Covenant at Swedish Electronic Music Awards 1998.
Photo by: Anders Ekne.

Tonight it's D-day, at least for us here at Release. The second Swedish Electronic Music Awards in Gothenburg seems to be a success. It will be sold-out again.
No trouble in sight. We haven't forget last years snowstorm which caused huge problems for In the Nursery. The foreign bands And One and DAF/DOS arrive one day early this year, just to be on the safe side. Lots of media will attend: for example TV- and radio-channels like SVT, TV4, ZTV and P3.
On March 23 the Swedish Electronic Music Awards voting closed. Everybody has been able to vote from this very site from January 1 until March 23. Immediately after the voting was closed the top-4 artists in each category was released - in random order of course. Covenant and Saft are both on the top-4 in four out of five categories. Obviously they can't be considered newcomers, but they compete for artist, album, song and live artist of the year. Other bands that struggle for the awards of 1998 are for example S.P.O.C.K, Sista mannen på jorden and Cat Rapes Dog. Read more here.

NIN album finally on it's way

Nine Inch Nails's record company has scheduled the new album for this summer. Rumours say that it will be entitled "The Fragile".

Thåtröm on summer tour

Peace Love and Pitbulls front figure and Swedish punk rock icon Joakim Thåström will join the Swedish Kalas package tour between July 16-31.

And One stick to German

And One on stage 1998.
Photo by: Jens Krause.

And One is currently preparing their new album (working title "Virgin Superstars"). The release date is - of course - September 9, 1999. They have announced that they will only sing in German on the album. The first single release will be out this spring. They are one of the headlines at Swedish Electronic Music Awards this weekend.

New tour with Front 242, but still no new album

So far Front 242 has signed on for five festival gigs in Europe this summer. Still no word about any new releases.

Blind Passengers to Sony

Blind Passengers has signed a record deal with Sony. They will soon release their new album "Bastard".

New single and album with Front Line Assembly

Front Line Assembly is soon back with a new single - "Prophecy" - and a new album - "Implode".