Swedish death metal overlords AEON have issued the following update:

"Arttu [Malkki, drums] has decided to take a break from AEON. He and his girlfriend are expecting twins in March and he wants to focus on his family at this point. We have no idea on how long this break will be, but there is no need to worry. We have an awesome drummer on our hands that will be replacing Arttu to 100%. This means that we will be touring as planned and take on more tours along the way. So please let's welcome the mighty Emil Wiksten [BLOOD RED THRONE] as the current drummer of AEON. His first stage appearance with AEON will be on January 16 in London at Garage."

Drum-cam video footage of a recent AEON rehearsal, featuring Emil, can be seen below.

AEON released its fourth studio offering, "Aeons Black", on November 20 via Metal Blade Records. The mammoth 15-track effort was recorded at Empire Studio in Östersund, Sweden, engineered, mixed and mastered by Ronnie Björnström (Garageland Studios) and featuring cover art by Kristian "Necrolord" Wåhlin (BATHORY, AT THE GATES, DISSECTION, EMPEROR).

Commented AEON founding guitarist Zeb Nilsson: "This is definitely our most varied album to date; it has heavier songs, yet it also has lots of fast blastbeats and double bass drumming. It's groovier this time, which I think we lacked on our last album, 'Path Of Fire', which was fast-paced almost all the way through. That, and the amazing mix by Ronnie Björnström, makes me feel pretty confident that this album will appeal to more people than our previous albums. And no, we have not gone softer in any aspect; it's just easier to catch with all this grooviness. It's metal right up your ass!"