Friday September 28th 2007

The guys in the German hardcore band Opposition Of One have decided to end the group. Opposition Of One has been around since late 2000 and released two albums and two EP's. The members decided to quit as three of them are no longer able to pursue their band career seriously, including touring and putting out a new record. Fortunately, Opposition Of One is going to do a farewell tour. The last concert will be in December.

The Dutch ska/rock/punk/metal band Fort Knox Amsterdam got through the first round of the Bodog Band Battle. The next round takes place in De Melkweg, Amsterdam, on November 16th. You can order tickets from the band for 7 euros. Good luck guys!

Spoken released a new album this week. The album is titleless and came out through Tooth & Nail Records.

Pillar releases their new album For The Love Of The Game on February 26th. Travis Wyrick is currently mixing the record. The first single should be out in late October.

Soul Embraced have inked a deal with Solid State Records for the release of their comeback album. Expect it out early 2008.

The Dutch death metal band Docile have at least fifteen songs written for a future full length album. They hope to have a new album out in the spring of 2008. This album will be the follow-up to their Babylon Ablaze EP. Docile is also booking a tour through Germany, Poland and the Ukraine, though they also have a few concerts coming up in their native country, The Netherlands.

Kekal is still active, though singer/guitarist Jeff is living in Canada nowadays, while the remaining members Azhar and Leo are in Indonesia/Australia. But, Jeff is working on new material for a next album.

Michael Sweet (of Stryper) will release a new solo album on December 3rd. This record is called Touched and contains only one new song (My Love, My Life, My Flame) and ten covers including You Are So Beautiful (Joe Cocker), Colour My World (Chicago), She's Got A Way (Billy Joel) and four Stryper ballads.

You can download another track containing almost the entire Art For The Ears show, broadcast on Friday September 21st. The first half of it, is good. During the second half, the recording stagnated at times and the last ten minutes of the show were not recorded. Interested? You can download it here. If someone recorded the entire show of September 21st, please let me know!

Friday September 21st 2007

Stryper is in the studio working on a new record due out in 2008. They start mixing in October. One of the songs on the new album is Peace Of Mind, a cover from Boston. Boston guitarist Tom Scholz joined the band on that song.

The new album from Demon Hunter is called Storm The Gates Of Hell. It comes out on November 6th. You can listen to the song Fading Away on myspace.com.

This week the new Thousand Foot Krutch record The Flame In All Of Us came out. You can listen to the new track My Favorite Disease on purevolume.

Rock band Fono released their new album Too Broken To Break. You can download the entire album for free. Go here, fill in your details plus the e-mail addresses of a couple of your friends, and you can download the album, including all the artwork. When you prefer hearing some songs first, go to the band's myspace page and listen to three tunes from the album: Dangerous, On The Line and Still Love.

As I Lay Dying won the Artist Of The Year award in the San Diego Music Awards. Congratulations!

Friday September 14th 2007

The Dutch rock band Zenith Of Abolition will enter the studio in November to record their first full length album. The band will possibly record twelve songs. There's no release date yet.

The German/Finnish death metal band Thy Bleeding Skies have finished writing songs for their debut CD. They hope to start recording within the next three months.

Progressive metal band Picture Of The Moon celebrated their sixth anniversary by uploading a second song to their myspace.com page. The track is called Black Roses and is taken from their latest EP, Ageless Day.

Underoath have a new video out, for the song A Moment Suspended In Time. You can find it on myspace. The video was shot on location in Sweden.

Horde finished their DVD. You can view one song on the internet (though not in high quality).

Avian, the melodic metal band featuring Lance King, will release their new album Ashes And Madness early 2008.

The Nordic Fest is going to be a great event for fans of metal. The festival takes place in the Sub Church in Oslo, Norway, from November 9th-11th. These bands have been booked so far: Barren Cross, My Silent Wake, Once Dead, Mortification, Darkwater, The Weakening, Strength Of Purpose, In Vain, Strangeland, Implacable.

A new Evanescence video saw the light of day on MTV. This video was made for the song Good Enough.

Friday September 7th 2007

Bloodgood rereleased Shakin' The World as  DVD and CD. Originally Shakin' The World came out in 1990. The CD version contains all the tracks from the original CD except Let My People Go. The DVD version has some different songs. These are the songs on the CD: 1. Mad Dog World 2. Top Of The Mountain 3. Awake 4. Eat The Flesh 5. Holy Fire 6. Crucify 7. The Sixth Hour 8. The Messiah 9. Accept The Lamb 10. Seven 11. New Age Illusion. This is the track listing for the DVD: 1. Awake 2. Eat the Flesh 3. Holy Fire 4. Crucify 5. The Trial 6. The Verdict 7. The Crucifixion 8. The Messiah 9. Seven  10. New Age Illusion 11. Never Be The Same 12. Medley: Demon on the Run, Killing the Beast, Battle of the Flesh 13. Black Snake.

Bloodgood will also appear on the Sanctuary Stage at Cornerstone California. Other bands sharing this stage are Barren Cross, Torman Maxt, Neon Cross, Blissed, Ultimatum, Tourniquet, Once Dead, Recon and others. The Cornerstone California festival takes place on September 28th & 29th. Main stage bands are Underoath, Demon Hunter, Anberlin, Emery, Disciple, Project 86, Thousand Foot Krutch and many more.

Alove For Enemies has decided to call it quits. This band has been around since late 2000. Some of the members are doing other projects. Luke and Dan are in a band called Buck Nasty. Erich is in Behind The Glittering Mask. And Alove For Enemies' drummer Andy is in Letter To Exiles.

Dale Thompson of Bride has started a new band named Monster Of The Americas. He's working with Scottie Hoaglan, the guitarist in Nailed. A future Bride CD is on hold pending Troy Thompson's possible relocation to Italy.

Impending Doom released their Nailed.Dead.Risen album.

As I Lay Dying is still doing well in the charts. Last week An Ocean Between Us debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at #8 and went down to a still respectable #39 in the second week. In The Netherlands the album landed on #25 in the Plato Charts. Also in other countries the record is doing great!

A few weeks ago you could read about Fort Knox Amsterdam participating in the Bodog Band Battle. Due to problems with Bodog's website, a new page was launched where you can vote for the bands. Go here, register and vote for Fort Knox Amsterdam. Thanks in advance!

When you visit our myspace.com page regularly, you may have seen there's a new mp3 file available containing the Art For The Ears radio show of August 24th.

Friday August 31st 2007

To celebrate Narnia's 10th anniversary Massacre Records released Decade Of Confession. This double disc compilation includes many of the band's best songs and new tracks. You can listen to a cover of Jerusalem's In His Majesty's Service on myspace.com.

Thousand Foot Kruth has posted four tracks from their upcoming new album on purevolume.com. The Flame In All Of Us will come out on September 18th. You can also try to get the special edition CD/DVD.

The new As I Lay Dying album An Ocean Between Us is doing really well in America. The album entered the Billboard Top 10 at #8.

Friday August 24th 2007

The German emocore band Descend To Rise started working on their first full length album. They're recording eleven songs. There's a studio clip (known as DTR Studio Podcast No.1) available with singer Florian telling and joking about the recording.

Anberlin has inked a record deal with Universal. Anberlin worked with Tooth & Nail Records for years. Now they plan to release a b-sides record with them that will hopefully come out later this year.

Thousand Foot Krutch will bring out their new album The Flame In All Of Us on September 18th. You can listen to new material on their myspace.com page.

The Dutch hardcore/ska/metal band Fort Knox Amsterdam has joined the international battle of bands called Bodog Battle Of Bands. The first round will be in the Melkweg in Amsterdam. The first prize of the Bodog Battle of Bands is a 1 million dollar record deal with Bodog Records. You can help Fort Knox Amsterdam! You only have to go to this website, sign in and vote for the band. The fun of it all is that you can go back and vote every day!

You can find new links to interviews on the interviews page (As I Lay Dying, Spoken and Blindside).

Friday August 17th 2007

In September the new DVD We Are Under Reconstruction Part 2 will be released. This DVD was made by The Spirit That Guides Us and contains a fourteen song live concert plus backstage stuff. The tracks included are:   Deep And Unanswered, Dead End Disarmer, The End Is Nigh, All The Way To The USA, El Salvador, Defence Mechanism, Agnes, Concertina Crash, Class Of 1998. Hopeful Forever, The Blossom Powers, The Spirit Anthem, Real Life Motion Picture, Enjoy The Silence.

The Spirit That Guides Us is also recording their new album, to be released in 2008.

Extol has taken a break from activities for some time now. At the moment it's even unsure whether the band will appear again. However, some of the guys are in a new band called Mantric.

As I Lay Dying released the video for their first single of their upcoming album An Ocean Between Us. The first single is Nothing Left and you can view the video on Youtube.com. You can listen to the entire album on the band's myspace.com page.

Jacobs Dream is still working on their new album Dominion. They are about to do the mixing.

The Brazilian death metal band Krig have a myspace page. There you can listen to two tracks from their new CD Feed.

Rock band 12 Stones released Anthem For The Underdog.

Some time ago you could read in this column about the wive of Stryper singer Michael Sweet who was diagnosed cancer. Kyle Sweet was tested recently. A PET scan done on July 24th showed no cancer activity.

Tonight there's no Art For The Ears radio show. You can still download past show from the internet: May 11th 2007, June 1st 2007, July 6th 2007, July 13th 2007, July 27th 2007 and August 3rd 2007.

Friday August 10th 2007

Pillar is working on their new album. This record will be called For The Love Of The Game and should come out in February or March 2008. You can hear Rob talking about the new album and hear some snippets of tunes on youtube.com/pillartv.

Next week the new As Cities Burn CD Come Now Sleep will see the light of day. You can listen to the album in it's entirety on their myspace.com page.

On September 18th Thousand Foot Krutch will launch their new disc The Flame In All Of Us. This record will contain twelve songs.

While Sacrificium is working on material for their next album, you can view a video they taped at the Nordicfest 2005 (shot with only one camera). You can watch it on youtube.com as well as on their myspace.com page.

As you may know, Mortification will come to Europe for a concert tour. One of the dates is fixed for November 8th in Cultureel Podium De Kelder in Amersfoort, Holland.

There's another MP3 available, containing the Art For The Ears radio show of August 3rd. You can download it here. The file contains music from the following bands: Mass, Fountain Of Tears, My Silent Wake, Immortal Souls, Lo-Ruhamah, Veni Domine, This Beautiful Republic, Grace.Will.Fall, Heel, Opposition Of One, Virgin Black.

Friday August 3rd 2007

The Swedish metal band Veni Domine will release their new album on September 14th. This record is called Tongues and was produced by guitarist Torbjörn Weinesjö. Tongues contains ten songs that fill over sixty minutes. This is the track list: October, Scream, The Bell Of A Thousand Years, The Rider On The White Horse, Two Times, Bless My Pain, Stay With Me, You Leave Me Cold, Tree Of Life and Tongues.

Slechtvalk entered the studio last month to record a three song promo. This promo will not be available for purchasing. It will be used to find a new label. The working titles for the songs are: Towards The Dawn, Desolate and Hounds Of Battle.

You can listen to another new track from the upcoming As I Lay Dying album on the band's myspace.com page. It's the title track from An Ocean Between Us. This record comes out on August 24th. The band also finished the video for Nothing Left, which will be their first single.

The Dutch rock band Zenith Of Abolition put three new songs on their myspace.com page. You can download a new version of Product, as well as CEO and Candlelight Assassin. All three were taken from their demo.

If you want to listen to last week's radio show, go here and download the mp3 track. The play list features music from Random Eyes, Miseration, Aletheian, Opposition Of One, Dead Poetic, Demon Hunter, Zenith Of Abolition, Fort Knox Amsterdam, Silence The Foe, Dagon and The Rick Ray Band.