Bloodbath Grand Morbid Funeral

Grand Morbid Funeral is the band’s first album since the departure of Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt – and Metal Hammer will exclusively reveal the group’s new singer on September 16.

The album will be released on November 17 via Peaceville Records.

It’s their fourth full-length studio album and comes on the back of 2008’s The Fathomless Mastery and guitarist Anders ‘Blakkheim’ Nystrom says fans can expect “destructive, raw, heavy, organic and sludgy death metal.”

He says: “We’re proud of all these different styled releases and we loved doing each and every one of them, but the objective was never to settle with a certain style, so our time has come to shift once more.

“It was already decided right after the last album that the next record would not become The Fathomless Mastery part two, but in certain aspects it would actually become its antithesis.

“So prepare for an ultimate blueprint of destructive, raw, heavy, organic, and sludgy death metal.”

After months of speculation, wild guessing and scurrilous rumour, Bloodbath – Sweden’s horror-gorged death metal supergroup featuring Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström, as well as past member Per Eriksson and Opeth’s Martin Axenrot –can exclusively reveal here the successor to former frontmen Peter Tägtren and Mikael Åkerfeldt. The new frontman for Bloodbath will be…

NICK HOLMES!!!

The Paradise Lost singer might be known these days for his sonorous tones, but Bloodbath’s forthcoming album, Grand Morbid Funeral released by Peaceville Records on November 17, will see the return of the ravenous and cavernous growl that marked Paradise Lost’s debut album, Lost Paradise, so expect an outpouring of sonic dread, blood-soaked riffs and monstrous grooves, dragged even deeper into the lair of the awesome by the guest appearances of Chris Reifert and Eric Cutler from supreme US filthmongers, Autopsy.

"Ever since I got into Lost Paradise back in 1990," says Jonas Renkse, "Nick Holmes has been one of my favourite growling vocalists out there. He was always audible and articulate but still deep and definitely morbid. It is a great pleasure to work with him some 25 years later after I was introduced to his thunderous roar!"

Adds Anders 'Blakkheim' Nyström: "Little did I expect to be working with the voice behind the death metal classic Lost Paradise, or the genre-defining Gothic and yet here we are decades later, fulfilling another death metal dream. With his sinister and ominous vocal delivery, it's an absolute pleasure to make Old Nick the bell-ringer in Bloodbath's grand morbid funeral!"

Death metal fans, your prayers have been answered. Hail Nick Holmes and raise your bloodied fists to the godless skies!

1. Let The Stillborn Come To Me
2. Total Death Exhumed
3. Anne
4. Church Of Vastitas
5. Famine Of God`s Word
6. Mental Abortion
7. Beyond Cremation
8. His Infernal Necropsy
9. Unite In Pain
10. My Torturer
11. Grand Morbid Funeral

listen to it here: http://www.recordstoreday.com/NewsItem/4533