January 31, 2005
Neurotic Records recently acquired the rights of VISCERAL BLEEDING‘s debut album "Remnants Of Deprivation". It will be re-issued under the name "Remnants Revived" with three bonus audio tracks (covers of Cannibal Corpse’s ‘Stripped, Raped & Strangled’, Dismember’s "Dreaming In Red" and an alternate version of the band’s own song ‘Carved Down To The Bone’) and four video tracks (one studio clip and three live tracks recorded during their recent successful tour with Obituary). The release will be remastered by Scott Hull (Nile, Suffocation, Pig Destroyer a.o.) and issued as a digipak on April 18, 2005. www.neurotic-records.com
LOCK UP‘s live album, "Live In Japan", will be released in Japan on March 24th. The material for the album was recorded live in Japan in 2003. LOCK UP features NAPALM DEATH bassist Shane Embury and guitarist Jesse Pintado, DIMMU BORGIR drummer Nick Barker and ex-AT THE GATES / ex – CROWN / THE GREAT DECEIVER screamer Tomas "Tompa" Lindberg.
According to a posting at the official THYRANE website (www.thyrane.org), guitarist Avather has left the band for personal reasons. Says the band, "Thanks for those eight years of drunk’n blasphemy. Cheers. Blastmor, Daemon, Hannamari and ToniX." The band have not yet announced who Avather’s replacement will be. Stay tuned.
BLOODBATH have posted the following message at their official website: "The time has finally come for BLOODBATH to invade the stage and debut as a live band. We have chosen this extraordinary moment to be fired off at the European Metal festival – Wacken Open Air (scheduled to take place August 4th – 6th, 2005 in Wacken, Germany)! However, we’re facing some changes in the band’s line-up and will confirm the actual performing members asap, so please be patient for further announcements. Also, to be taken into account is that this gig will be worldwide exclusive for 2005 (and who knows… perhaps even beyond that!?), so this is your best shot to rush that stage and bang your heads with us! Details on exact date / playing time tba."
NILE guitarist / vocalist Karl Sanders has posted the following recording update at the band’s official website: "We finished the guitar, bass, vocal and additional instrument tracking at the soundlab in Columbia, SC with Neil Kernon and Bob Moore. It was an utterly grueling session, with every single day of those 2 1/2 weeks being a 14-16 hour working frenzy. The next phase will be to start mixing on Friday at Rax Trax in Chicago. We have 10 days scheduled there with Neil Kernon mixing / producing. Based on what we have heard from the recordings so far, this is easily our strongest work yet. There are 10 songs as well as 2 reasonably short intro / instrumentals, with total album time weighing in at a pre-mix length of 65 minutes. We are seriously intense about these new songs, and can’t wait for people to hear them. Be prepared to be crushed."
US Death Metallers THE CHASM have posted the following message at their official website: "The first part of the "Spell Of Death" tour has been completed, the experience was very succesful and positive. We like to thank all those believers of the Cult Of Death and UG Death Metal who attended the shows, it was great to meet some new and old comrades on the road. Also thanks to MORTICIAN, FUNERUS, INCANTATION and ARSIS, for sharing equipment / stage and being great tour mates. Once again we couldn’t play Long Island NY – the show was cancelled due to the bad weather conditions, but we hope to be there later this year. For now we will take a small break and then start planning the 2nd part of this crusade, meanwhile we’ll also start working on new songs and ideas for the new opus attack. Honorable mention to Roberto Lizarraga for doing a killer job in the 4 string attack duties, as well as to Earache / Wicked World for the tour support. New live photos have been added here."
EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt has posted the following update in the forum at the band’s official website: "We have a new singer! I’d like to take this moment to welcome to our ranks Rob Dukes as our new vocalist. He has been absolutely crushing in practice and only gets stronger every day. I know some of you will want details, i.e. what bands has he been in, etc., but I’ll have to get back to you on that one. I’ve heard some of his old demo stuff, but he is a virtual unknown. But he is going to blow people’s minds. He does incredible justice to both Paul and Zetro’s material but when you hear the new shit you won’t believe your ears. Totally crushing! To all who sent in their demos and such I’d like to thank each and every one of you for taking the time. But now our search is over. Rob just happened to end up my guitar tech for the MEGADETH tour after things didn’t work out with my first tech. Rob was refered to me by a friend at the Hollywood show and the rest is history. Divine intervention if you will! We will be recording some demos of a few new songs next week and if everything stays on track, we will be in the studio recording the next album in April."
SEVERE TORTURE have posted the following udate at their website: "We just got the news that our final Karmageddon Media release has been delayed. "Bloodletting" will be released on March 28 instead of February 7. This release is NOT our new album, which we are recording right now, but a live album with some bonus material."