Drummer ADRIAN ERLANDSSON To Sit Out PARADISE LOST Shows; Temporary Replacement Announced

Due to his commitments with AT THE GATES and THE HAUNTED, drummer Adrian Erlandsson (pictured) will not be able to participate in the PARADISE LOST European tour or upcoming festival dates this year. However, British gothic metal pionners are "pleased to announce" that drumming duties have been left in the young capable hands of Finnish sticksman Waltteri Väyrynen, who is kindly stepping in to cover.

Says Waltteri: "No words can explain how excited, grateful and honoured I am to do all these shows with PARADISE LOST this year. The band has been one of my first and biggest influences ever since I was a little kid. Really looking forward to see all of you on the road! It's gonna be one hell of a year!"

PARADISE LOST's new album, "The Plague Within", will be released on June 2 (one day earlier internationally) via Century Media. The CD was recorded at Orgone Studios (GHOST, ULVER, CATHEDRAL, ANGEL WITCH) in London with producer Jaime Gomez Arellano.

The official lyric video for the PARADISE LOST track "No Hope In Sight", taken from "The Plague Within", can be seen below. The band comments: "'No Hope In Sight' was one of the first tracks we wrote and it reflects a blend of styles. From death metal to gothic to classic rock. It's like all eras of PARADISE LOST wrapped up into one track. We hope you all like it!"

Regarding the musical direction of "The Plague Within", PARADISE LOST guitarist Greg Mackintosh told U.K.'s Total Guitar magazine: "It could be a bit of a Marmite album. Sometimes it's nice to do albums that are expected, in a way, but for a career like ours, it's important to do certain records and songs where you try something else.

"A certain track, like 'Flesh From Bone', is probably the fastest song we've done tempo-wise," he revealed, "while 'Beneath Broken Earth' is quite possibly the slowest.

"We weren't shying away from any period," he continued. "But it also had to be cohesive."

Greg added: "As it came together, the death metal elements became more prevalent, so the album ended up with more of those elements than we'd first anticipated. But it's got a good ebb and flow to it.

"We deliberately went down a different route, where we want it to sound like no one else in metal. Whether we've achieved that, I have no idea until everyone hears it."

The cover for "The Plague Within" was created by Polish artist, illustrator and architect Zbigniew M. Bielak, best known in the musical realm for his record cover illustrations, which, among others, include meticulously handcrafted artworks of WATAIN, GHOST and ENTOMBED A.D. albums.