Vital Remains Leader Comments On New Album Cover Art "Controversy"

Extreme Blackened Death Metal titans VITAL REMAINS have returned with a vicious new slab of blasphemy that promises to strike fear in the hearts of the masses. The much-anticipated new album, "Icons of Evil", was produced by the renowned Erik Rutan (HATE ETERNAL, ALAS, MORBID ANGEL, RIPPING CORPSE) and is set for an April 24 release.

The cover art has already created a great deal of controversy, but the band's founder Tony Lazaro (guitars) refuses to censor his vision in any way. "It is great to see that the cover of our new record has already started some controversy," he said. "Some of our distributors saw the artwork and suggested we change it. The record's scheduled to come out around Easter, and apparently the subject of Christ being nailed to his cross is a bit extra-sensitive around that time. We were told no one would take the CD unless we either changed it or put a slipcase over it. I absolutely refused to change shit, but I still wanted our fans to be able to find the album in their local stores, so we ultimately decided to go with the slipcase. I'm still pretty bummed about it, but this was out of my hands.

"I am extremely excited to announce that we've confirmed some amazing European festivals. We are now scheduled to play the Metalmania Fest (Poland), Fuck The Commerce (Germany) and the mighty Wacken Open Air (Germany), which has been a dream of mine for years now. So many great legends have performed at that fest, and it's great be a part of it.

"Our MySpace page now has some cool footage of Dave Suzuki recording the drums to the new track 'Hammer Down The Nails'. We're going to be doing a video for it as soon as we can 'nail down' a date with Glen (Benton, vocals). Speaking of dates, we're also working on a full North American tour for the summer. Stay tuned for more info."

"Icons of Evil" marks the group's second recording with Benton (DEICIDE) on vocals. Lazaro wrote the entire album and handled bass duties for its recording, while Suzuki once again tracked all the drums and lead guitar parts.

Source: Blackmetal.com