Norwegian/American aggrotech group Combrichrist are set to release a new EP entitled Frost: Sent to Destroy in just a few weeks time. Currently set for a July 8th release, we know quite a bit about the EP already. It looks to contain 3 songs and a variety of remixes for each, and we can assume it is a teaser EP for the next full length album, which is still officially unannounced (though it is known that the group is working on new material)

For those unfamiliar with Combichrist’s aggressive form of techno, I’d highly recommend last year’s What the Fuck is Wrong with you People? The new EP will likely be widely available, as Combichrist have become fairly well known in North America, but when in doubt Amazon.com is always a good bet, or one of it’s myriad of local sister sites.

Frost EP tracklisting:

1. Sent To Destroy [5:25]
2. The Kill (Instru-Mental Version) [5:22]
3. Prince of E-Ville [4:49]
4. Sent To Destroy (Reworked By Rotersand) [6:06]
5. Sent To Destroy (Northborne Remix) [6:24]
6. Sent To Destroy (Sacrifice Remix By Suicide Commando) [5:57]
7. Prince of E-Ville (Princess Mix By Babyland) [4:15]
8. Prince of E-Ville (Chicago Club Mix By Accessory) [4:05]
9. Prince of E-Ville (Caustic Remix) [4:00]

Viking Metal is a subgenre that arose primarily in Sweden during the early 1990s, but has since spread throughout Europe and North America. While there are is huge variety within the subgenre, ranging from language to even the base style, the unifying factor between these bands is the use of Viking influenced themes in the lyrics. Amon Amarth are not the most famous of the myriad of bands occupying this genre, but I personally think that they are one of the best. Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of their earlier work, but their last album (2006’s With Oden on our Side) is one of the best in the genre. Lots of bloody lyrics suitable for the bloodiest of Viking sagas along with an excellent melodic death metal base make a great combination, and what’s even better is that you can actually understand about 95% of Johan Hegg’s death growl vocals, which is definitely a rarety.

Now that I’ve (hopefully) got your interest, Amon Amarth have announed that they will be releasing a new album aimed at late summer of this year. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot of information released yet, but we do know it will be called Twilight of the Thundergod, that there will be 10 tracks, that the band entered the studio on the first of May, and the names of 3 of the songs: Guardians of Asgaard, Live for the Kill, Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags. Based on the excellence of the band’s last abum I’m expecting great things from Twilight, and eagerly anticipate its release!

Amon Amarth’s back catalogue should be available from most retailers (I know Futureshop in Canada carries at least some of their albums, A&B Sound will order them in for you, and of course Amazon carries all the albums) and naturally once Twilight is released it will be available from these sources as well.

Apocalyptica came to the US this spring in support of their sixth studio album, Worlds Collide, released Sept 17, 2007 in Europe and April 15, 2008 in North America. They’re back in Europe for the summer festival season, but they have announced additional N.A. tour dates including some “more intimate” shows at smaller venues along with some larger shows and at least one festival appearance. Tickets for most of the shows go on sale this weekend.

For those not familiar with the album, Worlds Collide augmented their signature cello-metal sound with guest artists Adam Gontier, Tomoyasu Hotei, Till Lindemann, Dave Lombardo, Cristina Scabbia and Corey Taylor on six of the eleven tracks. They really do put on a great live show and I’m looking forward to their return to NYC. I’ll be there, as close to front and center as I can get.

OK, so I can only speak from hearsay and what I have read, but it seems to me that the Finns fill their long, glorious summer days with music — with tours, of course, and huge annual festivals like Ruisrock and Ankkarock, but also with a flurry of album releases. Paul has already mentioned Turmion Kätilöt’s U.S.C.H.! but here are a few more points of interest from the land of the thousand lakes.

Apulanta are celebrating summer with their 4-track Kesä-EP released June 11 2008. This is sure to please fans of their previous album, Eikä vielä ole edes ilta, and indeed, like most of Apulanta’s recent releases, it debuted at number 1 in the Finnish music charts.

Still on June 11, heavy-metal veterans Tarot released Undead Indeed, their first live DVD (available in a 2DVD or 2CD set), including material from their recent Crows Fly Black tour, interviews with the band and a couple of videos.

Last but far from least, June 11 gave us Marraskuun singlet, a collection of the seven singles with their accompanying B-sides from Viikate’s 2007 releases Marraskuun lauluja I and II. Including gems such as their cover of the Leevi and the Leavings classic “Teuvo, maanteidan kuningas”, this is a must for any fan, or an inexpensive way for the casual listener to get a hold of highlights of two powerful albums.

But more is yet to come! Kotiteollisuus have been in the studio working on a cover-EP Sotakoira to be released August 13 and pop-rock ensemble Egotrippi are releasing their seventh full-length album for which single Hyvästi naiset is due out in July. Finally, I’ve also read something about yet another release from Apulanta planned for August, but I must admit, I have not yet pinned this down (my Finnish is poor and it makes digging for facts a little bit slow).

EDIT: I forgot to mention where you can find these albums. Unfortunately, I have not found any good North American source for Finnish music, so I recommend ordering direct from Finland. Record Shop X has the June releases already in stock (and Sotakoira available for pre-orders) and will certainly carry the others as soon as they come out.

One of the best known bands to have come out of the Scandinavian metal scene is revered Swedish band Opeth. While originally a death metal band, in the past decade Opeth have begun to incorporate a variety of other influences into their sound, including most noticeably acoustic guitars and clean vocals in addition to the more brutal death metal sections. While this is a little bit late, Opeth released their seventh and most recent album, Watershed, this past May. Due to Opeth’s huge worldwide success, the album should be available at both your local record store as well as from major online retailers such as Amazon.

1. “Coil” – 3:10
2. “Heir Apparent” – 8:50
3. “The Lotus Eater” – 8:50
4. “Burden” – 7:41
5. “Porcelain Heart” – 8:00
6. “Hessian Peel” – 11:25
7. “Hex Omega” – 7:00

Anyone familiar with the heavier side of Swedish music will likely have heard of the little town of Umeå, home town of thrash metal legends Meshuggah, but they are hardly the only band to hail from this hot spot of musical talent. Cult of Luna are another heavy band from the little town in North Sweden, but aside from these two things Cult of Luna are an entirely different beast from Meshuggah. Cult of Luna are heavily influenced by the doom/sludge sound which has been growing in popularity the past few years, and they fit nicely into the new genre dubbed post metal by music critics. This makes Cult of Luna a musical cousin of bands like Isis, Rwake, or fellow Nordics Callisto.

Cult of Luna have just released their fifth studio album, titled Eternal Kingdom, in their native Sweden, and will be releasing it in North America next week. I haven’t had the opportunity to hear it yet, but based on previous albums like Salvation or Somewhere Along the Highway I expect it will be an awesomely dark album. Supposedly the plot of the album was inspired by a journal the band found on the site of an old mental institution, which contained the ravings and hallucinations of a madman. I’ve heard similar stories before, so I’m a little dubious as to the veracity of the band’s story, but it sounds like an interesting premise nonetheless.

1. “Owlwood” - 7:39
2. “Eternal Kingdom” - 6:41
3. “Ghost Trail” - 11:50
4. “The Lure (Interlude)” - 2:33
5. “Mire Deep” - 5:10
6. “The Great Migration” - 6:32
7. “Österbotten” - 2:19
8. “Curse” - 6:30
9. “Ugín” - 2:44
10. “Following Betulas” - 8:56

When the album is released in North America, it should be available from all the big retailers like Amazon and quite possibly your local record store.

Just an update to the writers and anyone else who may have stumbled upon this site already:

I am currently working on the site’s layout and stylesheet. Some things may not look right at the moment, but everything will be fixed. Please be patient for now.

New Album

The Icelandic phenomenon Sigur Rós just released their new album Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust today. Með Suð, for short (or Med Sud as it’s being called by many online retailers who are not familiar with the letter eth) is now available in Europe and will be released tomorrow in North America. For complete album info including credits, detailed artwork, reviews, videos and more, check out the Með Suð discography page.

At first listen, Með Suð is a bit less ethereal than the band’s past albums, but it is still identifiably a Sigur Rós record. You can listen to the entire album streaming online from SigurRos.com right now. And because of the band’s popularity, you should be able to find their new album in any decent music store and website like Amazon.com if you like it.

Tracklist for Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
01. Gobbledigook
02. Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
03. Góðan Daginn
04. Við Spilum Endalaust
05. Festival
06. Suð Í Eyrum
07. Ára Bátur
08. Illgresi
09. Fljótavík
10. Straumnes
11. All Alright

World Tour

Sigur Rós is currently on a world tour, and they just recently announced new dates for a more extensive North American tour beginning in mid-September. The American dates are listed below, and you can check the tour page on the band’s website for all dates around the world.

Sigur Rós - North American tour dates
september 17 - united palace, new york city, new york, usa
september 18 - united palace, new york city, new york, usa
september 19 - bank of america pavillion, boston, massachusetts, usa
september 20 - quai jacques cartier, montreal, quebec, canada
september 22 - massey hall, toronto, ontario, canada
september 23 - fillmore, detroit, michigan, usa
september 24 - chicago theatre, chicago, illinois, usa
september 25 - orpheum, minneapolis, minnesota, usa
september 27 - morrison red rocks theatre, denver, colorado, usa
september 28 - saltair, salt lake city, utah, usa
september 30 - the marquee, tempe, arizona, usa
october 1 - copley, san diego, california, usa
october 2 - the greek theatre, los angeles, california, usa
october 3 - the greek theatre, berkeley, california, usa
october 5 - benaroya hall, seattle, washington, usa
october 6 - arlene schnitzer theatre, portland, oregan, usa
october 7 - the chan centre, vancouver, canada

Hello, I’m Valtteri from Finland, and I’ll be contributing to this blog as often as possible. As I’m Finnish, I’ll most likely concentrate the most on music from my own country (I can’t really avoid coming into contact with news from Finland, can I), although I’m also very interested in expanding my knowledge in the other Nordic countries as well. To kick this thing off, here’s a piece of news from Sweden!

The popular Swedish rock and pop outfit Kent just released a new single from their current album Tillbaka till Samtiden, which saw the light of day last year. The material on the album initially drew controversy among the legions of Kent fans with it’s renewed, electronically enhanced style, but the new direction was all for the good of the long-running band, because Tillbaka till Samtiden received mostly ravingly praising reviews and was a success all around. The new single, titled Vy från ett luftslott (Punks Jump Up Remix) is a more dance-oriented reworking of the track Vy från ett luftslott from Tillbaka till Samtiden, and it’s a great way to introduce yourself to Kent’s unique style of addictive pop-rock. You can download the 100% free single with artwork on Kent’s website, but since the site is completely in Swedish, I’ve included direct links to it below.

Download Vy från ett luftslott (Punks Jump Up Remix) 320 kbps with artwork (8,2 Mb)

Download Vy från ett luftslott (Punks Jump Up Remix) 128 kbps with artwork (3,6 Mb)

Finnish industrial metal band Turmion Kätilöt are well known to many, both for their addictively catchy heavy metal and for their outlandish stage shows. Despite legal difficulties with current (former?) label Spinefarm, Turmion Kätilöt have released their third full length studio album U.S.C.H. last week, free of charge from new label Raha Records. For those who are fans of the band’s last album Pirun nyrkki the very heavy combinations of electronics and metal will be a welcome addition to their musical library, and for those who aren’t, there’s no better time (or price!) to get to know what might just become your new favourite band!