Contrive To Record New Full-Length

Australian Metal trio CONTRIVE are set to hit the studio sometime in August to begin recording their debut album titled "The Meaning Unseen". It will feature 9 new tracks, some which have already been road tested live with a welcoming response. Contrive bassist Tim Stahlmann says "whilst the past works had it's influences the new Contrive material will definately display our development as songwriters and as a band." It will also feature a special Taiko drum piece written and performed by drummer Andrew Haug whom continues his studies of the great ancient Japanese art of Taiko drumming. The album will be recorded at the Toyland Studios, Melbourne with Adam Calaitzis ( http://members.ozemail.com.au/~adamcal/ ).

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Even More Roadrage Tour Dates Announed

As previously reported, the upcoming RoadRage USA 2004 tour is scheduled to kick off in early August and run through mid-September. Joining MACHINE HEAD and CHIMAIRA will be THREE INCHES OF BLOOD and TRIVIUM.

Currently confirmed dates for the tour include:

August 3 in Cleveland, OH at The Odeon
August 4 in Rochester, NY at Penny Arcade
August 6 in Worcester, MA at The Palladium
August 7 in NYC, NY at Irving Plaza
August 8 in Philadelphia, PA at TLA
August 9 in Washington DC at 9:30 Club
August 10 in Norfolk, VA at NorVa
August 13 in Atlanta, GA at Masquerade
August 14 in Orlando, FL at House of Blues
August 17 in San Antonio, TX at White Rabbit
August 20 in Grand Rapids, MI at The Intersection
August 21 in Detroit, MI at Harpo's
August 22 in Columbus, OH at Al Rosa Villa
August 23 in Chicago, IL at House of Blues
August 28 in Denver, CO at Gothic Theatre

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Firsthand Report of the Athens Open Air Disaster

The Athens Open Air “I wannabe a” festival was supposed to take place on the 5th and 6th of July at Alimos beach (after it had already changed venues a couple of times, confusing all the people who were going to attend the festival) in Athens, Greece.

The promoters, Omicron Music, got a 150 meter long area of the beach (and about 30 meters wide) and set a pretty lame stage at the end of it. The stage was practically next to the sea but not in the sea (as the owner of the promotion company had told Metal-Temple that it would be – a great stage with a great show…my ass). It was also too damn small and too damn low. You had to be really tall, or really close to see what was going on and the bands had little space to perform, let alone move with ease.

On the 5th of July (Monday) the gates were supposed to open at 16:15 and finally opened 1,5 hours later with some thousands of people already suffering under the burning sun. Why? Because (now here’s something people don’t know) the bands were supposed to start their sound checks at 11:30 and they started at 15:30! Are the bands the ones to blame for this delay? Of course not. The “smart” promoters had assigned “friends” and people working for them at the cafeteria (the owner of Omicron Music also owns a cafeteria in the center of Athens) to go pick up the bands from the airport and be with them all the time…pretty professional don’t you think? Yes, it’s unbelievable, girlies, DJs and “neighbors” all in charge of the bands! How can one expect everything NOT to go wrong when this guy (the owner) used young people with a love for these bands (and Metal in general) instead of employing professionals to do the job?

So thousands of people gathered on the beach and waited till 19:15...when The Haunted finally came on stage (defying millions of problems caused by the lousy equipment provided by the promoters) and played for three quarters of an hour. I must add that The Haunted were pretty pissed off with the promoter before their appearance because he hadn’t given them all the money they had agreed for and they wouldn’t start. Huge dust clouds started rising in front of the stage as people were head-banging filling everyone’s clothes and bodies with sand, making it quite difficult to breathe. When asked, the promoters said that they didn’t expect the sand clouds from the thousands of people gathered there (!!!). The fun part was that they were also looking for a working microphone. The result was a sound check while the band was playing to find a working one. I repeat, while the band was playing!

In the meanwhile I had noticed that the security was really bad (we all guess that the promoter paid for less security than he should have paid for) and there was only one security guy separating the crowd from backstage (well I wouldn’t call it backstage but anyway) where most of the bands were sitting together with the press. Please note that there was no ambulance present, no doctor around, no first aid kit or whatever...nothing!

Read the full article at Metal Temple.

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Mark Sasso Does Dio 'Master Of The Moon' Artwork

Illustrator, Marc Sasso, who has done album covers for Dio, Morbid Angel, Cryonic Temple, Rob Rock, Hard Echo and recently the new Cage CD, is now painting the new Dio cover for "Master Of The Moon". Marc is the only artist to have done two Dio covers.

Marc told Maximum Metal (maximummetal.com): "I can't think of a better way to spend my Independence Day then painting new cover art for one of the greatest American heavy metal singers in history - Ronnie James Dio! The artwork is everything you've come to love within the Dio universe -a bad-ass creature in a magical environment, with a twist. Ronnie's vocals and music have been a huge part of my life and he is one of the coolest, most down to earth people I've ever met. I am thankful that I have been given the opportunity to create his cover art for a 2nd time. Long live the man on the Silver Mountain. Marc Sasso - July 4th, 2004

Look for the new Dio CD "Master Of The Moon" to be released August 30, in Europe through SPV Records. A U.S. release date through Sanctuary Records has yet to be announced. The follow-up to 2002's "Killing The Dragon" was recorded at a Los Angeles studio and features lyrics that
are "cynical" and "political", with the music being a mixture of up-tempo and doomy tracks, according to frontman Ronnie James Dio.

Songtitles set to appear on the CD include:
1. Master Of The Moon
2. Death By Love
3. I Am
4. The End Of The World
5. One More From The Road
6. Shivers
7. In Dreams
8. The Man Who Would Be King
9. Living A Lie
10. The Eyes

A U.S. tour is expected to kick off on Sept. 23 in Detroit.

For more of Marc's various artworks go to www.marcsasso.com where you can also purchase signed prints.

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Killer With 'No Remorse' Is Spared For Now

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday (July 7) blocked the scheduled execution of a man who chanted the chorus to METALLICA's "No Remorse" — "Another day, another death, another sorrow, another breath" — after fatally shooting a man in the head in Corpus Christi and robbing him of $13 twenty years ago.

Appeals filed to the court contend jurors were not allowed to properly consider Troy Kunkle's drug and alcohol abuse history and that Kunkle's due-process rights were violated when appeals lawyers were denied access to a state-paid full transcript of juror questioning, according to the Associated Press.

The Supreme Court issued an indefinite stay.

Kunkle, 38, was set for lethal injection Wednesday night for fatally shooting Steven Horton, 29, during a robbery in Corpus Christi. He would be the 11th Texas prisoner executed this year.

On legal notepads in court, Kunkle wrote METALLICA lyrics, alleging the lyrics from "No Remorse" inspired him to kill. This disturbed the band's lead singer, James Hetfield, when he learned how Kunkle reacted to the verse, according to KZTV10.

Hetfield, in 1984, said, "I guess this kid took it into his own ways. Of course, we're upset but I mean we had nothing directly to do with it."

Leslie Poynter Dixon, a former assistant district attorney in Nueces County who prosecuted the case, last week recalled a hearing about whether the METALLICA song could be used as evidence.

"As this album [METALLICA's 'Kill 'Em All'] was being played for the judge so he could make his decision on whether it would be admitted, Mr. Kunkle was playing an air guitar," said Dixon, now the district attorney in Van Zandt County in East Texas. "That really struck me. It suggested to me that Mr. Kunkle had no regard for human life — even his own — because this was his trial and the state was seeking the death penalty."

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Watch Every Time I Die's New Video

Every Time I Die is out with the video to their new single 'The Logic of Crocodiles'. Watch it online at FerretStyle.com.

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Drowning Pool Singer On Walmart Censorship

In an interview with Electricbasement.com, DROWNING POOL vocalist JASON JONES derided Wal-Mart for its insistance on a censored cover and music of their recent release Desensitized, "...the record is actually censored too, but you can't make a kid go ride 85 miles on his fuckin' bicycle to go and buy a record. It sucks that they censor it and everything, but at least it's in there. I just don't understand how you can get DVDs there of people dyin' and fuckin' but the record gets censored. It just shows you that those FCC guys are a bunch of cockheads."

However, he admits the band has a weakness for the retail super store, "Yeah, but we love Wal-Mart, and we shop there all of the time. (laughs)"

Read the full article at Electric Basement.

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Metal, Metalcore Fill Out Resident Evil Soundtrack

Rob Zombie and A Perfect Circle will contribute new recordings to the fist-pounding soundtrack to the flick "Resident Evil: Apocalypse," which comes out August 24. Other artists signed on for the disc include Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil, and some unnamed emo/metalcore acts, according to a spokesperson for the project.

Read the full article at MTV.com.

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Video Footage Of Danzig Vs North Side Kings Singer

Video footage of DANZIG frontman Glenn Danzig engaging in a physical confrontation with NORTH SIDE KINGS singer and frequent SOULFLY collaborator Danny Marianinho following DANZIG's performance in Tuba City, Arizona Saturday night (July 3) has been posted online at AZPunk.com. Also available from: Location#2 or Location#3.

With regards to the incident, Marianinho posted the following message on the BLABBERMOUTH.NET comment boards:

"I would never pick a fight with a black belt, I am not some big, tough guy looking for trouble. I have gotten my fair share of ass-kickings. We have been filming a ton of footage for almost a year now, and had three camera guys at this show to film footage. Tons of tape from the entire day. Danzig freaked the fuck out completely way out of life. His site banned my guitarist from making any statements on [the official DANZIG fan site] The7thhouse in regards to their bullshit comment saying I 'used a sharp object.' When the video is posted you will clear as hell that there is nothing in my hands. Maybe he cut his mouth on his 'vampire' teeth! Or maybe is face just opened up? Who cares — I was excited to play that show and was not expecting a fight. I was in mid conversation when he attacked me."

"And for the record — Danzig is NOT a little man. He may be short, but he is in great physical shape. Better than me, and I am at least 12 years younger. He threw me pretty hard and I reacted like anyone on this site would have."

"NORTH SIDE KINGS is not a touring band and really doesn't care about being popular. We are a hardcore band that does not want to tour. We are happy playing a few shows a year. And I wanted to clarify the subject before he put out some bullshit story — which his crew has already made crazy allegations. Still to this time he has not tried to contact me to apologize for being a mental case..."

"Once again, I liked DANZIG — otherwise we wouldn't have even been on the show. The guy is out of control. The video shows it all — and it was very uncalled for on his end."

"He caught me off guard when he attacked me — but I caught him with a good jab. That's it in a nutshell."

"The lesson here: respect the bands on your shows cause we are all people. Maybe when he is in Europe he will be more polite to the local bands on his shows. It's a shame this course had to be taken."

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System Of A Down To Enter Studio, Record New Album

SYSTEM OF A DOWN are preparing to enter the studio to begin recording their next album, tentatively due later this year through American/Columbia Records. The as-yet-untitled set will be the follow-up to 2002's "Toxicity", which album bowed at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 3.3 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

With regards to the recording process guitarist Daron Malakian said in a statement,

"We'll play a song through and record it, listen to it and decide what could make it even better — repeat a chorus, simple rearrangement, we all spark off of each other. Some of the new songs have really great moments — we want to make the entire song a really great moment."

According to Malakian, some surprising influences can be heard in SYSTEM's new work.

"The influences range from KRAFTWERK to DARKTHRONE to the ZOMBIES to the BEACH BOYS, but it all fits together," he said. "It works"

The album will be recorded in a home studio in California's Hollywood Hills.

"We were ready for a change. We wanted a different vibe and we needed to progress," said vocalist Serj Tankian. "We've always recorded in traditional studios, but this was a good move. It's a great place — it's not sterile and there are beautiful grounds to venture into. We're enjoying each other and the music we're making."

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God Dethroned Announce New Album Title

Dutch death metallers GOD DETHRONED have set "The Lair of the White Worm" as the title of their upcoming album, tentatively due in November through Metal Blade Records.

The follow-up to 2003's "Into the Lungs of Hell" will be recorded starting next week at Berno Studios in Malmö, Sweden and will mark the group's first release with new members, guitarist Isaac De La Haye (who replaced Jens van der Valk) and bassist Henk "Henke" Zinger (ex-GRINDMINDED).

GOD DETHRONED's new lineup:

Henri Sattler - Guitars, Vocals.
Isaac De La Haye - Guitars
Henk "Henke" Zinger - Bass
Arien Van Weesenbeek - Drums

"The Lair of the White Worm" tentative track listing (in no particular order)

01. The Lair of the White Worm
02. Nihilism
03. Salt in your Wounds
04. The Last Zip of Spit
05. Loyal To The Crown of God Dethroned
06. Rusty Nails
07. Sigma Enigma
08. Arch Enemy Spain
09. (untitled)

According to an official press release, the album will be "very diverse." The band are also expected to shoot a video for the title track and film a studio report.

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Soundscan Report For Unearth & Atreyu

ATREYU's "Curse" registered a first-week tally of 34,144, landing at No. 32, while UNEARTH's "The Oncoming Storm" shifted 13,285 copies to enter the chart at No. 105. Elsewhere, NEUROSIS' "The Eye of Every Storm" premiered with a first-week total of 2,074.

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