Swedish Gothic Metalers, Katatonia have just released a press statement on their band website, regarding the commencing on their highly anticipated 8th studio album.
Guitarist Anders Nystrom reveals: “We've been very busy lately writing and completing the material for our 8th studio album and we're proud to announce that Katatonia will enter the studio this summer, starting in a studio in the south of Sweden with drums courtesy of Daniel [Liljekvist] on June the 10th. We'll then continue on the remainder of the sessions in a studio here in Stockholm further through July and wrap it up in August.
We'll keep the info short for now as we'll launch a studio diary to give you all the in-depth information and details on the album making including album/song-titles, audio teasers, album artwork and also our tour plans along the recording process. We can already confirm that initially 13 tracks will be recorded and a selection of 11-12 songs will make it onto the album. We got a few big surprises to reveal and we're confident this material is our most varied, diverse and possibly strongest shit all together on one and the same album. The release date is set for late October on Peaceville.”
Katatonia’s last album, “The Great Cold Distance” was released in 2006 and met with high critical acclaim and was quickly followed by a live album, “Live Consternation” recorded at the Summerbreeze Festival in Germany 2006 and released 2007.
Katatonia death metal, alter-ego, Bloodbath, have also just released a video clip for their single “Hades Rising” taken from their new album “The Fathomless Mastery”. Bloodbath have also released a statement explaining that they will not be touring in 2009:
“…[Singer ] Mike [Akerfeldt] and [drummer] “Axe” have both confirmed they’re too occupied with Opeth and can not commit to any live shows with Bloodbath until 2010, the earliest…”
/ my profile 
