New England Punk, Goth & Metal Festival Cancelled

Lowell, Massachusetts's Lowell Sun reports:

With five weeks until show time, the city has pulled the plug on the New England Punk, Goth & Metal Festival scheduled for LeLacheur Park on Oct. 1-2.

The 70-band event, which was expected to draw 5,000 people each day, was to be the first concert ever staged at the ballpark, home to the Lowell Spinners minor-league baseball team. The news took Matthew Marchesi by surprise. The 25-year-old Lowell promoter said he has signed contracts with four headliners and sold 1,000 tickets.

“They are afraid of who we are and might be,” said Marchesi, whose company Spaz-tik
Ltd., runs events such as Slaughter House Saturdays at Reflections in Chelmsford.

Marchesi said he had a contract with Spinners management for the show and thought he was all set. But on Aug. 15, City Manager John Cox read about the “scheduled” Goth fest in The Sun and immediately contacted Spinners' officials. Cox said he told the Spinners that proper procedures weren't being followed and that he was unhappy with the choice of event at the city-owned ballpark.

“First of all, nobody sought the city's permission about it,” Cox told The Sun.

“Also, it's not the type of thing we want there. Someone like James Taylor would be more appropriate for the first concert.”

St. Onge told The Sun two weeks ago the Goth concert was a sure thing. The Sun made repeated attempts to contact St. Onge this week, but calls to City Hall and his office were not returned.

Organizers say the festival is being discriminated against because it features Goths, a subculture that favors dark clothing, dark makeup and moody music bordering on the macabre.

Read the full article at Lowell Sun.

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Mudvayne's Behind-The-Scenes Video Posted Online

Check out a new, behind-the-scenes video for Mudvayne's "Forget To Remember" at the following links:
QuickTime
Real
Windows Media: 56k 100k 300k 450k

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Suicide City To Support Mindless Self Indulgence

SUICIDE CITY, the new band featuring BIOHAZARD guitarist/vocalist Billy Graziadei and former KITTIE bassist Jennifer Arroyo, will be supporting MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE on the following dates:

Sep. 21 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
Sep. 22 - The Masquerade - Tampa, FL
Sep. 23 - Revolution - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Sep. 24 - House Of Blues - Lake Buena Vista, FL
Sep. 27 - House of Rock - Corpus Christi, TX
Sep. 28 - Ridglea Theatre - Fort Worth, TX
Sep. 30 - T Lounge - El Paso, TX
Oct. 01 - Marquee Theatre - Tempe, AZ
Oct. 02 - Soma Sidestage - San Diego, CA
Oct. 06 - House Of Blues - Las Vegas, NV
Oct. 07 - The Boardwalk - Orangevale, CA
Oct. 09 - Loveland - Portland, OR
Oct. 10 - El Corazon - Seattle, WA
Oct. 12 - Lo Fi Cafe - Salt Lake City, UT
Oct. 13 - Ogden Theater - Denver, CO
Oct. 18 - The Pearl Room - Mokena, IL
Oct. 21 - Starland Ballroom - Sayreville, NJ
Oct. 22 - Crazy Donkey - Farmingdale, NY

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Mustaine Says Gigantour Doing Better Than Expected

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine recently spoke to Aaron Yoxheimer of The Morning Call about Gigantour, the six-week festival trek co-headlined by MEGADETH and DREAM THEATER. Several excerpts from the chat follow:

On the need for another traveling metal festival, which arrives in Reading, PA today:

"I wouldn't compare this to those other festivals [such as Ozzfest, Sounds of the Underground]. I'd compare it to something a little more old-fashioned and not based so much on being sponsored by alcohol companies and a lot of things that these other festivals have associated with them.

"I'm not taking a dig at those other festivals, 'but if you go back to things like Monsters of Rock, the California Jam, or Clash of the Titans, they were real festivals, not a flea market with bands playing in between. Ticket prices are low [$20-$40 on average], and the bands are playing for nominal fees, so it's truly about the love of music.

"It would be great if we had Clear Channel or some huge corporate sponsor dumping millions of bucks into this, so we could make the tickets be even more affordable and maybe get more popular bands, but I wanted to do things in an honorable way, without compromising the fans' or my own integrity."

On ticket sale figures posted on the Internet, which show that the tour has barely filled venues to half-capacity in most markets:

"We were looking in the beginning to play to 3,000 to 5,000 people a marketplace, but unfortunately some of the buildings able to hold those numbers weren't there. … There was nothing else available except for much larger places. So it's really easy to say that this thing isn't selling when you walk into a large venue and see a really small amount of people in proportion to its size.

"But we know that's not the case. We know that this is doing better than we expected. In fact, I just received word from our agency that they believe in this and we're already talking about next year.

"I've been pretty aware of what I do business-wise and I think every right decision I make makes it easier for young musicians that come after me. So I have a duty do the right thing, not only to myself and to my family, but to my successors as well. I have had [negative] experiences [on] other tours, but there was never anything that occurred that made me hate the people I was touring or working with. Even the MÖTLEY CRÜE tour [the 2000 Maximum Rock tour] — which I really loathed — I don't hate the members, I just hated the tour."

On his detractors:

''It's easy to talk badly about someone when you don't know them. A lot of people think I'm unapproachable, but all you have to do is go to our web site and see how much interaction I have with our fans. And believe it or not, when I'm out in public and not on stage with a guitar and a microphone, I'm really pretty shy. I really have a hard time taking compliments because of that. Another thing is that sometimes when people ask me for something I say no because it's just not something I do."

On a recent visit to Pittsburgh, where a woman asked him to sign her breasts. When he declined, she cursed at him:

"I'm there thinking, 'First off, I'm married, and second of all, even if you were hot, it wouldn't happen. You've obviously got no mirrors in your house if you think you can just walk up to somebody and say, 'Sign my [breasts]."

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Anthrax Announce A Few Headlining Dates

ANTHRAX have confirmed four headlining dates for this fall during off dates from their tour with JUDAS PRIEST. They are as follows:

September 22 - Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater
September 23 - Fort Wayne, IN @ Piere's
October 6 - West Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
October 16 - Flint, MI @ The Machine Shop

No national opening bands have been confirmed for any of the dates, though according to the Jaxx website, one national act will perform with ANTHRAX at that stop. Local bands will open each show.

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Draw Blood Return Wtih New Label

Boston's Draw Blood have now joined the Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records roster. The group originally signed with Deathwish Inc. a year ago but were eventually dropped as a result of "complications inside the band." Now back with a stable line-up, the band will release a 7" titled "Rowdyism" in October. A track from the effort, which will feature four new songs, can be downloaded here.

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Lamb Of God's "Killadelphia" DVD Certified Gold

Lamb Of God's "Killadelphia" DVD release has gone Gold, officially selling 50,000 copies since its release earlier this year. Regarding the milestone, LOG vocalist Randy Blythe stated, "I woulda never thought ten years ago that our antics would be seen by so many people. I hope the DVD is made out of real gold so I can hock it and buy a new lawn mower."

Meanwhile, drummer Chris Adler added:

"In today's age of gimmicks, lies and faux reality trying to make celebrities out of everyone with a few dollars, it was important for us to not stage or hype up a damn thing - to simply show LAMB OF GOD on the road; the good times, the bad times and one hell of a show- and for that stripped down, no-holds-barred approach to be received this well certainly flatters us, but also continues to make a dent in the industry full of fakes and talentless image. It's nice to know that we didn't have to be anything other than ourselves to achieve such success with this DVD, but the real praise should go to our friends and fans who picked up Killadelphia and in doing so have sent a message to the powers that be that we are sick of the over hyped, fake "real world" being shoved down our throats - we are all ready for the honest, genuine bands and music to take center stage once again. As a band we are extremely humbled by this achievement - it's rare that a band like ourselves receives this honor. Again, we pass along the thanks and praise to those of you who picked up Killadelphia. This is an accomplishment that we share with all of you. Thank you, congratulations and cheers!"

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Winter Solstice, Bloodlined Calligraphy Plan Tour

Winter Solstice and Bloodlined Calligraphy will be hitting the road together this fall. Here are the tour dates:

10/12 Altoona, PA @ Classic Attitudes
10/13 Grand Rapids, MI @ Ten Bells
10/14 Dayton, OH @ Gathering Grounds
10/15 Louiville, KY @ Bulldog Cafe
10/16 Arlington Heights, IL @ Arlington Hieghts KOC
10/17 St. Louis, MO @ Creepy Crawl
10/18 Kansas City, MO @ El Torreon
10/19 Denver, CO @ Rock Island
10/20 Idaho Falls, ID @ The Foundation
10/21 Sacramento, CA @ The Underground
10/22 Corona, CA @ The Showcase Theater
10/23 San Diego, CA @ The Epicenter
10/24 Hollywood, CA @ The Whisky a-Go-Go
10/25 Las Vegas, NV @ Rock N' Java
10/26 Phoenix, AZ @ The Phix
10/27 Odessa, TX @ Earls 2
10/28 Houston, TX @ Mary Jane's
10/29 Baton Rouge, LA @ The Darkroom
10/30 Topelo, MS @ The Rockwell Center
10/31 Tampa, FL @ The Refuge
11/1 Jacksonville, FL @ The Imperial
11/2 Chapin, SC @ The Pointe
11/3 Fredericksburg, VA @ KC's
11/4 Virginia Beach, VA @ Jamestown Campsite

In relation to guitarist JT leaving Winter Solstice recently, here's a statement from vocalist Duke Cuneo: More...

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Line of Fire's Upcoming Release Delayed

Line of Fire's upcoming release has been delayed and rescheduled for October 25, 2005 through Tribunal Records. They will be releasing a new Mp3 soon to hold you over.

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Facedown Fest Planned For Annapolis, MD

Facedown Fest East Coast is scheduled to take place November 5 + 6, 2005 and will be hled in Annapolis, MD @ The Knights Of Columbus. 15 bands are slated to perform. Facedown will be lauching an official Facedown Fest website very soon with more info.

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No Innocent Victim Plan CD Release Shows

No Innocent Victims's latest To Burn Again will be released November 8 through Facedown Records in support of the album the band has announced the following record release shows alongside Bloodlined Calligraphy, Nodes Of Ranvier and Inked In Blood:

11.18: Tuscon, AZ @ Skrappy’s
11.19: Corona, CA @ Showcase Theatre
11.20: San Diego, CA @ Epicenter

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Marc Rizzo's Committee of Thirteen Gigs

Marc Rizzo, guitarist for SOULFLY (and ex-Ill Nino), will be doing 3 shows with his side project COMMITTEE OF THIRTEEN before he heads out on the road with SOULFLY (and THROWDOWN) in October in support of their new album "Dark Ages", out on October 4th via Roadrunner Records.

You can pick up a copy of COMMITTEE OF THIRTEEN's self titled debut at their official website as well as Marc's solo debut "Colossal Myopia" via Shrapnel Records.

August 29 - New York City, NY @ Don Hills
September 15 - Farmingdale, NY @ The Downtown
September 23 - New Haven, CT @ Toad's Place

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Just For Fun

Metroid Music Gets Remixed Metal-Style

Certainly a post for those metal geeks (I know you're out there) and console gamers, Metroidmetal.com has taken many of the in-game songs from Metroid and Super-Metroid, games praised for their music as well as gameplay and replay value, and created metal-infused versions of those songs. Here's straight from the website itself:

"metroidmetal.com is a place to celebrate the mysterious and hypnotic melodies from nintendo's classic game series, metroid. these songs beg for more energy, so I've created this site to experiment with the genre that would suit these songs the best... metal. here, I've made all songs available for download on the songs page. there's more to come. thanks for visiting, tell your friends, and visit the messageboard for more info!!"

You can go to metroidmetal.com for more information and to download the songs (under "songs").

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Nightrage Announce Final Greek Tour Dates

The final dates for the Nightrage shows in Greece are as follow:

Nov 18 Athens - An Club
Nov 20 Thessaloniki - Mylos

Nightrage will be embarking on the Internation Extreme Music Festival starting September 8th in Grand Rapids, MI.

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God Dethroned Explain Festival No-Show

In a message posted on their website, God Dethroned explain why they didn't show up on Germany's Hell's Pleasure Fest. Their bassist, Henk "Henke" Zinger, had to stay in Holland cause he had been in hospital after a tooth surgery and wasn't able to do anything without pain. The band decided to play the festival without him, but with their sound engineer. However, on the way to the festival, their van broke down and the band did not make it to the festival. God Dethroned apologizes to all their fans who were there but didn't get to see them.

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Nasum's "Grind Finale" Details Revealed

Nasum has posted the cover artwork for possibly the last release, the collection entitled "Grind Finale." Check it out at this location. The cover has been made by Relapse’s art department - Orion Landau did the front cover and disc design and Jonathan Canady did the booklet design. Nasum wanted to to the same kind of CD package as Tool for their "Salival" release. The CD package has hard covers with the two discs on the insides and between the covers an 80 page booklet with liner notes, lyrics and lots of photos and artwork, some previously not seen before. Release dates are as follows:

US: October 25
Europe: October 31
Japan: November (Japanese edition will not include any bonus stuff)

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Into the Moat Set Back By Hurricane Katrina

Into the Moat vocalist, Earl Ruwell IV, has posted this message on their website:

"We had planned on jumping back on the Soilent Green tour today but we had another stroke of bad luck. Hurricane Katrina came right through our hometown last thursday and set a lot of things back for us. We are unable to get our van out of the shop due to the one million power outtages across south florida. We are very sorry for even more bad news, but as we said before we will not be defeated by all of this. We are right now trying to get some shows in north Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. So if you or anyone you know can help us out let us know. Thanks again for the support, we are sorry for more bad news.
Earl"

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Opeth Updates On Drummer's Condition

Opeth has posted an update on their official website regarding drummer, Martin Lopez, who fell ill during the Sounds of the Underground tour:

During the first weeks of the tour Martin Lopez became seriously ill and had to fly back home to Sweden for treatment. He's currently under supervision and is doing well and we hope for a swift recovery and return to his natural habitat....behind the drums. Legendary basher Gene Hoglan (SYL, Dark angel, Death, Testament and more) filled in for Lopez during the SOTU tour for the last 16 gigs as well as participating in the video shoot for "The grand conjuration". A temporary replacement has been found in Bloodbath/Witchery/Nifelheim drummer Martin Axenrot who will take over Lopez duties until he's fully recovered.

In other news, Opeth upcoming single, "The Grand Conjuration," will be released in the near future. Included on the disc is the edited version of "The Grand Conjuration," as well as the full-length version and another edit of the "Ghost of Perdition" track. A video for edited version of "The Grand Conjuration" was shot in Los Angeles/USA with director Bill Yukich.

Also, Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt has recorded vocals for a track destined for the upcoming Roadrunner 25 years compilation CD. The song "Roads" was written by Type O Negative keyboardist Josh Silver. Mikael recorded the vocals while on the SOTU tour in Atlanta/Georgia with guitarist/now producer/engineer James Murphy. Mr. Murphy is currently working with the much talked about Death tribute CD which will include appearances from Mikael Åkerfeldt ("Pull the Plug"), as well as Martin Lopez and Martin Mendez and Peter Lindgren. More...

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Dickinson Blames Sharon, Not Ozzy or Sabbath

In a recent interview with British newspaper, the Sun, Iron Maiden frontman, Bruce Dickinson, explained the Ozzfest incident. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Q: So what happened when you went on stage at Ozzfest?

A: "We were hit by a co-ordinated barrage of bottle tops, lighters and eggs from a certain section at the front! Then the power for the PA and backline was completely pulled three or four times during songs. The band held it all together incredibly though and we just got really pumped up. It ended up being an amazing show. Maiden can pretty much deal with anything. We don’t get fazed too easily."

Q: Who do you think was behind it all?

A: "Everyone knows it's Sharon Osbourne. It's certainly not Ozzy or Sabbath - they have too much class to condone stunts like that. She hates me for making remarks about reality TV. I hate reality TV. People should get off their arses and do stuff and not be so voyeuristic."

Q: Her stunts seemed to backfire as you played a magnificent set and soon after, thousands walked out in disgust?

A: "We left for the airport pretty well straight after we came off but we could tell there were a lot of disgusted fans who had paid good money to see us. The audience was incredibly behind us all the way and they really lifted us. If they hadn't been happy, there may have been a riot as those fans were really disgusted with the cowardly attacks."

Read the full article at KNAC.com.

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