The cover artwork for the upcoming King Diamond album, Give Me Your Soul?Please, has been posted online here. The album will be released on June 26th through Metal Blade Records.

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Source:	smnnews.com
Band profile:	King Diamond

Details on Roundhouse/London DVD:
The films have now been edited by Dash productions in co-operation with the band and the audio has been mixed at location in Fascination street by Jens Bogren and Mikael Åkerfeldt. The DVD will contain the show (filmed in HD) and with 5.1 surround mix. Band interviews, fan interviews (some hilarious moments here!) as well as photo galleries. A release date hasn't been set but it's hopefully set for a possible Autumn 2007 release. More details/title to follow.

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Source:	opeth.com
Band profile:	Opeth

As published on Tobias Sammet site, a new interview about the recordings of the new Avantasia album has be done by the webmaster with Tobias Sammet, so the fans can have more information about the upcoming album which will be released in the late summer of 2007.

The interview can be found here.

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Source:	tobiassammet.com
Band profile:	Avantasia

The following message was posted on Suffocation's official web site:

"Tour dates for our 2007 US tour have now been posted. The lineup will consist of New York Extremists Suffocation, Immolation and Skinless. Pre-sale tickets will be available exclusively via the internet during dates 4/16 thru 5/7.

The links for internet purchase are:
HOB Shows
Non-HOB Shows"

And here is the list of shows:
10/25/2007 - Quebec City, Quebec Imperial de Quebec
10/26/2007 - Montreal, Quebec Club Soda
10/27/2007 - Toronto, OH The Opera House
10/28/2007 - Cleveland, OH Peabody's
10/29/2007 - Chicago, IL Metro/Smart Bar
10/30/2007 - Maplewood, MN The Rock
11/02/2007 - Seattle, WA Studio Seven
11/03/2007 - Portland, OR Roseland Grill
11/04/2007 - San Francisco, CA Slim's
11/05/2007 - West Hollywood, CA House Of Blues
11/06/2007 - San Diego, CA House Of Blues
11/07/2007 - Anaheim, CA House Of Blues
11/08/2007 - Tuscon, AZ The Rock
11/09/2007 - Albuquerque, NM Launch Pad
11/10/2007 - FT Worth, TX Ridglea Theatre
11/11/2007 - Houston, TX Meridian
11/14/2007 - West Springfield, VA Jaxx
11/15/2007 - Philadelphia, PA The Trocadero
11/17/2007 - Bedford, NH Marks Place
11/18/2007 - New York City, NY BB Kings Blues Club

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Source:	suffocation.us
Band profile:	Suffocation

The new Dream Theater track 'Constant Motion' has been made available for download for free at www.roadrunnerrecords.com/DreamTheater. The song comes from Dream Theater's upcoming album 'Systematic Chaos' which will be released on the 5th June this year.

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Source:	roadrunnerrecords.co.uk
Band profile:	Dream Theater

Tankard will be releasing a new 'Best Of' album in August this year. Here is message from Gerre posted on the band's official website:

"Hello Metalheads!

We just finished the recordings of our new album.

Our Best Of album "Best Case Scenario: 25 Years In Beers" (produced, mixed and mastered by Andy Classen, Coverartwork Thomas Ewerhard) will be released on 31th of August on AFM Records. It contains these new versions of some old classic Tankard-Stuff:

1. Zombie Attack
2. Maniac Forces
3. (Empty) Tankard
4. Don't Panic
5. Chemical Invasion
6. The Morning After
7. Alien
8. 666 Packs
9. Beermuda
10. Space Beer
11. Medley (Alcohol, Puke, Mon Cheri, Wonderful Life)
12. Freibier
13. Nation Over Nation
14. Two-Faced
15. Minds On The Moon

The limited edition (5000-6000 copies) contains a "Tribute To Tankard" bonus-CD with following bands:

1. Abandoned ("Face Of The Enemy")
2. Courageous ("The Morning After")
3. Doppelbock ("Freibier Für Alle")
4. Fatal Embrace ("Acid Death")
5. Fkü ("Space Beer")
6. Frezeebee ("Poison")
7. Hatework ("Live To Dive")
8. Hyades ("Alien")
9. Irreverence ("Beermuda")
10. Manticora ("Total Addiction")
11. Odium ("Sunscars")
12. Paradox ("Zombie Attack")
13. Paragon ("Two-Faced")
14. Sacred Steel ("Empty Tankard")
15. Scornage ("Away")
16. Solicitude ("Planetwide Suicide")
17. Taste Of Doom ("Rectifier")
18. Torment ("Chemical Invasion")

There will be a very limited vinylbox too, including the pic-discs of "B-Day", "Beast Of Bourbon", "The Beauty And The Beer" and "Best Case Scenario: 25 Years In Beers" together with a shirt, a 0.3L beer jug, a poster and sticker! So watch out!

Cheers Tankard"

Source:	tankard.info
Band profile:	Tankard

Metal Storm.ee webzine and Hellfest 2007 have launched a contest to allow 2 "lucky winners" to win a 3-day ticket pass on Monday, April 30 2007.

Have a look on the contest page here:
http://www.metalstorm.ee/contests/hf.php

Answer to three easy questions before the 14th of May 2007, and be ready to win two "3-day tickets" to spend a crazy week end in France for the biggest Extreme Metal festival of the summer 2007!

Good luck and stay Metal!

Metal Storm and Hellfest staff.

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Source:	metalstorm.ee
Event:	Hellfest Summer Open Air 2007

Pain Of Salvation have issued the following announcement:

"One of the world's best drummers has decided to be one of the world's best fathers and 9-5 workers instead. We are sad to announce that Johan Langell has decided to leave the band, to focus on family. This is not a sudden decision, but something that has been pending for several years."

You can read the whole Langell statement here:
http://www.bravewords.com/news/65107

All band members have also commented his departure on the band's official website:
http://www.painofsalvation.com/

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Source:	bravewords.com
Band profile:	Pain Of Salvation

Sonata Arctica have posted their video for the song 'Paid In Full' at YouTube.
The track comes off the group's new album "Unia" (Finnish for "Dreams"), due in North America on May 22 via Nuclear Blast Records.

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Source:	roadrunnerrecords.com
Band profile:	Sonata Arctica

The entire My Dying Bride concert from April 20 at Paradiso, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) can now be watched at the video archive of the online concert channel Fabchannel, here. This means you can watch the show whenever you want, as often as you want, for free.

A lot more Paradiso concerts of all different kinds of bands can be found at the same location by clicking Archive.

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Source:	metal-rules.com
Band profile:	My Dying Bride

As posted on the official website:

"We proudly announce, that after the gig at Rock of Ages Festival the 9th of September Blaze Bayley will go back on stage for a special event. He will perform a 3 Song Reunion with his friends in his first Band "Wolfsbane". This is something highly unusual, so do not miss this one."

Rock Of Ages Festival will take place in Tamworth, England on September 9.

Source:	planetblaze.com
Band profile:	Blaze Bayley

The following was taken from the news section of the official site:

Right before the second part of their European Tour together with Kamelot and Fairyland, Leaves' Eyes has posted a videoclip of "New Found Land" with live footage material from the first part of the tour. The video can be found here. Alex Krull commented : "We had a lot of fun with Kamelot and Fairyland. Many magic moments we will keep forever in our mind. The European fans deserve our biggest THANK YOU! You made this tour such a fantastic happening! We are really looking forward to the upcoming concerts in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the Baltic States. We will visit some places where we have never played before with Leaves' Eyes, we are really excited about that."
About the new album and the live DVD, he added : "It was the right decision to continue touring for our fans this year! We will start to work on our new record in the summertime before we play in the United States and Canada again. We will take our time to record a killer album for our fans! The release of the new CD is planned for 2008. Before the new record will come out the DVD shall be released."

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Source:	leaveseyes.de
Band profile:	Leaves' Eyes

The following update was posted at Apocalyptica's website:

"Apocalyptica at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest Final: Special Guests (not in the actual competition). They will bring their trailblazing brand of metal to the show's final entertainment climax, blending old hits and previewing tracks from new album in an 8 minute medley. Classical sounds of Metallica and Sepultura beamed out to over a BILLION viewers!!!!!

The 2007 final continues along the direction the 2006 winners Lordi had previously marked out, promising fantasy, fun and rock. Lordi will also naturally participate in the event, opening the whole ceremony themselves with a live performance. The television broadcast this year will also witness some amazing real-time, slow-motion images which are incredibly rare in modern live broadcasting, and totally breathtaking.

Apocalyptica also release the live DVD "The Life Burns Tour" on May the 14th across the UK on Columbia, support Metallica on July 16th in Helsinki, and are building up to the release of the debut record on Columbia in September
(TBC) which will feature a whole host of incredible guest stars who are at the forefront of the hard rock/metal scene... to be revealed in the coming weeks."

Source:	apocalyptica.com
Band profile:	Apocalyptica

Official press release:

Technical metal pioneers Atheist have announced their last-ever U.S. performances. This weekend the band will hit the stage for the last time in their native Florida with headlining shows in Tampa and Miami (at Brass Mug and Club Flower respectively). Following, Atheist will perform at a handful of European festivals before a final show in New York City. A listing of Atheist live appearances can be found below with more info on the band's final show to be announced soon.

Last January, Atheist guitarist/vocalist Kelly Schaefer reassembled much of what was widely considered the band's classic recording line-up (Schaefer, bassist Tony Choy, and drummer Steven Flynn) to perform a select number of one-off shows to celebrate the re-issue of their wildly-influential catalog (1988's 'Piece of Time', 1993's 'Elements', and the 1991's legendary 'Unquestionable Presence'). Among those shows were performances at such legendary festivals such as Germany's Wacken Open Air, Norway's Hole In The Sky Fest, Italy's Evolution Fest, England's Bloodstock Open Air, and the Los Angeles' Murderfest.

Atheist's Shaefer comments, "It's very hard to just walk away from this music that is having its day in the sun. The shows keep getting better and better, and the crowds are full of amazing stories of how they discovered our music. But the best and most important thing to us has been the outpouring of brand new people who have embraced our music as being pivotal to the way they listen to metal. That's far more important to us than anything. We will wrap this all up with one final show in New York that will be filmed for a DVD."

Atheist Live appearances:

April 27 Tampa, FL @ Brass Mug
April 28 Coconut Grove, FL @ Club Flavour
June 23 Dessel, Belgium @ Graspop Metal Meeting Festival
June 24 Clisson, France @ Hellfest 2007

Source:	unheardonline.com
Band profile:	Atheist

Yesterday Porcupine Tree released their new "Fear Of A Blank Planet" through Atlantic Records, with a flurry of activity that includes a major U.S. and European tour and a new music video by director Lasse Hoile.

The compelling and cautionary video for the title track of the album has been posted on Fearofablankplanet.com (high resolution) and their MySpace page. The video is directed by acclaimed Danish artist and photographer Lasse Hoile, who also designed the multimedia backgrounds for the tour.

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Source:	smnnews.com
Band profile:	Porcupine Tree