Holy Shit! Actually I’m not that much into classical metal music, but this really kicks ass:

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”.

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, the swedes will also place some gigs across germany this december. As I’ve been pretty jealous of the un|we|sen, who joined the guys gig in the Brixton Academy of London this april, i will get my chance too. Supporting acts for the gigs aren’t set yet, but locations and dates are already final:

• 06.12.2008 Backstage Werk München
• 09.12.2008 Longhorn LKA Stuttgart
• 10.12.2008 Live Music Hall Köln
• 11.12.2008 Postbahnhof Berlin
• 12.12.2008 Markthalle Hamburg

Official Opeth Website is here

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.

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.

On saturday (12. Jan 2008) the day had finally come on which I should see Paradise Lost live at the Knock Out Festival in Karlsruhe. Excepting Paradise Lost, there also have been Epica, Axxis, Gamma Ray, Helloween and Within Temptation live on stage.

Epica have been the group that should open the Festival (from 5:00pm – 5:40pm). Unfortunately I missed them, because I’ve been a bit later on the festival and I didn’t know that they will be the first band. As far as I heard from some other guys, they must have been pretty good.

After Epica Axxis (6:00pm – 6:40pm) and Gamma Ray (7:00pm – 7:50pm) entered the stage. Both bands played a good set, but I didn’t really care about it, as I’m not that much into that kind of Pose-Metal.

Then the big moment came (8:20pm – 9:25pm): Paradise Lost! All that I can say about this is: AWESOME! Actually it’s kinda bad, that the most people were impatiently waiting for Helloween (Nick Holmes commented that in one of his announcements too). In my humble opinion this was the reason why Paradise Lost hasn’t been honoured as much as they deserved. The setlist was more or less a best of mix, and of course the legendary ‘as I die’ didn’t miss. Alone Paradise Lost was worth the ticket.

After Paradise Lost, it was again Pose Metal time. Next band on stage was Helloween, who had more or less a home match in Karlsruhe. It was a good show, interrupted by some really odd stuff (the band did a little masquerade and looked like muppets-like zz-top puppets who were playing ‘Smoke on the water’). As before with Axxis and Gamma Ray, not really my taste of music.

As there haven’t been enough posing for one evening, Helloween and Gamma Ray held a little jam session direclty after their show. I need to confess this one I liked too.

Last but not least, Within Temptation. I’m not a big fan of their music, but I need to say that they are the bomb on stage. Their show was really fun and so it was my second personal highlight after Paradise Lost for the evening.

Thanks to youtube for some impressions of the festival:[/lang_en]

Within Temptation @ Knock Out Festival 2008 in Karlsruhe:

Within Temptation @ Knock Out Festival 2008 in Karlsruhe 1
Within Temptation @ Knock Out Festival 2008 in Karlsruhe 2
Within Temptation @ Knock Out Festival 2008 in Karlsruhe 3

Paradise Lost @ Knock Out Festival 2008 in Karlsruhe:

Paradise Lost @ Knock Out Festival 2008 in Karlsruhe 1
Paradise Lost @ Knock Out Festival 2008 in Karlsruhe 2