Scorpions Raid Vaults For New Album

Guitarist Matthias Jabs tells Billboard.com that the German band are working on "unfinished songs from the early '80s, leftovers from the 'Blackout' album, 'Love at First Sting,' which some people think is our best time."

So far, he says, the quintet has worked on a dozen tracks with producers Mikael "Nord" Andersson and Martin Hansen, and more is on the way.

"We will dig in again and maybe have a selection of 16 to 18 songs and pick the best 12 from those," Jabs says. "It's actually very good material." The idea for the project, he adds, "came from the fans. They were the ones saying, 'There must be some extra material from those days,' and they were right." Scorpions are adding new parts to the existing recordings, while most of the songs "didn't have proper lyrics, just blah blah blah blah working lyrics. So in almost every song the lyrics have to be re-written."

The album is due for release in 2013 and it will coincide with a new feature length documentary which has been filmed over the past 18 months. And while they have not ruled out performing one off gigs here and there, the band are still planning to call it quits on touring when they play in Oberhausen, Germany on 15 December.

"We're not stopping making music or playing a one-off (show) or something, but this is the last tour," Jabs says. "We need to be realistic, and we can't continue like this for the next five to 10 years. We decided to stop at this point because we are still in great form now and would like to be remembered as a great live band by our fans forever. We don't want to grow old in the spotlight. But the sadness is there; mentally, it's not easy getting ready for a show and knowing it will be the last time in that place. That's a new experience, and it's not easy to cope with. I can't even think about (Dec. 15); I don't even want to think about what the emotion will be at the end of that show."

(Billboard)

Here's some footage from the band's show in New York over the weekend: