GWENT’S most iconic band will release their 12th studio album in July.

Manic Street Preachers’ Futurology LP will be the follow up to last year’s acoustic album Rewind The Film and features a song called The View From Stow Hill – a reference to Newport, where bassist Nicky Wire lives.

The Blackwood band’s latest work will be released on Monday, July 7, and features special guests including Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside, from Cwmbran, Welsh Music Prize 2013 winner Georgia Ruth, Cian Ciarán of the Super Furry Animals, and another Welsh artist, Cate Le Bon, who is proving a hit in America.

Songs include a tribute to Welsh industrialist John Hughes, who established a city in Russia, Hughesovska, and a song about the Russian poet Mayakovsky.

According to a press release on their website Their newest album was recorded at a studio in Berlin., “is the sound of the Manics at their very best – a record inspired by permanent revolution, modern art and Autobahns”.

Earlier in April, the Manics were forced to issue a statement following the unintended release of the album’s first single, ‘Walk Me To The Bridge’, via legal and illegal download sites.

In a joint statement via Facebook with their label Sony, the band explained the track’s release date was put back a fortnight, but several online retailers had not managed to take it off their schedules meaning it had become available prematurely.

The Manics announced at the beginning of April they would be playing at Glastonbury at the end of June.