Friday March 26th 2004

Jacobs Dream will return to the studio this summer. They will record their third album for Metal Blade Records. The title for this release is Drama Of The Ages and it will feature the vocals of Chaz Bond from Biogenesis.

Black metal band Arch Of Thorns have release their CD demo The Coming Storm through Sneeuwstorm Produkties. The band is also working on a new EP called Sword Of The Spirit. The recording is almost done.

On Purevolume.com there is a new song from Dead Poetic that you might want to download. The song is called Vanus Empty.

Hardcore band Neshamah from South Africa are going to record their next full length album at the end of May/early June. They hope to have it out in July.

The song Switchback from Celldweller has been licensed for a full length trailer for the Spiderman 2 movie. The trailer should be available online in the coming month.

The band XD Out is currently looking for a drummer for live shows. If you are interested, you may want to contact Josh: xdout@msn.com. XD Out has been spending most of their time recording new songs. They recorded two songs with Barry Blair of Audio Adrenaline.

Also melodic metal band X-Terra is looking for a musician. The musician wanted is a rhythm guitar player. If you are interested, contact the band at: xterrarocks@mymailstation.com. X-Terra's latest CD Wolves is now being distributed by Tower Records.

The German band Brain:FAQ desires your help! They want to be invited to play the Woodland Open-air festival in Germany, and need your vote. You can vote each day and the voting goes on till half June.

Friday March 19th 2004

Sacred Life is working on a new CD. Right now they're in pre-production in their rehearsal room. The plan is to record their first full-length album. Seven songs are finished so far. The official production will be started late Summer, early Fall.

12 Stones is wrapping up the recording phase for their new album. This record will be out on August 10th.

Mortification released their new album Brain Cleaner. This is the twelfth studio album. The line-up is Mike Forsberg (drums) Mick Jelinic (guitar) and Steve Rowe (bass guitar & vocals). Next week Mortification will add the mp3 of Too Much Pain from the new album on mp3.com.au.

Grrr Records announced the signing of The Remnants. This old school punk band released Songs From The Hell Hole. Besides the normal elements you will expect from a punk band (loud guitars, bass, drums and screaming), The Remnants make some use of the mandolin as well.

About A Burning Fire from Blindside is doing great. Nearly 50,000 units have been sold in a matter of weeks... From the Blindside artist page at MTV.com you can download an exclusive new recording of the first single, All Of Us.

The Elements Of Rock festival is starting today. There's one cancellation: Antidemon, from Brazil. Other bands you might want to see tonight and tomorrow, are: Veni Domine, Immortal Souls, Seventh Avenue, Slechtvalk, Drottnar, Jeff Scheetz, Eluveitie, Crushead, Sacrificium, Arson, Exaudi, Demoniciduth, Disobedience, Heavenly Soldiers and a surprise band...

Another festival will take place on March 26th & 27th. It's the MetalZone festival, in Hus 25, Sundsvall, Sweden. Bands you can see live, are: Admonish, Laudamus, Evergrace, Shadows Of Paragon, Taketh.

Friday March 12th 2004

Classic metal band Saint have a new album out. This record is called In The Battle. Saint was started in the early eighties under the moniker of Gentile. They changed their name to Saint and released their first EP, Warriors Of The Son, in 1984. Two full length albums came out before the band called it a day around 1989. In 1999 bassist Richard Lynch restarted Saint. This led to the release of the Perfect Life EP in 2001. With the new album In The Battle Richard Lynch is now accompanied by singer Josh Kramer. Some of the songs on In The Battle are Star Pilots Return, Sacrifice, Acid Rain and Armor On. Guitarist on the album is Jerry Johnson while the band hired Larry London for the recording of the drums.

The live album from Stryper called 7 weeks: Live in America, 2003, will be out on May 18th! The band also recorded their sold out show in San Juan, Puerto Rico earlier this month for the upcoming DVD.

Speaking of DVD's, Stavesacre will soon announce the release of their DVD.

One Bad Pig released their first vinyl record on CD. The album is called A Christian Banned and was originally released in 1986. The CD version is limited to 750 units.

Neon Cross will be entering the studio in April, to finally record Neon Cross II. The songs, however, date back from 1988-1990.

Friday March 5th 2004

Antithesis has a new singer. His name is Matt Adkins. He did his first performance with the band at the Chicago Powerfest on February 27th.

The new album Brain Cleaner from Mortification is yet to be released. You'll have to wait a little long due to delay in the artwork. The album should be out sometime this month.

Bushbaby has put their video for Lipstick on their website.

Punk rock band Tekla Knös will soon release their new album Hellre Dåre Än Marionett. It will also be available at Bobfest this weekend.

Celldweller is going to make a music video for the song Switchback.

On Wednesday March 10th there will be a meet & greet with Kekal in Amsterdam, Holland. This meet & greet sessions takes place in music store Boudisque, Haringpakkerssteeg (near Damrak), two minutes away from the Central Railway Station. This event is from 15:30 to 16:30.

Blindside debuted on the Billboart album chart at #39 with their new album About A Burning Fire.

Friday February 27th 2004

Det Tapte Liv is the title for the EP Antestor will be releasing. The disc should be out mid-April, but you can already lay your hands on it at the Bobfest, where the band will be playing.

The Finnish band Random Eyes is concentrating on a new album.

Last Tuesday Blindside released their new album About A Burning Fire. On the first day over 11,000 copies were sold. Interestingly, the band will be co-headlining a US tour with P.O.D. in May/June. 

POD's new album Payable On Death has now been certified Gold in the USA. This means at least 500,000 copies were sold of the album.

Dust Eater Dogs news: guitarist Canine Christer is moving to Australia. Last year drummer Danny left Dust Eater Dogs to join the Logos ship, travelling all over the world. He'll be back to Finland in the summer of 2005. Until then, he'll be replaced by a session drummer called Jonne Orrensalo. Danny, however, has been seen drumming in a band formed by crew members. The band played in a jail in Panama...

7 Weeks: Live In America, 2003. This is the title of the upcoming live album from Stryper. Expect it in stores in late May this year. The first 500 copies sold through Stryper.com will be autographed by the band. The songs on the album are: Sing Along Song, Makes Me Wanna Sing, Calling On You, Free, More Than A Man, Caught In The Middle, Reach Out, Loud 'N Clear, The Way, Soldiers Under Command, To Hell With The Devil, Honestly, Winter Wonderland. The CD ends with a closing prayer.

The release of the new album from The Spirit That Guides Us is postponed until the end of the summer. But, in April they will release an EP with four new songs. This disc is called Defence Mechanism.

Steel Prophet has inked a deal with Massacre Records. They will release their new album Beware sometime in the summer this year.

Friday February 20th 2004

Fire Fly are currently working on a new album. Four pre-produced songs can already be downloaded from the internet, to give you an idea of what's coming up. The songs are Phobia, Drown, Imperfection and Substance of Nothing. Fire Fly will also record a promotional video for Phobia. More information can be found at: The Womb.

Darkwater is a new band, formed in 2002 by Magnus, Henrik and Markus. You may know Henrik and Magnus from Harmony. The line-up of Darkwater was completed with the addition of Harmony drummer Tobias and bassist Karl. Darkwater will release their first full length album Calling Earth To Witness mid 2004.

Crushead is about to release their new album Can You Handle This? It will be presented to the public on the Owener Rocknacht. Expect eleven songs with a bonustrack. Can You Handle This? was produced by Tobias Kurrle.

BEC Recordings is releasing the new album from Kutless Sea Of Faces on February 24th!

On March 23rd the new album from Ace Troubleshooter will come out. The record is entitled It's Never Enough. You can download an MP3 of Ball & Chain here.

New Medicines, the new disc from Dead Poetic, will be co-released through Solid State Records and Tooth & Nail Records. The album will be out on April 6th 2004. You can download the title track from purevolume.com.

On March 23rd the album Waking Up The Dead from Blissed will be unleashed to the general market in the USA. The band plans to do intensive touring throughout 2004.

There are several bands looking for new personnel. XD Out is looking for a drummer. The band plays melodic hard rock. The band is from Northeast Pennsylvania. Contact Josh at xdout@msn.com .

Rivera/Bomma is currently looking for a bass player. This band plays technical melodic metal band with a Latin influence. Their first recording Invisible Force was licensed to the Greek metal label Secret Port Records. They are currently distributed through Nightmare Records, among other distros & outlets.  Rivera/Bomma is from the NYC area. Contact Rod at riverabomma@yahoo.com .

X-Terra is looking for a rhythm guitar player. They have a classic glam, classic rock sound. The band is from Northeast Pennsylvania. Contact Bob or Anne at xterrarocks@mymailstation.com.

Steel Prophet have signed with Massacre Records to release a new album before the summer.

Eluveitie is the last band to complete the line-up for the Elements Of Rock festival in Switzerland.

Friday February 13th 2004

Paramæcium is working hard on their fourth album. The album will be called Echoes From The Ground. The fictional storyline of the album revolves around a young British archaeologist travelling through Palestine in the late 1800's, investigating holy sites in an attempt to determine the veracity of the scriptures. For this new record the vocals need to be finished, as well as the violin, flute and soprano parts.

The Awakening from South Africa have announced that they are at work on a brand new album. The last full length album was Sacrificial Etchings, a compilation album with material from the first five releases. Expect the next album this spring!

Stavesacre is also working on a new album with Bryan Carlstrom and Chris Hall.

Rivel Records released a tribute album to The Sweet. The album is called The Sweet According To Sweden and it came out on February 9th.

Christian Rivel, label boss of Rivel Records and singer for Narnia, is releasing a new solo project. It's called Christian Rivel's Audiovision. The vision is to create good heavy metal with strong melodies and lots of harmony vocals like Queen & The Sweet. All songs wil be written by Christian Rivel and Lars Chriss from Lion's Share. Expect this release in autumn/winter 2004. However, you can also hear Audiovision on The Sweet According To Sweden. On the Audiovision album you can expect contributions from musicians like Jeff Scott Soto, Tony Franklin, Mic Michaeli, Carl Johan Grimmark and others.

If you want to hear a rough demo of a song from the upcoming Underoath album, you may want to download it from Purevolume.com.

On April 9th & 10th the annual Metanoia Festival will be held in Vitoria, Brazil. Here's the bandlist. Friday April 9th: Frontal, Sabbatarian, Postmorten, Apeiron, Distarnish, The Salvos, Exodo, Saint Spirit, Skymetal, The Joke, Atonement, Dracma, Testimony, Done, Duelectrum, HB 12. Saturday April 10th: Countdown, Moriah, Polyfone, Unigênito, Dynasty, Sangue Inocente, Arcanjo, Ocular, Afronta, Resurreiçao, Trino, Brutal Sacrifice, Death Poems, Alta Cúpula, Holocausto, Filacteria.

Friday February 6th 2004

Singer Brad Norris has left Norma Jean. Norris has been part of the band since the departure of Josh Scogin, who left Norma Jean in August 2002. Norma Jean is currently on tour in the United Kingdom. Drummer Daniel: 'Our good friend Cory Putman, formerly of the band Eso-Charis, will be filling in for us, for the time being. As of right now, we have no plans for a permanent replacement. But we will keep you up to date on what's going on. We will still be doing a full-US tour in March/April.'

In other Norma Jean news, their brand new video, Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste, filmed with director Zach Merck (Converge, Blindside), is now available for viewing here!

Haste The Day finished their new record with Barry Poynter. The album Burning Bridges will be available on March 9th 2004.

Underoath is in the studio with producer James Paul Wisner to record the follow-up to The Changing Of Times. The title for the upcoming album is They're Only Chasing Safety and it will be out on June 15th.

Monumentum Scandinavia, the label formed by Endtime Productions and Nordic Mission, has signed Frosthardr. They will release a five track EP in late March. Expect old school black metal with a modern and thrashy twist.

Upcoming releases on Solid State Records:

02/24/04 - The Running EP by Beloved
03/09/04 Burning Bridges by Haste The Day
03/23/04 The Death Campaign Project by Officer Negative
04/06/04 New Medicines by Dead Poetic
04/20/04 Technical Difficulties by Training For Utopia
05/08/04 Summer Of Darkness by Demon Hunter
06/15/04 They're Only Chasing Safety by Underoath