U.S. progressive metal icons FATES WARNING are working on material for their next album, which they hope to release before the end of 2012.

In a brand new interview with Bulgaria's Tangra Mega Rock, FATES WARNING singer Ray Alder stated about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the new CD, "We're trying as hard as we can. We have these shows [in Europe] and then we go to Brazil in April. And in the meantime we are working as hard as we can to finish the album. Hopefully we'll have it out by the end of this year, If not, the beginning of next year. We're trying our best."

He added, "We need to finish writing right now. We finished the first song. The demo version is already done. We'll continue writing as we have a lot of ideas that we need to put together. But the first song is done and I can tell you it's seven minutes long. The recording process itself usually takes about two months and then after that it's another three more months before the album is released. So, we are talking five months out there after the album has been written."

You can listen to Tangra Mega Rock's entire interview with Alder using the audio player below.

Interview (audio):



FATES WARNING has tapped Mike Portnoy (ADRENALINE MOB, TRANSATLANTIC, DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD) to play drums for the band for their first-ever visit to South America as special guests for QUEENSRŸCHE in São Paulo, Brazil on April 14.

Commented FATES WARNING: "We're pleased and excited to announce that Mike Portnoy will be our special guest drummer for our April 14th show in São Paulo, Brazil. We had a great time playing with Mike back in 2005 at the Headway festival in Holland and we're happy that he's able to help us out again. We'd also like to make it clear that Bobby Jarzombek is still the drummer for FATES and will be with us for our European shows in March as well as on the new record we're currently working on. Unfortunately, Bobby committed to another gig on the same day (ironically, in the same city) before this show was planned."

The "Parallels" lineup of FATES WARNING played a number of shows in 2010 in support of the released special edition of the album, which was made available through Metal Blade Records. In addition to remastered audio, there is a second audio disc of live and demo material. The package also includes a DVD with nearly three hours of material, including a complete live show from the 1992 "Parallels" tour and a documentary on the making of "Parallels" which includes live, studio, and current day interview footage with all the band members, Terry Brown (producer) and Brian Slagel (CEO of Metal Blade Records).

InsideOut Music in 2005 released a FATES WARNING DVD entitled "Live In Athens". The DVD shot was on February 20, 2005 at Gagarin in Athens, Greece and was mixed by Bill Metoyer (SLAYER, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM).

FATES WARNING's latest CD, "X", was released in 2004 on Metal Blade Records. The follow-up to 2000's "Disconnected" was recorded at Carriage House studios in Stamford, Connecticut and features cover artwork by renowned record-cover artist Ioannis (DREAM THEATER, SEPULTURA, DEEP PURPLE, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, KING CRIMSON, BIOHAZARD, VOIVOD, UFO, OVERKILL).