleted Art is starting to accept pre-orders for the new 4-song 7" from C.Aarmé and the gatefold ep from The New Mess. They just shipped off the masters to get pressed, so expect them to start shipping in early April. And if you act now, they promise to throw in a free button along with first dibs on the limited colored vinyl. Email 'em at mailorder@deletedart.org to get on it.

The debut album "Ruminate" from The Virtues will come out April 26 on San Francisco's Zip Records. They describe it as "Northern Soul" and say "it shimmers with originality and melodicism. In the vein of The Posies and Ron Sexsmith."

Isolation Years are heading out on the road in support of their new album "It's Golden", which you can preview here. The dates:

4/4 - Skellefteå, Pinkerton
4/5 - Östersund, Tingshuset
4/10 - Linköping, Herrgårn
4/16 - Halmstad, Diezel
4/17 - Malmö, KB
4/18 - Gbg, Playground@Pustervik
4/19 - Köpenhamn, Rust
4/25 - Lund, Mejeriet
4/27 - Sthlm - Södra Teatern/KGB
5/2 - Oslo, So What

Division of Laura Lee are heading out on a Swedish tour, too. Their dates:

4/2 - Vänersborg, Roccad
4/4 - Västerås, Västerås Kulturhus
4/5 - Gbg, Chalmers Kårhus
4/9 - Mariehamn, Pub Bastun
4/10 - Sthlm, Kafé 44
4/11 - Sthlm, Klubb Accelerator @ Debaser
4/12 - Norrköping, Kammaren
5/2 - Lund, Wermlands Nation

Sanctum has decided to cancel their upcoming planned US tour citing the unstable world condition and the possibility that they might not be able to make the journey when the time comes. Their statement:

We can't risk to give our word for something we might not be able to hold. We're very sorry about this decision, to be precise it sucks and it was not easy to make. we have been looking forward to perform, to see old friends and make new ones.

Surely you heard about the flying sheep head incident at the Mayhem show in Norway? Well, here's a pic of the damage. It also turns out that victim Per Kristian Hagen is suing the band for lost income as a result of the injury. He says he's still a fan, but says "if it turns out I've got permanent injuries after this, it's important to have some sort of record to refer to... since I can't work for awhile."

The Ark's fourth single from "In Lust We Trust" will be for the song "Disease". Preview it here along with the b-side "Opera".

Finntroll/Impaled Nazarene guitarist Teemu "Somnium" Raimoranta died at age 25 on Sunday morning. There's no word on what happened or what this means for the bands' future, but I'll keep you posted as soon as I hear anything. My condolences.

Check out Paola's new single and video for the song "Interstellar Love" right here.

BREAKING NEWS: A reformed Union Carbide Productions will be playing the Hultsfred Festival next year. The band broke up many years ago and members went on to form The Soundtrack of Our Lives, but they've decided to come together again in celebration of their upcoming box set release. More news about Hultsfred here. No time has been set yet for the box set's release, but we're hearing that an April or May date is expected.

Speaking of TSOOL, here's some photos from their recent tour with Oasis. (Text in Swedish)

Watch a video of The Ark's performance from Faddergalan over at the Arkfreaks website.

Mustasch is in the studio once again. Jakob Hellner (Rammstein, Clawfinger) is producing and it is expected to be out late 2003.

The Plan are working on their next album. Ronald Bood is producing once again and it should be out by Autumn next year.

Darkthrone managed to record and mix their new album in 26 hours. That's pretty damn fast! Described by singer/guitarist Nocturno Culto as "spontaneous black metal with spirit", it will be released on Moonfog in February.

The tracklist for the upcoming 2xCD Emperor greatest hits and rarities collection "Scattered Ashes - A Decade of Emperial Wrath" has been revealed. Here it is:

Disc One:
01. Curse You All Men
02. The Tongue Of Fire
03. The Majesty Of The Night Sky
04. Cosmic Keys To My Creations & Times
05. Wrath Of The Tyrant
06. The Loss & Curse Of Reverence
07. An Elegy Of Icaros
08. I Am The Black Wizards
09. Thus Spake The Nightspirit (live)
10. Ye Entrancemperium
11. In The Wordless Chamber
12. With Strength I Burn
13. Inno A Satana

Disc Two:
01. A Fine Day To Die
02. Aerie Descent
03. Cromlech
04. Gypsy
05. Funeral Fog
06. I Am
07. Sworn (Ulver remix)
08. Lords Of The Storms
09. My Empire's Doom
10. Moon Over Kara-Shehr
11. Witches Sabbath
12. Ancient Queen
13. In Longing Spirit

Sanctum is scheduled to play the Cornerstone Festival in the US in July. They're also working on booking a west-coast tour to follow. The band is also said to be demoing material for their next album, with the goal of getting started in the studio around February. In related news, the Crescens Collective is doing another collaboration with the dance group Agnes. The topic will be "choices" and they are expected to finish around March.