Norwegian gothic metallers TRISTANIA have issued the following studio update from bassist Ole Vistnes:

"Thought I'd give you a short summary of the last few weeks. As you maybe know, (twitter anyone?), we have been busy in the studio, and we are now hours away from being finished with the recording of the new album.

We started out six weeks ago in Oslo. Me and Anders (Høyvik Hidle; guitars) then spent three days in a project studio with Waldemar, just going through all the arrangements, details and putting final touches to the songs. One of the songs was not complete, and together with Waldemar we co-wrote the rest of the song. It's called 'Vulture' and will be one of the heavier tracks on the album!

Then after three days we moved on to Tanken Studio in Sandvika outside Oslo to record the drums. Tanken Studio is run by Fredrik Wallumrød, drummer of Norwegian rock act EL CACO. He was engineering the drum recordings, which happened in an awesome huge round room that used to be an actual tank (hence the name...) for color in clothes production. Me, Anders and Tarald (Lie; drums) spent seven great days there. We instantly hit it off with Fredrik, who is an outstanding engineer/producer, but most of all an incredible nice guy!

After Tarald was done with his recordings, we set the course westward, to Stavanger. There we rented a room in what used to be one of the finest studios around back in the nineties. Now there is no commercial studio there, but the room acoustics and sound preparations are the same, and the room sounds amazing for recording. We set up some of our own equipment, and some rented, hi-class equipment, and we were set for two weeks of guitar/bass/violin/Østen recording. This is where Pete Johansen did his work. It was really nice for me to meet him for the first time, and it was really enjoyable to listen to him and Anders reminisce about the old times and share stories and memories of the tours and recordings.

Many beers, cigarettes and pizza slices, and two weeks later we were bound for Oslo once more. This time for the grand finale. Vocals. We did all the vocal recordings in Amadeus Studio in Oslo, with engineer Sigmund Vegge. As an outstanding tech, engineer, musician and friend, he had all the vocals recorded with a smile.

What now remains is for Waldemar (Sorychta; SAMAEL, TIAMAT, MOONSPELL, THE GATHERING) to mix the album. He will do this during March, and we will most likely have a finished Tristania album in our hands by Easter.

I like to thank all of you for reading, and please stay in touch. There are lots of good news underway. I can´t say anything about the release date yet (are you familiar with the expression 'don't hold your breath'?).

Anyway, there will be an album, and I wouldn´t be too surprised if we can get some tasters out within a month or two.

Come hang out on Twitter, I'll be there!"