Friday March 31st 2000

Project 86 has confirmed a world wide booking deal with The Agency Group. The Agency Group represents artists such as the Foo Fighters, Creed, Slipknot, Jewel and Sevendust. Other news from the Project: Atlantic Records has announced that Project 86 is the #1 most added at Metal and College Radio. Top 10 debut at #9. The first single taken from Drawing Black Lines will be One Armed Man, out in the US on April 27th.

As you know there's a Betrayal interview coming up here on the Art For The Ears pages. Interestingly, the official website of Betrayal is renewed taking you on a voyage through the past, present and future of the band, according to band-leader Marcus Colon. There's also an interactive game through which you can win a free CD. Visit this renewed site at Betrayal.

Ashen Mortality is doing well, reports guitarist & vocalist Ian Arkley. The British doom/death metal maniacs are doing plenty of gigs at the moment. Though they have written some new songs there are no plans to record for a while as they are promoting Your Caress. More info about the band you can find on their website.

Michael Sweet's demo version of Truth was the #2 US import in Japan for 1999! Others who placed in the top 50 were Metallica, Aerosmith, and Dream Theater. What makes this event even more special is that the Truth demo CD didn't have the exposure or advertising that the others had, due to Mike releasing it by himself! This was reported by Burn Magazine.

Tim Mason is the new guitarist for No Innocent Victim. He replaces Corey Edelman. You may know Tim from the Dodgin' Bullets and Cast In Stone. NIV is also working on new material which will come out on Victory Records by the end of the year.

Friday March 24th 2000

A lot of you will probable know already about the upcoming Stryper Expo in New Jersey, USA. This will be on May 21st and the cool thing is that all four Stryper guys will be performing their solo stuff. And...there will be a Stryper jam! Besides these shows there will be concerts by Jamie Rowe (formerly of Guardian)& The Frantics & Irene Kelly. More information you can find on the site of the Stryper Expo and on the official Stryper website.

Gryp has started recording their new album. According to the band this album is taking on a different sound: Still hard and aggressive but it also has a new style.

Punk rock band Fanmail recently finished recording their third Tooth & Nail release with Gene Eugene. The band also has a new website: Fanmail

Ty Tabor from Kings X will be a special guest on the next edition of The Slagel Show. Tune in to Hard Radio on Tuesday April 4th at 10pm Eastern time. The show also features the world premiere of Smudge from the new Kings X album Please Come Home....Mr Bulbous.

Upcoming Metal Blade releases: King's X - Then....,(Video) April 11th 2000; Atomic Opera - Gospel Cola, April 25th 2000; Mortification - 10 Years Live Not Dead (Live-album, US release), May 9th 2000; King's X - Please Come Home..... Mr. Bulbous, May 23rd 2000; Galactic Cowboys - Let It Go, June 6th 2000.

As you probably know the Huntingtons are pretty busy with touring. You can check them out on their spring/summer tour. They will also come to Europe for a tour with The Buckweeds! You can expect this the end of August through mid-September.

Dogwood have finished recording their follow-up to More Than Conquerors. Their second Tooth & Nail album is called Building A Better Me and was produced by Steve Russell who has worked with POD too. The artwork for the album was illustrated by Chris Bolden from The Simpsons.

Two months to go for the release of Slick Shoes fourth release entitled Wake Up Screaming. This album is entitled Wake Up Screaming and was produced by Bill Stevenson (drummer for Black Flag, Descendents, and All), Stephen Egerton and Jason Livermore. Wake Up Screaming also shows a new line-up for the band. Longtime guitarist and original member Jackson Mould and second six stringer Dale Yob have both departed from the band.  Greg Togawa has taken lead on guitar. It is said that he's fitting well into the 'shoes' of his predecessors.

Ghoti Hook is recording their third original record for Tooth & Nail entitled Two Years To Never (their Songs We Didn't Write contains covers of course!).  Sean O'Dwyer, who engineered Blink 182's Enema Of The State, has joined forces with Ghoti Hook to produce their new record. Ghoti Hook is on tour now with Stavesacre until April 3rd and then they will be touring with MxPx and the Hippos  starting April 4th to May 8th.

Squad 5-O recently finished recording their first album for Tooth & Nail Records entitled Bombs Over Broadway with Duane Baron. Baron has produced albums such as: Motley Crue's Decade Of Decadence, Poison's  Open Up And Say....Ahhh, Quiet Riot's Metal Health, Ozzy Ozbourne's No More Tears, and Alice Cooper's Last Temptation, to name a few.  Bombs Over Broadway is tentatively scheduled to be out this July.

Upcoming releases from Tooth & Nail Records: AP2 - Suspension of Disbelief, April 11th 2000; Shorthanded - Forever Yours, April 25th 2000; MxPx - The Everpassing Moment, May 23rd 2000; Calibretto 13 - Enter The Danger Brigade, June 6th 2000; Songs From The Penalty Box Volume 4 (various artists), June 20th 2000; Tooth & Nail Video Volume 6th (various artists, June 20th 2000; Tooth & Nail Videography DVD (various artists), June 20th 2000.

Tuesday March 21st 2000

Newsflash: Gene Eugene, born Eugene Andrusco, has passed away (March 20th 2000). Most of you will know him as an all-round music-maker: As musician, producer, engineer, mixer and singer. He was part of rock-band Adam Again and played and singed in projects like The Lost Dogs and satire-rockband The Swirling Eddies. He produced the first nine Tooth & Nail projects. Totally, he worked on 57 albums for Tooth & Nail and their related labels. He was involved with other hard music activities too like Deliverance, Scaterd Few & Tourniquet.

Other news: This Summer Selfmindead will tour through America. This tour includes stops at the Solid State Fest East and the Cornerstone Festival. Dates are with Born Blind supporting.

MxPx will be a headliner at this years Warped Tour. On this tour Tooth & Nail will have a booth where they will be giving away free promotional stuff. If you're near, don't miss it!

Canada's Cough has finished their new album entitled Anybody Hear. The release-date is set for March 27th. The band is now joined by Colin Hanson as guitarist. He was the producer of Cough's last album.This means the band has now two guitarists.

Friday March 17th 2000

Stavesacre will join with pop-punkers Ghoti Hook for several weeks of touring across the United States. As you know Stavesacre released their third album Speakeasy last year. Speakeasy was produced by Bryan Carlstrom (Offspring, Social Distortion, Alice in Chains) and offers a more accessible sound than the band's first two albums.  "With this release we wanted to lighten up our sound without losing the harder edge," said vocalist Mark Soloman.    "We wanted to place more emphasis on melody and pop sentiment than we have with our past two albums.  We never wanted to be a band that released the same album over and over. This release is definitely a departure from our last two releases, but in a good way."  Ghoti Hook made it's name with last years Warped Tour. Prior to that, Ghoti Hook's light-hearted cover of Walking On Sunshine from the Songs We Didn't Write album found its way into radio and MTV rotation. "We used to listen to the bands we covered growing up so we all knew how to play their tunes backward and forward," said Ghoti Hook singer Christian Ergueta.   "The cool part was adding our own personal touch to each individual song." More information about this tour: Stavesacre or Ghoti Hook or Davdon

It's going very well with the four guys of POD. Their Atlantic release The
Fundamental Elements Of Southtown has been certified gold!

For the people who are eagerly awaiting the new Frodus album there is some sad news to report. Tooth & Nail Records: "The official statement from sources are that due to The Frodus Conglomerate International running their employee database systems on Commodore 64, the y2k virus knocked out the 3 5.25" floppy drives (including the very fast Indus GT) that housed all of the FCI files. The tape cassette backup system was also knocked down- so unsuspecting employees: Burke, Nathan; Cinca, Shelby; and Hamacher, Jason; woke up the next day with no jobs.  The FCI disappeared." You may wonder what happens with the new album  And We Washed Our Weapons in the Sea. Originally scheduled for a November 1999 release the album is now expected this Summer. There are also plans on re-issuing the whole back-catalogue in double CD-format.

News from Finland: Bullroser Records reports that their band Jacks Of All Trades is attracting much interest in the USA. There are plans for a three week tour in the States during the Summer. And they are working out a distribution deal for the album R U Ready for the US market.

Miika Partala, vocalist and guitarist for Finland's Deuteronomium is leaving the band. As you may know he was part of this deathmetal band from the start. The last show the band will play with him will be on March 25th in Stockholm at the Bobfest. The band from the Little Rose Productions roster is looking for replacement. Deuteronomium is also planning some concerts outside of Finland during this Summer. At least they should be playing at the Freakstock Festival in Germany in late July and there has also been plans about visiting Holland again.

More news from Finland. Here are some upcoming releases from Bullroser Records & Little Rose Productions: Sanctifica - Spirit Of Purity, March 24th (Black Metal); Dust Eater Dogs - King Kong Fist, April 5th (single release with two songs and a video-clip); Immortal Souls - Under The Northern Sky, out in April (some songs on this album are: Frostmind, Icebound, The Cold
Northwind). Other releases from Finland to look out for: Finnish Metal Compilation 2 and the full-length album for black metal maniacs Mordecai.

Ghoti Hook and Stavesacre are on a several month US Tour.  For a portion of this tour they will be joined by punk rockers Hangnail.

Tooth & Nail are wrapping up production on the Tooth & Nail DVD Videography.  It contains 54 videos from over 30 artists.  Every single video they've ever done until now is on there.  It is set to release this summer. For those who prefer the VHR: Tooth & Nail will release Volume Six of their video-series with new videos from  Stretch Arm Strong, Starflyer 59, FurtherMore, OC Supertones, Huntingtons and more. And if you want a CD compilation from the Nail, there's a Songs From The Penalty Box Volume Four coming up this Summer. Other upcoming Tooth & Nail CD's: Slick Shoes (see reviews) & MxPx.   

Some studio news: The Glam rockers from Squad Five-0 are currently in Los Angeles mixing down their Tooth & Nail debut. Fanmail is currently in the Green Room with Gene Eugene recording their follow up to The Latest Craze. And Craig's Brother will be recording their follow-up to Homecoming in mid-April at Greenhouse Studios in Vancouver BC, USA.

Friday March 10th 2000

MxPx announced that they will be releasing a 7" entitled Broken Bones. Release-date for the new album, The Everpassing Moment: May 16th 2000.

POD will tour with Korn in Europe. For touring details in Holland, Belgium and Germany go to the concerts & festivals page. For more info POD. Some facts about POD: #1 Selling New Artist in America; This week - #98 Billboard Top 200(Rising 35 places in two weeks); Offered Main Stage at OzzFest, Summer 2000; "Southtown" in full rotation on MTV USA.

The TOM Festival 2000 NW (July 25-30th) will feature many bands again. Some of them are announced (though this might be subject to change): Jesse & The Rockers, Philmore, Vox Dei, Travail, Hangnail, Element 101, Ballydowse, Model Engine, Gryp, Point Of Recognition, Warp Factor Nine, Dogwood, Priesthood, Fatal Blast Whip, Freeto Boat, Stairwell, Anguish Unsaid, East West, Sick Of Change, Bloodshed, 3rd Root, The W's, Five Iron Frenzy, Slick Shoes, Tragedy Ann, The Violet Burning, Spoken, Tantrum Of The Muse, Few Left Standing, American Made, Undecided, The Israelites, Starflyer 59, Joy Electric and more, more, more. The TOM Festival 2000 NW will take place at the Skamania County Fairgrounds, Stevenson, Washington, USA. There will be a TOM Festival 2000 CA (August 4th & 5th) too, taking place at the Stadium Vineyard, Anaheim, California, USA. Information about this TOM Fest will be published later on. For more info, go to TOM FEST

There are some re-releases coming up of classic albums: Celestial Messenger, Trytan (which will include some bonus-tracks from 1983 & 1984 demos); I Shall Conquer, Leviticus; To Germany With Love, Bloodgood (live-album).

A new King's X is expected entitled Please Come Home....Mr. Bulbous.

The American metal-band Ultimatum is quite far with the  new album. Interestingly, the band will put a cover on it of Vengeance Rising's Burn. Title of the new Ultimatum: The Mechanics Of Perilous Times.

As you may know, producer John Elefante brought out two hard rock CD's in the early nineties. He did this with his brother Dino in the band Mastedon. In recent years he has been active in pop music industry as a producer as well as a solo-artist. However, it seems that there's gonna be a new Mastedon album later this year.

Friday March 3rd 2000

The first Annual Solid State East Festival will be held in August 19, 2000 at the Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte, NC, USA. Confirmed bands so far are: Zao, Society's Finest, Spitfire, Selfmindead, Stretch Arm Strong, Luti-Kriss, Embodyment. There's also a Solid State Showcase West coming. Info yet to be announced.

The new Embodyment entitled The Narrow Scope Of Things will be released on April 25th.  This is their second release for Solid State Records. The band has now a new vocalist: Sean Corbray. Besides this upcoming CD Embodyment is planning major touring around their new album.

Spitfire is looking to return to the studio to record their second album for Solid State.  Further Spitfire news: They will be doing a split 7" with the band Burn It Down and this will be released on Ferret Records. Release date yet unknown.  Spitfire will also be playing James Madison University's Macrock along with other bands such as Dillinger Escape Plan, Isis, Cave In, Zao, and others. For the latest info you can check out their website: Spitfire  

Blindside is still going strong  looking for college radio airplay. Here is their radio success so far: FMQB: #2 most added / debuted at #28 / went from #28 to #25 with a bullet!
Album Network: #2 most added /  74 spins from 16 reports, no debut / 64 spins from 14 reporters, still no debut
CMJ loud - #3 most added / #30 on the CMJ loud charts!

Extol has just finished their new full length album tentatively titled Undeceived. Release date May 23rd 2000 on Solid State Records.

Zao, The Juliana Theory, and Stretch Arm Strong have been asked to play on the Punk Rock Pot Luck Tour. Other bands include: Hatebreed, Sense Field, One King Down and many more.

In Solid State news, here are some upcoming releases: 3rd Root - Spirit of Life EP, early April (internet only release); Lengsel - Solace, April 11th 2000;
Embodyment - The Narrow Scope Of Things, April 25th 2000; Society's Finest - The Journey...So Far, May 23rd 2000. Born Blind - One for All, June 6th 2000.

The guys of MxPx have released a video with the title It Came From Bremerton. This video contains a history of the band, rare videos of their first live-shows and interviews with the members.

Friday February 25th 2000

Rackets & Drapes have finished recording the new album. Release-date late June.

The Juliana Theory is working on the new CD. They are doing this with producer Barry Poynter and Jason Magnussen. Release date is not set yet but the title is: Emotion Is Dead.

Endtime Productions in Sweden will bring out a compilation CD with Scandinavia Extreme Metal. This album is entitled The Shadow Of Death and will feature tracks of bands like Anaemia, Extol, Lengsel, Schaliach, Absurd, Vaakevandring, Vardöger and Crimson Moonlight. There will be much exclusive material on this CD.

Endtime Productions has announced the signing of Norway's Lengsel. They will release a progressive black metal album entitled Solace on April 14th 2000. At the same date Black Sun Records (known for working with bands such as At The Gates, Diabolique & The Crown) will release this Lengsel album. Lengsel is the band of Tor Magne who is now part (as bass-player) of Extol too. He joined the band for their US Tour but is now a permanent member of the band.

Speaking of Extol....They finished the recordings of their second full-length album.

Extol's strictly limited 7" which was announced on the Endtime Productions' site, sold out directly. This 7" will feature a brand new track and a B-side. Just 400 people were lucky enough to sign in for it first.

Other news from Endtime Productions: "Anaemia's The Second Incarnation  has been met with great reviews so far all over Scandinavia," Endtime reports. As a direct result of this, GNW Records (known for Evergrey and the Tribute To Yngwie Malmsteen) will release it for Germany in May.

Test Of Faith will be taking some time off from playing and will be in the studio tracking and recording for their upcoming full- length CD to be released in the Spring of this year.

Music from the San Diego USA based   Krush will be featured on the upcoming "short" film Forgiven. The project, produced by Cliff Bustria and directed by Ted Melfi ( Golden Light Films) is one of several that has been entered in the Parable Film Festival in Los Angeles.Other musical artists appearing on the soundtrack include music legend Van Morrison. The film was shot in and around Los Angeles. Entries in the Parable Film Festival will be judged by Chuck Norris and others. The winners will be announced at a "Oscars" style awards ceremony to be held at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles on March 20, 2000.

Friday February 18th 2000

There's now a comic book called Soldier Of God which is based on Stryper's drummer Robert Sweet. If you're interested, visit Soldier Of God.

BEC Recordings now confirms that they licensed Project 86's new album Drawing Black Lines to major-label Atlantic Records. This means that they will co-release the new CD to the world on March 21st. Andrew Schwab, vocalist for Project 86, explains: "The Atlantic deal is not a licensing deal, they have full control of everything except the Christian market.  We are signed to Atlantic as well as BEC."

Other Project 86 news. BEC Recordings reports:  "We are excited to announce that  Music Promotions company, StreetWise Concepts & Culture has  been hired to organize a MASSIVE street team effort for
 Project  86. StreetWise has also recently organized street team efforts
 for bands like, Slipknot, Static-X, System Of A Down and Rage Against The Machine."

Sweden's melodic metalband Narnia is supposed to enter the studio on February 28th. The new album might turn out to be a concept-album. Narnia's singer Christian is also involved in Christian's Powertime, his solo-effort. An album is in the works that has the working-title The Lost Generation.

Friday February 11th 2000

Blindside is doing well. According to their US label Solid State Records, their second full-length, A Thought Crushed My Mind, has already received rave reviews for their 'Captivating, melodic hardcore punk for the soul'.  In Europe, you can find them in magazines such Close-Up, Terrorizer, Metal Hammer and others. Furthermore, their video for King Of The Closet is in rotation with MTV Europe and ZTV (the largest music TV show in Sweden). Their CD is currently being worked to US college radio by The Syndicate.

New bands to join the Solid State Family: San Diego's 3rd Root & Atlanta based Luti-Kriss & Norway's Lengsel. Of hardcore band 3rd Root Solid State will be releasing an internet only EP...on CD, for sale exclusively through T&N Mail Order. The band will trek to Canada in March to join Andre Wahl (known for his studio work with GGGarth Richardson) to record their first Solid State full-length. Luti-Kriss will be recording their debut album with Barry Poynter.   Lengsel's Solid State debut will be Solace. Release-date around the Spring.

Born Blind will be in the studio March 25th with Steve Russell.  Russell will produce and engineer Born Blind's first Solid State album entitled All For One.

Society's Finest recently finished recording their full length with Barry Poynter in Little Rock, AR at Poynter Recordings.  It will be released on Solid State this spring.  Album-title: The Journey... So Far.

Training For Utopia is one of the Self Analysis features in the March 2000 Issue of Alternative Press (page 92). Throwing A Wrench Into The American Music Machine received a 4 out of 5 rating, which in the Alternate Press world means 'outstanding'....they even beat out the new Oasis album!

Friday February 4th 2000

Classic hard rock band Barnabas has re-released their first two albums on one CD.  The albums Hear The Light & Find Your Heart A Home by Barnabas were released in the early eighties (if I'm right Hear The Light was released in 1980!). Interestingly, this CD has a never before released track. This is also the first disc of a five CD boxed set they're planning on releasing over the next year.