New Jersey-based progressive metallers SYMPHONY X are tentatively scheduled to regroup next month to begin work on material for the follow-up to 2015's "Underworld" album.

SYMPHONY X completed an extensive tour behind "Underworld" in 2016, including a U.S. run of shows with OVERKILL and a pair of headlining performances in Australia.

Asked in a brand new interview with Metal Nation for an update on SYMPHONY X's current status, bassist Mike LePond said (hear audio below): "In 2017, SYMPHONY X did not perform. Michael Romeo [guitar] was working on a solo album, which he's finishing up now. And Russell [Allen, vocals], he was doing work with his side band, the ADRENALINE MOB, and now I think he probably just finished his tour with the TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA. So, basically, it's looking like probably sometime next month we're going to get together and start writing songs again. And hopefully we'll have something new available either by the end of this year or early next year."

In July 2017, Allen and his ADRENALINE MOB bandmates were involved in a crash that killed the group's bassist, David Zablidowsky.

LePond's solo band, MIKE LEPOND'S SILENT ASSASSINS, will release its second album, "Pawn And Prophecy", on January 26 via Frontiers Music Srl. The SYMPHONY X bassist describes as the effort a "a collection of epic tales told with the power of heavy metal music. The classic headbanging riffs and kick-ass vocals will get your horns and fists in the air. It is an album made for metalheads by metalheads."