Waiting for January 14th and the release of the new Belphegor opus Blood Magick Necromance is too hard? Then this studio trailer will help and give you a first glimpse of what's to come. Check out the trailer below, and leave your thoughts in the comment section.

Blood Magick Necromance album details were previously reported here.


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Source:	nuclearblast.de
Band profile:	Belphegor

That's right! Opeth will start the recording of their 10th album on the 31st of January 2011. The band has picked the legendary Atlantis Studios (ex Metronome studios) in Stockholm and will once again work with Jens Bogren engineering. Mixing duties will be handled by Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree).

A possible release worldwide is expected in Autumn of 2011 through Roadrunner Records. The new material has been described by the band as being "good".

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Source:	opeth.com
Band profile:	Opeth

German metallers Powerwolf have issued the following update on their MySpace blog:

"The wolves are currently busy writing the follow up album to Bible Of The Beast. We spent the last three months in the rehersal room working out stuff for the new album. Even though it's still in the making we can already promise the songs are 100% Powerwolf, taking off where Bible Of The Beast ended - there's furious stuff, there's epic stuff - and all of it is catchy as hell.

For the production we're going to team up with exactly the same crew as for Bible Of The Beast: Kohlekeller Studios for the recordings, any chapel we can haunt for organ and choir celebrations - and of course Studio Fredman and Fredric Nordström for mix.

The pack will invade studio in December and the recording process will last until February. Expect a tentative release midyear 2011. More details and updates will follow as we find a minute to draw a few lines."

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Powerwolf

Courtesy of Blabbermouth:

Wendy Dio, the wife/manager of late heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio, has told VH1 Radio that she encourages the surviving members of Heaven And Hell ? Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice ? to work together again under a different moniker.

"I don't know what they're doing right now," she said. "I know that Geezer's been asked several times, and he's just... he took it very hard. I don't really know what they're doing right now. They should do something else, with Vinny, too. I mean, the band was amazing, an amazing band and they should carry on to do something. It won't be called Heaven And Hell but whatever they call it, it will be great, it will be amazing."

On July 24, 2010, Iommi, Butler and Appice performed together at the High Voltage Festival at Victoria Park in London as a tribute to their fallen bandmate, Ronnie James Dio. Back then they were joined by legendary former Deep Purple/Black Sabbath singer Glenn Hughes and Masterplan vocalist Jorn Lande - who recently released his own tribute to Dio.

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Source:	roadrunnerrecords.com
Band profile:	Heaven And Hell

Korpiklaani are busy recording their new album, called Ukon Wacka deep in the woods of Finland. The band has now posted a video clip with some behind-the-scenes footage from the recording sessions. One of the brand-new songs, called "Tuoppi Oltta" (meaning something like - surprise surprise - "a pint of beer"), can be heard during the entire clip.

The Ukon Wacka release date is scheduled for February 4th 2011. More info can be read here.


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Source:	youtube.com
Band profile:	Korpiklaani

Oriental death metal band Arkan is currently in the studio, recording their new full-length, entitled Salam.

Earlier this week Arkan entered Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden to record their sophomore release, the follow-up to 2008's Hilal. The bass and drum parts are already recorded. You can follow a daily studio report on the band's MySpace.

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Source:	jorzine.com
Band profile:	Arkan

UK metallers Anterior have issued the following update on their MySpace blog:

"Hey all,

That's right! We have entered the studio to start drum tracking for the second anterior album! We start production tomorrow at Grindstone Studios with Scott Atkins at the helm.

We cannot wait for you to hear the new tracks, so keep an eye on the MySpace, Facebook and official Youtube page for updates and we will be uploading video diaries as we go along.

We will keep you posted and we love you all!"

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Anterior

Using the remaining time between the last festival and the upcoming South American tour (25th of November), Rammstein has visited a studio on the outskirts of Berlin in the past week. This week the light and sound rehearsals for the upcoming shows start again.

More details as the story develops.

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Source:	rammstein.de
Band profile:	Rammstein

Gore-metal originators Exhumed are currently in the studio recording their first full-length album since 2003's Anatomy Is Destiny.

Exhumed guitarist/vocalist/founder Matt Harvey, bassist Leon DelMuerte and guitarist Wes Caley are currently at Arcane Digital Recording in Arizona working with engineer Ryan Butler (Misery Index) to record vocals, bass and guitar tracks. Exhumed drummer Danny Walker previously laid down his drum tracks at Trench Studios with John Haddad (Abysmal Dawn, Intronaut). Mixing and mastering will be handled by Brian Elliott (Graves Of Valor) at Mana Recording Studios (Cannibal Corpse, Goatwhore, Nile).

Matt Harvey recently checked in from the studio with the following update: "So far we're really psyched on what's been oozing out of the speakers! The guitars are sounding really aggressive right out of the box. I can't wait to get into the vocals and flesh out the songs. We have 18 songs to work through while we're here and then we'll sort through and cherry-pick the heaviest, ugliest tracks for the new record, which is gonna be titled All Guts, No Glory. I think it builds on all the best shit from our first three records and should disgust and revolt any poseurs out there!"

All Guts, No Glory is expected to see a spring 2011 release date. Additional, detailed studio updates will be posted on the band's MySpace page, Facebook page, and new blog.

Exhumed has confirmed that their first North American appearance in support of the new album will be as part of Maryland Deathfest 2011.

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Source:	relapse.com
Band profile:	Exhumed

MelodicRock Records press release

MelodicRock Records is proud to announce the release of yet another debut album - this time Italian symphonic metal outfit Violet Sun. Their debut album Loneliness In Supremacy will be released November 19, with pre-orders shipping November 12.

The idea to create the band Violet Sun came in 2005 after Dario Grillo heard the voice of Alessandra Amata, a singer of great talent of Catania well known in the Sicilian musical circle. Dario had some very interesting unpublished work that proposed to her. Alessandra immediately showed herself to be very enthusiastic about the project and so in a few months they began to work to the drawing up and the realization of the songs contained in the debut album Loneliness In Supremacy.

Loneliness In Supremacy is not a normal metal album, but a real blended work in which the styles such as classic and opera music, heavy metal, oriental, progressive, AOR music blend perfectly together to create impactful melodies. This record places itself midway between a real Metal Opera (Avantasia, Aina, Nostradamus) and bands as Nightwish, Epica, Kamelot.

MelodicRock Records owner Andrew McNeice: "There is nothing harder in this scene than breaking in a new name, but just as my other signings have impressed, so to do did Violet Sun. One listen and I called upon Dario to sign up. I wasn't looking for a heavier project to add to the label, but taking each release on it's merits, this just screamed out for attention. The production is simple world class. Intense themes, immense arrangements and the power and emotion of the material appealed to me instantly. I am very happy to have such a strong group of artists involved in the label and Violet Sun only enhance that."

Audio samples of the album can be heard at this location. Also a review by Thryce can be found here.

Loneliness In Supremacy cover art] tracklist:

01. Dust In The Wind
02. Inside Out
03. Midnight
04. When The Lights Go Down
05. Cross The Line
06. Falling In Love
07. Where Is My Way Home
08. My Flame Still Burns
09. Pray On The Grave
10. Break Your Chains
11. Synthetic Pleasures
12. Loneliness In Supremacy


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Source:

melodicrockrecords.com

As you might remember, back in September, Finnish metallers Moonsorrow started recording their new full-length album. Now, on the 23rd studio day, guitarist Mitja Harvilahti has issued what might be the weirdest studio update in the history of studio updates, talking about a Moonsorrow side project called, uhm, Penectomy. Have a look at this:

"Last week we drove some 100km to the woods. In the woods there was a cabin. In the cabin we recorded Ville´s lead vocals. The landscape was truely beautiful with the trees turning to yellow, red, brown etc. I´m currently writing this at the Sonic Pump studios where we are preparing the tracks to be mixed.

Henri, Ville and Markus are discussing about things that people put in their asses. Jelly jars, potatos, and fists etc.

Now they are searching for a band called Penectomy. If it does not exist, they will put up a project like that right away.

No there is not one.

So, Moonsorrow has a new official side project called Penectomy. Demo (tape? CD? MP3?) to be released next year."

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Source:	moonsorrow2010.blogspot.com
Band profile:	Moonsorrow

Swedish metallers The Haunted have issued the short following update on their MySpace blog:

"A studio report is up Link] and running and we will try to give you frequent updates about the recording process.

Recording will start tomorrow (Monday) in Antfarm - Aarhus, Denmark, and will once again be produced by Tue Madsen.

This is the 7th full length album by The Haunted."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	The Haunted

Irish metallers Primordial have issued the following update on their MySpace blog:

"It's been a while since my last confession.

Joking aside it really has been a long time since our last transmission and the reasons are manifold and really pretty simple. This has been one of the most tumultuous years in the band since the mid nineties. The wheels very nearly came clean off, so where do I start.

We can't go any further without clearing up the drummer situation. Truth is, we had an incident in Greece that if you follow or know anything about the band has been well documented so we won't go into again. Simon had some real problems that night, firstly we thank the Greek fans for their understanding and we will be back in 2011. Yes it's true in the aftermath of that we auditioned some drummers and I must also thank everyone who applied from abroad, the Irish drummers we did play with and everyone who sent us emails and messages wishing us strength and asking after Simon.

Suffice is to say Simon is the drummer of Primordial and I have no doubt this will never change, he is fit and well and we rehearsed yesterday. For our own piece of mind we had to audition people and in hindsight maybe something positive came out of it in that we had to put the album recording back and I feel we will be better prepared. We all of course have a long history together of over two decades in various personal combinations and to put it mundanely you go through ups and downs and this year has had more than it's fair share of downs. For the first time in years we played a few very average shows and by our own admission became unfocused. Yet as always we regroup, our own biggest critics and in one month we enter the studio to record album number seven.

We would like to extend massive thanks to Gareth Averill for filling in at short notice for a fistful of gigs over the summer. In case you didn't know he's the guy who shot and edited our dvd and as you may recognise, my cousin. He stood up to the plate and in a couple of days learned our set, having been a session drummer in the Irish indie/rock scene for a decade. The whole experience and auditioning drummers at the very least gave us a greater insight into the dynamic that makes Primordial Primordial and that dynamic belongs to all five of us. We may have stand ins for shows now and again because we are not a professional band nor make a living from it and life gets in the way of us all doing every show but we realised that replace one of the five of us creatively and Primordial is not Primordial.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Primordial

Dark Moor has uploaded three audio samples from their upcoming album Ancestral Romance scheduled for release in November. The audio samples are of the first three songs off that record and you can listen to them at the band's MySpace page.

The theme of Ancestral Romance revolves around Spain's culture and history, as is well established in pieces like "Oh Wretched me! ", based on the "Life is a Dream" by Calderon de la Barca , "Tilt at Windmills" based on Don Quixote, "Mio Cid " inspired by the legend of the Spanish hero El Cid, "Alaric de Marnac", an adaptation of Paul Naschy's latest book of the same title, "Love from Stone" which tells of the legend of the lovers of Teruel, "Gadir" inspired by the first city founded in Europe: Cádiz, or "Ritual Fire Dance", adaptation of "Danza del Fuego" by Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer.

All lyrics have been written by the Spanish poet Francisco José García, the band's usual collaborator. The album also features Dark Moor's first song in Spanish, "La Canción del Pirata", where the band has put music to the famous poem by Espronceda.

You can find all album details again here.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Dark Moor

US metallers Hammer Horde will be returning to Dimmworks Studios at the end of November to begin recording their 2nd album. The band's as yet untitled forthcoming album is expected to be released sometime in 2011.

Photo and video updates of the band in the studio will be available online as production continues.

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Source:	hammerhorde.com
Band profile:	Hammer Horde