KATAGORY V founder and sole original member, bassist/songwriter Dustin Mitchell, has checked in with the following update:

"We've been working through pre-produciton for nearly six months now, almost the same amount of time it normally takes us to record an actual album. The reason it has taken longer than normal to record the demos is due to a few learning curves:

a.) I am the only one that lives in Salt Lake City, Utah and have the studio space here, thus the other members have been phoning in (not literally) their parts peice by piece as they have them.

b.) Darrin and Kris have been learning a majority songs writen for the album on the go while tracking them.

c.) Pro-Tools: it's not your daddy's recording software... or is it? Just when you have it all figured out, you need something else to get the job done right. $$$$

The bad news is that I was hoping that the demo would be comeplete by now, however, the good news is that we are only slightly behind my predicted schedule by over a month, and in theory, recording the album itself should take less time and commence in early 2010.

The plan at hand now is to have things wrapped up by the end of October so we can hopefully start shopping the demo around before the holidays hit and get some feedback (and hopefully something secured for Europe). Around this time, we also antcipate that we'll be releasing some demo clips for everyone to hear! That's right, the first ever song clips with the all-new line up should be available for everyone to hear in a few months, and will be the first taste of new Katagory V material in almost two years!!!

I am very proud of the material thus far, and Bizzaro, Albert, Darrin and Kris have been working very hard to raise the bar for this album. It is far more melodic and hook laden compared to the previous album, and in some sense, much more riff-oriented too. Some of the songs have also taken on a more progressive direction as well, which I know many fans have been missing and will be happy to hear again. In a nutshell, there are a myriad of directions happening with the songs, with a lot of variety, and this was my goal since day one when forming this band and should be what Katagory V is known for. From melodic hard-rockin' songs, to fist-banging thrash metal anthems - this will have it all! One thing I have disliked about past Katagory V albums however, with The Rising Anger being the only exception, is the guitar tone (no offense to my mate Curtis of course!), if anyone is going to notice a change with the new material, this will be the most obvious.

Also, unlike previous Katagory V albums that were entirely prodcued and/or mixed by Curtis (former guitarist) and Mike Foweks (local engineer/producer), I am outsourcing the post-produciton work this time to someome that has an ear for our style and sound. I will be getting in touch with a few producers/engineers very soon to see what their schedual and rates are, and to find out who I might be able to get to participate in the post-prodution, mixing and/or mastering for the album. Right now I'm hoping to work with either Jacob or Dennis (my two favorites at the moment) or maybe even Devin, Andy, Fredrik... or Neil? ...we'll see where it goes once I get to that bridge."

Cheers!

Dustin Mitchell