Denial Fiend Signs With Ibex Moon Records

Ibex Moon Records has inked a deal with the Tampa, Fla., band Denial Fiend, the new project that unites vocalist Kam Lee (Massacre, Death) with bassist Terry Butler (Massacre, Death, Six Feet Under), drummer Curtis Beeson (Nasty Savage), and Sam Williams (Down By Law, Pseudo Heroes).

“I'm proud to work with these metal and death metal pioneers and I look forward to Denial Fiend putting out a great release,” said Ibex Moon owner John McEntee. “I feel that they will appeal to old school and newer metal fans alike.”

The band’s debut album, which will also mark Lee’s first full-length recording in over a decade, is planned for a June 2007 release. The album is tentatively titled “They Rise.”

“I think Denial Fiend will surprise a lot of people,” said Butler. “This is not a ‘flash-in-the-pan’ side project. It’s a band that is dedicated and ready to bring metal to the masses!”

Denial Fiend draws on elements of its members’ individual pasts to create an edgy yet classic sound of its own. A demo recording of the track “Cover Me in Blood” is available on Denial Fiend’s MySpace page.

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ShredCam Used In "Cracking The Code" of Shredding

MTV reports: Three years ago, Grady set out to discover just what set guys like Malmsteen apart from dudes like, well, himself. He bought a $2,500 slow-motion camera and created a computer program called ShredCam, which helps Grady use the video he's captured to painstakingly analyze the moves of various shredders. He plans to release a documentary titled "Cracking the Code" in which he'll attempt to isolate the mechanics virtuoso guitarists use to skillfully rock out, and to determine what constitutes efficient shredding. He'd like to finish the project next year and screen it at film festivals.

The ShredCam can be affixed to the body of the guitar, and is aimed at the pickups. Grady hasn't yet been able to film Malmsteen or Gilbert's riffing, but he has captured the work of experts like Texas-based guitar prodigy Rusty Cooley, Berklee College of Music professor Joe Stump, fusion player Marshall Harrison and bluegrass master Orrin Star — all at 120 frames-per-second. And what the camera reveals is the technique these players have developed, but never realized they had.

"With this high-speed camera, we can actually reveal what those things are, and playing will become a lot more straightforward for everybody," theorized Grady, who owns a headhunting business in New York. "This camera's revealing stuff that hasn't been revealed yet, because these guys don't even know it. They're maybe 40 to 70 percent aware of what they're doing at any given time. If you're a guitar player, you'll be like, 'Holy sh-- — I had no idea that's what was going on.' "

So what are these secrets? Grady said at the heart of virtuoso shredding is "economy of motion." He said guitarists like Malmsteen have developed various methods to get more from their picking.

"The issue of playing fast and clean is moving the pick across the guitar's strings at a high speed. But there's a quarter inch of space between each string, and you're moving this piece of plastic across each string and then you have to move to the other one, without banging into any others," he said. "That's a major source of inefficiency. There's a simple way to avoid that, by not switching strings, moving up and down on a single string to create different sounds."

With his findings, Grady hopes to help fledgling shredders synchronize their right- and left-handed motions when playing even huge numbers of notes and maintaining pick direction. With odd-numbered riffs, which make switching strings more difficult, Grady said he's discovered a picking technique called "scooping," a more effective way to get that pick across strings. Most of his subjects also utilize "sweeping," where one pick stroke darts across two different strings, making it easier to play guitar faster.

"Generally, guitar teachers will tell you to practice this lick over and over again, and you'll get better," he explained. "It's not that simple. You'll just end up playing it a million times before it gets better. With this video, novices should be able to pick up a guitar and use these tricks to significantly improve their playing."

Read the full article at MTV.com.

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Green Reacts To Max Cavalera's Reunion Talk

Washington D.C.'s Express recently conducted an interview with SEPULTURA frontman Derrick Green. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Express: Did you feel like you won the lottery when you became SEPULTURA's new singer in 1996?

Green: Yeah, definitely, as a musician, having a whole new challenge in front of me. It's a lot of work, you know? There's a lot of work that goes into being in the band and being able to move to a different country and adapt a different language. There were a lot of things that went into being in this band. It's been an amazing journey.

Express: What are your future plans for SEPULTURA?

Green: To come back here and do some festivals, to really make ourselves known again here. To get on some hot bills with young bands and some older bands. There's a big part of the world we haven't played yet: Asia, a lot of Central America, South Africa.

Express: You must know that [original SEPULTURA vocalist] Max [Cavalera] has been telling the media that he'll be reuniting with the group. How does that strike you?

Green: It struck me as kind of strange. Nobody in our band's talked to him in years. I think it's something that he wants to do and I thought: After 10 years, why now? We've been supporting the band and keeping it alive after he left. I feel that I'm a part of the band and people see me as part of the band. I think it's kind of bizarre, but I'm not that surprised.

Read the full article at Express.

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Drudkh Plan To Release New Album Next Year

Atmospheric Ukrainian black-metal force Drudkh will release their forthcoming album River of Tears sometime next year. No official date has been set for that release.

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Hoods and Furious Styles To Tour In 2007

Hoods and Furious Styles will be sharing the stage in early 2007. Here are the tour dates so far:

Sat Dec 30th, 2006 - Vancouver, WA w/ xArmed for Battlex, xTo This Dayx
Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 - Valparaiso, IN
Sat Feb 24th, 2007 - Cleveland, OH w/ Ringworm, Under One Flag, Know T...
Sun Feb 25th, 2007 - Colombus, OH w/ Under One Flag, Know The Score
Fri Mar 2nd, 2007 - Kingston, PA
Sat Mar 3rd, 2007 - Amityville, NY
Sun Mar 4th, 2007 - Dover, NH
Fri Mar 9th, 2007 - Kernersville, NY
Sun Mar 11th, 2007 - Wilmington, NC w/ At Half Mast
Thu Mar 15th, 2007 - Port Charlotte, FL
Fri Mar 16th, 2007 - Jacksonville, FL

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See You Next Tuesday Enter The Studio

Travis (bass) of experimental grind/metal band See You Next Tuesday has issued an update:

A lot of news around the See You Next Tuesday camp. Today we enter the studio with Andreas Magnusson to record our first full-length album, which will be releasd on Ferret Music on March 20th of 2007. The biggest news we have to offer though, is that we have gone through yet another member change.

Bear is no longer a part of See You Next Tuesday. Health and other personal reasons have left him no choice but to quit. There are no hard feelings, though. We love Bear and wish him all the best.

Stepping in to fill the void is our friend Fox, formerly of Flesh and Blood Robot. If you are at all familiar with FABR you will know that Fox will be a perfect fit. We are very excited to have him on board and look forward to continuing our rigorous schedule. Everything is back on track and all our future plans are as they were before Bear left.

After the studio we will be hitting the road with Job For A Cowboy, The Acacia Strain, and those grizzly ass men in Psyopus - so hopefully we'll have a chance to show Fox off to everyone.

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Will Haven To Support Deftones On Euro Tour

Will Haven will make a return to touring begining in March when they invade Europe in support of good friends Deftones.

In other news, WILL HAVEN have recently been in pre-production for their new, currently untitled album with Deftones frontman Chino Moreno. WILL HAVEN are currently scheduled to begin recording the new effort at Bieler Bros. Studios in Pompano Beach, FL in February with an eye on a spring/early summer.

Here are the currently announced Deftones and Will Have European tour dates: More...

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Ozzy To Tour and Release Two Albums In 2007

Ozzy Osbourne is "getting ready to tour next April" in support of his new solo album, Ozzy's wife/manager Sharon Osbourne revealed during an appearance on the "Dr. Phil" show earlier today (Thursday, December 14). "Three years this Christmas, [he's] clean and sober," she added.

Osbourne was previously said to be working on two brand new studio CDs. The first album is tentatively set for release in February 2007. Most of the music was recorded before Ozzfest in May with Mike Bordin (drums), Rob "Blasko" Nicholson (bass) and Zakk Wylde (guitar). Wylde recently announced that he had to cancel three tour dates in October with his band BLACK LABEL SOCIETY to finish up obligations in the studio in connection with the new album. The second effort will be the soundtrack to Ozzy's musical about controversial Russian politician Grigory Rasputin. The album will be released first, and then the play will debut on Broadway or as a touring show according to Osbourne.

In a recent interview, Ozzy said, "We wrote a song called 'Rasputin' (for the 1995 'Ozzmosis' album), but then it never got used, you know, and then every now and again I'd try to find this tape of songs. We wrote a bunch of songs, and I put this tape on and thought, 'You know what? That would be a great musical.' It kind of grew on its own. It's the traditional 'Fiddler on the Roof'-type of music, plus the kind of BEATLES-y kind of influence. There's this wonderful song that goes, 'How dark it is before the dawn, the day begins, a child is born.' It's beautiful. I'm really happy about it. I hope the rest of the world is. I spent 10 years of my f-king life in this thing."

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Rare Bathory Footage Discovered

Rare video footage from the DVD that accompanied BATHORY's career-spanning box set, "In Memory of Quorthon", has been posted online at YouTube.com.

Released this past June via Black Mark Records, "In Memory of Quorthon" contains three CDs, one DVD, a book and a poster. Börje "Boss" Forsberg — owner of Black Mark Records and father of late BATHORY mainman Thomas "Quorthon" Forsberg — had previously stated that the package would contain "Quorthon's and BATHORY's complete musical history."

Quorthon was found dead in his apartment in Stockholm, Sweden on June 7, 2004. The 39-year-old, widely considered to be one of black metal's founding fathers, reportedly died of heart failure.

You can check out the lost footage here: More...

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7000 Dying Rats Post New Tracks Online

7000 Dying Rats have posted four songs from their upcoming album, including an unusual cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", on MySpace. Season In Hell will be released through Hewhocorrupts Inc on January 9th.

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Watch Brand New Sin's 'Motormeth' Video Online

Brand New Sin are out with the video to their latest single 'Motormeth', from the album 'Tequila.' You can watch it on YouTube or below. More...

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Ritual Signs with Still Life Records

German harcore/punk band Ritual have officially signed a deal with Still Life Records for the release of a new MCD featuring songs from their previous releases, as well as an as-yet-undisclosed cover song. The release is due out March 20th, 2007 and will be supported by an extensive European tour alongside xAnchorx. You can check out a few songs from the release at Ritual's MySpace.

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Skindred Selling Out Shows Days In Advance

Bieler Bros. warns that fans looking to attend any of Skindred's remaining shows on the "Jungle Bells Tour" should get their tickets early as the last three shows in Oxford, Exeter and Colchester were sold out days in advance. Get your tickets for the remaining gigs now as Skindred will be leaving the UK to record their sophomore album with Matt Squire (Panic At The Disco) at Bieler Bros. Studios at the begining of 2007.

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Headline News

Axl Apologizes, Sets Date For "Chinese Democracy"

Guns N Roses frontman Axl Rose says that actions were to be in place for "Chinese Democracy" to be out by December 26 at the latest. In light of missing the date and having to reschedule the release of "Chinese Democracy," he has fired his manager and cancelled four West-coast tour dates in January. The new, tentative release date for "Chinese Democracy" is now March 6, 2007.

Here is the entire "open letter" from Axl: More...

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