The cover artwork and tracklisting have been confirmed for the new GOTTHARD album Firebirth, due out June 1st by Nuclear Blast/Warnermusic (in Switzerland Musikvertrieb). A total of 13 songs will be on the CD, among them one with the title 'Where Are You', which is dedicated to their late singer Steve Lee.

The album – earthy, rocking and played with a great deal of enjoyment – goes back to the old strengths of the band. “We have remembered our roots and deliberately given the album the pure straightforward Gotthard sound. Our goal was to concentrate on the most important thing – the songs,” explained Leo Leoni, who produced the album together with Paul Lani.

As well as in the regular CD, Firebirth will feature in a specially presented limited edition. The album cover depicts the firebird Phoenix, which symbolically rises “from the ashes to the sky” – this line expresses what each Gotthard fan feels and underlines the turbulent time that Gotthard has gone through in the past months.

It will be in Latin America that Gotthard experiences their baptism of fire – the world tour starts there in May, before the band headlines several important European festivals. The band starts the German live premiere as co-headliner at the Bang Your Head festival in Balingen. An important headline tour round the halls of Europe is already planned for autumn.

Firebirth tracklist:

'Starlight'

'Give Me Real'

'Remember It’S Me'

'Fight'

'Yippie Aye Yay'

'Tell Me'

'Shine'

'The Story Is Over'

'Right On'

'S.O.S.'

'Take It All Back'

'I Can'

'Where Are You'