Friday March 29th 2002

Global Warning has been contacted by record labels that want to check them out. However, the band wants to take it slow on who they will sign with. They'll continue to shop their five song EP until they have found the right deal.

Joshua Perahia will release a limited edition collector's set featuring songs from his career. It will include The Hand Is Quicker Than The Eye, Surrender, Chapter One and Something To Say. Each CD will be individually autographed and the set will include a commemorative certificate of authenticity, a full-color poster, and an exclusive interview picture disc CD. Each package will be individually numbered. This will be released in May.

Joshua has just finished up filming three videos in support of the new album. They should be ready in about a month after all the post production duties are finished. They are for the songs Something To Say (featuring footage from the upcoming epic film The Copper Scroll, The First And The Last (also featuring footage from the film), and Let Your Love Shine Down. There is also a video for Remembering You that was filmed in the studio. This video features appearances by Alex Ligertwood (Santana), Jason Scheff (Chicago), and you'll even see Keith Olsen in action. A DVD of these videos will be made available after music television has been serviced.

Some old news that was left out earlier: In early January The Awakening released a new EP called The Fountain. This EP contains seven tracks including The Fountain, The New Renaissance & Amethyst and it is available in limited quantities at the band's gigs.

Todd Pope from Transfigural Form has added two MP3's to the internet. These songs will be on the upcoming album. Though the album hasn't got a title yet, you can download the songs from two different locations from the internet. The first songs is Refusal, the other Soul Cannibal.

On April 2nd the Dodgin' Bullets will release their new CD. The album is called Earn Your Respect.

Falling Cycle has a new drummer and bass player, Kevin and Russ. Both are formerly from the band Proclaim. The debut CD from Falling Cycle will be recorded in late April and early May with a release date this summer.

The debut album from The Hanover Saints will be out at the Cornerstone Festival, on July 4th. Title: Salutations.

Last fall you could read in this column that Purgation had called it quits. However, the band has released a new song that you can download from the internet. You can find this track called Fairy Tale Religion on their MP3.com page.

Friday March 22nd 2002

The Dutch record label Fear Dark has signed Sympathy from Canada. Sympathy is a one man band. Mastermind is Dharok. Expect technical death metal with influences from dark and black metal. Sympathy released two albums and a few demos independently before. The album that Fear Dark will be releasing contains eleven songs with a total running time of around 48 minutes. Some titles are: Invocation, Cup Of Demons, Realm Of Disease & Immolation Of The Dragon. Dharok: "Right now, the plan is to try to get the album released by early May, 2002. All the music is done and mixed. The only things to do yet is the mastering and graphics. So, if there are no unexpected delays, it should be out on time."

POD's album Satellite is not only certified gold in Canada but also in New Zealand and Indonesia. Some time ago the album also reached double platinum in the USA. The single Youth Of The Nation has gone to #1 at Alternative Radio in the USA. Of interest to the European fans is that the band will be returning to Europe in April/May. They will be doing shows in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy & Spain.

The OC Supertones will begin recording their new studio album in May with producers Charlie Peacock (Switchfoot, Audio Adrenaline) and Brent Bourgeois (Bourgeois Tagg, Jaci Velasquez). Expect the album to be out this fall.

Me Without You just finished their debut CD at Inner Ear Studios in Washington DC, USA, with producer J. Robbins (Dismemberment Plan, Promise Ring).

The guys in Eso-Charis are getting back together for a reunion show at this year's Furnace Fest.

If you are anxious to know what Robert Sweet's been doing, it might be interesting to check out the upcoming live interview on Total Rock, on Saturday March 30th. Total Rock is a rock and metal radio station based in London, UK. On Saturday March 30th Robert Sweet will be discussing his past, present and future projects.

As you may know, Bloodgood is reuniting with Michael Bloodgood, Les Carlsen, Paul Jackson and new drummer Jeffrey McCormack. There are currently no official plans for a new CD or a tour. But the band did do some rehearsals. You can hear an audio clip from a spontaneous jam session during their practice on March 13th.

Dust Eater Dogs will be releasing their Thunderleg remix album soon. Title for the album is Mad Monkey Strike.

Yesterday Impellitteri released the new album called System X. Some of the songs on it are: United We Stand, Perfect Crime, She's A Nighttime Lover and Falling In Love With A Stranger. There are ten songs on it.

On April 9th Ty Tabor will release his new solo album Safety. You can download one song called Tulip (Your Eyes). This MP3 is courtesy of Metal Blade Records.

The split CD Soul Of The Savior, Royal Anguish and Tortured Conscience are releasing, will be out soon. Right now they are waiting for the art before it will be printed.

Life In Your Way will be recording in two weeks. The results will be released on an EP. They will do four songs.

Three days ago Grace For The Fallen released their debut CD Field Of Blood through Clenchedfist Records. From the Clenched Fist Records MP3.com page you can download two songs.

If you go to that MP3.com page, you can also find a track from the Portuguese band Perpetual Flame. Their album Subculture Process is in the final production stages. The cover was done by Travis Smith (Opeth, Nevermore) and it was mastered at The Mastering Room in Sweden. Perpetual Flame play melodic death metal.

Travis Waldie has left The Deadlines. After six months the band of Shaun Sundholm is losing another member. But, there's replacement! His name is Linus White. The new drummer for The Deadlines used to play in Lugosi and other bands.

Friday March 15th 2002

Extol has signed with Century Media. As some might have known, Extol has been negotiating with Century Media for quite a while and finally they have signed a deal. Century Media is the home for bands such as Angel Dust, Blind Guardian, Voivod, Tiamat, Cryptopsy, Nightwish, Nevermore, Iced Earth and many others. Rumors say that all albums will be re-released with bonus tracks. Interestingly, guitarist Ole Børud is returning to the line-up of Extol.

Spitfire has officially called it a day. They will be performing their last show at this years Macrock Fest at the James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. This will be on April 5th. Other bands performing are Fugazi, Poison The Well and many more.

As you will know, Rowe Productions is returning to Australia. The new website has just opened. Some upcoming releases are: Ten Years - 1990 to 2000 - Power, Pain & Passion CD by Mortification; The Mortification Conquer The World DVD by Mortification (out in May); Relentless by Mortification (new album, out late May); new Cybergrind album (late 2002). Other upcoming releases are albums from Die Version, Exousia & Antidemon.

Sacred Life, the Dutch punk rock band, is working on new songs for a possible next release. They have four songs ready and more are being worked on.

The Juliana Theory is recording their new album with producer Jerry Harrison (who also worked for No Doubt, Live and others) and engineer Dave Schiffman (Rage Against The Machine & System Of A Down). The band started a studio diary that you can find on their site. Pictures and video from the studio will be added daily.

Friday March 8th 2002

Lightmare finally has a new vocalist as a replacement for Timon Schreiber who left the band last year. The new frontman is Mario Luckardt, formerly of Judas Biest. According to guitarist Andi Gutjahr the band's working on a new demo. There are also several concerts coming up. Check out the concerts & festivals page.

Antithesis is working on their third album. Tentative title is Halo Noose. The band has also been asked to participate on the next Heavy Artillery compilation. The song Antithesis will do is not a track on any of their CD's and won't be on Halo Noose.

Hard rock band Urim from Colombia has finished their debut album. Title is Limpieza Profunda (Deep Cleaning) and it will contain twelve tracks. Eleven of them are in Spanish and one of these is featured in English too. The album will probably be out in April with a release show in May. There will only be 500 copies available.

On September 12th 1987 the legendary Metal Mardi Gras festival was held, organized by Sanctuary International. This festival was a premiere event that presented many Christian metal bands that would breakthrough later on. Interestingly, on August 17th 2002, Roxx Productions will organize the Extreme Mardi Gras in association with Sanctuary International and Intense Radio. This festival will celebrate the 15th year anniversary of the historic show. It will feature historic bands of that first festival with some of today's hard music bands. There are no line-up details known yet. For more information go to the Roxx Productions website.

If you want to download some music from Puerto Rico made by Filacteria, the rapcore act, click here.

There's more to download. If you like eighties melodic metal you can download some tracks from Taker. However, these are not cuts from the albums the band brought out in the eighties but songs from their 1997 reunion. You can find them at this MP3.com site.

Friday March 1st 2002

Saviour Machine will play a concert in the context of the Owener Rocknacht in Germany on March 23rd and bring up the greatest show in the history of the band during this event. With full make-up, choir, a string ensemble, as well as additional exciting show elements Eric Clayton & Co are able to benefit from the around ideal conditions with a gigantic stage with 16 meters of breadth as well as 8 meters of depth in order to record a DVD of this gig of the extra class for a later release. The line-up on this evening also counts Narnia's guitarist Carljohan Grimmark as well as Drummer Thomas Weinesjö of Veni Domine.

Slick Shoes will appear on a compilation of Atticus Clothing. Pop punk band Blink 182 have their own clothing company called Atticus. This May they are putting out a compilation on Side One Dummy Records featuring tracks from Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio, Green Day and many others. Slick Shoes will also be appearing on the compilation and rumor has it they may even turn up on some dates of the Pop Disaster tour as well.

Some weeks ago you could read in this column that Kekal will be recording two tracks for a split record. The other band on the split is the Dutch black metal band Slechtvalk. Expect this release early summer 2002. It will be followed by a full length disc from Slechtvalk.

On May 24th the fourth edition of the Niets Boven Groningen Festival will be held. Location is the Platform Theater in Groningen, Holland. The organization is currently looking for bands. If you play in a band and want to get a spot on the festival, send a demo & biography to: Niets Boven Groningen-festival, Valkenweg 15, 9404 EJ Assen, Holland. Do this before the end of this month! More information about the festival can be found at their website

From Groningen, Holland, comes the Dutch rapcore act Dr. Bigfoot. They just released their new demo called Through These Eyes. This EP contains four tracks, band pictures, a biography, a discography and all lyrics.

Friday February 22nd 2002

Starting today is the Seventh Avenue message-board interview. Singer Herbie Langhans will be representing this German melodic power metal band. To ask him questions, go to the interview forum. The interview ends on Wednesday February 27th.

Element 101 is putting the finishing touches on songs for their new album. The follow up to Stereo Girl has no title yet but the band will return to the Blasting Room studio in March with Bill Stevenson, Stephen Egerton and Jason Livermore. Tentative release is early September 2002.

MTV2 in the USA added the video for One Armed Man by Project 86 to their play list. One Armed Man is one of the songs from Drawing Black Lines, the band's second album. Drawing Black Lines has sold 100,000 units so far. Please vote for the video by going to MTV2 Requests.

The organisation of the Swedish Bob Fest announced that punk band Umbrella cancelled their gig.

More sad news from Sweden is that the Solid Rock Festival is cancelled altogether. This festival should have taken place from 15-17 March.

Facedown Records added a new band to its roster: Nodes Of Ranvier. This band plays metal ranging from simple and melodic to technical and brutal, so the record company says. Their debut full length CD is recorded and will be released this summer at the  Cornerstone Festival. You can check out an MP3 of the band
at their MP3 site.

Point Of Recognition has completed the writing for their upcoming album Day Of Defeat. This record will be in stores in the USA on June 4th.

Klayton is nearly finished with the Celldweller debut album. With his recent trip to Los Angeles he finished mixes of Symbiont, Own Little World, So Sorry To Say and One Good Reason with Grant Mohrman and Under My Feet with Ben Grosse (Filter, Marilyn Manson, Sevendust, Fuel). From Los Angeles Klayton flew to Detroit (where most of the record was originally tracked) to mix the 7 1/2 minute epic The Last Firstborn.

The UK band Empowered is looking for musicians to complete its line-up. Empowered is an evangelistic arena rock band influenced by Stryper, Barren Cross and Whitecross. If you play lead guitar, bass, drums or if you sing, you can get in touch with them via: project-jeduthun@bushinternet.com

Friday February 15th 2002

The new POD album Satellite has gone double platinum in the USA. This means more than two million copies were sold so far. Satellite also remains in Billboards top 20.

Disciple is in the studio working on their next project right now. The production is in hands of Travis Wyrick who produced the previous albums too. The band's time with Rugged Records has come to a close. What the future holds is still unsure.

Sanctifica is about to release the new album Negative B. There are sound clips available at their website. The album will contain nine songs.

Neshamah will release their new EP In My Heart soon. Neshamah is hardcore from South Africa.

Doctor Dark (known for Bealiah and Armageddon Holocaust), is currently recording material for his new band called Doctor D. The album will be called D-Liverance. Jeff from Kekal will be producing the album. Musically it's been described as "metallic dark groove", taking the best from black metal, early speed/thrash, and modern groove metal. Some of the titles in the works are: Q-Factor, Emptyhollow, The Widowmaker and Hazardous Aquatic Transmission.

Kekal's new album The Painful Experience has been sold nearly 1000 copies in the first three months. The band is currently recording two new songs for the next release, possibly a split CD.

The recording of Disastrous Age debut album has been put on a hold as the founding member Dark Thriller recently quit the band. There are some indications that Dark Thriller will be back with another album of Armageddon Holocaust in the near future.

The line-up for the Meltdown 2002 conference in the United Kingdom is: Fire Fly, Kosher, Unwritten, Gen, Zedisforzebra & Eskimo Sunbed. Speakers will be Doug van Pelt & Monty Colvin.

The Stryper Biography called Loud 'n Clear is now on sale through Endgame Entertainment.

Project 86 is preparing to record a new album. The band will be in the studio with producer Dave Sarde in April. Dave Sarde worked on albums by bands like Nine Inch Nails, Helmet, Red Hot Chili Peppers and System Of A Down. Tentative release date is sometime around September. There's not a title yet.

Ghoti Hook released a new EP on Velvet Blue Music. Fans of the band's past work may be surprised to hear the straight ahead rock 'n roll approach on the EP.

Zao has signed another deal for two releases with Solid State Records. In March/April the band will be recording their next album with Barry Poynter.

Stavesacre have been added to June dates of the 2002 Warped Tour.

Excision is currently writing new songs for next album entitled Default. Their new material will be full of mood-oriented progressive dark rock.

Finally the new Beam album Full Dimensional Stereo is coming out. Interestingly, there's a special version available for the die-hard fans. This version contains three bonus tracks. The special version is only available at Plato stores in The Netherlands.

The Dutch alternative rock band Screen finally published their website. Though the site isn't finished, you can already find a bio, some photos and a list of upcoming shows.

Friday February 8th 2002

Sally Forth Records: The Spirit That Guides Us recorded some new songs for another release later this year. Expect something even louder and heavier then their past records, but with the familiar cocktail of melodies, chaotic grooves and driving riffs.

Members of The Spirit That Guides Us are not used to do any interviews, but they have decided to make some careful steps into publicity. They did their first official interview ever with the leading Dutch music magazine Oor, which will be published in the next edition. In the latest edition of the Oor, The Sand The Barrier had a great review saying: “The Spirit That Guides Us is the ultimate promise of the year”.

Furthermore, The Spirit That Guides Us plans to do a summer tour across Europe in July/August this year. If you want them to play at your fest, or in your neighbourhood, please feel free to contact them: info@thespiritthatguidesus.com

This Beautiful Mess won the Popslag final 2001, a band competition on the Dutch national radio (3fm). This Beautiful Mess used the price, two days in the studio, to record Lovesong from their favorite eighties band The Cure for the Sally Eighties Sampler, which will be released this spring.

The Lionheart Brothers are busy writing new songs and preparing themselves for a retreat in the studio for their upcoming release, this spring.

Friday February 1st 2002

Here's some news from Jacks Of All Trades. Last October the band did its touring in countries like Poland, Czech, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. After the tour the band went into the studio to record a new album. Interestingly, they signed a deal with Warner Music Finland. Their first single, Black List Of No Good, gets a lot of airtime on national radio in Finland. The album will be out in May.

Contrary to what Nuclear Blast Records made known this week, Mortification is continuing. Their new guitarist is Jeff Lewis from Canada. There's also the possibility of a second guitarist. The next album will be recorded this spring but there's not title as of now.

Threshold will release their new live album Concert In Paris in March. This is a fan club only release, available directly from the band's official website. It's a recording of last year's gig at the Elysee Montmartre in Paris.

The Swiss heavy metal band Detonation has finally added a bass player to its line-up. The new bass player is also a member of the death metal band Disobedience.

Monty Colvin of Crunchy will be a guest at the Meltdown Conference in the United Kingdom.

Urim from Colombia will be working with United Hands Music, a small local label, to release their upcoming album. United Hands Music started out as a well-known underground label for black and death metal bands. Since its boss became a Christian they started working on a distribution contact with labels worldwide.

Clenchedfist Records added a new band to its roster. The band is called Indwelling, a death metal band out of Arizona, USA. The band was formed by three members of the now defunct band Overcome.

Facedown Records also added a band to its roster: The Hanover Saints, a three piece punk band from Sacramento, California, USA. This band features Brian Faucett, formerly of Anguish Unsaid.

The Cornerstone Festival announced the first names of bands that will play on this year's edition. Among them are: Ace Troubleshooter, All Wound Up, Beanbag, The Blamed, Brandtson, Calibretto 13, Cool Hand Luke, Kemper Crabb, Crash Rickshaw, Crimson Thorn, Dead Poetic, The Deadlines, Demon Hunter, Disciple, Dogwood, East West, Element 101, Embodyment, Fasedown, Figure Four, Five Iron Frenzy, Flight 180, Further Seems Forever, Ghoti Hook, Hangnail, Headnoise, The Huntingtons, Joshua, Lament, Left Out, Living Sacrifice, MxPx, Narcissus, No Innocent Victim, Norma Jean, Officer Negative, One Bad Pig, Pax 217, Pillar, Project 86, Rod Laver, Side Walk Slam, Slick Shoes, Society's Finest, Soterios, Soul Embraced, Spoken, Squad Five-O, Stavesacre, Stretch Arm Strong, Tourniquet, Two Thirty Eight, Undecided, Underoath, Unwed Sailor, Whitecross, Zao. Note: This listing is subject to change.

You can help Beam to get on the nominee list for the Dutch TMF Awards 2002. Their album Full Dimensional Stereo will be out on the 15th of February.

The band Sardonyx is back together and writing songs. They intend to write a new CD.

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Here's some news gathered by Metal Mission magazine editor Flávio de Souza, informing you about the ever active Brazilian scene:

Soul Factor has just released its debut CD, called Live. As the name says, it was recorded live. The first printing is 6.000 copies. There are 10 Thrash Metal tracks with much adrenaline.

The new Trino album was released last December. Title is More Than A New Life and it features thirteen thrash metal tracks in the vein of Sepultura.

Progressive metal band Stauros released its fourth CD, called Adrift. This is an indendent release that sold 2,000 copies in its first month. The previous album, Seaquake, has sold about 40,000 copies.

Promessa Divina has a demo CD out. Title: Mercy Welcome. There are ten tracks of furious black metal with atmospheric keyboards on it.

Belica (formerly known as Völlig Heilig) will probably go back into the studio in April to record a new album. Some new songs are: Little London and Fire.

Also death metal band Clemency will return back into the studio. They are working on songs like The End In Terror, Legions At War and Blasphemy In The Altars Of God.

Spirit's Breeze is a new force of brutal deathmetal/grindcore. This trio just released the EP Annuling Dark Forces.

Seven Angels has released the debut EP To Know God And Make Him Known. The EP contains three melodic power metal songs with a female singer called Debora Serri.

If you live in Brazil, there will be a festival to check out as well: The III Metanoia Festival. This takes place on March 29/30 in Vitoria City. Sixteen bands will be expected, among them are Stauros, Trino, Antidemon, Soul Factor, Skymetal, Themplo, Atonement and the American hardcore band NIV. The festival will attract about 1,200 to 1,500 people.