U.K. black metallers Hecate Enthroned have announced the addition of vocalist Elliot Beaver (Aeternum) and drummer Gareth Hardy to the group's ranks. The band states: "This heralds a new start as well as a new lineup for the band."

A photo of Hecate Enthroned's new lineup can be seen below.

Hecate Enthroned has set "Virulent Rapture" as the title of its new album, tentatively due later this year. The band's bassist, Dylan Hughes, previously stated about the follow-up to 2004's "Redimus": "We had a more hands-on approach with the recording process of the last album 'Redimus' and after that, felt it was the way to go for us. We all have a lot of years experience behind us and know exactly how the band should sound and be able to create that on a release.

"The new material is very much guitar-driven, lots of heavy and fast riffs (tuned to C#), giving a relentless feeling to the tracks which we have tempered with a big orchestral sound. The choirs and orchestras have always been a big part of the sound with Hecate and that is very true with this material. In some parts, it recaptures some of the moods from the very early releases. Because of the fact we are recording ourselves, we aren't pressured too much by time constraints and can spend more time on getting the right sound and mix as we feel in the past we have had to sacrifice certain things to reach a recording deadline. Due to this, we will be taking longer than we have in the past but feel it will be worth it. And [we] also feel due to the strength of this material it deserves the time spent on it."