"Aslimu!!! - All Slain Those Who Brought Down Our Highly Respected Symbols To The Lower Status Of The Barren Earth", a brand-new track from Dutch death metal band The Monolith Deathcult, has been made available for streaming over at Soundcloud.

Comments guitarist/vocalist Michiel Dekker: "The lyrical theme of this track is mainly based on Lawrence Wright's book The Looming Tower. Besides that I was inspired by the Dua-e-Sanam-e-Quraish curse and the events around the Muslim Brotherhood." More info can be read here.

"Aslimu!!! - All Slain Those Who Brought Down Our Highly Respected Symbols To The Lower Status Of The Barren Earth" comes off the band's upcoming new, still-untitled album, which is tentatively due before the end of the year.

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Source:	monolith-deathcult.com
Band profile:	The Monolith Deathcult

Black Label Society has parted ways with their live session drummer Will Hunt in the middle of their European Berzerkus tour.

Will Hunt reportedly left Black Label Society in order to join his Evanescence band mates in the studio for the recording sessions of the band's third album.

Last night in Paris, Type O Negative/Danzig drummer Johnny Kelly stepped in to help the band out. According to a Facebook posting, this move is set for the remainder of the Europe 2011 tour, and additional information will be announced soon.

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Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Black Label Society

Frontiers Records has scheduled the release of Uriah Heep's forthcoming studio album Into the Wild on April 15th in Europe and May 3rd in North America.

The album was produced by Mike Paxman. Cover art was designed again by the renowned Greek-American artist Ioannis (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Styx).

Into The Wild cover art] tracklist:

01. Nail On The Head audio sample]
02. I Can See You audio sample]
03. Into The Wild audio sample]
04. Money Talk
05. Trail Of Diamonds
06. Lost
07. Believe
08. Southern Star
09. I'm Ready
10. T-bird Angel
11. Kiss Of Freedom

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Source:	uriah-heep.com
Band profile:	Uriah Heep

Back in September, we introduced you to MaYaN the new project led by Epica vocalist/guitarist Mark Jansen.

The line-up is completed with guitarist/vocalist Frank Schiphorst and ex-After Forever keyboardist Jack Driessen, together with fellow Epica band mates Isaac Delahaye (guitar) and Ariën van Weesenbeek (drums). Due to his "very busy schedule," Obscura/Pestilence bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling recently left the band and got replaced by Delain bassist Rob van der Loo.

The band's debut album Quartertpast is scheduled for a May 20th release through Nuclear Blast Records. The album was recorded and mixed by Sascha Paeth (Epica, Kamelot). You can download an album teaser at this location (mp3).

The album will also feature collaborations from Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), Simone Simons (Epica), Henning Basse (Sons Of Seasons) and opera singer Laura Macri.

As stated by Mark Jensen: "The music is a mixture of death, black and progressive metal combined with symphonic orchestral arrangements."

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Source:	epica.nl
Band profile:	Epica

As previously reported, Psychogenocide, the new album of Dubai based death-thrashers Nervecell, will be released on March 31st in the Middle East through Spellbind Records, on April 29th in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and on May 2nd in the rest of Europe through Lifeforce Records. The album will feature the guest vocals of Nile guitarist/vocalist Karl Sanders.

Comments the band: "We are extremely proud to announce that Karl Sanders will be a part of our new album Psychogenocide as guest vocals on the song entitled "Shunq (To The Despaired... King Of Darkness)".

This particular song is special to the band as it will mark the first extreme metal track ever to include both Arabic lyrics mixed in with English lyrics, and who better else to have come on board and collaborate on this theme with us than the legendary Karl Sanders!

The word "Shunq" in Arabic has two meanings: to choke or to be hung by the neck. The song consists mainly of ideas and knowledge gathered from sources that speak about Lucifer and the demons that serve him. The song "Shunq (To The Despaired... King Of Darkness)" speaks about the battle of us humans and these demons in reality, in the end Satan himself brought forth to justice.

Psychogenocide cover art] tracklist:

01. Anemic Assurgency
02. Upon An Epidemic Scheme
03. All Eyes On Them
04. Amok Doctrine
05. Psychogenocide
06. Imprint
07. شنق - Shunq (To The Despaired?King Of Darkness)
08. The Taste Of Betrayal
09. Driven By Nescience
10. Nation's Plague

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Source:	nervecell.net
Band profile:	Nervecell

Polish funeral doom metal band Gallileous has parted ways with longtime guitarist Krzysztof "Wino" Winkler.

The official band statement reads: "After long discussions and considerations Wino has left the band because of health and personal reasons. We, here at Gallileous, respect this difficult and important decisions of the extreme music enthusiast!

Wino combined two stages in the band: the beginning of the 90's game as a 14 year old geek until the present day and also after the reactivation of the band and filling the void left after the death of team-mate Gregory "Gego" Lasocie. Thank you for playing together, the magic voice and an uncompromising commitment and passion to Gallileous for so many years."

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Gallileous

The Classic Rock Society & Summer's End are proud to announce Fused Festival 2011, taking place in Lydney, Gloucestershire on April 1-3rd.

Fused Festival brings together twelve of the UK and Europe's finest Prog Metal and Symphonic Rock bands. Vanden Plas and Threshold will be headlining the festival. The full line-up looks as follows:

Friday, April 1st: Vanden Plas, Winter In Eden

Saturday, April 2nd: Threshold, To-Mera, Toxic Smile, After-Math, Hookah The Fuzz

Sunday, April 3rd: Kingfisher Sky, Day Six, Hanging Doll, Haken, Loreweaver

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Source:	fusedfestival.com
Event:	Fused Festival

Danzig has lined up a spring North American headlining tour in support of the band's latest album, Deth Red Sabaoth. Support on the trek will come from Devildriver and 2Cents.

Danzig + Devildriver:

Apr. 29 - Las Vegas, NV - House Of Blues
Apr. 30 - Ventura, CA - Ventura Theatre
May 02 - Salt Lake City, UT - Great Salt Air
May 03 - Boulder, CO - Boulder Theatre
May 04 - Kansas City, MO - Voodoo
May 06 - Austin, TX - Stubb's Bar-B-Q
May 07 - Corpus Christi, TX - Concrete Street
May 09 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock
May 10 - Atlanta, GA - Center Stage
May 11 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
May 13 - Richmond, VA - The National
May 14 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
May 15 - Albany, NY - Northern Lights
May 17 - Baltimore, MD - Bourbon St.
May 18 - Westbury, NY - Westbury Theatre
May 20 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage Ae
May 21 - Columbus, OH - Rock On The Range
May 22 - Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
May 24 - Grand Rapids, MI - Orbit Room
May 25 - St. Louis, MO - Pops
May 27 - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Sunshine Theatre
May 28 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre

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Source:	danzig-verotik.com
Band profile:	Danzig
Event:	Danzig + Devildriver

A six-and-a-half-minute portion of "Specular Reflection", a brand-new track from US progressive metalcore band Between The Buried And Me, has been made available for streaming, exclusively at Altpress.

"Specular Reflection" comes off the band's upcoming new album The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, which will be released on April 12th through Metal Blade Records.

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Source:	altpress.com
Band profile:	Between The Buried And Me

Thin Lizzy has been added to the Hellfest Open Air 2011 line-up.

The legendary Irish hard rockers will be performing on Saturday June 18th along Scorpions, Black Label Society and UFO.

The festival is set to take place June 17-19th in Clisson, France. An up-to-date festival billing is available over here.

In other news, there's an official Hellfest app available for free on AppStore and Android Market. With this app, you'll be able to follow all the latest news about Hellfest 2011 before, during and after the festival.

The application offers the following features: Festival news, Notifications "Push" (on iPhone), Full line-up, Photo and video galleries, Integrated Twitter app, Access to e-tickets, Personalize your Hellfest schedule by adding your favorite bands, Practical info (transport, camping etc.), Sharing on Facebook and Twitter.

To download the application, go to this location.

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Source:	hellfest.fr
Event:	Hellfest Open Air 2011

Recently reactivated Quebec-based technical death metal band Gorguts have reportedly entered the studio to start pre-production on the new album, tentatively scheduled for a summer 2011 release through a yet-to-be-determined label.

The band's current line-up consists of drummer John Longstreth (Origin, ex-Angelcorpse), bassist Colin Marston (Behold... The Arctopus, Krallice, Dysrhythmia), guitarist Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, ex-While Heaven Wept), along longtime Gorguts vocalist/guitarist Luc Lemay.

The same Luc Lemay issued the following update: "Just a few words to let you know where we are with the songwriting of the new album. We got together at the end of January to finish up the last songs to complete the album. Colin and Kevin have contributed to the album with a song each. Amazingly well composed their songs suits the Gorguts aesthetic wonderfully.

The album will have a total of 9 songs including one instrumental piece for string orchestra composed by me. The album is going to be over one hour long. It's still very brutal but darkly, ambient and progressive as well. The album main concept is going to be a musical journey that will talk about the wonders of Tibet as well as the dramatic fate they've been going through for over 50 years now.

I'm hard at work on the lyrics as I'm writing this update. For this album, I wanted to have all the music finished first before writing any lyrics. This way, having all the musical canvas done I can now concentrate on the story telling aspect. When everything will be ready we're going to record the album along with my longtime friend and producer Pierre Remillard at his Wild Studio in Quebec.

Since we're still discussing with a label, we can't tell you a street date yet for the release of the album but we're shooting for this Summer. In the meantime, you can enjoy for the first time this new song taken from one of our pre-production session which was recorded by Colin at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves Studio in Queens NY.

The wait is almost over for us to unleash this new beast."

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Gorguts

Swedish progressive melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry just revealed the cover artwork for the band's upcoming album The Unseen Empire.

The Unseen Empire will be released on April 15th through Nuclear Blast Records.

Commented drummer Henrik Ohlsson: "The Unseen Empire seeks to expose the hidden hand of the elite that pull the strings of mankind in order to fullfill their agenda of global domination. The album concept goes from theories of shadow governments to secret ancient bloodlines and even further into speculations of malevolent influence from metaphysical reptilian-based intelligences. Mankind's only hope to survive seems to be an internal awakening where the influence of the the unseen empire that rules in secrecy is washed away from the minds of the masses. They want us to stay within the framework of their agenda, hypnotizing us with things that draw attention but has no value. It's time to step outside the framework and make The Unseen Empire visible!"

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Source:	nuclearblast.de
Band profile:	Scar Symmetry

US death metallers Obituary will headline the European Metal Chainsaw Massacre Tour, taking place in March and April. Support on the trek will come from Grave and Pathology. Below are the confirmed dates:

European Metal Chainsaw Massacre Tour Dates:

March 24th - Germany, Ludwigsburg @ Rockfabrik
March 26th - France, Paris @ Elysée Montmartre
March 29th - Germany, Munich @ Backstage Hall
March 30th - Germany, Bochum @ Matrix
April 02nd - Denmark, Aarhus @ Vox Hall
April 07th - Finnland, Helsinki @ Nosturi
April 13th - Poland, Warsaw @ Progresja
April 14th - Germany, Berlin @ K17
April 15th - Czech Republic, Prague @ Rock Café
April 16th - Czech Republic, Brno @ TBA
April 17th - Slovakia, Bratislava @ TBA
April 19th - Italy, Bologna @ Estragon
April 20th - France, Montpellier @ Secret Place
April 21th - Spain, Lleida @ Cotton Club
April 30th - The Netherlands, Tilburg @ Neurotic Deathfest

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Obituary
Event:	Obituary + Grave: European Metal Chainsaw Massacre Tour

"The Magnetic Sky", a brand-new track from US progressive metalcore band Becoming The Archetype, has been made available for streaming over at this location.

"The Magnetic Sky" comes off the band's upcoming new album Celestial Completion, which will be released on March 29th through Solid State Records. More album details were previously reported over here.

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Becoming The Archetype

Mike Coolen is the new drummer of Within Temptation.

Comments the band: "He has played with us in the past on a few occasions before. The chemistry has always been very good both on stage as on personal level so he was the first on our mind. So, Mike great to have you on board!"

In other news, Within Temptation performed a short acoustic set last Friday, February 18th, on the Dutch radio station Radio 538. Video footage of this set can be watched in three parts below.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

113945 for the videos!]

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Source:	within-temptation.com
Band profile:	Within Temptation