MALEVOLENT CREATION will return to Europe in 2005. They will be playing France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Iceland in March and the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic in April. Interested promoters should contact First Contact Agency at ae@firstcontactagency.com while some dates are still open. For further info check out www.malevolentcreation.cjb.net
PANDEMIA‘s third full-length "Riven" is recorded and mixed and scheduled to be released within Latin America in January through Hurling Metal (in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay) and Hybrid Music (in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela). Rawforce Productions will put it out in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Central America. Check out www.deathrowproductions.com for South American tour dates in 2005.
REQUIEM AETERNAM (www.requiem-aeternam.com) have played their debut gig on December 21 at NYC’s CBGB club. It was the first show with the new line-up (Jose Romero – guitars and vocals, Maciej Kupiszewski – bass and ex – IMMOLATION member Alex Hernandez – drums. The show was filmed and is going to be used for the ‘Wisdom’ video clip. Rawforce Productions has postponed the "Philosopher" South American release to January 15th, due to printing delays.
THORNAFIRE‘s debut album is currently being finished in Santiago’s Sade Studios with the band’s new drummer Juan Pablo Donoso producing. "Exacerbated Gnostic Manifestation" will be released by Ibex Moon Records in February / March. A tour of Chile and some shows in Brazil are planned for next autumn / winter. More info at: www.thornafire.cl
AURORA BOREALIS have started working on their fifth CD. Tony Laureano (Nile, Dimmu Borgir, Angel Corpse) will be drumming as well as collaborating on writing of the new material. Tony already played on the very first Aurora Borealis CD in 1996. The band will start recording on January 31, 2005 at Nightsky Studios. Interested labels etc. should contact Ron Vento at aurora4dth@aol.com
Legendary Black Metal band, DARKTHRONE, nominated in the Metal category for the highly coveted Norwegian Alarm Awards last Wednesday, has now been removed from the list of nominees. Darkthrone, one of five candidates in the Metal category for their outstanding album, "Sardonic Wrath", communicated their dissatisfaction at being nominated in an article published in Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten the day after the selected names were released to the public. "We play real and honest Black Metal", drummer Fenriz commented in the article. "And we have no interest in being part of the glitter and showbiz side of the music industry." Alarm Awards’ chief, Svein Bjørge was surprised by the band’s reaction but hasted to find a solution that culminated in the band’s elimination from the category altogether. On hearing the news that their wish had been granted, Fenriz commented – "I just wanted to say my piece about the whole Alarm nomination thing last week and whether they kept us in or not would have been no skin off my nose." "I have everything AGAINST awards for Black Metal", Nocturno Culto added. "What a fucking circus this has become." "I am not against awards in general", Fenriz concluded. "I just thought it was not for us."
FUNERAL PROCESSION are looking for a new session-drummer. He should musically be skilled and ideologically stable, especially for upcoming live shows, but also for new recordings (both scheduled for late winter / early spring 2005). Ole, who had been playing with them since 2002, decided to leave FUNERAL PROCESSION as he was no longer able to cope with the band timewise because of his studies and his main priority Hagal. www.funeralprocession.net
DEVILYN‘s new album "11" is set to be released after the first of the new year. Longstanding member, Bony, offers his opinions on the forthcoming disc: "After a few years, we return with an album that starts a new chapter in band’s history. After all that time, I managed to recreate DEVILYN, with people who perfectly understand my concept / conviction. We managed to bring all my visions to life. I think it’s exactly what I always wanted DEVILYN’s music to be like, and I find this material to be the best of all our albums. Words like dynamic, brutality, intensity and technique are not enough to describe "11". For me, it’s like turning to a different space of Death Metal. First of all, everything’s clear and much more understandable. We made a lot of changes in sound. Drums are very strong and clear, and Domin plays very fast. Guitars are really heavy and clear as well, due to Erian’s feel and Cyprian’s professionalism. The technical skills of Michal are first rate and the lyrics Tolovy wrote are easy to hear and understand. We’re completely satisfied with all we did during such a short recording session. We are proud of this album. It’s our own masterpiece." For more information on the band go to www.devilyn.metalkings.com.
Norwegian Black Metallers CARPATHIAN FOREST have issued the following update: "The Carpathian bastards are finally ready for the road again for a full European headliner tour – the first full tour since the 2001 tour with BEHEMOTH. With more than 50 classic CF Black Metal songs to choose from, the band have rehearsed a new live set featuring several old CF live classics as well as brand-new-never-played-live-before songs for the upcoming The Art Of Provocation 2005 world tour! The band is also very pleased to announce the return of Vrangsinn on bass!"
ANVIL‘s next release will be their 13th studio album. They may be calling it "This Is Thirteen", or TIT for short. They plan on having 13 songs on the CD and the cover will be a superstitious theme, as in a broken mirror, black cat and the anvil under a ladder.
According to cnn.com, ex – PANTERA / DAMAGEPLAN guitarist Dimebag Darrell was shot during a show in Columbus, Ohio. Here’s the entire report: A gunman opened fire Wednesday night during a heavy metal concert in Columbus, killing four people — including at least one member of the band — and critically wounding at least two others before a police officer shot and killed him, according to Columbus police. The attacker leapt onstage as the group, Damageplan, performed, and began "targeting members in the band," Sgt. Brent Mull said. Two others were injured in the incident, although the nature of their injuries was not clear. According to eyewitness accounts, the gunman initially shot and killed the band’s guitarist, Dimebag Darrell. Darrell, 38, and his brother, Vinnie Paul, 40, are former members of Pantera — a group they formed in the 1980s. Their father is Jerry Abbott, a country and western songwriter and producer. Police were notified of the shooting at the Alrosa Villa nightclub on the city’s north end around 10:18 p.m. ET, Mull said. A uniformed police officer who was in the area slipped into the venue from a back entrance, confronted the gunman during the rampage and killed him. "If not for the officer who showed up, there would have been more dead," Mull said. Police have roped off a huge area of the nightclub’s parking lot, as 60 detectives question hundreds of witnesses. Police have brought in buses to keep the witnesses warm as they wait to be questioned. Calvin Bota said he saw the shooting from the mosh pit right in front of the stage, shortly after the band began playing. "Somebody came — I don’t know where they came from, out of the audience or whatnot — but they come onto (the) stage and… he shot the guitarist at first, fired a couple of other shots and then he hid behind the stage a little bit," Bota told WSYX. "Everybody started scattering, you know, there’s mayhem everywhere. And then a police officer came into the building, you know, came in professional with his gun raised and then he proceeded to shoot the guy." Gerald Caudill told WSYX the gunman shot the guitarist at least four times. "I was up close to the stage and I just saw some guy run up on the side of the stage and I heard some shots and I saw (drummer) Vinnie Paul and somebody jumped on top of Vinnie, and the guy just stayed around the stage and started shooting other people," Caudill said. "I saw wounded people all over the place, out in the parking lot, inside," he said. "It just didn’t sound like gunshots or anything, it didn’t occur to me that something like that was happening."
According to www.blabbermouth.net former TIAMAT touring keyboardist P.A. Danielsson was killed in a single-car accident in Italy last Friday (Nov. 26). He was 35 years old. In addition to touring with TIAMAT, Danielsson helped write the early LION’S SHARE songs ‘Sins Of A Father’ and ‘Scarecrow’, and played on several LION’S SHARE demos around 1993. Danielsson had also recorded with VENI DOMINE in the early ’90s. Rest in peace!
German Black Metallers FUNERAL PROCESSION have finally returned from the studio and finished the recordings of their new EP "Legion Cymru", which will be released as a 7" (on Nightfog Productions), MCD (on Millennial Visions) and MC with several bonustracks (on Intolerant Rekords). 7" and MCD are scheduled for a late 2004 / early 2005 release (the MC should follow shortly after in the first quarter of 2005). The band has recorded the following six tracks: ‘Of A World Hidden By Nocturnity’, ‘For A Journey (Pt. II)’ and ‘Warriors Of Fullmoon (Legion)’ (which will all appear on the 7"), ‘Longing For Apocalypse’, ‘Christ Fire (VON)’ and ‘Lost In The Cursed Forest Of Olde…’ (an exclusive recording for the upcoming Millennial Visions CD-R compilation "Albania Is The Future"). All songs were recorded and mixed by Dirk (Hagal) and Satyrus Sancti in April, September – November 2004 in Kargewelten Studio Hamburg and Laubhaus Studio Beentsteek. The coverartwork has been done exclusively by G. Bakker-Bents. The "Albania Is The Future" compilation is dedicated to the old spirit of the Black / Death Metal underground. Other bands participating here will be Hagal, Fornost, Erhabenheit and couple of other international bands. Since the American label that released the "Visions… – A Tribute To Burzum" compilation never stood to the words given, the band has decided to give that song a re-release on the forthcoming BURZUM tribute through the German label Perverted Taste. Other bands appearing on the new tribute album will be: Kältetod, Frozen Shadows and Forefather. The last copies of the limited t-shirt that Nightfog released earlier this year are still available. For pictures of the shirt please check out the Nightfog Productions website http://nightfog.cjb.net. Final copies of the "Solar Eclipse" demo (released in October 2002) are also still available. And if that was not enough, Count Gothmog has worked together with Alboin from German band Eismalsott, who luckily abandoned their contract with a certain German label, on a cover of Bathory’s ‘The Woodwoman’ (originally on "Blood On Ice") to be featured on the upcoming tribute album by the Swedish label Total Holocaust Records. Other bands participating here will be Funeral Winds, Moontower or Macabre Omen. Since this is a collaboration, the cover will be released under the name of THE LONESOME PROCESSION. There are rumours that FUNERAL PROCESSION will perform on January 22, 2005 in Leer, Germany. While there are plans that the band will return to the stage in 2005, this date is definitely untrue. The current FUNERAL PROCESSION line-up reads as follows: Count Gothmog – bass and vocals, Duke Hellfire – guitars, Ole – drums and Satyrus Sancti – synths and programming. For more info, check out: www.funeralprocession.net