KATAKLYSM singer Maurizio Iacono offers the following road/studio update:

"So we left for Germany on the 4th of July for the two open-airs we had scheduled and after numerous glasses of wine (the staff from Lufthansa airlines loved us) and Baileys (which I lost a bet with Stephane (Barbe - bass) that he couldn't convince them to keep giving us drinks, well four hours later. I lost my $50. Damn!

We get to Munich and we get driven to the festival site in Geiselwind a day early was raining we were exhausted and still buzzed up from the plane ride, so we decided to chill at the hotel and relax. The day of the show came and was cool to see Chris and the SAMAEL guys, BEHEMOTH, DISBELIEF. Festival was a small affair but the crowd was on fire for Kataklysm, we had a blast. Next day we hit Evolution Fest in Florence, Italy. W got there 30 min. before our set time. Behemoth was shredding as always, so we got up on stage and did our show right after. No line check nothing, was a very tough show, with feedback on stage and weird noises happening around us. Sometimes felt like we were playing unplugged. Weird - it's hard to give it your all, on top of that we hadn't slept yet from the German show since the previous day but in true Kataklysm fashion we did our best regardless and the crowd was amazing and truly supportive! The next day we visited Florence had a blast and flew back back to Canada to continue writing the album.

I have to take back a few things I said on my previous report, the way the album first started to get put together it seemed to be a lot more dark but in melodic way, but what makes writing so fun is you never know how the end result will be. Yesterday we finished a song called 'Breathe To Dominate' and I could already see the pit going crazy and being a live smash.

Smoothest album we have written in years. I thought In The Arms Of Devastation was a very good experience but this one is more like 'everyone looking at each other after completing a song.. and saying..perfect this is it.' We will see if we are right once you guys get your hands on it. We worked on another new song this morning. Me and J-F (Dagenais - guitar) were writing in the early morning and came up with some cool stuff, so we called Max (Duhamel - drums) to get his ass to the studio, of course he was still wasted from the previous night and sleeping, but he finally came over and we got some cool things happening for a song called 'The Vultures Are Watching'. The band is really focused. It's the first time in a very long time all four of us are writing an album together in the same room. Feeling good! Ohh.. by the way we just got word we might be on tour in the States from August 15th to September 15th. I think an announcement is coming soon."