Friday May 31st 2002

The vocalist for Antithesis, Ty Cook, will be leaving the band. On May 18th he did the last gig with Antithesis. Personal reasons and health issues have led him to this departure. Guitarist Sean Perry will handle the lead vocal duties from now on while the band seeks for another vocalist.

As you may know, last year Rowe Productions moved back from the USA to Australia. The person who handled all business in the USA so diligently, was Kathy Zappin. She has now started Resonation Frequency which is a new label focusing on metalcore, death metal and black metal. At this point the Resonation Frequency website only offers some left over merchandise from Rowe Productions that you can order.

Blissed is now selling a limited edition EP. This is also an autographed and numbered CD that can be seen as a preview of Blissed. Interesting is the fact that as a bonus with every CD purchased, names will be entered into a contest to win a Blissed Recording Collection. This prize contains a variety of items used in the recording of the Blissed CD.

Shiloh will release their new EP in the next few weeks. Title is: The Generated EP.

Tooth & Nail Records have signed The Halo Friendlies. This all girl rock band will release their new CD Get Real on July 16th. The album was produced by Kim Shattuck of The Muffs. The Halo Friendlies will be on tour all summer with Warped Tour 2002 on the Ernie Ball stage. They will also do a short stint in Europe on a USO tour.

MxPx will participate on the soundtrack of the Scooby Doo movie that will be released on June 6th. MxPx does the theme song Scooby Doo, Where Are You. Other artists on this soundtrack CD are Sugar Ray, Outkast, Shaggy, Kylie Minogue and others.

The new album from The OC Supertones will be titled Grace Flood. Brent Bourgeois and Charlie Peacock are producing it. Expect this album out in October.

Beam is doing great in the Lowlands Top 25. They moved from #10 to #6. Thanks for voting for them. If you want to support them some more, send an e-mail to gert@npi.nl and mention Beam and their album Full Dimensional Stereo.

Glenn Hughes will be singing for a new project called The Alchemist. On June 18th the album Songs From The West Side will be released. M & K Records will be distributing it.

Friday May 24th 2002

Fear Dark has added a new band to its roster: Immortal Souls. The band is now writing songs for the follow-up to the Under The Northern Sky CD. Expect this album in early 2003.

Talking about new signed bands, Solid State Records has signed Beloved. This hardcore band will enter the studio this fall to record their first album for Solid State Records which will be out in early 2003 as well!

Living Sacrifice has finished recording their new album. Title for this effort is Conceived In Fire and it will be out late Summer 2002. It will contain thirteen songs. Here are a few titles: Imminent War, The Poisoning and Send Your Regrets.

After an absence of almost seven years guitarist Jason de Ron has returned to the line-up of Paramæcium. Jason de Ron and Andrew Tompkins formed a song writing partnership in the early nineties which led to the release of the debut album Exhumed Of The Earth. Now Jason's back in the line-up, the band's planning to complete the fourth album some time this year. A lot of the guitars for this album are already recorded but they will be revising everything together in terms of song structure and possible addition of Jason's material to fill out the existing songs.

More Australian news comes from Rowe Productions. They have released the Power, Pain & Passion CD, the Mortification compilation CD covering ten years from 1990 to 2000. This album contains one song from all nine studio albums, one from the three official live albums plus four bonus tracks recorded in an acoustic live session on last year's World Tour. The Rowe Productions website now has an MP3 page where you can check out this album.

Rowe Productions also released the Conquer The World DVD from Mortification. This DVD covers the full 2001 World Tour including three new video clips and more.

Other new releases on Rowe Productions are Victimized by Die Version and Welcome To The Kingdom Of Light by Exousia.

You can hear new MP3's from Point Of Recognition (Day Of Defeat) and the Dodgin' Bullets (Tomorrow The World Will Change Forever) on the Facedown Records MP3.com page.

The complete line-up for Extreme Mardi Gras is here! And it's quite an interesting line-up. Mainstage: Barren Cross, Blissed, Biogenesis, Neon Cross, Band Of Wild Angels (featuring members of Holy Soldier), Oil, Junker Jorg, Jordan, Salt (featuring former members of Vengeance Rising) & Subject 7. Side Stage: Recon, Crystavox, Subdux (formerly known as Titanic), Ultimatum, Disciples Of God, Shop 11 Phoenix, Uplifted, Curbside Wilderness & Shuttlebus. The Extreme Mardis Gras takes place in Anaheim, California, USA on August 17th.

The Belgian black metal band Natan hopes to go into the studio later this year to record their first CD. It will probably contain seven songs but that's not sure yet.

Finally the French nu metal band Space In Your Face has published its first website. Go to the page for all information about the band, upcoming shows and more.

Here's some news gathered by Metal Mission  magazine Flávio de Souza about the Brazilian hard music scene:

The band Necromanicider is getting back together. From the original line-up only vocalist Evandro and drummer Xavier are part of this reunion. Necromanicider recorded the CD Revelations Of Third Millenium four years ago but this was never released. The band hopes to bring this album out by the end of the year.

Melodic power metal band Seven Angels was invited to play as an opening act for Nightwish in Curitiba.

Extreme metal band Clemency has finished recording their album. All bass, guitars and vocals were performed by Luis Carlos as bassist Lúcio has left the band. The mixing and mastering should be ready within a few weeks but there's not release date yet as they are still negotiating with labels.

Metal Mission magazine will release the second volume of the Brazilian Collection. Here are the bands that will be on this compilation: Kratos (traditional heavy metal), Mortify (brutal thrash death), Clamatorius (black/doom), Zurisadai  (black metal), Anameniem (eighties thrash metal), Devastation (nineties thrash metal), Enigma (traditional heavy metal), Sebaoth (brutal deathcore), Seven Angels (melodic power metal), Themplo (melodic power metal), Holy Throne (symphonic black metal), Vulgata (progressive metal), Bless (hard rock/heavy metal) and Destra (progressive metal). This compilation contains much unedited stuff, recorded exclusively for this disc.

The black metal band Clamatorius has just released their demo CD Consumatum Est. The CD contains five tracks that fill more than 33 minutes.

Another black metal band that released their CD is Zurisadai.

Finally Deliver has released The Second Death album. This record contains ten songs performed both in Portuguese as in English.

Antidemon finished touring Mexico last month. Their album Demonicídio is sold out but their might be a new printing soon. More than 3,000 copies have been sold through independent outlets.

An interesting upcoming CD is the Exodo project that is produced by Ricardo Parronchi, bassist of Destra. This record is a concept album about the Exodus book theme and many Christian metal bands from the Brazilian scene will participate in it, including Dynasty, Light Hammer, Destra, Belica and Dracma. The album will be out later this year.

Talking about Destra, this band 's working on their new full length CD called Joe's Rhapsody which will feature some guest appearances including Andreas Kisser of Sepultura and the vocalist for the German band Everon, Oliver Philips. There's no release date settled yet.

Belica has done pre-production for their new album. Musically it will contain many seventies influences. The band also made a new version of the song Völlig Heilig. New to the band's line-up is keyboard player Karl Ellwein. The album will be recorded next month.

Also Shining Star have recorded the pre-production for their new CD. The band's still in negotiations will labels.

Battle Of Tears is the title for the new album from Soul Hunter. Expect this melodic power metal piece out soon.

On July 20th there will be a Metal Heroes Tribute festival at the Led Slay in São Paulo City. This festival is an homage to Stryper. The following bands will perform: Stauros, Eterna, Calvário, Belica, Tronos, Seven Angels, Heavenly Kingdom, Amos, Dynasty, Skylord and other Brazilian metal acts. This event is organized by Richard Navarro of Heavy Melody.

Friday May 17th 2002

Kekal has finished recording their songs for the upcoming split CD with Slechtvalk. This record will be called Resist, Unite, Attack. Kekal contributes three songs plus a cover of The Skull (originally from Trouble). Slechtvalk recorded three new tracks plus a cover of Antestor's classic Kongsblod. Expect this release in June through Fear Dark.

Slechtvalk also finished their recording of the new album The War That Plagues The Lands. This record should be out in August.

You can find a review of the Fire Fly demo in the review section of this website. Everybody who read it, knows I'm fairly positive of the three new songs. Interestingly, you can download the songs from the Fire Fly page!

Further Seems Forever is going back to the studio to record a new album. They will be assisted by producer James Wisner. There's no title as of yet but the release date is expected to be in February 2003. Further Seems Forever also made a video for the song Snowbirds And Townies from their debut CD The Moon Is Down. This video features an appearance of Crissie Verhagen of Element 101.

The new album from The Juliana Theory will be called Love. Brett Detar: "We usually have long titles, but I really wanted something that was short and powerful for this record. Love is obviously a powerful word. It evokes imagery and plenty of ideas. Now I imagine that some of you are wondering if we have become hippies since the last record, or if we have all gotten married or something. The title really does not have a lot to do with the romantic relationship side of love. There is just a broad sense of feeling that I have had lately and I think that it encompasses most everything involved with this record. So don't worry, we haven't gone all sentimental on you and recorded an album of soft rock, just the contrary. This is our heaviest rock record to date. And I have been told that we are looking at a September release. The sooner the better I say." Next week the album will be mixed by Tom Lord-Alge (known for his work for Weezer & Marilyn Manson) in the South Beach Studios in Miami, Florida, USA. At present, the effort is marked for a September 24th release while the band plan to shoot a video for an as of yet undetermined first single in July.

Dogwood is going back in the studio to record a new album. This album will be engineered by former guitarist Sean O'Donnell. Ryan Greene (who worked with NOFX, Lagwagon and others) will do the mixing.

Blindside has launched their new website in anticipation of their upcoming album Silence. If you sign up for their mailing-list, you might get the chance to download the new track Caught A Glimpse for free. The mailing-list will keep you up to date about everything that goes on with the band. For example, expect a tour with POD in November.

Excision is going to re-release their first two demo's on CD. The band started in mid 1996 as an experimental band mixing death metal with various other influences. All demo tracks are re-mastered and three were even re-mixed and digitally edited to make them up-to-date. And a rare track has been added, taken from the Last Minutes Of Safety #1 compilation CD. This record will be called Brutal Days and will be available by May 20th. Furthermore, the band is currently in the recording process for their next album entitled Default. Their new material is full of moody, dark rock.

You can download a new MP3 from the Hanover Saints. This is the song Salutations from the upcoming album Truth Rings Out. You can listen to it here. If you use the link you'll get the MP3 page of their record company. Expect some other new stuff (from Point Of Recognition and Dodgin' Bullets) there soon too!

The Dutch alternative rock band Screen wants to be invited to play on the Flevo Festival. However, you can help them a bit by filling in the wish-list form of the fest. Mention the band name Screen and their web address: www.screenpage.nl.

Friday May 10th 2002

There's big news on Blindside. The band has been in negotiations with several major labels over the last several months. Finally they have signed a long term recording deal with Elektra Records. This company is known for acts such as Metallica, Pantera & AC/DC. It's been said that this is a deal through the POD's new label but more details will follow. Blindside has been busy recording music for their debut album for Elektra Records for the past couple of months. Already seven songs are ready and title of the album will be Silence. Expect the new record in stores on August 20th.

If you want to support POD in the USA, request the new video of Boom on Total Request Live (MTV). Blindside is in this video as well. Last week the video entered the TRL countdown on #8.

Sacred Life will be releasing a new EP by the end of the year. This release will be entitled The Evil And Insane Asbest Man and will contain seven or eight songs. In October the band will go into the Mailmen Studio (known for Slechtvalk & The Spirit That Guides Us).

Some time ago you could read in this column about the move from BEC Recordings to Tooth & Nail Records by the O.C. Supertones. More bands are following their example. Kutless, the Californian rap rock band will join the Tooth & Nail Records and so is .rod Laver. The debut album from Kutless will hit stores on July 16th.

There will be an extreme music festival in London, United Kingdom, in August. From August 9-11th you can see the following bands: Soapbox, Cephas, X, Last Hours Of Torment, xBrutal Fightx, xSeventh Judgmentx, Bloodshed... For more information you can check out the website of the Destruction Festival.

Speaking of festivals, Deliverance won't be able to play on the Extreme Mardi Gras. Reason for the cancellation of this concert are health problems in the band. Manny Morales has taken ill and therefore the band has cancelled all shows. Deliverance hopes that Manny will regain his strength soon so he will be able to take the stage again in support of their upcoming album, This Sad Veil Of Tears. The album will be out in September.

Friday May 3rd 2002

Calibretto 13 has a new album in stores. This album is called Adventures In Tokyo.

Fábio, known for the Metal Mission magazine in Brazil, is also doing a metal radio show on a FM radio station. He's been doing this since 1997. His show's every Saturday night from 8:00 till 9:30 PM (local time). Interestingly, his show can be listened to on the internet now too! Tune in here on the appropriate time!

Andrew Schwab's literary debut We Caught You Plotting Murder is now in its second pressing. This book is only available through the Project 86 website. You can expect a collection of writings published independently.

Todd Pope has finished his solo album called Unleashed. This record contains 15 songs and is available for download on his MP3.com page. There are a couple that are on the internet only.

Todd Pope's band Transfigural Form is working hard on the new CD as well. There's no release date as of now. However, there's one new track off of the upcoming CD that you may download from the Transfigural Form MP3.com page. The song is called Refusal.

The Juliana Theory is working hard on their new album. So far the guys have recorded 16 songs. The album should be finished in the next three weeks. You can read all about the making of the album and see some pictures from the studio in the studio diary.

Beam entered the Lowlands Top 25 of the Dutch magazine Fret. They're on position #10. You can still vote for them by sending an e-mail to gert@npi.nl mentioning Beam and their album Full Dimensional Stereo.

Furthermore, Beam will be in the 3FM radio show Leidsekade Live on May 18th. This live recording will take place in Paradiso, in Amsterdam. The show starts at 20:00. And, of course, you can listen to 3FM in The Netherlands.

The latest two additions to the line-up of the Extreme Mardi Gras are Blissed, Robert Sweet's new band, and Junker Jorg. See concerts page for details.

Friday April 26th 2002

Zao has finished recording their fourth full length album for Solid State Records. This record will be titled Parade Of Chaos and it will be out on July 16th. Look for a limited edition MP3 soon.

Sad news comes from Ghoti Hook. The band will tour the United States for the last time ever. Yes, the band's breaking up. The tour starts on May 2nd in Buffalo, New York at The Backstreet Pub.

Element 101 just finished their 3rd album for Tooth & Nail Records which they announced this week will be called More Than Motion.

The Juliana Theory's song This Is The End Of Your Life will be featured on the
MTV Road Rules soundtrack CD coming out in July on Roadrunner Records. Other
artists appearing are The Deftones, Incubus, Nickelback, The Hives, Hoobastank,
Thrice, Finch, Jimmy Eat World, Saves The Day, New Found Glory, Thursday, Cave
In, BRMC and more.

Living Sacrifice has finished writing their new record for Solid State Records to follow up their last record The Hammering Process. According to the band the new material will be a lot faster in some places with heavier vocals.

Also Norma Jean is recording an album. The record will be titled Martyr And Kiss The Child. Their studio of choice is the Zing studio where they will record with producer Adam Dutkiewicz. Expect this release on August 13th. A limited edition split 7" with Me Without You will be released earlier.

There are changes in the line-up for the Niets Boven Groningen Festival. Last week it was reported that punk band Sacred Life was added to the line-up. However, the band had to cancel due to other concert obligations. There are two more bands that will play on the festival: Dr. Bigfoot & The Prednisons. The Niets Boven Groninen festival will be held in Platform Theater, Groningen, Holland, on May 24th. Entrance € 5,00.

Truth Rings Out is the title for the debut CD of the Hanover Saints. The album contains 13 punk rock tracks.

Falling Cycle are recording their album The Conflict. This disc will hit stores on August 6th.

Friday April 19th 2002

Dennis Cameron, formerly of Angelica, is starting to record tracks for his next album. Last year it was made known he was going to do an instrumental album. However, now he has hooked up with singer P.J. Molla and drummer Phil Elliot.

There will be a small metal festival in Switzerland in June. On June 29th two German bands and Detonation will be on stage in club Gaswerk in Winterthur. The German bands are Cherubim and Ancient Prophecy. Doors open: 19:00. Entrance is 18 Swiss Franks.

Sacred Life, the Dutch punk rock band, has been added to the line-up for the Niets Boven Groningen Festival. This festival takes place on May 24th 2002.

The title song from Building A Better Me by Dogwood, has been added into rotation on MTV2. Do you receive that station, request the video!

Friday April 12th 2002

Robert Sweet (of Stryper) has formed a new band along with David Pearson and Trevor Barr (of Static). The band is called Blissed. Robert Sweet: "I've got something new for everyone, my band Blissed. It's been quite a while since I've felt this good about
a group effort musically, and this feels great. If you weren't into Stryper you'll like this,
and if you were into Stryper you'll like it all the more. I'm heavily into what is heavy and this is! I can't wait to swing my sticks in front of you with this stuff. I'm real excited, you might say I'm Blissed." The band will be wrapping up the recording of their debut CD in May.

Poor Old Lu is still working on the new album. Tentative title is The Waiting Room and it will probably be out by July.

Jacobs Dream is completing their studio in Gary Holtzman's basement. They hope to start pre-production soon. The band's still looking for a new singer.

POD's album Satellite has now gone Gold in Ireland and Australia as well. The next single is Boom. The video for Boom was shot in San Diego and MTV was there too to do a Making Of The Video. POD invited Blindside to be the starring role opposite them in this video.

Furthermore, you can find Marcos of POD with Ozzy Osbourne on the cover of the next issue of Guitar World. And Sonny will share the cover of Teen People with Jay Z and Shakira.

The band Shiloh is looking for some full time members. If you have professional gear and play either guitar, keyboards or drums you might be interested in doing auditions. Musical influences of the band are: Getup Kids, Jimmy Eat World, The Cars & Cheap Trick.

Soul Of The Savior is also looking for a new member. They want a second guitarist. If you have any interest and live within the Bay Area, California, USA, please contact soulofthesavior@aol.com.

Last year you could read in this column about the Dutch progressive rock/symphonic rock band After All recording an album. However, as there's already a band called After All from Belgium, they were thinking of a new name. Wizhion is the new name. The band also has a new line-up and you can see them live at the Niets Boven Groningen Festival on May 24th in the Platform Theater in Groningen, Holland. There's no word about the album yet.

Selfmindead is currently writing new material for their upcoming full length album. The songs are in the line of the Oslo Compact split CD they did with The Spirit That Guides Us. The band will come to The Netherlands this summer.

Mario, drummer for Sacrificium, got married last Saturday (April 6th). Congratulations!

A band has been added to the line up of the Extreme Mardi Gras festival. This is a one time performance of the band that helped define Christian metal in the eighties. You can look forward to this exclusive performance of former Enigma Records recording artists Barren Cross! All four original members will be present for this show. Other bands that will play on the Extreme Mardi Gras are: Deliverance, Neon Cross, Oil, Ultimatum, Jordan and Curbside Wilderness with many more to come! The Show is in Anaheim, California, USA.

Khazad Dum just finished recording two songs for the upcoming EP. The total length is 16 minutes. The CD will be available to public in one to two months. Kzadad Dum is the one man band of Winterstrings. Expect black metal.

The Brazilian metal band Missão is preparing a new record for July, probably an EP. Compared to their previous record the band sounds more aggressive.

Friday April 5th 2002

Kekal has just finished recording new songs for the split CD they're doing with Slechtvalk. The songs are The Only Sound Of Rain and A Stranger So Close. This will be out through Fear Dark in June. In other Kekal news, in the next months Leo will rejoin the band, possibly as a permanent member. Leo also did some lead guitars on one of the new songs for the split CD. Kekal has been invited to play on the Trouble tribute CD too. This tribute will only be available on MP3. Kekal did The Skull and this song will appear on the split CD with Slechtvalk as well. Furthermore, Kekal will be featured on the Baroeg Benefit Compilation CD, a compilation CD to help Baroeg, a heavy metal club in Rotterdam, Holland. The compilation is scheduled for release in May 2002 and will be largely distributed around The Netherlands and perhaps other Benelux countries. Other bands on the compilation are Immortal, Bolt Thrower, Vader, Marduk, Dying Fetus and others.

Jeff from Kekal will join Doctor D as the second member of this band. Doctor D is currently recording new material at Vision Studio, Jeff's home studio. He also produces the album called D-Liverance.

The German death metal band Sacrificium has booked a studio for 15 days starting on May 25th. The band's still looking for a record deal. They hope to have the new album out before they go on a two weeks tour this fall.

Icon Clan will appear on two compilations! Both of them are in Poland, one in cassette format and the other on CD. Also both of them will be distributed as free samplers. The cassette compilation will be released by Celestial Records and it's a metal compilation. Icon Clan's song will be a bonus track on the compilation. The CD compilation is a hardcore/punk compilation, released by DIY Records and it will be distributed to the Polish anarchopunk scene. Icon Clan will appear with the song Enemies Are Not The Closest Friends, taken from the debut album Drive-in Religion.

The South African hardcore band Neshamah will release a new EP. In My Heart will be out through Angry Son Records in America by the end of this month.

On May 21st a collection of nearly 20 tracks of MxPx's finest material including two brand new songs (Running Away, My Mistake) along with a re-recording of the classic Punk Rawk Show will hit stores everywhere. The new songs were tracked by the band at their Clubhouse Studios in Bremerton and mixed by Tim Palmer (U2, Pearl Jam) who also remixed 14 of the other songs. This release will be a cooperative effort between the band and Tooth & Nail Records. The CD layout includes a 32 page full color booklet with many never before seen photos and a timeline history of the past 10 years of
the band put together by Mike Herrera.

Punk band The Cartwrights will be heading out on their first US tour this summer (all of June and July). Before this tour the band will release a new EP in May. They also made a music video for the song Endless Summer which has been serviced to Much Music (in Canada), MTV2 and various small TV stations across the USA.

Dead Poetic has switched record labels. They're going from Tooth & Nail Records to Solid State Records.

The Finnish groovy metal band Anchor will release a new EP. It will contain three songs. Release date not set.

Vaakevandring is looking for a new guitarist. If you are interested to join this Norwegian black metal band, let them know!

Stairway is still working feverishly on their new album. Tentative release date is in May/June.

Test Of Faith is back in business. The band are getting ready to record their first full length CD in May.

Ballydowse is currently recording a new album. This record might be a bit more in the punk rock vein.

Zao is finishing recording their new record with Barry Poynter in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. The album has no title yet but a release date of July 16th has been set.

Threshold are back in the studio recording the follow-up to Hypothetical. The new album will be called Critical Mass and builds on the modern progressive metal sound of its predecessor. The track list so far is Phenomenon, Choices, Falling Away, Do Unto Them, Round And Round, Echoes Of Life, New Beginning, Avalon, Critical Mass (pt 1-3) and one further song. The album is due for release in August.