ALTARIA Focusing On Songwriting

July 18, 2007

Finnish melodic metallers ALTARIA have issued the following update:

"A live show in Kokkola (Finland) has been confirmed, ALTARIA will play in English Pub, August 17th. This show along with the show at Jalometalli festival (in Oulu, Finland) are the only shows ALTARIA will play during the summer. Next live shows will be at the end of the year, and will be announced later on. In other news, the band has retreated to their rehearsal place for composing new material for the forthcoming album. So far there's more-or-less completed songs for a complete full-length album."

ALTARIA recently posted samples of two new tracks "Keeper of Mystique" and "Ball and Chain" on its MySpace page. The songs can be found on the band's "Divine Invitation" compilation and are the first tracks to feature the new members Marco Luponero on vocals and Petri Aho on guitar.

ALTARIA previously stated about the "Divine Invitation" CD: "Due to the high demand and ongoing requests for the songs of the completely sold-out first two albums of the band, 'Invitation' (2003) and 'Divinity' (2004),the idea came up to make the best five songs each available again, to introduce new singer Marco Luponero with two brand new songs and add another seven (!) bonus tracks which originally appeared on the band's sought-after demos 'Sleeping Visions' (2001) and 'Feed The Fire' (2002)."

ALTARIA parted ways with vocalist Taage in early December. Drummer Tony Smedjebacka stated at the time that it became "clear during this year that Taage and the other members of ALTARIA had different priorities. When we wanted Taage to invest more time for ALTARIA, he decided to quit. The band and Taage had different perspective on few other things, too, which might have been part of the reason he decided to leave the band."

ALTARIA recently posted its video for the song "Frozen Hearts" at YouTube.com. The clip features footage from the band's European tour with SONATA ARCTICA and DORO.

"Frozen Hearts" comes off ALTARIA's third album, "The Fallen Empire", which was released in March 2006. The follow-up to 2004's "Divinity" was mixed the Black Lounge Studios in Sweden. Former DIO guitarist Rowan Robertson makes a guest appearance on a track called "The Lion" and keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg (SONATA ARCTICA, SILENT VOICES) is featured on a song called "The Dying Flame", which is an eight-minute epic.

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