Azrael's Bane To Do Texas Mini Metal Tour

Azrael's Bane will kick off the TEXAS MINI METAL TOUR this Thursday October 6th in Austin, Texas. Join AZRAEL’S BANE along with special guests 1 of 6 and Ignitor:

Oct 6 – Austin, TX – The Backroom
Oct 7 – College Station – Times Square Club
Oct 8 – Houston – FBI Club – CD Release Party

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Zyklon To Enter Studio

Norwegians Zyklon are to start work on their third album in November. To be titled 'Disintegrate', it's to be recorded at Akkerhaugen Ly dstudio in Norway, and released by Candlelight early next year. The band are also to shortly issue a live DVD called 'Storm Detonation Live'. This was filmed at the Party San Festival in Germany last year.

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Testament Sets Date For "Live In London" DVD

Eagle Rock Entertainment has set a November 1 release date for the new DVD from TESTAMENT, entitled "Live In London".

"Live In London" is the documentation of a dream that long-time die-hard TESTAMENT fans have been waiting for: the reuniting of the band’s "classic" lineup. Featuring vocalist Chuck Billy, guitar virtuosos Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick, bassist Greg Christian, and original drummer Louie Clemente (along with TESTAMENT and WHITE ZOMBIE alumnus John Tempesta as a second drummer), the band rips through classic TESTAMENT fan favorites in this show, shot in London earlier in 2005.

Among the leaders of heavy metal over the past twenty years, TESTAMENT have always provided the rock solid proof that great song writing, regardless of genre, will always transcend time. Their crucial contributions to the early thrash metal surge of the mid to late 1980s helped to develop a sound that forever changed the face of heavy music and resonates just as loudly today. With all of their Bay Area peers either calling it a day or drastically altering their sound, TESTAMENT has remained a worldwide metal ambassador throughout the 1990s and into the new century.

"Live In London" DVD track listing:

01. The Preacher
02. The New Order
03. The Haunting
04. Electric Crown
05. Sins Of Omission
06. Souls Of Black
07. Into The Pit
08. Trial By Fire
09. Practice What You Preach
10. Let Go Of My World
11. The Legacy
12. Over The Wall
13. Raging Waters
14. Disciples Of The Watch

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Stigmata Drummer Comments On Runion Show

Notable Troy, NY hardcore band Stigmata, who disbanded five years ago, will reunite on November 25th. The show will take place at Saratoga Winners in Latham, NY and the line-up will feature Bob Riley (vocals), Mike Maney (guitar), Jay Sunkes (guitar), Buddy Armstrong (bass), and Shadows Fall member Jason Bittner (drums). Bittner posted the following comments online regarding the show:

"Yes, it's true! For those of you not familiar. Stigmata was my old band before I joined the Shads. We will be reuniting for a special reunion show and playing a lot of great hardcore/metal. And for those of you who are familiar, we will be playing the "Hymns for an Unknown God" record in its entirety. So come out and enjoy!"

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Slipknots Clown Talks About Making of Live CD

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan recently spoke to MTV.com about the group's upcoming double live album, "9.0: Live", which comes out November 1 via Roadrunner Records.

"Studio albums are cool because they span the tables of time and you can work on the music until you're ready to put it out — but when you play those songs live, they take on a whole different life," Crahan said. "Suddenly, it's of the moment and there's this raging human pulse that's full of anger, love, hate and pain, and you spit that out to people and they taste that album differently.

"While we're playing, we're dying under our masks and exploding with the adrenaline of achieving our goal, which is to be as completely uncomfortable as humanly possible for our art," Crahan added. "We're slamming our heads and screaming at each other. There's real pain there. For me, it's the pain of mortality and the pain of being away from my wife and her being ill [Crahan's wife suffers from Crohn's Disease, an intestinal ailment]. And when the show ends, we look at each other's eyes, and we know we've pushed ourselves as far as we can at that point on that day in this life of ours.

"When we got the audio back from [the 2002 DVD] 'Disasterpieces', we realized we all gave a really, really good performance in part because we knew we were being taped. And we knew then that there was a lot of potential for a live album, so we decided to tape lots of shows and make sure we were on point the whole time. We are very anal-retentive when it comes to playing anyways, so we are very hard on ourselves and no one comes up half-assed or they get beaten down. But when you've got a microphone hanging onto your every note, you tend to give maybe 115 percent instead of 110 percent."

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Korns Twisted Transistor Artwork Online

According to a posting at Korn.tv.co.uk, the cover artwork for KORN's new single, "Twisted Transistor", was recently revealed to the fans. Check it out at this location.

The artist who designed the cover is 31-year-old American David Stoupakis, who is currently living and working in New York. He continues his dedication to painting and his remarkable works continue to grow. David's art has attracted many different buyers, from doctors and lawyers to the electric pioneer Gary Numan and KORN singer Jonathan Davis.

Check out more of Stoupakis' artwork at his official web site, www.davidstoupakis.com.

KORN's first album as part of their new deal with Virgin/EMI, entitled "See You on the Other Side", is scheduled for release on December 6. The album's first single "Twisted Transistor", debuted last week at No. 27 on Billboard's Modern Rock airplay tally and jumped 31-19 on the Mainstream Rock chart, according to Billboard.com.

"See You on the Other Side" was produced by KORN frontman Jonathan Davis in tandem with Atticus Ross and the pop hitmaking team the Matrix (LIZ PHAIR, HILARY DUFF).

KORN are in the planning stages of a North American run.

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Dark Tranquiity Video Posted Online

Sweden's DARK TRANQUILLITY have uploaded a video clip featuring the "pre-gig preparations" for their appearance at the Metal Zone festival in Gran Canaria on Saturday (Oct. 1). Check it out at this location.

Comented the band: "It has been a truly hectic weekend, traveling for a total of 30 hours with six different flights to get to Gran Canaria and play for one of the most amazing and devoted crowds ever — huge thanks to all 2,500 of you. We had a great time and hope to come back as soon as possible."

DARK TRANQUILLITY will be teaming up with CHIMAIRA, HATESPHERE and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE for a European tour beginning in early December.

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Vote For Bands To Be On SOTU 2006

The first year of SOTU is complete and we're already looking forward to the 2006 Sounds Of The Underground. We'll be back raging through your city in no time and we want your input! Email us back at sotu@ferretstyle.com and let us know what bands you'd like to see on the tour next year.

Not a huge request right? A few quick things:

1. We're just going to read through these so emailing about the same band over and over again from the same email address won't help the band out anymore, it'll most likely just bum us out on the band.
2. Multiple emails (more than 2) from the same email address will be automatically deleted. Just email us once with your ideas. We've got one poor dude who's going to read all these emails, go easy on him.
3. We'd like your email to list 5 bands you'd like to see. Less if fine, but not more please.

Keep in mind this is Sounds Of The Underground, we're looking for the best from the worlds of Hardcore, Metal and everything in between. The Top 20 bands we get responses about will go on a poll on www.soundsoftheunderground.com later this year.

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A Life Once Lost To Host Headbangers Ball

A LIFE ONCE LOST will be hosting the October 15th edition of MTV2's Headbanger's Ball, airing every Saturday night at 10 PM EST.

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Otep Featured In Hardcore Ink

OTEP have been featured Hardcore Ink Magazine, with their tattoos up for show in full page spreads. You can check out screenshots of the ink and magazine here. In other OTEP news, frontwoman and namesake, Otep, has had her 'infections'/drawings come to life and flash animated - they can be found here.

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More Sepultura Footage Online

Sepultura have been posting various video footage online from the recording of their upcoming new album "Dante XXI", you can find it all over at www.sepultura.com.br. The album is expected out through SPV early next year. A live album entitled "Live In Sao Paulo" is set to precede it, being released as both a 2-CD live album and a DVD through SPV on November 08th.

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New Demon Hunter Song Online

Demon Hunter's new track "Fire To My Soul" has made its way online and can be found here. The song is taken from the groups upcoming new effort "The Triptych", which will see an October 25th release date through Solid State.

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Rotting Christ Bring On Kostas Guitarist

Rotting Christ have brought in Nightfall guitarist George Bokos to replace Kostas, who left the band in July 2004. But, as yet, there's been no decision on whether this is a permanent situation.

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Within Temptation Plan DVD Release

Within Temptation are to release a DVD called 'The Silent Force Tour' in late November. It features a show filmed earlier this year in Amsterdam, plus backstage foortage, interviews and promo videos.

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Boy Sets Fire Tour Dates

Boy Sets Fire have lined up a few weeks of November touring. Here's the latest:

dates w/ From Autumn To Ashes
11/2 Columbia, SC @ New Brookland Tavern
11/3 Tampa, FL @ The Masquerade
11/4 Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
11/5 Lake Bueno Vista, FL @ House of Blues
11/6 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
11/7 Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre
11/8 Richmond, VA @ Alley Katz
11/09 Norfolk, VA @ The Norva Theatre

11/10 Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
11/13 Lancaster, PA @ Chameleon Club
11/14 New York City, NY @ Tribeca Rock Club

dates w/ The Fall Of Troy
11/15 Boston, MA @ Axis
11/16 Albany, NY @ Valentine's
11/17 Pittsburgh, PA @ Rex Theatre
11/18 Buffalo, NY @ Xtreme Wheels Skatepark
11/19 Poughkeepsie, NY @ Club Crannell

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Primer Black Formed, Plan To Record Full Length

Ron Kachnic (guitarist for MALIGNANCY, MORTICIAN), Desmond Tolhurst (guitarist for MALIGNANCY, MORTICIAN, HEAD TRAUMA), Shane Tierney (vocalist for LEVIATHAN), have joined with bassist ART MICEWICZ and drummer JIM HORAN, both formerly of DIRTY BROWN EYE, to form PRIMER BLACK.

PRIMER BLACK's debut performance will be on 10/28/05 in Hartford, CT with THE MISFITS and BALZAC, then they will be touring the northeast US to support the release of their 2 track single "BLOOD ON THE HEADLIGHTS", available on CD and 7" vinyl. During this small local tour, PRIMER BLACK will be recording a full-length release to be released in Spring 2006, supported by a full US & European tour.

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Site Update

Introducing Two New Columns

If you haven't noticed, we've introduced two new features here at metalunderground.com, which are being pilotted to become weekly columns. First, we introduced "This Week In Metal," a roundup of what's happening on the metal charts in album sales (based on CMJ's top 10) and singles' radio play (based on MuchMusic's satellite radio airplay chart) brought to you with commentary by Negatyve_One. Next, I introduced "Now Playing," a weekly column that will written by a different staff member every week to highlight what they're listening to and what they like. Both are intended as conversation pieces and a means to introduce our readers to a number of metal bands that are either doing well or recommended by us.

These columns will be listed on the news page as well as featured on the home page just under the main headlines to the right.

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Bolt Thrower Launch Online Music Player

Bolt Thrower have launched an online music player, so far featuring two new songs from the band's upcoming album, "Those Once Loyal".

To listen to the songs go here.

Also featured is a competition, pictures and a screensaver available for download.

"Those Once Loyal" is due to be released via Metal Blade in Germany on November 11th, the rest of Europe on November 14th and in the U.S. on November 15th.

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