AMORAL Joined By Singer ARI KOIVUNEN

Finnish metallers AMORAL have issued the following update:

"AMORAL is a five-piece again! Since the announcement of Niko [Kalliojärvi, vocals] leaving, we've received tons of applications from singers all over the world. As we mentioned earlier, we wanted to find a guy who was not only able to handle the growling of the old songs, but who also had a strong melodic voice. Well, little did we know that we'd end up with one of the most talented vocalists around! Ari's [Koivunen] merits as a singer are well known (at least here in Finland),but it might surprise a lot of people that the dude can also growl with the best of them! And the fact remains that he truly was the strongest candidate from all those who applied for the job.

"Being the sneaky bastards that we are, we have been writing and practising hard for a long while now while keeping low profile, and we're happy to announce that the material for the fourth AMORAL album is just about ready! The recording will start next month and will go on through January. The album should be out before the summer. Of course, we'll keep you guys posted on updates.

"Now, before some of you old-school AMORAL maniacs condemn us to hell: No, we're not going power metal on your asses. The trademark riffs are still there. The little quirkiness. The 'fuck-everybody' attitude. And most importantly, the songs are just as strong as you've come to expect from us. Stronger, actually. You could clearly see on 'Reptile Ride' already that we were eager to push our music to a more melodic direction, and the next natural step was to go all the way with the vocals. This is a new beginning for us, and we truly believe our best work is still ahead of us."

Ari Koivunen, 24, is best known as the winner of last year's Finnish national TV talent competition "Idols". He has released two solo albums thus far — 2007's "Fuel For The Fire" and 2008's "Becoming".

A photo of the new AMORAL lineup can be viewed below.

Vocalist Niko Kalliojärvi left AMORAL in order to focus on other projects. He made his final appearance with the band at the Thrashia Läpi Yön festival at Tammela, Finland on August 23.

AMORAL last year entered the album chart in Finland at position No. 5 with the band's latest effort, "Reptile Ride".

An e-card for "Reptile Ride", featuring clips of all the songs on the CD, can be accessed at this location.

"Reptile Ride" (view cover artwork by Aki Siltala at this location) was produced, recorded and mixed by Janne Saksa at Sound Supreme Studios in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Spikefarm Records in June 2007 released the Internet-only "Leave Your Dead Behind". The bonus track for this release was a cover of Swedish pop star PANDORA's song "The Naked Sun". AMORAL's back catalogue has also gone digital: "Wound Creations" (2004) and "Decrowning" (2005) were released to digital music distributors in May 2007.

AMORAL's video for the song "Leave Your Dead Behind" can be viewed below.

(Thanks: Melica / Night Elves)