Simon Rushworth
British fans of Battle Metal heroes Turisas will have to wait until next spring at the earliest to see their favourite Vikings in action.
The hammer blow follows news that Mathias ‘Warlord’ Nygard and co. will trek across North America in the New Year after wrapping up their third studio album.
And that means no UK or European dates until after March 2011 – by which time the new and as yet untitled Turisas opus should be upon us.
The new album was recorded between March and September 2010 at Sound Supreme Studio, Finland, and mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Paradise Lost) at Fascination Street, Sweden.
The album was produced by vocalist and main songwriter Nygård and is due to be released worldwide on Century Media Records in early 2011.
Turisas will now join Cradle Of Filth on a US tour from February-March 2011 with support from Nachtmystium (USA) and Daniel Lioneye (FIN). Details of European and UK shows will be announced soon.
Nygård said: “After a 16-month break from touring, focusing fully on the work on our third album, I’m happy to tell you that we’re DONE! The workload has been enormous, and at times I’ve wished I’d known better, formed a punk rock band and kept things simple!
“But to achieve real progress, you really have to dig deep and see what you’re made of. Take bites so big, you almost choke. We’ve stayed true to our ideology of releasing music only when we have something new to come out with, not repeating ourselves or just copying what we’ve done in the past to feed the market.
“Now that we’re done with studios, we’re all extremely excited to get back on the road again, and as our latest visit to North America is long overdue, coming over in January with Cradle is something we’re all very much looking forward to. We had a great time touring with them in Europe in 2009, so this should be killer! Now we only have to figure out how to play these new songs!!”
Earlier this fall, Turisas offered fans new material as the band released the digital-only single Supernaut, a cover of a classic Black Sabbath song. The track, originally recorded for a special Sabbath tribute album by Metal Hammer UK, is now available on all digital European, North American and Australian platforms.