December 31, 2002
The new RESURRECTED album "Blood Spilled" will be released on February 24, 2003.
The new RESURRECTED album "Blood Spilled" will be released on February 24, 2003.
A couple of days ago Rob Urbinati got together with his former SACRIFICE bandmates Gus Pynn and Scott Watts and jammed some old SACRIFICE stuff… In an email we received from Rob, he stated that "… it was fun, even though we all had trouble remembering the stuff…"
IMMORTAL, VADER, CHILDREN OF BODOM and TAAKE are confirmed for the forthcoming Inferno Festival, which takes place at Rockefeller Music Hall / John Dee in Oslo, Norway on April 17-19, 2003.
INCANTATION are set to embark on a seven-date Australian tour in June 2003.
SUIDAKRA are looking to record their next album in April at Stage One Studio in Bühne, Germany with producer Andy Classen.
THY PRIMORDIAL are scheduled to enter Abyss studios with producer Tommy Tägtgren next summer to record their sixth album.
THORNSPAWN are currently working on their next album, "Sanctified By Satan’s Blood", which is supposed to be recorded at Morrisound Studios in Florida. The following tracks are already written: ‘Sanctified By Satan’s Blood’, ‘Occult Black Death’ and ‘God Of Unholy Battalions’. The band’s debut album "Blood Of The Holy, Taint Thy Steel" will be re-released through Osmose with new coverart by underground artist Ereshkigal in black mat digi-pack and the "Empress From The Realms Of Blasphemy" EP as bonus tracks.
The Polish label Still Dead Productions is back from the dead after all. In the beginning of 2003 they will finally release the long awaited EQUINOX CD, which had been recorded at Morrisound Studios with producer Jim Morris. Also in the works are releases by CONTORTED (feat. ex – DIABOLIC and BRUTALITY members), PATHS OF POSSESSION (feat. ex – MORBID ANGEL axeman Richard Brunelle), EVISCIUM (feat. Mark Mastro, ex – ROTTREVORE) and the new BRUTALITY album.
DARKANE has been confirmed for next year’s March Metal Meltdown V, set to take place March 7-8 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
CHILDREN OF BODOM‘s European tour in support of "Hate Crew Deathroll", begins on April 19th in Stockholm, Sweden at Lilla Arenan and runs until May 19 in Osnabrück, Germany at Hyde Park.
THE CROWN recently confirmed the upcoming live dates: February 20th – Thunder Road – Pavia, Italy, 21st – Midian – Vicenza, Italy and 22nd – Pri Rdeci Ostrigi – Skofja Loka, Slovenia.
ARCH ENEMY have rescheduled their Scandinavian dates that were cancelled in November. The new dates are: January 25 – Club Rockers – Vasteras, SWE, 26 – Debaser – Stockholm, SWE, 28 – John Dee website – Oslo, NOR, 29 – Musikens Hus – Gothenburg, SWE, 30 – Diezel – Halmstad, SWE and 31 – Tivoli – Helsingborg, SWE.
SATYRICON‘s Black Lava Down Europe 2003 Tour will run from February 14th at Zeche Carl in Essen, Denmark to March 23rd at Markthalle in Hamburg, Germany.
USURPER will hold a listening party for their "Twilight Dominion" album at 9pm on January 11th, 2003 at Delilah’s in Chicago. For directions go to www.mapquest.com. For more details check out www.usurper.us or contact mgmt@usurper.us
HELL-BORN have released their new album, "The Call Of Megiddo", through Conquer Records. The tracklisting: ‘Hell-Born’, ‘Legion Is Our Name’, ‘We Bring The Reaper’, ‘Scepter Of The Tomblord’, ‘The Call Of Megiddo’, ‘With The Gleam Of The Eyes Of Undead’, ‘Down Below He Dwells’ and ‘Evil Dawning’.
SAMAEL will tour Europe next year. The Redemption 2003 Tour, also featuring CATHEDRAL and WITHOUT FACE, will run from January 28th to March 4th.
Black Mark Records will celebrate BATHORY‘s 20th Anniversay with the re-release of the band’s catalog on vinyl LPs. Each title will be remastered and will come with enhanced layout and full color lyric sheet. The following titles will be available: "Bathory", "The Return…", "Under The Sign Of The Black Mark", "Blood Fire Death", "Hammerheart" and "Twilight Of The Gods".
The recording of the new DENATA album will take place in early January at Studio Hell Smell (Linköping / Sweden) with Mique (Seance) as technician. It will feature 13 tracks of brutal Thrash, incl. a cover of Celtic Frost’s ‘Morbid Tales’. The album is scheduled to be released via Arctic Music Group during March / April 2003. In related news a deal with the English company Razamataz ( www.razamataz.co.uk) has just been signed who will do the official merchandise for the band. Finally a Thrash Metal lexicon by Rockdetector / Cherry Red Records has been released and Denata is featured on their following compilation. All further details you may find at the following address: www.cherryred.co.uk/books/thrashmetal.htm
Texas based RIGOR MORTIS, who released three classic Thrash Metal albums back in the late 80s / early 90s ("Rigor Mortis", "Freaks" and "Vs. The Earth") are about to reform. Bassplayer Casey Orr, who used to be a member of GWAR the last couple of years, told us the following: "Mike Scaccia, Harden Harrison and I are putting Rigor Mortis back together! It’s been 20 years since we first got together and 13 years since we last played RM songs together but we’ve started rehearsing and plan on recording and touring next year at some point… Also www.rigormortis.com should be up and running soon and I will post lots of info, etc. there."
MELECHESH are currently at Andy La Rocque’s Los Angered Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden recording their 3rd album for Osmose Productions titled "Sphynx". Some song titles that will be featured on the album are: ‘Incendium Between Mirage and Time’, ‘Of Mercury And Mercury’, ‘Apkallu Counsel’ and ‘Secrets Of Sumerian Sphynxology’. By the end of December, the band will master the album at Bauwhaus Studios in Amsterdam, Holland by Attie Bauw. His mastering work is best known for such acts as Judas Priest, Rush, Scorpions, Halford, Fight and notorious others. Ron Woodall, who has worked for George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, has illustrated the cover art as well (graphic designer of Star Wars, Dragonheart, Jurassic Park etc.). For more information, please visit the site at: www.melechesh.com
A North American tour featuring INTO ETERNITY, KATAKLYSM, DYING FETUS and HATE ETERNAL will take place in February and March 2003. Confirmed dates include February 14th at Zeppelin’s in New Orleans, LA and March 22nd at Brass Mug in Tampa, FL.
CHILDREN OF BODOM will be on the road in Finland in support of their forthcoming CD, "Hate Crew Deathroll", due out on January 7th. Dates begin on March 21in Turku and end April 5th in Helsinki.
NILE have pulled out of their scheduled appearence at Beast Feast 2002 at Makuhari Messe Event Hall in Tokyo, Japan, with no reason given for the cancellation.
OPETH‘s upcoming 2003 UK Deliverance tour runs from March 10th at Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, UK to March 19th at Whelans’s in Dublin, Ireland. Another tour in support of the band’s forthcoming "Damnation" album will follow and is expected to take place in unusual venues.
THE HAUNTED‘s forthcoming DVD, "Caught On Tape", will be out in North America on March 11. The DVD features two full live shows and other exclusive material.
THE CROWN will be performing three shows in Finland – Helsinki, Tampere and Jyväskylä – in late January (22nd through 24th).
EMPEROR‘s "Scattered Ashes – A Decade", is a new compilation out through Candlelight.
DETENTE‘s "Recognize No Authority", originally released in 1986 by Metal Blade and featuring the late vocalist Dawn Crosby, has been reissued in Europe.
Dave "Scarface" Castillo has joined DECEASED full-time as the new drummer. Here’s the official statement regarding this subject from original drummer King Fowley: "After surviving a life-threatening blood clot in my lung this past year, I’ve been left with permanent damage to both my airways and right lung, basically ending my duties behind the kit. So, the band has made the decision to bring in new blood to the ranks. I want to personally say this… Deceased is a family unit and bringing in someone else was not an easy choice. But Dave has always been a great friend of ours and someone we consider our brother. Not only that, but he’s already been a member of my other band October 31 for years. Before that, he played for fellow Virginia Thrashers Hatred. The bottom line is, Dave is the perfect guy for the job. His drumming is solid as hell and his playing is the type of Thrash everyone in the band lives for. We feel he will bring even more power and energy to our attack so I can now run loose on stage like a wild rat on PCP! I hope you all will support us in our decision to make this necessary line-up change. Look for a new 10" split with Nunslaughter on Metal War Productions (the first with Dave) called "Torn Apart By Werewolves". It will feature one new Deceased song and a cover of Agent Steel’s ‘Agents Of Steel’. Then be on the look out, as the long overdue new full-length album "As The Weird Travel On" finally gets written and recorded for Relapse Records later next year. In closing, I would personally like to thank each and every one of you for your kind well wishes on my health situation. We all look forward to seeing you on the road again. Sick Thrash forever!"
GOD DETHRONED have finished the recordings for their upcoming album "Into The Lungs Of Hell" at Berno studios in Malmö, Sweden. The album was produced and mixed by Henrik Larsson (who also did the latest AMON AMARTH album) and features eight songs with a total running time of 38 minutes.The songs this time have a more "realistic" view on the world instead of the "stories" the band came up with on the previous albums. There’s liner notes included with all the lyrics in the booklet to point out what the band is talking about. "Sometimes it was just necessary, because for example the song ‘Slaughtering The Faithful’ is dealing with the bio-industry and the way we treat animals. It was pretty shocking to read my own lyrics again just after I wrote it. We decided to explain some things here and there to avoid misunderstandings because people would think we were singing about concentration camps and shit like that", mainman Henri Sattler comments. The tracklisting reads like this: ‘Into The Lungs Of Hell’, ‘The Warcult’, ‘Enemy Of The State’, ‘Soulsweeper’, ‘Slaughtering The Faithful’, ‘Subliminal’, ‘The Tombstone’ and ‘Gods Of Terror’. The first edition of the new album will be limited with a bonus CD, which will contain some live recordings (from GOD DETHRONED’s show in Los Angeles), the two video clips ‘Villa Vampiria’ and ‘Under The Golden Wings Of Death’ and some previously unreleased stuff like a re-recorded version of the song ‘God Dethroned’, a cover version (‘Satan’s Curse’) by Possessed and more.
The first edition of FALLEN YGGDRASIL‘s "In No Sense Innocence" is sold out by now (1.000 copies), but it will be re-released via Supreme Chaos Records early 2003. For further info check out the band’s homepage www.fallen-yggdrasil.de or Supreme Chaos at: www.s-c-r.de.
Sweden’s MAZE OF TORMENT were signed by Hellspawn Records and have their long awaited fourth album "The Unmarked Graves" out in February 2003 worldwide. The album was recorded at The Abyss studios with producer Tommy Tägtgren in late 2001, but has been put on ice until now due to problems with their former U.S. label. The album features 12 tracks of intense and catchy Death / Thrash Metal with their so far best production to date. Tracklist: ‘The Evil Remains The Same’, ‘Satan Descends’, ‘The Unmarked Graves’, ’13th Disciple’, ‘Fortress Of Doom’, ‘Demon’s Rape’, ‘Void Of Pain’, ‘Enter The Holocaust’, ‘Burn Till Death’, ‘Blinded By Illusions’, ‘Formula XXX’ and ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’ (MISFITS cover). For more information contact Hellspawn Records at hellspawn666@swipnet.se or visit their website: www.hellspawnrecords.com.