A new song which legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio (HEAVEN & HELL, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW, DIO) nearly completed before his death will be released next year, according to former DIO member Craig Goldy. The guitarist tells U.K.'s Classic Rock magazine, "We were working on tracks for a new DIO album just before Ronnie died in May. And we did almost finish one song. Wendy [Dio, Ronnie's widow/manager] has been talking about reissuing [DIO's] 'Magica' album (originally released in 2000) with bonus tracks, including this one." He adds, "The thing is that the lyrics deal with what Ronnie was going through at the time, when he was battling cancer. So now they are very emotional. It's hard to listen without a lump in your throat."
Prior to his death, Ronnie was working on two follow-up albums to "Magica". One of the songs completed during those sessions, "Elektra", was made available as part of the DIO "Tournado" box set (which was originally made for the DIO fall 2009 European tour which was cancelled after Ronnie got sick) in a limited edition of 1,500 copies, signed and numbered.
Ronnie previously said about "Elektra", "It's a really good song, and part of the whole 'Magica' trilogy. It's hard for it to stand alone, so I did write an explanation of what it was about. It's just a brief glimpse into what will be 'Magica' again. There are some special plans."
One of the last-ever recorded sons by Ronnie James Dio, "Metal Will Never Die", appears on "Bitten By The Beast", the new solo album from Dio's cousin David "Rock" Feinstein — a former member of RONNIE DIO & THE PROPHETS, THE ELECTRIC ELVES, ELF, and the leader of the legendary New York band THE RODS.
In a recent interview with the Artisan News Service, Feinstein stated about "Metal Will Never Die", "About two years ago, Ronnie was coming back home [to upstate New York] more frequently because his mother had gotten ill, so he was making frequent trips back to Cortland. And one of the times he had called me and said, 'I'm gonna be up, I'm gonna be there for a few extra days. It'll be a good time. I can sing a couple of songs.' And I said, 'That'd be great.' And when I got my solo record done, Wendy and I both decided, 'Hey, let's put one song on your solo album and the other song could go on the new THE RODS record.' The horrific turn of events, with Ronnie passing away, the fact that I wrote that song, the fact that he chose that week to come up and sing it, it's just kind of an eerie thing, because it was kind of meant for him to write it, meant for him to sing it. And now this song is part of his legacy; it's a tribute to him, really, in a way. And
now it becomes, like, the most important song I've ever written."
The second song Ronnie James Dio recorded during the sessions with Feinstein — entitled "The Code" — is expected to surface on THE RODS' new LP, "Vengeance", which is tentatively due next year.
As one of the cornerstones of British rock, RAINBOW — led by the never-predictable but ever-astonishing guitarist Ritchie Blackmore — became synonymous with some of the most well regarded and popular charting rock songs of the Seventies and Eighties. From the mystic and quasi-religious "Stargazer" and "Man On A Silver Mountain" to the solid gold anthems of "All Night Long", "Long Live Rock And Roll" and "Since You Been Gone", each year in the decade of RAINBOW was marked by some of the best songs and performances captured both on record and in-concert.
Passing through the band were some of the best the genre had to offer. Vocalists Ronnie James Dio and Graham Bonnet, bass player and producer Roger Glover and drummer Cozy Powell, each brought their individual talent to the table to record some of rock's best-loved hard rock on those timeless albums and singles.
On January 24, 2011, Universal Music will re-release "Down To Earth" in deluxe expanded edition.
With a relatively unknown new vocalist installed as replacement to the now-departed (to BLACK SABBATH) Ronnie James Dio, ex-MARBLES lung-buster Graham Bonnet would leave his mark on RAINBOW by taking the band into far more commercial chart accessible territory. With the loss of Dio's dungeon and dragon lyricism and the new "boy-meets-girl" subject matter, those girls were now paying attention and buying singles such as "Since You Been Gone", "All Night Long" and "Lost In Hollywood" in droves.
Released in 1979, "Down To Earth" is RAINBOW's fourth album studio album sees a band revitalized not only by a brand new vocalist but also with the addition of Blackmore's former DEEP PURPLE colleague Roger Glover on bass guitar. With Glover also sitting in the producer's chair, "Down To Earth" delivers the goods of a solid hard rock album with aplomb.
This deluxe expanded edition adds the two non-album single B-sides, "Bad Girl" and "Weiss Heim", and a complete second disc of previously unreleased studio outtakes and alternative versions which allow us to hear "Down To Earth" as a work-in-progress for the very first time.
"Down To Earth" deluxe expanded edition:
Disc 1
01. All Night Long
02. Eyes Of The World
03. No Time To Lose
04. Makin' Love
05. Since You Been Gone
06. Love's No Friend
07. Danger Zone
08. Lost In Hollywood
Bonus Tracks:
09. Bad Girl (7" single b-side)
10. Weiss Heim (7" single b-side)
Disc 2
01. All Night Long (instrumental outtake)
02. Eyes Of The World (instrumental outtake)
03. Spark Don't Mean A Fire
04. Makin' Love (instrumental outtake)
05. Since You Been Gone (instrumental outtake)
06. Ain't A Lot Of Love In The Heart Of Me
07. Danger Zone (instrumental outtake)
08. Lost In Hollywood (instrumental outtake)
09. Bad Girls (instrumental outtake)
10. Ain't A Lot Of Love In The Heart
11. Eyes Of The World (instrumental outtake – take 2)
12. All Night Long (Cozy Powell mix)
When asked about how he landed the gig as RAINBOW's singer, Graham Bonnet recently told Braingell Radio, "[Ritchie] was listening to tapes of lots of bands, and he happened to come across one of my songs. Ritchie auditioned 80 singers and he heard me signing THE MARBLES' 'Only One Woman' and asked how to get a hold of me. It just happened that Roger Glover was working with a friend of mine, Micky Moody, and he give him my telephone number. I had to audition with a song name 'Mistreated', which I had to learn, because I didn't know RAINBOW songs. I actually didn't know who RAINBOW was or even what kind of music they played."
Regarding the circumstances that resulted in your departure from RAINBOW, Bonnet said, "We were rehearsing in Copenhagen, and [RAINBOW drummer] Cozy Powell had left the band, and we had to start over with a new drummer, named Bobby Rondinelli. There seemed to be a lack of interest in rehearsing. [Keyboardist] Don Airey said he had enough, and was going to leave the band. I said, 'If you are going to leave, then so am I…' So I went home to Los Angeles, and they called me up and wanted me to return to the band. They asked me to sing the songs I liked, and have another vocalist sing the songs I didn't. I didn't want to be in a band with two singers and the fun of the band was gone. Eventually Don Airey left and the band fell apart after a couple of years."
IRON MAIDEN, SLAYER, KORN, MEGADETH, OZZY OSBOURNE and ALICE IN CHAINS are among the nominees for the 53rd annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The nominees in the "Hard Rock" and "Metal" categories are as follows:
Best Hard Rock Performance
* ALICE IN CHAINS - "A Looking In View" (from "Black Gives Way to Blue")
* OZZY OSBOURNE - "Let Me Hear You Scream" (from "Scream")
* SOUNDGARDEN - "Black Rain" (from "Telephantasm")
* STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - "Between The Lines" (from "Stone Temple Pilots")
* THEM CROOKED VULTURES - "New Fang" (from "Them Crooked Vultures")
Best Metal Performance
* IRON MAIDEN - "El Dorado" (from "The Final Frontier")
* KORN - "Let The Guilt Go" (from "Korn III: Remember Who You Are")
* LAMB OF GOD - "In Your Words" (from "Wrath")
* MEGADETH - "Sudden Death" (from "Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock")
* SLAYER - "World Painted Blood" (from "World Painted Blood")
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards will be broadcast live in high definition TV and 5.1 Surround Sound on CBS from 8:00 p.m. EST.
The nominees were announced earlier tonight (Wednesday, December 1) during the "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music Biggest Night". The announcement special was hosted by rap legend LL Cool J, a two-time Grammy award winner who is also producer of the Grammy nominations concert.
MEGADETH drummer Shawn Drover has commented on the band's latest nomination in the "Best Metal Performance" category at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
"Best Metal Performance" nominees:
* IRON MAIDEN - "El Dorado" (from "The Final Frontier")
* KORN - "Let The Guilt Go" (from "Korn III: Remember Who You Are")
* LAMB OF GOD - "In Your Words" (from "Wrath")
* MEGADETH - "Sudden Death" (from "Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock")
* SLAYER - "World Painted Blood" (from "World Painted Blood")
Stated Drover: "Let me tell you, it is nice to wake up, make some awesome coffee and read the barrage of emails congratulating MEGADETH on our Grammy nomination for 'Best Metal Performance'. I am really thankful and humbled about the whole thing, and I am looking forward to attending the Grammys and having a total blast, like we did last year."
Material released between September 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010 (a 13-month period) is eligible for the 2011 Grammys.
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards will be broadcast live in high definition TV and 5.1 Surround Sound on CBS from 8:00 p.m. EST.
The nominees were announced last night (Wednesday, December 1) during the "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music Biggest Night". The announcement special was hosted by rap legend LL Cool J, a two-time Grammy award winner who is also producer of the Grammy nominations concert.
MEGADETH's "Head Crusher" track — which was co-written by Drover — was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award in the "Best Metal Performance" category. The award eventually went to British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST, who were honored for the track "Dissident Aggressor", from the band's 2009 live album "A Touch of Evil: Live".
A harrowing "end-of-the-world" song, "World Painted Blood", the title track from SLAYER's most recent release, has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of "Best Metal Performance." This is the band's fifth Grammy nod, with the band having taken home the prize twice, first for "Eyes of the Insane" in 2006, and then again with "Final Six" in 2007, both in the "Best Metal Performance" category.
"I admit, I'm excited and kind of surprised," said SLAYER's bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, who co-wrote (with guitarist Jeff Hanneman) "World Painted Blood". "To have SLAYER's music recognized by an organization as traditional as the Grammys — five times now — is like that gold star that someone puts up by your name. It's unexpected, but it's cool."
The "World Painted Blood" nomination caps off one of the band's most challenging yet successful years of its career. Beginning with Araya's successful neck surgery that now has him pain-free, SLAYER went on to co-headline (with MEGADETH) the "Canadian" and "American Carnage" tours, European headline dates, the historic summer series of "Big Four" Sonisphere European concerts with METALLICA, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX, and the recently completed "Jägermeister Music Tour" that SLAYER co-headlined with MEGADETH and featured ANTHRAX.
SLAYER's 2011 will launch with a slew of major Australian festivals, with more North American news to be announced.
"Best Metal Performance" nominees:
* IRON MAIDEN - "El Dorado" (from "The Final Frontier")
* KORN - "Let The Guilt Go" (from "Korn III: Remember Who You Are")
* LAMB OF GOD - "In Your Words" (from "Wrath")
* MEGADETH - "Sudden Death" (from "Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock")
* SLAYER - "World Painted Blood" (from "World Painted Blood")
Material released between September 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010 (a 13-month period) is eligible for the 2011 Grammys.
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards will be broadcast live in high definition TV and 5.1 Surround Sound on February 13, 2011 on CBS from 8:00 p.m. EST.
THE Guns N' Roses concert was still ringing in the ears of some residents yesterday, who were clearly happy to see the legendary group fly out of Townsville.
The Bulletin was inundated yesterday with calls and texts from residents near Reid Park who were frustrated by the noise and late finish of the concert.
Hermit Park resident Mike Shearer said he was forced to turn up his television as the Gunners' music dominated his lounge room on Wednesday night.
"It was far too noisy and it went well outside the time it was meant to go," Mr Shearer said.
"If that concert was being held in my neighbour's place, the police would have confiscated the hi-fi set, so why should they get away with it in Reid Park?"
Mr Shearer, who has also been vocal about the noise generated during the Townsville 400 V8 weekend, said Axl Rose and his crew were far worse. "With the V8s, the noise goes up and down, but the concert last night tended to stay noisy and they were still firing off rockets up until midnight and setting the neighbourhood dogs going," he said.
A Townsville City Council spokesman told the Bulletin before the concert promoters were licensed to continue the show until 10.45pm and council and Liquor Licensing would monitor noise levels.
Mayor Les Tyrell said yesterday he understood why residents were angry after the concert stretched on until midnight.
"Guns N' Roses came on late and the concert ran late which is a concern to us and something we will talk to promoters about, as it is not fair for residents on a midweek event," Cr Tyrell said.
"The remainder of the feedback has been positive, with most people generally happy with traffic management, amenities and the state of the venue."
Police said there were no major incidents as revellers behaved themselves.
Cr Tyrell said despite the noise and time breaches, the event was a "coming of age" for Reid Park.
"We have had staff on site at all of the major events Tim McGraw, QNI Christmas Party, V8s and the concert last night and we are looking at the good and the bad to make sure we are continually improving the venue," he said.
"In spite of the recent rain and the complicated logistics of moving events in and out, Reid Park is holding up and really coming of age as a concert venue."
The Gunners took to the stage more than an hour late.
Ivan Chopik of GuitarMessenger.com recently conducted an interview with legendary guitarist Slash (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
GuitarMessenger.com: Coming back from this extensive tour, has it been difficult for you to maintain your healthier lifestyle that you've adopted in recent years?
Slash: This has been a whirlwind tour that we just did — from a European tour, to Asia, to Australia to the U.S. all inside of basically eight months. With the exception of days that we were flying, we were playing like six nights a week. You just have to pace yourself. The only thing really that I focus on is the gig. I don't do anything else, except for handle the press and stuff. There was a lot of work going on in this tour. Because it's my solo record, there was nobody else to share any of the duties. [laughs] It was all up to me to get everything done in addition to the actual show. It was a lot of work. Basically, all you've got to do is pace yourself, and try if you can to get some rest here and there — and try not to eat a lot of crap [laughs].
GuitarMessenger.com: One of the things I really admire about your playing is that as excited as you may feel and get during various parts of the show, you still manage to have a really relaxed rhythmic feel. Is that something you're conscious of and have worked on, or does it just come to you?
Slash: No, I always thought that I was on top of the beat. [laughs] I do rush things a little bit, but I don't really have a concentrated approach on how I do things once I'm out there doing it, you know? How I play is spontaneous, feel-wise — it is what it is. I don't really think about it too much. That said, I'm very focused when it comes to the actual execution of whatever it is that I'm playing, and being in tune with the band and all of that kind of stuff. It's all very, very important. It's sort of just part of my gig: we go in, make sure everything sounds cool, and then sort of lock in — and then I don't think about that aspect of it very much more after that.
GuitarMessenger.com: When you're not on tour, is there some aspect of your playing that you're still trying to change or improve on?
Slash: I have my guitar right here, and I sit around and just see what comes up or see if there are any ideas — sort of just mess around. I don't have a regimen. I don't have a focused line of thinking as far as how I approach the guitar, I just sort of do stuff with it and hope for the best and hope that something inspiring comes up or I might stumble on something. You know what I mean? The best thing, I think, is to just to keep a guitar around as much as possible.
GuitarMessenger.com: Are there any new artists out there that you've been getting into recently?
Slash: I did really enjoy jamming with AIRBOURNE. When we were doing the European festival tour, we were doing all of these shows with that band. That was pretty cool. Those guys are the closest thing to a sort of AC/DC-type hard rock band, full of energy kind of thing that I've seen in a long time. I like Jack White's new band DEAD WEATHER, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE is cool, and the new AVENGED SEVENFOLD record's good. There's a band from Australia which is just now breaking over here called KARNIVOOL, which is really, really cool. There's stuff here and there — there hasn't been one thing where I've just been like:, "Wow!" Like when I first heard ALICE IN CHAINS, say. There hasn't been a movement like that, but there are cool things that are starting to happen that are rock and roll-based. Hopefully in the next of couple years as things develop, there will be more of that happening.
GuitarMessenger.com: Having weathered the ups and downs of the industry for so many years now, what's some advice that you can give to young artists trying to get out there and make their mark in the industry?
Slash: I don't know. Right now, I'm busy sort of hanging on as far as sticking to my guns in what it is that I do, and really not fitting in with everything else that's going on in music at this point. It's hard for me to know what to tell somebody trying to get it together at this point in time, because it just seems so corporate now. A lot of records are being made where people don't even know how to play. There's a lot of technology involved, and nowadays it seems like everybody's trying to conform to the music industry standard. It used to be that there was a record business and then there were the musicians, and the twain didn't meet on the same ground. Now it seems like everybody is all on the same page, and it's really focused on money. It's hard for me to say what somebody should aspire to do in the music business at this point [laughs]. I would assume that the most important thing is to learn your instrument, and to know what it is that you want
to produce musically, and then to go out there and go for it. It takes a lot of work, and a lot of commitment and dedication, and you have to be prepared to deal with all of that and want to do it.
ROB ZOMBIE has issued the following update:
"Attention Zombie heads! We are playing 4 small warm up shows before we head over to England to kick some ass. Here are the dates:
February
6 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Catalyst
8 - Reno, NV - Knitting Factor
9 - Chico, CA - Senator Theatre
10 - Sacramento, CA - Ace Of Spades
Get your tickets ASAP because they are gonna go fast!"
Zombie's aforementioned UK tour is completely SOLD OUT. Dates are as follows:
February
16 - London - Brixton Academy
17 - Manchester - 02 Academy
18 - Newcastle - 02 Academy
20 - Glasgow - Academy
21 - Leeds - 02 Academy
22 - Birmingham - Academy 2
Sean Yseult recently released "I'm in the Band" — a detailed account of her time in WHITE ZOMBIE, one of the biggest breakout metal sensations from the '90s. Now, in celebration of the book's release, Sean has teamed with Metal Army America to host and guest-DJ the next Metal Army night in Hollywood on December 9. The event will take place on Thursday, December 9 at Three Clubs and will feature both Sean Yseult and John Tempesta (EXODUS, TESTAMENT, WHITE ZOMBIE, HELMET, THE CULT) as guest DJs. Metal Army America will also be holding giveaways throughout the night featuring rare memorabilia from WHITE ZOMBIE (donated by Sean) along with merch, concert tickets and more from some of your favorite metal bands and labels.
Three Clubs is located at:
1123 N. Vine St (between Santa Monica Blvd. and Fountain Blvd.)
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Metal Army nights have become "some of the most anticipated and talked-about monthly parties in Los Angeles," according to a press release. The event has become home to many bands while they are in L.A. and a great place for fans to get together and celebrate the tie that binds us all together: HEAVY METAL! So come out on Thursday, December 9 and stay tuned for more info on future Metal Army nights as well as parties launching in New York, Seattle and other cities across the country.
For more information, visit www.metal-army.com.
In a recent interview with art critic Brian Sherwin, Yseult stated about her involvement with WHITE ZOMBIE, "We were all deeply involved in the direction of the band creatively and professionally at the time, it was all four of us living together, living, eating, breathing and sleeping WHITE ZOMBIE. Rob [Zombie, vocals] and I made all of the decisions creatively and business-wise, but we were really a band, especially when we wrote music. This was up until and during 'La Sexorcisto' being released. While we were touring that record for two and a half years — Rob and I broke up. At that point he started making decisions without consulting me or J. [guitar], as in getting a hired hand to write techno tracks, then having me and J. try to riff over them — not the most inspiring way to write! This went down for a couple of soundtrack songs, and was a drag. With the next full album, 'Astro-Creep', some of these extra techno tracks are there but more
artfully worked into our songs, and I don't mind it as much."
Sean Yseult will sign copies of her recently released "I'm in the Band" — a detailed account of her time in WHITE ZOMBIE, one of the biggest breakout metal sensations from the '90s — today (Friday, December 3) at Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania St., in New Orleans, Louisiana between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
As previously reported, Sean has teamed with Metal Army America to host and guest-DJ the next Metal Army night in Hollywood on December 9. The event will take place on Thursday, December 9 at Three Clubs and will feature both Sean Yseult and John Tempesta (EXODUS, TESTAMENT, WHITE ZOMBIE, HELMET, THE CULT) as guest DJs. Metal Army America will also be holding giveaways throughout the night featuring rare memorabilia from WHITE ZOMBIE (donated by Sean) along with merch, concert tickets and more from some of your favorite metal bands and labels.
Three Clubs is located at:
1123 N. Vine St (between Santa Monica Blvd. and Fountain Blvd.)
Los Angeles, CA 90038
In a recent interview with art critic Brian Sherwin, Yseult stated about her early years with WHITE ZOMBIE, "We were all deeply involved in the direction of the band creatively and professionally at the time, it was all four of us living together, living, eating, breathing and sleeping WHITE ZOMBIE. Rob [Zombie, vocals] and I made all of the decisions creatively and business-wise, but we were really a band, especially when we wrote music. This was up until and during 'La Sexorcisto' being released. While we were touring that record for two and a half years — Rob and I broke up. At that point he started making decisions without consulting me or J. [guitar], as in getting a hired hand to write techno tracks, then having me and J. try to riff over them — not the most inspiring way to write! This went down for a couple of soundtrack songs, and was a drag. With the next full album, 'Astro-Creep', some of these extra techno tracks are there but more
artfully worked into our songs, and I don't mind it as much."
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY bassist John "J.D.' DeServio will join THE INFINITE STAIRCASE on stage on Thursday, December 16 at Uncle Bourbon's (The Old Dock Street Bar & Grill located at 691 Bay St.) in Staten Island, New York.
THE INFINITE STAIRCASE released its debut album, "The Road Less Taken", in March of 2009 before embarking on "The Black Label Bash" tour with BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, SEVENDUST and DOPE. After a year-long hiatus following a much-publicized and still ongoing dispute with former drummer Paris Bierk (son of ex-SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach), the band is returning to the club circuit and working on a follow-up CD.
Brendan Crabb of Australia's Loud magazine recently conducted an interview with MONSTER MAGNET mainman Dave Wyndorf. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Loud: You've remarked in recent interviews that "Mastermind" is a more complete and less patched together album than (2007's) "4-Way Diablo". Can you elaborate on that?
Wyndorf: Yeah, I mean "4-Way Diablo" was… This album was written in my usual style, which is, I sit there and I write an album, where I write the whole thing all at once. "4-Way Diablo" was not that, it was pieces of this and pieces of that. It was bringing a bunch of pieces together and trying to make it into an album. It's tough to say (if) one way is worse than the other, but this album was a lot more focused. Much more focused.
Loud: The new album seems to be receiving some of the best reviews MONSTER MAGNET has had in some time. Are you at a point in your career where you just don't care about reading reviews at all?
Wyndorf: Well, you know, they always mean something to me if they're written intelligently. Hopefully, reviews are written by people who know music and love music. So when they're good and they're from smart people, I love it. Even when they're bad and they're from smart people, I don't mind it. The only time I mind is when they're bad by stupid people (laughs). There's a lot of stupid reviews out there on the Internet… The quality of writing is in peril right now. It's having a hard time… Reviewers who don't know what they're talking about. Luckily for me, I don't really get that many bad reviews, so I've been very, very lucky.
Loud: The Internet has given everyone a vehicle to express their opinion, no matter how ill-informed it may be. Go back a few decades and people would take reviews in music publications very seriously and would place a great deal of trust in certain writers. Do you think that's almost completely eradicated now?
Wyndorf: You know, I think in a lot of ways it's better now. It does give people a vehicle to express their opinions. The downside of it is there's not a lot of education behind some of the reviewers. You know what I mean? It's obviously stupid people talking. Basically, what they like to do is pretend that they know, when they're obviously really misinformed about a lot of the facts. But you can't have it all. In the old days, you had a lot of pretty good writers, but then again, they kind of lorded over the public with words. That doesn't happen anymore; now the public lords over the public. There is a certain lack of finesse in a lot of the writing which goes on. But it's very democratic now and I don't know if I like democratic writing (laughs). I like snobs (laughs).
Loud: The Internet has obviously had such a huge effect on record sales as well. MONSTER MAGNET come from a time well before that, when bands could still sell millions of albums. How do you feel about the new generation of bands who might be as popular as say, MONSTER MAGNET once were but won't sell a fraction of the number of albums and will find it difficult to make a living from playing music?
Wyndorf: It's a bummer. It's a bummer when art doesn't pay; you know what I mean? I know that may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it's hard in the modern age to educate young people to the fact that music doesn't come from nowhere. Music comes from people, people make music and they really, really try hard. It's not a shame that the Internet exists and it's not a shame that people share and it's not a shame that people even steal. It's just the way it is. The shame of the fact is that there a lot of people who really don't know what it takes to write a song. They just don't know and they don't care. They think there's like a fountain of music; you just turn this fountain on and music comes out for free. I think there's a big disconnect in what people think they deserve and what they get. Unfortunately, it's creating more music, but more bad music (laughs). It's creating a lot of shit. The real serious people, who are serious about their music,
are very, very scared to make a life in music now, because you can't get paid. I would predict that there will be less good music around ten years from now and (even) less good music in 20 years from now. I really don't think it's going to get better for a long time. People would argue, they'd say, "No, no, no, an artist is going to do what they're going to do". That's bullshit — I know artists. Artists are not in this game just to fucking be sacrificial lambs. They want money — they want to live. I know a lot of people can't deal with this stuff at all; they'd just rather go do something else. I think it's showing up on the charts and I think it's showing up below the charts and it's coming up on kind of a transparent… where there's a big gas bubble between the old classic-rock bands and new bands. When that bubble pops, there's going to be nothing good around for a long time.
Swedish progressive metallers OPETH will enter Atlantis studios (formerly Metronome studios) in Stockholm on January 31, 2011 to begin recording their tenth album for a fall 2011 release via Roadrunner Records. Jens Bogren (SOILWORK, KATATONIA, PARADISE LOST, BLOODBATH) will engineer the effort while mixing duties will be handled by Steven Wilson (PORCUPINE TREE). The new material has been described by the band as "good."
OPETH's last album, "Watershed" (2008), sold more than 19,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 23 on The Billboard 200 chart. Its predecessor, "Ghost Reveries", debuted at No. 64 on the Billboard chart back in September 2005 with first-week sales of just under 15,000. OPETH's 2003 album, "Damnation", opened with a little over 5,000 copies.
As part of the ongoing celebration of their 20th anniversary, OPETH released live footage and audio from the band's performance at London's famed Royal Albert Hall. The concert (recorded on April 5, 2010) included two sets, the first consisting of the band performing 2000's now-classic, breakthrough epic "Blackwater Park" in its entirety, and the second, a chronologically arranged selection of material from the rest of OPETH's extensive catalogue, totaling almost three hours of music. "In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall" is, like the rest of OPETH's greatest work, "purposefully warped in all the right places" (Decibel). The front cover artwork concept pays tribute to DEEP PURPLE's "Concerto for Group and Orchestra", underlining the band's longstanding love for their prog-rock roots.
Frontiers Records has announced the signing of a new distribution agreement for its label products with EMI Music distribution in North America.
The new agreement will be effective from January 1, 2011 and marks a "huge step forward in the label's expansion strategy" — as stated by Frontiers president, Serafino Perugino.
EMI Music will distribute physical product from Frontiers Records in the United States of America and Canada. Plans are already underway to expand the territorial areas of partnership.
"We are happy that Frontiers Records have chosen us to partner with to release some of the greatest rock bands of all time — on their label you will find greats such as WHITESNAKE, ASIA and YES," said EMI's executive VP/general manager Mike Harris. "True classic rock artists that have sold millions of records worldwide. We look forward to a very rewarding relationship and know we will see true success in 2011."
Frontiers has recently announced the new partnership with Derek Shulman and 2Plus Music Entertainment who will oversee the label development and marketing over the North American market in conjunction with the EMI team in New York. Shulman said, "Our friends at EMI are all real music enthusiasts and we are looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with them. The North American Frontiers team is gearing up for the first quarter release, which includes new music from MR. BIG, NELSON and WHITESNAKE."
The first releases which will be distributed with the new set up in January 2011 will be the recent YOSO debut, "Elements", the ALLEN/LANDE hit album "The Showdown", along with NELSON's recent comeback, "Lightning Strikes Twice", and MR. BIG's forthcoming "What If…" The first-quarter release plan shall be officially announced shortly.
Pictured left to right in photo below: Mike Harris, Serafino Perugino, Derek Shulman, Mario de Riso, Sid McCain at EMI's head office in New York
Tom Murphy of Denver Westword recently conducted an interview with SOULFLY mainman Max Cavalera. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Denver Westword: How did you first get into heavy music growing up in Brazil?
Max Cavalera: My first experience with music was QUEEN, when they played in Brazil at a soccer stadium in 1981. My cousin took me and Igor [Cavalera, Max's brother] to see it. I loved it right there. I liked it so much, I went and bought a bunch of QUEEN tapes the next day. At the store the guy said, "If you like QUEEN, try this band, KISS." Then we both listened to those tapes, and that grew into getting into heavier and heavier bands like MOTÖRHEAD, BLACK SABBATH and, later on, SLAYER. It got heavier and heavier, to the point where I wanted to make my own music.
Denver Westword: What was it like in the early days of your being a band in Brazil, and what was the turning point for you in becoming a band that was known well outside of your home country?
Max Cavalera: In the beginning, it was kind of rough, because we were poor and didn't have a lot of money. We were very poor. We had shitty equipment, and we did whatever was possible to make it work. My brother didn't have a drum kit. He just had a couple pieces of drums put together to make a strange drum kit he'd play on. The major turning point was when we got signed with Roadrunner. That was after our third album in Brazil. The fourth was "Beneath the Remains", from 1989. That introduced us to the world. We played all kinds of different places that we could. There were some metal festivals organized by friends of ours — the Xerox fliers and word of mouth. A thousand people would show up and we'd have a good show. We'd have some kind of shitty P.A., but we had a good time. The other shows we did were competitions for radio stations, like a battle-of-the-bands type of thing. We entered a couple of those things. We did okay, but we didn't win
anything. But we got our music heard, and more people found out about us.
Denver Westword: Did your inclusion of traditional Brazilian musical elements first appear on the SEPULTURA album "Roots", and why did you weave that sort of sound into the kind of music you were already writing?
Max Cavalera: "Roots" was a unique album from the beginning. The first time SEPULTURA got influenced by Brazilian music was the album before that, called "Chaos A.D.", with a song called "Kaiowas". It was all instrumental, and it was about a Brazilian tribe that committed mass suicide. It was really our first collaboration with Brazilian instruments. Then the time came for "Roots". We were on the verge of discovering other Brazilian stuff, and we invited Carlinhos Brown, who is a Brazilian percussionist, to be a part of the album. He came to the studio in California and did an amazing job on the album. We did a song called "Rattamahatta", which was cool and percussive — Brazilian-sounding, with Brazilian lyrics. "Roots" was really the trip to the tribe that took us to recording with an original Brazilian tribe in the Amazon, which was more like a National Geographic expedition than a rock-band thing. It was amazing how we stayed with them, ate their
food and made music with them, with the Indians. It was us and like 300 Indians making up the background of the recording. The digipak had photos of us being painted by the Indians. They had painted all of us for ceremonial rituals. The album cover had a painting of a Brazilian dollar note from a long time ago that had the face of an Indian. It was really striking, and that was the cover of the album, the Indian face, and we just added the SEPULTURA symbol with the tribal "S" somewhere on the neck of the Indian. Otherwise, it's the same as on that Brazilian note. The artist didn't change it that much. The whole project was interesting from the beginning, because it was our own way back to our roots and making a metal album that was recorded with a tribe. That's never been done before. I think a lot of people were shocked at first, and a lot of people were at first like, "What the fuck is this? This is some crazy shit! Bunch of guys recording with a
tribe. What's going on here?" Afterward, I think it was really well received, and I think "Roots" was one of SEPULTURA's most famous albums.
Brazilian/American thrashers SEPULTURA will return to North America for a massive headlining tour next April/May in support of their upcoming Nuclear Blast Records debut. Joining them will be a veritable united nations on metal in the form of Austria's BELPHEGOR, Norway's KEEP OF KALESSIN, Poland's HATE, Canada's NEURAXIS, and California's BONDED BY BLOOD. Starting May 23, Seattle's own NEVERMORE will replace BELPHEGOR to finish out the tour.
"We are very happy to play once again in the U.S., especially after a long time away from the American and Canadian stages," commented SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser. "We're also excited to start working with our new label, Nuclear Blast. They have a rich history in the heavy music business and we are honored to have such a partner.
"We are currently working on a new record, that will be released together with the American dates, so it will be our first tour for the new album.
"Hope to see you all at the shows! We will play the whole history of the group and we're going have a blast! See you on the Sepultour 2011!"
Confirmed North American shows for 2011 are as follows:
SEPULTURA, ANGRA:
Jan. 13 - House of Blues - Anaheim, CA
Jan. 14 - House of Blues - Hollywood, CA
SEPULTURA, BELPHEGOR, HATE, KEEP OF KALESSIN, NEURAXIS, BONDED BY BLOOD:
Apr. 18 - The Opera House - Toronto, ON - CANADA
Apr. 19 - Imperial de Quebec - Quebec City, QC - CANADA
Apr. 20 - Club Soda - Montreal, QC - CANADA
Apr. 22 - The Palladium - Worcester, MA
Apr. 23 - Starland Ballroom - Sayreville, NJ
Apr. 24 - The Trocadero - Philadelphia, PA
Apr. 25 - The Gramercy Theatre - New York, NY
Apr. 26 - Tremont Music Hall - Charlotte, NC
Apr. 27 - The Club at Firestone - Orlando, FL
Apr. 28 - Culture Room - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Apr. 29 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
May 01 - Clicks - Tyler, TX
May 02 - Scout Bar - Houston, TX
May 03 - Trees - Dallas, TX
May 05 - Jake's - Lubbock, TX
May 06 - Sunshine Theater - Albuquerque, NM
May 07 - The Clubhouse - Tempe, AZ (w/ D.R.I.)
May 08 - Club DV8 - Tucson, AZ (w/ D.R.I.)
May 09 - House of Blues - San Diego, CA
May 10 - The Knitting Factory - Reno, NV
May 11 - The Grand Ballroom at Regency Center - San Francisco, CA
May 12 - Hawthorne Theater - Portland, OR
May 13 - El Corazon - Seattle, WA
May 14 - The Knitting Factory - Spokane, WA
May 16 - Gothic Theater - Englewood, CO
May 18 - Station 4 - St. Paul, MN
May 19 - Reggies Rock Club - Chicago, IL
May 20 - Blondie's - Detroit, MI
May 21 - Montage Music Hall - Rochester, NY
May 22 - Peabody's - Cleveland, OH
SEPULTURA, NEVERMORE, HATE, KEEP OF KALESSIN, NEURAXIS, BONDED BY BLOOD:
May 23 - Expo Five - Louisville, KY
May 24 - The Rave - Milwaukee, WI
May 26 - The Zoo - Winnipeg, MB - CANADA
May 27 - The Exchange - Regina, SK - CANADA
May 28 - Dickens - Calgary, AB - CANADA
May 29 - Starlite Room - Edmonton, AB - CANADA
May 31 - Rickshaw Theater - Vancouver, BC - CANADA
SEPULTURA has now added a special event VIP ticket for a pre-show meet-and-greet to take place one hour before doors. Each night, fans will get to meet and greet SEPULTURA. VIP and reduced-service-charge tickets are on sale now exclusively through EnterTheVault.com until December 28, at which point they will go on sale through all normal ticketing systems.
SEPULTURA has tapped Roy Z. (JUDAS PRIEST, HALFORD, BRUCE DICKINSON, HELLOWEEN) to produce the band's new album, tentatively due in early 2011 via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD will once again be recorded at Trama Studios in São Paulo, Brazil.
SEPULTURA debuted a brand new song from its upcoming album during its October 17 appearance at the Fúria Festival at HSBC Brasil in São Paulo, Brazil. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be viewed below.
SEPULTURA will perform their classic 1991 album, "Arise", in its entirety during the group's headlining performance at the 16-year anniversary of the Manifesto Bar in São Paulo, Brazil on Saturday, December 11.
The group's current lineup includes only two of the four bandmembers who performed on "Arise" — guitarist Andreas Kisser and bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr.
San Francisco Bay Area metal veterans DEATH ANGEL will embark on a European headlining tour in March/April 2011. Support on the trek will come from Greek thrashers SUICIDAL ANGELS.
Confirmed dates are as follows:
Mar. 13 - (HUN) Budapest - Durer Kert
Mar. 15 - (ROM) Cluj Napoca - [to be announced]
Mar. 16 - (ROM) Bucharest - Silverchurch
Mar. 17 - (BUL) Sofia - Blue Box
Mar. 18 - (TUR) Istanbul - Oldschool
Mar. 19 - (GRE) Thessaloniki - 8ball
Mar. 20 - (GRE) Athens - 7 Sins
Mar. 22 - (B&H) Sarajevo - Cinemas Sloga
Mar. 23 - (CRO) Zagreb - Mochvara
Mar. 24 - (SLO) Ljubljana - Menza
Mar. 25 - (ITA) Romagnano Sesia (Novara) - Rock'N'Roll Arena
Mar. 26 - (ITA) Pinarella Di Cervia - Rockplanet
Mar. 27 - (ITA) Rome - Blackout
Mar. 29 - (A) Graz - Explosiv
Mar. 30 - (CZ) Cheb - Kas
Mar. 31 - (POL) Wroclaw - Firlej
Apr. 01 - (POL) Warsaw - Progresja
Apr. 02 - (POL) Katowice - Mega Club
DEATH ANGEL's new video, "Truce", can be viewed below. The clip was filmed in Los Angeles with director Robert Sexton (SOULFLY, THE DWARVES, MONDO GENERATOR, AMEN).
Sexton previously worked with DEATH ANGEL on the clip for the track "Dethroned" off the the band's 2008 effort "Killing Season".
"Truce" comes off DEATH ANGEL's latest album, "Relentless Retribution", which sold 2,700 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 10 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200. The band's previous album, "Killing Season", opened with around 2,300 units back in March 2008. This number was in line with the performance of its predecessor, "The Art of Dying", which registered a first-week sales tally of around 2,100 back in May 2004.
Visit DEATH ANGEL's newly redesigned web site at DeathAngel.us for more information and a complete list of tour dates.
Austrian symphonic metallers VISIONS OF ATLANTIS will release their fourth album, "Delta", on February 25, 2011 via Napalm Records. The CD was recorded Dreamscape Studios in Munich, Germany and marks the debut of the band's new singer, Maxi Nil, who joined the group last year. Working songtitles set to appear on the album include "Aeon", "Memento", "Reflections", "Gravitate Towards Fatality", "New Dawn" and "Beyond Horizon - The Poem Pt. II".
VISIONS OF ATLANTIS will support RHAPSODY OF FIRE on a number of European dates in early 2011.
VISIONS OF ATLANTIS earlier in the year parted ways with bassist and founding member Mike Koren and replaced him with Mario Lochert (EMERGENCY GATE).
VISIONS OF ATLANTIS in 2007 split with the group's Minnesota-based vocalist, Melissa Ferlaak, and her now-husband, guitarist Wolfgang "Wops" Koch, due to "musical differences." Koch has since been replaced by the returning guitarist Werner Fiedler, who was responsible for much of the songwriting on the group's first two records.
VISIONS OF ATLANTIS's last album, "Trinity", was released in May 2007 via Napalm Records. The CD was recorded at Dreamscape Studios and was mastered at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki, Finland. The CD's cover artwork was created by Anthony Clarkson, who has previously worked with BLIND GUARDIAN, HYPOCRISY and EXODUS, among others.
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/reviewpics/visionsdelta.jpg
Veteran California rockers Y&T will hold a special New Year's Eve benefit concert for the band's original bassist Phil Kennemore who was recently diagnosed with metastatic cancer. The event will be held on December 31 at the Avalon in Santa, Clara, California. Doors are at 8 p.m. and tickets are $75. 100 percent of the proceeds will go to Phil Kennemore.
Special guests who have volunteered to perform include:
* Geoff Tate (QUEENSRŸCHE)
* Don Dokken (DOKKEN)
* Bobby Blotzer (RATT)
* Vinny Appice (DIO, BLACK SABBATH, HEAVEN & HELL)
* Sean McNabb (DOKKEN, MONTROSE)
* Loren Gold (ROGER DALTREY)
* Paul Bostaph (TESTAMENT)
* Jimmy DeGrasso (ALICE COOPER, Y&T, MEGADETH)
* Joey Alves (Y&T)
* Leonard Haze (Y&T)
Friends who have donated items/services to help include:
* Frankie Banali (QUIET RIOT)
* Joey Allen (WARRANT)
* Erik Turner (WARRANT)
* Jeff Scott Soto (ex-TALISMAN, JOURNEY, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN)
* TIGERTAILZ
* Timothy Drury (ex-WHITESNAKE)
Very special guest performances and unique auction items will also be available at the event. Other auction items are available at the Y&T web site. Breakfast will also be offered at the end of the night.
For more information, visit Meniketti.com.
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS are the latest act confirmed for next year's edition of the Sweden Rock Festival, to take place from June 8th - 11th in Sölvesborg.
Confirmed acts now include: AGENT STEEL, DESTRUCTION, FLÄSKET BRINNER, GHOST, GROUNDHOGS, THE HAUNTED, JASON AND THE SCORCHERS, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS, MUSTASCH, OZZY OSBOURNE, OVERKILL, RAGE (acoustic), RAUBTIER, DAN REED BAND, RHAPSODY OF FIRE, MASON RUFFNER, SAXON, STYX, WALTER TROUT.
The tickets to Sweden Rock Festival 2011 are now released and you can buy them directly online at Swedenrock.com.
Iowa's favorite sons SLIPKNOT will perform next summer at the Sonisphere series of European festivals, including an exclusive U.K. appearance at Knebworth (set for July 8-10, 2011). The band said in a statement, "We're looking forward to spending our summer in Europe. This tour is about us and our fans. It's about celebrating the life of our brother, [late SLIPKNOT bassist] Paul [Gray], and his legacy. The door is neither open nor closed. This tour is about burning down that door. See you this summer."
Earlier this week, two members of SLIPKNOT once again seemed to have made contradictory statements about the band's future following the death last May of Gray. Drummer Joey Jordison told Billboard.com that he and other members of the group are already recording demos of new material separately, and that he hopes to see them get together in the studio sometime in the first half of 2011. He told The Pulse of Radio that he expects great things out of the next SLIPKNOT record. "I think it's gonna be really, really cool," he said. "I think it's gonna be a really, really great record because, I mean, everyone's being really involved in the process and I think it should be, definitely for me it's gonna be, I think it's gonna be a healing process for all of us."
But singer Corey Taylor, who continues to tour with STONE SOUR behind that band's "Audio Secrecy" album, doesn't see a new record in SLIPKNOT's immediate future without Gray.
"Before anyone gets the wrong idea, let me be clear," he wrote on Twitter. "I have NO PLANS to make a new SLIPKNOT album anytime soon. Shows? Maybe. Album? No. As for Joey's comments, he took that on himself to say that in print. I can think of five people in this band who haven't written/heard a thing."
Gray was found dead in a hotel room in a Des Moines, Iowa suburb last May at the age of 38 from an overdose of morphine.
The members of SLIPKNOT have indicated that when they record and tour again — whenever that is — Gray will not be replaced and the bass parts will be played by other members of the group.
Meanwhile, Jordison's side band MURDERDOLLS canceled a tour slated to start on December 3 due to an "unforeseeable family emergency."
SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has reiterated that he has no plans to make a new album with the band anytime soon, despite the fact that the Iowa-based group has just confirmed a headlining appearance at the Sonisphere series of European festivals, including an exclusive U.K. appearance at Knebworth (set for July 8-10, 2011). Writing on his Twitter page, Taylor said, "Yes, we are playing Sonisphere U.K. And a few [other festivals] to be announced.
"Like I said: Shows? Yes. Album? No. Baby steps, people. For the fans.
"Honestly, I don't know how to feel about the tour. But it's for the fans, and for the family.
"We'll see.
"I don't know WHEN I'll be ready to make an album. Might not be for years. But we will definitely play shows.
"We'll see what happens."
SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison said earlier this week that he and other members of the eight-piece band were already separately recording demos of new material, which he hoped to begin recording sometime in early 2011.
Taylor has maintained for months that he has no desire at this point to make a new record without SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray, who died last May of a drug overdose.
Taylor and SLIPKNOT guitarist Jim Root have been on the road with their other band, STONE SOUR, since early summer.
Jordison has toured with ROB ZOMBIE and recorded a new album with his band MURDERDOLLS, although that group just canceled a tour.
DJ Marco Garavelli of the Italian web site LineaRock conducted an interview with Herman Li, guitarist, songwriter and producer of the Grammy-nominated British extreme epic power metal band DRAGONFORCE, in late November during Li's Italian clinic tour.
When asked about DRAGONFORCE's split with lead singer ZP Theart and the band's search for a replacement, Herman said, "The split with the singer, I can't talk too much about it yet. We'd love to tell the fans... I know a lot of fans have been asking us... And we don't wanna keep silent that long, but it has to be the right time before we can explain the reasons, so they have to be patient with us, hopefully, the fans, a bit more. And we're still working with trying out different singers to see which [one] best fits into DRAGONFORCE. Because it's a big thing having someone in the band; it's like family, you can't just let someone in so easily. It's hard work and they have to be travelling around the world; it's not so easy."
DRAGONFORCE's first live album, "Twilight Dementia", was released on September 13 via Spinefarm Records (Europe) and Roadrunner Records (U.S., Canada). The double live set was produced by longstanding DRAGONFORCE collaborator Karl Groom, along with band guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman. Records (Europe) and Roadrunner Records (U.S., Canada).
Featuring 13 tracks, including such pivotal numbers as "Fury Of The Storm", "Operation Ground And Pound", "My Spirit Will Go On", "Valley Of The Damned", "Heroes Of Our Time" and "Through The Fire And Flames", this exercise in soaring vocals and advanced guitar pyrotechnics was recorded across 19 U.K. shows, with the very best takes lovingly compiled and mixed by Groom, Totman and Li.
Formed in 1999, DRAGONFORCE – a multi-national amalgam of players at the very top of their game — has spent the past decade proving that virtuoso musicianship and strong songwriting values can appeal to rock fans right across the board; it's a journey that has seen the band playing sold-out headline shows around the world, including in markets as far afield as China, Hawaii, New Zealand, Russia and Colombia, forging a telling relationship with the "Guitar Hero" franchise, and tucking four strong studio albums under its collective belt, with sales currently topping the two-million mark worldwide.
DRAGONFORCE's latest album, 2008's "Ultra Beatdown", sold 24,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 18 on The Billboard 200 chart.
DRAGONFORCE had its first two studio albums — "Valley Of The Damned" and "Sonic Firestorm" — reissued on February 22, 2010 via Spinefarm Records U.K. Both titles were made available with updated packaging and bonus audio/DVD content, some of it exclusive to these releases.
New Jersey thrashers WHIPLASH have announced the return of the group's original drummer, Tony Scaglione, after an amicable split with Joe Cangelosi (KREATOR), who played on the group's "Ticket To Mayhem" (1987), "Insult To Injury" (1990) and "Unborn Again" (2009) albums.
WHIPLASH is a three-piece power trio hailing from New Jersey. The band was assembled back in 1984 when Tony Portaro (guitar, vocals) and Scaglione joined forces, then recruited Tony Bono on bass.
Scaglione originally gained notoriety in the mid-Eighties with his powerful drumming on WHIPLASH's debut album, "Power And Pain". Today this recording is still hailed by many as one of the essential thrash metal releases of all time. Throughout the years, Tony went on to perform and record with many diverse acts, including SLAYER (as the touring replacement for Dave Lombardo in early 1987), RAGING SLAB, CAUSE FOR ALARM, SHEER TERROR, LUDICHRIST, NORTH SIDE KINGS and M.O.D.
Commented Scaglione: "It's great to be back playing with Tony after all of this time! It's like coming home again where I belong. Tony Portaro and I have a fantastic chemistry and we look forward to performing all of the old material for metal fans all around the world! Get ready for some power-thrashing death!"
Added Portaro: "Tony and I built the foundation for WHIPLASH back in 1984. We shared the same dreams and nothing was more important to us than our music. We are a mix of fire and gasoline. We are excited to share our adrenaline rush with those who have followed WHIPLASH over the years. Get ready to witness the true core of the band on the road in 2011."
"Unborn Again", the latest album from WHIPLASH, was released last fall via Pulverised Records. The CD was recorded at Mozart Studio with Harris Johns. The band mixed and mastered the album at The Music Lab in Berlin, Germany. The cover artwork was created by Ed Repka (DEATH, ATHEIST, MEGADETH, NUCLEAR ASSAULT, POSSESSED).
Swedish metallers THE HAUNTED will perform at the "P3 Guld" (Swedish radio's annual music awards) live awards ceremony broadcast on January 22, 2011 from Lisebergshallen in Gothenburg, Sweden.
THE HAUNTED entered Antfarm Studio in Århus, Denmark on October 18 with the band's longtime producer Tue Madsen (MOONSPELL, DARK TRANQUILLITY, GOREFEST, SICK OF IT ALL) to begin recording its seventh full-length album for an early 2011 release via Century Media Records.
Dan Marsicano of About.com recently conducted an interview with guitarist Zoltan Bathory of Los Angeles metallers FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
About.com: You just alluded to the band working on the third album. Can you give a status update on the album?
Zoltan Bathory: We just came off the road. We finished the last tour of this record. We did seven major tours on that part of the record, so we were anxious to come home and sleep in our own beds for a while. I just got together with the guys yesterday. We had about ten days off; almost two weeks to recuperate. We just got together yesterday making plans, logistics, how we're going to write this record. There are ideas already that we have to work out of, so there are a couple of things already written. We're starting up within a week and hope to release it somewhere around April/May. It's a little bit of an ambitious plan, but we're going to try to do.
About.com: Do you guys only plan to stay in the studio for a little bit? Do you want this to go out real quickly and not spend six months in the studio like some bands do?
Zoltan Bathory: Basically, that's the idea. I think it's a mistake when bands stay in studios for long periods of time. The world is really fast these days and there's no reason for a band to not be able to release albums faster. For a fairly acceptable price, you can build your own studio that's good enough to record. There's no excuse anymore that you have to stay in a professional studio forever. You do need them, so I'm not saying that you don't. For the pre-production, everything we write, we already write it in a studio. We all have our own studios at home. So technically, when you write, you're kind of tracking some songs already. By the time we go to the actual studio with the engineers and the producers to record the album, by then, we have the framework of the songs. Basically, all the pre-production happens at home. So this way it's just a little bit faster. Instead of writing, writing, writing, and then go to the studio and start from
scratch, you already go to the studio with some stuff already recorded or some structures already built.
About.com: What are you striving to achieve with the third album?
Zoltan Bathory: Looking at that, it's more of an internal thing. With other band members spending more and more time together, you almost know what the other guy is going to do. It's more of an internal thing where the band gets more like an oiled machine, works easier together and everything snaps into place. The second record was a record that was made by the band. The first record, somebody had to start a band, so I wrote many of the songs. The second album is more of a teamwork effort and I look for the third album for everyone to be more involved. As for the music, from the outside, I don't think anything is going to drastically change. The thing is, we found our sound, so to speak. It's still going to evolve, but not drastically. If you put in FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's first, second, or third record, you'll still recognize that it is FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH. You kind of stick to the sound that you have. Like any band that I was into, from PANTERA
to METALLICA to IRON MAIDEN, you hear the first couple of riffs and you know it's them. I think that identity is very important and it's crazy to lose. I think we already have that sonic identity and we keep doing what we're doing. It's all about writing good songs. The possibilities are infinite when you're looking at it that way. So we already have the sound, it's going to sound like a DEATH PUNCH record, and we're just going to handle it the same way as we always do. It's all about the songs at the end of the day; the songs have to be good.
Bassist Peter London of Swedish sleaze rockers CRASHDIET has launched an official blog at this location.
"Generation Wild", the third album from CRASHDIET, entered the official chart in the band's home country at position No. 3. The CD was made available in Sweden on April 14 through Gain/Sony Music. It was helmed by RamPac, the production and songwriting team formed by Johan Ramström and Patrik Magnusson, in Gröndal, Sweden and was mixed by Tobias Lindell.
"Generation Wild" was issued in the rest of Europe through Frontiers Records.
The "Generation Wild" clip was filmed in Stockholm with director Marcus CF Tinnerholm (MUSTASCH, BABYLON BOMBS, THIS ENDING).
CRASHDIET performed its debut album, "Rest in Sleaze", in its entirety at this year's edition of the Rest In Sleaze festival, which took place on February 6 at Fryshuset in Stockholm, Sweden. The event was launched in 2007 as a tribute to former CRASHDIET singer David Hellman (a.k.a. Dave Lepard), who was found dead on January 20, 2006 at his apartment in the Swedish city of Uppsala, north of Stockholm. It was reported in several places that he hanged himself, although this was never officially confirmed.
"Rest in Sleaze" entered the Swedish national album chart at position No. 12 back in 2005.
For more information on Dave's passing, click here.
CRASHDIET last year announced the addition of Simon "Simme" Cruz from the Stockholm act JAILBAIT as the group's new lead singer.
RIGHTEOUS FOOL — the North Carolina project featuring two founding members of CORROSION OF CONFORMITY (C.O.C.), Reed Mullin (drums, vocals) and Mike Dean (bass, vocals) alongside guitarist Jason Browning from HR of BAD BRAINS' solo band — will play five dates in late December with CLUTCH. The tour follows the release of the band's debut single, "Forever Flames/Edict of Worms", which was recently made available on the experimental metal label Southern Lord Records.
RIGHTEOUS FOOL recently played several dates with the reunited three-piece "Animosity"-era C.O.C. lineup featuring Dean, Mullin and guitarist Woody Weatherman, and like C.O.C., they mix elements of hardcore punk with rock and metal. They opened for CLUTCH back in October, and are set to join the Maryland rockers again for a tour that begins on December 27 in Richmond, Virginia and wraps up on New Year's Eve in Asheville, North Carolina. Also appearing on the bill is Savannah, Georgia's KYLESA.
The dates are as follows:
Dec. 27 - Richmond, VA - The National
Dec. 28 - Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights
Dec. 29 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
Dec. 30 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's
Dec. 31 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
Video footage of RIGHTEOUS FOOL performing in Denver, Colorado on August 14, 2010 can be viewed below.
In a 2009 interview with the New Raleigh, Dean described RIGHTEOUS FOOL as "a heavy rock trio that can chug along like a locomotive at high velocity, a la early BAD BRAINS or C.O.C., or inch forth with the density of an advancing lava flow. All three members sing, and the vocals end to be a bit more melodic than early C.O.C."
Mullin co-founded CORROSION OF CONFORMITY in 1982 as a hardcore punk act alongside guitarist Woody Weatherman and bassist Mike Dean before leaving the band in 2001 amidst health concerns.
Swedish progressive/experimental metallers THERION and LEAVES' EYES — the German/Norwegian band formed by ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull and members of ATROCITY — have been confirmed for next year's edition of the Metal Female Voices Fest, set to take place October 21-23 at Oktoberhallen in Wieze, Belgium.
The festival billing is shaping up as follows:
AMARANTHE
BENEDICTUM
DEADLOCK
DRACONIAN
ECHOTERRA
HANGING DOLL
LEAVES' EYES
MIDNATTSOL
NEMHAIN
STREAM OF PASSION
THERION
TRAIL OF TEARS
VISIONS OF ATLANTIS
For more information, visit www.metalfemalevoicesfest.be.
EARTH has completed its highly anticipated new full-length album, which has been a subject of much discussion over the past two years. Following the band's magnificent 2008 opus, "The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull", the next chapter in the ongoing EARTH legacy is ready for public consumption. Due in February 2011 via Southern Lord Recordings, the recently completed new album has been titled "Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1" and promises to be a brand new entity within EARTH's already impressive and constantly progressing lineage.
Joining founding guitarist and band frontman Dylan Carlson and percussionist Adrienne Davies, the album lineup this time around also includes cellist Lori Goldston (NIRVANA, DAVID BYRNE, BLACK CAT ORCHESTRA, LAURA VEIRS) and Karl Blau (K RECORDS, LAURA VEIRS, MICROPHONES) on electric bass. Returning to Seattle's Avast Studios in April and July of 2010 to again work with producer Stuart Hallerman (SOUNDGARDEN, MUDHONEY, BUILT TO SPILL, EARTH2), EARTH's newest masterpiece shows the band continuing to expand on the Americana themes represented on "The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull" and even their incredible 2005 album, "Hex (Or Printing The Infernal Method)", taking their sound into broad new directions.
Citing inspiration from British folk-rock bands THE PENTANGLE and FAIRPORT CONVENTION, as well as North African Tuareg band TINARIWEN this time around, while still maintaining the thunderous, organic heaviness of previous EARTH releases, the material on "Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1" is more fluid and melodically oriented in nature, relying on more textured patterns and a greater emphasis on improvisational songwriting tactics. This, as well as the inclusion of cello and other experimentations from the musicians involved, culminate into some unforgettable new hymns. The album was mastered by Mell Dettmer, who also remastered the recent re-release of EARTH's first recordings in the form of "A Bureaucratic Desire For Extra Capsular Extraction", released by Southern Lord in late October.
"Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1" track listing:
01. Old Black
02. Father Midnight
03. Descent To The Zenith
04. Hell's Winter
05. Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1
HELLFIGHTER, the band formed by ex-members of cult U.K. thrashers XENTRIX, has completed work on its debut album, "Damnation's Wings". According to a press release, the CD was recorded at Viscon Studios in Northwest England and at Backstage Studios in Derbyshire, U.K. and it "showcases ten new songs [that see] HELLFIGHTER sticking to their thrash and metal roots whilst introducing a strong, modern, melodic edge."
HELLFIGHTER's current lineup consists of Simon Gordon (vocals, ex-XENTRIX), Kristian Havard (guitar, ex-XENTRIX), Den Gasser (drums, ex-XENTRIX), Pete Smith (guitar, ex-KILL II THIS) and Mel Gasser (bass).
In a recent interview, Havard talked about the making of "Damnation's Wings": "In some ways we have revisited the bands and sounds that we loved as kids — bands like MAIDEN, PRIEST, FORBIDDEN, TESTAMENT, ANTHRAX — but really we've just made the sort of record that we want to hear today.
"Everyone in the band and at the record label is very excited about 'Damnation's Wings'. It's taken a little while longer than we had hoped to complete the writing and recording process but we didn't want to compromise on anything. The end result is something we're extremely proud of. Most of all, we're looking forward to getting out on the road to promote the album."
"Damnation's Wings" track listing:
01. Tower Of Sin
02. A Lesser God
03. Legacy Of Hate
04. Faith In Lies
05. Damnation's Wings
06. Revolution Within
07. Epitaph
08. Bring Only Pain
09. Descent
10. Firewalker
The album artwork can be seen below.
"The painting is by a guy called Steve Smith who's based here in the north of England," says Gordon. "We didn't want to go totally down the digital-art route because there was a definite vibe when we were writing and recording where we looked to a lot of the bands we grew up with for inspiration. We carried that through to the artwork.
"I remember that buzz we used to get from looking at all the detail on the new MAIDEN album cover or whatever. So we gave Steve the album title and asked him to come up with something that suggested the nastier side of modern life and technology as a bit of a nod to all those great bands."
"Damnation's Wings" will be released worldwide before the end of 2010 on Heavy Metal Records. Distribution for the CD will be handled by Plastic Head in Europe, and MVD in the U.S. and South America.
For more information, visit www.hellfighter.co.uk.
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Los Angeles-based hard rock artists Will Wallner (guitar) and Vivien Vain (vocals) are putting the finishing touches on their debut album featuring an all-star lineup of guest musicians. The duo have written and recorded several songs and are in the process of recording the final tracks for their debut release. Half of the songs feature Carmine Appice (BLUE MURDER, KING KOBRA) and half feature Vinny Appice (BLACK SABBATH, DIO, HEAVEN & HELL). Bassist Tony Franklin (BLUE MURDER, THE FIRM) plays alongside Carmine, reuniting the duo who played together in the critically acclaimed BLUE MURDER. Vinny performs with bassist Jimmy Bain (RAINBOW, DIO) with whom he had previously played in the classic lineup of DIO. Rudy Sarzo (OZZY OSBOURNE, QUIET RIOT, DIO) also plays on several tracks with Vinny. Guest musician Tony Carey (RAINBOW) also plays on two tracks with Jimmy Bain, reuniting the two musicians who previously performed on RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW
"Rising". Mixing the album is industry pro Gary Tole, who, in addition to working with BON JOVI and METALLICA, has worked with David Lee Roth and Joe Lynn Turner.
The forthcoming CD will include a song from Will Wallner's previous project with keyboardist Derek Sherinian (DREAM THEATER, BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION). The track was produced by Derek and features Brian Tichy (WHITESNAKE, PRIDE & GLORY) on drums with Tony Franklin.
For more information, go to www.wallnervain.com.
Finnish folk metallers FINNTROLL will embark on a tour of Australia in March 2011. Support on the trek will come from ale-guzzling Australian warriors CLAIM THE THRONE.
The dates are as follows:
March 24 - Brisbane, AUS @ The Hifi
March 25 - Melbourne, AUS @ Billboard The Venue
March 26 - Sydney, AUS @ The Manning Bar
March 28 - Perth, AUS @ Capitol
"Nifelvind", the latest album from FINNTROLL, was released in North America on March 9 via Century Media Records. The CD was recorded at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki, Finland and was mastered by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studios. The album cover artwork was created once again by the band's guitarist Skrymer.
Commented FINNTROLL in a statement: "'Nifelvind' is the most advanced and mature FINNTROLL album to date, with musical themes ranging from powerful death metal riffs to dark soundtracks, from pounding black metal to groovy '80s pop music. All this is accompanied by our trademark sound, lots of never-before-heard instruments in the metal scene, folklore and legends that make it overall the most versatile album we have created so far."
French symphonic gothic ensemble WHYZDOM has announced the addition of singer Clémentine Delauney to the group's ranks. The band states, "Clémentine received an intensive artistic training since her youngest age: contemporary dance, classical and jazz piano, theatre, classical singing (she joined the Maîtrise of Lyon Opera in 2003). Motivated by the everlasting will to let her voice express itself in a symphonic metal band, it's an immense pleasure to welcome her in our family."
WHYZDOM recently played two shows with Lisa Middelhauve, former frontwowman for German goth metallers XANDRIA, filling in, following the departure of singer Telya Melane. Middelhauve is also expected to appear on WHYZDOM's next album as a guest singer.
WHYZDOM's debut CD, "From The Brink Of Infinity", was released in September 2009 via Ascendance Records.
The label previously described the CD in the following way: "Think of a huge orchestra and a massive symphonic choir intertwined with powerful riffs and enchanting melodies from a clear and passionate feminine voice, and you'll get an idea of what WHYZDOM have managed to create. Their classical influences ranging from the romantic to the contemporary period, as well as the appealing melodies that drive the songs, make their sound utterly unmistakeable in an ever growing scene."
The project was founded by the guitarist and orchestrator Vynce Leff in early 2007, already well known in the progressive sphere, having produced several successful albums for the British label Cyclops Records. The other members — Regis Morin, Tristan Demurger, Nicolas Chaumeaux and Marc Ruhlmann — joined soon after and a first EP, "Daughter Of The Night", was recorded less than six months from the band's inception. It got instant acclaim from reviewers and music fans around the world, as well as several awards and plaudits.
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/whyzdomproject.
"Maailma Tarvitsee Sankareita" (English translation: "The World Needs Heroes"), the fourth album from the Finnish metal group TERÄSBETONI — which represented Finland in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest — has entered the official chart in the band's home country at position No. 14. Released on November 24 via Sakara Records, the CD was recorded at HIP Studios in Helsinki, Finland and Yellow House Studios in Hämeenlinna, Finland with producer Hiili Hiilesmaa (HIM, THE 69 EYES, LORDI, SENTENCED, APOCALYPTICA).
"Maailma Tarvitsee Sankareita" track listing:
01. Myrsky nousee
02. Metalliolut
03. Maailma tarvitsee sankareita
04. Jumalten usva
05. Mies
06. Tunnemme sinut
07. Uudestisyntynyt
08. Thanatos
09. Konstantinopoli
10. Eteenpäin
11. Gloria
The "Metalliolut" video can be viewed below. The clip was filmed in eastern Finland with director Antti "Hyrde" Hyyrynen (vocalist and guitarist of STAM1NA).
Hiilesmaa produced the last two albums from TERÄSBETONI, "Vaadimme metallia" and "Myrskyntuoja", both of which were certified gold in Finland.
TERÄSBETONI's debut LP, "Metallitotuus", was certified platinum in Finland and was honored in the "Metal Album of the Year" category at the annual Emma Gaala (Finnish Grammy equivalent).
TERÄSBETONI was asked to participate in the Finnish Eurovision qualification of 2008. The band won the public's vote with the song "Missä Miehet Ratsastaa" ("Where All The Men Ride Forth"), from their then-newly-released "Myrskyntuoja" album and proceeded to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Serbia. TERÄSBETONI went through to the Eurovision Song Contest final and had the prestigious experience of performing for over 100 million viewers!
TERÄSBETONI is:
Jarkko Ahola - Vocals, Bass
Arto Järvinen - Guitar, Vocals
Viljo Rantanen - Guitar
Jari Kuokkanen - Drums
Former NIGHTWISH frontwoman Tarja Turunen will release a special "Dreamers Box Set" version of her latest album, "What Lies Beneath". Limited to only 500 copies, it will contain the following:
* A 14-track CD featuring all the songs from "What Lies Beneath"
01. Anteroom Of Death
02. Until My Last Breath
03. Naiad
04. Dark Star
05. Underneath
06. Little Lies
07. Still Of The Night
08. Rivers Of Lust
09. In For A Kill
10. I Feel Immortal
11. We Are
12. Falling Awake
13. The Archive Of Lost Dreams
14. Crimson Deep
* A nine-track CD including unreleased mixes and exclusive song "If You Believe"
01. Dark Star (Tarja Lead Vocals version)
02. Montañas de Silencio
03. If You Believe
04. The Crying Moon
05. Underneath (Orchestral Version)
06. I Feel Immortal (Single Version)
07. Falling Awake (featuring Jason Hook)
08. The Good Die Young (Performed by Scorpions & Tarja)
09. Naiad (Instrumental Extended Version)
* A 56-page (135 g/m2) 12" hardcover book including high-quality photographic pictures and all lyrics for the songs
* Two picture-vinyl 180g pressing of "What Lies Beneath" in a hardcover gatefold unique-to-this edition
* A 12" square portrait of Tarja, printed in six colors on a 280gr photo paper. Each print is hand signed by Tarja, housed in a 12" spined sleeve
* CardPac with a USB-Card 2 GB "Alloy Series" including Tarja's videos with logo print in brushed aluminum (100% recycled material)
* An authentic Venetian Mask to hide behind.
A photo of the singer backstage signing 500 photos for the above-mentioned box set can be viewed below.
Tarja's sophomore solo album, "What Lies Beneath", sold around 1,300 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 24 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
"What Lies Beneath" registered the following first-week chart positions:
Finland: #14 (first week), #7 (second week)
Czech Republic: #6
Switzerland: #11
Hungary: #30
Netherlands: #45
Belgium (Flanders): #99
Belgium (Wallonia): #42
UK: #115
"What Lies Beneath" was released in North America on September 14 via The End Records. The CD's first single, "Falling Awake" (featuring Jason Hook from FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH), was released August 17 as a limited-edition seven-inch single through The Omega Order and available August 24 at all digital outlets . The track is backed with "The Good Die Young" — a song from the SCORPIONS' most recent album that features Tarja's vocals.
Featuring U.S.-exclusive artwork and a bonus track, "What Lies Beneath" was recorded and produced by Tarja and mixed by Tim Palmer (PEARL JAM, THE CURE, ROBERT PLANT), Colin Richardson (SLIPKNOT, MACHINE HEAD, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE) and Slamm Andrews (scores of "Angels & Demon", "Pirates of The Caribbean", "Gladiator"). Special guests on ther CD include Phil Labonte (ALL THAT REMAINS), Joe Satriani, Jason Hook (FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH), Will Calhoun (LIVING COLOUR), Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and Choir and more.
Turunen will take part in a unique Christmas tour 2010 with well-known Finnish musicians — Kalevi Kiviniemi, Marzi Nyman and Markku Krohn. They will perform in churches in Oulu, Lahti, Kuopio, Pori and Keuruu. The Artistic Director of the concerts is Kalevi Kiviniemi and the concerts are organized by Rowan3 Productions. The tickets are on pre-sale via Menolippu, Lippupalvelu and Tiketti.
Fresh off of the success of their "Contagion Across The Nation" tour, Chicago deathcore heavyweights OCEANO have announced the "Contaminating The Coast" tour. Sponsored by AMP magazine and running throughout the month of January, the "Contaminating The Coast" tour will see the year's heaviest Billboard-charting act get in front of its rabid western fans who have been waiting a long time for the band's return. Trekking along with OCEANO will be their friends FOR THE FALLEN DREAMS, UPON A BURNING BODY, THE GREAT COMMISSION and I THE BREATHER.
The full list of dates for this January tour will be announced soon.
OCEANO's new album, "Contagion", sold around 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The CD landed at position No. 3 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200. Released on November 9 via Earache Records, the album was produced by Chris "Zeuss" Harris, who has previously worked with MUNICIPAL WASTE, THE ACACIA STRAIN, HATEBREED and SHADOWS FALL, among others.
OCEANO's "Weaponized" video can be viewed below. The clip was directed by Kevin J. Custer (TESTAMENT, HATEBREED, TOMBS, JUSTIN BIEBER) and features explosive performance footage of the bandmembers acting as a counterpoint to a high-tension situation that builds throughout the video.
KHOLD, WARRANT (Germany) and EXCREMENTORY GRINDFUCKERS have been confirmed for next year's edition of the Wacken Open Air festival, set to take place August 4-6, 2011 in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany.
The festival billing is now shaping up as follows (in alphabetical order):
APOCALYPTICA
AVANTASIA
BLIND GUARDIAN
EXCREMENTORY GRINDFUCKERS
KHOLD
MAYHEM
OZZY OSBOURNE
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
WARRANT
Wacken Open Air was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and has included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia.
Wacken Open Air is usually held at the beginning of August and lasts three days, during which the festival-goers camp on several large camping grounds surrounding the actual festival area. The 70 or more bands perform across four separate stages over the course of the event.
The 2009 edition of Wacken Open Air set a sales record; it sold out on December 30, 2008. All 70,000 tickets were sold over 200 days before the start of the festival.
Wacken Open Air, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, was honored with a Live Entertainment Award in 2008 in the "Festival Of The Year" category. This award recognizes distinguished achievements in live entertainment and is given out by Live Entertainment Award (LEA) committee.
TÝR and KVELERTAK have been confirmed for next year's installment of the Summer Breeze festival, set to take place August 18-20, 2011 in Dinkelsbühl, Germany.
The festival billing is shaping up as follows (in alphabetical order):
ARCH ENEMY
CALIBAN
KVELERTAK
PRIMORDIAL
SALTATIO MORTIS
THE HAUNTED
TÝR
VOMITORY
Tickets can be purchased for 72 euros (excluding pre-sale fees, including parking/camping) at Silverdust-Shop.de. The first 10,000 tickets get a free DVD with live footage and impressions from the 2009 edition of the festival.
Finnish folk metal band CRIMFALL has issued the following update:
"We are currently holding the mastered version of our second album in our hands. Mastering was done by our dear neighbor Jens Bogren [OPETH, SOILWORK, KATATONIA, PARADISE LOST, BLOODBATH] at Fascination Street [in Örebro, Sweden]... And it sounds awesome.... brutal and HUGE!!! Actually it was already mastered few weeks back, but we made a little changes to the CD texts yesterday and did not want to tell these news until it was 100% ready."
CRIMFALL's new album will be released in March 2011 via Spinefarm Records. The CD was recorded at Adamantium Studios and was produced and mixed by Hit Happens. It features guest appearances by Tapio Wilska (SURVIORS ZERO), Ville Sorvali (MOONSORROW), Mathias "Vreth" Lillmåns (FINNTROLL, CHTHONIAN, DECOMPOSTER), Mathias Nygård (TURISAS), Olli Vänskä (TURISAS) and Trollhorn (FINNTROLL, MOONSORROW).
Commented Hannu Lehtonen of Spinefarm: "It is great to have CRIMFALL as a new artist on Spinefarm. I can honestly say that the band's forthcoming second album is worth the wait. The band is in killer shape and has recorded an excellent piece of music which will be released in spring 2011."
CRIMFALL added in a statement: "For CRIMFALL this alliance is a great leap in what has been a long painful march. This definitely opens up a new chapter in our history and the expectations are high since it finally seems we have found a partner that shares our faith in CRIMFALL's music and potential."
CRIMFALL's debut album, "As The Path Unfolds...", was released in March 2009 via Napalm Records.
CRIMFALL is:
Jakke Viitala - Guitar, Orchestra
Mikko Häkkinen - Dark Voice
Helena Haaparanta (ex-TACERE) - Bright Voice
Janne Jukarainen - Drums
Miska Sipiläinen - Bass
For more information, visit www.crimfall.com.
Former CHIMAIRA bassist Jim LaMarca has released the following statement regarding his departure from the group:
"I would like to thank the CHIMAIRA fans worldwide for their endless support. Those who have met me in person and or online know that I have tried to make contact with as many of you as I possibly could. I can't express enough how much it was a pleasure for me to meet all of you.
"I started playing in bands over 22 years ago starting with SACRIFIX, then SKIPLINE, to NOT SO BLAH (N.S.B.), SWITCHED and getting an opportunity of a lifetime to join CHIMAIRA.
"I had an incredible time being a part of CHIMAIRA. This experience has provided me to live a lifestyle that I always dreamed of having.
"The band CHIMAIRA has meant a great deal to me.
"I made a promise to my dear friend Matt Nemec after he passed away that I would never give up on pursuing my dreams, and because of CHIMAIRA I was able to do that. For that I will always be in debt to this band.
"I would like to thank a few important people that have been so supportive of my musical ventures. My parents gave me the tools to be successful. Mom and dad, without you guys I would have never been able to do any of this. My brother Michael P. LaMarca, thank you for selling SACRIFIX merch and throwing up on the display. My brother Anthony, thanks for the most beautiful nieces. Ed Gandolf for having the patience to see that I at least had rhythm and that I had the balls to play that first show in your parents basement on New Year's Eve. Matt Vasiliou and Matt Nemec (R.I.P.), thank you for sharing the good old days with me.
"I am excited to now be able to focus my efforts on my company, Straight Razor Entertainment, which will be focus on developing bands and artists. Look for further details either facebook.com/jimlamarca or on Twiiter @jimlamarcatwitt.
"The future is uncertain for me with the touring lifestyle, 22 years of playing music and I am still not done playing. You will be able to see me perform with TENAFLY VIPER, which will be playing shows regionally.
"Last, thank you, Alayna (my wife), for supporting me with all my decisions and now having to put up with me being home now."
CHIMAIRA is currently touring with a stand-in bassist, DAATH guitarist Emil Werstler.
CHIMAIRA will play its eleventh annual Christmas show on December 30 at the House of Blues in the band's hometown.
CHIMAIRA released a DVD/CD set, "Coming Alive", on July 20 via Ferret Music. This unprecedented release includes a four-part documentary filmed over the course of a year and a half while the entire package includes over seven hours of exclusive content. The DVD, filmed entirely in HD, showcases CHIMAIRA in the studio while recording its latest album, "The Infection", and chronicles the band's recent, worldwide touring season.
Florida-based death metallers DEICIDE will release their new album, "To Hell With God", on February 15 via Century Media Records. The CD was produced by Mark Lewis (THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, CHIMAIRA) at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida.
"To Hell With God" track listing:
01. Save Your
02. Empowered by Blasphemy
03. Conviction
04. Hang in Agony Until You're Dead
05. To Hell with God
06. Servant of the Enemy
07. Witness of Death
08. Angels in Hell
09. Into the Darkness You Go
10. How Can You Call Yourself a God
DEICIDE will embark on the "God Is Dead – To Hell With God Tour" in February/March 2011. The Bloody Disgusting-sponsored trek, which is scheduled to kick off on February 15, will feature support from BELPHEGOR, BLACKGUARD, NEURAXIS and PATHOLOGY.
Tickets for the tour are now on sale via EnterTheVault.com.
DEICIDE's last CD, "Till Death Do Us Part", sold 2,900 copies in the United States in its first week of release.
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Swedish death/black metallers APOSTASY have inked a deal with Gothenburg, Sweden's Rambo Music, a division of Gain Music Entertainment (which is distributed and partly owned by Sony Music), for the release of the band's third album, "Nuclear Messiah".
DIGITAL DOOMZDAY is a mix of hardcore rap and metal dealing with the extremes of everyday realities that some choose to address and some ignore. Lyrical topics include drugs, sex, religion, global mutilation, government cover-ups, aliens, self-destruction or is it self-preservation? You decide.
Main voice and lyric writer Roman Corkery (THE ROMAN EMPIRE) has a unique rap-based vocal style that ranges from hardcore to death with a twist of hip-hop. He lets you have it straight up with a no-bullshit approach by way of apocalyptic storytelling, intelligent lyrics, humor and wit.
Guitarist, main music writer and backup vocalist Rob Doherty (ex-INTO ETERNITY, PERICARDIUM) sees it the same, laying down solid heavy grooving riffs that aren't sugar-coated, just straight-up in your face and to the point, always focusing on the song and not just the shred.
Drummer Flo Mounier (CRYPTOPSY) creates a dynamic solid driving rhythm and keeps the band in total synch. He unloads some killer double bass, creative fills, neck-breaking beats and yes for you fans of Flo he does give you some of his devastating blast attack, all the while never abusing the integrity of the song.
For its debut recording, DIGITAL DOOMZDAY tapped Daniel Nargang (ex-INTO ETERNITY, current KICK AXE vocalist) to lay bass tracks and hold down the bottom end. His unique approach and classical musical background breathes life into the lower end registers of the recording.
DIGITAL DOOMZDAY's full-length debut is expected in early 2011.
Singaporean black metallers DRACONIS INFERNUM will support MARDUK on the following dates as part of the "Asian Black Death Redemption Tour 2010":
Dec. 11 - Tri Lomba Juang, Semarang, Indonesia
Dec. 12 - Bulugan Outdoor, Jakarta, Indonesia
DRACONIS INFERNUM was formed by Xepher in 2005. It currently comprises of guitarists Xepher and Niloc and drummer Seberuz Hammerfrost. The band went through several lineup changes in the early years.
In December 2007, the band entered the studio to record its debut album, "Death In My Veins". Released in April 2008, it was limited to only 500 copies.
In August 2009, the band played at Barther Metal Open Air festival in Germany, emerging as only the third black metal band from Southeast Asia ever to set foot on the European shores.
A new full-length album titled "Rites Of Desecration & Demise" is set to be released in 2011.
Albuquerque, New Mexico grind band NOISEAR has completed work on its new album, "Subvert The Dominant Paradigm", for a February 1, 2011 release via Relapse Records. The follow-up to "Pyroclastic Annihilation" features 30 brand new tracks and will be available on CD, LP, and digitally.
NOISEAR recently released a split seven-inch EP with Sweden's THE ARSON PROJECT featuring four new tracks from each band. NOISEAR's side of the split is currently streaming in its entirety via StereoKiller.com. The single was pressed on opaque blood orange/brown wax and is available now at this location.
NOISEAR has confirmed a local show in Albuquerque at The Launchpad for December 18 and is currently booking a May 2011 U.S. tour around its performance at the Maryland Deathfest.
Singer Wolf of Austria's longest-running death metal band DARKSIDE was hospitalized earlier this week "for a thrombosis which he caught while having his leg in plaster after overthrowing his ankle two weeks ago," the band says in its latest e-mail update. "The situation has been stabilized but Wolf is forced to undergo therapy for at least half a year until the thrombosis will be resolved and all will hopefully be back to normal as soon as possible. Meanwhile, he and Bernd [Brodträger, guitar] have been working on motre demos for DARKSIDE's upcoming new album, 'XX Deca(y)de - Throne Of The Deathgod', set for release in early summer 2011 in order to celebrate the 20 anniversary of DARKSIDE's founding back in 1991."
"XX-Deca(y)ed – Throne of the Deathgod" will feature re-recorded versions of songs from all of DARKSIDE's albums as well as a few cover songs, some surprises and a brand new track. The CD artwork will be created by Joachim Luetke, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, ARCH ENEMY, MESHUGGAH and KREATOR, among others. DARKSIDE is also writing material for a new studio LP, which will be titled "A-E-I-O-U".
DARKSIDE recently announced its brand new lineup. It is as follows:
* Bernd Brodträger (BLED DRY, PEREAT, DEVANIC) - Guitar
* Janos Murri (DEMOLITION, PRIORITY) - Guitar
* Andrea Rabuini (INFERNAL POETRY, EPHEL DUATH) - Drums
* Wolf - Vocals
DARKSIDE is still looking for a suitable bass player. Interested parties can contact the group at info@darkside.co.at.
DARKSIDE released its latest album, "Amber – Skeletal Journeys through the Void", in March 2007 through Austria's Noisehead Records.
BATHORY tribute act TWILIGHT OF THE GODS has been confirmed for the 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise, which is set to sail from Miami, Florida to Cozumel, Mexico on January 24, 2011 and return four days later. A total of 40 acts will appear at the event.
TWILIGHT OF THE GODS consists of:
* Alan Nemtheanga (PRIMORDIAL)
* Blasphemer (AVA INFERI, AURA NOIR, ex-MAYHEM)
* Frode Glesnes (EINHERJER)
* Nick Barker (BENEDICTION, ex-DIMMU BORGIR, CRADLE OF FILTH)
* Patrik Lindgren (THYRFING)
The festival billing is shaping up as follows:
AGENT STEEL
AMON AMARTH
BLACKGUARD
BLIND GUARDIAN
CRIPPER
DARK TRANQUILLITY
DEATH ANGEL
ENSIFERUM
EPICA
EXODUS
FEAR FACTORY
FINNTROLL
FORBIDDEN
GAMMA RAY
ICED EARTH
KORPIKLAANI
MARDUK
MOONSPELL
NEVERMORE
OBITUARY
RAGE
RAVEN
SABATON
SANCTUARY
SAXON
SODOM
SONATA ARCTICA
SWASHBUCKLE
TESTAMENT
TROUBLE
TÝR
ULI JON ROTH
UNLEASHED
VOIVOD
WITCHBURNER
SAXON will play two unique shows. One night they will perform the "Wheels Of Steel" LP in its entirety and on a different night, for the second show, they will play "Strong Arm Of The Law" from start to finish.
70000 Tons Of Metal will sail Monday, January 24, 2011 aboard the Royal Caribbean "Majesty of the Seas" from Miami, Florida to Cozumel, Mexico and will not return you to the real world for four days until Friday, January 28, 2011.
Make no mistake, 70000 Tons Of Metal is not your grandma's cruise. It's also not one of the cruises that share the ship with normal cruise guests. This is an all-ship heavy metal cruise! Can you imagine that? A whole luxury cruise ship full of metalheads? And since there is no backstage area you will have the opportunity to mingle side-by-side with the artists in this incredibly fan-friendly scenario that has no comparison. It's like everyone has a backstage pass and you might even need a vacation from this vacation when all is said and done!
Ticket prices start at US$666 plus US$249 taxes and fees per person and include all on-board entertainment, all meals and non-alcoholic and non-carbonated drinks at the on-board restaurants and 24-hour room service!
For more information, go to www.70000tons.com.
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