"Bloodstone & Diamonds" was produced by frontman Robb Flynn and Juan Urteaga (Testament, Vile). Flynn had this to say about the effort, "I cannot even begin to tell you how proud we are of this album.

"It's been a heck of a ride. It looked like it might not ever happen again at one point, but man, this album is a milestone for us. You're going to love it Head Cases."

The band also had these details on their official website, "10 songs, an interlude, and an instrumental with an audio collage of spoken word snippets (think 'Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies') by Dr. Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman, taken from their (incredibly inspiring) audiobook 'Spontaneous Evolution'.

"It was once again produced by your truly The General and Juan Urteaga, and like the last 7 out of 8 albums masterfully mixed by Colin Richardson. Additional tracking, editing, and mixing was done with heavy metal legend Andy Sneap and Steve Lagudi.

"Guest musicians include 2 different string quartets featuring the original Quartet Rouge that appeared on our last album 'Unto The Locust'. And a new all-male quartet which we featured on the song 'In Comes The Flood'.

"String arrangements for 2 of the songs 'Now We Die' and 'Sail Into The Black' came courtesy of myself and Rhys Fulber who has worked with everyone from Sarah McLachlan, to Fear Factory, and the string arrangement for 'In Comes The Flood' came courtesy of myself and ex-Worship and current-Bring Me The Horizon keyboardist Jordan Fish, who is a producer in his own right.

"We worked with several artists to complete the 28 page (!) 'standard' CD booklet, as well as the 48 page (!) hardcover leather-bound Media-book that will serve as the special edition, including Rafal Wechterowicz, Marcelo Vasco, and long-time Machine Head art-collaborator Strephon Taylor. The theme was to have both CD and hardcover Mediabook look like an old Alchemy book from the 1800's, with weathered edges, sepia toned pages, and magic / masonic / alchemy themed woodcarvings throughout.
It turned out f***ing amazing!!

"All album photos were done with our friend Travis Shinn who took some mind-bogglingly awesome photos, that again, were set to match the theme of the book with an old 1800's / alchemy feel to them. " See some of the artwork here.

The band also announced that they will be launching a North American headline tour this fall with support from Children Of Bodom, Epica, and Battlecross.

The tour is set to kick off on October 4th in Denver, CO at the Summit Music Hall and will be concluding on November 1st in Hollywood, CA at the Palladium.

Bloodstone & Diamonds Tracklisting:
1. Now We Die
2. Killers & Kings
3. Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones
4. Night Of Long Knives
5. Sail Into The Black
6. Eyes Of The Dead
7. Beneath The Silt
8. In Comes The Flood
9. Damage Inside
10. Game Over
11. Imaginal Cells (instrumental)
12. Take Me Through The Fire