The Norwegian/American aggrotech/EBM project CombiChrist announced dates for an extensive North American tour beginning in mid-January. The month-long tour basically starts out in the Southeast corner of the U.S. in Florida and does a huge clockwise loop, hitting pretty much every major city in the country plus one in Canada. Save your pennies now so you can attend one of the concerts on the tour. This is going to be a good one!

14.01.2009 Ft. Lauderdale, FL (USA), Club Priemer
15.01.2009 St. Petersburg, FL (USA), State Theatre
16.01.2009 Jacksonville, FL (USA), Jack Rabbits
20.01.2009 Austin, TX (USA), Elysium
22.01.2009 Phoenix, AZ (USA), Marquee Theatre
24.01.2009 Los Angeles, CA (USA), The Avalon
25.01.2009 San Francisco, CA (USA), DNA Lounge
26.01.2009 Orangevale, CA (USA), The Boardwalk
27.01.2009 Portland, OR (USA), Hawthorne Theatre
28.01.2009 Seattle, WA (USA), El Corazon
30.01.2009 Salt Lake City, UT (USA), Avalon Theater
31.01.2009 Denver, CO (USA), Marquis Theatre
01.02.2009 Kansas City, MO (USA), The Record Bar
03.02.2009 St. Paul, MN (USA), Station 4
04.02.2009 Chicago, IL (USA), House of Blues
05.02.2009 Detroit, MI (USA), The Majestic Theatre
06.02.2009 Cleaveland, OH (USA), Peabody’s Down Under
08.02.2009 Montreal, QC (CAN), Foufoune Electriques
10.02.2009 Philadelphia, PA (USA), Polaris
11.02.2009 New York, NY USA), The Fillmore NY @ Irving Plaza
12.02.2009 Towson, MD (USA), Recher Theatre
13.02.2009 Norfolk, Virginia (USA), The Norva
14.02.2009 Altanta, GA (USA), The Masquerade

Consorting with the Black

Norwegian symphonic black-metal masters Dimmu Borgir are joining American bands Danzig, Winds of Plague and Skeletonwitch along with Portuguese Moonspell on the North American Blackest of the Black Tour in October and November. Dimmu Borgir’s eighth studio album, In Sorte Diaboli, was released last April and managed to be the first black metal album to hit number one in their native Norway and also made it to number 43 in the US Billboard 200.

(Tour dates listed on the next page.)

Vreid in the studio

Another Norwegian black metal band, Vreid, recently announced on myspace that they have been making good progress on a fourth, as yet unnamed, album continuing their focus on the Norwegian resistance during World War II. They expect work on the album to be finished by October for a January release.

Grim Tales from Sweden

One Man Army and the Undead Quartet, a death/thrash metal band from Sweden, is set to release their third album, Grim Tales in October or November 2008. Samples can be heard at myspace.

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Paul already told us about Amon Amarth’s new album, Twilight of the Thunder God. Now the tracklist and the cover have been released, along with the information that a limited edition “Deluxe Collector’s” release will be available including an extra live CD and DVD of Amon Amarth’s 2007 appearance at Germany’s Summer Breeze festival. If a 3-disc set is not enough for you, try the even more limited (only 2000 pieces made) “Limited Bubblehead” release including the 2CD+1DVD collector’s edition plus bobble-head dolls of the band members and a 36-page comic. (No, I’m not making this up.)

Twilight of the Thunder God will be released September 17 in Sweden, shortly thereafter in the rest of Europe, and finally Sept 30 in North America.

They also have a North American tour planned for October supported by Ensiferum (FI), Belphegor (AT) and The Absence (US).

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Hide your rum, lock up your daughters: the trolls are coming!

Finntroll, the Swedish-singing folk/black/humppa metallers from Finland are currently on the road in Europe and will be coming soon to North America. Their 2008 tour will be supported by US thrash/death metal band Warbringer. Fans will also be happy to hear that, on their return to Europe, they are planning to record their Sept 20th concert in Amsterdam for an upcoming DVD.

Opeth: coming soon to a hall near you

Paul recently wrote about Opeth’s latest album, Watershed, so it seems only fitting to mention that they are now on tour, busy throughout July and August with a lot of festival gigs. In mid-September, their North American tour begins, supported by US bands High on Fire (for all dates) along with Nachtmystium (9/16-10/4) and Baroness (10/6-10/26).

Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play continues

After a busy summer festival season, the Finnish gothic metal act Nightwish will also be back in North America at the end of August and throughout September for the third North American leg of their ongoing Dark Passion Play tour. They are supported by Sonata Arctica, a power metal band also out of Finland.

Moonsorrow mini-tour

Also worth mentioning, Moonsorrow have announced some North American dates. A Mexican 2-show mini-tour in September and a primarily Canadian tour (with one US show so far) in November, starting with the St. Paul, MN “Heathen Crusade” festival.

Amorphis bring Silent Waters across the ocean

I was talking to an acquaintance tonight who mentioned she is looking forward to the upcoming Amorphis show, so I thought I ought to add their North American dates. Finnish Amorphis published their eighth album Silent Waters in 2007, combining death metal with progressive, gothic and folk elements. Apart from the ProgPower appearance, they will be supported by the very international combination of Swiss band Samael, German/Norwegian Leaves’ Eyes and Virgin Black from Australia.

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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.

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