Swedish old school Death Metal originals GRAVE, who recently signed a new worldwide deal with their initial home Century Media Records, have checked in after a long North American tour – alongside Blood Red Throne, Pathology and Gigan – with an update from their camp’s activities, starting with a brief tour re-cap:
“So back in dark, cold and rainy Sweden again after a successful North American tour. We had a great time and many great shows. Since we haven’t headlined the US since 1996 we didn’t know what to expect but I must say that we were pleasantly overwhelmed by the response from our fans. This gave us the kick in the nuts and the motivation to get back over there again in a near future. A huge special thanks to our kickass roadcrew: T-Wayne, T-Bone and The Colonel.”
Next up, GRAVE will be playing a very special Stockholm hometown show for the 20th Anniversary of the release of their “Into The Grave” debut album. The show takes place on November 12th at Kulturhuset in Stockholm / Sweden and will be supported by General Surgery (20th Anniversary of the “Necrology” debut EP) and also Vicious Art (last gig ever!). The band comments as follows:
“Right now we’re preparing for an epic night of old school madness. November 12th we will play a very
special Anniversary gig at Club Distortion/Kulturhuset here in Stockholm. The classic “Into the Grave” album will be run through from „Deformed” to „Banished to Live”, plus another handful of classic tunes.
Support acts are the mighty Vicious Art and General Surgery. Be there or be square…”
Next up, GRAVE will be busy working on their upcoming studio album effort, marking the 10th studio album in the band’s history and can also announce a line-up change in their rhythm guitar department. But read it from GRAVE’s Ola Lindgren himself:
“The plans for our next studio album is also already in the works. We will start writing and arranging songs in November and enter the legendary Studio Soulless again in early January. We also have a very cool idea for a special bonus disc, more on this later. Stay tuned for video diaries and sneak peeks which will be updated all through the process. Album #10 is scheduled for release by Century Media Records before the summer 2012.”
Last but not least in this small update we want to inform you that our guitarist Magnus Martinsson is no longer in the band. But don’t worry ladies, we will keep goin’. Magnus has played with us since 2008 and did some epic tours/shows with us. We took this joint decision after going through plans for next year and we needed to address this within the band before we start the new album process. There aren’t now and have never been any hard feelings between us and we wish him the best in any future endeavors. See Magnus statement below…
We’ve recruited Mika Lagreen (Facebreaker) for the Stockholm Anniversary gig and he should fit right in since he already handled the stage left axe on our latest European tour. He will of course also be with us through the new album process and upcoming shows/tours.”
Magnus Martinsson posted the following additional message about the amicable split:
“Hello all you death metal heads!
I’d like to inform you that myself and the rest of the band have come to the mutual decision that I will no longer be a member and guitar player of Grave. People develop on and off the field, and sometimes in different directions, and I feel I can’t fully commit to the bands upcoming and intense touring plans. So the time has come for me to pass the torch. No drama or bloodshed has occurred and I wish the guys all the best for the future.
It’s been a great time since I joined Grave back in 2008; I have many amazing memories from our gigs, tours and travels together, and all amazing fans and friends out there. We’ve toured all over the world, toured together with great bands/guys like Nile, Misery Index, Belphegor, Krisiun and Vader, just to mention a few. It’s been a blast!
But don’t worry folks; I won’t stop playing music. Check out my new band Overtorture. Alle ska döj!“
Next to the mentioned North American tour, GRAVE have mercilessly toured all across Europe with acts like Misery Index or Obituary in the past year in order to promote their latest album “Burial Ground”, but were also playing special live-sets for the 20th Anniversary of their “Into The Grave” debut album-release at selected festivals/events…
GRAVE online:
http://www.grave.se
http://www.facebook.com/GraveOfficial
http://www.myspace.com/gravespace
http://www.reverbnation.com/grave
www.youtube.com/graveofficial