Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman's official web site has been updated with the following message:

"Marty recently took the stage with Andrew W.K. at his Tokyo concert where they blasted into 'Party Hard' together to a packed Shibuya audience. Andrew was a guest on 'Rock Fujiyama' [Japanese TV show co-hosted by Marty] in July.

"Marty is currently in the studio playing guitar and producing an album featuring the cast of 'Rock Fujiyama'. There will be tons of surprises, including a new song that will become the new ending theme of the popular TV Tokyo program.

"Friday night (November 17) featured Marty on two major networks in Japan, NHK and TV Asahi. Marty is the featured guest on the NHK show, 'Eigo De Shabera Night'. Those of you with worldwide access to NHK will want to check out this unique show. Previous guests on this popular show have been Eric Clapton, Puffy, Billy Joel and Olympic skater Fumie Suguri. TV Asahi's 'Tamori Club' featured Marty on its 1168th (!) show.

"The directors of 'Metal: A Headbanger's Journey' were in Tokyo taking a look behind the scenes on the set of 'Rock Fujiyama'. They filmed Marty in action there as well as in the studio for their upcoming movie, 'Global Metal' [which will explore the global spread of heavy metal music and culture]."

Friedman's new solo album, "Loudspeaker", was released in Europe on September 15 via Mascot Records. The CD entered the Japanese national chart at position No. 33. This marks the first Top 40 chart position for any of of Marty's solo albums.

The special first edition of "Loudspeaker" contained one bonus track, a vocal version of "Static Rain", the ending theme of the Japanese TV show "Rock Fujiyama". This edition was limited to the first 10,000 copies, which sold out on the first day of release. After those went, the standard version of "Loudspeaker", which has an instrumental version of "Static Rain", was put on sale.

"Loudspeaker" features guest appearances by Steve Vai, John Petrucci (DREAM THEATER), and Billy Sheehan (DAVID LEE ROTH, MR. BIG, TALAS) and is described as "by far [Marty's] most aggressive album yet."