I know Bill Ward had a third solo album in development for nearly a decade but it's apparently been shelved. Damn shame, as the song that's on the Black Sabbath fansite is pretty decent.

The Kovenant - Aria Galactica anyone? the album is finished but - according to Nagash - they don't have a label to release it.

Good news, they released a new song last month.

Anata's new album is already recorded, mixed, and mastered. But Earache records is acting like a complete ass. And given their writing speed, they could have finished writing a second new album already...

Nagash seems to change what state the album is in everytime it's mentioned, the last two I heard were they didn't have a record label so they couldn't record it......and the other was they were considering recording it later in the year if they had time after their side projects.

AHHHHHHHHHH FUCK THEY DID!!!
sorry I'm just a Noumena fanboy. . . one of my favorite melodeath bands along with The Black Dahlia Murder and Garden of Shadows.

Vinterland, Welcome My Last Chapter was released in 96. They apparently recorded a few songs in 2006...

I agree with this one. Money can always be the problem.

meanwhile, earache is blaming anata: http://www.smnnews.com/board/showpost.p ... stcount=22

who knows where the truth lies...

It all has to do with the record labels. They won't release an album while another album is still "new" and selling and turning a profit, from record sales, touring, merch, etc etc. It's basically the same reason the three Lord of the Ring movies weren't released at the same time, but a year apart from one another, even though they were all finished. The producers and studios needed to milk as much cash from them as they could before moving on to the next.
A good example of this is Opeth. Before signing to Roadrunner, they put an album out every year, and they were quality too. Now they put one out every, like 3 years or something, maybe 2, I dunno, but not every year that's for sure. And now the albums are no longer quality, but bullshit, which I think also has a lot to do with the labels, but that's a different topic all together.

this is what I came here to post, YES! Its been like 9 years since their last album, and as you said from numerous accounts it sounded like they were either done with the album or very close.

This not being able to find a label to release the album issue does worry me. I mean, there is a distinct possibility the album could suck total ass (latest Morbid Angel album comes to mind) and this is the reason they cant seem to find a label.....but then again Napalm Records could release it if it was bad

The third Pavor album......

Does anyone know why Necrophagist is taking so long to put out a new album? Is it because of the line up changes or what?

All you guys mentioning Gorguts, Necrophagist, or any other "slow" band are missing the point of the thread. OP asked *why* they've slowed down in general, not for you to name specific bands that are taking so long to release things...

Per his question, it might simply be because we have a higher standard of originality nowadays. Not that music back then was unoriginal, but with a lot more concepts having been fleshed out since the 70s, bands are probably a lot more reluctant to release whatever concepts come to their mind, since unless you play something totally out there, there are hundreds of bands that have released something sounding exactly like that... The extra time taken to release something is most likely the reason we don't complain more than we do about all bands sounding exactly alike.

They're a famous band now and the releases of albums has a lot to do with the touring, they're well know, their tours are longer than smaller bands, so it's normal that their albums are not that frequent. I'll also disagree about their change or sound and the relation with Roadrunner. Yes, it's more accessible, but it's mainly because Mikael is not that much in extreme metal these days and his love for prog was clear since the beginning. Same thing could be said for Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater or Gojira. Their signings to RR will not affect their sound, their popularity could... It's 2 different lines which can be linked, but lets not blame the big mainstream record company.


I'll agree with Malignant Throne, the OP would like to know specific reasons. Everybody knows Necrophagist is not productive, etc...

According to Amund (Blackheart), the album is done, but they aren't in any rush to release it. If they really wanted to do it, they could; I mean, the band has a history, some successful releases (both in critics and sold numbers), well known musicians, so there's no reason to not sign them.

I'm not sure if this counts, but Thorns album is still on the works (according to Aldrahn he recorded some tracks already but the work is going SLOWLY, among other reasons, that he lives far away from Snorre nowadays).

Just because a band gets famous doesn't mean they tour more. They might tour further away, yes, but tons of bands tour their asses off just to get any recognition, and are still able to release albums on a regular basis. The amount of days on the road, whether in Japan, or in your meighboring country, is still time away from the studio, and I'd say that most bands tour x number of days, regardless of big label or small. Aditionally, I don't see touring as an excuse for a band to not write new material. One of my old favorite bands wrote almost all its new material on the road. Everytime it went on tour, I got excited because I knew a new album would be coming soon.
But one thing I will say is that I think bands on bigger labels, while touring the same as bands on small labels, have more, kinda publicity work, like interviews or some stupid videos to film for their website etc, do to than the ones of the smaller labels. This comes back to my point that the label is to blame. It's like 'busy-work' for the band that keeps them away from the studio or from writing, and at the same time turns a profit for the label.
And as for the sound being different for Opeth now, to say that it has nothing to do with RR is being a bit naive, in my respectful opinion. I won't argue the quality being better or worse, because that is purely subjective, but you admit that the accessiblity has grown. That accessibility is profit for the label. Period. And they know this. Bands are very seldom given not only full artistic rights, but even majority artistic rights. Since Opeth joined RR, you've seen an evolution from one band to another, in many different ways, and I guarantee it has at least something to do with contractual obligations. Mikael Akerfelt might try to explain himself as "being into prog," but he is also into metal, and it sucks that he is put in this spot to have to defend himself, but that's because the label doesn't have to do it.

There's a lot of reasons behind this. Its pretty simple. Most bands these days are either touring to make their living, or have a full time job away from the band that makes finding time to do stuff a bit longer than usual. Sometimes its not even the band but the label, or outlying factors that go into making an album after the recording process that tend to be time consuming.

it depends on the band really as well. Some bands are more prolific, and others aren't, or don't need to be. For the bands touring all the time, they may be "off" for about a month at a time per year, one year that month is break time, the next year its writing and recording the new album they'll tour on in 6 months.

For a band that's more part time, there's not as much time through the year they may be able to dedicate to newer music, or this isn't a priority for their lives. A lot of studio bands also fall under this because there's no need to release music all the time from a studio.

There are bands who don't follow this rule though and are prolific in the studio, but you can sometimes argue quality over quantity with some of them anyway.

Really i don't see the need to worry about a band's output. There's so many releases coming out per month from metal as a whole that you can definitely find time to occupy yourself with them while waiting for a new album from another band. Also bands who are active for long periods of time either fall into releasing lower quality albums over time (i have speculations to this as well though from a musician standpoint) or are so consistent that a new album won't necessarily be any more essential than a previous album (motorhead, cannibal corpse, and to some extents darkthrone have fallen into this category.) and most probably won't notice if they stop making albums, but each band continues to do so because they have "more to say" and wish to continue. A band can exist with 1-4 albums and i would consider their career a success.