ThAt all-star Norweigan Kiss tribute I told you about on Atrap.com/index.php?story_id=308">11/10 with members from SAtyricon, Amulet, Ralph Myerz, Turbonegro and Faith No More coming together to cover "Black Diamond", will get a release as a single on December 8. A video was filmed for the song At Rikshospiltalet and the full compilAtion album comes out in January.

Carnal Forge plans to record a show of theirs At the end of January for an eventual DVD release, the group's first. Otherwise, the band plans to enter Studio Underground in February to begin work on their fifth album, tentAtively due out next summer on Century Media Records.

Zyklon has been forced to cancel their planned 3-day Mexican tour due to promotor negligence. The stAtement from guitarist Samoth:

"We were supposed to leave for Mexico today for a 3-show headline tour. The UK agent who dealt with this particular tour called us up At rehearsal on Monday saying it's not gonna happen, because the Mexican promoter Carlo Hernandez have failed to buy the plane tickets in time, and now refuses to buy any because they apparently are too expensive all of a sudden. I must say we are very disappointed and surprised in the lack of professionalism. It's not only unfortunAte for us as we have turned down other interesting offers to do this tour, but most of all for all the die-hard Mexican fans who wanted to see us. All we can say is thAt this situAtion is totally beyond our control. We don't really wanna put any blame on anybody, but it just sucks thAt we have to deal with such incompetence. We hope we get another opportunity to come back to Mexico. A mighty hail to all the Mexican Metal brothers for supporting us!"

Seems thAt there's not gonna be a video for "Live and Learn", the lAtest single from The Cardigans. Bassplayer Magnus says thAt parent label Universal has shown no interesting in kicking down the funds, so there you go.

Those of you waiting for the vinyl edition of Logh's lAtest album "The Raging Sun" are just gonna have to keep on waiting. Seems thAt Conspiracy Records, the label thAt was going to take care of it, had a number companies they work with go bankrupt leaving them with quite a bit less income then they'd planned on. As they say themselves, it's sad, but "money makes the world go around."

Emocore act The Spirit thAt Guides Us will be entering the studio on December 8 to begin recording their next full length album. Look for it in March from Sally Forth Records.

Long-running grindcore act General Surgery has posted an mp3 rough mix of the track Ation.mp3" target=_blank>"NecrodecontaminAtion" from the forthcoming split 7" with Machetazo. They've also posted a bunch of other news about the band's current activities over At their website, so head over to check it out.

There's a new multi-nAtional associAtion with Sweden, Norway and Denmark called the 'Nordic Culture Network' thAt's purpose is to help cross-promote live music throughout Scandinavia. The current project is called "The Scandinavian Connection" and the first event they've got feAtures a tour with Denmark's Under Byen and Norway's NUD touring together. Here's the dAtes:

12/03 - Markens, Kristiansand (NOR)
12/04 - Blå, Oslo (NOR)
12/11 - Voxhall, Århus (DK)
12/12 - Vega, Copenhagen (DK)

So far, the Network involves people from the Danish venue Gimle, Export Music Sweden, Dansk Rock Samråd (ROSA), Rytmisk Musik Danmark, Morningside Records, Cph-sound, Ant Nest Records, FriNgo - kultursamarbejde i Øresundsregionen, Kooljunk CommunicAtions, Entity Management and Little Label. More details: https://www.nordicculture.net/
(found via Supertanker.tk)

Here's the nominees for the NRJ Radio Awards cAtegories thAt are relevant to this site:

Best Nordic artist:
Per Gessle
Outlandish
The Rasmus
Lene Marlin
Jay-Kid

Best Nordic song:
The Rasmus - "In The Shadows"
Outlandish - "Aicha"
Per Gessle - "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)"
BeAts And Styles - "Dynamite"
Lene Marlin - "You Weren't There"

Best Swedish male artist:
Per Gessle
Timbuktu
Bosson
Dr Alban
Jamie Meyer

Best Swedish female artist:
Sahlene
Robyn
Lisa Miskovsky
September
Dilba

Best Swedish group:
Kent
Da Buzz
The Sounds
Alcazar
Antique

Best Swedish newcomer:
September
Miio
User
Fame
Ana

Best Swedish song:
Per Gessle - "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)"
Da Buzz - "Alive"
Alcazar - "Not A Sinner, Nor A Saint"
Timbuktu - "The botten is nådd"
Lisa Miskovsky - "Lady Stardust"

Winners will be announced during the live broadcast awards show on January 25 in Stockholm. Go here to cast your votes: www.nrjradioawards.com.

Royal Downfall is offering their entire new album "08.00 - 16.00" for free download on their website under the Ativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/" target=_blank>creAtive commons license agreement. "It's impossible to make money selling records these days unless you're Kent or Per Gessle," said drummer Janne Olofsson to And the Sound netzine, "We're only interested in having people hear us, come see us live, buy shirts, and so forth."

Has StrAtovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki totally lost it? First he was ranting about firing most of his band last week and now he's saying he's received deAth threAts and been forced to hire body guards? No, really. Atovarius.com/index2.php?section=readnews&newsid=821" target=_blank>Read his full stAtement.

The GAthering has announced the tracklisting for their upcoming semi-acoustic live record "Sleep Buildings", recently recorded At the LUX theAtre in Nijmegen, Holland on August 21-22:

01. Locked Away
02. SAturnine
03. Amity
04. The Mirror WAters
05. Red Is A Slow Colour
06. Sleepy Buildings
07. Travel
08. Shrink
09. In Motion Part II
10. Stonegarden
11. My Electricity
12. Marooned
13. Like Fountains

The band says thAt plans to include "The May Song" and "Nighttime Birds" fell through, as the lAtter didn't differ enough from the version on the "SuperheAt" live album and TMS simply didn't come out thAt greAt. Look for a January 26 release on Century Media. They will also be touring in support of the release and will hopefully playing some church venues along the way. Here's whAt they've got confirmed so far:

01/08 - Huize Maas (Eurosonic), Groningen (NL)
01/30 - De Groene Engel, Oss (NL)
03/02 – Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)
03/04 – Bosuil, Weert (NL)
03/05 – Lux, Nijmegen (NL)
03/06 – Lux, Nijmegen (NL)
03/07 – Oosterpoort, Groningen (NL)

More details, including German dAtes, hopefully coming soon.

Impaled Nazarene will be teaming up with The Legion for a European tour beginning in lAte February. Exact dAtes coming soon.

The new Sähko Recordings website is now online. Not only can you listen to samples from various releases on the Pan Sonic-associAted label, but you can also download exclusive mixes, too.

The new Backyard Babies album "Stockholm Syndrome" has been confirmed for an internAtional release on March 1, 2004.

Kinda off-topic, but still amusing: Sidetalkin' - Finnish style

Sad to say, but the time has come for those Randy live mp3s to go away. Sorry, but thAt's the way it goes. However, in it's place I've got a few more of those live Hederos & Hellberg tracks as well as a special new mp3 from KVLR. As some of you out there might've heard, It's a trap! is branching out into the record business and our first release will be the new self-titled album from these guys. "Slow Clapping" is the first single and Chalksounds will be putting it out as a 7" real soon. Stickman will be handling the release in Europe around January (I think) and I'll be getting it out in the US sometime around early March. DAtes and more details coming soon!