Power Quest have issued the following update:

"Unfortunately, we have to begin 2009 with some sad news. Bassist Steve Scott has decided to make his move to New Zealand a permanent one and as a result has decided it is time for him to leave Power Quest. We are all very sorry to see him go but wish him all the best in his new life in New Zealand."

Steve Scott commented: "Well, it's been almost 10 years with Dragon Heart (now DragonForce) and then Power Quest playing alongside keyboard legend Steve Williams. Looking back over those years, it has been a fabulous time both recording and touring. Too many funny stories, as usual, from the tours to go into, but maybe I'll write a book or bring out a DVD with it all. I would like to thank the guys in the band and management for the great times we have had and I wish them all the best with the future tours and recordings. Life is so sweet here Down Under that it just makes damn good sense to me and to the band to pass the 'torch' of power metal bass playing over to someone else... someone who lives a bit closer than the other side of the world... so the quest goes on."

Power Quest keyboardist Steve Williams added: "Well, it is the end of an era, for sure. Having formed the band with Steve back in 2001, and having played together since 1999, it will certainly be strange not having him alongside us. As you can tell, Steve seems totally happy with his life in New Zealand and that's a cool thing. Thanks for everything over the years, dude; we're gonna miss ya!"

Read more ››

Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Power Quest

German Pagan Folk metal outfit Wolfchant have inked a record deal with Massacre Records. The comment on their website reads as follows:

"By common accord we reversed our record deal with CCP Records. We want to thank Claus and Eva for the very good cooperation during the last years. We are proud to announce that we signed a record deal with Massacre Records. With bands such as Legion Of The Damned, Crematory, Illdisposed, One Man Army & TUQ,... as label mates we are in very good company!

"Determined Damnation" will be released 09-04-24 so be prepared!"

Read more ››

Source:	wolfchant-metal.com
Band profile:	Wolfchant

Original news, posted on 04.01.2009

The brand new studio album of the Polish female fronted Heavy Metal band Crystal Viper will be called "Metal Nation", and will be released on February 1st via Karthago Records (CD version) and High Roller Records (limited vinyl version). The album was mixed and mastered by the Grammy nominated Andy La Rocque (King Diamond guitarist), at the Sonic Train Studios (Hammerfall, King Diamond, Evergrey), and produced by Bart Gabriel (Sabbat, Hirax, Kat, Metalucifer). "Metal Nation" also features three very special guests: Manni Schmidt (Grave Digger), Frank Knight (X-Wild) and Lars Ramcke (Stormwarrior). The album cover art was painted by the legedary Chris Moyen (Beherit, Blasphemy, Trivium).

Here's the final "Metal Nation" tracklisting:

01. Breaking The Curse
02. Metal Nation
03. Bringer Of The Light
04. 1428 *
05. The Anvil Of Hate
06. Zombie Lust (Flesh Eaters)
07. Her Crimson Tears **
08. Legions Of Truth ***
09. Gladiator, Die By The Blade
10. Agents Of Steel Agent Steel cover song]

* feat. Manni Schmidt of Grave Digger
** feat. Frank Knight of X-Wild
*** feat. Lars Ramcke of Stormwarrior

UPDATE (thanks to Bad English)

Crystal Viper have uploaded four brand-new songs from their upcoming album "Metal Nation". Check out "Metal Nation", "Her Crimson Tears" (feat. Frank Knight of X-Wild), "Legions Of Truth" (feat. Lars Ramcke of Stormwarrior) and "Gladiator, Die By The Blade" at http://www.myspace.com/crystalviperofficial.

Read more ››

Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Crystal Viper

Original news, posted on 27.11.2008

Soulfly have posted following statement on their official site:

"Europe, Soulfly is planning for an early return in 2009! The second leg of Soulfly "European Conquer Tour" with Incite will begin in late January in Germany and circle throught the continent until late March when it finishes in eastern Europe. All of the dates that can be confirmed so far are listed below, and we will be confirming more shows shortly. Ticket information is forthcoming.

For the Soulfly Tribe in North America, there are a lot more Soulfly related gigs scheduled in the forthcoming months before the band leaves for Europe. Marc Rizzo will be undertaking a small east coast tour to support his solo project and Bobby will be performing at some dates with his hip hop/rap side project, Primer 55. Click the links to find out when their tours are coming near you!"

UPDATE

With the addition of dates in East Europe and Scandinavia, the tour is now scheduled to take up two full months and will see Soulfly playing 57 shows in 27 countries. The complete tour itinerary is:

Jan. 28, 2009 - Stuttgart, Germany @ LKA
Jan. 29, 2009 - Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall
Jan. 30, 2009 - Eindhoven, Netherlands @ Effenar
Jan. 31, 2009 - Lille, France @ Splendid
Feb. 01, 2009 - Portsmouth, UK @ Pyramid Centre
Feb. 02, 2009 - Oxford, UK @ Zodiac at Academy
Feb. 03, 2009 - Bristol, UK @ Academy
Feb. 04, 2009 - Dublin, Ireland @ Academy
Feb. 05, 2009 - Belfast, Ireland @ Spring & Airbrake
Feb. 06, 2009 - Glasgow, Scotland @ ABC
Feb. 07, 2009 - Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
Feb. 08, 2009 - Leeds, UK @ The Cockpit
Feb. 09, 2009 - Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
Feb. 10, 2009 - Wolverhamton, UK @ Wulfren Hall
Feb. 11, 2009 - London, UK @ Electric Ballroom
Feb. 12, 2009 - Paris, France @ Bataclan
Feb. 13, 2009 - Cler. Ferrand, France @ Coop. de Mai
Feb. 14, 2009 - Bilbao, Spain @ Kafe Antzokia
Feb. 15, 2009 - Madrid, Spain @ Sala Heineken
Feb. 16, 2009 - Lisbon, Portugal @ Coliseum
Feb. 17, 2009 - Barcelona, Spain @ Sala Apolo
Feb. 18, 2009 - Toulouse, France @ Bikini
Feb. 19, 2009 - Fribourg, Switzerland @ Fri-Son
Feb. 20, 2009 - Zurich, Switzerland @ Xtra
Feb. 21, 2009 - Milan, Italy @ Rolling Stone
Feb. 22, 2009 - Rome, Italy @ Alpheus
Feb. 23, 2009 - Treviso, Italy @ New Age
Feb. 24, 2009 - Graz, Austria @ Orpheum
Feb. 25, 2009 - Saarbrucken, Germany @ Garage
Feb. 26, 2009 - Salzburg, Austria @ Rockhouse
Feb. 27, 2009 - Linz, Austria @ Posthof
Feb. 28, 2009 - Worgl, Austria @ Komma

Read more ››

Source:	soulflyweb.com
Band profile:	Soulfly
Event:	Soulfly: European Tour

Swedish female hard-rock band Crucified Barbara has announced some Swedish and Italian tour dates:

Feb. 08 - Mosebacke - Stockholm, Sweden (CD-release party)
Feb. 27 - Glam Slam - Växjö, Sweden
Mar. 06 - Wictoria - Karlskoga, Sweden
Mar. 07 - Sigurdsgatan 25 - Västerås, Sweden
Mar. 13 - S2 - Borlänge, Sweden
Mar. 14 - Pipeline - Sundsvall, Sweden
Mar. 19 - Debaser - Malmö, Sweden
Mar. 20 - Sticky Fingers - Gothenburg, Sweden
Mar. 21 - Rockbaren - Karlstad, Sweden
Mar. 26 - Jailbreak - Rome, Italy
Mar. 27 - Sottotetto - Bologna, Italy
Mar. 28 - Sidarta - Prato, Italy
Mar. 29 - Thunderroad - Pavia, Italy

Source:	crucifiedbarbara.com
Band profile:	Crucified Barbara
Event:	Crucified Barbara

Singapore's Rudra have issued the following update on their MySpace page:

"The band is pleased to announce the title of the forthcoming album. The album shall bear the name "Brahmavidya: Transcendental I". It shall feature fourteen tracks with a total running time of about 70 minutes, produced by Joshua G. Nair & Sean Loo. However, the bad news is that the band had to prematurely terminate its relationship with Trinity Records Hong Kong. The band is currently shopping for a new label home or labels willing to secure territorial licenses. This setback may delay the release of the CD. More updates will be coming your way soon.

"Brahmavidya: Transcendental I" track listing:

01. Bhagavatpada Namaskara
02. Ravens Of Paradise
03. Amrtasyaputra
04. Hymns From The Blazing Chariot
05. Meditations At Dawn
06. Advaitamrta
07. Natural Born Ignorance
08. Immortality Roars
09. Reversing The Currents
10. Venerable Opposites
11. Avidya Nivrtti
12. Not The Seen But The Seer
13. Adiguru Namastubhyam
14. Majestic Ashtavakra

"Brahmavidya: Transcendental I" will be the second chapter of the "Brahmavidya" trilogy.

Read more ››

Source:	blog.myspace.com
Band profile:	Rudra

Stockholm-based metallers Eventide have issued the following update:

"We have a strong feeling that this new year will be a good year for Eventide. We are writing material for a full-length album that we'll start recording in a couple of months. The new songs are turning out great and we are extremely excited to show the world our new works. Hopefully we'll manage to convince a decent label that this music is worth investing in."

And from the band's MySpace:

"We finished writing yet another song last night! This means we now have 7 songs done plus alot of ideas and riffs about to take shape. The plan is to start recording sometime this spring/early summer. I can assure you that the new album will blow your heads off!!"

Read more ››

Source:	eventideweb.com
Band profile:	Eventide

Swiss melodic metal band Felony have announced the addition of new female singer Melissa to the group's ranks. As the band mentioned on their official site, the new line up will make its live debut on March 7, 2009 at Downstairs in Worblaufen, Switzerland.

Source:	felony.ch
Band profile:	Felony

According to a New Year's posting on the band's website, 2009 is to be expected a good year for Suidakra and it starts right now with the release of the band's brand new video clip for the track "Shattering Swords" taken from the new album "Crógacht". You can watch the video on http://www.suidakra.com or on YouTube in high quality here.

"Crógacht" will be released via Wacken Records/SPV on February 20 (Germany), February 23 (rest of Europe) and March 3 (N. America).

According to the band, "you can expect a decent Irish influence on the new record, so fans of folk metal can rest easy. Fans of Suidakra's harder tunes must not fear; "Crógacht" will kick your asses as hard as usual, if not harder. Famous Belgian artist Kris Verwimp was in charge not only of designing first-class album art, but also arranged first-class lyrical concepts and song texts!"

Read more ››

Source:	suidakra.com
Band profile:	Suidakra

Drummer Marcus Losbjer of the Swedish metal band Wolverine has issued the following update:

"I'm looking forward to FINALLY record the new album, after more than 3(!) years of writing in a limbo! The absence of inspiration have been really severe this time. This album have been a struggle to write, by far the most difficult album to puzzle together out of all the Wolverine albums. It's the complete opposite to the last album ("Still") that was a dream to write. It was fast and actually quite easy!

As you may have read on forums, MySpace and so on, we've had more difficulties to deal with this year than just the minor problems concerning the band. The heartproblems with Stefans daughter has maybe been the toughest. A reminder of how fragile we are! Everything has been mixed into a big melting-pot, just ready to explode! Thankfully, it didn't.

After the ProgPower Europe gigs in October, we found a little spark to lighten the inspiration again, this time I hope it will never go as ice-cold as it has been!"

Read more ››

Source:	wolverine-overdose.com
Band profile:	Wolverine

UK brutal death metal band Nailed has posted the following update right before Christmas:

"Well we've just finished up the tour for "Hatred, Failure..." and we're back in the rehearsal space just before Christmas. We're holed up finishing song number 7 right now and are aiming to write another two before booking studio time. So far the material is crushingly heavy, a little faster, but also diverging into more twisted realms in terms of polyrhythms. It's definitely the best stuff we've written, more focused and cohesive as we've churned it out with one complete lineup in the space of a few months, unlike all the other material which was written through turbulent times and over long periods. We'll almost definitely do a studio recording blog thing with video updates once we're in there so keep your eyes open for that.

Most likely to be our last gig before heading off for pre-production is the Causing Chaos For Cancer show in February 2009, it's for a good cause and there's some cracing goodies to be had so make sure you're there. Have a brutal Christmas you worthless dogs!

Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Nailed

Finnish metallers Pain Confessor have announced new guitarist, Tommi Kurki, on their official site:

''Mr. Tommi Kurki has been around since the first gigs of Pain Confessor. In fact, he has been our mainstay Sound Engineer for pretty much all these years. This made the transition from behind the mixer to the frontlines an easy one, and very natural.

He Wasn't Born Yesterday? as a guitarist either. Tommi "Tommi Kurki" Kurki, or The Bullfinch as we like to call him, played guitar in the old Finnish progressive metal band Sancnity along with Pain Confessor producer Janne Saksa. Sancnity's swansong was their excellent early 90's album "Dew".

A multitude of musical paths were ventured after that, a few to mention were as a guitarist in Wooden Bone (Sancnity reincarnate as a more pop/rock-esque band) and as the vocalist for the Finnish punk band Rehtorit.

We are proud to have such a rock-hard extra fist to smash into the collective behind of humanity. This will only make things worse for those against us and add even more spice for those who like what we dish out!

Welcome to Pain Confessor, Tommi! We have been waiting for you.''

Regards,
Rest of Pain Confessor

Source:	painconfessor.com
Band profile:	Pain Confessor

Detrimentum have now been joined by Steve Powell (Anaal Nathrakh live drummer, Theoktony) as their new permanent drummer. The band's previous drummer Jonathan Rushforth decided to leave Detrimentum in October after 8 years in the band.

According to a posting by the band: "Steve is the perfect replacement for Jonathan Rushforth as he is fast plus very dynamic and Detrimentums music can only improve with such an intense and varied influence. Detrimentum are very happy to welcome him to the ranks. They are also ready to play live again!"

In other news, Detrimentum have finally completed a new 3 track demo, available on the band's Myspace page.

Read more ››

Source:	detrimentum.co.uk
Band profile:	Detrimentum

The Haunted are returning to North American shores in 2009 to headline a stellar package tour. Throughout the month of April, the band will be ravaging cities alongside Nachtmystium, Kylesa and Intronaut - a show that, according to Century Media Records, any fan of extreme metal will want to check out.

Sponsored by Decibel Magazine and MetalSucks, the tour will kick off in Pomona, CA on April 2nd and run through April 24th, coming to an end in Atlanta, GA.

The dates are as follows:

April 02 - The Glasshouse - Pomona, CA
April 03 - The Key Club - Hollywood, CA
April 04 - Slim's - San Francisco, CA
April 05 - Hawthorne Theater - Portland, OR
April 06 - Neumo's - Seattle, WA
April 07 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC (Canada)
April 08 - Starlite Ballroom - Edmonton, AB (Canada)
April 09 - The Warehouse - Calgary, AB (Canada)
April 11 - Royal Albert - Winnipeg, MB (Canada)
April 12 - Station 4 - St. Paul, MN
April 13 - The Pearl Room - Mokena, IL
April 14 - Majestic Theatre - Detroit, MI
April 15 - Opera House - Toronto, ON (Canada)
April 16 - Club Soda - Montreal, QC (Canada)
April 17 - The Palladium - Worcester, MA
April 19 - BB King's Blues Club - New York, NY
April 21 - Mr. Small's - Millvale, PA
April 22 - Jaxx - Springfield, VA
April 23 - Volume 11 - Raleigh, NC

Read more ››

Source:	the-haunted.com
Band profile:	The Haunted
Event:	The Haunted + Nachtmystium

Dutch female-fronted Gothic rock band Nemesea are happy to announce they have their first-ever music video online. The band commented:

"We've worked very hard to make it a special one. Together with D'iMages (also known from After Forever, Ayreon and Stream Of Passion) we made this video and we are very proud to show it to the world! Click here to watch it and let us know what you think about it."

The song comes off the band's second album "In Control", which was was produced by Tony Platt (AC/DC) and Ronald Prent (Rammstein) and was released in June 2007.


Read more ››

Source:	nemesea.com
Band profile:	Nemesea