Long-running Swedish rap-metal combo CLAWFINGER has signed a new record deal with the Perception label, a division of Reigning Phoenix Music. A new single, apparently titled “Sc*m”, will be released “soon”.On Friday, June 20, CLAWFINGER shared the following message via social media: “Well, well, well… look who signed a record deal again, just a quick 32 years after our first one. Yes, it’s true: we’ve officially signed with Perception label — a division of Reigning Phoenix Music.”Do we understand how the music business works anymore? Absolutely not. Do we know if this is a brilliant move or a beautifully misguided one? Also no. Is the industry still a fickle beast that eats its young and spits out vinyl? Naturally. But are we thrilled to once again be caught in the trap? You bet your nostalgic little heart we are.”Here’s to new tunes, old habits, and making the same mistakes… but with better shoes.”New song out soon. Sc*m.”Last July, CLAWFINGER vocalist Zak Tell was asked by Metal Mad TV if he and his bandmates would ever release a follow-up album to 2007’s “Life Will Kill You”. He responded: “Well, [GUNS N’ ROSES’] ‘Chinese Democracy’ took a long time too. I don’t know. The thing is we don’t really have a record deal anymore. We have a management. We release stuff via his label whenever we feel like it. We have maybe like five songs almost ready now. Maybe we’ll release that as an EP.”I don’t know if there will be an album,” he continued. “I don’t know if there won’t be an album. We’re not planning an album. We write songs whenever we have ideas. Most of us have full-time jobs and do other stuff. So it’s a question of time, and we have families. It’s just putting the life puzzle together. So we don’t have an album in the making. But we do have a few songs that are ready, more or less.”Asked if he and his CLAWFINGER bandmates still play small club shows, Zak said: “We only we only play really big festivals, because it’s more people and it’s more fun. No. To be honest, right now it’s just festivals over the summer. Maybe there’ll be some club dates later in the year.”It’s different times,” he explained. “Buses cost more, planes cost more, crew cost more — everything has become more expensive And we’ve done pretty much everything. But there’s one thing we refuse to do in our old age, and that is pay to play. We will not pay to play. But we’ve done that in the past. We did that in certain territories back in the ’90s and early 2000s. We’re not doing that again. We don’t need to make big money or be rich fucking rock stars or anything, but we wanna come back with something. And also, what a lot of people don’t realize is to put on a show, it costs you money. I mean, it probably costs us at least two thousand euro to do a gig — just in costs for crew members and flights. And it’s probably even more than that. I don’t know the figures, ’cause I’m just a stupid vocalist. But it costs money to play. It’s not free. You don’t just leave home and walk up on the stage, plug a guitar in and then go, ‘Okay.’ There’s a lot of work behind it. And especially in this streaming and TikTok age, people don’t realize that. They think everything is easy and simple.”In March 2022, CLAWFINGER released the official music video for its latest single, “Environmental Patients”. The track marked the first new music from CLAWFINGER in more than two years.Prior to the arrival of “Environmental Patients”, CLAWFINGER released a single called “Tear You Down” in September 2019 and “Save Our Souls” in 2017. “Save Our Souls” was made available four years after CLAWFINGER announced it was calling it quits.During the break from the studio, the members of CLAWFINGER were reportedly taking care of their families while performing sporadic reunion shows, mostly at European festivals. “CLAWFINGER no longer is our main job,” the band explained at the time. “We all have other jobs and families to love.”CLAWFINGER’s last studio album, the aforementioned “Life Will Kill You”, was released in the U.S. in July 2008 via Locomotive Records. The CD, which entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 89 upon its European release in 2007, was recorded and produced at Sweden’s Fear And Loathing Studios, a facility that CLAWFINGER runs along with the members of MESHUGGAH.