LEPROUS, the Norwegian progressive/avant-garde metal band that recently signed a worldwide deal with InsideOut Music, has chosen surrealistic American artist Jeff Jordan to create the artwork for the group’s upcoming album, “Bilateral”.
Commented vocalist/keyboardist Einar Solberg: “We are proud to announce that we’re collaborating with the surrealistic American painter Jeff Jordan and the Spanish designer Ritxi Ostariz for the artwork on our upcoming album. Jeff Jordan is probably best known from his work with THE MARS VOLTA, and his paintings are highly rated all over the world. Ritxi Ostariz did the artwork for our previous album ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ (released 2009 through Sensory Records) and, of course, we want him to be part of this new album. Ritxi, too, is a critically acclaimed designer, and in our opinion one of the very best in his field.”
“Bilateral”, which was skillfully mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street studios (OPETH, PAIN OF SALVATION, DEVIN TOWNSEND, SYMPHONY X) in Sweden, will be released on August 22 in Europe and August 23, in North America via InsideOut Music. According to a press release “Bilateral” “is set to musically redefine what it means to be progressive rock and/or metal, both for the devotees of the genre and the metal fans looking on from a safe distance.”
LEPROUS is:
Einar Solberg – Synth/Vocals Tor Oddmund Suhrke – Guitar Øystein Landsverk – Guitar Rein Blomquist – Bass Tobias Ørnes Andersen – Drums
DJERV will release its self-titled debut album on June 17 in Europe (except Scandinavia where it will arrive on June 10) via Indie Recordings (except in Poland and Czech Republic, where the CD will be made available through Mystic Production).
The track listing for the CD is as follows:
01. Madman
02. The Bowling Pin
03. Headstone
04. Gruesome Twosome
05. Only I Exist
06. Ladder To The Moon
07. Abmuse
08. Blind The Heat
09. Immortal
“Madman”, the new single from DJERV, is available for free download at this location.
DJERV consist of the three core members — Agnete Kjølsrud, Stian Kårstad and Erlend Gjerde. The lineup is completed by guitarist Stamos Koliousis from MENCEA and bassist Victor Brandt from ENTOMBED, who join them for their live performances.
DJERV spent most part of the fall of 2010 working on its debut album, which is set to be released in the summer of 2011. The album was engineered by Daniel Bergstrand (IN FLAMES, MESHUGGAH) in Oslo, before the band traveled to Los Angeles to team up with Grammy Award-winning producer Matt Hyde (SLAYER, HATEBREED, MONSTER MAGNET) to work on the mix. The effort was mastered by Tom Baker at Precision Mastering, and it was written and produced in its entirety by DJERV.
“Normally it takes me like 30 seconds to figure out how to mix an album, to decide what sound I’m going for, as the inspiration of the band is so obvious to spot out. But when listening to the DJERV album, I had no obvious direction on the mix as their music is truly unique. It’s absolutely awesome and it’s totally different from anything else I’ve heard in a long, long time. Working with a singer at Agnete‘s level is truly rewarding and something one very rarely get to do. Her control, range and performance is stunning — not to mention the great lyrics! She is definitely one of THE best singers I’ve had the pleasure working with, and I really hope I get to do it again.”
Drummer Erlend Gjerde comments: “We tried to explore the borderlines between rock, metal and on some tracks there are more or less obvious black metal references. The overall sound is quite stripped down, groove-oriented and melodic, yet it has those cold black metal-influenced riffs accompanying the dark moods of the music . We are very happy with the way it turned out, now it’s just the painful wait of hearing what everybody else thinks. Fingers crossed it go down well.”
DJERV‘s story is short but eventful. The first demos surfaced early 2010, and two weeks later they were booked for the most important festival in Norway, the Oya festival. They went on to tour Norway in June and played several of the bigger Norwegian festivals during the summer. In August they released the “Headstone” EP which basically is their first-ever recorded demo tracks made available as people kept demanding to get to hear them not only on MySpace. The release of the “Headstone” EP generated some good press for the band several key magazines featured them as one of the bands to keep an eye out for in 2011. In addition, DIMMU BORGIR helped promote DJERV when they invited Agnete to participate on no less than three songs for their latest album, “Abrahadabra”. Among them the lead track of the album, “Gateways”, the video for which also features Agnete.
Fan-filmed video footage of DJERV performing on April 22, 2011 at Rockefeller in Oslo, Norway during the Inferno festival can be viewed below.
After a couple of years of silence, one of Sweden’s all-time finest exports of rock and roll SATOR is back with a new album entitled “Under The Radar”, due on February 25 via Wild Kingdom Records.
According to a press release, the band “has returned to their musical roots and besides just returning also has managed to squeeze and pour every drop of energy, creativity and influences from their long and winding career into 11 blistering tracks. . . To sum up ‘Under The Radar’ in one sentence, the listener will on this album get their share of a perfect rock punk mix between RAMONES, AC/DC and SOCIAL DISTORTION. If you wanna pin point something that always has and always will keep SATOR a little bit ahead of the rest of the rock pack it would have to be Chips Kiesbye’s and Kent Norberg’s standout vocal performances — Kent’s perfect harmonies and Chips’ rockin’ outbursts leave the listener with an album where the vocal travels between Brian Johnson meets John Fogerty and Joey Ramone. With that said the album is still 100% SATOR and it’s sweet music that a band can sound so fresh, vital and energetic this far into their career.”
“Under The Radar” track listing:
01. Your Up Gets Me Down
02. Drive Through The Night
03. S.T.S.
04. Tonights The Night
05. Wanted: Hope And Pride Before I Die
06. When You Lie Down With Dogs
07. Under The Radar
08. The Get Out
09. Youve Got Blood On Your Hands
10. Were All Gonna Die!
11. Love Bells
Finnish metallers BLOODRIDE will release their debut album, “Crowned In Hell”, on March 23 via Violent Journey Records. The 32-minute CD, which contains “simple, neck-breaking old-school thrash metal with attitude,” was recorded and mixed at D-studios by Tonmi Lillman and features a guest appearance by Tapio Wilska (SURVIVORS ZERO, ex-FINTROLL). The cover artwork was created by Jan “Örkki” Yrlund of Darkgrove Design.
“Crowned In Hell” track listing:
01. There Will Be Blood
02. March Of The Dead
03. Straight From Hell
04. Slave Of Evil
05. Cain
06. Demon’s Way
07. God
08. Promised
09. Thrown Into Darkness (Unholy War)
Swedish progressive rock band WOLVERINE will release its new studio album, “Communication Lost”, on May 23 in Europe via Candlelight Records.
The CD was recorded at various locations in Sweden between February and August 2010. It was mixed by Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark in July/August 2010 and mastered by Eroc at Eroc’s Mastering Ranch in Germany in December 2010/January 2011.
“Communication Lost”, which was produced by the band, features 11 tracks and has a running time of approximately 70 minutes:
01. Downfall
02. Into The Great Nothing
03. Poison Ivy
04. Your Favourite War
05. Embrace
06. Pulse
07. What Remains
08. In Memory Of Me
09. In The Quiet Of Dawn
10. Communication Lost
11. A Beginning
Lyrically, the album deals with personal issues the band and the individual members experienced during the four years WOLVERINE spent composing the material. The result is a melodic and moody metal album which feels like a natural progression from“Still”, which was released in 2006.
The “Communication Lost” cover artwork was designed by Marcus Losbjer (drums) while Thomas Jansson(bass) contributed to it with “great photos.”
Swedish metallers THE HAUNTED will release their seventh studio album, “Unseen”, in late March via Century Media Records. The CD was once again recorded with longtime producer Tue Madsen (MOONSPELL, DARK TRANQUILLITY, GOREFEST, SICK OF IT ALL) at his Antfarm Studio in Århus, Denmark.
“Unseen” track listing:
01. Never Better
02. No Ghost
03. Catch 22
04. Disappear
05. Motionless
06. Unseen
07. The Skull
08. Ocean Park
09. The City
10. Them
11. All Ends Well
12. Done
THE HAUNTED performed the brand new song“No Ghost” this past Saturday (January 22) at the “P3 Guld”(Swedish radio’s annual music awards) live awards ceremony broadcast from Lisebergshallen in Gothenburg, Sweden. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be viewed below.
The studio blog for “Unseen” can be found at this location. Source: Blabbermouth.net
After a couple of years of silence, one of Sweden’s all-time finest exports of rock and roll 
Finnish metallers 
Swedish progressive rock band 
Swedish metallers 
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 