March 19, 2008
Iron Kodex Records have announced the signing of Sweden’s traditional Metal hopefuls PORTRAIT and the release of the band’s self-titled debut album on April 3rd 2008. The album will feature eight songs of highly energetic traditional Metal in the vein of bands like SAVAGE, MERCYFUL FATE, early IRON MAIDEN and WITCHCROSS and come with an exclusive cover artwork by renowned Bulgarian artist Dimitar Nikolov. Founding member Christian Lindell on the debut album: "If our previous stuff sounded more like Sledgehammer, you can compare our new album a lot more with Iron Maiden. As a whole the album is more worked-through. We paid more attention to the fine-tuning of the songs. Some of the tracks, ‘Hell’ and ‘A Thousand Nightmares’ are faster than our previous material. Both tracks remind more of BATHORY or MOTÖRHEAD than anything we did earlier… with a very Danish touch, though, in the vein of WITCHCROSS, EVIL, KIM SIXX… In some places we have acoustic guitars and one long, epic piece titled ‘The Adversary’. You will definitely be able to recognize, that you’re listening to PORTRAIT, but you will also find things, which differ from our earlier material." Two songs of the new album have been made available on the label’s myspace site: www.myspace.com/ironkodex
SHINING will enter the Slaughterhouse once again on April 28 in order to record the new album "Tillbaka På Ruta Ett". It will feature 6 songs (as usual), performed by 6 different vocalists.
Sweden’s NOMINON have a new live 7" EP out, entitled "Legiões Em Portugal". It features live versions of the tracks ‘Hordes Of Flies’ and ‘Condemned To Die’, recorded in Portugal at Colinas Bar, Branca a couple of years ago when the band toured Europe with VITAL REMAINS. The cover art was made by Abboth Intoxication (who previously had been doing art for INCINERATOR as well as a few other acts) and it has been released througfh Badger Records from Holland. It comes with an inlay and a sticker (if they will arrive in time). The sound was originally mixed by Locke and mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound Studios. In related news NOMINON will go to the USA in July for the first time ever. The band has already been confirmed for the Central Illinois Metalfest in Urbana, IL and the Michigan Extreme Fest 2 in Kalamazoo, MI. NOMINON will most likely be doing a two week tour over there including these two festival appearances between July 9th and July 21st. Updates will be posted at their official website www.nominon.com as soon as there’s further dates to announce. They are also negotiating with a booking agency here in Europe at the moment about joining two of the most gigantic old school bands out there when they will be touring Europe during September / October. Besides all this NOMINON are working on some new material, and for now have a couple of new demo-songs recorded. The plan is to record the 4th NOMINON album early next year, as this year the band will concentrate on playing live and touring. Other possible happenings during 2008 is a DVD release to celebrate the 15th years of existence as a band. Early March a show was recorded with a couple of cameras in Holland at Stadijk, Nijmegen.