Cold Records Split With Metal Blade

Swedish thrashers CENTINEX have posted the following update at their official website:

"On January 1st, Cold Records became an officical division of swedish Regain Records, so the next Centinex album will be distributed worldwide by Regain and not Metal Blade. A statement about the Cold-Metal Blade split should soon be presented at their websites."

The collaboration was originally announced on December 8th, 2003. The licensing deal meant that all releases from Cold Records were pressed, marketed, promoted and distributed by Metal Blade Records all over Europe.

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Static-X Bassist To Play With Skumlove

Tony Campos (STATIC-X, ASESINO) will be playing bass for SKUMLOVE during their appearance at The Roxy in Hollywood on February 14.

SKUMLOVE will be debuting new songs and a new drummer, BT, at the "Valentine Day Massacre" show, which will also include an appearance by THE DREAMING (featuring former STABBING WESTWARD frontman Chris Hall). SKUMLOVE were hoping to find the perfect bassist as well, but when things didn't turn out the way they expected, Campos stepped up to fill the void.

"Tony's been a friend and a fan for along time." said vocalist Skum, "He asked if we had a bassist yet and asked if he could do some shows and I'd be stupid to say no!"

Tony is not a permanent member of SKUMLOVE and the band stress that they are still auditioning bassists.

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Elvenking Confirmed For Germany's Dong Open Air

Italian folk/power metal band ELVENKING have been confirmed for the 2005 edition of Dong Open Air festival, set to take place July 15-16 in Neukirchen-Vluyn, near Krefeld, Germany. Also set to appear are German thrashers DELIRIOUS.

The Dong crew is still looking for high quality "underground" metal, rock and folk bands from Germany and neighboring countries (France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, etc.) to play this year's festival. More information is available at www.dongopenair.de.

ELVENKING, who were recently rejoined by singer Damnagoras, have completed the songwriting process for their upcoming third album and are now finalizing the last details concerning the recordings, mixing and mastering phases. Recordings for the follow-up to 2004's "Wyrd" will begin in February for a tentative late summer release through Germany's AFM Records.

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Former Morgion Members Surface In Keen Of The Crow

According to a posting at Doom-Metal.com, KEEN OF THE CROW is the name of a new band featuring Rhett Davis and Justin Christain of MORGION fame and ex- NEPENTHEAN founder Ron Slater. Songs have been crafted and recording and touring are planned for the relatively near future. Musically speaking the sonic output from Keen of the Crow will not be similar to that of Morgion or Nepenthean as they are striving to cultivate their own sound and identity. As of this writing, key players and additions to the band are still being made and they hope to have a solid line up locked in within the next few weeks. An official Keen of the Crow website is in development and more news regarding Keen of the Crow will be available at the website shortly.

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H.I.M., Apocalyptica To Play Finnish Benefit Gig

H.I.M., THE RASMUS, APOCALYPTICA, NEGATIVE and THE 69 EYES, in cooperation with the Finnish Red Cross, will stage a benefit concert for the victims of the Asian earthquake/tsunami disaster at Helsinki's 12,000-seater Hartwall Arena on Monday, January 17. The concert will starts at 7:00 p.m. and tickets are priced at 30 euros. Tickets will go on sale through Lippupalvelu at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 11. There is no age limit.

Finland's YLE X national radio will broadcast the concert live starting at 7:00 p.m. YLE TV2 will do a two-hour special of the event to be broadcast on Sunday, January 23 at 7:15 p.m. and repeated the following Monday on TV2.

Hartwall Arena, RMC Light & Sound and RGB are among the many parties providing facilities and services for free and all income from the show will be channeled, without deductions, to the victims of the Asian disaster.

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Dimmu's Hestnaes To Sing For Arcturus In London

Several sources are reporting that Simen Hestnaes (a.k.a. ICS Vortex, DIMMU BORGIR, ex-BORKNAGAR, LAMENTED SOULS) will be singing for ARCTURUS at the Inferno Festival kick-off event at the Underworld in London on January 27. It is not presently clear if Hestnaes' involvement with ARCTURUS will continue beyond this gig.

Hestnaes had previously performed vocals on three tracks and written the lyrics for one song on ARCTURUS' 1997 album, "La Masquerade Infernale".

ARCTURUS announced last week that vocalist Øyvind Hægeland (SPIRAL ARCHITECT) had left the group. No reason was given for his departure.

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Half a Century of Rock - Rock Turns 50

Here's a little bit I thought I'd pass on to you all from The Music Syndicate. Even though it's not metal, rock paved the way for heavier styles to come:

A half a decade into the New Millennium and we celebrate an event much bigger than many of you probably realize in 2005. Fifty years ago a man named Bill Haley helped define a new genre of music when his single "Rock around the Clock" rode the top of the charts for eight straight weeks. 1955 redefined music, even if it could be argued the success of his previous singles such a "Rock the Joint" which Cleveland DJ Alan Freed used as the inspiration for supposedly coining the term "Rock and Roll" from, and fifty years later we're celebrating the success Bill Haley and his Comets and the legions of those early rock legends that rebelled against the pop standards.

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DevilInside Solidify New Lineup And Tours

DevilInside have reemerged with a new line-up, now joining the group on vocals is Joe Talbot of Richard Pryor On Fire fame, drummer Dan Johnson, formerly of With Dead Hands Rising and bassist Patrick Morris of Demonicon. The group will now hit the road with Suffocation, Behemoth and Cattle Decapitation from February 07th through to February 23rd. After that, they will take to the road with Cryptopsy, Cattle Decapitation and The Autumn Offering for the following stops:

March 04th Houston, TX - Fat Cat's
March 05th Oklahoma City, OK - Bricktown Live
March 06th Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room
March 07th San Antonio, TX - Sanctuary
March 08th Albuquerque, NM - Launch Pad
March 09th Tucson, AZ - The Rock
March 10th Phoenix, AZ - Mason Jar
March 11th Santa Ana, CA - Galaxy Theatre
March 12th San Diego, CA - Soma
March 13th Los Angeles, CA - Key Club
March 14th San Francisco, CA - The Pound
March 15th Portland, OR - Meow Meow
March 16th Seattle, WA - Studio Seven
March 18th Denver, CO - Rock Island
March 19th Ft. Collins, CO - Starlight
March 21st Cleveland, OH - House Of Blues
March 22nd Chicago, IL - House Of Blues
March 23rd St. Paul, MN - Station 4

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