June 04, 2003

Here’s a litte band update from Anton Reisenegger of CRIMINAL: "I’m living in Germany now, Zac is in England and Rodrigo in Chile . But fear not! The new CRIMINAL album is on its way! The working title is "Supersonic Death", and we are working on a very cool cover idea with Claudio Bergamin, who did the cover for the European version of "Cancer". We have written over 50% of the material for the album, and I can tell you it’s gonna be the most commercial, soft, melodic, slow, and lightweight CRIMINAL album ever!!! Yeah right!!! Anyway, we should be recording around August or September for the album to be released a few months later. We still have to work on the schedules, but it’s gonna be out through Metal Blade in Europe and some major label in Chile . It’s not very clear yet if Mark (Royce – keyboards) is going to play on the album, or what his involvement is going to be in the future of the band, but we’re just taking it easy, focusing on writing and getting the production process underway."

Swedish Thrashers THE CROWN, recently rejoined by original vocalist Johan Lindstrand, have completed the recordings for their new album, "Possessed 13", and are taking a three-week break before returning to Gothenburg’s Studio Fredman in mid-June to mix the effort for a tentative September / October release. "It sounds very fuckin’ great and we can’t wait to release this fury upon your souls," Lindstrand wrote in a recent online pos ting. "It has gone very smooth in the studio, no problems at all and everybody is working their asses off. When we’re not beating our instruments we are kickin’ each other’s asses in Tekken 4 and the undisputed champion is for the moment Janne. We have now tuned down the guitars even more to get a more deadly sound to the songs and it is fuckin’ working, and the fast songs have become even more faster than the pre-production we did. As I’m writing this [on Thursday, May 22] I have only one more song to do vocals on and that’s ‘Dawn Of Emptiness’, a mid tempo song that’s gonna end the album along with the instrumental piece ‘The Endless Gate’. Marc us has also some solos left to do and the shit he’s done so far has fuckin’ blown me away. Yeah, I got to tell you, it’s great to be back in hell again, where I belong hehehe." The tentative track listing for "Possessed 13" is as follows: ‘No Tomorrow’, ‘Deliverance’, ‘Face Of Destruction’ / ‘Deep Hit Of Death’, ‘Are You Morbid?’, ‘Dream Bloody Hell’ (instrumental), ‘Cold Is The Grave’, ‘Kill ‘Em All’, ‘Morningstar Rising’, ‘Natashead Overdrive’, ‘Bow To None’, ‘Zombiefied!’, ‘Dawn Of Emptiness’ and ‘The Endless Gate’ (instrumental).

Ron Vento (AURORA BOREALIS) has just opened a new professional recording facility in Maryland comprising of a 1500 sq ft industrial building. This studio specializes in Death and Black Metal. Nightsky Studios offers 124 tracks of all digital fully automated pro tools recording, and boasts 12 foot tracking ceilings as well as 2 isolation booths and amplifier room all on floating floors. Please visit www.nightskystudios.org for more information or email AURORA4DTH@aol.com