Dark Tranquillity has posted a couple live videos for their tracks "Focus Shift" and "Final Resistance" online. The clips were filmed recently at Reggie's Rock Club in Chicago IL. The audio for these live videos was professionally tracked and mixed.

You can check them out over at the UVTV website.

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Source:	undergroundvideotelevision.com
Band profile:	Dark Tranquillity

Moth Eater, the Beers Village, New York-based sludge metal band featuring guitarist John Conley of Scar Culture, Dave Ardolina and Steve "Buckshot" Seabury of Dirty Rig, and vocalist John Alaia, have just signed a deal with start up metal label Giddy Up! Records.

Giddy Up! Records will release the bands debut mini record titled The Thunder God of Monster Island on July 27th. The bands music was produced, recorded and mixed at Gain Studios in New York City.

Moth Eater have posted a new track from their upcoming release titled "Aftermath" on their MySpace page. The track features world renowned Hurdy Gurdy player and composer Geoff Kooris who adds to the bands already intense sound. "When I listen to our music, I get the sudden urge to smash someone's face in with a shovel. Then I become grief stricken and sob uncontrollably for a few hours, drink a beer, then I repeat the process." states John Alaia about the bands music and upcoming release.

The Thunder God of Monster Island cover art] tracklist:

01. Aftermath
02. Our Time
03. When Bruises Leave Scars
04. Rocking Is My Business

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Source:

giddyuprecords.com

The guys and gal of Landmine Marathon have unleashed the brand new video for "Shadows Fed To Tyrants," from their latest album, Sovereign Descent which came out back in march. The video is available for viewing at this location. The video was shot in Phoenix with director David Brodsky (The Black Dahlia Murder, Gwar, Goatwhore)

The band also recently collaborated with filmmaker Brian Taylor, co-writer/director of Crank, Crank: High Voltage, and Gamer, amongst others, on a version of their song "Skin From Skull" with Taylor providing lead guitar solos. The song is being offered as a free exclusive download at Taylor's website

Taylor commented on the collaboration; "I saw Landmine at a show in LA last year and they turned my guts to jelly. Grace Perry is a beast from hell. When I found out they were Crank fans I knew we had to get something going? my approach to "Skin From Skull" was simple: just fucking shred. Grace's vocals peel the skin off your face - the solo should do the same. Straight up the ass."

Landmine Marathon guitarist Ryan Butler added; "It was so awesome to have Brian Taylor do a solo over Skin From Skull. The Crank movies are insane and I am looking forward to seeing Jonah Hex, as I'm a total comic dork. He definitely brought the shred on this solo! It was really cool to hear something that I probably never would've come up with over it."

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Source:	prostheticrecords.com
Band profile:	Landmine Marathon

Legendary German heavy metallers Accept have finally released all the details for the forthcoming Blood Of The Nations.

The album is set to be released via Nuclear Blast Records on August 20 in Europe, and September 14 in North America. Blood Of The Nations ? which also marks the recording debut of the band's latest addition, vocalist Mark Tornillo ? was recorded at Backstage Studio in Derbyshire, England with acclaimed British producer and Sabbat guitarist Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Exodus, Arch Enemy, Masterplan).

Regarding Tornillo's addition to Accept, Hoffmann previously said: "It all happened in minutes. Peter and I were working on some tunes in a studio in New Jersey. Somebody suggested we give this guy Mark a call to see if he would join us on vocals. So when he arrived we started jamming on some old Accept tunes ? just for fun. As soon as Mark started singing we looked at each other and realized the impossible just happened: we found a new voice for Accept! The timing could not have been better! Now or never... We are re-energized and excited..."

Blood Of The Nations cover art] tracklist:

01. Beat The Bastards
02. Teutonic Terror
03. The Abyss
04. Blood Of The Nations
05. Shades Of Death
06. Locked And Loaded
07. Kill The Pain
08. Rollin Thunder
09. Pandemic
10. New World Comin'
11. No Shelter
12. Bucketful Of Hate

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Accept

Brooklyn's Julie Christmas (Battle Of Mice, Made Out of Babies) has been mysteriously under the radar as of late. But far from disappearing, the emerging singer/songwriter has been busier than ever. Christmas is scheduled to release her first solo record, The Bad Wife, this fall. More details about the album are forthcoming, but "July 31st", a song from the pending release, is featured on the soundtrack for Paramount film, Wrong Turn at Tahoe, starring Harvey Keitel and Cuba Gooding Jr. A video to promote the album is in production.

"I use sounds to express feelings and ideas that I am too clumsy to get across with words alone," explains Christmas. "Working with amazing visual artists - people who speak in images - gets me one step closer to really communicating with anyone nuts enough to listen."

First noticed for her startling performances in NYC underground band Made Out of Babies, and her devastating vocals in Battle Of Mice, and super-group Spylacopa, Christmas has been busy expanding her repertoire. Currently, Christmas is collaborating with Nix Turner, renowned illustrator of worldwide counterculture icon, Emily the Strange, to create a book titled The Scribbles and Scrapes of Amy Anyone: (A Multiple Personality Autobiography). Christmas wrote the story and is working on music for the release of an accompanying CD, which features a tone signaling the reader to turn the page.

In addition, the singer recently worked on the soundtrack for a French indie film Le Debut, in which a young couple resorts to infanticide when faced with the challenges of poverty, depression and parenthood. Christmas's band, Made Out of Babies, is currently writing their fourth full-length album, scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2011. Live shows and exhibitions with visual artists are being arranged.

For more information visit MySpace.

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Source:	fresnomediausa.com
Band profile:	Battle Of Mice

According to a posting on the band's website, the recordings of the new Destruction album, which will be released via Nuclear Blast Records in January 2011, have started with a bang.

The 14th recording medium with frontman Schmier (18th album release in total) will be called Day Of Reckoning. First statements from the band are promising a more fast and turbulent album than the 2008 studio record D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N..

More details will follow in the next few days.

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Source:	destruction.de
Band profile:	Destruction

Last week already, Bay Area Thrashers Death Angel have announced the release of their 6th album entitled Relentless Retribution. The release dates are September 3rd in Europe and September 14th in North America. A picture of the cover art (by Brent Elliot White (Job For A Cowboy) can be found here.

Comments on the artwork by vocalist Mark Osegueda and artist Brent Elliot White can be read here.

As previously reported, the Relentless Retribution album was recorded at Audio Hammer Studios in Sanford, Florida with production genius Jason Suecof (Trivium, August Burns Red, The Black Dahlia Murder, etc.)

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Death Angel

Sepultura have inked a deal with Nuclear Blast Records.

Guitarist Andreas Kisser states: "We are happy to be at Nuclear Blast, especially in the year we are celebrating 25 years of history, and it is a great honor for us to join forces with the most metal label in the world. I am sure this will be a great journey for both of us and we are already working on new material while on the road. Let's go for another 25 years!"

Nuclear Blast A&R manager Jaap Wagemaker further comments: "Yes, you got that right! Another great thrash band has joined the Nuclear family! We have been following the band around Andreas and Derrick Green for quite some time now and every time when we saw them play live, we were equally impressed by the sheer energy that they create on stage! After inviting the band to come to Donzdorf (Germany; Nuclear Blast's worldwide headquarters) and having some talks with them, we soon found out that we are all on the same page regarding what would be best for the future of Sepultura!

After 25 years of forging high-class thrash metal, the band is more alive than ever and we at Nuclear Blast are very happy that together with Sepultura we will work on another successful chapter in that history! A new album will be out in 2011 and judging from what we heard from the band, the best is yet to come!"

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Source:	nuclearblast.de
Band profile:	Sepultura

Sweden's Spiritual Beggars finally return to the spotlight with their first new studio album in five years, Return To Zero. Once again, the Beggars effortlessly manage to confirm they are a band that continues to defy musical boundaries and that delivers Classic Heavy Rock at its very best! The artwork of the upcoming album is done by the well known Brazilian artist Gustavo Sazes.

Spiritual Beggars's guitarist Michael Amott (Carcass, Arch Enemy) states: "I'm extremely pleased with the Return To Zero cover! To me, it's the quintessential Spiritual Beggars artwork. The artist really managed to capture the essence of our band, the new album and the constant flow of cryptic ideas I was throwing at him! As I'm old school, I can't wait to see this in its full glory on the vinyl LP... But hey, it'll look cool as a minuscular image on your iPod too!"

Return To Zero will be released in Europe on August 30th via InsideOutMusic.

Return To Zero cover art] tracklist:

01. Return To Zero (intro)
02. Lost In Yesterday
03. Star Born
04. The Chaos Of Rebirth
05. We Are Free
06. Spirit Of The Wind
07. Coming Home
08. Concrete Horizon
09. A New Dawn Rising
10. Believe In Me
11. Dead Weight
12. The Road Less Travelled

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Spiritual Beggars

So... apparently MetalStorm.net has been blocked by Iranian authorities. As of Sunday, MS has been "filtered" and is no longer accessible in Iran. Yup, Metal Storm is officially too metal for Iran. Several of our Iranian users have reported though that, next to bypass software, the site is still available through https://www.metalstorm.net.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been filtering social network sites, like MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm, Twitter, Urkat for years now. But since last month authorities have started filtering blogs and websites related to Metal music. The infamous Metal Archives were the first to go down. But also most of the Persian language metal forums and blogs got filtered. Even the official Metallica website had to bite the dust.

Click the thumbnail to see a screenshot of how MS currently looks like in Iran. The text reads as follows: "In the name of Allah the Merciful, the Beneficent. According to internet violence rules, access to this website is denied."

When The Guardian reported about the intensified censorship following the commotion after the 2009 elections, the newspaper wrote that "internet censorship is both routine and highly developed in the Islamic Republic." Iran uses what the OpenNet Initiative calls "one of the most extensive technical filtering systems in the world", as all internet providers are required to go through state-controlled gateways.

According to Wikipedia - who have a surprisingly thorough article about internet censorship in Iran - every ISP must be approved by both the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and must implement content-control software for websites and e-mail. ISP's face heavy penalties if they do not comply with the government filter lists.

In 2008, Iran has blocked access to more than five million Internet sites, whose content is mostly perceived as immoral and anti-social. In recent years, Internet service providers have been told to block access to political, human rights and women's sites and weblogs expressing dissent or deemed to be pornographic and anti-Islamic. The ban has also targeted such popular social networking sites as Facebook and YouTube, as well as news sites.

So yeah... Hail Satam, y'all!

1304 for the information]

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Source:

metalstorm.net

Season of Mist unexpectedly announced that Ukrainian Black Metal legends Drudkh will release a brand new album on September 20th, 2010. The new work will be entitled Handful of Stars and will also be available as a limited edition box set. More news to follow soon!

Source:	season-of-mist.com
Band profile:	Drudkh

Dutch eclectic extreme Metal band Conspiracy returns with a brand new third full-length album entitled Irremediable.

Previously helmed solely by Carpathian Wolf (Lupus Karpatius in Latin) for the previous two full-length albums, the band currently also consists of German guitarist/composer/orchestrator Aryan Blaze to join the ranks of Conspiracy.

Carpathian Wolf (aka Al' Hazred, former member of Sumerian Black Metallers Melechesh) left Melechesh in 2008 to fully concentrate and focus on Conspiracy. Conspiracy's musical direction sees a more logical step towards the fulfillment and ideology of Carpathian Wolf himself.

Conspiracy head-honcho Carpathian Wolf comments: "This time Conspiracy doesn't just spit rage and hatred but presents the symphony of sinister entertainment for the chosen elite black metal consumer. The material on Irremediable ranges from Blackened Heavy Metal with melodic and harmonious guitar solos to Black Metal with unorthodox elements, which will pleasantly surprise even the most spoilt listeners."

"The cover art is based on the painting by the Belgian Satanist painter - Félicien Rops (1833-1898), which goes really fine with the dark poetry of Alister Crowley, Charles Baudelaire and some other classical masters."

"As an additional treat, some of the songs that are on Irremediable will feature pre-recorded drum performances by Dirk Verbeuren (Aborted, Soilwork, Scarve, etc) taken from "The Library Of The Extreme - Blasts & Fills" by Toontrack."

The official street release date for Irremediable will be announced at a later date.

Irremediable cover art] tracklist:

01. Nocturnal Hunters
02. Ouverture
03. Black Mass
04. End Of Religion
05. Pentagram
06. The Invocation Of Hecate
07. Irremediable
08. The Hag
09. Armageddon Broke
10. A Dream Of Fear
11. Carpathian Sunset
12. Bukovina

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Source:

myspace.com

Maple Metal Records have signed Canadian death metal band Massive Slavery and will release their first album Global Enslavement on July 26th.

Massive Slavery hail from the towns of Val d'Or and Ryoun-Noranda, the gold-mining district in Northern Quebec. The province of Quebec, Canada has traditionally been a hot bed for great metal talent and now Massive Slavery can be added to that illustrious list.

Born from a concept conceived by bassist Marc-André Barrette (ex-Paroxysm) and guitarist Joël St-Amant (Descend into Nothingness), Massive Slavery was officially created in the winter of 2009.

Having previously worked with Joel in Descend into Nothingness, drummer Pierre-Alexandre Mercier (Decrepity) did not hesitate to join the crew. Even if the band were still looking for a frontman, they began to write and work on fresh material. After a couple of months of hunting around, their search was finally over when vocalist Jonathan St-Pierre landed the role, to round out this new quartet. His addition to the band gave new dynamics, and a boost of energy to push the band into finalizing the writing of their first album.

The collaboration of this musical assault Global Enslavement, combines a mix of melodic, brutal and technical death metal. The album was produced, realized and recorded by Yannick St-Amand (Despised Icon, Neuraxis, Beneath The Massacre), mixed and mastered by Pierre Remillard (Misery Index, Krisiun, Malevolent Creation).

"In these dark times when the future of humanity seems to be put in danger by individualistic and corrupt leaders, four musicians from Canada work on a musical plan aiming to reach the ranks of opposition, already well established in the middle of extreme metal. Like a wakeup call, their goal is to alert and open the eyes of our society, to reveal the sad and brutal reality, often unseen or denied by man. It's under this shadow of complete disillusion towards our civilization that Massive Slavery emerge from collective ignorance, in order to defend and promote an engaged movement of resistance, fighting against the manipulators of our system."

Global Enslavement cover art] tracklist:

01. MediAssassiNation
02. Shade of Corruption
03. Global Enslavement
04. The Denial of Man's Regression
05. Destroy, Rebuild, Repeat
06. A Cold Interlude
07. Wider We Open Our Eyes
08. Pull the Plug on Modern Civilization
09. Humanity's Last Hope
10. Generalized Cyberphobia

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Source:

myspace.com

Greek black metal band Aenaon are proud to announce the upcomming release of A Parallel Zoetrope, a 7' split between Aenaon and Satanochio. This split will be released in 500 copies worldwide from Floga Records and Orkestral Promenade Productions.

The Aenaon song will be called "I, Tyrant". The Satanochio side is coming with the song "Crimson Grim". Both songs are placed in the avantgarde and experimental dimensions of black metal.

The artwork of this release is done from Costin Chioreanu, an artist well known from works with bands like Decrepit Spectre, Ulver, Aura Noir, Grave etc.

The mastering of the Aenaon song, took place at Strype Audio in Norway. The well-known studio from the works of bands such as Code, Dødheimsgard, Ihsahn, Darkthrone, Emperor, Arcturus, Virus, 1349, Keep Of Kalessin etc. The release was engineered by Tom Kvalsvoll. Release date on the 19th of July 2010.


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Source:

myspace.com

Official press release

Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the signing of US Classic Heavy Metal band Benedictum for the release of a brand new studio album in early 2011. Since 2005 Benedictum has been heralded as one of metal's most exciting bands. Fronted by the awesome talent of Veronica Freeman, her raw and powerful vocals have been the driving force behind this international metal sensation.

This year proves to be a very intense and exhilarating time, as Benedictum are set to deliver their 3rd album of jaw dropping, head banging, female-fronted fury. After releasing two critically acclaimed albums (Seasons Of Tragedy & Uncreation), produced by internationally renowned producer and bassist Jeff Pilson (Dokken, Dio & Foreigner), Benedictum is back to unleash their career defining release!

Benedictum is ready for the next step: with a new label behind them, they are currently working hard on the recording with Grammy Award winning producer Ryan Greene (Megadeth, F5, MXPX, NoFx). Benedictum is firing on all cylinders! Veronica is joined once again by lead guitarist extraordinaire, Pete Wells, bassist Chris Shrum, Tony Diaz on keyboards and drummer Mikey Pannone.

Benedictum's success and legacy have been well documented and the band have already earned their place at the head of the power metal genre. "There is really a feeling of excitement in the air for us, the new material will be another level in our evolution as a band and we have a lot of confidence in our new label Frontiers Records and their willingness to stand with us on our journey!" states Veronica.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Benedictum