December 05, 2005

ANCIENT RITES have found a new record label in Season of Mist, also the home of bands like MAYHEM, ROTTING CHRIST and ARCTURUS. They started recording their new album on November 21st under the guidance and supervision of veteran AR producers Oliver Philipps and Christian Moos. So far, all drum and bass parts have been recorded, guitars are up next. The album will most likely be released before the summer of 2006, after which ANCIENT RITES, now a septet since the return of former members Domingo Smets and Raf Jansen last year, will once again play live in support of their new album. Concerts all over Europe and the U.K. are being negotiated and arranged, so expect the band to be out there in full blast next year.

A track from the upcoming CARPATHIAN FOREST album is being mixed in two different studios, and depending on the results, the band will decide on which studio to use for mixing the rest of the album. Mixing and mastering sessions are expected to be finished during December. Season of Mist will issue the as-yet-untitled new album on January 16th, 2006 in Europe and January 17th in North America.

DISMEMBER will hold a release party for their forthcoming new CD on February 3rd at Tantogarden in Stockholm, Sweden, according to a posting at the INSISION website (www.insision.com). Both Dismember and Insision are scheduled to perform at the party. Dismember have been recording their seventh album in Sami Studio in Stockholm, Sweden, which they plan to release in January through Regain Records.

The following CELTIC FROST update has been posted at www.celticfrost.com: "Celtic Frost were very honoured to meet close friends again on the occasion of the Swiss concert of Norwegian groups 1349 and GORGOROTH at La Chaux-de-Fonds on November 12th, 2005, which they attended upon invitation by 1349’s singer Ravn and drummer Frost. Ravn had long proposed that Celtic Frost’s Tom Gabriel Fischer join 1349 on stage to sing lead vocals for 1349’s version of the Celtic Frost classic ‘The Usurper’ (from the "To Mega Therion" album, 1985). It finally happened that night in the French part of Switzerland. The meeting of all three groups presented an opportunity to renew, reinforce, or establish a number of existing and new friendships. In the meantime, however, Ravn had also sung backing vocals on Celtic Frost’s ‘Temple of Depression’, a song scheduled to appear on the limited special edition of Celtic Frost’s forthcoming "Monotheist" album. Ravn’s contribution was recorded by Peter Tägtgren at Horus Sound Studio in Hanover, Germany, in August 2005, in the course of the final sessions for the new album. The photos show Celtic Frost’s Tom Gabriel Fischer on stage with 1349 (photographed by Sadhusatana from www.helveticpaganhorde.ch) and Gorgoroth’s Gaahl and Tom Gabriel Fischer backstage at La Chaux-de-Fonds’s Bikini Test venue (photographed by Nina Treml)." Celtic Frost have been confirmed to appear at next year’s edition of the Wacken Open Air festival. The band will perform a 90-minute "best of" show (with new songs) on the Black Stage on August 4th, 2006. Celtic Frost recently completed their new studio album, "Monotheist", their first in 13 years and the culmination of some three and a half years of songwriting and recording work. Although the album was largely produced by the band themselves and financed by their own production company, CELTIC FROST enlisted HYPOCRISY / PAIN mastermind Peter Tägtgren to co-produce with them the final recording and mixing sessions at Horus Sound Studio in Hanover, Germany, in August / September 2005. Negotiations with a variety of labels are currently underway, and the album is scheduled for a release in early 2006. Original Celtic Frost members Tom Gabriel Fischer (voice and guitars) and Martin Eric Ain (bass) are joined by Erol Unala (guitar) and Franco Sesa (drums).

Sweden’s GENERAL SURGERY have issued the following update via their website (www.generalsurgery.nu): "It’s been a while since the last update, not that anyone may have noticed, but here we go… Just to let you know, the time is drawing near. That’s right, we’re entering the studio to record our first full-length album which we cleverly enough have entitled "Left Hand Pathology". We know, it’s thoroughly stupid, but lowbrow morons that we are, we still find it hilarious in our own special way. As we’ve mentioned, the album will be recorded at the newly rebuilt Off Beat Studio just outside Stockholm. Mastering duties will be handled by Peter In De Betou at Tailor Maid mastering facilities. The artwork is currently being put together by Dr Sykes himself, and it looks quite spectacular indeed. Look forward to something really different for this particular genre. Well, we can pretend it’s different and special, since nobody will say otherwise. Nobody whose opinion matters anyhow. Either that or we’ll just stick our fingers in our ears, thus not hearing any criticism, legitimate (yeah, right) or otherwise. Rest assured it won’t be totally generic. Some 15 or 16 tracks are slated to appear on this monstrous release, and to keep things interesting we’ve opted for a slightly different tracklist on the CD and LP versions, which also gives us an opportunity to milk this cash cow for all it’s worth. Here’s a list of songs we intend to record, in no particular order: ‘Arterial Spray Obsession’, ‘Capricious Provisional Cadaver Grater’, ‘Autopsy Induced Amnesia’, ‘The Admirable Teachings Of Burke & Hare’, ‘Fulguration’, ‘Mucopurulent Mayhem’, ‘Ambulance Chaser’, ‘Convivial Corpse Disposal Methodology’, ‘If These Walls Could Talk’, ‘Viva! Blunt Force Trauma’, ‘Necrodecontamination’, ‘Mortuary Wars’, ‘Cold Storage Fever’, ‘The League Of Extraordinary Grave Robbers’ and ‘Decomposer’. If we by some strange coincidence manage to stay coherent enough, you will get some kind of studio updates as we progress. Hopefully they’ll be more informative than ‘I’m incredibly drunk and I swear to fucking Christ I’ll kill the entire band as soon as I get the chance’, which is what you’d most likely see if Dr. McWilliams gets a chance to document his musings. Hopefully we’ll manage to keep him securely sedated and away from any computers during this period. Anyway, check the blog for updates. We’re also going to try to document as much of the proceedings as possible on video and still pictures. Be very afraid (on a side note, if we’re lucky, one of our previous vocalists might appear as a special guest on a cover song. You’ll just have to wait and see if it works out or not). As witnessed by the lucky bastards who attended the Bloodshed Fest back in October, we now have a few new shirt designs that are going up in the Gore Store shortly. Check back in a couple of days. In other news, we’re preparing a smaller European tour in late March / early April next year with Italian gore-hounds GRIMNESS 69. As soon as the list of dates is complete, we’ll announce the tour."

Sweden’s VOMITORY have issued the following update via their website (www.vomitory.net): "We are very eager to get in touch with the guy who filmed our whole show in London at The Underworld on November 9th! Please get in touch with us! We are also looking for any pictures and videos from our November shows in the U.K., Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden to make it available here at vomitory.net. Please e-mail us at band@vomitory.net. Thanks! We want to thank every single one who attended our November shows in the UK, Ireland, Scotland, The Netherlands and the two Sweden shows in Gothenburg and Västerås! Also, big thanks goes out to all promotors and all supportbands involved! But we want to send the biggest thanks of them all to our partner in crime, Lord fucken K Philipsson, for helping us out with handling the second guitar flawlessly on these shows. Tack som fan Kentha! There is a clip from the Gothenburg show on November 25th, featuring the song ‘Redemption’, available for download at this location. There are also some pictures from the shows in Hengelo / Netherlands, Gothenburg and Västerås here (photo credits: Efil, Somliga and Mark Akerboom). More pictures, including the UK / Ireland tour, will be posted here soon."

According to a press release, as of November 28th, 2005, Deathgasm Records and United Guttural Records have merged. The combination of Deathgasm and United Guttural will create one of the largest independent extreme M etal labels in North America. After two months of negotiations, Rich Lipscomb of United Guttural Records and Fleshgrind sold the company to Evan March, CEO of Deathgasm Records. "Deathgasm / United Guttural looks forward to leading the US Death Metal scene with brutal music, great service and unparalleled treatment of our artists" said Evan March. United Guttural releases will be kept in circulation and Deathgasm / United Guttural will continue with the scheduled releases including the FLESHGRIND demos CD. The company plans to combine the Deathgasm and United Guttural websites by spring 2006 in order to streamline the company and make online shopping more convenient for customers. Deathgasm Records was founded in 1997 to provide the underground Metal scene with extreme Metal music at affordable prices. In December 2003, Deathgasm Records opened the first and only all Metal record store in Georgia. In the process of expansion Deathgasm Records has taken over several record labels including Extremist Records, Warhammer Records, Skeptic Productions and Metal Merchant USA (ex – Gutted Records).

According to an update at their official website, OPETH visited the legendary BBC studios in Maida Vale, London, UK to record a couple of songs scheduled to be aired on BBC radio 1 sometime soon. The songs will also be included on the planned special release of "Ghost Reveries". The songs recorded: ‘The Grand Conjuration’, ‘When’ and ‘Soldier Of Fortune’ (DEEP PURPLE cover).