Friday September 29th 2000
Producer for Gryp's upcoming EP release is Stoker. He
has worked with artists such as Sting, Ice Cube and The Prodigy. There is currently no
release date.
Society's Finest are in the
process of writing new songs and start
recording for a split full length on Goodfellow Records as part of "he Difference
Between Us series.
Chris from Born Blind has left the band to pursue
other things. The band is currently auditioning a new bass player and adding a second
guitar player.
The guys in Lengsel are currently working on
new material as well as completing their line up.
Friday
September 22nd 2000
Farmclub.com, an
American Internet show has a contest where bands can be voted in to played and maybe
appear on their show. One of the bands participating is Cough. If you want to vote for them,
go here!
Michael Sweet and Restless Records
have decided to delay the release of Truth. Explanation given for this extra delay is that
the original release date of October 10th was an unhappy one as there are over 350 other
mainstream releases that month. To avoid that the record gets lost in the shuffle the
release will be later. Good news from the Michael Sweet camp is that there are some shows
being confirmed for November/December and there will be a tour next year.
Rob Rock, one of the most distinct
voices of the rock scene is releasing his solo debut Rage Of Creation via Massacre Records on October
20th, on which the former Impellitteri
and M.A.R.S. frontman is presenting himself in top form and is serving eleven songs of
high class melodic powermetal.
The New Bride CD, Fist Full Of Bees is coming.
It is important for Absolute Records, Bride, and their producer Plinky Giglio, to produce
and release the very best Bride CD of all times. Bride is actually still working on the
project:
"We realize this has been a long time coming but we know this extended work
will make the CD well worth the wait." The actual release date has been moved to
January 2001.
Selfmindead is currently
writing new material for their third record. There will be a European tour this Fall and
Winter.
Disciple's By God is ready containing
22 songs and 78 minutes of heaviness. By God is the follow-up to This Might Sting A
Little, which earned two
nominations each from the Inspiration Life 2000 and the Dove Awards.
Here's a bit of old
news: Rowe Productions
announced the signing of Biogenesis. According to the record label you will hear musical
influences from Tourniquet, Deliverance and even Saviour Machine as well as a healthy dose
of growling death metal. Look for their full length album in the spring. A five song EP
will soon be available through Rowe Productions.
Friday
September 15th 2000
Gnashing Of Teeth has been
spending some time on some new material for the next album. They hope to have some
of the new material ready for their upcoming shows.
Antithesis will be headed into
the studio October 16-25 to lay tracks
for (and hopefully finish) their new CD.The album, Dying For Life, will not be ready for
release until after February 2001. Antithesis is also planning on releasing a full-length
(approximately 120 minutes) video with clips and live performances from the past 2 years.
If all goes well, they will also have a professionally done video for Netherworld included
on the tape.
Friday
September 8th 2000
Mortification is staying busy
with working on their new album. They have finished up the tracking and are now mixing and
mastering. The title of the early 2001 release is The Silver Cord Is Severed. Steve Rowe:
"The Silver Cord Is Severed is again a reinvention of our combination of extreme
metal sounds.Our new drummer, Adam Zaffarese, joined the band when he was just 15 years
old, which makes him 20 years younger than me. He has been playing drums for 10 years.
Kate and I used to look after him and his little brothers when he was my
son's age. He was playing drums back then. He is the eldest son of Rosanna's Raiders
drummer Johno Zaffarese. Rosanna's Raiders was signed to Refuge/Pure Metal at the
same time my old band Lightforce was in the late 80's. I started playing Christian metal
when Adam was born." In June, July and August of next year the bands hopes to
tour the world, going from Australia to South Africa, Europe, USA and South America. It
will be ten weeks on tour doing fifty shows.
There are some
releases coming up from Rowe
Productions. Look out for reissues of Mortification's Break the Curse 1990, Lightforce
1986 To1989, Biogenesis debut album The Mark Bleeds Through, Ubiquitous debut album and
Southern Extremities, the Brazilian Metal Compilation!
The European release
date for Rob Rock's solo album Rage
Of Creation is November 13th 2000. The record is taken up by Massacre Records.
The rumors are
indeed not true. Zao
is still together. In a matter of weeks the band will enter to studio to record their
follow up of Liberate Te Ex Inferis. They also plan a small tour in October.
Kris McCaddon, one
of Embodyment's
guitar players, recently left the band to pursue a graphic design job in Los Angeles, USA.
MP3.com and Metal Blade Records USA have joined
forces to launch Metal Search 2000, the first-of-its-kind online talent search that will
award one hard-working MP3.com metal artist a chance to join the roster of Metal Blade.
Artists will enter by submitting their artist page to be judged by the Metal
Blade A&R staff in four categories: Creativity, Originality, Presentation and
Marketing. Detailed descriptions of these categories can be found in the Official Rules.
The categories of Creativity and Originality are as straight forward as they sound. Your
Presentation will be judged on the grounds of
creative use and design of your Artist page. The category of Marketing, or
self-promotion skills, will be gauged by polls, charts and message board
activity.We will be posting two finalists each week on the Metal Search 2000
Contest page, where fans and the MP3.com metal community can vote on their
current favorite. So, if indeed you think you have what it takes (and more
importantly you can get others to agree with you), this is the golden opportunity
you've been looking for. To be eligible to win, you must have at least one song
listed in a metal subgenre and all members of the band must be over 18 and live in the
United States or Canada, excluding Quebec.
Further Seems
Forever is in the studio with James Wisner putting their Tooth & Nail debut to tape.
Look for that album in the first quarter of 2001.
Blenderhead is recording their 3rd
album Figureheads On The Forefront Of Pop Culture starting September 30th with Kip Beelman
(Damien Jurado, Unwound) at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle. That record will hit stores on
December 5th 2000.
Other upcoming Tooth
& Nail releases are: Element 101
- Stereo Girl; The Dingees - Work For
The Crucial Conspiracy; Craig's
Brother - Glory; The Deluxtone Rockets - Green Room Blues; Puller - What's Mine At Twilight. The
internet only release of Ninety Pound Wuss' Hierarchy Of Snakes live album will probably
be before year's end.
The Dutch
atmospheric doom metal band Morphia
is still look for a singer. If you have a nice grunt, contact them.
Stavesacre has been confirmed to
perform at the industry party for Action Sports Retailing's trade show in Atlantic City,
USA on September
20th. The industry party will feature roughly 500 of the most prominent
product manufacturers and retailers in the business. The event will take place at
the Rock Bar at 6:00 PM, and is being sponsored by Volcom Entertainment in
conjunction with the ASR Trade Expo. More information can be found at ASR Biz
Friday
September 1st 2000
Finally, the
long-awaited CD version of Kekal's
latest album Embrace The Dead is out now. As they only have few copies of this CD, they
won't be placed in their merchandise list page on their web site. If you want to order a
copy or more just drop them an e-mail and they will let you know more about it.The band is
also been busy preparing the tracks that will be taken to their next CD project, the
collection of their non-album tracks including their out-of-print 95/96 demo Contra
Spiritualia Nequitiae, previously unreleased tracks, demo/rehearsal tracks, remixes, some
newly recorded songs, and a cover song (probably from Trouble). The CD is planned to be
released by the end of 2000 or early next year. The interesting part is that it will have
industrial remixes (altered versions) of the three tracks from Embrace The Dead album,
done by a well-respected Indonesian industrial/electronic rock band Koil. Kekal's
guitarist Jeff is still working the production for his side band's (Excision) debut
full-length album. The musical direction of his new material is nothing similar to Kekal.
It's more mood-oriented rock/metal.
Born Blind have been throwing around
the idea of getting a second guitar
player. If you're interested, contact the band.
Spoken will have a new record out in
the stores on October 3rd 2000 entitled Echoes Of The Spirit Still Dwell. According to the
band, this new record will bring Spoken to an all new level songwriting and a more
developed sound. Furthermore, they will be touring this fall with their new
lablemates, Travail. And also Travail will launch a new record. This album is
titled Beautiful Loneliness and it will hit the stores on September 19th 2000.
US power metal
upstarts Jacob's Dream
have completed the writing process for their new record. The new album will be entitled
Third Way. Tracks include Theater Of War, Critical Mass, Third Way, Sanctuary, Traces Of
Grace, Magic Garden and Runda Pigs. Recording will begin after their tour of Europe with
labelmates Armored Saint.
POD and crew flew to Los Angeles
to start recording the lead track for Adam Sandler's new movie, Little Nicky. POD will
record with ground-breaking producer Rick Rubin, known for his work with Beastie
Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Public Enemy, and Slayer. During the recording session, Adam
Sandler is scheduled to come by and hang out with the boys. Sandler is reportedly a
huge fan of POD and was instrumental in getting them to record for his movie. Other news
from POD. Their TRL campaign continues with a new goal stated as: "How great would it
be for the Warrior voice to be
stamped in time in the MTV TRL Hall of Fame?!" A video makes the Hall of Fame by
staying on the countdown for 12 weeks. POD are less than 5 weeks away, but it will
require the daily support of Vote for Rock The Party through MTV. Click Play My
Song and vote for their song. It's easy.
In the new Guitar World there's a twelve pages
long article on Christian Rock. The thing is called: "Stryper be damned! POD,
Project 86, Tourniquet and Atomic Opera are the new leaders of the Christian rock
movement."
Now back in Denmark Glorybox is preparing
themselfs to record some new songs.
Following the
success of 1998's classic album Clone, Threshold
are currently working on their fifth studio album due for release early in 2001. The album
is expect to be around 60 minutes long containing nine songs, including The Rravages of
Time, Light And Space, Oceanbound, Sheltering Sky, Long way Home, Keep My Head and
Narcissus. The band line-up will be the same as on the 1999 European tour, namely Mac
(vocals), Karl Groom (guitars), Nick Midson (guitars), Jon Jeary (bass), Richard West
(keyboards) and Johanne James (drums). After four studio albums Threshold have now parted
company with UK record label GEP Records. The band are currently talking to other labels
and are confident of a positive announcement soon. The move away from GEP had been
expected for a while, so that the new album could be released by a more prominent label
with a stronger stance in the metal music market.
Friday
August 25th 2000
Gryp is in the process of recording a new
EP and will be taking the next
several months off of touring to complete it.
Help Gryp play live
on TV. Vote for Gryp on the Farm
Club. Go here and click on the red arrow that says Put This On TV.
You might wonder why
it takes so long for Lightmare to
release the anticipated follow-up of The Fool. As the band announced a new album last year
it seems high time for a new recording to be released. However, vocalist Timon Schreiber
has this to report about the current state of the band: "All members of Lightmare
have found their interests in other things than the band. It´s a pity to say this but at
this time my hope that Lightmare will go on has decreased to a minimum. Whatever, there´s
still a little hope left, and if ever Lightmare stands up again it will be another
Lightmare."
On 2nd of June Crestfall recorded four songs.
The songs will be released on both CD and MP3. Crestfall is a Dutch progressive metal that
started out as But Dust. They changed their name recently to Crestfall as some members of
the band weren't happy with the old name. On the band's website you can hear some of their
upcoming material.
MxPx's Want Ad is on the new Real World
soundtrack (Hollywood Records).All the tracks were selected by the New Orleans cast
members as songs and artists that had special meaning to them personally. The song was
picked by XXXX, who on this last weeks episode mentioned that the first time he saw a low
rider bicycle was in their video as he was unpacking his from a box.
At this moment Slechtvalk
is still working on the artwork of the debut album Falconry. The release of this Dutch
black metal project is expected on September 16th. The artwork was designed by Many
Lehtinen of Deuteronomium. Fear Dark will be releasing Falconry. If you want to hear some
sounds of the album, go here. Note however that this is a temporary site. A new site will be
opened soon.
Midnight Orchestra just
released its new album. Title is Digital Saviour. As you may know, Midnight Orchestra is
the band of Mick Rowe, brother of Jamie Rowe of Guardian fame. Jamie and
Mick were both part of metalband Tempest in the eighties.
As some of you
already know, Rob Rock is out of Impellitteri. New singer for
the band is Graham Bonnet. Graham sang for Impellitteri on the classic Stand In Line CD.
Sweden's Laudamus are writing new material for
the next album. They have started preproduction and contacted some producers. Three
demos are already recorded.
Value Pac has a song on a new Refuge
compilation CD. The Refuge is a non-profit organization in South Florida that feeds the
homeless and puts on shows.The organization is currently looking for a new building. The
compilation is a benefit CD to help out the Refuge and it includes tracks from Slick Shoes, Five Iron Frenzy,
Smiley Kids plus others. To get all the info and order your copy go to Rebelbase Records.
Other Value Pac news: Drummer Jason Feltman is now the newest member of the band.
You may recognize Feltman from hitting the skins for other bands such as the Dingees,
Fanmail and the Deluxtone Rockets among others. Value Pac's new album Incognito is
available through Four Door only.
Nashville based
booking agency Flipside Entertainment has begun working with Kaluboné Records artists Oil and Normandy.
The company is currently accepting bookings for both artists and can be
contacted at (615) 884-8721 (Jason Fowler) or flipsideent@hotmail.com
Steel Prophet
finished the recording of The Book Of The Dead. The band will tour in the weeks to come
with Lefay, Stormhammer and Angel Dust in Europe.
Wednesday
August 16th 2000
Due to computer
problems I couldn't add news the last two weeks. But here's some news after all:
The new Narnia has been delayed due to
computer problems too. The band will release their third CD in Japan in December and
probably around February next year in Europe. Narnia also recorded their version of Uriah
Heep's Sunrise for the Uriah Heep Tribute Album.
The band known as
Supershine are ready to unleash their debut on September 12th 2000. In case you have
forgotten, it features the vocals of King's X frontman Doug Pinnick and the unmistakable guitar prowess of
Trouble’s Bruce Franklin.
Atomic Opera’s Frank Hart will
be featured in an upcoming issue of GuitarPlayer on contemporary Christian metal.
Sickened is a new extreme deathmetal
band which line-up includes Mitch Reese (guitarist of Oblation), Alan Tregoning (bassist
of Oblation and owner of Cross Rhythms Music) and drummer Dave Campbell (drummer of
Obliteration/Deathlist). The band hopes to have a recording done by this summer
which will be recorded at Premiere Studio, the place of Kirk Campbell (Eternal Decision).
Due to personal
circumstances Manu Lehtinen of Little Rose Productions has been ordered a disability
vacation. Since Manu Lehtinen is the only person working for Little Rose it means that
future releases will probably be delayed. If you want to order CD's through Little
Rose Productions realize that it might take a little while longer than usual so it's
recommended to wait till everything works in due order again. I'll keep you posted.
If you have been
wondering how Stairway
is doing: According to guitarist/vocalist Graeme Leslie the members are enjoying their
vacations: "Upon all of our returns, we shall be getting down to some rehearsing and
working on new material for the next Stairway album. Bleeding Heart is still creating
interest in new places which is good news for the band and also for Hard Rock in
general."
Friday
August 4th 2000
The new Disciple CD is coming soon. The album
By God will be released on September 20th. The band shot a video for the song Not
Rockstars and will do a special 48 Hours On The Road With Disciple this weekend. |
