from the TdV newsleter:

Theatres des Vampires, decided not to replace Alexander, the male singer that left the band a few months ago. Scarlet, the female-singer of the band, will continue singing. In this way the band feels that the fans will not at all be betrayed. Scarlet was already beloved by the fans and leaving to her all the singing parts looks like the best way to continue playing without making a dramatic change from the past.

The next album will thus feature a lot more female singing than ever before. The male singing parts in the new album will be realized by special guests that will be announced soon.

Theatres des Vampires would like to thank all the fans and the people that sent tons of demos in this 2 months from all around Europe asking to take the place of the male singer. A lot of you are great singers, but now we feel that it is time to make a musical change for Theatres des Vampires.

Scarlet, as of today is the perfect choice for our band and we feel that with her as a frontgirl we will be able to realize all our musical vision for Theatres des Vampires.

Drink Deep...
TdV

Band profile:

Theatres Des Vampires

The lawsuit filed by former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson against
singer-guitarist David Mustaine, disputing the legitimacy of a May 2004
settlement agreement and seeking at least $18.5 million in damages, was
dismissed by a federal judge in New York on January 13th, according to The
Hollywood Reporter.com. The article also states that Ellefson's attorney
has already filed a notice of appeal, and that a countersuit filed by
Mustaine against Ellefson remains pending.

Band profile:

Megadeth

The band has announced they will re-release the 1991 documentary 'Seen
Between the Lines' on DVD this spring. The documentary contains live
footage, promotional music videos, rare video clips, as well as behind the
scenes and candid footage.

Band profile:

Testament

Following the departure of Mark Zonder, the band has announced the
drummers for their upcoming European shows. Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater)
will join them on drums for the Headway festival. Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's
Beard) will handle drumming duties for the scheduled February dates.

Band profile:

Fates Warning

Kataklysm have parted ways with drummer Martin Maurais, citing "personal
and professional reasons." Max Duhamel, who performed on five past
Kataklysm albums including Shadows and Dust has been named as his
replacement. Kataklysm will be direct support on the Danzig tour with
Trivium and Eyes of Fire, beginning February 18th.

Band profile:

Kataklysm

Philip Anselmo's (SUPERJOINT RITUAL, DOWN, ex-PANTERA) friend "J" has posted the following message on the official DOWN forum in regards to the tragic death of DAMAGEPLAN/ex-PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott:

"I don't have a big official statement. I do have a lot of inside knowledge on the PANTERA feud from Philip's side and tonight he gave me the green light to let everyone else in on what I know. He trusts me to do this, and I take 100 percent responsibility for anything that is inaccurate, but I'm confident you all know I'm not going to touch on this subject unless it's from the heart. He didn't even give me any specifics except for the final part of this post... he just wants me to tell people what I know to be true.

"Philip loved Darrell like a brother, always. They accomplished things together that most wouldn't even dare to dream. None of us can know what it's like to be riding such a big machine, it changes the face of music and brings joy millions of people's lives around the globe. The rewards are big, but the stress is unimaginable if things don't go perfectly. Yes, PANTERA broke up and there was a lot of shit-talking through the media. There are two people on this board who would periodically ask me about what's going to happen with PANTERA in the future. I told them each time that I don't know when, but I'm 100 percent sure that we will see PANTERA together again. I told them that when PANTERA does get back together, you will know somebody who never lost faith, not for a second. Why did I tell them this? Because I know Philip loves those guys and when he was ready, he would reach out to them and try to make it work again. I had the feeling that one morning (afternoon maybe), all the 'Cowboys From Hell' boys would just roll out of the rack and say 'Let's go!'

"Of all the time I've spent with Rex and Philip, I never badgered them about PANTERA, but the subject did come up every once in a while. As for Rex, he would refer to the state of things simply as 'silly nonsense.' All I ever got out of Philip was something like 'Nyaaaa... I just don't feel like sitting down and writing PANTERA riffs right now.' ... and that's it! No crazy accusations, name-calling, or carrying on. As a matter of fact, in the middle of all the heat, Philip described Vinnie as 'the perfect drummer' and that Vinnie could drum more perfect than a drum machine if he so chose. What he said of Dime, he also repeated tonight. 'The best of the best.'

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Source:	Blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Pantera

After their grand finale show of the Atlantis Lovelorn Tour in La Locomotive, Paris, 28.11.2004, the bands experienced an arbitrary infringement by the French police.

Right after crew and band had finished the loading of their bus in front of La Locomotive and the adjacent varieté Moulin Rouge, policemen appeared and told the bus driver to leave the street immediately. Due to traffic jam this was not possible at once. The policemen started to speak in a very aggressive tone that culminated in the threat of arresting the bus driver. Moreover, they took his papers away, thus Liv Kristine and Alexander Krull complained about the rude behaviour of the police. Then, suddenly a bunch of policemen, some in civil dresses, rushed the bus and attacked the musicians. As a result of their action, Alex Krull was injured, as several policemen beat him and violently pulled him out of the bus and down to the grown. Also, Liv Kristine was thrown against the wall of the bus and was hurt, too. Without any explanations, Alex Krull was arrested, along with him bus driver Helge, the Dutch tour guide Harald and the German journalist Robert Suß who had only tried to calm the policemen and keep them from attacking Liv Kristine again. They were all arrested in front of hundreds of visitors at Moulin Rouge and other clubs who witnessed the happening. The four of them were taken to the police station, where they had to stay for about three hours without any explanation for the arrest, any hearing or announcing of their rights. Only intensive pressure from the German embassy lead to their release. Still the police gave no explanation for their aggressive treatment, nor any excuse.

All these facts concerning these inconceivable happenings will be announced to both the German Foreign Bureau and the Head of Police in Paris.

Info taken from the Napalm Records newsletter

Band profile:

Atrocity

Acclaimed German producer/engineer Charlie Bauerfeind (SAXON, HAMMERFALL, RAGE, BLIND GUARDIAN) has posted the following update at his official web site:

"Finally we started the pre-production phase of the next HELLOWEEN record about a week ago. The guys are already in songwriting and rehearsal mode since [last] month and are working very hard to shape up some truly great songs. I joined them for the first time on 24th of November in their rehearsal room and got some great vibes. Sascha (Gerstner, guitar) and Stefan (Schwarzmann, drums) seem to be solidly integrated now into HELLOWEEN and everything was sounding really tight. The keyboards also melt very well into the sound-picture. German keyboard veteran Friedl Amon, who used to mastermind hardrock/'metal' shootingstar formation REVOLVER in the early '80s, adds some great stuff to the lot. He will handle the keyboard arrangements at his studio in Germany throughout the next months.

"I think we're gonna be starting to record the basic tracks at around middle of December and after a short Christmas break, commence our work 'till March 2005."

Band profile:

Helloween

After 10 years of history Theatres des Vampires have split from the singer Alexander.
This happened in the recent days.
After 3 months of discussions and a formal stop of activities, Theatres des Vampires was forced to stop the collaboration with the singer Alexander.
The singer during the last year suffered for a badly and distructive form of jelousy against some members of the band as Scarlet (the well know she singer of the band) and Fabian the keyboard player and main compositor of the band.
This caused major problems and a virtually impossible continuing of activities of the band in this kind of situation.
The band fronts 2 options, or disband the band or fire out who has been the problem in the last months.
And the decision is taken.
Theatres des Vampires, in according with the official Management Tim Fraser and the label Plastic Head decided to stop the collaboration with the singer Alexander and at today are searching for a new singer to replace him.
For the moment all activities of the band are freezed while searching for the new singer.
For news and extra information you can get in touch at the same address as always:
info@theatres-des-vampires.com
Soon on-line you will find more recent news and updates about the situation at:
www.theatres-des-vampires.com
or
www.theatres-des-vampires.net

Band profile:

Theatres Des Vampires

Doom/Death Metal band MOURNING BELOVETH have posted the following update on the songwriting process for their as-yet-untitled third album.:

"Rehearsals are finished for the album and we have still to come up with a name for it. We have six new songs and are going to re-record Part 1 but there is only room for five as they all top the ten-minute mark. The album is sounding very dark, sick and heavy so it should be an interesting three weeks in Studio E. Lukasz, the resident Prophecy artist will take care of the album artwork and at this time it is looking like a black-and-white theme to fit in with the general mood of the music and lyrics. During our stay we will be playing a gig on November 6th with our friends MIRROR OF DECEPTION and MANUS MORTIS in a town called Murrhardt (about 50 kms from Ludwigsburg Stuttgart), the venue is the local youth center (called Juze). The album should be out in March next year and an extensive tour to follow."

MOURNING BELOVETH's upcoming CD will be issued through Grau Records, a subsidiary of Prophecy Productions.

Band profile:

Mourning Beloveth

THE HAUNTED guitarist Anders Björler and vocalist Peter Dolving recently spoke to Belgium's Concreteweb.be webzine about illegal music downloading. Asked about the fact that their latest CD, "rEVOLVEr", was available for download on the Internet well before its official release date, Anders said, "In fact, we can't really stop the Internet scene. For that, you have to stop sending out promos, and then you don't get any generalized feedback anymore, and that would make it too complicated. I think, everything that comes out one month prior to release, that's OK, but it would be really devastating for the band if it was already available six months or a year in advance. If then the album comes out, it's already old news. But within a month, that's OK for me. I consider the Internet as a big radio station. You download songs and listen to them. It's a way of promotion. And if you like it, then you buy it or you go to shows or buy T-shirts."

Peter added: "I think one of the reasons that there is that really strong debate about it, is that it really affects one part of the business a lot, and that is the major record companies and the major publishers because they are the ones who lose money on a large scale. If you're an artist like, for instance, Elton John, then you lose money. Paul McCartney is pissed off because he owns about 25,000 copyrights of songs. I think we'll have to accept the fact that it's there, that people want to be able to share music on a softer, easier kind of scale. Then again, there's always the thing with copyright. If you think about it, it points up to the fact that it's really obscure that you can buy a copyright. The idea of copyright is that whoever wrote the song should have the possibility through his lifetime and his family's lifetime, to have certain advantages from what he or she created. I think that's fair, if you look at it from a songwriter's perspective. Sooner or later, there will be some mark or script attached to each song. But the thing is, it really is overhyped, the whole debate whether it's right or wrong. The only ones who are really affected, it's not bands like us or punk bands, because our fans, they'll buy the record anyway. They'll download the album and go then to the record store and buy the album for the artwork etc. etc. The ones who are really hurt are the larger record companies, because that are people who're not really into music, they'll pick one MADONNA song, one from BRITNEY SPEARS and put it in their big bag of goodies and they don't give a shit, because the next month, it's a completely new bag of goodies. So they just go download-crazy, with Kazaa and their computer all full of music. They're all fucked up. Not normal people. OK, now I'm going over the edge, but that's basically what's happening. So I don't think it affects the more specialised kinds of music, no."

Band profile:

The Haunted

PARADISE LOST announced today (Oct. 6) that the title of their newest album will be "Paradise Lost" ? in celebration of their 10th studio album since their full-length debut, "Lost Paradise", was released in 1990. Artwork and tracklisting are still to be confirmed.

The follow-up to 2002's "Symbol of Life", "Paradise Lost" was recorded primarily at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, England under the guidance of producer Rhys Fulber (FEAR FACTORY, FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY) and is the group's first to feature drummer Jeff Singer (ex-BLAZE).

Singer joined the group in May as the replacement for Lee Morris, who left the band in March due to "personal and musical differences."

The upcoming CD is being described by singer Nick Holmes as "definitely the heaviest album we have done in the last ten years."

Working songtitles set to appear on "Paradise Lost" include:

01. Through The Silence
02. Shine
03. Sun Fading
04. Sanctimonious You
05. Redshift
06. Forever After
07. Getting Over The Madness
08. Accept The Pain
09. Close Your Eyes
10. The Laws Of Cause

"Symbol Of Life", PARADISE LOST's ninth studio album, was produced by Fulber and was released in the U.S. through Koch Entertainment.

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Band profile:

Paradise Lost

After entering the Finnish single charts on # 1 with "Don't Say A Word" at the end of August, SONATA ARCTICA now also managed to break the Japanese charts: "Don't Say A Word" went straight to # 1 on the Japanese foreign artist charts. Congratulations!

Band profile:

Sonata Arctica

Elin Overskott former keyboardist (1994-1998) for the Norwegian melodic black metal band DISMAL EUPHONY, died of a heroin overdose early last month. Overskott, whose lifeless body was found on September 6, 2004 in the eastern part of the Norwegian town of Stavanger, had reportedly been "clean" for over two years prior to her death. She was 24 years old.

Tristania's new album, entitled "Ashes", is due for release in January 2005. They have also finally confirmed having signed with SPV.

Band profile:

Tristania