OPETH To Tour UK, Begin Recording Two New CDs

OPETH have confirmed via their official web site the plans for Music For Nations to release a special edition version of OPETH's last album, Blackwater Park, which will contain additional music and video footage (as first reported here yesterday). According to the band, this edition [will] feature an additional CD with two new tracks, amongst them a part 2 version of 'Patterns In The Ivy', plus approximately five minutes of enhanced material from the recording session of the album. The artwork will also be slightly altered courtesy of Travis Smith, who did the original art. Watch out for the release later this year.

In other news, OPETH have inked a management deal with Britain's Northern Music Management, headed by Andy Farrow, who represent such acts as PARADISE LOST, SKINDRED and ONE MINUTE SILENCE.

Also on the OPETH front, the band are confirmed to appear at the 2000 Decibel festival in Bengtsfors, Sweden on May 18th, to be followed by an appearance at the Rockwawe festival in Athens, Greece on July 2nd. Unconfirmed reports also indicate that OPETH will be on the bill for this year's Arvika festival in Sweden. OPETH will also be embarking on a UK headlining tour in late May. The confirmed dates are as follows:

May 26 - Liverpool, UK @ Uni
May 27 Manchester, UK @ Uni
May 28 - Glasgow, UK @ Cathouse
May 29 - London, UK @ Mean Fiddler
May 30 - Birmingham, UK @ Academy 2
May 31 - Leeds, UK @ Cockpit

OPETH will enter Nacksving/Maestro Music studios on July 22nd with producer Fredrik Nordstrm to begin recording the group's forthcoming two CDs that will receive a simultaneous release in late 2002 or early 2003. According to a statement from the band, the plan is to release separate CDs at the same time, one heavy, one mellow. The heavy CD will be typical OPETH with all its ingredients, including mellow parts, while the 'mellow' CD will have more laid-back material.

In related news, BLOODBATH, the side project featuring OPETH mainman Mikael kerfeldt on lead vocals, two members of KATATONIA and acclaimed producer Dan Swan, have cut 10 new tracks to be released later this year through Century Media Records. Entitled Resurrection Through Carnage, the follow-up to the 1999 mini-CD Breeding Death will reportedly contain a brutal outburst of sheer winter-like death metal. The full track listing for the effort is as follows:

01. Buried By The Dead
02. Like Fire
03. Trail Of Insects
04. The Soulcollector
05. Bathe In Blood
06. Death Delirium
07. Cry My Name
08. Ways To The Grave
09. So You Die
10. Mass Strangulation