The following announcement was posted on Axxis' official website:

One rehearsal session and one recording session... and the decision was done! Marco Wriedt will be the new Axxis guitar player!

(Keyboardist) Harry (Oellers): "As Marco arrived in the studio I thought Walter (first Axxis guitar player) is back ;-)! We sent him all of our actual songs and he played everything perfectly!"

(Vocalist) Bernhard (Weiß): "This guy is 22 years old and very creative. We just let him play to our new production and it was... awesome!"

See Marco's comments at this location.

More on the guitarist at his official website and his MySpace.

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Source:	axxis.de
Band profile:	Axxis

Relapse Records will reissue the split release between Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Converge, The Poacher Diaries, on Tuesday, January 23rd (January 29th internationally).

The Poacher Diaries reissue has been completely re-mastered by the team of Scott Hull and Nick Zampiello of New Alliance East and features nine tracks from grindcore masters Agoraphobic Nosebleed along with five of the most hostile Converge songs ever to be written, including live-favorites "Locust Reign" and "My Great Devastator." The re-issue artwork will remain the original work of artist Derek Hess. For more information on this release, you can check here.

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Source:	smnnews.com
Band profile:	Agoraphobic Nosebleed

Hell yes...
Tamara Press (started by Daniel from Incision) will release on 23 of this month a huge nice 500 page book about Swedish Death Metal, containing a listing of about 900 bands, and many other information such as the fanzines that were active in those days, interviews of 30 of the most important characters in the Swedish Death Metal Scene including members from bands like Merciless, Grave, Dismember/Carnage, Treblinka/Tiamat... a huge number of pictures, etc...

All in all, A MUST for Swedish Death metal maniacs !!!!
The book is about 1,5 kg heavy and costs 50 Euro. 55 Outside Europe.

Release Party
An exclusive release party will be on the 26 of January at Kafé 44 in Stockholm. A party for invited OLD FARTS only. The flyier nicely claims "STRICTLY NO POSERS, HARDLY ANYONE UNDER 30 ALLOWED ENTRANCE" And will feature unique performances of Nirvana 2002, Grotesque and Internment.

For more info check the Tamara myspace.
Damn...

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Source:

myspace.com

According to Dark Moor's official site "The release date for Tarot will be February 21th, 2007", and will include the following tracks:

01. The Magician
02. The Chariot
03. The Star
04. Wheel Of Fortune
05. The Emperor
06. Devil In The Tower
07. Death
08. Lovers
09. The Hanged Man
10. The Moon
11. The Fool

Source:	dark-moor.com
Band profile:	Dark Moor

Finnish metallers Twilightning will be releasing their 3rd full length album titled "Swinelords" on 21st March 2007 through Spinefarm.

Release dates for other countries is yet unknown but people can order the new Twilightning album from Spinefarm shop "Levykauppa Äx" when it's released.

The tracklisting for Swinelords is:

01. Isolation Shell
02. SwineLord
03. Reflection of the Cuckoo
04. Vice Jesus
05. Pimps, Witches, Thieves & Bitches
06. The Gun
07. Not a Word
08. Consume Gap
09. With the Flow
10. Wounded & Withdrawn

Source:	finmetalnews.com
Band profile:	Twilightning

After Forever's official release party for their forthcoming self-titled album, scheduled to take place on March 22nd at Tivoli in Utrecht, Holland has been postponed. The album was due to be issued on the same day by Nuclear Blast, but according to the band the release date has been changed. The new date will be announced soon and the party will be rescheduled.

The listening parties scheduled to take place in Holland in February will go ahead as planned. They are as follows:

February
22 - Burgerweeshuis in Deventer, Holland
23 - W2 in Den Bosch, Holland

Source:	afterforever.com
Band profile:	After Forever
Event:	After Forever: Pre-Listening Party

The new video for the song "Diary Of Evil" was posted on Mat Sinner's MySpace and will be featured in the limited edition of "Mask Of Sanity". There's also a trailer by MTM Music regarding the new album posted on the band's page. The new album will be released today (19 January 2007).
A personally signed limited edition copy of "Mask Of Sanity" can be pre-ordered now.

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Source:	matsinner.de
Band profile:	Sinner

"Metal Mind Productions" will make a DVD from the Blaze gig in Poland! A camera team will follow the band and crew, from they arrive in Poland until they leave after the gig. The gig will take place on 24 March at Katowice, and is part of the Metalmania festival.

In other news, Blaze Bayley will get married the 14th February 2007 with his long term girlfriend Debbie on the island of Gran Canaria, where he recently held a free concert. Blaze first met Debbie in the Wolfsbane days 1989 at a Rhythm Damage gig at the arts center in Tamworth and they remained friends whilst following their separate careers, and now they have finally decided to tie the knot.

Source:	planetblaze.com
Band profile:	Blaze Bayley
Event:	Metalmania

Eternal Tears Of Sorrow have launched a video page on http://youtube.com/etoslive. Live footage from the band's December 31st show show at Teatria in Oulu, Finland is currently available for streaming. The songs currently on offer are "Blood Of Failth (Stains My Hands)' and 'Autumn's Grief".

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Source:	eternaltears.info
Band profile:	Eternal Tears Of Sorrow

After triumphantly headlining the annual Wacken Open Air festival in Germany and four capacity performances in America last summer, Norwegian black metal pioneers Emperor have announced their return to the United States for three encore appearances this spring.

"We have made a decision to return to the U.S. for a few additional shows," notes guitarist Samoth. "This time Chicago is also put on the map.

"The shows last summer were very successful and we had an amazing turnout and support from all the fans. It was also a bit stressful because of the embassy hassle that we unfortunately had to endure. So we feel a few more shows are due and this time, all visas are in order and the band will appear in its full command."

Confirmed dates are as follows:

May
30 - (US) The Metro - Chicago, IL

June
01 - (US) B.B. King Blues Club & Grill - New York, NY
03 - (US) Key Club - West Hollywood, CA

Ticket on-sale information will be announced shortly.

Source:	candlelightrecords.co.uk
Band profile:	Emperor
Event:	Emperor: US Dates

Finnish metallers Nightwish have updated their website with following message: "The auditions for the new vocalist have ended, with more than 2000 demos sent to us. (yesterday, 15.1. we received 120 demos!) A big thanks to everybody! So please don't send anymore demos, since now we need to concentrate on finishing the album recordings." The new vocalist will be announced at the end of May, together with the release of a new single.

Source:	nightwish.com
Band profile:	Nightwish

The Blikfest-organisation has announced the fourth edition of the well-tasted festival Blikfest, on 3 November at JH Togenblik at Beveren-Waas, Belgium. First bands announced are Axamenta and Crusader.

Both bands are very popular inside the Belgian metal scene and already proved their merit several times on all different kinds of (Belgian) festivals. To name just a few, Crusader recently played on Frostrock and can also be seen on the Spring Madness Festival in May, and Axamenta was featered on the Graspop Metal Meeting line up last year.

The organisation also promised a very nice international headliner, as always.

Event:

Blikfest IV

Iron Maiden have confirmed that further to last weeks announcement of an additional show in Athens they will be playing a headline show in Belgrade on Wednesday March 14th 2007 as part of a short run of dates in mid March.

The venue is the 18,000 capacity Belgrade Fair Indoor Arena and tickets for the show will be going on sale on Wednesday 24th January.

Says Steve Harris "I'm pretty sure in saying that this will be the first time we've been to Belgrade for just over 20 years back on the Somewhere in Time tour so I'm sure many of our fans in Serbia will be very excited at the news that we're making this visit that some would say is long overdue! As we said a couple of years ago we would try and visit new places and cities where we haven't played for a long time when the opportunity to do so came up and this is just such an occasion. And we are very much looking forward to it"

For more information and links to where to buy tickets check the Iron Maiden official website shortly.

Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden
Event:	Iron Maiden

"U.S. legends of epic black death metal" Vital Remains have just returned home from Mana Recording Studio in Florida, where they recorded their followup to 2003's "Dechristianize" featuring Glen Benton of Deicide once again on vocals.

Here is a statement from guitarist Tony Lazaro:

We've just returned home from Mana Recordings in Florida where we spent the whole month of December/January working on the new album. Yes, it's done and what can we say other than holy shit! We cannot wait for the fans to hear this new album!! I really think all of our fans are going to shit themselves when they hear this. To those few who thought we couldn't top Dechristianize, you're in for a real surprise because we did! We thought Dechristianize was a tough album to do, oh man! This album, hands down sets the bar. We spent 12-13 hours a day straight with no days off. The drums took some 10 days alone to track all nine songs. Glen's vocals sound sick and his performance and attack was awesome! Dave's leads and harmonies are some of his best work to date. Total shredding as well as a great drum performance done by Dave. He really worked hard to get his best drum tracks down. The overall sound of the new album is just HUGE! We are very proud of the results of all this hard work and we think our fans will soon agree as well. A BIG THANKS to Erik Rutan who really worked us to near death ha! Much respect to you and Shaun Otani for really working hard and pushing us to the point of insanity to bring out our best performances, to which we think you did without a doubt!
This is without question our "Reign In Blood" album. Soon the underground worldwide will get to hear this Unholy Brutality!.... "Hammer Down The Nails!!"

Vital Remains is also booking a lot of tours for the release of this album in 2007. Followed will also be a single and a video, the band's first premiered video in its eighteen year history.

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Source:	smnnews.com
Band profile:	Vital Remains

Thanatos guitarists Stephan Gebédi and Paul Baayens have joined forces with former Pestilence/Asphyx-singer Martin Van Drunen, Gorefest drummer Ed Warby and former Houwitser bass player Theo van Eekelen in a brand new project.
The as-yet-unnamed band will record a three-track promo CD later this year. "We're simply going to crank out some brutal old-school death metal stuff ? nothing more, nothing less!" says Gebédi

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Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Gorefest