Swedish melodic power metallers Hammerfall have cancelled their Finnish headlining shows (originally scheduled for early January) in order to allow singer Joacim Cans enough time to recover from an operation which he is due to undergo in December.
Here goes the statement of the band:
"After a couple of months of serious vocal problems, my doctor finally tracked down the root of all evil. On my right vocal cord he found a polyp that affected both my speaking and singing voice. Lately I have lost almost one octave of my natural (high) range and I can promise you that it's been very frustrating. So, next week it's time for my doctor's magic hands to sharpen the scalpel and do surgery on 'my precious' cords. After the surgery I have to shut up for at least seven days ? gonna be hard! ? followed by some professional vocal training in order to build up the strength again. The tour will start as planned in Denmark on January 18, but unfortunatelly the shows in Finland have been postponed to a later date and all promotional work including me have been cancelled."

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Source:	hammerfall.net
Band profile:	HammerFall
Event:

Swedish death metallers Dismember have cancelled their previously announced West Coast tour with Grave. Here goes the statement of the band:
"The US tour is cancelled due to financial reasons. The band is really sorry for this and has already started working on a new US tour for the spring of 2007 to make up for the lost dates. More info will come soon."

The trek, which was originally slated to be headlined by Entombed, was scheduled to kick off December 1 in Hollywood, California.

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Source:	dismember.se
Band profile:	Dismember
Event:	Dismember & Grave: West Coast Tour [CANCELLED]

Italian gothic metal band Theatres Des Vampires will release a new double CD, "Desire Of Damnation (The Addiction Tour)", in February 2007 via Plastic Head/Blackend Records. The set will include a CD with the audio version of the recently released DVD (Plastic Head Video) and a separate disc with four new studio songs, three remixes, one special version of a medley featuring "Vampyrica" (2001) and "Suicide Vampire" (2002), performed by the tenor voice Franco Carta (Vampyre Dionysus) and arranged and directed by composer Stefano Lazzoni.
To promote this new album, Theatres Des Vampires will play several shows all around Europe next year. A release party will be held on Saturday, February 3, 2007 at Slimelight in London.

Source:	theatres-des-vampires.com
Band profile:	Theatres Des Vampires

Portuguese gothic metal act Moonspell will issue a special-edition CD/DVD version of their latest album, "Memorial", on December 4 in Portugal.
Regarding this event, the band has issued some details concerning the release (in Portuguese) at the band's official website.

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Source:	blog.moonspell.com
Band profile:	Moonspell

Rage, Communic, Demenzia and L.O.S.T. have been confirmed for the Metal Healing Festival, set to take place July 20-22 in Greece. The festival billing is shaping up as follows (alphabetical order):

Communic
Demenzia
Destruction
Ektomorf
Firewind
L.O.S.T.
Mystic Prophecy
Naer Mataron
Nightrage
Orphaned Land
Primordial
Rage
Rotting Christ
Silent Rage
The Haunted
To/Die/For
Wastefall

For more information, visit Metal Bolt website.

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Source:

metalbolt.com

Polish death metallers Vader have posted the following message on their official web site:

"As you might know, in 2007 Vader won't appear on any regular European tour. Instead of this, the band is going to play on some summer festivals. The band's appearance at Wacken Open Air (Germany), Kaltenbach Festival (Austria) and Party.San (Germany) have been already confirmed. Apart from that, at the beginning of March Vaderis going to play a short tour of Japan (together with Brutal Truth). Afterwards panzermachine will appear on their first Australian tour (which is pre-scheduled to take place in April or June) and play the tour in Russia, Belorus, the Ukraine and Baltic countries. At the beginning of September Vader kick off the second part of Polish Blitzkrieg 4 Tour, invading such places like Rzeszów, Bialystok, Zielona Góra, Poznan and many more.

"In 2008 Vader will celebrate the 25th anniversary. On that occasion in March 2007 the band will enter Hertz Studio to re-record 25 best songs from their entire discography. These songs will be released on band's special jubilee album. The release will also feature tons of DVD bonuses like archival recordings, live shows, videoclips and some other specials. Jaroslaw Szubrycht, well-known Polish journalist (who has recently finished a book about Slayer) will write a biography of Vader. More details will follow soon."

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Source:	vader.pl
Band profile:	Vader

Bloodbath' s Breeding Death the sold out classic mini CD from 1999 has now been re-released and comes with a revamped layout, previously unreleased lyrics to all songs, plus two demo recordings of the tracks 'Breeding Death' and 'Omnious Bloodvomit'.

Bloodbath lineup on "Breeding Death":

Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) - Vocals
Anders Nyström (Katatonia) - Guitars/Backing Vocals
Dan Swanö (ex-Edge Of Sanity, NIGHTINGALE) - Guitars
Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) - Bass/Backing Vocals

To order a copy, click here.

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Source:	bloodbath.biz
Band profile:	Bloodbath

Amon Amarth, In Extremo and Die Apokalyptischen Reiter have been confirmed for next year's installment of the Summer Breeze festival, set to take place August 16-18, 2007 in Dinkelsbühl, Germany. Here goes the statement of the Summer Breeze Team:

Amon Amarth:Here you go now. Your number one! Voted by you, the fans. Hitting position 1 on the band wishlist for next year. We are happy to confirm Amon Amarth to be the first headliner for Summer Breeze 2007. Our show - around Vikings have just delivered their strongest album so far, "With Oden On Our Side". Playing Dinkelsbuehl they will be guided by the jomsvikings (http://www.jomswikinger.de), well known from the "Wrath Of The Norsemen" DVD. All coming up with no mercy and real fight action added by an extensive pyro show which can be seen at Summer Breeze only! And for friends of battle axes and met we will be doing a real Viking camp on the festival ground. With oden on our side!

In Extremo:We are happy to announce the next top 5 band which you have voted for - In Extremo. Germany's best known and most successful medieval rock band has almost become a fixture of Summer Breeze. Their live sets always guarantee excitement, bombastic live shows and rhythms being perfect to dance to, all caught between medieval tradition and modern heaviness. At Summer Breeze 2007 once more they will prove why they ended up on a top position on your ranking.

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Source:	summer-breeze.de
Event:	Summer Breeze Open Air

AFM Records have issued the following press release with regards to the forthcoming Destruction Best Of compilation, "Thrash Anthems", scheduled for a January 22nd release in Europe, and a January 23rd release in North America via Candlelight Records.

"Thrash Anthems will include 13 Destruction classics from the Years 1984 to 1990, but who will think of just another Best Of album now is completely wrong. All the classics are new recorded and re-arranged. The band worked with nearly the same team which did the production of the outstanding Inventor Of Evil album. The tracks were mixed by one of the best metal producers in Europe: Jacob Hansen, the Danish producer/INVOCATOR singer and guitarist.

The result: 13 Destruction old school classics with an outstanding sound. A very interesting feauture for all Destruction fans should be the songs that were never released before with singer Schmier on vocals. In additions to this, the album will contain two brand new Destruction tracks, so it will contain over 70 minutes of thrash power. Once again we will get value for money from Destruction. But, this is what we get all the time from Schmier and his bandmates."

Thrash Anthems will include the following tracklisting: 'Deposition (Your Heads Will Roll)' (new track), 'Invincible Force', 'Release From Agony', 'Mad Butcher', 'Sign Of Fear', 'Death Trap', 'Life Without Sense', 'Total Desaster', 'Bestial Invasion', 'Reject Emotions', 'Tormentor', 'Unconscious Ruins', 'Curse The Gods', 'Cracked Brain', 'Profanity' (new track), 'Eternal Ban' (bonus track).

Source:	afm-records.de
Band profile:	Destruction

Amon Amarth and Powermad have been confirmed for next year's installment of the Bang Your Head!!! festival, set to take place June 22-23, 2007 at Messegelände in Balingen, Germany. Here is the festival's billing (Alphabetical order) :

Amon Amarth
Brainstorm
Edguy
Evergrey
Finntroll
Girlschool
Mercenary
Mystic Prophecy
Nazareth
Powermad
Praying Mantis
Steelheart
Thunder

Source:	bang-your-head.de
Band profile:	Amon Amarth
Event:	Bang Your Head!!! 2007

Vader and Belphegor have been confirmed for next year's edition of the Party.San Open Air festival, set to take place August 9-11, 2007 in Bad Berka, Germany. The festival billing is shaping up as follows (alphabetical order):

Belphegor
Bewitched
Disaster K.F.W.
Haemorhage
Melechesh
Taake
Vader

Source:	party-san.net
Band profile:	Vader
Event:	Party.San Open Air Festival

German technical death metallers, Necrophagist will embark on a Headlining Tour throughout Europe starting February 2007. Direct support duties will be taken over by Misery Index, Coldworker (Ex-Nasum) and Burning Skies. The first dates of the Carving Europe's Epitaph Tour Vol. II are as follows:

Feb. 08 - DE - Trier @ Exhaus
Feb. 10 - DE - Essen @ Turock, Essen Death Feast
Feb. 11 - DE - Flensburg @ Roxy
Feb. 14 - SE - Stockholm @ Klubben
Feb. 15 - SE - Gothenburg @ Musikens Hus
Feb. 16 - DE - Berlin @ K17
Feb. 17 - DE - Leipzig @ Conne Island
Feb. 20 - AT - Wien @ Arena
Feb. 21 - DE - Muenchen @ Feierwerk
Feb. 22 - IT - Roncade @ New Age Club
Feb. 23 - CH - Oberentfelden @ Boroem Poem Poem

Source:	necrophagist.de
Band profile:	Necrophagist
Event:	Necrophagist: Carving Europe's Epitaph Tour

Orphaned Land, Primordial and Naer Mataron have been confirmed for the Metal Healing Festival, set to take place July 20-22 in Greece. The Metal Healing Fest billing is now as follows (alphabetical order):

Destruction
Ektomorf
Firewind
Mystic Prophecy
Naer Mataron
Nightrage
Orphaned Land
Primordial
Rotting Christ
Silent Rage
The Haunted
To/Die/For
Wastefall

Source:	metalbolt.com
Band profile:	Orphaned Land
Event:	Metal Healing Festival

Vocalist A.A. Nemtheanga from Irish metallers Primordial has issued the following update on the band's official website:

"The song-writing for the new album has been coming along, slowly as usual but gradually happening none the less. To my ears at least it sounds more up tempo then gathering. There is one song which is mainly blast-beats and some more mid-up tempo anthemic sounding tracks. The projection for going into the studio is april/may 2007 but time is most definitely not constant in primordial land so that's completely open to change. as much of a pain for Metal Blade as that will be.

I had planned on doing backing vocals on the new Rotting Christ album and also was asked and duly contributed a lyric for sakis, sadly neither happened. The vocals because of studio money/time constraints and the lyrics because sakis hadn't a track for them! Next time. However the idea has been hatched to do a Primordial/Rotting Christ split 10" or something like that. So we shall see what happens there. Anyone who knows me knows my love of rotting christ and the fact triarchy of the lost lovers is one of my top 5 metal albums ever made...yep read that again !!!!. So i hope we can sort it out. There are plans to do some backing vocals for another rather famous band of panzer commanders later this year but we shall have to wait and see.

I can also say I will be doing all vocals for a new project with members of a band who you won't believe. Total kult. Its going to warp a few perceptions and crush all I can assure you. I cant reveal the name or the band yet but I will be able to very soon.

I nearly forgot, we have a mini tour of Finland confirmed for February with INSOMNIUM and HELLBOX. We will be stuck in the middle. Same set length as Insomnium etc. The last time we played in finland was at Nummirock and we had a complete blast so hopefully this will be mighty indeed.

There are a few other shows confirmed. The Metal Boat trip with disaster in April near Koblenz and a festival in Northern Greece with The Haunted and Rotting Christ and plans are afoot for a small tour in the US in summer 2007. We'll have too see what falls into place."

Source:	primordialweb.com
Band profile:	Primordial
Event:	Primordial: Finnish Dates

Killswitch Engage's new album entitled "As Daylight Dies" due on November 21 via Roadrunner Records, is now made available for streaming at the band's official MySpace Page.

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Killswitch Engage