Frontiers Music Srl has confirmed that PRETTY MAIDS are working on a new studio album, due in 2027. It will be the Danish band's first since 2019's "Undress Your Madness", and it closes a gap that had less to do with inspiration than with circumstance.
The record will be produced by Jacob Hansen, a fellow Dane whose credit list runs through AMARANTHE, VOLBEAT, EPICA, PRIMAL FEAR and EVERGREY. No title, no tracklist and no release date yet — Frontiers says more will follow over the coming months.
PRETTY MAIDS have been running on the same engine since Ronnie Atkins and Ken Hammer formed the band in early 1982: riffs with weight behind them, keyboards used as atmosphere rather than decoration, and choruses built to be shouted back. Their second album, 1987's "Future World", is still the reference point. Produced by Eddie Kramer, it had sold 300,000 copies worldwide by 1990 and reached No. 165 on the Billboard 200 — a genuine American chart placing for a Danish metal band in the 1980s. "Jump The Gun", "Pandemonium", "Motherland" and "Kingmaker" followed across four decades of steady work.
The current lineup is Atkins on vocals, Hammer on lead guitar, Rene Shades on bass, Chris Laney on rhythm guitar and keyboards, and Allan Tschicaja on drums.
The context behind the announcement matters. "Undress Your Madness" came out in November 2019 and was never properly toured: Atkins was diagnosed with cancer, spent six months unable to work, and by the time he could, the lockdowns had arrived. He has been living with stage four cancer since, releasing a run of solo albums throughout.
The band's return to the stage was deliberately quiet. On June 16, 2024 they played their first concert in nearly five years at Forbrændingen in Albertslund, Denmark, billed as KINGMAKERS for a "secret" warm-up. Four days later they played Copenhell in Copenhagen under their own name.
Speaking to Jorge Botas of Portugal's Metal Global in December 2023, Atkins framed the comeback as something modest and open-ended. "We were planning on a few selected PRETTY MAIDS shows. It's not gonna be a hell of a lot, I think. We're gonna do maybe five, six festivals during the summer or something."
He was clear about why. "I know there's a lot of fans out there that wanna see the band again, at least to make some kind of closure. It all ended in a wrong way because I got sick." Whether it went further, he said, "depends a little bit on my health as well."
It has gone further. The shows turned into a band again, and the band is now making a record.