By midway of June the band had interviewed and auditioned a few drummer candidates. The right one had not been found though and the mood inside the band was hitting new lows. Payload kept up the active searching though, and towards the end of the month the band started negotiating about the post with Mikko Kattelus.

The talks and the audition went well, and the band felt this was the man for the job. On July 1st Mikko was added to the ranks - little did we know how this would affect the whole band and its future. July and the beginning of August was a half-paced time with members being on vacation from their jobs and spending time with their families. The new guy made his presence felt and it was obvious he wouldn't just be a background noise. It was all or nothing: everything received its fair share of opinion - the band web pages, MySpace, the style of the band, the appearance of the members, even the music. It wasn't too hard to see that the new drummer wanted to make the band look like him; not vice versa.

The band set about arranging a new photo shoot in order to get new, up-to-date photos of the group. There was also an experimental "music video" filming at the end of August, for the sake of practice and to tape up something at the practice hall since the fans hadn't really heard anything new in a good while. After the shoot there were some internal differences of opinion on whether or not the obviously lousy quality recordings should be publicized at all. In the end the band made a flash video with Vic's phone camera about the band hassling about the practice centre, available to the registered fans only.

After the vacations and the silence it was time to take a re-check on the band's goals and schedules. It was unanimously decided that there would be no similar stalling and frustration as there was before the first demo. This meant that the band would learn all the existing material (and maybe something new) well enough during the winter - latest early spring so we could finally get some gigs under our belts. First occasionally in the spring, then more frequently in the summer, there were even discussions about throwing a few gigs south of the gulf in Estonia. The whole band agreed to this and dedicated themselves to work in order to realize those ambitions.

There was constant tension between Vic and Mikko over all kinds of things - it almost seemed like a power struggle. The spirit inside the band started to fall apart with the constant battling. In the latter half of October the situation escalated so badly that Mikko thought it would be best if he and the band went their separate ways.

A week after Mikko left, Iikka also said that he would be leaving the band. He stated that the bands' and his ambitions don't match, and that he wouldn't be able to put as much time and effort into the process as was required. Given this, a week passed and then Timo announced that he didn't have the energy or motivation to start over again - so off went he also. Both members said that they'd be taking a break for a while and then start to look at bands again - who would've thought they'd be teaming up with the departed drummers' new project in less time than it takes to say 'new band'. Obviously, we would like to wish all three all the best for the future.

During all these resignations the band had, however, already found a new drummer, Samuli Rova and there was no resting on the laurels this time. The band put together its so far largest search for new members. After a few auditions Jari Rinnemäki was added to the roster as our new bassist, and after seeing and auditioning quite a few guitar slingers, Miro Aalto was accepted in as the new rhythm guitarist. In just a couple of weeks, Payload was back stronger, better and more fit than ever before.

Band also decided to relocate once again after finding a bargain for a practice place. November and December went by more or less waiting for Samuli's new drum set and renovating the new practice place to suit our demanding needs. Vic showed the existing tunes to Miro and Jari while renovating the new place and little by little the band started to feel more relaxed with each other while the cave begun to get its form. In December there was a well-deserved holiday for everyone and soon it was time for some real action.