MORTIIS

frontman/namesake has posted the following message on the group's official web site:

“Better late than never, right?

“I probably should have left some sign of life up here a long time ago, and we probably should have done more to the website a long time ago as well.

“One of the reasons being that things didn't really work out between us and Johannes, and some time was spent tracking down someone to take over the control of this site, and finally found the new guy who will surely be adding his comments up here shortly.

“This all would have happened sooner if not for the fucked fact that we had additional technical issues that were recently solved and once and for all out of our lives and we should be up and running.

“Another change that occurred recently was the end of our stint with First Contact Agency, our concert agent for the last 2 years, and moving into meetings and correspondence with a bunch of new ones.

“We also expanded our management from being based only in the US, represented by Mazur PR, to also include the UK-based Total Concept Management.

“We've been working on the new album since summer last year, and there's a number of songs now coming together, and the way it looks at the moment is that we're once again heading into a new era. In my honest opinion the new material walks all over the previous stuff (even though we're roughed that stuff up quite a lot for live).

“As a matter of fact, we're all going down to the studio in Fredrikstad again in a few days and we'll be doing work for at least a couple of weeks ahead.

“We're taking so much time trying stuff out, testing programs (so far I have probably used in excess of 30 programs, including audio and softsynth apps but not including effect plugins, which would probably bring us into the 100's) to see what happens, that it is hard to pinpoint a release date or date of completion, but our hearts are set at getting this album done by summer and then it's in the label's hands (Earache Records).

“For the curious, up until now, possibly half way into the album, we've gone through an unknown amount of guitar effects, 8-10 different guitars, 2 drum kits, 3 Mac computers, 6-8 hardware synthesizers, 10+ bottles of Whisky for my vocals (the “only reason I show up in the studio some seem to think, which of course is utterly false and untrue).

“On a cool (though increasingly embarrassing as the night wore on) we opened an exhibition at the Fearnley Museum in Oslo for US contemporary artist Matthew Barney, who brought his Cremaster Cycle exhibition to Norway. A really talented artists, who unfortunately forgot to hand me the scissors as I stepped on to the podium to cut the ribbon in front of 800 people, so I had to improvise, and tore the ribbons out of the walls, nails and all. I haven't got the bill yet, so I think I got away with it.

“Svein, our drummer, however did not get away with thinking he was Nikki Sixx and barfing Russian caviar, throwing expensive champagne glasses, spilling food, dancing on tables and insulting the nobility, in no particular order.

“He succeeded nicely in getting me and him (because I was standing next to him at the time) kicked out of the afterparty, leaving [the two guitarists] Levi and Ĺsmund to apologize and feel stupid.

“So hang around and watch for more news as well as comments from our new webguy.”

January 23. 2004