New album announcement roundup: Steven Wilson, Bloodbath, Leviathan, Clutch, Symphony X, Fuck the Facts
Something for everyone!
First and definitely foremost, prog mastermind Steven Wilson and his band are currently working on a new album in AIR Studios in London. Scroll up to see a photo of the devilishly handsome master at work, and check out his Facebook page for twenty more. That’s all the official information we have right now, but here’s some unofficial information: it’s going to be really, really good. How do I know that? Simple statistics, that’s how. Are you familiar with his catalog? It is vast and primarily unspotted. Look forward to this one early next year.
Bloodbath and 
their record label have been stirring up a lot of brouhaha about who’s going to be handling vocal duties on the first album since Åkerfeldt’s departure, mainly in the veritably annoying form of “YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHO LOL.” I and many others grow weary of their games. Apparently they’re going to reveal his identity on September 16th. All I can say is that, with all this hype, he better be Fabio Lione or something.
Good news for fans of the band is that they’ve announced the title and release date. Grand Morbid Funeral will hit the shelves on November 17th. Bad news for fans of the band is that this album cover is lame. Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström (guitarist):
“We’re proud of all these different styled releases and we loved doing each and every one of them, but the objective was never to settle with a certain style, so our time has come to shift once more. It was already decided right after the last album that the next record would not become The Fathomless Mastery part two, but in certain aspects it would actually become its antithesis. So prepare for an ultimate blueprint of destructive, raw, heavy, organic, and sludgy death metal.”
In a recent interview with Jef Whitehead of Leviathan over at Steel for Brains, he revealed that his follow-up to True Traitor, True Whore will be released via Profound Lore in early 2015 and that it will probably be titled Scar Sighted. As far as what you should expect, here’s what he said:
“I feel like I was much more prepared for this record: working out arrangements, harmonies, lyrics beforehand. As with a lot of LVTHN material, I’m trying to play above my musical abilities. There’s a lot of death metal played around the house, and I think maybe it shows on this record.”
There’s him wielding a torch and giving you the inverted finger. Let’s hope the guy can stay out of trouble until then.
According to this here source, there is a new Clutch album coming our way. Clutch front-man and all-around hardass Neil Fallon only said that they’re going to “take October, November and December off to finish up writing and pre-production” for the new album. That’s really all I know. I thought I’d include it because who in their right mind doesn’t love Clutch? Here’s the interview if you have deep-seeded trust issues:
Lastly, since I know we have some Symphony X fans in the house toilet, bassist Michael LePond said in a long video interview with United Rock Nations that you shouldn’t watch that the band is entering the studio this week and that they hope to have their new album out come springtime. He went on to say the album “has a lot of classic Symphony X elements in it, which I think a lot of our fans were missing for a few years. So I think our fans will really like this one. It really just focuses on solid songwriting.” We shall see.
Totally last minute update: Canadian grind warriors Fuck the Facts have a new EP dropping October 1st. It’s called Abandoned and you can preorder it digitally here or preorder a very limited edition cassette (only 100 printed) if you’re one of those people. (h/t 365 Days of Horror)
