A new song from Marit Bergman on the right today. She was kinda vanilla to me at first, but the album has really started to grow on me. Nothing mindblowing, but still a good listen.
Curious about the new Bjön Olsson album that comes out today? Read all about it.
Check out this video of Supersilent playing live from The Wire's website.
Randy will do five dates in their native Sweden before heading out on the road across Europe in support of their forthcoming album. The itinerary so far:
4/24 - Melkweg Amsterdam (NL)
4/25 - W 2 Den Bosch (NL)
4/26 - Groezrock Meerhout (BE)
4/27 - Live Music Hall Cologne (GER)
4/29 - Logo Hamburg (GER)
4/30 - Columbia Fritz Berlin (GER)
5/01 - Musikzentrum Hannover (GER)
5/02 - Alter Stadsbanhof Schweinfurt (GER)
5/03 - Exil Trier (GER)
5/04 - Backstage Munchen (GER)
5/06 - Conrad Sohm Dornbin (AUT)
5/07 - Arena Vienna (AUT)
5/08 - Orpheum Graz (AUT)
5/09 - La Gabbia Bassano (IT)
5/10 - Leoncavallo Milan (IT)
5/13 - Kaserne Basel (CH)
5/14 - Remise Wil (CH)
5/15 - Abart Zurich (CH)
5/16 - MJC Lyon (F)
5/17 - Mephisto Barcelona (ESP)
5/18 - Gruta 77 Madrid (ESP)
5/20 - Roxy Valencia (ESP)
5/21 - Nashville Vigo (ESP)
5/22 - Cafe Albenitz Gijon (ESP)
5/23 - Atzavara Girona (ESP)
5/24 - Le Fuzz La Roche Sur (F)
5/24 - Mondo Bizarro Rennes (F)
5/26 - Festival Tours (F)
5/28 - Wedgewood Room Portsmouth (UK)
5/29 - Academy Birmingham (UK)
5/30 - Josephs Well Leeds (UK)
5/31 - King Tuts Wah Hut Glasgow (UK)
6/03 - Garage London (UK)
Here's the official press release regarding Håkan Hellström's departure from Broder Daniel.
Johan Bergqvist started recording a new single for the song "This Could Be Our Time" this past weekend. He may even film a video for it, too. Candidates for b-sides include "Waiting" and "Endure", but nothing has been decided yet. Look for it around May.
Sahara Hotnights are doing the Carson Daly show on February 27. Wanna be in the audience? The show tapes that Thursday afternoon at 30 Rockefeller Center in NYC. It's free, but also first-come-first-served, so send an email to lastcallaudience@nbc.com with the subject 'Hotnights' plus your full name, age and number of tickets desired in the body. Oh, and it's limited to people 16 and older.
Finland's HIM have set what they declare to be the final tracklist for the new album "Love Metal":
01. Buried Alive By Love
02. The Funeral of Hearts
03. Beyond Redemption
04. Sweet Pandemonium
05. Soul on Fire
06. The Sacrament
07. This Fortress of Tears
08. Circle of Fear
09. Endless Dark
10. The Path
A limited edition version will include the bonus track "Love's Requiem". The album comes out on April 14 for most of Europe.
Norweigan singer/songwriter Askil Holm gets to have about a minute of his music featured in the new film "Agent Cody Banks" directed by Harald Zwarts. It stars Frankie Muniz of "Malcolm in the Middle" fame and premieres March 8 in LA.
Here's the winners of the Spelleman Awards which took place in Norway on Saturday:
Best Spellemann: Röyksopp
Pop group: Ephemera - "Balloons and Champagne"
Best newcomer: Gåte - "Jygri"
Electronica: Salvatore - "Tempo"
Best video: Röyksopp - "Remind Me"
Metal: Satyricon - "Volcano"
Pop soloist: Thomas Dybdahl - "That Great October Sound"
Rock: Madrugada - "Grit"
Hip-hop: Paperboys - "No Cure For Life"
A full list of winners can be found here.
No, Soundtrack of Our Lives did not win a Grammy and I'm really not surprised. The competition was tough and Coldplay won the 'best alternative album' category. Still, it's pretty cool that they were even nominated. Next time, eh?
"SATANIC! SICK! UGLY!" Arch Enemy's Michael Amott has posted a new studio report on their website. Check it out.
Crystal Committee just released their new album and the response has been great, including record of the week on Swedish student and national radio. They're also planning on doing a full Swedish tour in spring, but for now you can check 'em at these two dates in Stockholm:
3/1 - Debaser
3/11 - Kafe 44
From Timo Isoaho / Sonera Plaza Kaista by way of Blabbermouth:
Swedish high-energy thrashers The Haunted have fulfilled their contractual obligations to Earache Records and have no intentions of re-signing with the label, according to frontman Marco Aro. "Earache are lying to us all the time," he told Finland's Kaista. "According to them, we have sold only ONE thousand copies of the last album in the States even though we've done headlining tours over there. You know, Earache doesn't keep any records that would reveal how many albums have been pressed and so on, so we have no idea how many albums we have actually sold.
"When we signed to Earache, we actually [inherited] At the Gates' old contract [as per the leaving member's clause in the agreement]," he added. "So when we got some royalties from our first album, all that money went to pay back the debts that At the Gates had with the label.
"Entombed's situation with Earache was the 'funniest'," Aro continued. "Earache was built from the money that they made by selling the early records from Napalm Death and Entombed. Anyway, [former Entombed drummer] Nicke Andersson saw some of the Earache guys when he was doing a show in London with The Hellacopters, and he asked them if he should perhaps be collecting some money from them in back royalties. The Earache guys were like, 'Yeah, sure.' Guess what Nicke got from them later? 25 pounds and one 'Monkey Puss' live video! (laughs)"
According to Aro, it was Earache's unwillingness to properly fund the group's recently-released DVD, "Caught On Tape", that resulted in the final product not being of the high standard that the band had hoped for.
"Well, it's ok, there's two shows and everything," Marco said of the DVD. "But it could have been better, too. We were supposed to get really good digital video camera from our record company when we went to tour US with Cannibal Corpse and Dimmu Borgir. We were supposed to shoot some material for the DVD... Well, we got that camera when there was two shows left in the tour. And then, when we asked if we could shoot some material from the summer festivals with that camera, we were told that this was not OK and we had to return the camera to the record company. By the way, our first idea was to release the live DVD and live album in one package at a special price. But that was not OK with Earache..."
Of course, this really shouldn't sound all that new to you if you follow the metal scene. Earache Records has been notorious for ripping bands off in the past and many, many allegations have been tossed their way. I was under the impression they were trying to make up for past mistakes, but I guess that's not the case. I only hope that other promising, young bands like Cult of Luna don't get crushed by the label.
Speaking of jumping labels, In Flames is apparently shopping around for a new contract now that they've furfilled their obligation to Nuclear Blast. Do I see a major in their future? I don't doubt it - the band is really doing quite well over here in the States. Expect negotiations to be wrapped up around spring they say. In other news, the band is currently filming a video for the track "Trigger" and plan to have it ready by the end of March.