Black Label Society's live DVD, entitled "The European Invasion - Doom Troopin' Live", has had its released date pushed back from the previously announced June 27. A new release date has not yet been announced.

"European Invasion" captures BLS live on their sold-out European tour last year. Witness the full Paris show as well as four tracks from the Astoria in London. Bonus footage includes a one-hour-long "on-the-road" documentary, three promo videos taken from the Billboard Top 20-charting album "Mafia" and the making of documentary for the promo video "Suicide Messiah".

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Black Label Society

The new single Deliberation is out now. The b-sides are two new exclusives, with the first song being a complete re-make of the In The White, now stripped down with acoustic guitars in a contemporary approach for a true urban lullaby sound. The second b-side is yet another unreleased song from the album sessions entitled Code Against the Code. Furthermore, a video for Deliberation once again shot and directed by Charlie Granberg, will be accompanied by the single. The direction of the clip takes a more abstract turn this time, so be sure to expect a dark mixture of reality and animation.

Full track listing for the single:
1. Deliberation
2. In The White (urban dub)
3. Code Against the Code
4. Deliberation (video)

The Great Cold Distance has now been made available on a 16 track (incl all the 4 b-sides from the My Twin & Deliberation singles) red coloured double vinyl edition (ltd to 2000 numbered copies). You can pre-order your copy in the official web site. The vinyl will ship on June 5th.

Source:	katatonia.com
Band profile:	Katatonia

Slayer has been forced to postpone it's Unholy Alliance tour by 11 days because of surgery on their bass player Tom Araya. Araya recently had surgery on his gall-bladder and continues to have soreness, so he has been advised to take it easy and rest himself for about six weeks. His condition is a genetic one and he did damage to his gall-bladder through drugs, alcohol, etc. Slayer should be back on the road soon though.

Here is a statement by Araya:

"My doctor wants me to take it easy. He told me not to do anything stupid. No serious lifting. ... I couldn't lift anything heavier than five pounds the first week (following the operation), and you increase it by five pounds each week. So, by the time we hit the road, I should be able to carry my bass."

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Slayer

Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad, producer of about a million killer bands) will be co-producing the new GWAR record, tentatively entitled "Go to Hell!". The bulk of the material is already completed, and recording at Flattus/Cory's Karma Studio's begins in early April. Then Oderus and Flattus will travel to the semi-frozen wasteland of Vancouver (in the bat-shaped helicopter, of course), to mix and master what is without a doubt going to be the heaviest album in GWAR's discography. The concept of the album is the closest thing to a rock opera that GWAR has done since "Ragnarok", and concerns GWAR's epic journey into the tunnels and caverns that honeycomb your world, a journey not only to escape their earthly prison "from within", but also to find and confront this so-called "Satan", who seems to think that he is a bigger bad ass than Oderus. Along the way GWAR encounter's a bevy of demonic dickheads and hapless victims, all ready to die for your entertainment. Look for GWAR's latest and greatest album yet to hit the stores in September.

Source:	gwar.net
Band profile:	Gwar

Posted in the band's website (in German):

This year, In Extremo will become 10 years old. The band has decided to re-release their first two albums, which were only available in limited home editions. In Extremo provided these albums with a new cover and two bonus tracks each, from their very first demo ("Sinc Ein Gulden Hahn" and "Ei Ri Sasun" from Hameln 2006 as well as "Villeman Og Magnhild" and "Lute" from Die Goldene 2006). The songs have been re-recorded and reworked. A special surprise for In Extremo fans: Dr. Pymonte sings Villeman Og Magnhild!

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Source:	inextremo.de
Band profile:	In Extremo

Swedish death metallers Visceral Bleeding have announced the departure of guitarist Marcus Nilsson with the following update :

Due to other commitments, Marcus has decided to discontinue his guitar work in Visceral Bleeding.

Marcus comments:
"It's been an interesting and exhilarating ride, that's for sure, but I feel my lack of commitment to the band at this point will likely only hold the other guys back. I therefore step aside to let someone else join forces and strengthen the Visceral momentum for future brutalization!

My musical endeavors do not end here though. I will never put down the guitar and will continue exploring the vast realm of music, indefinitely. I wish Visceral Bleeding the best of luck and hope they will succeed in whatever they aspire to!

I'd like to thank all the people I have met through the band, for their support and good times: Cheers to you all!!!"

There are absolutely no hard feelings involved in this departure and Marcus remains a very close friend to us all, we go way back and chare a lot of history and VB wishes him the best of luck with everything he decides to put his focus on in the future.

Martin "Germ" Bermheden (Enshrined) will be filling the spot as lead guitarist and is already preparing and focusing 100% at this and he will appear on the upcoming CD."

Source:	visceralbleeding.com
Band profile:	Visceral Bleeding

Finnish melodic death/thrash metallers Mors Principium Est will enter the studio in June to begin recording their third album, tentatively due in early 2007 via Listenable Records. The mixing for the follow-up to 2005's "The Unborn" will take place at Astia Studios in Finland in late August while the mastering will be done in September at Helsinki's Finnvox.

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Mors Principium Est

Synchestra has been extremely well received, more than any other DT records. it made the charts in France, Germany and Finland so we would thank each and everyone of you that managed to get a copy. The DTB released a video for 'Vampira'. This video is available in the Fan section. This video is very funny and maybe not what you expect from an album like Synchestra but we hope it gets some attention anyway.

To finish, a European tour was planned for the DTB in May but we apologize as it was forced to be cancelled. The reason is not for Ozzfest or the new SYL record but Devin and Tracy are going to have a baby so they needed to be together for the first part of the pregnancy and medical tests. The baby is due in October which will postpone any touring until 2007.

Source:	hevydevy.com
Band profile:	Devin Townsend

Hell yeah! If that is not a great victory for hard rock/metal, I don't know what is. No, you're not hallucinating, Finnish metal monsters Lordi won the formatted Eurovision contest (known for its sloppy poppish radio tunes) HANDS DOWN!

They were 44 points ahead Russia (the mullet singer) and gave a fresh new start to the oh-so-boring Eurovision stuff.

We wish to congratulate the winners from the depths of our hearts. LONG LIVE METAL

Source:	deadsoulman in front of his tv
Band profile:	Lordi
Event:	Eurovision Song Contest

ProgPower Europe organizers have announced that this year's lineup is complete.
The organizers wrote in a statement: "We have negotiated with several bands, not all the bands were available for this year so we have decided to go for the best options possible. This means that we will have two headliners for Saturday 30 September, both the Dutch amazing newcomer Textures as well als Danish Mercenary will play for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Riverside will end this year's edition of the festival witha 2 hour show. Besides Textures, the following bands complete the line-up: Dreamscape, Ephel Duath and Voyager."

The final line-up for ProgPower Europe 2006 is as follows:

Friday, September 29 (free pre-party): Dreamscape, Zero Gravity

Saturday, September 30: Mercenary, Textures, Scar Symmetry, Ephel Duath, Chaoswave, Another Messiah.

Sunday, October 1: Riverside, Communic, Dark Suns, Voyager, Nova Art, Pantommind

Source:	progpower.com
Event:	ProgPower Europe

Norwegian black metallers 1349 have issued the following statement:

"Due to delays in the processing of the visa-application to enter the USA, 1349 will unfortunately have to cancel their appearance at the Death In The Forest festival, scheduled to find place tomorrow 20'th of may in New York. We've done everything in our power and have followed every procedure to make this happen, and this matter is out of our hands. It is with great dissapointment that we have to announce this, and we share with the fans the frustration this causes- this is mutual from our side."

Withersoul have also been forced to cancel their appearance:

As much as we hate to do this, but Withersoul has cancelled from being
on the festival. We've talked to TJ and informed him of our cancellation. We can't risk driving 400 plus miles each way for a festival that has been teetering on the edge of cancellation and constant replacements all week long. Also the fact we have no hotel reservations (plus we'd not be able to afford anything inside NYC either). Not to mention to have all those bands two stages for a 20 minute set isn't a good thing for a band that plays 10+ minute songs. This trip alone would have cost us well over 1000 dollars all together at it's current location. We have very set & limited finances and we can't risk coming up all that way for very little. If this would have happened a week earlier, something could have been arranged. We are all seriously bummed out over this, and have been looking forward to this for almost 6 months now...
We hope everything goes well for TJ Morris and Watchers Entertainment and everyone has a kickass time..."

The expected set times for the festival, which will take place today (May 20th) at Avalon in New York City, can be viewed here.

Read more ››

Source:	oakknollmetal.com
Band profile:	1349
Event:	Death In The Forest Festival

The following was posted on the band's official website

"14.5.2006
3rd Insomnium album finally mixed!

We finally finished the mixing of forthcoming Insomnium album today! This time we really feel that we succeeded in the studio and the songs sound just amazing to our ears. Album will be mastered in the famous Finnvox studios in the beginning of the June and released later in the fall (9th of October) by Candlelight Records. We will also shoot new video from the song "Mortal Share" on next Tuesday. Stay tuned for more updates. Here's the complete tracklist:

Insomnium - Above the Weeping World

1. The Gale
2. Mortal Share
3. Drawn to Black
4. Change of Heart
5. At the Gates of Sleep
6. The Killjoy
7. Last Statement
8. Devoid of Caring
9. In the Groves of Death"

Source:	insomnium.net
Band profile:	Insomnium

Blind Guardian's Singer Hansi Kürsch has posted following letter in band's official homesite:

Dear friends,

Time to break the silence, time to say hello. As you all most probably know: we have finished the album some days ago and started doing some first shows already. It has been a blast to be back on stage again and do these small shows in Rijssen and Vosseljaar. We appreciate the kindness and the support of the people there and enjoyed the club atmosphere a lot. Istanbul was a great experience and "The Bard's Song" sung by more than 2000 Turkish fans has been nothing but spectacular. I could go on like that but I guess what you are more interested in at the moment is the new album. Even though the secret is revealed already I would like to point out one more time the album is entitled "A Twist in the Myth" and that's just because I unfortunately could not find allies for my most favorite album title suggestion "A Day at the Races".

With this album, I think, we have widened the range of the Blind Guardian universe more than we have ever done before. Comparing it with a compass "Fly" would be west, "Skalds and Shadows" east, "This will never end" south and "The Edge" would be north. Does that mean anything? No. But it sounded good, when I first thought about it. Now I think it's not worth to be deleted.

In terms of quality we have had a very good feeling during the whole recording session. But I nevertheless have do admit, that the songs did make a gigantic step during the last days of recording and the mixing session.

While doing the last recording steps, which traditionally are reserved for backing vocals, all songs have made a significant raise in quality. To give you a very small idea about what to expect, I tell you this: "The Edge" and "In search of the Lionheart" certainly will achieve absolute cult status within a very short amount of time. They are very heavy, almost thrashy, though very progressive in certain ways.

"Skalds and Shadows" will prove its longevity in numerous live concerts. To those who consider it a "The Bard's Song" rip off: the album version clearly proves it is a "A Past and Future Secret" rip off, with a different melody, different rhythm pattern and different lyrics, which reminds one of "Harvest of Sorrow".

Marcus and I composed a number called "All the King's Horses", which will be released on the Japanese version of "A Twist in the Myth" and on a single we are going to release in the beginning of 2007. It is a great song which will set emotions free, I am sure.

Read more ››

Source:	blind-guardian.com
Band profile:	Blind Guardian

Finnish death metallers Amoral have updated their website with a live video of their track 'Decrowning', recorded on April 13th at Pakkahuone in Tampere, Finland. Check it out at this location.

The band had previously posted a video for the track 'Lacrimal Gland', which can be seen here.

Both tracks are pulled from the band's album "Decrowning", which Candlelight Records released on March 21st.

Read more ››

Source:	amoralweb.com
Band profile:	Amoral

The Death In The Forest Festival, previously set to take place on May 20 at the Orange County Fair Grounds in upstate New York, has been relocated to the Club Avalon at 47 West 20th Street @ 6th Ave in New York City. Trouble with the weather has forced the organizers of Watchers Entertainment to move the festival to Catskill Montain Ranch in Sullivan County where they encountered legal problems with the town officials of Mamakating, forcing them to relocate the festival once again, this time to New York City. As to meet time constraints the event will now be running from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m..

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Event:	Death In The Forest Festival