Sweden's BLINDSIDE have issued the following update on their recent and upcoming activities:

"What a crazy year 2005 has been for us. When we started the year, we told you it was our most ambitious ever and we were certainly on the money with that!

"We started our own label WASA Recordings and partnered with DRT Records in New York. We then re-issued our first two records, 'Blindside' and 'A Thought Crushed My Mind', with new artwork and four bonus tracks on each disc.

"At the same time, we finished our first-ever DVD — 'Ten Years Running Blind'. We put together a 40-minute documentary of our history with two of our favorite live shows, Cornerstone 2003, when we were out promoting the 'Silence' album and 'The Internal Storm' tour film from the tour in support of 'About A Burning Fire'. The DVD also featured all five of the music videos we had made including the never-before-seen 'About A Burning Fire' video.

"Before that was even done, we commenced work on our new album, 'The Great Depression'. Christian [vocals] had been in Africa for six weeks and the time had effected him significantly. Musically and lyrically, the record was brought together in Stockholm, Sweden for the first time since the bands first record. Recording at home was a really important part of this record for us. Christian was laying down vocals on his way to the airport to start the tour. He even phoned in the album intro from L.A.

"We undertook a headline tour in the U.S. before the album was even finished. The Black Friday Tour took 10 weeks and saw us play the biggest headlining shows of our career. Only a few weeks of rest and we are now back out on the road with TRAPT and APHASIA.

"This tour has been one of the more interesting of our career. Six shows into the tour, Tomas [bass] fell of a skateboard and fractured his skull. This was very serious injury and Tomas has been in and out of hospital several times in the last few weeks. We are glad to report that is now seems very likely he will make a full recovery and while he has not picked up a bass yet we expect to have him back on stage very soon. It was the first time in our history an injury has made it necessary for us to use another player. Will from APHASIA has done a great job filling in and the TRAPT fans have made us feel very welcome.

"In retrospect, we probably did TOO MUCH this year, but we had so much fun doing it! And we still have a few treats in store before the end of the year. We will continue the tour with TRAPT and will be doing several in-stores over the next few weeks where we will do some special acoustic performances. As well as all this we will be doing some shows in Europe before we end the year and we will be announcing these as well as a tour in the U.K. in the next few weeks.

"Thanks for hanging in with us through a crazy year and stay tuned for much more very soon."