Norwegian black-metal legends Emperor will reunite for next year's Inferno Festival in Oslo in April and the big Wacken Open Air festival in August after playing a surprise 3-song gig at the Scream Magazine 15-year anniversary party in Oslo on Friday. I know a lot of people will be very excited about this, but the truth is that the band was never all that exciting live. Get me news about a new album and then maybe I'll be interested.

In related news, Emperor guitarist Samoth and drummer Trym's other band Zyklon will record their third album in November and vocalist/guitarist Ihsahn has a solo album due early next year.

Aftonbladet has streaming previews for the entire new Cardigans album "Super extra gravity": https://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,708005,00.html

Both Aversionline and Dark Dose have posted tracks from the seasonably appropriate Katatonia sideproject October Tide.

This week's top artists for the Itsatrap Audioscrobbler/Last.fm listening group:

01. Mew
02. Sigur Rós
03. Franz Ferdinand
04. Death Cab for Cutie
05. Randy
06. Architecture in Helsinki
07. Of Montreal
08. M83
09. I'm from Barcelona

I'd like to encourage all regular readers of this site who listen to music on their computers to join up so we can get an even better idea of what everyone is listening to. Go here for more: https://www.last.fm/group/itsatrap/

The latest Scandinavian music reviews from the German webzine Sellfish:

Club Killers - Two nights with...
Randy - Randy the band
Satanic Surfers - Taste the poison

Madrid will host the "Swedish Rockdays" on November 30 at Sala Arena. The festival will feature a number of Swedish bands from a multitude of genres and besides the main showcase gig, there will also be in-stores and radio shows. Acts slated to perform include Ebon Tale, A Sudden Burst of Optimism, The Skiller, Les Issambres and The Gain. More info: https://www.swedishrockdays.tk/

Namur reports that his third album "Songs from the valley of Baca" will not be ready for release this fall as originally expected, but will instead be out sometime next spring.

Surrounded has posted a live video of them performing the new song ""Thousand color clash" from their recent show at the Palladium in Växjö , Sweden: https://www.surrounded.se/

The Carny has posted a full album's worth of organ-driven big-band pop for free download: https://www.thecarny.com/musik.htm
The 9-member group plans to release a new mp3-ep later on this fall, too. Fans of older Weeping Willows should check these guys out.

Renown electronic label Merck Records (Lackluster, etc.) is giving up the ghost and will close up show sometime around mid-2006. Read the full statement: https://www.m3rck.net/

This week's Friday pick comes from Kristofer Åström of his debut solo album "Go, went, gone" from 1998. I spent some time earlier this week going through my collection of Startracks CDs to get them ripped and added to the mp3 store, so I've also had them on rotation in my stereo for a few days now. It rained all day yesterday up here, so Kristofer's somber music provided the perfect soundtrack for a dark day. I'm so happy that I've moved north to a place where autumn truly exists - the leaves are changing to bright shades of red and yellow and there's smoke in the air from all the people using their fireplaces and woodstoves. Apples are plentiful and Halloween decorations are going up - the best time of year and the perfect melancholy music to match.

Stylus decrees the new HIM album to be average at best: https://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=3415

Download the tune "San Francisco" from Hello Saferide: https://www.hellosaferide.com/mp3/hello_saferide-san_francisco.mp3
The lyrics sound horribly paranoid when you get down to it, but I must agree - SF is a very special place and unique among cities in North America. I miss it often.

Inge has decided to leave Totalt Jävla Mörker so he can focus solely on The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Read his full statement: https://www.totaltjavlamorker.com/
In other TJM news, the band recently finished pre-production on their next album with 23 songs recorded. No word yet on when the actual album recording will take place, but four of the demo tracks will be used on a 2x7" split with Human Waste due out before the end of the year.