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SATAN’S HOST are currently at Flatline Audio with producer Dave Otero working on the band’s ninth studio album "By The Hands Of The Devil", to be released next year by Moribund Records. With the departure of vocalist Eli Elixir and the return of Leviathan Thisiren (priobably better known as Harry Conklin of JAG PANZER and TITAN FORCE), the band has recently performed in Germany at the Keep True Festival and has done some local Colorado shows to prepare for the new album. Guitarist Patrick Evil commented: "I think this will be our greatest album to date. Our ninth release for our 25th aniversary – how much better can it get than that?" For more info check out www.myspace.com/satanshost
KAM LEE (ex – Mantas / Death, ex – MASSACRE, ex – DENIAL FIEND), currently involved in BONE GNAWER, THE GROTESQUERY, BROKEN GRAVESTONES, GRAVE WAX and CRYPTIDZ will be staring in the upcoming horror ultra gore film "Deep Seeded". The movie is written and directed by Brian Troxell and produced by Caisson Films. Kam will be playing a psycho serial killer named Brad. The casting has already been completed and the film is scheduled to go into production this late fall. It will also include music from BONE GNAWER. A teaser trailer is already online at this location. More about the film you’ll find at www.myspace.com/deepseededthemovie or www.myspace.com/caissonfilms
HAIL OF BULLETS have finished the recordings for their second full-length to be released this October. Drummer Ed Warby: "I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard on anything in my entire life, but it sure has paid off! Although "Of Frost And War" is a tough act to follow, my ringing ears tell me we’ve succeeded in besting it on every level: songs, playing, production…at the moment Dan Swanö is putting the final touches on a mix that could squash a tank, and then it’s off to the pressing plant! All the main ingredients of our blood’n’guts style Death Metal have remained intact and I honestly can’t imagine anyone that liked our previous work is going to be the least bit disappointed, on the contrary!" The soon-to-be-titled album was produced by Ed Warby and like before, the mix was in the capable hands of Mr Dan Swanö. HAIL OF BULLETS nailed down 11 songs plus intro.
DEVOURMENT have been signed by Relapse Records. Vocalist Mike Majewski commented on the signing: "We are extremely excited to be a part of the amazing Relapse roster! To be alongside the list of past and present Relapse bands that we hold in such high regard is truly an honor for us." DEVOURMENT kicks-off a headlining European tour in support of their 2009 release "Unleash The Carnivore" on August 12, 2010 with performances included at the Party San Open Air, Brutal Assault Festival, Mountains of Death Open Air and Metal Mean Festival. For more info check out www.myspace.com/devourment
UK Thrashers ONSLAUGHT have announced that Danish Producer Jacob Hansen will be handling the production and mixing duties on the upcoming studio album due for release later this year. The album will be recorded and mixed at Hansen Studio in Ribe, Denmark starting on August 16th. Nige Rockett comments: "We’re so stoked to be working with Jacob Hansen on the new album. Jacob has done some stunning work in the past, his production skills are really gonna suit the style of the new album, his mixes are so heavy and lively which is exactly what we are looking for… It’ll be real cool to capture the live energy of the band in these recordings… Steve and Sy are leaving for the studio immediately after our appearance at Bloodstock Festival, where we should be, if all goes to plan, debuting a track entitled ‘Born For War’ taken from the new album… it’s a violent beast, very fast and heavy with lots of twists and turns." Jacob Hansen (Producer) about the recordings: "This is one of the more exciting productions this year for me! Since their very first albums ("Power From Hell" and "The Force"), which made quite an impression on me back in my teenage years, I’ve loved this dark and heavy band. Working with these guys is gonna be awesome!" Check out a new demo sample at www.myspace.com/onslaughtuk
BEHEMOTH will be releasing a new DVD, titled "Evangelia Heretika" this fall. Vocalist and guitarist Nergal comments: "We’ve been through hell and back to make this release happen. I know we only have a few DVDs in our catalogue so far but they are not even close to what you are gonna experience with " Evangelia Heretika"! Expect approximately 5 hours of essential BEHEMOTH. Long-time BEHEMOTH artistic collaborator, Graal, has provided us with some of his most disturbing and completed vision to date." " Evangelia Heretika" will be released in the US via Metal Blade Records, in Europe via Nuclear Blast Records and in Poland via Mystic Records. Starting on November 03, BEHEMOTH will hit the road on a headline tour that kicks off in Quebec City, Canada. Joining BEHEMOTH on this tour that takes the band through the US and Canada are Watain, Withered and Black Anvil. A special package is being offered to the band’s internet community members for $66.60 that includes the following items: 1 ticket to the show, 1 pre-ordered copy of the DVD (S&H included), 1 tour poster, received at the show and 1 meet & greet pass to meet BEHEMOTH before the show. Fans can purchase this limited package or tickets to any of the show dates at this location.
The following statement was just issued by Hungary’s DRÜNKEN BASTARDS: "Pete Fire, the founding guitarist of Drünken Bastards, has been diagnosed with cancer a couple of weeks ago. The treatments have started already and the doctors, family and his friends are confident that he’s going to get better. So far, he has been taking it good, but the whole treatment could take up to six months. This means that the band had to cancel all the shows which were booked for autumn. Of course, we won’t stop working and together we decided to write our third upcoming album and to make up for all the canceled shows in spring after Pete gets better. Hope for him to get better and meanwhile wait for the second album, "Horns Of The Wasted", which will be release on Hells Headbangers on August 31st. Of course Pete’s other band Bridge To Solace has also decided to cancel their last shows and wait for Pete to get better, hence the next spring won’t go easy on nuclear Hardcore and Metal / Punk attacks." For more info, consult www.myspace.com/drnkenbastards.
Referring to the HORRENDOUS review here in the reviewsection we need to add that this demo isn’t self-financed but a co-release between Dark Descent Records and Skeleton Plague Records. To buy this demo get in touch with one of the labels at www.darkdescent.net or www.skeletonplaguerecords.com.
ATHEIST have parted ways with bassist Tony Choy. Freshly done with the recording sessions of their fourth studio album "Jupiter", the band wrote the following (shortened) statement: "When we came together to write again, it was an obvious choice, for several reasons, to try and continue in what has been our touring line-up. We’ve had such a great time together on the road for the past four years. We’re all great friends, and all of us were working peacefully towards the completion of the album. Therefore it hit us very unexpectedly when Tony called one day and informed us that he would not record with us. What’s worse is that this happened only four weeks prior to our confirmed studio date. This left us in a very unfortunate position and without a choice. Although we are quite angry with him for this extremely late, and inconsiderate, change of heart, we have no desire to let this become personal or start some public feud. We simply want to be sure the facts are out there so we can get on with writing and playing music. As with previous classic ATHEIST material, Tony had not contributed to the writing of "Jupiter" in any significant way, so we did not have to start over. Also, we had no intention to accept any further delay caused by Tony, especially since there was already an extremely talented young musician in our ranks: Jonathan Thompson (guitar). Not only did Jonathan do his intricate guitar lines flawlessly on "Jupiter", but as a huge fan of Roger’s work, he also wrote and performed the very impressive and original bass lines on this album as well. That is quite a story in itself. Tony may tour with ATHEIST, but for now it shall suffice that rather than settle for some random guy, we went with the best and kept it in the family." – Kelly Shaefer and Steven Flynn on behalf of ATHEIST.
Serbia’s Black / Death Metallers BANE will release their debut full-length "Chaos, Darkness, Emptiness" later this year through Abyss Records. It was recorded at Hellsound Studio in the Czech Republic and will be produced, mixed and mastered by Honza Kapak (who played in Judas Iscariot, Krieg, Nargaroth etc). The album will also feature appearances from Jb of Svart Crown (France), Deimoz of The Revenge Project (Bulgaria) and Nocturnal of Shadowdream (Serbia). The cover artwork was done by Marcelo Vasco (Belphegor, Obituary, Vader, Borknagar, Gorgoroth, Satyricon). More info at www.myspace.com/baneband.
Bob Yost, former lead singer of San Francisco’s DESECRATION, has passed away in mid July. According to reliable sources he was found cold in his bed by his mom. DESECRATION released a couple of demos between 1985 and 1989. In 1991 Yost joined Mike Torrao’s version of POSSESSED and even played bass on POSSESSED’s 1991 demo. Rest in peace, Bob! If anyone should have more detailed info or a better quality picture of Bob, please contact us.
LIVIDITY will embark on a European tour on August 11 in Trier, Germany. The band’s front man and Epitomite Productions chief Von Young had this to say about the tour: "Well we just got done at the Central Illinois Metalfest where we had a blast as usual. Got to see a lot of old friends and make new ones. Now we are gearing up for the European freaks on our upcoming "Defiling Europe Tour" in support of the new album "To Desecrate And Defile". Come out and see us at the shows!" More info at www.myspace.com/lividity.
Colombia’s Death Metallers MORBID MACABRE have published a trailer of their upcoming ‘Pray You Damned’ video at www.myspace.com/morbidmacabre. The song is from their 2009 debut full-length "Hell And Damnation".
The first demo tape by ENTRAPMENT from the Netherlands is now available from Detest Records. More details at www.myspace.com/entrapmentdeathmetal or www.detestrecords.com
INCANTATION has been forced to cancel their appearances at this year’s Stonehenge and Mass Deathstruction Festivals. INCANTATION frontman, John McEntee has issued the following statement: "It is with great regret we announce that we had to cancel our headlining festival appearance at the Stonehenge Fest in Holland and the Mass Deathstruction Fest in Belgium this weekend. Between us and our booking agent we did all we could to try to make the fest appearance happen, but only after many attempts we had to come to the conclusion that there was just no way to make it happen. We want apologize both fest organizers for giving us this opportunity. We also want to thank all our supporters that were looking forward to our performances. We know that both promoters are very stand up people, and I’m sure both fest will be a great success." INCANTATION is still scheduled to appear at the Hostile City Death Fest in Philadelphia, PA on August 27 as well as the Noctis IV Metal Fest in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on September 24. Visit www.hostilecitydeathfest.com and www.noctisvalkyries.com for details on each festival.
After 13 years of silence Poland’s Death / Thrashers MAGNUS have returned to the scene. The band has signed a contract with Witching Hour Productions for 2 new albums as well as reissues of all their previous recordings. Their comeback album "Acceptance Of Death" was recorded at Tower Studio, DSP Studio and ATK Studio in 2009 and mixed and mastered at Fonoplastikon by Marcin Bors in 2010. It will be released on September 15. The tracklist reads like this: ‘False God’, ‘Appear’, ‘Spirits’, ‘Essence’, ‘Worm’, ‘To Understand Death’, ‘Nothing More’, ‘Private Religion’, ‘When You Rest 6 Feet Under’, ‘They’ll Bury’, ‘Mournful Song’, ‘Just Like Life’ and ‘There’s No Use Lamenting’. More info at www.magnusmetal.com, www.myspace.com/magnus1989
Canadian blackened Death Metallers ADVERSARIAL have inked a deal with Dark Descent Records to release their debut full-length "All Idols Fall Before The Hammer". It will be released on August 15 with a 12 page poster fold insert which includes artwork by fellow Canadian artist, Danille Gauvin. Pre-orders have already started at www.darkdescent.net. More info at www.myspace.com/adversarialmusic
"Silence Is Complete", the first official full-length album from Sweden’s BIRCH MOUNTAIN, is available as a free download from their myspace page www.myspace.com/birchmountain or directly here or here. BIRCH MOUNTAIN is a re-awakened Death Metal project originating from the EGYPT project back in ’92 featuring Janne Rudberg Björkenfjäll (EXCRUCIATE, MORPHEUS, MASTICATION, EXHUMED) and Mattias Parkkila (BLOOD MORTIZED, MALFEITOR, STIGMATA). Check out their myspace page for further information.
With the closing of the "Campaign Of Death Metal Purity" tour GRAVEHILL would like to announce that Matt "Hellfiend" Harvey (EXHUMED, DEKAPITATOR, REPULSION, CRETIN) has officially joined the band as their permanent guitarist. Harvey will already contribute to the final writing process of GRAVEHILL’s next album "When All Roads Lead To Hell". Plans are to enter Trench Studio’s with John Haddad near Thanksgiving to do all the tracking and then finish with Ryan Butler at Arcane Digital Recording for all mixing and mastering. Jeff Zornow, who already did GRAVEHILL artwork for the "Campaign Of Death Metal Purity" tour, will also be on board again for the visuals. In ralated news GRAVEHILL have been added to the ENTHRONED and DESTROYER 666 Los Angeles tour date at the Ultra Violet Lounge in Los Angeles August 14, 2010 and the Ramona Theater in Ramona (San Diego) California August 15, 2010, as well as the October 15, 2010 date at The Galaxy Theater with IMMOLATION and VADER. More info at www.myspace.com/gravehill666
EX DEMENTIA have added a new guitarist to their line-up. Here’s the official statement of the band: "All of us in EX DEMENTIA are proud to announce and welcome a new asshole to EXD… Matt Peterson! Matt is a long-time friend, and an even better lover. Who is Matt? And what will be left of him? Well, he’s our new lead guitarist. And what will be left of him? Fuck you, don’t take it so literal. It’s a movie reference, dick. So we would like you to give him a warm welcome the way every EX DEMENTIA fan has… By getting drunk at our shows and yelling "YOU SUCK!" from the back of the bar." More info at www.exdementia.net
"Live Death Doom" is the title of ASPHYX‘s first official DVD release. It will also be available as a 2 CD and digital download audio-release, actually marking ASPHYX’s first-ever official live album in their 20+ years of existence. The band comments on "Live Death Doom" as follows: "So finally, after over 23 years here’s the first ASPHYX live album. And our dedicated fans worldwide who’ve experienced us live know what that means: heavy old school Death Doom Metal played the way it was meant to be…and still should be today! Headbanging, grinning, drooling, spitting, sweating, passion, loud volume, stagediving, beer, honesty and brutality. No make up or fancy queercostumes, no superfluous attributes, no technical rubbish, no compromises. This is how we are, this is how we want you to have us! We are very proud of this release. Very damn fucken proud, as this is exactly us! We would never have brought it out if we weren’t 100% behind it… but it would never have been possible without our incredible loyal fans, of which we are even more proud! We’ll see you all somewhere, sometime again at one of our shows on this planet and then raise our beers and horns together. Cheerz!" The "Live Death Doom" DVD features an intense over 2 hours main live-show recorded at the completely sold out Turock venue in Essen / Germany on July 09, 2009 as well as an in-depth over an 1 hour historical band-documentary and tons of krushing additional bonus material. The total DVD playing time is approximately 225 minutes. The main live show’s audio (which equals the CD format content) was mixed and mastered by producer Dan Swanö (Bloodbath, Edge Of Sanity, etc.), who had previously taken care of the sonic brilliance for the "Death…The Brutal Way" album. The total 2CD playing time is approximately 110 minutes. The old school artwork for "Live Death Doom" was created by Axel Hermann, who had previously been responsible for the artworks of band’s classic releases from the 90s. The DVD will be released via Century Media Records in Europe on August 30, 2010. A special teaser for the release can be viewed here. ASPHYX’s 2010 line-up consists of: Martin van Drunen – vocals, Paul Baayens – guitars, Alwin Zuur – bass and Bob Bagchus – drums. www.myspace.com/officialasphyx
While currently writing material for the follow up to their 2007 release "Spiritual Apocalypse" MONSTROSITY have been preparing a blistering live setlist to devastate all who come across their path. MONSTROSITY drummer and founding member had this to say of the bands current status: šWe’re just now really starting to get going on writing a new record. We’ve had numerous tours to support "Spiritual Apocalypse" and our fans know by now we like to take our time and create albums that are unique in their own right and not thrown together like so many of our counterparts. We’ve got a few solid ideas together so it’s just a matter of just continuing on the path were on. As for the summer run we are doing, I think it will be really cool to get back down to South America and show them we can do this better than ever. We will be hitting some places we ve never been to so we recommend you come see this tour!! Playing in Concepion, Chile should be killer too since they probably haven’t had a Metal show down there since the earthquake. We will be heading to Europe for some festival shows as well so look for us on the Party San and Brutal Assault stages this August!!!" The band’s current line-up consist of Mike Hrubovcak – vocals, Lee Harrison – drums, Mark English – guitars, Mike Poggione – bass and Matt Barnes – guitars. More info at www.myspace.com/monstrosity1
"The Seventh Date Of Blashyrkh", IMMORTAL‘s first official live DVD and live CD release in the history of their existence, will be released in Europe on August 06 and in North America on September 14. The track listing for both the DVD and the CD is: ‘Intro’, ‘The Sun No Longer Rises’, ‘Withstand The Fall Of Time’, ‘Sons Of Northern Darkness’, ‘Tyrants’, ‘One By One’, ‘Wrath From Above’, ‘Unholy Forces Of Evil’, ‘Unsilent Storms In The North Abyss’, ‘At The Heart Of Winter’, ‘Battles In The North’ and ‘Blashyrk (Mighty Ravendark)’. The band’s manager Håkon Grav had this to say about the long-awaited DVD: "This release has been due many years, but finally we can present IMMORTAL’s first concert DVD. The band paid their dues with hard roadwork during the first decade and then some during their career, but they were hardly given the tools and surroundings worthy of a full-blown video production like this demands. The mighty Wacken Open Air proved to be the perfect partner for us in that sense, and this was truly a special night for both the band and the fans. The band played several great shows on the reunion tour, but the fact that headlining the Black Stage at Wacken would be something spectacular was a given in advance, and now the DVD is here to prove it again. It has taken some time, but good things rarely come easily or quickly. If you were present at the show, I think you will appreciate the possibility to relive the magic, and if you’re witnessing the show for the first time within your own four walls, I hope you enjoy it just as much! For those of you coming to Wacken again this year – what can I say but ‘Auf Wiedersehen!’" Visit IMMORTAL online at www.immortalofficial.com and www.myspace.com/immortalofficial.
Progressive Death Metallers OBSCURA have begun recording the follow-up album to their breakthrough release "Cosmogenesis" at Woodshed Studio in southern Germany. Engineer V. Santura (TRIPTYKON, DARK FORTRESS) will helm the recording. An early 2011 release date is expected with additional album details to be announced soon. OBSCURA founder Steffen Kummerer commented on the new album: "We are glad to work with our long-time friend V.Santura once again to record our new album. The new material feels broader in some way as everybody in this band brought many unique ideas to the songwriting and we were able to integrate different elements into our sound. More open chords, more acoustic guitars, more seven string shred-tunes. Remember: more is always more. We are excited to create another album of progressive Death Metal and to start touring through the whole world in early 2011." OBSCURA’s recording and touring line-up remains as Kummerer on guitar and vocals, Christian Muenzner on guitar, Jeroen Paul Thesseling on bass and Hannes Grossman on drums. The band will round out the "Cosmogenesis" touring cycle with a performance as part of the Mezcal Metal Festival in Mexico City, Mexico in September. Additionally, OBSCURA’s Thesseling was recently interview by PETA2. The renowned fretless bass player talks about his decision to go vegetarian 16 years ago and current OBSCURA happenings.