Steel Assassin is currently in production of their new release for fall of 2006 "War Of The Eight Saints". This recording picks up where the band left off in the "From The Vaults" era, drawing inspiration for their metal madness from historical and mythological sources.

In a precedent news, Steel Assassin has announced that John Falzone, formerly of Triphammer has joined the band as lead vocalist. The final stages of their new "war of the eight saints" epic metal production have been scheduled. The band is extremely psyched with the Metal fire that Falzone brings to the new material. Producer rich Spillberg (maniacal Wargasm guitarist) adds the following thoughts: "I want the world to finally feel the same power I experienced from the front row of a Steel Assassin show in 1983...and they will. I can't wait to mix this album!"

Steel Asssassin will open for Metal Church and Meliah Rage at Mark's Place in NH on Jan. 27th 2007.

Source:

steelassassin.com

The dates for Novembers Doom's European tour have now been finalised. Some changed have been made, and some originally non-confirmed venues have been decided on. The Netherlands show on the 19th will now be at Metropool, Hengelo. The German date on the 22nd will now be a day off for the band. The 23rd has been changed from a German show to a Czech Republic show. The Italian show on the 25th will now be a Belgian one, and English show on the 26th is now going to be another day off.

Here is the complete list of the most current and finalised dates:

17.11 - Plato, Helmond, The Netherlands
18.11 - Biebob, Vosselaar, Belgium
19.11 - Metropool, Hengelo, The Netherlands
20.11 - Loppen, Copenhagen, Denmark
21.11 - K17, Berlin, Germany
22.11 - Day Off
23.11 - Black Pes, Prague, Czech Republic
24.11 - Backstage, Munich, Germany
25.11 - Gildenhof, Wervik, Belgium
26.11 - Day Off
27.11 - Satan's Hollow, Manchester, England

Source:	novembersdoom.com
Band profile:	Novembers Doom
Event:	Novembers Doom: European Tour

Slayer will be heading out on a full US tour in January and February in 2007. The first two dates for the tour have now been announced.

Here are the details of both shows:

Jan. 25 - House of Blues - Las Vegas, NV
Feb. 22 - House of Blues - Myrtle Beach, SC

Unearth has been announced as the support act for the tour.

Tickets will be available for purchace from here.

UPDATE:
More dates for Slayer's North American tour with Unearth have been released:

January 25 - Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
January 26 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern LG
February 8 - Hamilton, ON @ Copps Coliseum
February 22 - Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues
February 23 - Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blue

Read more ››

Source:	slayer.net
Band profile:	Slayer
Event:	Slayer: US Tour

On the first of November, Folk/Black Metallers Ensiferum started recording their third full-length album at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki. The producer of the album is Janne Joutsenniemi. The album now has a title as well, it will be called 'Victory Songs'. It will still be released on the 21st February, 2007.

Ensiferum has also started to collaborate with Welldone booking agency. Teemu Suominen of Welldone will be taking care of the concert booking in Finland. This will increase the concerts in Finland, which has been few-numbered in the past. The concert booking for overseas is still being handled by ICS Festival Service.

So Ensiferum will begin their next year's tour with a small Finnish tour in January.

Here is a list of dates:

24.01.07 - Pakkahuone, Tampere
25.01.07 - S-osis, Turku
26.01.07 - Lutakko, Jyväskylä
27.01.07 - Club Teatria, Oulu

All four shows will be supported by the band Exsecratus.

Source:	ensiferum.com
Band profile:	Ensiferum
Event:	Ensiferum: Finnish Tour

Metal Church's video for the song "Mirror of Lies" has been posted online at this location (you must have Flash enabled to view the video). The clip was shot by Roax Films on the band's "Light in the Dark" summer European tour at the Wacken Open Air festival and in Hamburg at the Markthalle.

Read more ››

Source:	metalchurch.com
Band profile:	Metal Church

Sweden's Soilwork, who were announced as replacement for Six Feet Under on the European X-Mass Festival Tour just two days ago, aren't part of the fold after all. Such was reported by the organizers Metallysee (Benelux) and Sub-Kultur (Germany), and the corresponding news on the website of the band's label Nuclear Blast have also been withdrawn. Gorefest, Belphegor, Trail Of Tears and Darzamat, the remaining line-up of the tour, will now be joined by other artists at the individual dates. The updated schedule with the respective bands reads as follows:

08.12. - GER, Berlin: Gorefest, Belphegor, Melechesh, Darzamat, Trail Of Tears, SkyForger
10.12. - AUT, Vienna: Gorefest, Belphegor, Trail Of Tears, Madder Mortem, Darzamat, + special guest
12.12. - SUI, Pratteln: Trail Of Tears, Madder Mortem, Gorefest, Belphegor, Darzamat
14.12. - GER, Frankfurt: Trail Of Tears, Gorefest, Belphegor, Keep Of Kalessin, Madder Mortem, Darzamat
16.12. - BEL, Antwerpen: Cradle Of Filth, Gorefest, Trail Of Tears, Belphegor, Darzamat, Hevein
17.12. - NED, Tilburg: Moonspell, Gorefest, Trail Of Tears, Belphegor, Darzamat, Hevein, Heidevolk, The Monolith Deathcult, Devious

The updated line-ups of the dates in Leipzig, Munich, Ludwigsburg, Essen, Strasbourg and Paris haven't been published yet.

Read more ››

Source:	vampster.com
Band profile:	Soilwork
Event:	X-Mass Fest 2006

After Entombed just announcing the cancellation of the Entombed/Dismember/Grave North American tour, Dismember and Grave both still want to play. Entombed were forced to cancel, through no fault of their own, their participation in the tour, but Thunderdome Touring have just announced the re-securing of both Dismember and Grave.

Here is a comment by Thunderdome Touring: "Our phones have been ringing non-stop and neither Dismember nor Grave want to let any of their fans down. The tour will go on, without Entombed or The Absence".

Source:	roadrun.com
Band profile:	Dismember
Event:	Dismember & Grave: West Coast Tour [CANCELLED]

Official press release:

In an unexplained act of vandalism on November 8th at The Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, California, Deicide fell victim to vandalism of their personal property. During Deicide's set a member of the opening band, California black metal outfit Amon Isis, vandalized Deicide'S prep room - subsequently damaging the band's personal property as well as the club's property. Deicide will be following up with legal action against this individual, as will the management of The Galaxy Theater. Soldiering on, Deicide will be wrapping up the U.S. end of the tour with Desolation and entering the Mexican leg of the tour in late-November.

UPDATE:
The Gauntlet has received the following statement from Amon Isis:

"To whom it may Concern,

We would like top take the time to clarify and apologize for any misunderstandings that took place on November 8th, 2006 at the Galaxy Theatre this past Wednesday.

There have been rumors and mixed up stories of Amon Isis vandalizing Deicide and Galaxy Theatre private property. Amon Isis has always, and will continue to respect every band and venue that forms part in our performances. Unfortunately we cannot say the same for crazed fans and pupils, or situations caused by people outside the Amon Isis band members.

It has been brought to our attention that a certain pupil who is an extreme Deicide and Amon Isis fan caused quite a disturbance the night of 11-8-06. After undergoing some serious investigation, Amon Isis has been informed of the series of events that took place that night.

Apparently a Deicide/Amon Isis fan, which had a high level of alcohol in his system, lacked self control and discipline. In the mist of commotion and impaired judgment, mistakes that cannot be taken back were made. Accusations were made that Amon Isis band members were responsible for the vandalism made.

Amon Isis band members never saw first hand the damages that were made. Although such accusations are not true, we wanted to apologize for any damages made by crazed fans that supported Amon Isis that night.

We feel embarrassed for the misunderstanding of this situation, but compelled to clarify the occurrence of this night. Our utter and most sincere apologies go out to Deicide and the Galaxy Theatre for any inconveniences caused by this misunderstanding. We have nothing but respect and appreciation for the opportunity given to us to play with such a great band and venue.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Read more ››

Source:	bravewords.com
Band profile:	Deicide

French death metallers Kronos have posted a new song entitled 'The Road of Salvation', off their upcoming new album "The Hellenic Torture", over at their official MySpace page here.

Read more ››

Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Kronos

More dates have been released for Mastodon's headlining tour with Converge and Priestess:

February 5 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
February 7 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Orbit Room
February 8 - Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
February 9 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Rex Theatre
February 10 - Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
February 11 - Providence, RI @ Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel
February 13 - Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock Cafe
February 14 - Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall
February 15 - Clifton Park, NY @ Northern Lights
February 16 - New Haven, CT @ Toad's Place
February 17 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club

Mastodon is currently touring in support of Tool's European Winter Tour. Dates can be found here

Read more ››

Source:	smnnews.com
Band profile:	Mastodon
Event:	Mastodon: USA Tour

After selling out the two back to back november shows in Rouyn-Noranda and in Trois-Rivieres Quebec, Canada last weekend, Kataklysm have now added a show in Hull, Quebec in the Gatineau and Ottawa region for December 17th.

Kataklysm remaining dates for 2006:

December 1 - Saint-John, NB @ Elwoods
December 2 - Halifax, NS @ Stage Nine
December 9 - Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
December 17 - Hull, QC @ La Boite a Chansons

Kataklysm will announce the bands tour plans for the US in the next few days after recently reaching agreement with TKO booking agency based out Los Angeles, California.

Source:	kataklysm.net
Band profile:	Kataklysm
Event:	Kataklysm: North American Dates

The previously announced Entombed/Dismember/Grave "The Absence North American" tour, which was scheduled to take place December 1-16, is now officially cancelled.

Entombed posted the following on the bands official myspace page:

'Due to circumstances beyond our control Entombed sadly has had to postpone their upcoming USA West Coast trek.

We were very much looking forward to this tour, but conflicts with the promotor, breach of trust and straight up lies have unfortunately forced us to cancel at the eleventh hour. Never in 15 years of touring the States has this happened, which really is saying something. We are appalled, and you should not be surprised if you see/hear more lies spread about how it is Entombed's fault that we could not do the tour because we changed our minds or some shit like that. Simply not true. We've never seen blame passed around like this ever before and deeply regret having lent our name to this madness.

We abominally want to apologise to good folks like Dinis of The Mighty Nimbus, who have taken time off work and rented a car to come see the show, but look forward to hitting American shores in 2007, hot on the heels of our upcoming studio album release, "Serpent Saints".'

Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Entombed
Event:	Dismember & Grave: West Coast Tour [CANCELLED]

Finally, it has been officially confirmed: Blind Guardian will come to Australia!
Blind Guardian have started selling tickets for their shows on the 16th and 17th of February, 2007 at the Forum Theater, Melbourne. They are available online at http://premier.ticketek.com.au and Metal Mayhem in Melbourne.

Read more ››

Source:	666metal.com
Band profile:	Blind Guardian
Event:	Blind Guardian: Australian Dates

Månegarm will do three gigs in Belgium and Holland in december. Here´s the dates:

Dec. 15 - Biebob - Vosselaar, BEL
supports : Vinternatt (B), Slechtvalk (NL), Eluveitie (CH)

Dec. 16 - Kade - Zaandam, NETH
supports : Slechtvalk (NL) , Myrkvar (NL)

Dec. 17 - Vera - Groningen, NETH
Supports : Slechtvalk + other dutch band

Manegarm's new album, 'Vargstenen', is expected to be released somewhere around March/April 2007.

Source:	manegarm.com
Band profile:	Månegarm
Event:	Månegarm: Lowlands Dates

Sonata Arctica's "best of" collection, entitled "The Collection 1999-2006", will be streamed online in its entirety this Friday, November 10 at http://www.heavylaw.com. In addition to material from the band's studio albums, the CD includes new versions of the songs "My Land" and "Replica", both of which originally appeared on the group's 1999 debut, "Ecliptica".

"The Collection 1999-2006" track listing:

01. The Ruins of My Life
02. 8th Commandment
03. Don't Say A Word
04. Victoria's Secret
05. Tallulah
06. Wolf & Raven
07. Black Sheep
08. Broken
09. Kingdom for a Heart
10. FullMoon
11. My Land (2006 re-make)
12. The Cage
13. Last Drop Falls
14. UnOpened
15. San Sebastian (Revisited)
16. Ain't Your Fairytale
17. Replica (2006 re-make)
18. Wolf & Raven (promotional video)
19. The Cage (live at Tavastia)
20. Kingdom for a Heart (live at Tavastia)

"The Collection 1999-2006" is scheduled for release on November 15 via Spinefarm.

Read more ››

Source:	heavylaw.com
Band profile:	Sonata Arctica