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After years of personal and line-up problems, Peru’s GOAT SEMEN are in preparation for their debut full-length studio album for From Beyond Productions / Displeased Records. The band will enter the studio to record a promo with the newly written and rehearsed tracks later this month, with the actual studio album to be recorded right after summer 2008.
German Thrashers NOCTURNAL just returned from a small European tour to focus on their new album with new vocalist Reaper (OLD), to be recorded during late summer 2008.
After their succesful Latin America tour late last year, AGATHOCLES have been busy writing and rehearsing new material for a new full-length for Displeased Records, to be recorded next month.
OFFICIUM TRISTE have just announced another line-up change through their website: "After much thought Martin has decided to quit drumming and start focusing on the synth-parts. As one of the main composers he has always had a big influence on the music and especially the synths. He’ll keep on writing music as well. His decision has a lot to do with the fact he’s living in Germany and he feels he cannot deliver what is needed for the band when talking about rehearsing and doing live gigs. This will give the band much more opportunities and we’re happy to see Martin in this setting. We are also very happy to announce that all drum duties will be taken over by Ronald Lagerwaard (ex-Imbolc, Absent Mind, Perpetual Misery). He has proven to be a great drummer and is very motivated to be part of the tight rhythm section for OFFICIUM TRISTE."
Sverker "Widda" Widgren – also known for his guitar work in DIABOLICAL and as the co-owner of Necromorbus Studios – has joined DEMONICAL as the new fulltime vocalist. After a splendid session-job on the Finnish tour the band came to the conclusion that Widda is the right man for the job. His first "official" show will be at Tantogården in Stockholm on April 4th together with Necrophobic and Spazmosity. Fan-filmed footage of Demonical, with Widda on vocals, performing ‘Death Metal’ (Onslaught cover) in Jyväskylä, Finland, on January 18th 2007 can be viewed at this location. Demonical are very sorry for the fact that they have to cancel the scheduled show in Västerås, Sweden, set for May 9th due to various timing problems.
Cleveland’s old school Thrashers DESTRUCTOR will play a one off club show together with US Power Metallers LETHAL and local heroes ETERNAL REIGN on July 30, 2008 at the Meisenfrei Club in Bremen, Germany. For more info check out www.meisenfrei.de.
Helsinki based Death Metal band DEMOLISHER recently recorded two new songs called ‘Darkness Evolution’ and ‘Crucifix Head Crush’ which are available as free download from their myspace site (www.myspace.com/demolisherband). The band plans to release them officially on CD within the next weeks. Next to these two songs you can still download the songs from their great "Enter The Suffering" MCD (see review in the review-section).
After two years of hard work Polish Death / Black Metallers DENEB have returned to the scene with a new concept album entitled "Exoriare Aliquis Nostris Ex Ossibus Ultor". The CD features guest vocals by Jadwiga Siwicka (ex-Different World) and was released by Metalrulez Productions (www.mzprod.com), limited to 500 copies. Sound samples can be found at the band’s myspace page www.myspace.com/deneb1 and two tracks are also available for download from their official website www.deneb.metal.pl.
El Paso Thrashers TERRORIST have been signed to Embrace My Funeral Records and will have their 12 track debut CD "Blessed By The Beast" released in June / July of 2008. This will be preceded by a Mexican tour with Obeisance in May.
Ibex Moon Records will be releasing MASTER‘s "Slaves To Society" CD with bonus tracks this Summer. John McEntee, owner of Ibex Moon Records: "In the 80s when I started really getting into the Metal underground I would have never thought one day I would be releasing a recording by one of my favorite bands and biggest influences MASTER. For me and most other die hard underground Metallers in the 80s and early 90s understand the massive impact MASTER has had on the world of extreme Metal. Most of the extreme bands that have gone on to massive success in the early 90s wave of Death Metal would be lying if they said they weren’t affected one way or another by the powerful aggressive songs of MASTER. "Slaves To Society" is quite possibly MASTER’s most aggressive album released to date and I’m honored to be working with them." Paul Speckmann states, "This is an album that deals with the situation happening in the world today. We are all slaves of the greater machine, just slaves to society. "Slaves To Society" is the fastest and most interesting CD that MASTER has released since "On The Seventh Day…". Forget listening to the many imitators of Master. There is only one true original MASTER, and this CD "Slaves To Society" speaks for itself." Keep posted to the Ibex Moon Records website for the exact release date to be announced soon. www.ibexmoonrecords.com
FUNERAL PROCESSION have finished recording, mixing, mastering and layouting the forthcoming digipak mini-CD "The Red Vine Litanies", scheduled for release later in Spring (May / June). These recordings were originally meant for a multi-split-album on Van, but since this release will not come into existence, the material will be released separately through the aforementioned label. The mini-CD will additionally be accompanied by new shirts, also manufactured by Van. To keep up with what is happening, it is therefore highly recommendable to sign up to the label’s newsletter on their newly-designed homepage www.van-gbr.de. The band also announced that currently there are FUNERAL PROCESSION bootleg logo patches being sold via ebay and similar channels which are of very low quality. These were not manufactured with the consent of the band, and anybody can only be advised not to buy these. New buttons and patches (for the first time) were planned for a long time and should be available in Spring through the band’s label Van, which should be the first place to look for genuine band-related things. For more info check out www.funeralprocession.net
Brazilians Thrashers CHAOSFEAR have entered the studio to record their new album "Images Of Disorder", the follow-up to their debut full-length "One Step Behind Anger", which was released worldwide through Old School Metal Records. "The new record will include 10 new songs and will be recorded with our original line up", comments Danilo Freitas of Chaosfear. One new song will be made available soon on the band’s myspace page. It is scheduled for a Fall / Winter 2008 release through Old School Metal Records. Besides the recording sessions the band was selected to participate in the Brazilian leg of the contest "Wacken Metal Battle". For more info and pictures of the recording sessions, go to www.chaosfear.com.
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.
HAIL OF BULLETS have finished recordings for their debut album "…Of Frost And War". The album was recorded in February / March of 2008 at Excess Studios in Rotterdam, Holland and mixed and mastered in Sweden by Dan Swanö of Edge Of Sanity fame. Comments drummer Ed Warby: "The soundtrack to all-out, total war is here! If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to be run over by a 50 ton Tiger tank, now’s your chance…". "…Of Frost And War" will be available as a limited first edition digipak CD including bonus track and special pop-up packaging. After this first edition is sold out there will only be a regular jewelcase edition without the bonus track available. The album will be released on vinyl, too. The tracklisting reads as follows: ‘Before The Storm (Barbarossa) / Intro’, ‘Ordered Eastward’, ‘The Lake Ladoga Massacre’, ‘General Winter’, ‘Advancing Once More’, ‘Red Wolves Of Stalin’, ‘Nachthexen’, ‘The Crucial Offensive (19-11-1942, 7.30 AM)’, ‘Stalingrad’, ‘Insanity Commands’ (bonus track), ‘Inferno At The Carpathian Mountains’ and ‘Berlin’. In other news HAIL OF BULLETS have upgraded their European deal with Metal Blade Records to a worldwide deal! Says Ed: "We are proud to announce we’ll be signing to Metal Blade Records for worldwide domination! This is great news for us since we’re already part of Metal Blade’s European roster, and we’re stoked as hell to go global with the mighty Blade!" "…Of Frost And War" will be released on the May 16 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy) and May 19 (rest of Europe).
BLACK DEATH drummer Phil Bullard passed away of colon cancer on February 6, 2008 at age 59. Bullard is survived by two daughters (Philicia and Earlicia), four grandchildren (Warren, Curstie, Curtis and Julian) and two sisters (Nicola Ammons and Roberta).
OSM Records have announced the addition of HEXEN to the roster. HEXEN is a L.A. based Metal band that fuses the elements of melody, heaviness, speed and technicality within the lair of Thrash. Their debut album titled "State Of Insurgency" is slated for a late summer 08 release.