MANIAC, ANDREW LILES And CZRAL Team Up To Release Album

Former MAYHEM frontman Maniac (also of SKITLIV, SEHNUCHT, BOMBEROS) has teamed up with Andrew Liles (CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND, SEHNSUCHT) and Czral (VIRUS, VED BUENS ENDE, AURA NOIR, DØDHEIMSGARD) to release an album that he and Czral began working on in 1996. The 14-track LP will have the title "Det Skjedde Noe Når Du Var I Belgia" (English translation: Something Happened While You Were In Belgium) and will be made available on the U.K.'s Dirter label.

Commented Maniac: "It wasn't something we expected to do at all. Czral and I had recorded the original material all those years ago but other commitments had meant that we were never able to get round to finishing it off and releasing it, and I'd brought it with me to the U.K. for my manager to listen to just out of interest, but it was a DAT tape and she didn't have the right equipment for it. I was also visiting Andrew Liles who was mastering the new SKITLIV album, and preparing to master the new SEHNSUCHT album, so we converted the tape in his studio. Andrew's enthusiasm for what he heard got the better of him, and we started working on it straight away. By the end of the day we'd knocked it into shape, expanded it, and were ready to go with it, and Dirter immediately expressed an interest. It all happened very fast and the album was on the way to the printing plant within days, so we had to come up with a name for the band, and the only one we could think of was MANIAC/LILES/CZRAL. Perhaps not the most original name, but that's who we are after all. As to what kind of music it is, well, I think 'quirky' and 'eclectic' just about sums it up."

A track from the album can be heard on the band's MySpace page.

"Det Skjedde Noe Når Du Var I Belgia" will be one of four releases from Maniac during 2009. "Skandinavisk Misantropi", the first full-length album from his blackened/doom project SKITLIV, is due for release on Season Of Mist in October. Cold Spring Records is currently putting the finishing touches to a limited-edition SKITLIV picture disc that will feature a specially written track from CURRENT 93 as well as artwork by David Tibet, and will also release the first album from SEHNSUCHT, the noise/ambient project whose line up comprises Maniac, Andrew Liles, SKITLIV guitarist Ingvar and GALLHAMMER's Vivian Slaughter. Maniac is also planning to take SKITLIV on the road for a European tour in November with PANTHEON I and DEN SAAKALDTE, whose vocalist, SHINING's Niklas Kvarforth, is an integral part of SKITLIV.