Former GUNS'N'ROSES drummer JOSH FREESE new group A PERFECT CIRCLE, release their first album 'MER DE NOMS' through Virgin Records on May 23.

It'll be released on May 23 in the UK and a day earlier in the rest of world.

nme.com revealed last week (March 15) that Freese had left Guns 'N' Roses to concentrate on work with A PERFECT CIRCLE which was his other project.

A Perfect Circle was formed by Mayard James Keenan, vocalist with mid-Nineties post-grungers Tool and Billy Howerdel, who has previously worked as guitar tech for Tool, Smashing Pumpkins and also Guns 'N' Roses. Recruiting Freese, Troy Van Leeuwen and Paz Lenchantin, they made a live debut at the Los Angeles Viper Rooms last August before decamping to the studio to put together the album.

The Smashing Pumpkins links are strenghened further with the news that Alan Moulder, a sometime Pumpkins associate, has assisted with final mixes of 'Mer De Noms'.

The band are expected to tour around the release of the album though no dates have yet been confirmed.

Meanwhile, Freese's former employers battle on. 'Chinese Democracy', G'N'R's first new material since 1991's 'Use Your Illusion' is being released through Geffen within the next few months and a tour is due to be announced.

The only song yet to have been heard, 'Oh My God', a number lifted from the End Of Days movie soundtrack, marked something of a radical new direction for the band borrowing more heavily from an industrial/beats angle rather their metal roots.