All That Remains Confirmed For Soundwave 2011

Soundwave has been announcing artists one by one over the past couple of weeks. The first two metal bands to be announced for the festival are All That Remains and The Sword.

According to Soundwave, the band headlining the metal stage is actually big enough to headline the whole festival. We’ll know who that is on August 5th, when the full lineup is announced.

The full list of bands announced so far is:

The Blackout
The Ataris
Trash Talk
All That Remains
Less Than Jake
Veara
There for Tomorrow
A Skylit Drive
Mad Caddies
Protest the Hero
The Sword

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Interview

Interview with haarp Part 2

haarp (spelled with two a's, all lowercase, get it right!) is one of New Orleans' fastest-rising straight-up metal bands. With the support of their label Houscore Records and it's owner Philip Anselmo, they've got the go ahead to spread their metal to the masses. The band consists of vocalist Shaun, bassist Ryan, guitarist Grant, and drummer Keith. I had a chance to speak with haarp just before their show in Metiarie, Louisiana to discuess their debut full-length album soon to be released, what it's like to have Philip Anselmo as a boss, and Shaun's strange "stage" presence. View Part 1 of the interview. I've included videos of haarp's latest performance for those who aren't yet familiar with their sound. A transcription follows. More...

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Abalam Streaming Instrumental Track

U.K. black metal band Abalam is set to release "Thy Eternal Sin" on October 11th, 2010. Abalam is also now streaming an instrumental edit of a new song from the album online. The instrumental version of "A Ring of Dead Roses" can be heard through the band's official MySpace page.

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Kamelot Members To Appear At Free Music Clinic

Florida symphonic metal act Kamelot has issued the following announcement about appearing at the University of South Florida for a free music clinic:

"Members of Kamelot have been invited to the University of South Florida for a special music clinic with the USF students. Kamelot's bassist Sean Tibbetts, drummer Casey Grillo and Keyboardist Oliver Palotai will be attending this one of kind event.

"This event is really great for the USF students, it will kick off the North American tour which starts Sept 8th at Orlando's House of Blues."

You can also check out the promotional poster for the event at this location.

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All Out War Checks In With Band Update

New York's All Out War has checked in with the following update about releasing a new album and lining up new live shows:

"The new All Out War release 'Into the Killing Fields' comes out August 3rd. Preorder now through Victory. All Out War will have some show announcements throughout the Midwest and East Coast coming soon. In order to buy merch direct from the band go to this location. All Out War will be in Europe with Breakdown August 11 - 16 for a quick run."

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Repuked Streaming New Song From Upcoming Split

Sweden's Repuked has issued the following announcement about uploading the track "Feral" to the band's MySpace page:

"Shit is going down...puke goes up! Uploaded a new track from a split that will be out anytime soon. Feral fuck, with rob, kinky stieg and finally mr rimjob on grunts and moans. Piano by mr rimjob. And we got other big news soon about our debut full-length! Soon soon soon...uhuhuuhuh. And new shirts are on its way...necrokvlt in mehico! Awesome shite indeed! Now i puke u like! Cheerrss!"

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Steel Horse To Release Debut Album On Vinyl

Spain's Steel Horse has issued the following announcement about releasing the band's debut "Wild Power" album on vinyl:

"Wild Power, Steel Horse’s debut work already released as a CD by the end of 2009, will see the light of day in mid-August this year also as a vinyl edition. It will be a 500 copy edition with new artwork inside the album, and will be available at the band’s website.

"On the other hand, about their next European dates, Steel Horse will be playing at two festivals: 29th July at the German festival Headbangers Open Air 2010, with bands like Destruction, StormWarrior, Raven, Virgin Steele, Omen, Shok Paris and many others. 23rd October at the Dutch festival Heavy Metal Maniacs."

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Stormwarrior Signs Deal With Massacre Records

Germany's Stormwarrior has announced a new record deal with Massacre Records. The label issued the following statement about the signing:

"Massacre are proud to welcome German true metal kings Stormwarrior to the label. Being one of Germany's most upcoming metal bands the quartet has signed a long-term contract and already started with the works on their upcoming 4th album (working title is Heathen Warrior).

"The new album will be in stores end of this year as limited Digipak with bonus material, CD and numbered gatefold vinyl editions. Mix and mastering will be done by Tommy Hansen same as for their successor 'Heading Northe.' Also the artwork will be again in the hands of Uwe Karczewski. metal heads can expect another combination of explosive guitar works, catchy hooks but also some new toppings to the 'typical Stormwarrior sound'!"

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Wacken Open Air 2009 DVD To Be Released

The Wacken Open Air organizers have issued the following announcement about releasing a three disc live DVD set of the festival's 2009 edition:

"In 2009 Wacken Open Air celebrated it´s 20th Anniversary with a giant party and as usual it was recorded on DVD. With a duration of more than 500 minutes on 3 DVD's it's the biggest Wacken live DVD ever! Included are videos of more than 60 bands, 70 live tracks in 5.1 / 2.0 Dolby Digital and additionally masses of documentations and our world record – the world´s longest DVD credits with more than 17500 participants! The DVD will be available from the 5th of august as an 8 pages digi-pack directly at the festival area and afterwords at the FULL:METAL:SHOP."

The track listing is as follows: More...

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Column

Sunday Old School: Sacred Reich

The thrash metal movement in the eighties saw bands all over the world adopt the new approach to heavy metal, and the United States were arguably the champions of the genre. Although it was California and New York that were credited with some of the biggest and best names in thrash, other states produced some of the heaviest hitters of the bunch. A great example of this, would be the state of Arizona, which produced the politically minded Sacred Reich. The band formed in 1985 by vocalist and bass player Phil Rind and signed to Metal Blade Records, one of the biggest labels for thrash metal at the time, soon after. They released their first album, "Ignorance" in 1987 and was extremely well received by thrash fans all across the globe. An EP entitled, "Surf Nicaragua" followed the next year and featured a cover of the Black Sabbath classic, "War Pigs," as well as a passage from the song "Wipe Out" in the EP's title track.

After another EP, this one recorded live at the Dynamo festival in the Netherlands, Sacred Reich released a second album named, "The American Way" in 1990. The album saw a departure somewhat from their thrash metal sound, without discarding it completely and once again, was loved by fans and critics alike. Their next album, "Independent" did not find as much favour as their first two releases, but contained some stellar material, such as the title track. This album would also introduce drummer Dave McClain, who later went on to join Machine Head. Three years later, Sacred Reich released their fourth, and to date final studio album, "Heal," which regained the critical praise that "Independent" did not receive. After an absence of six years, the band's original drummer Greg Hall rejoined the group and they subsequently released a live record entitled, "Still Ignorant" in 1997. Sadly, this would prove to be the final release from Sacred Reich, as they decided to call it a day in 2000.

In 2007, the band decided to reform with the lineup of Phil Rind, Greg Hall and guitarists Wiley Arnett and Jason Rainey, peforming live around the world, most noticably at European festivals such as Wacken Open Air and Graspop Metal Meeting. Although the band has showed no sign in ending these performances any time soon, Rind has repeatedly stated that the band will not record another studio album. More...

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