Friday May 28th 2004

Kekal has finished their documentary video CD based on handycam recordings during their European tour. It's two discs in VCD format. This video is underground quality with very minimum video-editing and it will be a limited release of 150 copies.

Kekal has also started writing new material for an upcoming album. They have eight months to finish the album. Expect many surprises...

Jeff from Kekal also started a project with Jason DeRon, formerly of Paramæcium. This project is called Altera Enigma. Jason and Jeff are working on songs.

Royal Anguish are returning to the studio this weekend. They will record the follow up to Mysterion. This next recording will be a 25-30 minutes CD entitled Tales Of Sullen Eyes.The engineering will be done by Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel). The release is expected to be this fall.

Sacrificium has decided to cancel their upcoming EP due to financial issues from Whirlwind Records, their label. As the band will start recording a new album at the end of this year, they are going to spend their money on that album.

There's an MP3 of the new album from The O.C. Supertones. The song is called We Shall Overcome, and you can download it from PureVolume.com. The album Revenge Of The Supertones will be in stores on June 15th.

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Brazilian news, gathered by Flávio de Souza and Rosemari de Melo Souza of Metal Mission magazine:

Joe's Rhapsody, the new album from Destra, will be released next month. Destra also has a new vocalist called Rodrigo Grecco. You can listen to some samples on the official Destra homepage.

Spirit's Breeze will have their next album released through Rowe Productions in Australia. The band will start recordings next month. It will be the follow up to Eternal Suffering.

Marcelo Lopes, drummer of Clemency, is the new drummer of Ashen Mortality. Marcelo who moved to England last year, was introduced to the band by Michael of Bloodwork. Ashen Mortality will play the Destruction Festival in London.

Avantage Records released Motus Perpetuus from Dynasty. The CD contains 11 songs and was produced by Ricardo Parronchi (Destra).

The band João is releasing As The Shadows Death. The music is described as grind noise.

Seven Angels is working on new material for their next album. The recordings might start in July. Seven Angels was also nominated as one of the main new bands in the Brazilian scene by Rock Brigade and Roadie Crew. The band was also invited to join the Primal Fear tribute CD, organized by the official Brazilian Primal Fear website. Seven Angels chose to do Sacred Illusions from the Devil's Ground album.

Death metal band Sabbatariam donated some tracks in MP3 format for their split CD with Demoniciduth from Switzerland.

Soul Hunter has started recording their new album. They might put nine songs on CD, including the songs from their demo CD Still Believe. Singer on the album is Nahor Andrade from Dynasty, but he's not a permanent member of the band. Expect melodic power metal.

There are three new metal bands:

Poems Of Shadows is a black metal band from Edmilson Giglio, former bassist and vocalist for Promessa Divina. He works on the moniker Lord Shavout now. The guitarist is Lady Damnaris and the drummer Argoroth. The band will release their first album Nocturnal Blasphemous through MCK Records. The CD has 12 songs.

Blazing Harp is a power metal band. The line-up consists of Mike (vocals/guitar), Cléber (guitar), Clayton (drums), Reginaldo (bass) and Gabriel (keyboards).

Sanctimony play extreme doom metal. However, the line-up only consists of women... Carla plays guitar and sings, Márcia plays guitar and sings too, Matasja plays bass and Renata plays the drums.

Friday May 21st 2004

Extol announced a line-up change. Both guitarists, Christer Espevoll and Ole Børud have decided to leave the band. Singer Peter Espevoll: 'At first it came as a shock, although we understand their reasons for leaving, but still it was sad to lose two great band members, one just after the other. After 10 years of playing we reached a point where we could try to bring the band to the next level, but neither Christer nor Ole felt they could make the commitment it required.' According to drummer David Husvik the band has already sought out new members to replace Ole and Christer: 'We will make an official statement of who they are later in July. I am confident that this new unit of ours will deliver, and we are rehearsing material for our next album as we speak.'

The plans are for the band to enter the studio in late summer, and release the album later this year. They are also planning some extensive touring through Europe and the United States to support the next release.

The last two chances to see the line-up with Ole and Christer will be on the Mostøy Festival on May 29th in Norway, and the Seaside Festival on July 3rd, also in Norway.

Evanescence has just released their new video for their fourth single Everybody's Fool. You can watch the video now from their website.

There's another MP3 available for download from the new Project 86 album. The song is called Spy Hunter. You can download this track from the Songs To Burn Your Bridges album from Purevolume.com.

Roxx Productions is hosting the Summer Madness festival on August 29th. This festival will take place in the Chain Reaction, in Anaheim, California, USA. Bands scheduled to play are: Vengeance Rising, Carbon 9, Torn Apart (featuring Ron Rinehart of Dark Angel and Blake Nelson of Oil), Ultimatum, Inruin, Demize, Bloodshed On Earth, Ithimar.

Friday May 14th 2004

On June 1st the new album from Project 86 will be out. The album is called Songs To Burn Your Bridges By. This record was previously released as an independent album. Now Tooth & Nail Records will put it on the market. However, the new release contains remixed tracks plus four new songs that were recorded at The Compound studio in Seattle with Aaron Sprinkle. You can download the song A Shadow On Me from PureVolume.com.

Dead Poetic's new album New Medicines will be released in the United Kingdom on June 28th. The record company taking care of this, is Golf Records.

This Summer a new album from 12 Stones will come out. This record is entitled Potter's Field. From the 12 Stones website you can preview the track Photograph.

There's an MP3 available of the ballad Honestly from Stryper. This is a live track from the upcoming live album. Stryper is also scheduled to perform live at DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida, on September 10th.

Friday May 7th 2004

Saviour Machine is working hard on the final part of the Legend Trilogy, called Legend Part III:II. The pre-production started last October in a Californian studio. This first phase of the recording was finished recently. Since May 1st Saviour Machine is working on the second phase in Sweden and Germany. This phase will be ended at the end of this month. And then the final phase will be mixing all material. If all goes as scheduled, all recording of Legend Part III:II will be complete in July!

Eric Clayton, singer for Saviour Machine, also will be the 'voice of Reason' on a concept album by Ayreon called The Human Equation. This record will also feature James Labrie (Dream Theater) and Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad).

Spoken has completed the video for Falling Further. This is a track from their most recent album A Moment Of Imperfect Clarity.

Stryper will release their DVD this Summer/Fall. An exact date will be confirmed. The DVD was shot in Puerto Rico in March 2004.

The OC Supertones have a new album coming out on June 15th. Get ready for the Revenge Of The Supertones!

Friday April 30th 2004

Last weekend Sacrificium recorded three new songs and a cover song. The plans are to release a 7" vinyl record with the new material through Whirlwind Records. Guitarist Oliver: 'Two songs have a more Swedish death metal character. Maybe something
like Zustand Tod from the last CD, but more compact. The other song has more of a mid tempo groove thing going on. I don't know, that one is hard to describe.'

The release-date for the Sacrificium 7" is not set. The band will play the Seaside Festival in Norway, on the first of July.

DOT Music has signed The Rise. This Swedish band features members from XT and Jerusalem.

The song Switchback from Celldweller has been licensed for use in the Spiderman 2 trailer. You will need Quicktime to view the trailer.

Tooth & Nail Records released a best of from Dogwood called Reverse Then Forward Again. This album contains the band's favorite tracks plus two previously unreleased tracks. This compilation also has songs from the first two albums from Dogwood.

Bloodlines Calligraphy is putting the finishing touches to their EP The Beginning Of The End. This is their first record for Strike First Records. A full length is scheduled for an early 2005 release. You can download a pre-production MP3.

The Hanover Saints released a new EP containing seven songs. This EP is out on Strike First Records. You can download one of the songs.

Sinai Beach is going to record the follow-up to When Breath Escapes. The new album is called Immersed and it will be recorded in the Trax East Studios. The artwork is being done by Travis Smith (who also worked for Nevermore, Soilwork, Suffocation and more).

Friday April 23rd 2004

The Spirit That Guides Us is postponing the recording of their DVD. More information about this will be released later on. The band has finished the recording of their next album, North And South. This record will be out in August.

There's a new band on Solid State Records. They are called He Is Legend (formerly known as The Uriah Omen).

New Medicines, the new album from Dead Poetic, debuted at #15 on the Billboard Heatseeker's Chart.

From the end of this month Nomen will start recording demos for an upcoming album. The official recording will begin in June. 

In case you didn't know, JP Koivisto is the new drummer of Immortal Souls. He is also part of the band Silent Voices.

Coming up on June 15th is the new album from Underoath called They're Only Chasing Safety. There's a new MP3 available for download on purevolume.com. The song is called Reinventing Your Exit.

There's also a new MP3 available from Demon Hunter. You can download the song The Latest And The Last from purevolume.com. This is one of the songs on the upcoming Summer Of Darkness album, that should be out in early May.

Another band on purevolume.com is Blameless from Guatamala. It's a band that mixes hardcore with metal.

Friday April 16th 2004

Virgin Black is progressing with the composition of their next album release. They have also produced a video clip to the Our Wings Are Burning radio-edit. It should be available for download from the Virgin Black website and from The End Records. A full quality DVD version will be released on a compilation put together by The End Records.

Stavesacre has almost finished their DVD. They are announcing a release date soon. Previews are up on their website, in the media section. Recording for the next record continues. Working titles for the four jams are Bull Takes Fighter, Cloud of Dust, Time Honored Tradition and Handful of Words.

Jani Stefanovic from the Finnish Melodic Death Metal band Renascent has announced his involvement in a new project call Divinefire. This is an all-star project featuring members from Crimson Moonlight, Narnia, Veni Domine, Renascent and Saviour Machine. Musicians who are said to be involved, are: Jani Stefanovic ( Renascent), Christian Rivel (Narnia), Torbjörn Weinsjö (Veni Domine), Fredric Sjöholm (Veni Domine), Eric Clayton (Saviour Machine), Hubertus Liljegren (Crimson Moonlight), Andreas Olsson (Narnia), Ronny Hemlin ( Lack Of Faith), Carl Johan Grimmark (Narnia).

There's a new song from Dead Poetic available for download. You can get the song Glass In The Trees from Purevolume.com

Two other places on the internet to download heavy rock music are:

Royal Anguish   Death Metal, USA

Stairway     Hard Rock/Classic Metal, United Kingdom

Friday April 9th 2004

On April 26th the live DVD from Narnia called At Short Notice - Live In Germany will be released. The songs on the album are: Inner Sanctum, The Mission, War Preludium, The Countdown Has Begun, Back From Hell, No Time To Lose, Long Live The King, Living Water, Shelter Through The Pain, Dangerous Game, Awakening, Break The Chains, The Witch And The Lion. You can view a Quicktime video sample on the Narnia website.

Crimson Moonlight is planning to release a new album at the end of this year...

Seven Angels is invited to record a song to the Primal Fear Tribute organized by the Primal Fear Brazilian Official web site. The song is Sacred Illusions from Devil's Ground album.

Project 86 signed with Tooth & Nail Records again. The fourth studio album Songs To Burn Your Bridges By will be released on June 1st.

The tickets for the Petra concert (June 5th) in The Netherlands are selling like hot cakes. That's why the organization added an extra show on Friday June 4th in Gouda. However, this is a very exclusive show. Things considered for that particular evening, are a set with different songs, an acoustic set, a meet and greet or even a meal with the band. If you want to be part of this VIP event, get your tickets.

Friday April 2nd 2004

Last month Kekal did their mini tour through Europe. Interestingly, they are making a video CD from their shows in Sweden, Holland and Germany. This video has an 'underground' quality only, and entirely taken only by a Handycam. It will be a strictly limited release. This video CD will be released later this month. Kekal is also back in the studio to re-record four songs from their Contra Spiritualia Nequitiae demo from 1996. Former member Newbabe is assisting in this special recording session. Kekal will release these songs later this year for a special limited edition album project.

There is a new Dutch alternative rockband called Collide. Members are Berry (vocals, guitar), Jona (guitar, vocals), Hielke (bass) and Ruben (drums). They also have a demo CD out, containing three songs. Samples can be heard on the Collide website. The CD was recorded at the Woodencup Studios and was produced by Theo Nap and Collide.

The third album from Ace Troubleshooter, It's Never Enough, is in stores now! The album was produced by Tim Patalan, and delivers 12 fiery tracks of pure rock mayhem. You can download a track from Purevolume.com.

Threshold are back at Thin Ice Studios in Surrey (England) recording their new album Subsurface. Some of the titles of upcoming songs are: Mission Profile, The Art of Reason, Flags And Footprints and The Destruction of Words. An extra song by drummer Johanne James called What About Me is also slated as a bonus track for the limited edition version of the album. Inside Out Music plan to release the album in July prior to Threshold's 2004 European tour.

You can help vote for Blindside on the Scandinavian MTV show called Up North. It's a show where you vote for your favorite video anywhere in the world! Vote for the band's All Of Us video.

This Saturday there'll be an Underground Fest in Central America. More information can be found at: Tormentodespestes.com. Check out their flyer. Bands playing are: Feedback, Try5t, Nativa, Att Livitunn, Blameless, Codigo Penal, Tiesnesis, Tsidkenu, Dam Shoah, Arvegas, Dias De Agonia, Conviccion, Mephiboseth, As Life Fades Away, Selah, Youth Challenge, Skadosh. There will be recordings for a DVD...