News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson

Rammstein: full European tour through 14 countries

Rammstein on tour.
Photo by: Olaf Heine

• We have just received Rammstein's new, complete tour schedule. The German superstars and a (still unknown) support act are going to play 14 countries during November and December, ending with their hometown Berlin.
They plan to visit Belgium (Nov. 2), The Netherlands (Nov. 4), Portugal (Nov. 9), Spain (Nov. 10, 11, 12), Norway (Nov. 16), Sweden (Nov. 18), Denmark (Nov. 20), Estonia (Nov. 22), Finland (Nov. 24), Russia (Nov. 26, 28), Poland (Dec. 1), The Czech Republic (Dec. 3), Switzerland (Dec. 5) and Germany (Nov. 1 and Dec. 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16 - and tbc 17). /Mikael Kahrle

Ministry and Skinny Puppy tour plans

Ogre live in Arvika a few days ago.
Photo by: Peter Åstedt (Release)

• Ministry has so far confirmed 28 dates in the US West, Midwest and western Canada to support their new album, starting on September 7 in Las Vegas. Their all encompassing US tour was to be co-headlined with Skinny Puppy and an additional third act as support. But now we hear Skinny Puppy was not able to participate in the tour as they had prior plans to tour America a second time on their own agenda.
Industrial grinders Thrill Kill Kult were announced as an addition to Ministry's tour on the Punkvoter ballot theme.
Skinny Puppy having completed their mini-tour of Europe are set to do their own set of dates in USA starting in October for a month. Tweaker looks to be added along again as support.
The industrial veterans look to return to the UK and Europe in December and finally play Japan and Australia in January 2005.
Skinny Puppy live review and pictures from Arvika, Loreley and London in our Arvika and Zillo Festival reports. /Alex Veronac

Single and single collection from Placebo
• On October 20, Placebo plan to deliver "Once More with Feeling", a single collection including a new track which will also be releases as a single on October 4. Placebo has so far sold 4,5 million records worldwide. /Mikael Kahrle

Erasure's "Nightbird" delayed



• The electronic pop duo Erasure’s new album ”Nightbird” has been delayed to January 2005. Erasure feel that they can’t do the promotion necessary in August, which was the earlier release date. This is due both to Vince Clarke being unavailable for a while, and Andy Bell recovering from a hip surgery. The single ”Breathe” will also come out around January. /Johan Carlsson

Iris working on new material
• The American synthpop band Iris played a gig in front of an extremely ecstatic audience last weekend at the Arvika Festival – look out for a report from the festival soon. Iris premiered two new well-received songs from the upcoming – yet untitled – album. I managed to chat with the boys about the future, and it seems like the new material will see the light of day in January 2005. It’s too early to say anything about possible singles, but we’ll let you know when more info comes our way. /Johan Carlsson

Assemblage 23 talks about the weather?
• The new album from futurepoppers Assemblage 23 is called “Storm”, and the new single is called “Let the Wind Erase Me”. The allegedly uptempo and dance friendly “Storm” is due out in September, while the single comes out in August 24 on Metropolis in the US, and Accession in Europe. The latter features a couple of mixes as well as two bonus tracks. /Johan Carlsson