Just got a copy of Thirdimension's "Protect Us from What We Want" from the good folks over at Parasol. Fans of The Soundtrack of Our Lives should take note, as they share the same kind of pop/psyche-rock sound. A full review over at indieworkshop will be up later this week, but for now you can download the first track on your right.

Holy shit! Check this out! Apparently, Yngwie Malmsteen was overheard making derogatory comments about homosexuals on a flight to Japan and an upset traveller dumped a cup of water on him. That mp3 is Yngwie's reaction caught on tape inluding comments such as "I don't a need a fucking cunt (to) come up to me and do that shit! See you in Tokyo bitch!" and "You've unleased the fucking fury!" Amazing! (from Blabbermouth)

Hypocrisy have started work on a new album. Expect a late 2003/early 2004 release.

Kasual Recordings is just about the release the new single from Ariel Kill Him entitled "Not Today, Not Tomorrow". It will contain two songs from the upcoming album plus an exclusive remix track and will only be available directly from the label. As for their new record, it's called "In the Pyramid" and will be out February 3.

Wanna see a bunch of record recommendations from various Norweigan artists such as Gluecifer, Turbonegro, Madrugada and more? Check this out. (in Norweigan) There will be a new artist added every day until Christmas.

The Ark visit Kenya? Read more here or here. (in Swedish)

Firesideomer just posted an interview with Kristofer Åström. It may not be very relevatory, but it's still pretty amusing. Check it out.

Moonfog will release the vinyl version of Satyricon's latest album "Volcano" in February.

Paola will perform her third and latest single live on MTV during the program Morning Glory this weekend.

Gluecifer will be heading into the studio on December 16 with producer Rings to record five songs for their next album.

New music today: Motorpsycho and Ulver from Norway plus super-hype band of the moment, The Sounds. Look to your right.

Believe it or not, but The Haunted are set to appear on the MTV show "Cribs". Apparently MTV newsman Iann Robinson is a big fan of the band. So yeah, if you want to see a tour of the band's homes, check out the show on December 4.

Finnish doom band Shape of Despair has a new bassist, Sami Uusitalo. The band is scheduled to enter the studio early next year to record their next album. Expect a late 2003 release on Spinefarm Records.

Crystal Committee (ex-Starmarket) will have their debut album out in February on Chalksounds Records. Entitled "Forever Overhead", it was recorded at Studio Gröndal. I'm not positive, but I assume it was produced and engineered by studio owner Pelle Gunnerfeldt of Fireside.

Also out on Chalksounds in the near future is the new album from Moonbabies. The band is still working hard in the studio, so a release isn't expected until around March.

Export Music Sweden (ExMS) reports that net earnings for exports from the Swedish music industry grew 37% in 2001 from the year previous for a total of 500M euros. And that wasn't even all that great, they say as sales weren't quite as good as hoped for. 2002 looks to be better though. with good sales coming from TSOOL, In Flames and others.

The Ark, Håkan Hellström, Robyn, and The Sounds will be performing on the Swedish TV show Faddergalan on December 9th.

See the new Madrugada video for the song "Majesty" here: High or Low. The band has also put up a tour diary on their website. Check it out.

Rumor has it that The Soundtrack of Our Lives will be back to tour the U.S. in February and March with a stop at South by Southwest along with Citizen Bird/Silverbullit and Isolation Years. Look for them on Late Night With David Letterman in late January, too.

The good people over at Flex Your Head and Bad Taste Records have put together a Satanic Surfers contest. Check it out.

Håkan Hellström will headline the Rocktåget tour package next summer. Rocktåget took the year off last summer as the bands Kent, Thåström, The Hellacopters and Mando Diao all had their own smaller, but successful tours. Håkan is no stranger to Rocktåget, having played the tour in 2001 with Magnus Uggla and The Ark.

Speaking of The Ark, they will be making some appearances on Swedish TV in the near future: Ola on SVT 1 on Dec. 5 at 8:45 pm (reruns at 2 pm Dec 6 and 12:15a m Dec. 9) plus the whole band on "Grynets Show" on SVT 1 Nov. 15 at 7 pm.

You probably could care less, but in celebration of 50 years of existance, the British music asked the public to vote for their all-time favourite singles. And of those selected for the top 100, Abba are one of the best represented acts with five entries to their credit. They're also the only Swedish act on the list. Their highest ranking track is "Dancing Queen" at number 8.

Division of Laura Lee are gathering all sorts of press as they continue to conquer America. Check out this feature from muchmusic.com. There's even more over at burningheart.com.

Nine is set to tour Scandinavia along with Motörhead during the second half of November. After that they'll be going into Dug Out studios in Uppsala, Sweden with Daniel Bergstrand and Örjan Örnklo on December 1st to record a new album.

The Ark got themselves a little boutique of sorts over at Hotstuff.se. Check it out.

Get a preview of Håkan Hellström's new album here. I'm not fully decided about my opinion of it overall, but there are most definitely a couple of outstanding tracks. Aftonbladet gives it 5 stars. The album comes out next week.

Per Sinding-Larsens and Mathias Engstrands' documentary about the band Kent entitled "Så nära får ingen gå - ett år med Kent" gets its premiere on the 27th at the Popcorn Film Festival in Stockholm.

Yet another Swedish rock feature from Rolling Stone. There's also a "Who's who in Swedish rock". Check it out, there's some great quotes from the seven bands profiled.

Entombed have selected Pelle Gunnerfeldt, one of my favorite engineers/producers to work on their next album. Besides playing guitar for Fireside, Pelle has recorded many fine albums from bands such as The Hives, Randy, T(I)NC and Last Days of April.

The lead singer/guitarist of the Backyard Babies got carjacked the other night in Stockholm. Dregen had just finished DJing at Club Debaser and was on his way home when he was robbed and assaulted. Dregen was then rushed to hospital where he was treated for a broken jaw. No word yet about how this will impact the current recording of their upcoming album. Read more about the incident in Swedish here.

Hederos & Hellberg will have a new EP available around Christmas-time.

The Confusions' 4th album "Trampoline" is out now in Scandinavia. Listen to the first single "The Pilot" in RealAudio here. See the video here.

The Ark just put up a new website design.

It looks like Universal Records finally got their act together and has started to update the new U.S. TSOOL website. The big news is that they'll be the musical guest on the Conan O'Brien show the 26th of November. Otherwise, there ain't nothing new worth noting.

Here's an article about The Ark's latest video filming, roughly translated into english, courtesy of www.arkfreaks.com. (Their DNS appears to be not working, so maybe try here instead)

Kevlar is now KVLR, as DuPont threatened to sue. Read all about it. Their latest album "The Great Collapse" (one of my faves so far this year) will be released in the U.S. on The First Time Records early next year.

Caesars Palace's second record "Cherry Kicks" will see a U.S. release on Sub Pop in the near future. FWIW, I think their latest album "Love For the Streets" is great.

New music later this weekend.