More and more details are surfacing regarding the The Big Four: Live From Sonisphere 2010 concert that is being released on Blu-Ray, DVD, DVD Deluxe Version via Universal Music in the UK and Europe on October 11th and Universal Japan on October 13th. A North American release date is expected on October 12th.

According to BW&BK sources, the Deluxe edition DVD Box set includes five CD's featuring each band's entire live set. The Deluxe Edition also features an event poster, posters from each band (four posters) and guitar pick (subject to change). The Box size: 20.5 x 15 x 4cm (subject to change).

The package documents the landmark tour where Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax played together for the first time in their history. The Big Four: Live From Sonisphere 2010 contains footage from the Sonisphere Festival at Sofia, Bulgaria in front of 100,000 fans this past June 22nd. The night also featured the legendary jam cover of the Diamond Head classic "Am I Evil?" by all bands.

Metallica setlist:

01. Creeping Death
02. For Whom The Bell Tolls
03. Fuel
04. Harvester Of Sorrow
05. Fade To Black
06. That Was Just Your Life
07. Cyanide
08. Sad But True
09. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
10. All Nightmare Long
11. One
12. Master Of Puppets
13. Blackened
14. Nothing Else Matters
15. Enter Sandman

Encore:
16. Am I Evil? (with The Big Four)
17. Hit The Lights
18. Seek and Destroy

Slayer setlist:

01. World Painted Blood
02. Jihad
03. War Ensemble
04. Hate Worldwide
05. Seasons in the Abyss
06. Angel of Death
07. Beauty Through Order
08. Disciple
09. Mandatory Suicide
10. Chemical Warfare
11. South of Heaven
12. Raining Blood

Megadeth setlist:

01. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
02. Hangar 18
03. Wake Up Dead
04. Headcrusher
05. In My Darkest Hour
06. Skin O' My Teeth
07. A Tout Le Monde
08. Hook In Mouth
09. Trust
10. Sweating Bullets
11. Symphony Of Destruction
12. Peace Sells

Anthrax setlist:

01. Caught in a Mosh
02. Got the Time
03. Madhouse
04. Be All, End All
05. Antisocial
06. Indians
07. Medusa
08. Only
09. Metal Thrashing Mad
10. I Am The Law

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Source:

bravewords.com

Swiss grindcore act Female Nose Breaker have been on a break since February following the snowboard accident of drummer Cyrill, who broke his back and wrist, and now has to fight cancer.

In an update, he writes: "After my snowboard accident in February, where I broke my back and wrist, I also have to fight and beat damn cancer since May (had brain tumour and brain surgery). But yeah, I think positive, stay strong and I'm fucking ready to beat this shit, no matter what happens!!"

The band further adds: "But don't think we're not doing anything. We started writing new songs some weeks ago. Our goal is the first full length, which we hopefully can record in the end of 2010 or early 2011! Another big goal is to be ready for live action again, but this maybe have to wait a bit, cause of Cyrill's sickness. We'll try to record one or two songs in the next few months just for our fans and supporters to show you that we're still active and more brutal than ever before!"

More info on the band on MySpace.

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Source:

blogs.myspace.com

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Amorphis, the band has re-recorded a selection of classic tracks for a special retrospective. Magic & Mayhem - Tales From The Early Years will be in stores September 17 (Finland: September 15) and features songs originally released between 1991 and 1996.

Magic & Mayhem - Tales From The Early Years cover art] tracklist:

01. Magic And Mayhem
02. Vulgar Necrolatry
03. Into Hiding
04. Black Winter Day
05. On Rich And Poor
06. Exile Of The Sons Of Uisliu
07. The Castaway
08. Song Of The Troubled One
09. Sign From The North Side
10. Drowned Maid
11. Against Widows
12. My Kantele
13. Light My Fire

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Source:	amorphis.net
Band profile:	Amorphis

US Post-Metal/Post-Rock act Gifts From Enola are streaming their self-titled new album online. You can check it out at this location.

The accompanying press release says: "Gifts From Enola have created an album that finally and perfectly captures the intensity of their live show and expands upon all of their past ideas ten-fold. Or maybe they've simply taken past ideas to their logical extremes, destroyed them, and birthed brand new ideas from their ashes. Either way, the band continues to evolve at an astonishing rate and further pushes their sonic spectrum into an unclassifiable area that is all at once hard to explain, but impossibly easy to listen to. And we don't mean that in the "easy-listening" genre of music sense either. If anything, the band has become more technical and heavier than even the heaviest parts of From Fathoms (their critically acclaimed 2009 release), not in a "breakdown-and-beat-you-over-the-head" sort of way, but more in the album's overall sound.

With more attention to dynamics than ever before, and a recording that truly demonstrates a band approaching a creative zenith, the new Gifts From Enola album is a lock to defy expectations and raise the creative bar yet again. Easily staying ahead of the pack by pushing themselves to color outside any preset guidelines laid down before them, the band has never intentionally shunned convention - but simply write music with their collective heart on their sleeve.

The album was mixed and mastered by Moving Mountains guitarist/vocalist Gregory Dunn with artwork handled by Three Bears Design. This marks the bands third full length release, following up Loyal Eyes Betrayed The Mind (2006, The Mylene Sheath) and From Fathoms (2009, The Mylene Sheath), as well as a split CD with Seattle, WA's You.May.Die.In.The.Desert (2008, Differential). Gifts From Enola is a band through flirting with their potential, as this album proves, this is band that has fearlessly reached the next level."

Here's the link to the stream again.

Gifts From Enola cover art] tracklist:

01. Lionized
02. Dime And Suture
03. Alagoas
04. Grime And Glass
05. Rearview

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Source:

archive.constantcontact.com

Finnish melodic death metallers Omnium Gatherum have signed a deal with Lifeforce Records. The band will enter the studio this month to record their fifth album and an early 2011 release is expected. The band issued the following statement:

"We're very pleased to announce that Omnium Gatherum is now a part of the Lifeforce Records family. After a lot of consideration and negotiating with many parties, we came to a conclusion that Lifeforce is the way to go! They've been showing the right kind of interest in us for some time now and it seems that they have the same honest attitude towards music and mayhem as we do.

The material for the 5th Omnium Gatherum masterpiece is now almost finished and we're ready and 100% confident to hit the studio in the end of August. This time we've really put a lot of time and effort on the pre-production of the stuff. It's going to be an epic and massive attack of ever flowing stream of Finnish "melodic death metal", straight from the souls of black.

The album will be out early spring 2011 and before that the Omnium Gatherum crew will escape from the studio and tour Finland with Dark Tranquillity."

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Source:	lifeforcerecords.com
Band profile:	Omnium Gatherum

Germany pagen folk metal band Wolfchant have checked in with the news about the departure of guitarist Derrmorh and an update on the new album. The following announcement was made:

"After 5 years, Derrmorh leaves the band for the time being. He's heading straight to the USA to spend one semester there for his studies. We say thank you for the great time we had together and we wish him all the best as well as success for his future. As a consequence, we would like to introduce Ragnar as our new guitarist who will play his first gigs with us already in August.

Furthermore, we are working very hard on our new album which is going to be called Call of the Black Winds. We will enter Markus Stock's Klangschmiede E (Empyrium, The Vision Bleak, Eisregen, Eluveitie, etc.) in November to record our new songs."

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Source:	wolfchant-metal.com
Band profile:	Wolfchant

Veteran thrashers Sodom have entered the studio to record the new album, In War and Pieces. According to the band, the album will be released later this year, on November 22th by the SPV/Steamhammer record label.

Famous producer Waldemar Sorychta - who previously worked with such acts as Tiamat, Moonspell and Sentenced - has been hired for the recordings.

Sodom bassist/vocalist Thomas "Angelripper" Such recently said the following about the new material: "There has never been a Sodom album which is so wide-ranged, as powerful and as typically Sodom as this one."

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Source:	sodomized.info
Band profile:	Sodom

Finnish metallers Profane Omen posted a blog entry confirming their show at Sonisphere Finland. The band also revealed they're working on some new material. You can read the entire statement below:

"We are confirmed to play in this year's Sonisphere Festival in Finland. The festival takes place in Pori's Kirjurinluoto on the 7th-8th of August and our day is the 8th. We'll have the priviledge of playing among some of our all time favourite bands such as Iron Maiden, Slayer and Anthrax. This basically means that the show will be our biggest one so far, we are extremely excited about this and the set will be a 30 minute beating right from the start till the end! We hope to see you there!

At the moment we're working on new songs, doing demos and putting riffs in the bank. We're hoping to get to the studio next spring and at the moment everything looks very good."

2959]

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Profane Omen

Revolution Renaissance mastermind Timo Tolkki has issued the following statement regarding the ultimate fate of the band:

"Due to my private problems, the lack of interest in Revolution Renaissance shows by the promoters, and the current situation in the music industry that affects to everything including the production budgets, it has become impossible to continue the band.

We have tried to book shows in these last three years, but we haven't been able to do so. A rock band cannot exist without direct contact to its fans. Therefore, I have no other choice but to make the decision to stop the band and its activities due to the above mentioned reasons.

The third and final album of the band, Trinity, will be released at the end of September.

From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank all the fans of my music throughout the years. It's been a great journey."

32187 for the news]

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Revolution Renaissance

US heavy rockers Soil have issued the following update on their MySpace blog:

"I'm sure you are all wondering what is happening in the world of SoiL after all the rumors and statements that have been going around. Late last week we learned of AJ's intentions as he notified us of his "indefinite hiatus". Then we learned of Tom's intentions, As did all of you, via the Blabbermouth statement he issued a few days ago.

We have decided that the show must and will go on. We refuse to let the fans, promoters, and radio stations down on such short notice. We decided to ask our friend's Jordan Lee (vox) and Mike Tignino (drums) to fill in. Both Jordan and Mike are awesome musicians and have been long time Soil followers and to us it is an honor to have them join us for the already confirmed shows. We will take full advantage of this opportunity to perform some classic songs we haven't played in years and can promise you we will deliver a powerful and energetic show that will meet and surpass the standards we have always set for our live shows.

You can either take a bad situation and make it worse, or you can rise above and make it a fun event that everyone can remember and walk away from having a good time. We plan on doing just that. So to the fans, come out to see some classics we haven't played in ages, Have a good time and enjoy yourself! After all that is what rock and roll is all about!

Humbly,
Tim & Adam."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	SOiL

Therion bassist Nalle Påhlsson has announced he'll be sitting the upcoming South American and European headlining tours. In a message on the band's website he writes:

"I'm writing here to announce that I am not gonna be part of the tour that will start in October 2010, and the reasons are:

I´m alone with my two children and it´s not possible for me to be away for over two months.
I´m right now studying and I have to complete my education this autumn.
I have lately had a drinking-problem, and to be on tour is not the best thing for me right now.

I´m doing well at home, feeling good and everything is under control and that´s the way I´m gonna stay and keep it! If everything goes as planned I´m gonna stay member of Therion playing on the forthcoming albums and hopefully I will also be able to show up and play live in the future."

And about the upcoming album Sitra Ahra he says: "I´m also very glad, pleased and satisfied about my playing on the forthcoming album Sitra Ahra that will be released in September 2010! I really think this album will be well received by all of you fans! - It´s absolutely great!"

As you know, touring/session vocalist Snowy Shaw departed earlier this month.

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Source:	megatherion.com
Band profile:	Therion

Some weeks ago, Swedish death metal band Evocation finished recording their new album. Their long awaited third album Apocalyptic will hit the streets somewhere this autumn.

Guitarist Marko talked about the recording process - shortly before Thomas Josefsson recorded the vocals - as follows: "Everything was progressing just as we planned! For the drums we had some amazing help this time - Roberto Laghi (Producer for In Flames etc.). And the result - well to be honest I haven't ever heard such an amazing drum sound... Prepare to be blown away... Same goes for the guitars and the bass as well - the sound has progressed and is more evil than ever! Next up to get to work is Thomas (vocals). After having heard his ideas for the vocal patterns together with the songs we all feel very confident that this album will become by far our strongest achievement up to date. It might sound like a cliché but trust me and wait until the album is released."

At the moment the band is busy mixing and mastering the material and after having heard some first samples of the finished stuff, you can prepare for another big happening, when Apocalyptic finally will hit the shops in late October/early November.

Evocation will also play a special gig together with label-mates Facebreaker in support and showcasing their new album. Evocation fans will have a chance to listen to a couple of songs off the new record as early as September 3rd. The gig will take place at The cool Bambi Galore club in Hamburg, Germany.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Evocation

Swiss doom/sludge band Rorcal will release its second studio album Heliogabalus in September. The cover art will approximately look like this.

According to a press release: "Going right out of inferno, Heliogabalus is a 70 minutes song which illustrate the decadence of a roman emperor. This time Rorcal is going ways further than before, with crushing doom parts, including long hellish droning fields.

This album is scary, really aggressive, completely gloomy. Be sure, you never heard something like that, and you never will. Rorcal is doom at its best, it's like Hell on Earth. If you're looking for something really extreme, this is exactly what you need.

Released by Cal of Ror Records (Lilium Sova), in partnership with Division Records (Kehlvin, Unfold, Vancouver), this monolith will be presented in a A6 digifile, including 6 pages booklet, limited to 500 copies, hand numbered.

Expect something really slow, really doom and droning. In just a word: Hard. More than ever."

Two rough samples are already streaming at the band's MySpace.

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Source:

blogs.myspace.com

Kiske/Somerville, the rock project formed by vocalists Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween) and Amanda Somerville (Aina, Avantasia, HDK) and featuring bassist Mat Sinner (Primal Fear, Sinner), guitarists Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Allen/Lande) and Sander Gommans (ex-After Forever, HDK), drummer Martin Schmidt (ex-Atrocity/Leaves' Eyes) and keyboarder Jimmy Kresic (Voodoocircle), will release their debut album on September 24th via Frontiers Records (in the U.S. on October 12). Before the release of the album, the single "Silence" will be out on August 20th. 90 second samples of each song of the album have been uploaded to Frontiers Records website and can be streamed here.

The tracklist of the album reads as follows:

01. Nothing Left To Say (composers: Mat Sinner & Magnus Karlsson)
02. Silence (composers: Mat Sinner & Magnus Karlsson)
03. If I Had A Wish (composers: Mat Sinner & Magnus Karlsson)
04. One Night Burning (composers: Mat Sinner & Magnus Karlsson)
05. Arise (composers: Sander Gommans & Amanda Somerville)
06. End Of The Road (composers: Mat Sinner & Jimmy Kresic)
07. Don't Walk Away (composers: Mat Sinner & Magnus Karlsson)
08. Devil In Her Heart (composers: Mat Sinner & Jimmy Kresic)
09. Rain (composers: Mat Sinner & Magnus Karlsson)
10. A Thousand Suns (composers: Sander Gommans & Amanda Somerville)
11. Second Chance (composers: Mat Sinner & Magnus Karlsson)
12. Set A Fire - Bonus (composers: Sander Gommans & Amanda Somerville)

The bonus DVD will also contain video clips of the songs "Silence" and "If I Had A Wish" as well as a "Making Of" documentary. Reports of the shooting, which has taken place in March 2010 in Nuremberg, Germany, have been uploaded by Carl Begai of BW&BK and as video blog by Amanda Somerville.


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Source:

michaelkiske.net

Forgotten Tomb have signed a deal with Polish Agonia Records. The band will enter the studio at the end of August 2010 to record the brand-new album Under Saturn Retrograde, to be released hopefully in the beginning of 2011.

The band also added the following: "In the meantime, as you may have noticed already, the release-date for Vol.5: 1999/2009 was postponed to August 2010 due to reasons beyond our control, though by now it should be a matter of 1 or 2 weeks before its actual release. Stay tuned for news! Also, the Love's Burial Ground 2LP is in the making and should be out around October 2010 on Funeral Industries."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Forgotten Tomb