Kalmah will release their sixth longplayer 12 Gauge on March 3 via Spinefarm Records. Nine new songs and one cover version were laid down during the sessions which “went [smoothly], as always, even though this time the recordings were done in three different time periods within a half a year,” according to the band.

12 Gauge track listing:

01. Rust Never Sleeps
02. One of Fail
03. Bullets Are Blind
04. Swampwar
05. Better Not To Tell
06. Hook The Monster
07. Godeye
08. 12 Gauge
09. Sacramentum

The album will be made also available in Japan on February 24 and will include a cover version of Thin Lizzy’s “Cold Sweat”.

For the Revolution, the predecessor of 12 Gauge, in May 2008 landed at position No. 17 on the Finnish national album chart. This was the band’s strongest chart showing to date in Finland. The CD’s cover artwork was designed by former Sentenced drummer Vesa Ranta, who was also responsible for the artwork of The Black Waltz.

Kalmah has published a press release on their official website announcing that they’ve finished the recordings for their 6th studio album. Once again the album has been recorded in the Tico-Tico studios (Finland) and mastered at Cutting Room (Sweden).

Lead guitarist Antti Kokko:

Everything went fluently as always even thought this time the recordings were done in three different time periods within a half a year. Swamp spirit among the band is high and every body is very satisfied with the result as should. Actually I think it was even better to leave the breath taking gaps here and there so that the new material didn`t numb ears and head. What comes to new material under the guidance of our dear Swamplord it is very Kalmah like but we haven`t forgot to introduce new tuning here and there

Cover art and promotional material is on its way. The exact release date is yet unknown, but will take place somewhen in january/february 2010.

By the way, you can find the 12 Gauge studio diary, videos and so on at: studio diary

Barymetallon, who’s doing Kalmah covers which he publishs on youtube.com has released another fantastic cover: “Moon of My Nights” from the upcoming album “12 Gauge”.

One of my favourite melodic death metal bands, Kalmah, has issued the following studio update recently:

“We have entered studio to record our 6th full length album. During May we will record 9 new songs and couple of covers. Mixing and mastering will take place at the beginning of Autumn when the daylight starts to disappear from the Northern Finland.”

“What’s new? Well, I would have to say that all Kalmah elements are strongly present and the band has more strength than ever. And we will very likely use real trumpet, so at least that is something new… ”

“You will find studio diary, pics and videos from here. Maybe you can get a hint of what is coming.”

Can’t await that release.

Completely forgot to mention: Finally I’ve got my Kalmah T-Shirt. Thanks to ori-store.

Well, actually I’m not a big fan of song covers on youtube, but this guy really kicks ass. The most incredible thing about his covers is, that he learnt them just by ear.

Kalmah – Towards The Sky

Youtube Profile of Barymetallon.

Finally i’ve got the fifth longplayer by Kalmah and I have to confess: this thing rocks! The Kokko brothers continues where they stopped with ‘The Black Waltz’, although there are much more scream parts, which were irritating me in the very beginning pretty much. Pekka Kokkos vocals are still droning deep and throaty out of the speakers and appear very mighty and majestic. Amazingly Pekka is able to give always some melody to his grunts, which you won’t find in other bands of the genre (excepting EToS maybe).

The instrumentation is — as accustomed — on a very high level and keeps on following the path they choose on Black Waltz. Especially the keyboards are much more integrated into the sound as before, and does not act as a nice goodie or gap-filler anymore. There are a lot of ass kicking rifss, as well as those typical scrub parts that will invite your head to bang around. As on the Black Waltz, the production is again very powerful and so the tracks sounds very intensive and heavy.

Vesa Ranta (ex-Sentenced drummer) who did already the cover for the Black Waltz, is again responsible for the artwork.

All in all, this record is already now, my personal hightlight of 2008, especially because Kalmah keeps going on to define the identity they found on the Black Waltz and wherewith they clearly seperates from those pabulum by CoB or In Flames.

At least there’s still the hope remaining that those guy will hit germany on their tour too.

Sometimes there are records that causes that childish anticipation of the day before christmas eve. ‘For the revolution’ by Kalmah is exactly such a record. As you can read on their website, they finished the work on the new album nearly. The recording sessions has been finished some while ago and also the mastering (Cutting Room, Sweden) has been finished recently. At the moment, the guys are hard working on the booklet, so that everything is done till the announced release date of 2. april. For those who can’t wait for so long; there will be a pre-hearsal on the YLE X3M Metallväktarna Radio Show at 9:00pm this evening.