Elend founders Iskandar Hasnawi and Renaud Tschirner will be the guests of
www.schwarzes-leipzig.com for an online chat of approx.1 hour on Monday, January 24, 20.00 CET.
Questions can be asked in German, French or English.

For more info, including technical details:
http://www.elend-music.org/

The coverart for the first single "Forever After" from the album "Paradise Lost" is now available. The Single will be released on February 14th.

"Forever After" will also feature backing vocals from Heather Thompson (Tapping the vein) and Leah Randi.

Follow the link to see the cover:
http://www.paradiselost.co.uk/whats_new_news_english_details.asp?id=261

Band profile:

Paradise Lost

In a chat last Tuesday Skyclad's singer Kevin "Armchair Enthusiast" Ridley revealed the following news:

- Skyclad are currently booking gigs for a tour in Europe in March/April
- To promote the tour and the last two albums Demolition Records will release a 6-Track-EP soon (with 2 tracks from "A Semblance Of Normality", 2 from "No Daylights Nor Heeltaps" and 2 unreleased songs)
- Kevin is working on a solo album that includes guest appearances of all Skyclad members

[

Source:	p095.ezboard.com
Band profile:	Skyclad

U.D.O. confirmed to play at BANG YOUR HEAD!!! 10th anniversary festival

The official band-lineup of the German BANG YOUR HEAD!!!-festival 2005 is
all set up: U.D.O., the band of ACCEPT-singer Udo Dirkschneider, is the 22nd
and final band confirmed to play at the event that will take place at the
Messegelände of Balingen on the 24th and 25th of June.

BANG YOUR HEAD!!! 2005 will be the 10th BANG YOUR HEAD!!! in a row and is
therefore themed "The Best of Ten Years". To celebrate this anniversary, the
festival's organizers invited the most popular acts of all former events.
Alongside 22 bands that have rocked the festival's stage before, another
well-known very special guest will be invited as surprise act.

The list of artists set to perform at the BANG YOUR HEAD!!!-festival 2005 at
Balingen, Germany, 24th/25th of June:

TWISTED SISTER
MOTÖRHEAD
DIO
SAXON
DORO
SEBASTIAN BACH
U.D.O.
GAMMA RAY
NEVERMORE
KROKUS
AXEL RUDI PELL
DESTRUCTION
VIRGIN STEELE
AMON AMARTH
TANKARD
CANDLEMASS
JAG PANZER
EXCITER
MORGANA LEFAY
NASTY SAVAGE
VICIOUS RUMORS
DEMON

+ 1 very special guest

All further details about the BANG YOUR HEAD!!! may be found at the
BYH!!!-homepage at http://www.bang-your-head.de.

Tickets are availaible at ticket-hotline (+49-74 57-9 13 93) and via
homepage http://www.bang-your-head.de/. Prices are 59, - Euro (plus
shipping) at presales. Tickets are limited to a number of 20000. By this it
the organisators want to ensure that the special and relaxed atmosphere of
the event won't suffer.

The new album consist of 9 grinding songs.
The portion of music served by Bony and his band is very mature and breaks the rules the band established and followed themselves before. It is much different from Devilyn's previous recordings, and turns out to be a revelation.

BONY: After few years, reborn we return with the album that starts new chapter in band's history. After all that time i can say i managed to recreate devilyn with with people who perfectly understand my conception, i managed to bring all my visions to life. I think it's exactly what i wanted devilyn's music to be like, and i find this material to be the best of all our albums.
Words like dynamics, brutality, intensity, technique are not enough to describe "11". For me - it is like turning to different space of death metal. First of all, everything is now clear and much more understandable. We made a lot of changes in sound. Drums are very strong and clear, and Domin plays very fast. Guitars are really heavy and clear as well, due to Erian's feel and Cyprian's professionalism. The technique skills of Michal are very high and all the lyrics Tolovy wrote are easy to hear. We are fully satisfied with all we did during such a short recording session. We are proud this album is our own masterpiece.

[

Source:

conquerec.com]

The band decide to part ways with the bassit and the drummer here are the details:

"for various reasons we have decided to part ways with kevin falk and jason roe... there's no bad blood between anyone, and we wish them all the best in the their future endeavors. -we have acquired percussionist extraordinaire blake richardson (glass casket)... and the bass situation should be figured out in the next few weeks."

Also the band is writting material for a new album.

http://betweentheburiedandme.com/newsite/

The german thrashers decided to sign with the label AFM Records, here is the statement from the frontam of the band:

"We would like to bring the speculations and rumours about a label chance of DESTRUCTION to an end!"

"After four terrific and successful years with NUCLEAR BLAST, the decision to work with a new label wasn´t easy at all"

"We would like to thank Markus Staiger and his Team for the great friendship and the fantastic work! They had a big participation of the positiv progress of our reunion!"

"AFM RECORDS is the new partner of our trust! The contracts will get signed within the next days! The new album will be released via AFM/ Soulfood here in Centre Europe and thru other distribution partners of the label worldwide, a little later this summer!"

"The pre-production is running at full blast. Because of the intense worldwide touring, it feels that the band never sounded tighter and more motivated than at this present moment!"

"Watch out for the new riffmonster that will write Thrash Metal history! And that´s a fuckin´ promise!"
Cheers!

SCHMIER, MIKE and MARC

http://www.destruction.de

Band profile:

Destruction

The death metal band have found the replace of Sherwood Webber who leave the band in novembre, the new singer is Jason Keyser who plays in Detriment and is Joy Keyser's brother (who is the bassist of the band). The band have some gigs to attend in march.

blabbermouth.net

The gothic band from the Netherlands have decide to broke up, this was what they said on their website:

"The rumors about the break up of To Elysium are true. After two studio albums we decided to continue our musical roads separated."

http://www.toelysium.com

As it was reported in the John Petrucci website, the album is ready and the release date will be post there, the album is expect to be release soon, here is the tracklist:

01. Jaws of Life
02. Glasgow Kiss
03. Tunnel Vision
04. Wishful Thinking
05. Damage Control
06. Curve
07. Lost Without You
08. Animate-Inanimate

and Here you can see the cover art.

http://www.johnpetrucci.com

Read more ››

Band profile:

Dream Theater

Be A Video Droogie!

Megadeth is shooting their new video for "Of Mice and Men" in Los Angeles on Thursday, January 20 and Dave Mustaine wants his Droogies in the Los Angeles area to be there! If you have what it takes, email OfMiceAndMenVideoContest@sanctuarygroup.com to win this once in a lifetime opportunity! The winners will have the exact details e-mailed to them on Tuesday, January 18. You must be 18 years or older to attend.

(taken from www.megadeth.com)

Band profile:

Megadeth

After spending about 2 months in different studios the new album is finally finished. Its total running time is 49:53 and the following titles are included:

1. May Today Become the Day
2. Ever-Frost
3. We Are But Falling Leaves
4. Her Last 5 Minutes
5. Where Waters Fall Frozen
6. Despair-Ridden Hearts
7. Vengeance Is Mine
8. A Long Way To Nowhere
9. Consider Us Dead
10. Lower The Flags
11. Drain Me
12. Karu
13. End Of The Road.

The album was recorded mainly at Finnvox and Tonebox studios (both in Finland), and mixed & mastered at Finnvox. The man on the producer chair was again Hiili Hiilesmaa, who also produced our 2 previous albums "Crimson" and "The Cold White Light".

What you can expect is a variation of different kinds of songs, and for sure some surprises. In addition to the traditional instruments we used everything from scissors, zippers, compressed air and spoons to harmonicas and a children choir? but not to worry: as far as I understand anything anymore, we still have managed to maintain a sense of style.

The general feel and overall sound are more aggressive than on our latest few albums, but there are also songs that are based more on emotion and atmosphere. Lyrical themes include death (surprise, surprise?), life, loss, love, unity, disappointment and revenge, but only to start with. Overall there's perhaps more depth in the lyrics, as well as in the music, than ever before. I think some, if not all songs will definitely take a dozen spins before fully "opening" to the listener.

Well, enough words. This was the most intense, stressful, emotional and rewarding album session I have ever gone through. We are proud of what we have done and eager to hand it over to you for listening. That will be in April.

Until then, take care.

/Lopakka

[

Source:	The Official Homepage]
Band profile:	Sentenced

Dimmu Borgir bassist /vocalist Simen Hestnaes (a.k.a. ICS Vortex, ex-Borgnagar, Lamented Souls) has officially rejoined Arcturus as the group's permanent vocalist. His first appearance back with the group will take place at the Inferno Festival kick-off event at the Underworld in London on January 27

Hestnaes had previously performed vocals on three tracks and written the lyrics for one song on Arcturus' 1997 album, "La Masquerade Infernale".

Arcturus announced earlier this month that vocalist Øyvind Hægeland (Spiral Architect) had left the group. No reason was given for his departure.

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Arcturus

After all the turmoil of 2004, we are happy to announce that Stratovarius has reunited with the classic line-up: Timo Tolkki, Timo Kotipelto, Jörg Michael, Jari Kainulainen and Jens Johansson.

Since his breakdown in April, we have patiently been waiting for Timo Tolkki's health to improve. It has been, and since about 6 weeks he has been strong enough to go back to work.

Also during the past months, after much talk, soul-searching and reflection most of the damage within the band has been repaired. The rest of us now understand Timo's condition, and have slowly come to terms with it. There has been forgiveness, and everyone has a good relationship again.

Many of the immense problems we were facing have now found concrete solutions.

Lastly, we can announce that work is already in progress on completely new material.

Stratovarius

Source:	stratovarius.com
Band profile:	Stratovarius

The complete track listing for the new BLACK LABEL SOCIETY album, "Mafia", has been revealed.

"Mafia", due on March 8 via Artemis Records, was engineered by "1919 Eternal"/"The Blessed Hellride" knob-twister Eddie Mapp, and features Craig Nunenmacher on drums and James Lomenzo handling the bass duties, according to SDMFworldwide.com. The album's first single, "Suicide Messiah", is scheduled to go for radio adds on January 24.

"Mafia" track listing:

01. Fire It Up
02. What's In You
03. Suicide Messiah
04. Forever Down
05. In This River
06. You Must Be Blind
07. Death March
08. Dr. Octavia
09. Say What You Will
10. Too Tough To Die
11. Electric Hellfire
12. Spread Your Wings
13. Been A Long Time
14. Dirt On The Grave

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Black Label Society