TRISTANIA's male vocalist Østen Bergøy has checked in from the band's jaunt to the Wave Gotik Treffen in Germany followed by the kick-off of their South American tour with the following diary updates:

May 8th:

"Dear fans and friends of Tristania. After a turbulent year with injured drummers and runaway female singers we thought that our worst struggles belonged to the past. It is with regrets I must announce that we were wrong.

Putting a last hand on the preparations for WGT and the upcoming tour in Latin America, we learned that Svein Terje (Solvang/guitars) had decided to jump the ship. The timing could not be worse, because it was way too late to replace him for the upcoming shows. I am not sure concerning the reasons – I hope for his own sake that they are valid. I love Svein Terje like a brother, but I must admit that this feels like being stabbed in the back. However, we will do the tour with Anders as the only guitarist. Not an ideal situation, but we will make it work. The rest of us are eager to get out there and play our songs for you.

WGT is a festival that brings good memories and the return to Chile, Brazil and Mexico is something that we have been looking forward to for a long time. And finally we get to visit Argentina.

On behalf of the band I would like to say that we are ready and eager to get out there!

When we find time, we will post our impressions and thoughts about the tour here and maybe some pics as well. Feel free to comment and ask questions on the way. Our plane leaves from Stavanger at 0600 a.m on Friday.

Take care."

May 10th:

"After being ripped off by the airport personel at Sola airport, Stavanger (due to too much and too heavy luggage), we finally got on the plane that was going to take us to Frankfurt. The first flight of many these upcoming days. There was a noisy German business-man in the seat behind me who was cracking jokes and laughing loud. I hate early flights, and I hate loudness at 6 in the morning.

From Frankfurt, we got another flight to Leipzig and when we arrived at the airport, we missed one bag, but the most important part of the gear was all there. We checked into the hotel, and could finally get some sleep. The hotel is the same as we stayed in when we played WGT a couple of years ago.

The show started around 9.30pm, and I think the crowd was quite slow in the beginning - but through the set they were really loosening up. It was strange to be on stage without Svein Terje beside me, but I guess we will all just have to get used to this.

I think the show went well, the stage sound was good, and the crowd was friendly. Thank you to those of you who took the time to see our show. These are the songs we played: 'Libre', 'Shadowman', 'Angellore', 'Mercyside', 'The Wretched', 'Down', 'Beyond The Veil', 'World Of Glass'.

We are all looking forward to the next shows. Today is a day off, which means sleeping and drinking and maybe seeing a few shows at the festival.

Take care everybody."

Tristania's schedule is now as follows:

May

14 - Teatro Flores - Buenos Aires, Argentina
16 - Hellooch - Curitiba, Brazil
17 - AVR Festival - São Paulo, Brazil
19 - El Huevo - Valparaiso, Chile
20 - Novedades - Santiago, Chile
21 - Sala 2 - Concepcion, Chile
23 - Ibex - Monterrey, Mexico
25 - Hard Rock Live - Mexico City, Mexico

July

12 - Masters Of Rock - Vizovice, Czech Republic