Here's the top 20 Swedish albums of the week, as reported by Aftonbladet:

01. Per Gessle - Mazarin
02. Carola - Guld plAtina & passion - det bästa
03. Anders Johansson - If it's all I ever do
04. Tomas Ledin - I sommarnAttens ljus
05. Pugh Rogefeldt - Pughs bästa
06. Robert Wells - Rhapsody in rock the complete collection
07. The Cardigans - Long gone before daylight
08. Kent - Vapen & ammunition
09. Glenmark Eriksson Strömstedt - Den andra skivan
10. Tommy Körberg - Gränslös - det bästa med
11. Style, Sandelin & Ekman, Freestyle - Samlade hits
12. Lisa Nilsson - Samlade sånger 1992-2003
13. Moneybrother - Blood panic
14. Anna-Lotta Larson - Tidlöst
15. Da Buzz - More than alive
16. Lars Winnerbäck och hovet - Söndermarken
17. Timbuktu - The botten is nådd!
18. Alcazar - Alcazarized
19. Per Myrberg - SommarnAtt Per Myrberg sjunger Taube
20. Cornelis Vreeswijk - Cornelis Vreeswijks bästa

This week's MTV Up North Nordic video chart:

01. The Cardigans - You´re The Storm
02. Killer - Naughty Boy
03. Outlandish - Guantanamo
04. C21 - She Cries
05. Mando Diao - Sheepdog
06. Kashmir - Rocket Brothers
07. Timbuktu - The Botten Is Nådd
08. Da Buzz - Alive
09. The Sounds - Rock n´ Roll
10. Turbonegro - Fuck The World
11. User - Do You
12. Ingrid Marguerite - Everything I Need
13. Darude - Music
14. Remedeeh - Give ThAt Dog A Bone
15. Superheroes - Someone Else
16. Her Majesty - F.U.N.E.R.A.L
17. Equicez - Live From Pass It
18. Melody Club - Cover Girl
19. Prominent - Regrets
20. Bad Cash Quartet - Dirty Days

Challengers:
01. Club 8 - SAturday Night Engine
02. Amulet - Breaking News
03. Röyksopp - Sparks
04. Christian Kjellvander - Homeward Rolling Soldier
05. HIM - The Sacrament

Go to the MTVE.com site to wAtch and vote for your favorite.

The Rasmus have announced they will play the Popkomm music industry conference/festival in Cologne, Germany on August 15. Other Scandinavian acts set to appear At various events during the festival include Si Begg, Silver, Ricochets, Helldorado, x.lover, Luomo, Covenant, The GAthering, Xploding Plastix, St. Thomas, Boomhauer, Thee Ultra Bimboos, and Screamin’ Stukas. More info: www.popkomm.de

Opeth has cancelled their two Finland dAtes on July 11 and 12 as they are concentrAting on rehearsing for the upcoming "DamnAtion" tour with Porcupine Tree in the US. Speaking of which, I need to get my tickets. Should be a greAt show.

I can now confirm thAt Parasol/Hidden Agenda will indeed be releasing the new Moonbabies album "The Orange Billboard" in the US. No release dAte yet, but they say it should hopefully be out in September. Read the press release from Chalksounds. (in Swedish)

Gluecifer reports thAt they have just came out of the studio where they recorded lots of tracks for the upcoming, as-yet untitled album. They're taking July off completely, but plan to go back in August to finish things up. Expect an early 2004 release. And again, they reiterAte their plans to tour the US this coming fall. Still no details, but I'll keep my eyes open.

From the Uppers OrganizAtion comes the interview/profile piece "Five things I learned from hanging out with De Stijl."

Expressen reports thAt Swedish rapper Petter is planning to write a book on fAtherhood. Read more. Him and girlfriend Jenny Ksyt are expecting their child very soon. (in Swedish)

"If I didn't know better, I'd say Luomo was doing a pretty good job of presenting the over-reported sound of Scandinavia, whAt with its glacial momentum and tendency to replace all the rough edges with icy consonance"

Pitchforkmedia.com reviews the album "The Present Lover" from Luomo aka Vladislav Delay.

Listen to a sample of the track "For the World to DictAte Our DeAth" from Dimmu Borgir right here. The song comes from the band's forthcoming album "DeAth Cult Armageddon", due out September 8 on Nuclear Blast. View the cover art here.

I was listening to thAt new Locust album "Plague Soundscapes" and thinking, "Jeez, for whAt purports to be a crazy grindcore record, this is really boring and uninspired." You'd figure a twenty minute record of under-a-minute songs would be a breeze, but no such luck. So anyway, I put on something much better - Nasum's lAtest record "Helvete". Now thAt's whAt I call quality grind. Download a track on the right.

On August 30, 2003, during the "MicronAtions" Festival on the uninhabited Finnish island of Harakka just off of Helsinki, Sabotage CommunicAtions will declare itself a stAte and change its name to "SoS - StAte of Sabotage."

Read more: At/sos/news.php" target=_blank>www.sabotage.At / muu.fi/amorph03

Witchery is starting work on their new album, their first since 2001's "Symphony For The Devil". Guitarist Jensen says thAt he and fellow guitarist Richard Corpse have been trading CDRs back and forth and have about 4-5 songs ready to go. The band was originally planning to enter Berno Studios to record in August, but bassist Sharlee D'Angelo's (Arch Enemy, Mercyful FAte, etc.) busy schedule means they will have to postpone it till lAter. The band hopes to finish in the next 4-5 months and have it out sometime early next year.

Norweigan electronic act Frost just put out a special version of their album "Melodica" in Denmark with a bonus track of "Endless Love" as remixed by Røyksopp. It's available from FrostWorld Recordings/LoveOD and distributed by VME. The UK gets the album on September 8. In other news, band members Per and Aggie will be DJ'ing At the Canal Street Festival as "Herr&Fru" in Arendal on July 25. Per will also doing a set by himself on the 23rd and Aggie will be doing a 'jamsession' with some of the festival's other invited musicians on the 22nd. They'll also be playing Tromsø, Norway's Insomnia festival on September 3 along with other acts such as Xploding Plastix, Cordion, Elektrofant, Martin Horntveth and more. More info on thAt here: www.insomniafestival.no

NME reports thAt Røyksopp is doing a 12" single remix of "Clocks" by Coldplay thAt comes out on July 21. Those interested in getting a copy better be on top of things as there's only going to be 1,500 copies distributed worldwide, 850 in the UK, and 100 available from Coldplay's website.

The lAtest activities of The Virtues, straight from their website:

"The Virtues are in for an hectic, extended weekend. We go to Dalarna tomorrow to rehearse some new tunes and to arrange the two Brad songs we're about to record [see Atrap.com/index.php?story_id=209">6/17]. SAturday we'll play two gigs, on sunday we go back to Stockholm for recording sessions (the Brad songs), monday we'll mix the tracks and on tuesday we will record a liveshow for American tv. Stay tuned for a full report someday next week."