Friday May 30th 2008

After sixteen years of silence the British metal band Seventh Angel has reformed. Seventh Angel was formed in 1987 and released two albums. The band is working on a new studio album. Already two festival dates have been secured, both in November. Seventh Angel will play the Nordic Fest in Norway and a new Dutch festival called Brainstorm. The line-up of the reunited Seventh Angel is a mixture of the early and the final line-up of the band: Ian Arkley (vocals, guitar), Tank (drums), Simon Bibby (guitar) and Mark Broomhead (bass). See also their official site.

Sad news comes from the Dutch symphonic doom metal band Morphia. They have decided to call it a day. Over the years the members of the group moved further away from each other and got involved in busy jobs and family lives. This made it difficult to rehearse. After thirteen years Morphia will end. However, the band will do a final concert at the Brainstorm Festival in November. On this festival Morphia will also record a DVD.

Speaking of the Brainstorm Festival, this festival will be held in club Gigant, Apeldoorn, Holland, from November 21st-23rd. So far seven bands are booked and six more will follow: Seventh Angel, Seventh Avenue, Thy Majestie, Mehida, Morphia, Eluveitie & Rebellion.

Metal Mind Productions will re-release Discerning Forces from Opprobrium. This death/thrash band was formed around 1987 under the moniker Incubus. As Incubus they released two albums, then changed the name into Opprobrium in 1997. As Opprobrium they recorded and released Discerning Forces through Nuclear Blast in 2000. According to the latest information, Opprobrium is now working on new material.

From The Midst Of The Battle, the new Deuteronomium album, will appear on August 13th. Right now you can pre-order the disc. All pre-orders made before June 30th 2008, will receive the special edition of the album, including a bonus DVD and a special cover. Be quick!

Friday May 23rd 2008

Metal Blade Records will release a side project from Tim Lambesis (As I Lay Dying frontman) called Austrian Death Machine. The debut album is Total Brutal and will be released in late July.  Austrian Death Machine is fronted by the fictional character Ahhnold and inspired by his movies.

Dawn, the new Thy Majestie album, is postponed until September 1st. You can hear their new track Day Of The Changes on myspace page of record company Dark Balance. Thy Majestie is also one of the bands playing the Fear Dark Festivals, the first of which takes place tonight!

Dawn consists of seven tracks plus The Legacy Suite, a sixteen minutes long track divided in five tracks.

Showbread released two (!) new albums called Anorexia and Nervosa. The records tell the stories of two sisters.

Retrospect Records will re-release two Mass albums: Take You Home (1988) and Voices In The Night (1989). Each CD will be digitally remastered and contain a never before released track. Expect the reissues out in early Summer.

Friday May 16th 2008

Singer Rob Rock rejoined Impelliteri. He was in the band since the Grin And Bear It (1992) album but left the group in 2000 to pursue a solo career. The first new Impelliteri album on which you can hear Rob Rock is Good And Evil. The new music is being mixed in Vancouver with Greg Reely (Devil Driver, Fear Factory and others). The goal for Good And Evil was to make a historic album that will rival Van Halen 1, Ozzy's Blizzard of OZ, Pantera's Cowboys from Hell,  Yngwie Malmsteen's
Rising force & Metallica's Master Of Puppets.

Video of Visual Prison from the Answer tour in 1995:

Martyr's Shrine have started writing songs for the follow-up to their debut album. They're heading into a much heavier grindcore direction. Release date is tentatively set for 2009.

The Weakening entered the studio to record some guitars and bass. The vocals will be recorded in early June.

Slechtvalk is still searching for a label and a booking agency. Due to these difficulties they don't expect to be alble to enter the studio this year. A new album will probably have to wait until 2009.

Aletheian re-released their Dying Vine album. This reissue was remixed and remastered and also has an additional track: a cover version of How Could I from Cynic. Also included are some enhanced CD video bonus features.

Narnia is looking for a new vocalist to replace Christian Liljegren.

The Finnish emo rock band Deep Insight is active again. They're busy making a new album.

The new Kekal album will be called Audible Minority. It will probably come out in October.

Michael Sweet will join legendary rock group Boston on their summer tour. First date is June 6th.

A new name is announced of the bands booked for the Flevo Festival in August: Deuteronomium! Already booked were Tourniquet, MxPx, Project 86 and several other bands.

Friday May 9th 2008

Pop punk band Slick Shoes is back together with original members Ryan Kepke, Jackson Mould, Joe Nixon, and Jeremiah Brown. They also added guitarist Jordan Mould. They hope to record a new CD in the near future and have plans to do some shows again.

According to rumors, Barren Cross is reuniting. The group originally was formed in the early eighties. Over the last few years they did some shows. Now it's being said that they have plans to record once again. Their last album dates back from 1994.

Mortification is writing their new album. Steve Rowe wrote twenty songs of which he took eight songs to present to the other guys. The other two members of Mortification have written new material as well. They have the intention to release a new album in mid 2009. Steve Rowe is now also a sportsman. He will be competing at this year's National Transplant Games and will be working out and training towards the World Games in August 2009.

Girder Records will re-release He's Not Dead, the SinDizzy album. The reissue will have new artwork. SinDizzy was formed by Oz Fox and Tim Gaines in the nineties when Stryper disbanded. Four of the songs come from a demo Oz Fox recorded for a Stryper album that never was made.

Callisto are working on new songs. They're currently in pre-production and preparing themselves for the studio.

As I Lay Dying published a video of a live show they did on February 1st. The song is Within Destruction and the video was directed by Jerry Clubb. You can view it on Youtube:

Friday May 2nd 2008

Christian Liljegren has left metal band Narnia. He was one of the founders of the band in 1996. The decision was a mutual agreement between Christian and the rest of the band. Christian Liljegren: "I felt for a long time that I needed to take a long break and I shared this with my friends and members of Narnia. This is something I have felt since 2006 and it was a very hard desicion to make because Narnia is very big part of my life and it will always be. The others guys will continue and I will not stop them and I wish them the best of luck to continue the mission to spread the good news about Jesus Christ."

Christian Liljegren is also involved in the band Divinefire who will release their final album Farewell on June 20th.

Rock band Run Kid Run just released their new album Love At The Core. You can listen to the song Captives Come Home on myspace.

Rock band Kutless have finished their new record. To Know That You're Alive will come outo on June 24th.

Finnish metal band HB have put their new videoclip on Youtube:

As you probably know, Radio 90 FM is now a radio station that broadcasts in stereo! From now on you can hear the Art For The Ears radio show in stereo. The second ever stereo version of the show can now be downloaded. This is the April 18th 2008 show and features music from: Rob Rock, As I Lay Dying, Seventh Avenue, P.O.D., Stellar Kart, Becoming The Archetype, Thy Bleeding Skies, Incrave, Grave Declaration, Virgin Black & Fireflight.

Friday April 25th 2008

On May 19th the reissue of Hellig Usvart from Horde will come out through Metal Mind in Europe. The album is a remastered version of the 1994 album recorded by Anonymous. The digipak edition will also include three bonus tracks recorded live during Horde's one and only ever live show (in Oslo, in 2006). The reissue is limited to 2000 copies. Hellig Usvart will appear in the USA on July 8th.

The Showdown have finished recording their new album. The disc will be called Back Breaker.

Exhale is still working on their new album. The drums are already recorded.

Friday April 18th 2008

Becoming The Archetype announced that they will be entering the studio in July to record their third full length album. The band recently confirmed studio time with producer Devin Townsend and the album is tentatively titled Dichotomy.

On May 27th the new Underoath live CD and DVD Survive, Kaleidoscope will come out. The CD features twelve songs from the albums Define The Great Line and They're Only Chasing Safety performed on tour dates across the USA. The DVD is a full live set of the same songs, recorded in the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

The new P.O.D. album Where Angels & Serpents Dance entered the Billboard 200 chart in the USA at #9. The new video for Addicted debuted on MTV2. You can also view the unedited version on youtube and below:

The remastered CD reissues of three classic Joshua album are out now. Included are The Hand Is Quicker Than The Eye (1983), Surrender (1985) and Chapter One (1998). To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band's debut album The Hand Is Quicker Than The Eye, a special retrospective video for the single November Is Going Away has been posted on Imeem.

Death metal band inExordium (with three former Paramaecium members) are about to record their debut album. You can already listen to three very rough demos on their myspace.com page.

Melodic metal band Random Eyes posted the video for Living For Tomorrow on youtube:

The new Random Eyes album Invisible didn't remain invisible in their homeland Finland. The album entered the album chart at #18.

Soul Embraced have posted a new song online called The Devil's Reflection. It comes off of their upcoming album Dead Alive which is available in stores and online April 29th! Head over to their MySpace page to hear it.

Destroy The Runner have posted a new song online called Isabella's. Go to their myspace.com page to check it out. The new album I, Lucifer came out this week.

Mantric, featuring former members of Extol, will soon start the recording of their first album.

Kekal published the official music video for Narrow Avenue. This is a song from the next album:

Radio 90 FM is now a radio station that broadcasts in stereo! From now on you can hear the Art For The Ears radio show in stereo. The first ever stereo version of the show can now be downloaded. This is the April 11th 2008 show and features music from: Thousand Foot Krutch, Demon Hunter, Grave Declaration, P.O.D., xDeathstarx, Narnia, Thy Bleeding Skies, Pantokrator, Hawk Nelson, Jacobs Dream & Torman Maxt.

Friday April 11th 2008

Narnia have started recording their sixth studio album. According to the band the songs are heading into an up-tempo, aggressive but melodic direction. Narnia will be working with Fredrik Nordström   from Studio Fredman. He also worked with In Flames, Soilwork, Dimmu Borgir and lots of other bands.

On April 17th the new Jacobs Dream album Dominion Of Darkness will see the light of day. You can already download the new track Antikythra from the new Jacobs Dream website.

The Finnish metal band Venia are mixing their new album. They hope to finish this job during this month. Then they start negotiating with interested labels. Expect a few samples soon!

Chapters Of Downfall of Thy Bleeding Skies will be out on May 5th. The following day, May 6th, the French website heavylaw.com will stream the album entirely. Chapters Of Downfall will be released by Dark Balance.

This label also signed Thy Majestie. Their new album is delayed. Expect it out on July 7th. The title of the record is Dawn.

Hardcore/emocore band Life In Your Way decided to call it a day. The band will do a final tour with Burden Of A Day, Means, For Today and In Fear & Faith.

The Dutch black metal act Borgazur released their new album 2P3: Alchemists Earth Of Aeon A.C. Expect progressive black metal.

Friday April 4th 2008

Royal Anguish is recording their new CD The Grand Deception. They have eleven songs plus an intro track in mind. Interestingly, Jasper Pieterson of Morphia will make a guest appearance on the title track. This is the track list: Dawn Of The New Age; Only The Weak Survive; Please Educate me; Into The Wilderness; Thy Pale Existence; Sullen Eyes Revisited; Blood On Your Hands; Lovelorn Betrayal; Dirt At Your Feet; The Grand Deception; Demon Seed; Kindred Spirits.

Also metalcore band Norma Jean is in the studio, rehearsing songs for their next album.

The UK band Through Solace have a new EP out called The Stand. It's twenty minutes long and has six tracks. The Stand was released by Holdfast Records.

This week, Hawk Nelson released their new record Hawk Nelson...Is My Friend.

As you probably know Kyle Sweet, the wife of Stryper singer Michael Sweet, was diagnosed with cancer last year. She was cured from this disease, but now it has returned. Yesterday she started another chemo therapy. It is a new version of a trial treatment. Kyle is asking for your prayers for this treatment, for her husband and two children.