HATESPHERE: 'The New CD Is Done!'

Danish thrashers HATESPHERE entered the studio on January 5 to begin tracking their new CD, "Serpent Smiles and Killer Eyes", due in Europe on April 30 (April 27 in Germany). U.S. and Japan release dates will be announced later. The following update has been posted on the group's official web site:

"At last the new CD is done! We had the final day of mixing with Tue Madsen today [Wednesday, January 31], and it turned out amazing! We decided to focus more on getting a heavy crunchy sound this time, that would suit the somewhat slower songs on this album, and the guitars are crushing!!! As mentioned earlier, 'Serpent Smiles and Killer Eyes' has taken us in a slightly different direction — of course, still with the main purpose of making your ears bleed, haha, but this time we went for a more mid-tempo approach to finetune our sonic attack.

"This Saturday [January 27] we performed the entire album from start to end for an exclusive crowd of European and English journalists plus 200 dedicated fans, and judging from the crowd response, we did something right with this album, haha. Check out some pictures from the concert here. It felt like playing our first-ever concert again, judging from the shaking hands and the frequent toilet visits before going on stage — pretty funny to experience that kind of nerves again after years of playing live with the same great musicians, but it helps to keep the intensity and exitement up for all of us, and it was a blast on stage! We only had the chance to rehearse together four times, and none of that was with Jacob [Bredahl] as he was still recording the vocals. So it was litterally the first time for all of us to hear the songs with vocals on stage. A big thank you and 'let's Satan' to all who came out for this gig."

HATESPHERE's latest CD, "The Sickness Within", was released in the U.S. in September via SPV. The follow-up to 2004's "Ballet of the Brute" was recorded in part at Jailhouse with Tommy Hansen. Guitars and bass were recorded at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark, with producer Jacob Hansen (RAUNCHY, INVOCATOR).

HATESPHERE recently cancelled its participation in the U.S. tour featuring UNLEASHED, KRISIUN and BELPHEGOR. "It was a very hard decision for us to make, and we apologize to everybody who worked their asses off to get this up and running, but unforeseen stuff got in our way, and caused us to cancel," the band explained at the time. "We will do what we can to get to the U.S. later [this] year to spread the Euro-thrash all over the place."