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MELECHESH are currently in the writing process and demo recordings of their next full-length album. At the end of May the band will furthermore record ‘Babylon Fell’ for a Celtic Frost tribute.
ABSU are currently working on three new songs for the next, self-titled album, which are ‘Galla Temple’, ‘Night Fire Canonization’ and ‘Between The Absu Of Eridu and Erech’. Proscriptor was also one of the top finalists for the new drummer position in Slayer, but was turned down because of his paranormal contour. Many rumors had circulated around the globe that he "was" officially chosen, but this information was 100% not true.
AXIS OF ADVANCE will release their upcoming albums on Osmose Productions.
Ex-MORBID ANGEL frontman Steve Tucker is currently working on some new material. In an interview with Hidden Throne magazine he revealed the following news: "I am looking to the future, I have 2 things going on, first, I am working on a new CEREMONY CD as we speak, and it will have Trym from EMPEROR playing drums on it, I am extremely excited about this, it think Trym is an amazing drummer and the material is very powerful, I have another band as well that I working on, but CEREMONY is my focus right now." "… look for the CEREMONY CD by the end of the year…" You cam read the full interview here: www.hiddenthrone.tk
Conquest Music will be reissuing MONSTROSITY‘s second studio release, "Millennium" on May 7, 2002 in the U.S. The hard to find classic release features vocalist, George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, now of Cannibal Corpse. This was George’s last album as frontman for Monstrosity. Monstrosity completed a three week tour of Mexico in February with some of the best shows to date, crisscrossing Mexico making many new fans along the way. Then it was on to Sao Paulo Brazil where people were turned away at the door after 1.300 rabid fans squeezed in the venue. In Recife Brazil 800 Monstro fans fought to catch a glimpse of the band and listen to the Monstro sound. Now, back in the States, Monstrosity will headline a Metal fest in Tallahassee, Fl May 18th and one in Chicago June 15th with a number of US dates being scheduled in June and July to coincide with the reissue of "Millennium". In September, they are scheduled for 40-50 dates in Europe along with Dying Fetus. In between their busy schedule, Monstrosity has just completed a preproduction version of their next studio album which will be the follow up to "In Dark Purity". So expect another release before the end of the year.
The recent cancellation of THE CROWN‘s Los Angeles appearance at The Roxy, by the Roxy promoter, on April 13th is still a mystery. Guitarist Marko Tervonen had this to say about the cancellation, "This fucking sucks, we haven’t been back to Los Angeles since the show with Cannibal Corpse, now everyone is screwed out of a killer show".
MARDUK have been hard at work on their eighth studio record, and have five songs written and ideas planned out for twelve more.
ABIGOR will play live for the first time in nine years on July 27th at a festival in Innsbruck, Austria.
JUDAS ISCARIOT‘s "To Embrace The Corpse Bleeding" album is out now in Europe through Red Stream.
Warspirit Records have released KRISTALLNACHT‘s "Of Elitism And War" album in Europe.
GRIEF OF EMERALD‘s new album, "Christian Termination", will be released on May 21st through Listenable.
ABORYM are currently working on their forthcoming album, "With No Human Intervention" at BOTH Temple Of Noise and Cyber Studios. Also guesting on the album are Nattefrost from CARPATHIAN FOREST and Mick Kenney from ANAAL NATHRAKKH. Bard G-Eithun Faust (ex-EMPEROR) wrote some lyrics for the new album as well.
Martynas Meskauskas (aka Lord Ominous), leader of the one-man-band ANUBI from Lithuania, died in a tragic accident in Lake Michigan, near Chicago.
EXHUMED will release the compilation, "Platters Of Splatter: Cyclopedic Symposium Of Execrable Errata And Abhorrent Apocrypha 1992-2002", the complete Exhumed discography later this year.
DECAPITATED will play the OzzFest in their native Poland on May 29. The band will line up alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Tool and Slayer and will surely be the most extreme representative on any of the OzzFest bills this year, an event which will also be Decapitated’s biggest show to date. The band’s latest and greatest album "Nihility" will be issued in a limited vinyl format on May 27. Limited to just 500 copies, the release will come on 220g vinyl in a high gloss embossed sleeve. All copies will be hand numbered.
CENTINEX guitarist Johan Ahlberg – who had a session position for a few months – has now become a permanent member of the band. Centinex are now working together with Dreamtide Music, a new Swedish management and booking agency. Their first target is to book a small east-european tour for late July / early August. The U.S releasedate for "Diabolical Desolation" is set to April 30th. The album has already catapulted to #17 on the CMJ Loud Rock chart.
After a delay of almost a year PENTACLE‘s "Ancient Death" 12" has finally been released now. Limited to 500 copies and being accompanied by a 16-pages booklet it is available for 15 Euro / 15 US Dollar (Europe) & 20 US Dollar (world). Prices include p&p. For orders send your well-hidden money (no coins) to: PENTACLE, c/o Wannes Gubbels, Franse Hoef 17, 5531 PD Bladel, The Netherlands.
The PENTACLE / DESASTER gig in Luzern, Switzerland has been cancelled. Desaster’s vocalist Sataniac has attracted himself a lung-inflammation and is currently staying in a hospital. Because Desaster was the headliner for this gig, Pentacle decided to cancel the gig too. Like drummer Tormentor from Desaster said: "It’s important BOTH bands can absolve the gig. It’s about the package and not about one of the bands." Pentacle feels very sorry for Fabio (organizer) and the club, but felt that this was the best way to act. Both Desaster and Pentacle hope to play the gig on another date.
Sleepless – editor Steven Willems is writing a book about the Dutch act THE GATHERING. Title and release-date are still unconfirmed.
PENTACLE is negotiating with Metal War Productions from the US about releasing a possible 10". This vinyl-only release will feature BLOOD STORM as well. Both bands will use live-recordings for this purpose. Blood Storm will use recordings they made at the Destruction-Fests where they did 2 shows with Destroyer 666, NunSlaughter, Sadistic Intent and more. Probably, an extra cover-tune (recorded live in the studio) will be added as well. Pentacle will dig a bit further in their morbid vaults. The band will use 3 songs from a live-recording made in Mill, Holland, 1993. These recordings were made prior to the recording of the "Winds Of The Fall" demo. Although dated, these recordings are very heavy. The band felt these recordings were the best made ever. As it looks now the following songs will be featured: ‘Buried In Mankind’s Sleep’ (only featured on the "Winds…" demo), ‘Deepness Of The Depths’ (featured on the "Winds…" demo & re-recorded in a new version for the "…Rides…" album") and ‘The Usurper’ (featured on Celtic Frost’s "To Mega Therion" & "Tragic Serenades").
SLAYER‘s Kerry King makes an appearance in the new SUM41 video, ‘What We’re All About’, with a guitar solo. The video is on MTV now, and can be seen on in the video section of Slayer.net. Slayer recently won an ESPN Action Sports and Music Award for "best BMX riding music". The band’s video for ‘Bloodline’ has been added to M2 – it’s also a selection on M2’s Rock Box.
CENTURIAN‘s "Liber ZarZax" album is available on vinyl now as well through Listenable Records.
ANCIENT RITES will record a live-CD/DVD on the 14th of June in the Biebob-club (B).
BLOOD RED THRONE will enter Dub-studio on the 6th of May to record their 2nd, yet untitled album.
Morfeus recently finished the recordings for the new LIMBONIC ART album. Right now he is busy with the pre-production of the upcoming DIMENSION 3FH album. The album will be mixed in Fredman Studio. It seems there will be some very interesting guest-musicians on this album but nothing is 100% confirmed yet.
DISMEMBER is currently writing new material for their first album on Hammerheart Records. The band plans to enter the studio in summer-time. Besides the band is confirmed for the Graspop Festival.
IMPIOUS will release a MCD titled "Deathsquad" as appetizer for the upcoming full album. Tracklist: ‘The Deathsquad’ (taken from the upcoming album), ‘Extreme Pestilence’ (re-recorded), ‘Trapped Under Ice’ (METALLICA cover), ‘Live Wire’ (MÖTLEY CRÜE cover), ‘Medusa’ (ANTHRAX cover) and ‘Soldiers Of Hell’ (RUNNING WILD cover).
INFERNAL will enter the studio to record a MCD titled "Summon Forth The Beast" in one month from now. The MCD will feature an album track, an exclusive non-album track and the covers ‘Bleed For The Devil’ (MORBID ANGEL) and ‘Of Doom’ (BATHORY). Besides there are plans to record VON’s ‘Devil Pig’ but that’s not 100% confirmed yet. In autumn the band will enter the Dug Out Studio to record the full-length album with producer Daniel Bergstrand. Current INFERNAL line-up consists of Blackmoon (guitars, bass), Typhos (guitars, vocals) and Alzazmon (drums).
The planned NECROPHOBIC tour with ANCIENT RITES and PRIMORDIAL was cancelled. But the band is negotiating with a new agency in Poland for a small Poland-tour with 3-4 shows.
PRIMORDIAL will record a live-show for a live DVD/CD in the Biebob-club on the 14th of June together with labelmates ANCIENT RITES. Last but not least there are plans to re-release the long-time sold out demo on CD.
SATARIEL is currently negotiating with a few managements after the split with Sure Shot Worx. The band is currently working on new material and roughly plans to record the follow-up to "Phobos & Deimos" in November / December.
The release of the new THYRFING album "Vansinnesvisor" has been delayed until the summer. The band is still working on cover and design-ideas. There are some MP-3 teasers from the new album available at: www.thyrfing.com
Just back from their tour with MANOWAR, USURPER will be heading into the studio soon to record their Earache debut. The label has just released reissues of two of their classic albums, "Visions From The Gods" and "Necronemesis", both containing unreleased bonus material and new packaging.
CARNAL FORGE posted the following update recently: "We probably have around 10-13 songs with music. And it feels that there is a lot of ideas laying around just waiting to be tried out. We will once again enter Studio Underground for the fourth album. We will start to record in mid-September and the release is planned to late January 2003".
According to frontman Anders Friden, IN FLAMES are aiming to have 14 songs on their forthcoming album, bringing the running time of the CD up to 55 minutes. He still has 4 tracks to sing on. The as-yet-untitled album is scheduled for an October release through Nuclear Blast.
SLAYER and IN FLAMES will all be appearing at Summer Rocks 2002, which takes place in Budapest, Hungary from June 7th – 9th.
MYRKSKOG have nearly completed their second album. A album has not yet been titled but tracks on the release include: ‘Blood Ejaculation’, ‘Over The Gore’ and ‘Bleeding Wrists’.
KATAKLYSM, back home after their recent European journey, have begun working on their next album, "Shadows & Dust". Some new song titles include ‘Where The Enemy Sleeps’, ‘Beyond Salvation’, ‘Chronicles Of The Damned’, ‘Face The Face Of War’, ‘Centuries (Beneath The Dark Waters)’. The band will begin recording with guitarist / producer J-F Dagenais at Victor Studios in May. "Shadows & Dust" is scheduled for release on November 4th through Nuclear Blast.
INTERNAL SUFFERING will be doing a full scale US tour starting on April 23rd through June. The band is still looking for a show in the NY, PA or MD area and the MO, IL or IN area. If you are a promoter, booking agency, club, band or person interested in hooking up the band with a show in any of these areas, please email Internal Suffering at: intersuffering@hotmail.com
MALEVOLENT CREATION have inked a deal with Nuclear Blast for Europe. The band is currently playing the No Mercy Festivals with HYPOCRISY and IMMORTAL. They will begin recording the new album, "The Will To Kill", this coming summer with Jean-Francois Dagenais of KATAKLYSM-fame at Victor Studio.
Whilst many Death Metal bands flirt with images of horror, for most it’s just used for effect or image enhancement. Few take their interest beyond the confines of a band set up – but Daniel Ekeroth, INSISION bassist and holder of a Master’s Degree in Cinema studies has taken his interest as far as having a book published on the Italian horror genre he loves so much. Titled ‘Violent Italy’ and available via Tamara Press, Ekeroth’s book provides detailed coverage of exploitation cinema, tackling such subjects as mondo films and spaghetti westerns through to the obscure delights of cannibal and nunsploitation flicks. Ekeroth explains his motives behind writing the book: "I studied Cinema at the University of Stockholm for several years, and together with a friend (also a collector, and with a masters degree) I decided to write this book about 9 months ago during some heavy drinking… We realised that no book that analysed the more obscure Italian genres existed…so – let’s make one! Genres like terror & nazi has seldom been described (if ever). We also were a bit pissed that most books about these kind of films are childlishly written by people who doesn’t care as much for the films as for the ‘gore & violence’." Despite his heavy schedule with INSISION, Daniel also finds time to contribute to Italy well-respected horror magazine ‘Nocturno Cinema’, and has also been the driving force behind the ‘Violence Film Festivals’ held in Sweden, that have attracted criticism from some Christian groups, protesting at the extreme content of the festivals.