AFTER FOREVER guitarist Sander Gommans has issued the following update on his HDK project, also featuring vocalist Amanda Somerville:

"Hi everybody,

As promised, here's the first song 'Request' from my HDK project. Some of you already heard this song in a pre-mix version, this is the final version. Here's some extra info on this song:

The song 'Request' is about MySpace. Although MySpace certainly has a positive side, this song reflects the negative side. I wanted to write a song about this, because I saw a lot of things happening on myspace that attracted my attention. First, I'd like to give you the lyrics Amanda wrote:

Request

Temptation summons you in

Into a world where you're craving the sin

You're tasting it

Bite the apple

Stroke the serpent

Chorus:

Welcome to the freakshow

No one will ever know

Where you stay, where you go

Send your rejects

No beginning, no end

To the messages sent

A disposable friend

Send your request now

Communities never asleep

Slaying their numbers of friends like they're sheep

Collecting heads

Pimp me up

Add me now

Hazard!

By-products of your existence

Caution!

Addiction knows no resistance

Sickness drags you further in the machine

Coward!

Take cover, run, hide behind the screen

Wickedly cover your tracks

They're searching, but you can slip through any crack

Into the void

Hack and violate

Flee and vacate

As you can see, these lyrics are about the fact many myspace users seem to be obsessed with having as many friends as possible online, they don't realise they forget to make friends in real life.

Again, I'm not saying it's not possible to make friends through MySpace, but there's also another world out there you should pay attention too in my opinion. You can't 'add' and 'delete' friends, and the way friends are chosen online by their looks or interests is also a bit strange in my opinion. The way people can make remarks about other people online and share all their private stuff on their profile with their new 'friends' worries me, and that's what these lyrics are about. I'm sure a lot of you out there have gained great friendships because of MySpace, but I'm talking about the ones that don't seem to connect with people in real life and are obsessed to keep their online friends happy, no matter what.

This song has a somewhat different style than some of the more extreme songs, it's a mixture of death/thrash and power metal, the powermetal influence is certainly because of Andre Matos participating in this one! He used his more agressive voice though, wich sounds great in my opinion! His vocal ranges were crucial for this song, man, what a voice! I think this is also one of the more progressive songs compositionwise and I'm happy to have had the chance working with those great musicians who make the song really heavy and tight.

The whispers were done by Amanda and me, I also did the grunts in the midpart. Just like all of the other HDK songs, Joost and I did the mix, I loved mixing this song especially because of all the different sounds in it and the percussive character of the verse and chorus. The solo in this song is also played by me, it was the first solo I wrote for HDK and since I never really played this kind of solos in After Forever, it was a cool experience!"

As previously reported, Season Of Mist will release System Overload, the debut album from HDK, on February 23rd in Europe and on April 21st in North America. Go to this location for BW&BK;'s overview of the album issued back in February 2008.