Headline News

Vocalist/Bassist Jared Anderson Passes Away

According to a MySpace bulletin from VITAL REMAINS, bassist and vocalist Jared Anderson passed away on Saturday, October 14. He was a former member of MORBID ANGEL and HATE ETERNAL. No cause of death has been released.

Visitation will take place Thursday, October 19 at the E. C. Nurre Funeral Home, St. Rt. 125 Amelia, Ohio from 9 am to 11 am followed by Funeral Services Thursday, 11 a.m. at the Funeral Home. Interment Pierce Township Cemetery.

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Trap Them And Kill Them Announce New Bassist

Trap Them And Kill Them (AKA 77+K7) have officially announced the addition of Nat Coghlan to their lineup. Coghlan previously played with Transistor Transistor and is now a full member of the group. The band's vinyl-only debut, entitled "Cunt Heir To The Throne," is due out November 21st from Trash Art! with a full-length to follow soon after. You can check out a track from the album here.

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Blacklisted Prepares To Record EP

With plans for a break-up firmly dissolved, Blacklisted are currently finalizing material for a new EP release. The band will enter Godcity with Kurt Ballou in December to record the effort. Tentatively titled "Peace on Earth, War on Stage," the EP is expected to hit streets this winter via Deathwish Inc.

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Mushroomhead Announce Tour Dates

MUSHROOMHEAD have announced a host of new dates for the month of November. They are as follows:

November 2 - Poughkeepsie NY @ The Chance
November 3 - Orono ME @ Ushuaia
November 4 - Bedford NH @ Mark's Place (18+)
November 5 - Allentown PA @ Crocodile Rock Cafe
November 7 - Charlotte NC @ Amos' South End (16+)
November 8 - Jacksonville NC @ Hooligans
November 10 - St. Petersburg FL @ State Theater
November 11 - Ft. Lauderdale FL @ Culture Room
November 13 - Jacksonville FL @ Free Bird Live
November 14 - Atlanta GA @ Masquerade

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Ligeia European Tour Dates

Ligeia will be touring throughout the UK and Belgium for a few weeks in December. Here are the tour dates:

07/12 Gent, BE @ Frontline
08/12 Eindhoven, NL @ Dynamo w/ Sparkle Of Hope
09/12 Meerhout BE @ Volkshuis w/ Alexisonfire, This Is Hell & Cancer Bats
10/12 Kingston, UK @ The Peel w/ Bring Me The Horizon
11/12 Stoke, UK @ The Glebe w/ Penknifelovelife
12/12 Leeds, UK @ Josephs Well w/ Penknifelovelife
13/12 Manchester, UK @ Satan's Hollow w/ Penknifelovelife
14/12 Newcastle, UK @ University w/ Penknifelovelife
15/12 Middlesbrough, UK @ TBA w/ Penknifelovelife
16/12 Swindon, UK @ Furnace w/ Penknifelovelife
17/12 Exeter, UK @ The Cavern w/ Penknifelovelife
18/12 Tamworth, UK @ The Palace w/ Penknifelovelife
19/12 TBA

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Knives Exchanging Hands Signs With Tragic Hero

Greensboro, NC metalcore band Knives Exchanging Hands has officially signed a deal with Tragic Hero Records. The group's Tragic Hero debut is due out early next year. In the meantime, you can check them out here.

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Ion Dissonance Announce New Vocalist

Ion Dissonance have chosen Kevin McCaughey (Shaolin, The Last Felony, Despised Icon) as their new vocalist, the band issued the following statement on the matter:

"We are really proud to welcome our really good friend Kevin McCaughey to the Ion Dissonance family. Things are going really well so far with him on vocals, Kevin played a few shows with us already and his vocals fit perfectly with our music and what we were looking for. We would like to thank everyone who tried out for us and would like to wish them good luck in their projects. Otherwise, we are currently writing our 3rd album right now and it's going really well so far, we have a lot of new stuff already and all we can say is that we feel it's some of the best stuff we have ever written. We just announced our final tour dates for 2006 and after that we'll finish tightening things up to record it next spring. More updates coming soon about the recording."

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If Hope Dies Has Live Video Posted Online

A live video of If Hope Dies performing their track "Burned Out" has been made available online here

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Biomechanical's Cover of "Painkiller" Online

London's progressive metal thrashers Biomechanical have placed online an advance preview of their Judas Priest cover track Painkiller, which they recorded last week with the original Judas Priest producer Chris Tsangarides at the production helm. Their cover of one of metal's all-time standout cuts is now available on Mp3 for fans to preview online here.

The cover of the legendary ‘Painkiller’ was recorded over three days with the track’s original producer Tsangarides, at his own studio in Dover, UK.Singer John K from Biomechanical recently spoke about his appreciation of the track, which has featured as a highlight of the band's set for some time, stating: “When the song was first introduced to the scene in 1990 it blew everything out of the water, it was an instant classic and sure withstood the test of time. We’re really glad to be able to do homage to the original”.

You can take a look at a pic of the band with Chris Tsangardies in the studio here.

‘Painkiller’ will be released by Earache on a limited edition re-dux of Biomechanical’s second album ‘The Empires Of The Worlds’, which will also include 3 bonus Quicktime Videos including behind the scenes footage of the band in the studio and on location filming their promo clip last year. It is in stores across the UK and Europe on November 3rd.

To coincide, Biomechanical also head out on tour throughout Europe supporting US Thrashers Exodus on the following dates: More...

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Malstrom Post New Music Online

New York metal band, Malstrom, have posted two new songs on their myspace page. The songs, entitled 'My Mortal Fetish' and 'The Beast', come off their latest CD, The War Will Be Lost.

The tracklisting for the CD entitled "The War Will Be Lost" is as follows:

1. Our Last Bird Flies on Forever
2. My Mortal Fetish
3. Meridian
4. Day of Days
5. The Beast
6. Whither the Kill
7. The War Will Be Lost

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Dimmu Borgir Complete Drums For New Album

Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR have entered Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden with producer Fredrik Nordström to begin recording their new album for an early 2007 release. The group has issued the following update on the recording process:

"Drums [by Hellhammer of MAYHEM fame] are completed! It went surprisingly smooth, considering the fact that a couple of tracks hadn't even been properly rehearsed in advance like we're normally used to. Besides, final adjustments always happen in the studio. Even if you think you've got everything nailed down at the practice pad, last-minute changes are known to give albums that little extra, and once you start recording it all comes clear. And with effective working hours and extensive shifts with complete focus on the job, things don't have to take long. Next up are rhythm guitars and hopefully it will be an experience just as effective and enjoying as it was doing the drums."

DIMMU BORGIR's current recording lineup is as follows:

Shagrath - Vocals
Silenoz - Guitars
Galder - Guitars
Vortex - Bass
Mustis - Keys
Hellhammer - Drums

Guitarist Silenoz previously stated about the new CD, "It will be a story-based album with lyrics written accordingly and music wise it'll be…let's see….hmmm… very DIMMU BORGIR! We can't wait to have this monster finished and share it with our fans as they have been extremely patient with us, but we promise — it'll be well worth all the wait!"

DIMMU BORGIR recently became the first band on the Nuclear Blast USA roster to sell more than 100,000 copies of a full-length album with their "Death Cult Armageddon" (2003) release, according to sales figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

DIMMU BORGIR's video for the track "Sorgens Kammer – Del II" has been posted online at NuclearBlast.de (Real Media). The clip was shot last fall in Sweden with director Patric Ullaeus of Sweden's Revolver Film Company.

"Sorgens Kammer – Del II" is one of the new tracks included on the updated, re-recorded version of DIMMU BORGIR's 1996 album, "Stormblåst", which was released in Europe in November via Nuclear Blast Records (the North American release followed in February). The album was completely re-recorded with producer Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN) and MAYHEM's Hellhammer on drums.

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Close-up Interviews Deftones Frontman

Sweden's Close-Up magazine recently conducted an interview with DEFTONES frontman Chino Moreno. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Close-Up: Why did you first opt to work with producer Bob Ezrin?

Chino: "Well, we didn't have a producer for a while. We were in Malibu writing songs. We rented this house and all lived there. It was in the summer time and right on the beach. We'd wake up and start writing music. We were writing all this music, but we weren't recording it professionally, just recording it so that we could remember the songs. We wanted a producer and we talked to a couple of people. [Former THE CARS frontman] Ric Ocasek was one person we were possibly thinking about working with. Bob Ezrin had called and said he was interested in doing it, so he came down to see us practice and perform. We started playing one of our songs and he stopped us right in the middle. He said 'Stop!' and nobody's ever really told us to stop playing. I could tell he was very militant. He said 'Try this! Try this!' He was very hands-on, wanting to take control right off the top. I thought that might be good for us, because we've never had anyone discipline us in the studio. We just write and do whatever we do, which I think is good for a certain reason. But I thought it would be good to have someone outside of the band give their point of point. It worked up to a certain amount of time. We ended up going to Connecticut and recording all the stuff we had written in Malibu up to that point. We got to vocals and it just didn't work when I started working with him on vocals. We didn't vibe."

Close-Up: I read what Bob Ezrin had to say about it. He pretty much said that you walked out on your band in Connecticut and you ragged on him in the press as well. What was the reason behind the two of you not being able to see eye-to-eye on things?

Chino: "I think he wasn't focused on our record. He didn't really know what was going on. He had too many things going on. We were in Connecticut and he was getting up at eight or sex o' clock in the morning to drive to New York to produce another band he was doing in New York in the day. By the time he got to the studio where we were working, at two or three o' clock in the afternoon, he'd just come in and throw around a couple of opinions. He helped build [PINK FLOYD's] 'The Wall' and make that album. In interviews of his that I read, he said that he actually took the songs and was building an album. That's what I wanted to do, I wanted to build a record together with him, with his help. I thought that's why you hire a producer. You pay them a lot of money to do something other than to sit around and give an opinion. Anyone could do that. It just didn't work. I noticed that from Terry Date to him, it's a completely different person. Terry Date is one of the best engineers in the world. You sit with him and I'll say 'I really want this to sound like this' and I'll play him a DEPECHE MODE song or something 'See this, where his vocals are?" and in two minutes he'll make it sound like that. That's how Terry Date works and that's what I like about him. I think, with the creative part of the band, it wasn't working with Bob. Some of the music we wrote that we recorded was good, but I don't think we were ready to put out a record yet. The songs that we had, the excitement wasn't there. It felt like we were just making a record to make a record. It wasn't fun at all and I kinda went 'I'm done with it'. At the time, with TEAM SLEEP it was so creative and I didn't have to worry about making… At the time, nobody [in DEFTONES] really cared that much, so I didn't really cared that much. We weren't really talking that much and I thought 'Why am I sitting here working on this record that nobody really fucking cares about?' So I went and did TEAM SLEEP shit and it calmed a lot of the tension in the band. I mean, I didn't know if there was gonna be a DEFTONES anymore. I don't think they knew and I honestly didn't care.

Close-Up: If you take Bob's version, it was him and the band on one side and you on the other.

Chino: "No, Bob didn't get along with Abe and Abe didn't get along with Bob. He's just really bossy. He's an asshole, that's the only way I can explain it!"

Close-Up: Another way to put it is that he's an old-school producer from an era when the producer was the star.

Chino: "I guess so, but he wasn't shining like a star. He wasn't bringing anything to the table. If he would've had one idea where I'd say 'Oh, that's great!'… But it wasn't like that. To me it seemed like there was no fire behind him and that's usually not what I expect. From Terry Date, I expect him to come fire us up. We are our own fire, but I figured 'We're paying a producer a lot of money and it isn't working, so I'll do this shit on my own.'"

Close-Up: Abe has likened this album to "White Pony".

Chino: "That's because it's a really diverse album, just like "White Pony" was. The musical parts on it are really good. It's not just riffs and parts where people can jump up and down and shit. We took our time making it."

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Porcupine Tree Update

Porcupine Tree would like to thank all those that came to the shows on our September - October tour. We met many long-term fans once again, but also a large number of people seeing the band for the very first time. In fact it proved to be the most successful tour of the band's career, with most shows - including the entire US leg - sold out. We were particularly happy with the reaction to the new material. This was a bit of a experiment for us, and we had certaiinly not expected such a large chunk of unfamiliar material to be so well received, which bodes very well for the next album.

Also unexpected was the demand for the merchandise - despite re-ordering several times throught the tour, we still had a few nights when we were out of stock of some items completely, so sorry about that. For those that missed out on the new t-shirts there is going to be a small run specifically made to sell through the PT store, so keep an eye out for those.

Now it's time for the band to enter the studio to start recording the now road-tested new material (as well as some other pieces we didn't play this time). There should be regular updates as things progress. See you in the Spring!

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Sturmgeist Get On MySpace and Post Three Songs

Season of Mist recording artist STURMGEIST has created a MySpace page and posted three songs there including Bloodaxe, Rock Me Amadeus, and Master Hunter.

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Eyeless Teaser MP3 Posted Online

Season of Mist has posted a teaser for the album that will be released next January 22nd by French core madmen EYELESS. You can download the MP3 teaser here.

The album "The Game of Fear", produced and mixed by Tue Madsen (THE HAUNTED, HATESPHERE, MNEMIC, etc.) will contain eleven tracks, as well as some special guests. ("The Game of Fear" will be released in France and the Benelux only.)

You can also check out some of their older material at their MySpace page.

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Nevermore Guitarist Post Update

NEVERMORE guitarist Steve Smyth (ex-TESTAMENT), who was recently diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure (the result of a congenital birth defect), has issued the following update:

"This has been a delayed update, not because there wasn't anything going on, but lately due to one fact; some 'news' I was supposed to have received last week sometime.

"On to that first; I don't want to go into detail on what this 'news' is about, but suffice it to say that I have been informed that again, this 'news' will take another few weeks to come back to me. The best I can say is, I'm anxiously awaiting this 'news', and once I have it, I'll post an update on here!

"Thank you to all of you who consistently send me supportive e-mails, and well wishes via my MySpace as well! You guys are awesome, and I really appreciate it! Speaking of my MySpace page, there's some new stuff on there in video form right now, and more to come in the near future! Take a look!

"On that subject, we're getting ready to launch some videos (mpegs and what-not) from various points in my musical history, and this should begin to come to fruition starting this week. Footage from TESTAMENT, DRAGONLORD, VICIOUS RUMORS, and even my BLACK SABBATH/OZZY tribute, SWEET LEAF, will soon be featured in the videos section of my MySpace page!!! (as well as making their inevitable way to YouTube!!!). Not all are complete songs of course, but we're working on that angle as well. I am actively searching for anyone who has digitized a very hard to find (and, I think, out of print) home video I was a part of: VR 'The First 10 Years'. It was only done on VHS, and I can't seem to find it anywhere. If you have it, please contact me, I need to talk to you!

"Onto THE ESSENESS PROJECT. Well, it's been a few months, and in that time, due to reasons I'll explain in a minute, we've gotten things honestly down to... one song left for me! I know that sounds odd, in two months' time, to only be down to one song, (we had 4 to go last time I left an update), but as we've gone along, there have been things that have affected maintaining a regular daily schedule with tracking this monster, Steve Hoffman's schedule (he's a bass teacher, and busy with symphony works as well!), and some recent health issues for me (nothing I couldn't fight and win along the way) that resulted in a few delays over the last few months here. But, we're in there on a pretty regular schedule again, and now it's down to one, and on to final overdubs. In this last session, we're putting down some 'extras,' some ear cookies. I don't want to give away what we're going to put down either, so you'll have to wait and hear it!

"Man, have I learned a lot through recording this album!

"We're now looking at mixing this sometime in the fall; this is being worked out this week, and I'll have an update with info as to who's mixing in the next update. I've got my eyes on a couple of great engineers here in the Bay Area, one who most 'guitar afficiandos' would know of... we'll see what works out. Stay tuned!

"On other fronts, the 'Metalocalypse' (AKA DETHKLOK!!!) episode I did voice overs for, along with Michael Amott [ARCH ENEMY] and my 'metal brother' Warrel Dane [NEVERMORE], made its debut a few weeks back! Hope you all were able to catch it, and enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun doing it, and rumors are that they're making Season 2 as we speak. Man, that show kicks ass!

"I did go to Gigantour 2 in Oakland as well, when it came through town. What a great concert that was! Very inspiring to see a lot of great metal up there on one stage! I had a great time, visited some good friends backstage briefly, but I was there to see some metal! Truly a great bill Dave [Mustaine] put together for this!

"Now, on to one important subject, one of which I have received lots of e-mails, forum posts, and MySpace messages about as well: guitar lessons! My plan is now complete, and I will be giving entire details in a separate post later this week, but I am ready to start these lessons at the beginning of November!

"Are you guys ready?! I am!

"That's all for now. Stay tuned, as there's lots more coming soon!"

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Opeth Announce Italian Dates

Sweden's OPETH has added four Italian dates to its upcoming European tour. They are as follows:

Dec. 15 - Milan, ITA @ Live Club
Dec. 16 - Ravenna, ITA @ Kojak
Dec. 17 - Rome, ITA @ Alpheus
Dec. 18 - Treviso, ITA @ New Age

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Killswitch Engage Announce Euro Tour Dates

New England metallers KILLSWITCH ENGAGE will embark on a European tour in January. So far the following dates have been released:

Jan. 08 - Barrowland - Glasgow, UK
Jan. 11 - Manchester Academy - Manchester, UK
Jan. 12 - Carling Academy Birmingham - Birmingham, UK
Jan. 13 - Carling Academy Brixton - London, UK
Jan. 14 - Carling Academy Bristol - Bristol, UK
Jan. 19 - X – Herford, GER
Jan. 20 - Große Freiheit 36 - Hamburg, GER
Jan. 25 - Postbahnhof - Berlin, GER
Jan. 26 - Südbahnhof - Chemnitz, GER
Jan. 27 - Schlachthof - Wiesbaden, GER
Jan. 28 - Live Music Hall - Köln, GER
Jan. 29 - Longhorn LKA - Stuttgart, GER
Jan. 31 - Backstage - München, GER

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Rob Zombie Wins "Chainsaw" Movie Awards

The Associated Press reports that rocker-turned-director Rob Zombie picked up a Chainsaw Award for his horror flick "The Devil's Rejects". The "Killer Movie" award, presented Sunday night (Oct. 15) to Zombie by Robert "Freddy Kruger" Englund, was part of the first televised "Fuse Fangoria Chainsaw Awards" to honor the best films and actors in the horror genre. Check out pictures of Rob accepting the award:

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Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon, and actor Bill Moseley won the "Relationship From Hell" award for "The Devil's Rejects".

"Saw II" also won two awards, for "Best Butcher" (best villain) and "Looks that Kill" (best makeup).

The awards ceremony was held at the Orpheum Theatre and will be broadcast Oct. 22 on Fuse Television.

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Miseration To Release Debut In December

MISERATION, the Swedish death metal collaboration between Jani Stefanovich (ESSENCE OF SORROW, ex-SINS OF OMISSION, ex-AM I BLOOD) and Christian Älvestam (SCAR SYMMETRY, UNMOORED, TORCHBEARER, QUEST OF AIDANCE, INCAPACITY), will release its debut album, "Your Demons - Their Angels", on December 21 in Japan through King Records. In Europe and in the U.S. the album will see the light of day in early February 2007 via Rivel Records. A few songs from the album have been posted on the band's MySpace page.

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The Prophecy Set To Release New Album In January

Yorkshire doom-death metallers THE PROPHECY will release their new album, "Revelations" (cover), in January 2007 through NoFace Records. However, the band will be making copies of the CD available on their upcoming the Days Of Reckoning Tour 2006, which is scheduled to kick off late October.

To order a copy of "Revelations", visit THE PROPHECY's official web site.

THE PROPHECY previously stated about the upcoming CD: "The album was started in February 2004 when we did the first pre-productions after writing the songs after the Doomination of Europe in 2003 and we actually aired a few of the songs on the Doomination of America tour and the subsequent Unholy Trinity tour with MY DYING BRIDE.

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Negativa Post New Songs On Myspace Page

NEGATIVA, the Quebec-based band featuring former GORGUTS members Steeve Hurdle (guitar, vocals) and Luc Lemay (guitar, vocals), along with Etienne Gallo (drums, ex-AUGURY) and Miguel Valade (bass, ex-ION DISSONANCE), has posted its track "Chaos in Motion" on its MySpace page.

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