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.

The new record of The Haunted called ‘Versus’ will be released on following dates:

Sweden: Sept. 17 / Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Italy: Sept. 19 / Spain, Portugal: Sept. 23 / Finland, Hungary: Sept. 24 / Rest of Europe: Sept. 22 / Australia: Sept. 27 / USA, Canada: Oct. 14

The special edition contains:

• Special Packaging
• Slipcase with 4 Bonus Tracks
• The Haunted Guitar Pick
• Poster
• Sticker

And for those, who can’t wait for so long, you can listen the new album via stream on their myspace page today!

After the leave of guitarist and songwriter Mikael Sandorf the band decided to disband The Duskfall completely.

Mikael Sandorf:

The time has come for me to leave THE DUSKFALL after 9 years. This has been a decision I have breathed, slept and thought over for a long time. I have gone through alot of good and fun times with the rest of the guys but keeping this band alive has taken a toll on me in my personal life. I feel that we have managed to write and record 4 great albums together, but now It´s time for me to move on. I want to thank everyone that has been involved in this journey and especially all the fans that has supported us all these years! You guys are great!!! I feel like there is alot of creativity waiting around the next corner and I have already plans on what to do next so be patient and stay on your toes for my next adventure. Love // Mike

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.

I think there’s no better way to comment the new weak album of Children of Bodom “Blooddrunk” as it has been done in the Toplist of the german Stern magazine. The comment in full-length:

Pst! We’ve got a secret: We don’t know where’s the fascination of finnish Heavy Metal like this. It must be some kind of alternative mentality. Or we are just missing some gen, that let us understand how many types there are to combine vocabs like Blood, Death, Hell and Pain. In principal Track 1 is about Hatedestroykill. In Track 2 they worked out the Bloodkillrazorbladeblood-element a bit more. Track 3 subtly altercates with the Killfuckfreakdeath topic even more and peaks in the potentially risky thesis that Helldeathbloodpain is caused by Blooddeathhellbrainwashfuck. Sadly this is textual far away from our horizon of experience. Also to music aspects it keeps cryptical to us: How do you differ the Ratatatatararghhhh sound from the Arghhhhgrrrraratata parts? The only thing we are fairly sure about is: Children of Bodom fans are loyal and reliable record buyers. We have never seen one, stealing Blooddeathkill in the internet and pumping those illegal downloads on his snow white ipod or listen to them in his car. Indeed we don’t have any clue.

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.