Germany's ATLANTEAN KODEX have been hard at work over recent months, writing their sophomore full-length album, which at press time remains untitled. The follow-up to their heralded debut album, The Golden Bough, is surely one of the most anticipated albums for fans of grand, epic and pure heavy metal.

Stated guitarist Manuel Trummer this week on the progress of the writing process: "The new album is slowly starting to take shape. So far we have around 30 minutes of all new, unreleased material. There won't be any demo songs or older songs from previous releases on the album. Regarding the general direction, you can expect the same sound and atmosphere as on The Golden Bough. There won't be any change in style whatsoever. The stuff we have written so far ranges from nice headbanging up-tempo anthems to some of the slowest and most epic stuff we have done... it's safe to say that our key coordinates still are Into Glory Ride - era Manowar, Viking-era Bathory, arcane 80's U.S. Metal served with a healthy dose of NWOBHM, folk and 70's vibes. All regressive, all Atlantean Kodex."

Tracks to appear on the album include:

'Sol Invictus'

'Defenders Of The West'

'Enthroned In Clouds And Fire'

'Celephais' (working title)

'Blacksmith Of Kochel' (working title)

'The Poetry Of Kingship'

Manuel continues: “So far 30-40 minutes of finished songs, fragments, riffs we still need to arrange in a proper way… We’re not heading for a certain playing time. As soon as we feel that the songs fit together and the album is complete, we will release it. No matter if it’s 40 minutes or 70 minutes. In any case we won’t release it before we’re 100% sure that it’ll be able to stand its ground as a worthy successor to The Golden Bough. That’s why it’ll probably take until late 2012 or maybe 2013 until you can hear the finished product. All members of the band will be engaged in very time-consuming activities in 2012. We still need to figure out, when to record the damn thing. Probably the first drum recordings will take place in October. We’ll have to see how to manage things from that point onward. In any case we won’t rush things. The album will be done when it’s done, even if it’ll take us until 2013. Stay tuned…”