March 13, 2006

New Jersey’s DIM MAK, featuring former members of legendary Thrashers RIPPING CORPSE, will be releasing their Willowtip debut, "Knives Of Ice", on April 25th. The band also features drummer John Longstreth (ANGELCORPSE, ORIGIN, SKINLESS). "Knives Of Ice" features the following tracks: ‘Knives Of Ice’, ‘Seeing Crows In Silver’, ‘Great Worm Of Hell’, ‘Devil Finding Mirror’, ‘Incident At The Temple At Leng’, ‘Notorious Vectors Of Disease’, ‘Weakener’, ‘Windowpane’, ‘Perpetuating Corpses’ and ‘Monolith’. MP3’s for ‘Seeing Crows In Silver’ and ‘Incident At The Temple At Leng’ can be found at the Willowtip website and the band’s MySpace page.

Belgian Death Metallers ABORTED have posted the following message at their official website: "We’re shooting our live DVD on May 28 in La Locomotive in Paris, France at the infamous VS Fest! The DVD should be out later this year on Listenable Records. Besides this show it’ll contain live footage from this years Face Your Underground fest in Antwerp, Belgium the show in Montreal, Rouyn Noranda (SUFFOCATION tour) and more. It will also contain the videos completed by the band so far and some interviews and backstage shenanigans! The damn thing should be mixed by mastermind Tue Madsen so we’re very anxious and excited to get this one going! That’s all for now folks, see you on the road!" ABORTED will hit the studio in October with Tue Madsen. In a previous update the band says that "the songwriting is going quite smoothly, we’ve had some time to work on the road and so far everything looks very promising. We’ve got quite some cool surprises up our sleeves!"

BEHEMOTH have posted the following update at their official website explaining the cancellation of their appearance at the Atarfe Festival. The band was reportedly due to leave for Spain with Wizzar Airlines on March 10th but were not allowed to board the plane due to oversized and overweight luggage. They have issued the following statement: "This situation was simply beyond our control. Occasionally we face this kind of problems but it never really ended up like this. We are truly pissed off that we couldn’t get on that plane and were forced to cancel this festival. We haven’t really discussed it with organizers yet, but we’ll do our best to play there next year if possible. We are sending our biggest apologizes to all who showed up on March 11th in hope to see Behemoth in Spain."

CELTIC FROST are back with a reunion album called "Monotheist", and will tour North America in support of the record in the fall. Martin Ain discussed recently the title of the record and its artwork with BW&BK: "Monotheist" grew over a certain period as a title; we were looking for a title. We came up with "Dark Matter Manifest", which was a working title, because we basically knew everybody was wondering what it was going to be called and we wanted that out of the way so we could really focus on what we wanted to do. And with the writing process progressing, we realized that a lot of songs are about faith, believe, and religion as well – from a personal point of view and from a general point of view. So I think that struck us as a central theme of the album. "Monotheist" as a title, is a strong word to begin with, and it’s got a musical connection, mono / stereo. But that’s just on the side. It’s really about the belief in one god from a human point of view – the person who believes in one god, that’s a monotheist. It’s not the one god itself though, it’s the person. And of course, it could be anybody, it could be Judaism, Christianity, Islam. You could even say it could be Satanism if you want to; they all believe in one god. We don’t put the finger on one entity, on one specific god; we leave it open and it leaves it personal. The cover art. we’re coming out with three different releases, right? A jewel case, a digipak, and a double gatefold vinyl. And what you’ve got here is basically the front cover, the face of an entire body of work that will follow the digipak and the gatefold vinyl and the promotional material as well. It’s part of a larger artwork. We wanted to focus on the human side, the personal side. You have this face, it’s kind of like a death face, a death mask, but again, a bit more sophisticated. But it is the basic, ‘Only death is real’ slogan that we’ve had since the start. We think that death is the transcendent moment in every human’s existence, which gives the need for a god in the first place." "Monotheist" will be released on May 29th Europe and May 30th in North America via Century Media. The album will be released in three different configurations including a limited-edition digipak containing the bonus track ‘Temple Of Depression’ and a vinyl LP with another bonus title, ‘Incantation Against You’. The album features 11 songs all produced by the band with Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY / PAIN).

Oakland Thrashers DEFIANCE, best known for their seminal late 80s / early 90s Roadrunner releases "Void Terra Firma" and "Beyond Recognition", have inked a deal with LA based Corporate Punishment Records, who will release the group’s as-yet-untitled fourth LP in late 2006. Part of the so-called "second wave" of Bay Area Thrash (which also included the likes of FORBIDDEN, VIO-LENCE, DEATH ANGEL, and TESTAMENT), Defiance officially disbanded in 1993, after the departure of vocalist Steev Esquivel (who would go on to form SKINLAB, and later RE:IGNITION), while the remaining members, with the addition of vocalist Dave Godfrey White (HEATHEN), formed INNER THRESHOLD, which would also eventually disband. In 2005, rumors of a reformed DEFIANCE sent waves of interest through the burgeoning Thrash Metal community, until it was finally confirmed that the band had in fact reunited and were at work on their first new material in over a decade. "I’m really stoked to be playing with DEFIANCE again", says guitarist Jim Adams, "We have been working on some new songs and ideas that are really heavy and complex. We are not moving away from the Bay Area Thrash style that people will expect to hear from us, no detuning or anything like that. We are writing pure straight forward Thrash Metal." Bassist / founder Mike Kauffman adds, "We’ve been working hard at writing new songs and we’re all looking forward to working with Corporate Punishment. We hold ourselves to a very high standard when it comes to songwriting and I’m sure our fans will not be disappointed." In addition to the classic line-up of Doug Harrington (guitars), Jim Adams (guitars), Mike Kaufmann (bass) and vocalist Steev Esquivel, the LP will also feature (ex VIO-LENCE, TORQUE) drummer Mark Hernandez. The band is set to enter Trident Studios in Concord, CA with producer Juan Urteaga (EXODUS, SKINLAB, VILE) this summer to begin work on the album. Upon completion of the LP, the band is looking forward to playing selected shows and festivals. In addition to the new LP, CPR will also release the bands first long-form DVD, "Decade(s) Of Defiance", compiling hours of live performance, interview and archival footage chronicling their nearly 20 years of existence.

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