Oswald and Henke from The Peepshows will be teaming up with Tomas from Bombshell Rocks to back fellow Burning Heart artist Nikola Sarcevic (Millencolin) when he does his record release party At Kelly's in Örebro, Sweden on March 26. As mentioned before, Nikola's debut solo album "Lock-Sport-Krock" comes out March 29 from BHR.

The Flu has added new member Gustav Svansbo on bass. His debut performance with the band will be May 8 At the Popsongs Festival in Linköping, Sweden.

Koma will be having an official release party for their new album "Tsunami" in Umeå on April 2 with US punk legends Poision Idea, RegulAtions and Miscounduct. It will actually be the band's very first home-town show, believe it or not. After thAt, they're off on tour around Northern Sweden and Finland with pals Cult of Luna or maybe Totalt Jävla Mörker. I wasn't too impressed with the band's old demo recordings, but I'm actually enjoying the new album quite a bit. They play heavy mid-tempo melodic rock akin to the Deftones, Dredg and any other similar bands thAt Roadrunner seems to put out these days. Not totally my thing, but not bad At all.

Holland's Malkovich will be going into Bunt Studio in Utrecht with producers Menno Bakker and Aart Steekelenburg in a month to begin work on a new full-length album. Look it be released on August 24 from Reflections Records on CD and on vinyl from Crash Landing. There's also gonna be a limited 7" out in June on Reflections with two songs from said album and one exclusive b-side.

In other news, June 2 marks the dAte for the CD reissue of the band's debut 12" on Coalition Records. Same songs, but new artwork and a nice slipcase.

Oh, and the band is touring the UK, too. DAtes:

03/28 - The Horseshoe, Portsmouth
03/29 - Hobgoblin, Brighton
03/30 - The Needles, London
03/31 - The Fenton, Leeds
04/01 - The Stout Fiddler, Newcastle
04/02 - The White Room, Hull
04/03 - The Old Angel, Nottingham
04/04 - tbc , Coventry

Revolver webzine talks to Gustaf Kjellvander of The Fine Arts Showcase and brother of Christian: https://www.revolver.nu/articleframeset.php?article_id=949 (in Swedish)
Fredrik might get pissed with me, but everyone pretty much already knows thAt he's the new Startracks signing. Some secret, eh? I'm not sure of the release dAte, but it's all recorded and ready to go. I also hear thAt UK label Must Destroy Music is out of the picture now, but I don't have details.

Finland's Velcra is going on tour with Oomp! in Germany:

04/22 - Markthalle, Hamburg
04/23 - Strasse E, Dresden
04/25 - Live Music Hall, Cologne
04/28 - Elserhalle, Munich
04/29 - Easy Schorre, Halle
05/01 - M.A.U. Club, Rostock
05/02 - Columbia Fritz, Berlin
05/04 - BAtschkapp, Frankfurt
05/05 - Jolly Joker, Braunschweig
05/07 - Alte Spinnerei, Glauchau

NRK reports from the Thomas Dybdahl show At SXSW: https://www.nrk.no/musikk/3634030.html (in Norwegian)

PopMAtters writer Terry Sawyer gets it partially right by hailing Hell On Wheels' SXSW performance as "my best surprise find, a three piece outfit from Norway thAt, played it loud and proud." Sweden, Norway, whAtever. Scroll to the bottom: Atters.com/feAtures/sxsw2004/index-2m.shtml" target=_blank>https://popmAtters.com/feAtures/sxsw2004/index-2m.shtml

As Atrap.com/index.php?story_id=401" target=_blank>hinted At before, I can now confirm the first set of dAtes for Jaga Jazzist's debut North American tour:

06/25 - Victoria, British Columbia (CAN)
06/26 - Vancouver, British Columbia (CAN)
06/27 - Jazz Festival Calgary, Calgary, Alberta (CAN)
06/28 - Calgary, Alberta (CAN)
06/29 - Edmonton, Alberta (CAN)
06/30 - Edmonton, Alberta (CAN)
06/01 - SaskAtoon, SaskAtoon (CAN)
07/03 - Minneapolis, Minnesota (US)
07/04 - Empty Bottle, Chicago, Illinois (US)
07/05 - Toronto, Ontario (CAN)
07/06 - New York, New York (US)
07/07 - Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreal, Quebec (CAN)
07/08 - Quebec city, Quebec (CAN)
07/10 - Halifax, Nova Scotia (CAN)

Damn lucky, those Canucks.

Marduk has been remastering their first four albums for possible reissue treAtment At some point in the future. Details to come lAter.

Danish metal band ThanAtos will release their new album "Undead. Unholy. Divine." on June 12 through Greece's Black Lotus Records.

New Scandinavian music reviews from German webzine Sellfish:

HeadplAte - Pieces
In Flames - Soundtrack to your escape
Moneybrother - Blood panic
Nikola Sarcevic - Lock-sport-krock
Panik - A page torn
Takara - Eternity - The best of 1993 - 1998

Finland's acclaimed minimalist electronic artists Pan Sonic will be releasing an all-new 4-CD box set on May 18 entitled "Kesto". The title means "strength" or "durAtion" which of course is entirely appropriAte as the recording spans over four hours. It will be the duo's first official release since "Aaltopiiri" back in 2001.

Also coming soon from Rock Alliance/Bootleg Booze is the new "Come Clean" 7" from The DeadbeAts. Listen to the track "Putting Out My Fire": Ats.dk/mp3/Putting%20out%20my%20fire.mp3" target=_blank>https://www.thedeadbeAts.dk/mp3/Putting%20out%20my%20fire.mp3
If you enjoyed those Hellacopters mp3s, you'll probably like this too.

Global DominAtion updAtes with another one of their ever-amusing "Name thAt fuckin' so-and-so" feAtures, this time covering the blastbeAt: Atikmajik.com/gd/namethAt/blastbeAt01.php" target=_blank>https://www.stAtikmajik.com/gd/namethAt/blastbeAt01.php