May 02, 2005

FUNERAL PROCESSION‘s cassette EP version of "Legion Cymru" has finally been released last Saturday by Intolerant Records / Canada (www.geocities.com/intolerant_records). It is limited to 333 handnumbered copies and comes with a pro-cover / tape and includes five bonustracks, among them two exclusive ones never to be available anywhere else. www.funeralprocession.net

SNAKEPIT MAGAZINE # 14 is out! Next to a bunch of very critical reviews, the new issue (as usual) features interviews with a whole bunch of classic Metal acts. This time you’ll get very in-depth features on ANVIL CHORUS (coverstory, the longest interview EVER in the entire history of SNAKEPIT!), BRATS, CRYSTAL KNIGHT, DEAF DEALER, DESTRUCTION, FATE, GUTRIX, FARSCAPE, MERCYFUL FATE, MORDRED, ONSLAUGHT, PARIAH, POSSESSED, SATAN, SLAUTER XSTROYES, SOLDIER, STRATTSON, TROUBLE, TYGERS OF PAN TANG, ZOSER MEZ and a label special on MEGAFORCE RECORDS. 92 A4-sized pages in total, photocopied, but still with a full coloured cover. European Metalheads can order a single copy for 5,-Euro / five copies for 20,-Euro (well hidden cash, no coins!) from Laurent Ramadier, La Cailloterie, 72210 Voivres Les Le Mans, France, email: snakepit2@free.fr, website: www.truemetal.org/snakepit/. US and South American readers can order a professionally printed copy (with glossy cover!) for $6 from Yosuke Konishi, P.O. Box 7055, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA. PayPal: yosukekonishi@yahoo.com, email: nuclearwarnow_prod@yahoo.com. SNAKEPIT # 15 is supposed to be out in October this year.

CELTIC FROST mainman Tom Gabriel Fischer has posted the following message at his official Blog (dated Friday, April 29th): "We recorded vocals for one of the songs for the final production demos for our new album yesterday, and we’ll continue with two more on Saturday. Martin and I have worked on a variety of lyrics for months now… and some of the lyrics even go back much further than that. I had spent weeks preparing the vocal lines at my place and then took them to our rehearsal studio to practice them in absolute solitude, but with the energy of a live performance. As has always been true for CELTIC FROST, numerous rewrites became necessary to make everything work as it must for us to be satisfied. Martin (Ain – bass) often coached me where certain lines did not yet create the feel we had both imagined. Martin has always been a most resourceful vocal producer, but never before have we collaborated so closely. There had been some in and outside of the band who had already become slightly uneasy as we are nearing the completion of the album and there had not yet been any recorded lead vocals other than those I did last year for the Ground demo and a few that Martin recorded for some of his songs. It often bemused and sometimes annoyed me. I have always worked like that, and I have no intention whatsoever of changing my approach. This is the way I write best. Although I usually pen draft lyrics almost from the minute we begin rehearsing a song, it will take still so much work until I feel in my mind that lyrics and music truly merge. Most often, my vocals are the very last item to be recorded, and not everybody is happy about that. On the other hand, never have I prepared and practiced lead vocals for a CELTIC FROST album more extensively and professionally than I do right now. Martin’s lyrics for ‘Ain Elohim’, one of our most passionate new songs, are a significant body of work. The lyrics are extensive and deep, and the song combines some four different vocal styles. I approached it with a great deal of respect and finally sang it for the first time this week. And the song and me became one almost from the first try. I was stunned and relieved. So we decided to begin the already scheduled vocal recording sessions last night with ‘Ain Elohim’. Erol (Unala – guitars) engineered, Martin produced, and I sang. I have rarely felt more comfortable during a vocal recording session, and a lot of the credit for this must go to Erol, who was so quick, efficient and precise, and who, by now, knows by heart the sound requirements to bring out my strongest performances. We finished the session late at night, Martin and I performing backing vocals. I am now looking forward very much to Saturday’s session. We’ll begin with the lead vocals for ‘No Thing Born’ and hope to complete maybe two more songs before the day is over. Maybe our enthusiastic mood was boosted by our amusement over Sparrow-Hawk’s ludicrous ten million word e-mail which we received mid-week and by my mocking of the hapless assertions contained therein. There’s nothing better than somebody else proving to your friends what you have been telling them all along. Happiness is an album without dishonesty."

TAAKE will do an exclusive concert at the upcoming Hole In The Sky festival in Bergen this summer. The line-up will be: Hoest (vocals, guitar), Lava (bass), Mord (drums) & Ivar Bjoernson (ENSLAVED, guitar).

Germany’s ASSASSIN have made their first album since their 1988 release "Interstellar Experience" (SPV) available. The new album, entitled "The Club", can currently be ordered online. Tracks on the album include: ‘Bushwackers’, ‘Go Insane’, ‘The Club’, ‘I Swear’, ‘Not With Us’, ‘The Price Of Power’, ‘Real Friends’, ‘Psycho Terror’, ‘A Whole Life In One Moment’, ‘JinTian Shen Huo (Live For Today)’, ‘Raging Mob’, ‘No Fear’ and ‘Thunder and Lightning’ (THIN LIZZY cover). For more on the band visit their website at www.assassin-online.de

The following update has been posted at the AETERNUS website (www.aeternus-darkermonument.tk) by leader Ares: "Greetz. Some news… We have gotten ourselves a new guitarist, session guitarist. He will work with us and basically be there for us when we will do gigs in the future. His name is Dreggen! "Hexaeon" is still under production, this has been a slow process and it’s sad to say it is still going slow… I will keep you updated as things progress, they ARE, but not so very fast as we all want it to. Sorry for this, I know U all wanna hear "Hexaeon", we too want it out and we wanna start making new songs too… after all… this album was recorded last summer… Ok, laters all… Thx for the patience, give us a bit more… pleez! Ares." Tracks that are set to appear on "Hexaeon", due for release through Nocturnal Art Productions, include: ‘The Darkest Of Minds’, ‘GodHead Charlatan’, ‘The 9th Revolution’, ‘In The 3rd Dwells Oblivion’, ‘Hexaeon’, ‘Punished’, ‘Ageless Void’, ‘Christbait’ and ‘What I Crave’. More details on the release as they become available.

DESTRUCTION‘s website (www.destruction.de) has been updated with the following: "Check out new Studio clip in our media section!! Watch DESTRUCTION record their new album with Peter Tägtgren and V.O. and Franky from GURD. Listen exclusively to a unmastered rough mix of one of the new songs, ‘Soulcollector’ (working title). Enjoy!" DESTRUCTION’s forthcoming new album, "Inventor Of Evil", will be released in Europe on August 15th through AFM Records. The new release will be available on CD and limited edition digi-pak CD. The band have been recording the new album with Peter Tätgtren (HYPOCRISY / PAIN), V.O. Pulver and their live engineer Franky Winkelmann. The production process is taking place at three different studios in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, and Tägtgren will mix the effort at Abyss Studios in Sweden.

CENTINEX have finished recording, mixing and mastering their new album, "World Declension", due for release in late June (exact date TBC) in North America by Candlelight America and in Europe via Cold / Regain Records. The album contains the following tracklisting: Chapter I – Visions Of Armageddon: I. ‘Victorious Dawn Rising’, II. ‘Purgatorial Overdrive’, III. ‘The Destroyer’, IV. ‘As Legions Come’, V. ‘Sworn’. Chapter II – Earth Inferno: I. ‘Synthetic Sin Zero’, II. ‘Flesh Is Fragile’, III. ‘Wretched Cut’, IV. ‘Deconstruction Macabre’. Says the band, "This is the most well-written CENTINEX album by far with everything from share brutality and speed to calmer melodic parts. Also the production turned out better than anyone could have ever imagined. So you have been warned… We have been booked for two Swedish festivals, one to take place now in May and the other in the fall."

VILE are in the final stages of recording and mixing for the upcoming release "The New Age Of Chaos". According to a band update, "We are recording the final two vocal and bass tracks right now. Mixing of the other songs is now in progress. Also artist Graal is in the process of creating the album art which should be very cool. This new CD is a sort of concept album that deals with the realities and horrors of a modern war with fundamentalist Islam. The final crusade, so to speak. Song names include titles like ‘Suicide Warfare’, ‘Burning Shrines Of Worship’, and ‘To Die In Battle’. Produced by founding member Colin Davis, you can expect the clearest and most precise recording VILE has yet obtained, but with a huge presence that helps deliver the heaviness and relentless groove that is the patented VILE sound." The tracklisting for "The New Age Of Chaos" is as follows: ‘Devour’, ‘Suicide Warfare’, ‘Ritual Decapitation’, ‘Burning Shrines Of Worship’, ‘The New Age Of Chaos’, ‘To Die In Battle’, ‘Deafening Silence’, ‘Sentenced To Live’ and ‘Ascension’. A full North American tour with DEEDS OF FLESH is being planned for October as well as a subsequent European tour in November with Danish Death Metallers, EXMORTEM.

According to Nuclear Blast Germany, Dutch Death Metallers SINISTER have been raised from the dead! "Fact is that after numerous letters and e-mails of fans around the world we reconsidered to revive the band again", states the band, "but drastic measures were needed in order to keep true to ourselves and to our fans that supported the band from the beginning." Which means that SINISTER decided to alter the line-up in an unorthodox way: Aad Kloosterwaard, drummer and founder of the band, will be the new vocalist. "This role is not new to him, since he is already handling the mic some time with his other bands BLASTCORPS and INFINITED HATE." Additionally bass player Alex Paul will switch to guitar while newcomer Paul Beltman (ex-JUDGEMENT DAY) shall be the new SINISTER drummer. A (session) bass player will be added when the band hits the road again. Plans for a new album are already at hand as well, as Alex, Aad and Paul explain: "Our vengeance to those we hate start at the end of this year when we will record our new album in the Stage One studio in Germany. The new album will be released again through Nuclear Blast Records, our brothers in crime, to whom we have the deepest respect for believing in SINISTER for all these years. As for our fans who supported us throughout the years and hopefully will again in the future!"