MESHUGGAH To Headline Italy's FROZEN ROCK OPEN AIR Festival

Swedish experimental extreme metallers MESHUGGAH have been confirmed as the headliners of the first edition of the Frozen Rock Open Air festival, a brand-new extreme-metal event which will be held July 14 at Prato dei Popoli, Area impianti sportive, Marcon, Italy.

As previously reported, MESHUGGAH will perform at the Peace & Love festival, set to take place June 28-30 in the center of Borlänge, Sweden. Also scheduled to appear are HAMMERFALL, CRASHDIET, NEVERSTOREIGGY & THE STOOGES, BABYSHAMBLES, HANOI ROCKS, SABATON, MORGANA LEFAY and DOZER, among others.

Revolver magazine (web site) reported in January that MESHUGGAH is returning on its next album to the pummeling double bass drums and angular riffage that defined their early material to sculpt what they say will be their most savage, eclectic offering yet. "We've got some fast, intense songs and hectic, heavy stuff that draws from all the things we've done in the past," said drummer Tomas Haake. "It's so great to actually be playing drums again."

The band members started writing last August and are said to be working on more than a dozen new tunes. The goal is to finish by March, in time for a May release. To some extent, the tone of the music was motivated by the four months MESHUGGAH spent last year rerecording guitars for the Halloween re-release of their 2002 album, "Nothing". "It was great to revisit that super-heavy stuff," Haake told Revolver. "While we were doing it, we found new ways of playing guitar that give the music a really scary tone. That's going to make this record sound more brutal."