Hi, Maelstromers,

I was hoping to get this issue out sooner. It took us two months to put out our previous issue, and we at Maelstrom had been shooting for a return to a monthly format. The result of course was an issue that took even longer.

I just moved in to a killer apartment, so this process has thrown my routine off. At any rate, here it is, Issue #9 of Maelstrom. It's not as big as Issue #8. We should have had at least 11 interviews, but a whole bunch of bands either flaked, lost our interview questions, or just fell off the face of the planet. At least we still have five quality discussions with some interesting artists.

First up is a conversation with Proscriptor McGovern of Absu. We also are featuring this issue a chat with Angela Gossow, the new vocalist for Arch Enemy. Also to be found in these pages are interviews with Fuck...I'm Dead, Frozen Shadows and Knut. Also look for four live reviews, including the US Immortal tour, as well as Vader and Malevolent creation live reviews.

In terms of album reviews, we are trying to keep the numbers as high as we can, and we've got about 70+ for you to look through. The Condor experienced some tumult at his workplace where a water pipe broke, destroying his workstation and much of his personal stuff, so unfortunately his excellent contributions will be on hiatus for one issue.

New in the Maelstrom camp is Melike Gunalp, who has been helping out with the web design while Steppenvvolf works on his master's thesis in physics. Thanks, Melike! We hope to soon have a really nice navigational side bar up on the site.

Enjoy,

Roberto Martinelli