Soon Firewind will return with a highly anticipated new album entitled Days of Defiance, which is due October 25th, 2010 via Century Media Records in Europe. Fans have already the chance to get a special advance taste of Days Of Defiance for free!

Century Media has launched a download page that will allow you to get the furious album's opening track "The Ark Of Lies" completely free after you tweet or Facebook about the song. Go HERE for more details.

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Source:	centurymedia.com
Band profile:	Firewind

Firewind are coming to Japan at the beginning of next year. The band will play three headlining shows at the following places:

January 10th 2011: Osaka/Shinsaibashi @ Club Quattro
January 11th 2011: Nagoya/Nagoya @ Club Quattro
January 12th 2011: Tokyo/Shibuya @ Club Quattro

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Firewind
Event:	Firewind

Firewind has premiered the new video of the lead-off single from their upcomming album Days of Defiance exclusively on MetalSucks. The clip was shot by the renowned director Patric Ullaeus (Dimmu Borgir, In Flames, Lacuna Coil). Head over to this location to watch the new Firewind video.

Guitarist Gus G. commented: "The video for "World on Fire" was shot entirely on green screen and I think this time Patric Ullaeus has outdone himself! The concept is based on the album cover artwork and it's something we're doing for the first time on a video of ours. There's a barbaric vibe to it, lots of fire, metal warriors and even a Valkyrie. We're very pleased with the final result and we believe this is our best video yet. Check it out and let the Firewind rage on."

Days of Defiance comes out October 25 on Century Media.

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Source:	metalsucks.net
Band profile:	Firewind

Firewind will celebrate the upcoming release of the new album Days of Defiance with a limited number of special North American headlining shows. The trek, which kicks off on November 4th and runs all the way through November 7th, features Powerglove and The Absence in the support slots.

Gus G. states: "We are very happy to announce four special album release shows in North America this fall in support of our new record, Days of Defiance. It"s been awhile since Firewind played North America, as our last tour was Spring/Summer 2008. This is a very special run for us, as it will be the first time we'll play the new songs live. It also might be awhile until we come back for a full North American run, so we REALLY hope to see many of you come out to these shows. We'll be sure to rock you to the ground and that's a promise!"

November 4th - Volume 11 - Raleigh, NC
November 5th - Jaxx - West Springfield, VA
November 6th - The Gramercy - New York, NY
November 7th - Les Foufounes Electriques - Montreal, Que

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Source:	firewind.gr
Band profile:	Firewind
Event:	Firewind: US Mini Tour

Greek melodic metal phenomenon Firewind has returned with the scathing new studio album effort Days of Defiance, which is easily their defining musical moment. The much anticipated disc is set for an October 25th release in Europe, as well as an October 26th release in North America. Days of Defiance is a truly ambitious and dynamic opus featuring some of the most brilliant guitar playing the genre has seen in many years.

The striking cover artwork was designed by the band's longtime partner in all design matters, Gustavo Sazes, and can now be viewed here.

Firewind's guitarist and songwriter Gus G., currently on tour with Ozzy Osbourne in Europe, checks in with the following comment about the album and its artwork: "I'm very excited and cannot wait for our fans to listen to our new album! We feel we've captured great performances and took our songwriting to the next level on this one. There's tons of cool guitar on there and I believe Bob has finally managed to reach warp-speed with his keyboard solos! Even more seriously, I highly recommend that you listen to this album at a very loud volume.

As for the artwork, it was once again done by our visual wizard and webmaster extraordinaire, Gustavo Sazes. This time we asked Gustavo to come up with a great landscape scenery, with a more traditional approach and even get the "pencil" style of artwork on there, but also combine it with more modern stuff. So, he gave us that... with a slight futuristic, sci-fi element and I think the end result is stunning!"

Click here to view an album trailer, featuring a short advance clip of the new "World On Fire" video.

Days Of Defiance cover art] tracklist:

01. The Ark Of Lies
02. World On Fire
03. Chariot
04. Embrace The Sun
05. The Departure
06. Heading For The Dawn
07. Broken
08. Cold As Ice
09. Kill In The Name Of Love
10. SKG
11. Losing Faith
12. The Yearning
13. When All Is Said And Done
14. Riding On The Wind

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Firewind

Greek metal phenomenon Firewind - led by the young guitar sensation Gus G. - has returned with the scathing new effort Days of Defiance, which is easily their defining moment. The much anticipated disc is set for an October 26th North American release (October 25th throughout Europe) and it's a truly ambitious and dynamic opus featuring some of the most brilliant guitar playing the genre has seen in many years. Watch a new trailer featuring a clip of the new World On Fire single below.

This World On Fire single will be available for purchase on digital platforms starting on August 17th, so keep an eye out for that.

Gus G. further states: "Usually when we write an album we let the music come to us and go with the flow. Maybe that's why our albums have variety and you can hear everything from super heavy songs, to speed metal shredding, to rock anthems and ballads. Days of Defiance wasn't much different in the making, but this time we recorded almost all of it in our home studios, which allowed us to be more relaxed. That's why I feel the new album features the best performances by all of us. One of our main goals though was to get a bit more of an 'unpolished' sound and be more raw. I think we achieved it and that gives an extra heaviness to the overall sound. We mixed the album in Helsinki, Finland at Sonic Pump Studios. Nino Laurenne (Thunderstone) and Tapio Pennanen mixed it and they did a killer job. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do."

Be sure to stay tuned in the coming weeks for the new album's cover art and tracklisting.


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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Firewind

Firewind are checking in at last with good news regarding current activities as well as first details about their upcoming new studio album, which was completed throughout the last months and which will be ready to be launched worldwide via Century Media Records in the autumn of 2010.

Firewind mastermind and current Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G. checks in as follows: "I know it's been a few silent months, but this time we decided to be pretty quiet about the recording process of our new album. Anyways, before we go into revealing more info, we recently did a very fun project which was to be a part of Metal Hammer UK's Tribute CD to Judas Priest, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the British Steel album.

We actually recorded everything for that cover song in our home studios and then passed over the files to Fredrik Nordström / Studio Fredman in Sweden for the mix. This also marks our first recording with our new drummer, Michael Ehre and the end result is killer (in our humble opinion), as we got to cover one of Metal's most classic songs: "Breaking The Law"!

As for our new album, it's scheduled for a release sometime this autumn and the name of it is Days Of Defiance. We'll soon check back and reveal more info, song names, etc."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Firewind

Greek melodic metal act Firewind have posted a statement regarding a recent line-up change in the light of the band's upcoming live shows in Mexico:

"Firewind has decided to part ways with drummer Mark Cross due to personal differences. We thank Mark for his work and contribution to Firewind and wish him good luck in the future. Behind the kit, for the upcoming Mexico shows will be Michael Ehre (Uli Jon Roth, Metalium, Kee Marcello, etc.). Michael's a beast, a truly fantastic player with years of experience next to top musicians and bands and we're very happy to have him on board! You can check Michael out here."

Firewind is currently working hard on their new studio album release which is expected to surface via Century Media Records later this year.

Firewind: Live Premonition in Mexico 2010:

Feb. 12th - Mexico City, Mexico - Hard Rock Live
Feb. 13th - Puebla, Mexico - Bulldog Cafe
Feb. 14th - Mexico City, Mexico - Bicentennial Fest

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Firewind

Guitarist Gus G. of Greek metallers Firewind has issued the following update:

"The past few months for us have been really great. We decided to do select shows and festivals in 2009, so that we can concentrate on writing new material.

So in May we embarked on a 6 date UK / Ireland tour together with Stratovarius and Eden's Curse. All gigs were great and we already miss our UK fans right now... but we'll be back in UK and Ireland in 2010 that's for sure!

So, straight out of the final gig with Stratovarius and into the festival mood we played a bunch of great festivals like Metal Days (Switzerland), Rock Hard (Germany), Graspop (Belgium) for the 2nd year in a row and Tuska (Finland). Then we played a very special show in Greece (and the only one for the rest of the year). We played with the Scorpions & Dokken @ Creta Festival which took place in the beautiful island of Crete. I'm sure all good tourists know where that is.

Not only did we use special pyro for that show, but I also ended up joining my idols, Scorpions, on stage and played "Rock You Like A Hurricane"! This was beyond my imagination and I sure wasn't dreaming! I thank the Scorpions for being so nice to us and for the once-in-a-lifetime invitation to play with them, I'll never forget it!

We're now ready to do the final 3 shows of the summer:

July 19 - Unirock - Turkey
August 14 - Summer Breeze - Germany
August 28 - Ilha Do Ermal festival - Portugal

We'll see you all out there!"

Regarding the upcoming recording session, Gus G. adds:

"So while we've been doing all these select shows this year, we concentrated mainly on writing new material. I can tell you right now that we have 12 great vocal songs and 2 instrumentals. While it's too early to know what will end up on the album, all of us in the band are very pleased with the demos and pre-production we did and we are positive that we're creating the best album of our career so far!

We're planning to enter the studio this Autumn and looking into possibilities of who will be mixing our new album.

As for the material itself, I'd say it's what our fans would expect from us. Powerful rock / metal anthems with cool riffs and memorable vocal lines from Apollo, but also some faster & more technical stuff is on there. We also wrote a very challenging instrumental song. It will have a fusion of styles and advanced playing from all of us. Needless to say the guitar will shred like never before!

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Source:	firewind.gr
Band profile:	Firewind

Firewind have posted the following announcement on their website:

"Due to the complete anarchy, disorder and chaos that goes on in Greece at the moment, we're in the unfortunate position to inform you that the upcoming shows in Greece and Bulgaria this weekend will not happen and are postponed. We feel that the situation is not safe for anyone right now and it's beyond our control to make these shows happen. We appreciate your understanding and support."

The shows are postponed for the following dates:

Firewind + Eldritch with special guest Tara Teresa

Friday Jan. 09 2009 - Sofia, BUL @ Blue Box Club
Saturday Jan. 10 2009 - Thessaloniki, GR @ Principal Club Theater
Sunday Jan. 11 2009 - Athens, GR @ Gagarin 205

To those who have already purchased tickets: the tickets are still valid for the shows!

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Source:	firewind.gr
Band profile:	Firewind
Event:	Firewind [POSTPONED]

Firewind are about to unleash their first ever live release as DVD/2CD/Deluxe DVD+2CD in November. Entitled "Live Premonition", it contains a stunning 22-song set filmed earlier this year in the band's hometown Thessaloniki.

"Live Premonition" DVD track listing:

I. Main Live Show (approx. 100 min)

01. Allegiance
02. Insanity
03. Into The Fire
04. Head Up High
05. Mercenary Man
06. Angels Forgive Me
07. My Loneliness
08. Circle Of Life
09. The Silent Code
10. Life Foreclosed
11. Destination Forever
12. Keyboard Solo
13. Guitar Solo
14. The Fire And The Fury
15. Drum Solo / Dreamchaser
16. Till The End Of Time
17. Deliverance
18. Brother's Keeper
19. Between Heaven And Hell
20. I Am The Anger
21. Falling To Pieces
22. Tyranny

II. Extras:

a) Documentary / Tales Of The Greek Road Warriors (19:49)
b) Promotional Videos:

Mercenary Man (3:27)
Head Up High (3:46)
Falling To Pieces (3:19)
Breaking The Silence (4:01)

c) Unplugged - MAD TV Sessions:

My Loneliness (4:05)
Where Do We Go From Here? (3:22)

d) Live In Montreal 2008:

Head Up High (4:41)
The Fire And The Fury (4:43)
Till The End Of Time (5:36)

The two-CD version of "Live Premonition" consists of the audio part of the main Thessaloniki show on two separate CDs, available for the price of one. The deluxe edition of "Live Premonition" contains both the DVD as well as the two-CD set in special additional dicgipack artwork and an O-card.

"Live Premonition" release dates in Europe:

Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Italy: Friday, November 7
Spain, Portugal: Tuesday, November 11
Sweden, Finland, Hungary: Wednesday, November 12
UK, France, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Rest Of Europe: Monday, November 10

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Source:	www2.centurymedia.com
Band profile:	Firewind

Bob Katsionis (guitars, keyboards) recently recorded an instructional lesson that can now be viewed on FireTV, the band's official YouTube page here. Stay tuned for new episodes featuring vocal lessons from Apollo, drum lessons from Mark and additional Gus G. clips, which should be posted over the next couple of weeks.

Katsionis further comments: "In this series of lessons, I will show and explain some of my keyboard solos and parts out of 'The Premonition' album as well as present some of my simultaneous keyboard and guitar performances as these have been seen during FIREWIND gigs. This first video lesson contains stuff from the songs 'Into The Fire,' 'Angels Forgive Me' and some lead keyboard licks."

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Source:	blog.myspace.com
Band profile:	Firewind

In support of their new album "The Premonition", Firewind will return to European stages for a headlining tour. Not all the dates have been confirmed yet, but a list of announced dates so far can be seen below. For the Spanish and French shows, the band will be supported by Germany's Brainstorm and Finland's Kiuas. More dates will be announced very soon as will information about purchasing tickets.

Here is a list of the dates:

12.11.08 - Lyon, France @ Marche Gare
13.11.08 - Toulouse, France @ Havanna
14.11.08 - Bilbao, Spain @ Santana 27
15.11.08 - Vigo, Spain @ A
16.11.08 - Madrid, Spain @ Ritmo & Compas
17.11.08 - Hospitalet/Barcelona, Spain @ Salamandra
19.11.08 - Paris, France @ La Locomotive
20.11.08 - Colmar, France @ Grillen
21.11.08 - Milan, Italy @ Zoe (special guest: Kiuas)

Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Firewind

Greek melodic metal masters Firewind are glad to premier the first track taken off their forthcoming, much anticipated fifth album "The Premonition". The song is entitled "Mercenary Man" and will also be released as a CD-single in the band's home country, the song is streaming at the is location.

"The Premonition" scheduled for a release on March 24th in Europe, album cover art can be viewed here.

Album tracklisting:

01. Into The Fire
02. Head Up High
03. Mercenary Man
04. Angels Forgive Me
05. Remembered
06. My Loneliness
07. Circle Of Life
08. The Silent Code
09. Maniac
10. Life Foreclosed

Bandleader and guitar-wizard Gus G. advances some own words about the new material:

"Although the CD starts out with a pretty intense song ("Into The Fire") which is like a six and half minute riffing, shredding and double bass madness, the next few songs are what I'd call modern hard rock - if I have to put a tag on it!

I think there's a lot of cool guitar stuff all over the album and generally this is a more guitar-oriented effort. Our influences draw from Thin Lizzy to Black Sabbath and Megadeth and you can clearly hear that on the riffs and guitar melodies.

Songwriting-wise I think all songs are special and once again everyone was involved in the writing - we basically kept the Allegiance "winning team" together.

Thus, we once again recorded and mixed @ Studio Fredman in Sweden. Fredrik really knows the sounds we're after and delivers it in no time! We tried a few different things in the engineering this time - mainly with the drums and guitars and I feel we have a pretty tight, bone crushing Metal sound.

As for surprises we decided to cover the 80s pop smash hit, "Maniac", not because we're such lovers of the film "Flashdance", but because it's a kick ass song, period. Who knows, maybe we'll get to do a remake of that famous video one day!"

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Firewind

The following message was posted on Firewind's website by guitarists Gus G.:

"Looking back on 2007 now I can say that I'm very happy with what we've accomplished with Firewind. We toured heavily for the "Allegiance" album and our world tour passed thru 22 countries and we did about 100 shows to promote it. We had great times touring with some of metal's premier bands such as DragonForce, All That Remains, Angra, Kamelot, Sonata Arctica, etc. through Europe, UK, North America and Japan. We even got to play in Tunisia for the first time!

After a successful Japan tour this October we're finally wrapping up our World Allegiance tour with two final festivals in Europe - one in Spain (Senderos Del Rock) and one in Denmark (Prog Power Scandinavia).

But you know, they say: no rest for the wicked! We're going back in the studio at the end of this year to record our brand new album and I can't tell you how excited we are. It really feels like it's time to record and play some new music! We wrote a bunch of material already and we're soon entering Sweden's Studio Fredman to record our fifth album. No album title yet, but here are some of the new song titles: Remembered, Life Foreclosed, The Silent Code, Mercenary Man, My Loneliness, Head Up High.

More info to come soon! Cheers, Gus."

The new album is expected to surface via Century Media Records in Spring 2008 and Firewind have just announced their first European tour to promote the new material for April/May 2008 when they will hit stages with Kamelot and support act Visions Of Atlantis.

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Source:	firewind.gr
Band profile:	Firewind