Queensrÿche will take their acclaimed American Soldier Tour online by broadcasting an entire show live in high definition at cdpulse.tv. When the band takes the stage at the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida on May 19 at 8PM ET, fans worldwide can watch a high definition stream of the performance live as it happens. Fans can gain access to the show by purchasing an e-ticket at cdpulse.tv for the cost $5.95 for an advance ticket or $7.95 for a ticket on the day of the show. The show can be viewed virtually worldwide in high definition clarity via premium content delivery access systems featuring 43,000 servers in 17 different countries. For more details and technical information, please visit cdpulse.tv.

As with all shows on the American Soldier Tour, Queensrÿche will be performing three separate suites during the two hour performance, each focusing on a different album. The show opens with a suite from the band's 1986 gold album Rage For Order, including some tracks the band has not played live in over 20 years. The second suite focuses on the new epic concept album American Soldier, which was released on March 31 from Atco/Rhino. The Soldier suite features guest vocal performances by Navy rescue swimmer and Blue Angels crew chief A.J. Fratto on the intense set opener 'Sliver' and lead singer Geoff Tate's daughter Emily on the moving ballad 'Home Again'. The final suite revisits 1990's triple platinum opus Empire with performances of some of the band's most beloved tracks including 'Jet City Woman', 'Silent Lucidity', and 'Best I Can'.

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Band profile:

Queensrÿche

Press release:

The world of Rock and Roll has one Metal God - Rob Halford. The multi-Gold and Platinum Producer, Songwriter, Vocalist has graced the world's largest stages for decades leading his revolutionary solo acts: Halford, Fight and the legendary Judas Priest.

Developing new standards for the Rock and Metal genres with blazing vocals, dynamic themes, adorned head-to-toe in glass, leather and steel - The Metal God is universally recognized as an artist whom continually inspires and drives today's global Hard Rock industry.

With an eye on defining consumer-fashions for today's Rock and Roll lifestyles, Metal God Entertainment and Rob Halford are pleased to debut a new garment entity: Metal God Apparel.

With Pre-sale beginning today and shipments commencing June 15, 2009 Metal God Apparel will debut dozens of new, edgy-designs this year for youth, teens, men and women. Metal God Apparel re-produced on custom-dyed, cotton tees integrating the newest fashion technology, resulting in an extremely attractive, lightweight, soft-to-touch, active-wear for today's global music audiences.

Please visit http://www.MetalGodApparel.com for more details.

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Band profile:

Halford

Our first set of Sony headphones goes to Iran with special thanks for all the contributions to Metal Storm. Congratulations and big thanks to you ArtiA.

Second set of Sony headphones goes to Norway to hodeskalle.

Third set of Sony headphones goes to Serbia to Dekus.

We'll contact the winners through PM.

Thanks to all of you who participated. Those not winning, don't despair! Better luck next time. Keep up the contributions, we sincerely appreciate that.

Yours,
Metal Storm Staff

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Metal Storm has gone into partnership with Sony Center to give away 3 pairs of Sony MDR-XD200 headphones! Of 3 pairs given away:

1 pair of headphones will be drawn between 10 participants with highest community point score - that is our way of saying thanks to those who help us the most.

2 pairs of headphones will be drawn between all participants, except of course the winner above.

Sign up here: http://www.metalstorm.ee/contests/sony.php.

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Source:

metalstorm.ee

Eddie the Head, the demoniacal mascot of the British heavy metal group Iron Maiden, has made his way into the debating chamber of a Spanish town hall. Eddie's cadaverous face appears regularly at council meetings in the town of Villava, in Navarre, as part of a war of political symbols between local parties.

Basque separatist councillors insist on hanging the Basque flag on their desks during debates, upsetting other politicians at the town hall. Most dislike the idea of the Navarre region being treated as part of the Basque country.

The Socialists have responded by hanging an Iron Maiden flag on their desks. The Socialist leader, José Luis Uriz, said: "The Iron Maiden flag means a lot to me. If I have to put up with their flag, they'll have to put up with Eddie's face."

The conservative Navarrese People's Union party has joined the protest. Its councillors now hang the flag of the local La Liga football club, Osasuna, from their desks.

Source:	guardian.co.uk
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

It seems that no matter how hard they try, Metallica will continue to make anti-piracy headlines. After their bloody battle with Napster years ago, they were determined to keep calm when their latest album, 'Death Magnetic', inevitably hit the torrents. This time, Metallica's Lars Ulrich shocked everyone by saying: "If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days. It's 2008 and it's part of how it is these days."

Despite this effort, it hasn't taken long for people to start a dispute over piracy. According to a report, Metallica's label, Universal Music, canceled an interview the band had planned with the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan last week, after a writer there, Jonn Jeppsson, sparked off an anti-piracy row featuring him and The Pirate Bay.

Instead of reviewing the official version of the album, Jeppsson used an unauthorized cut called "Death Magnetic: Better, Shorter, Cut", which contains the same songs as the original, but shortened. If reviewing an unofficial copy wasn't enough, Mr Jeppson clearly enraged Universal when he admitted in his review that he downloaded his copy off The Pirate Bay.

Metallica's label Universal was not pleased, to say the least. Talking with Dagens Media, Universal Sweden's Per Sundin said: "The reviewer is referring to a torrent where someone has altered the original songs. The reviewer explains exactly where one should go in order to download the file that is totally infringing copyright. It's not only an illegal file, but an altered file. The reviewer also writes that this is how the album should have sounded."

Hinting that Universal may stop sending promo material for Sydsvenskan to review he ends: "We live in symbiosis with each other and we send them our artists' record for free for review. But if they download the albums illegally instead, then there's no point in doing that."

Source:	torrentfreak.com
Band profile:	Metallica

Almost five years have passed since the release of "A Flame To The Ground Beneath" and after the turbulence the band experienced. The remaining members now realize this period was necessary to regain the energy, strength, motivation and inspiration needed to continue with the unearthly creations.

While continuing the search for the voice, which will be embraced by our music, the recording of the new material will be carried through independently of that and immediately, starting in January 2008. All instruments will be successively fully recorded and maybe even mixed without vocals on. All skeptical or frightened by this procedure should know/be-reminded it was more or less the same case with "Awakening The World" album when Daniel's vocals was post-mixed after the instrumental mix in Studio Fredman.

Martin, Wojtek and Christian, the founders of the band, together with Attila, who all shared the same vision and goals, are once again the core of Lost Horizon and so it will remain in the future to avoid the destructible situations of too many wills and visions coming in conflict with each other.

"With this in mind we also have decided not to approach any offers of a record deal with record labels only to be cosmically ripped off, limited or controlled. We will take care of all studio and graphical matters by ourselves. Moreover, the material is not going to be recorded all at the same time, but song by song. If the singer problem is solved relatively shortly, then the songs will be available to buy directly after each one is totally processed and ready for the world. All songs will be distributed through the website.

According to our philosophy we want to establish a direct channel between us and our fans where our music and artwork will be distributed directly from our website, supervised by Valgorth, The Apocalyptic Blaster Of Rats In Cosmic Fury, to avoid any annoying, irrelevant interference by any greedy companies making it impossible to make a living as an artist/musician unless you sell a million copies.

This will be also Your chance to join us on the path to bring back the music to the listeners and musicians, promote the music You love and make musicianship once again the beautiful art form it once was!"

- In faith, Lost Horizon

Source:	oncelosthorizon.com
Band profile:	Lost Horizon

The eleventh annual Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Kaisaniemi, Helsinki on June 27.-29. is proud to announce the first artists in the 2008 line up. One of the most anticipated bands in the festival's history has to be the legendary Carcass who will embark on their reunion tour next summer. In addition to Jeff Walker & Co. Amon Amarth, Kreator, Entombed, Behemoth, Tyr, Stam1na and Korpiklaani will also be interpreting their art on the stages of the most prestigious metal festival in Finland. There will be 32 bands appearing on 3 stages over the Tuska-weekend as well as several dozen performing at the infamous evening clubs. More artists to be announced shortly.

Tickets for Tuska 2008 will go on sale on a later annouced date through www.tiketti.fi and www.lippupalvelu.fi. Confirmed artists for Tuska 2008 at this point:

Carcass
Amon Amarth
Mokoma
Kreator
Stam1na
Entombed
Behemoth
Týr
Korpiklaani
The Sorrow
Kiuas

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Source:	tuska-festival.fi
Band profile:	Carcass
Event:	Tuska Open Air 2008

Forget about going to YouTube - now you can watch metal videos without leaving Metal Storm!

How to find and watch videos:

The search box now includes the 'video' option.

Search the Videos section. Beside the MS search results, YouTube search results are now available as well, which take you directly to the video.

In Videos the links will take you to the video page, where you will be able to choose from several variants available on YouTube.

In band profiles, click on Videos in the submenu. There, you can see YouTube videos by clicking on video image, title or the 'Watch' button.

You can actually watch any YouTube video (even not metal-related), by using Search and then picking it from YouTube search results.

If you encounter any problems, please report them here.

Enjoy!

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Special announcement, from the official W.A.S.P. website:

"Dear fans, please DO NOT bring any cameras into the shows this fall as it is strictly prohibited to take pictures or recordings of the performance of W.A.S.P. Security Personnel at every venue will confiscate any cameras (including digital cameras and mobile phones with ability to record) from you before entering the venues. Please respect this request and enjoy the evening with The Crimson Idol.

Inquiries have been made as to whether The Crimson Idol will be performed only in select locations. The Crimson Idol Event will be performed every night in each of the cities in the Tour Schedule. After the Crimson Idol has been performed the band will take a 10 minute intermission and return to perform all the great W.A.S.P. classics you know and love."

Source:	waspnation.com
Band profile:	W.A.S.P.

Tarja Turunen's album "My Winter Storm" will be released on November 19 in Europe (November 16 in Germany) via Universal Music. It's produced by Daniel Presley (Faith No More, Jewel), who has been joined in the studio by Doug Wimbish on bass (Living Colour, Joe Satriani, Rolling Stones), Alex Scholpp on electric guitars (Farmer Boys) and Earl Harvin on drums (Seal, Pet Shop Boys, Air), a player personally selected by Tarja after she saw him stealing the show at a Seal concert. Keyboards and programming are being provided by Torsten Stenzel (Moby, Tina Turner, Vanessa Mae).

You can view the cover artwork at this location.

Tarja's video for the song "I Walk Alone", is now available on YouTube. The clip was shot in Berlin, Germany with director Jörn Heitmann, who previously worked with Nightwish on the "Sleeping Sun" video in 2005. The single will be released on October 29 (October 26 in Germany).

Tarja Turunen tour dates:

25.11.2007 - GER, Berlin
27.11.2007 - HUN, Budapest
02.12.2007 - RUS, Moscow
08.12.2007 - FIN, Kuusankoski
10.12.2007 - GER, Köln
11.12.2007 - FRA, Paris
13.12.2007 - NED, Amsterdam
18.12.2007 - SUI, Zürich
20.12.2007 - GBR, London

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Source:	roadrunnerrecords.com
Band profile:	Tarja

... Anette Olzon! In case this name doesn't tell you anything, here are a few facts about her:

Birthday: 21 June 1971
Country: Sweden

Musical background:
Was raised in a musical family and been singing since childhood. After she turned 13, she started competing in several talent shows. She joined her first real band when she was 17, it was a cover band and all the other musicians were older. After playing cover songs, she joined a band called Alyson Avenue, first just as a studio singer, later as their leading lady. They've released 2 albums since 2000.

At the age of 21, she played the leading role in a rock opera/musical called "Gränsland" in Helsingborg. After that she got in to the Balettakademien in Gothenburg. In addition to the already mentioned, she's been in several other bands over the years, sung in choirs, done studio work for various projects and even occasionally been a wedding singer. Recently she sang a duet with Michael Bormann (ex-Jaded Heart-singer) on his album "Conspiracy".

Read the entire fact file
Interview
Video greeting

Promotional photos: 1 | 2
Promotional band photos: 1 | 2

'Eva', the first single from the new album, should be released tomorrow. Listen to a short sample

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Source:	nightwish.com
Band profile:	Nightwish

Recent rumour about Blackie Lawless dying in a car accident has proven to be nothing more than someone's sick joke. Apparently, the rumour originates from the fake news website, where you can enter your own text and transform it into a news article.

Blackie Lawless has issued the following statement on the official W.A.S.P. website:
"If I died, I wish someone would have had the common decency to let me know, besides, a car crash is way too mundane, I would have opted for something more spectacular" - Blackie Lawless.

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Source:	waspnation.com
Band profile:	W.A.S.P.

After W.A.S.P., Twisted Sister and Kamelot cancelled their appearance at the Ragnarock Festival (Oslo, Norway), the entire event has been cancelled by the organizers, with no reasons given. The only message on the festival's site states:

"Keep the tickets and send a e-mail with account number(for other countrys then Norway, please use your paypal account) We do have all the buyers registered and it will not be payed out any money if the name don't accour on this list."

Source:	ragnarock.as
Event:	Ragnarock Festival (CANCELLED)

A statement from Jens Johansson:

"No, we didn't plant MP3s with any malware. Of course, that's what I would say even if we did do it so if you don't believe me.. well what the fuck can I do about it.

Yes, it's very fucking possible for malicious code to hide in MP3 or other non-executable files. If you don't believe this you are very naive. There have been exploits that executed just by hovering the mouse over a file. I wish I was making this stuff up, but I'm not. It could be via a bug in the core operating system, some library thereof, some media player, some popular spyware, anything.

No, I don't at all know if MP3s with Stratovarius music is the actual vector. But it seems quite possible given the described payload.

No, you will probably not be able to find out who did this. I would consider these strange .strato files as lost. But that "challenge-response" shit could mean that there actually might be some way engineered into this thing to get them back using that challenge information and the right algorithm. Good luck..

Yes, I got copies of a file named "strato.exe" from angry people. And I'm not even going to be hovering my mouse over these files, much less run them to see if a picture of mickey mouse comes up or not.

Yes, provided it's not replicating (a pure trojan) the 12-year-old in me thinks this is at least a little bit funny.

Whichever 12-year-old sociopath did this, if those "certain" new MP3s really turn out to be the vector, well.. no pat on the back, but contact me and I'll get you a signed Stratovarius CD, a few years in federal prison, and probably a great paying IT security job when you get out..."

Band profile:

Stratovarius