German "dark" metallers BETHLEHEM have completed work on their fifth full-length album, "Mein Weg", for a September release through Red Stream Records. Featuring ten songs with a running time of over sixty minutes, "Mein Weg" is said to have it all: "distinctive melancholic melodies, sturdy heavy metal riffs, rapid black metal blast beats, mega-slow doom dirges, dim piano lines and emotionally serene rock themes." The follow-up to 2001's "Schatten Aus Der Alexander Welt" will be issued in a special digipack containing an 18-page booklet

According to a posting on KAMELOT's web site, guitarist Thomas Youngblood and singer Roy Khan will soon be heading back to Germany to put the finishing touches on the follow-up to last year's "Epica", tentatively due before the end of the year through SPV Records. Vocal sessions and guitar sessions will be done as well as the recording of several guest appearances. Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "March of Mephisto", "Nothing Ever Dies" and "Serenade". A Japanese tour will likely take place in December, to be followed by a European trek beginning in January 2005.

Band profile:

Kamelot

Swedish progressive power metal band PLATITUDE have parted ways with drummer Marcus Höher. "This was an entirely professional decision, we parted ways because of musical differences," the group write on their web site. "We want to thank Marcus for the time spent, and the impact on the band and our music. We wish him all the best of luck in the future!" Replacing Marcus in PLATITUDE is Andreas Brobjer, who is also collaborating with Swedish keyboard wizard Richard Andersson on his SPACE ODYSSEY project.

PLATITUDE's sophomore album, "Nine", was released in April through Italy's Scarlet Records. The follow-up to 2003's "Secrets Of Life" was recorded at Jailhouse Studios in Denmark with producer Tommy Hansen (HELLOWEEN, PRETTY MAIDS) and features cover artwork by Mattias Norén.

Band profile:

Platitude

Finnish melo-death metallers OMNIUM GATHERUM have completed work on their sophomore album, "Fall Grave Silence", tentatively due in October/Novemeber through Rage Of Achilles Records.

The follow-up to last year's highly acclaimed "Spirits and August Light" was recorded at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki, Finland with producer Nino Laurenne and engineer Teemu Aalto. The mastering sessions will take place at Finnvox studios in Helsinki.

"Fall Grave Silence" tentative track listing:

01. The Fall Went Right Through Here
02. Misanthropic (Let the Crown Fall)
03. Bereavement
04. No Moon & No Queen
05. Gravesilence
06. It's a Long Night
07. The Nolan's Fati
08. Black Seas Cry
09. More Withering
10. Auguries Gone

OMNIUM GATHERUM have previously described the new material as "more of that old-school (melo)death ? groovier and heavier ? not that trendy-pop-death-metal-crap that's extruding everywhere."

Band profile:

Omnium Gatherum

BRUJERIA singer Juan Brujo was arrested for possession of an illegal weapon (machete) and illegal drugs following the band's performance in Tijuana, Mexico on Saturday, July 17. BRUJERIA guitarist Dino Cazares (a.k.a. Asesino, ex-FEAR FACTORY) sent the following report to BLABBERMOUTH.NET regarding the incident:

"The venue hired police officers as security for the concert because of the reputation that BRUJERIA has. Just before we were about to hit the stage, the police stopped Brujo for his machete that he takes on stage, they pulled him aside and questioned him, asking him what it's for and why he was wearing the Mexican flag bandana on his face. They said he was desecrating the flag, which is a major offense in Mexico. They continued to search him and found a substantial amount of a controlled substance (marijuana). Asesino tried to democratically intervene with the police but all he got was 'Shut the fuck up and get the fuck out of here.' Asesino went and got the promoter to try and come and reason with the police. After a few minutes of negotiations between the promoter and the police, a financial compromise was agreed to only allow Brujo to perform the show but still to be arrested immediately after the band's performance and taken to jail, where he spent three days negotiating his release. Finally, yet another financial compromise of thousands of dollars was agreed and all charges were dropped and he was released from jail in time for rehearsals with BRUJERIA for their upcoming show at the Ventura Theater on Saturday, July 24."

BRUJERIA are:

Juan Brujo - Vocals
Asesino (a.k.a. Dino Cazares, ex-FEAR FACTORY) - Guitar
Hongo Jr. (a.k.a. Nicholas Barker, ex-CRADLE OF FILTH, DIMMU BORGIR) - Drums
Hongo (a.k.a. Shane Embury, NAPALM DEATH) - Bass
Fantasma - Additional Vocals
Pinche Peach - Additional Vocals

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Reunited New Jersey metallers ATTACKER have uploaded live footage from their appearance at the Keep It True II festival on April 10 at Tauberfrankenhalle in Lauda-Königshofen, Germany. Download a video of the band performing the track "Tortured Existence" at the festival at this location (10.6 MB): http://www.attacker.tv/tortured.mp4

ATTACKER released their latest studio album, "Soul Taker", in January through Iron Glory Records.

Sweden's OPETH are officially free agents as a result of having been dropped by BMG/Zomba after their previous label, Music For Nations, was folded into parent company Zomba Records Group (the world's largest independent music group). The band are looking through new offers at the moment.

As previously reported, OPETH frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt has started writing material for the group's next album, tentatively scheduled to be recorded sometime in the early spring of 2005. Åkerfeldt has also visited No Man Studios in Hemel Hampstead, U.K. to lay down some guitars and backing vocals for the next, as-yet-untitled PORCUPINE TREE record. Mikael plays guitar on one track and sings backing vocals on another five songs. The album is due for release late this year.

Band profile:

Opeth

Former PESTILENCE bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling is currently available for progressive and technical bands or (studio) projects, according to a posting on his official website www.jeroenthesseling.com.

Here are some words from Mille at his returm from England taken from the kreator's site:
"Dear girls and boys, back in Essen after a 6 week stay in England. Sneap starts mixing the songs today, and I can not wait hearing the final results. SPV are planing a worldwide release of the album for January 2005, followed by an extensive world tour, including massive sound and lights + a killer stage design in the style of the new cover artwork, wich will be made by austrian artist Jochim Luetke, check some of his work here: www.luetke.com . In case you have not seen the clips of the drum + vocal recordings yet, go here: www.andysneap.com.
Before the actual album, we will release a special price 4 track EP, including previously unreleased Live material and non album tracks.
Here is the new song titles :

ENEMY OF GOD
IMPOSSIBLE BRUTALITY
SUICIDE TERRORIST
MURDER FANTASIES
DYING RACE APOCALYPSE
ONE EVIL COMES- A MILION FOLLOW
DYSTOPIA
WORLD ANARCHY
VOICES
UNDER A BLACKENED SKY
WHEN DEATH TAKES IT´S DOMINION
THE ANCIENT PLAGUE

The style of the songs is pure brutal Thrash ! Tons of fast shit, sick solos, aggro riffing....
I am really psyched about the new shit , can´t wait to hear what you think about it.... Looking foreward to get back on the road again, to play for you all !
Greetings from Essen, Germany,
Mille"

Band profile:

Kreator

The lead guitarrist from Arch Enemy/Spiritual Beggars have recorded a solo for the song "Murder Fantasies" to the new Kreator album

Band profile:

Arch Enemy

A brand-new NECROPHAGIA track, entitled "Unearthed", is available for preview at this location: http://www.necrophagia.com/main.html

"Unearthed" will be featured on NECROPHAGIA's next full-length release, "Harvest Ritual Vol 1: Penance", tentatively due next summer. Recording for the CD will take place at state-of-the-art studios around the world and is expected to be completed by the year's end. Basil Gogos (NECROPHAGIA, ROB ZOMBIE, MISFITS) will again be doing the cover artwork, and Cristie "Crusty" Whiles and Nico Claux will be doing additional designs. Other songtitles set to appear on the CD include "Return to Texas", "Cadavera X", "London (13 Demon Street)", and "Bleeding Eyes of the Eternally Damned". Finishing touches are now being put on both NECROPHAGIA DVD releases: "Nightmare Scenarios", which features videos with Coffin Joe, Paul Naschy, Jose Moral and Alex Chandon, among others, and "NecroTorture/Sickcess". "NecroTorture" is a live performance filmed in Valencia, Spain and "Sickcess" is a gore-filled road movie directed by Fred Vogel and Killjoy (both of whom are involved in Toe Tag Pictures). The DVDs will be released before year's end on Red Stream, Inc. Frediablo's design company, Dimidea, designed the cover for "NecroTorture/Sickess" (as well as the upcoming GORELORD/WURDULAK DVD "Drunk, Decayed, and Damned")."

Band profile:

Necrophagia

Swedish thrashers THE HAUNTED have revealed the complete track listing for their fourth album, "rEVOLVEr", tentatively due in Europe on October 18 through Century Media Records. The follow-up to 2003's "One Kill Wonder" was recorded at Gothenburg's famed Studio Fredman (IN FLAMES, DIMMU BORGIR, ARCH ENEMY) with co-producers Patrik J. Sten and Fredrik Nordström and mixed at Denmark's Antfarm Studio by Tue Madsen. The album will be released as jewel-case CD and limited edition digipak (each with a different cover), featuring two special bonus tracks.

"rEVOLVEr" (cover, left: Jewel case cover artwork / right: Digipak cover artwork) track listing:

01. No Compromise
02. 99 (mp3)
03. Abysmal
04. Sabotage
05. All Against All
06. Sweet Relief
07. Burnt To A Shell
08. Who Will Decide (feat. SICK OF IT ALL's Lou Koller)
09. Nothing Right
10. Liquid Burns
11. My Shadow

Band profile:

The Haunted

COLD have signed a new deal with Atlantic Records following their split with the Geffen label back in March. At the time, the group's frontman Scooter Ward blamed the split on "a disagreement on how to promote our band. They wouldn't do what we wanted, so we asked if they would let us go," he said.

COLD have completed eight songs for the follow-up to 2003's "Year of the Spider" and plan on entering Long View Farm Studios in North Brookfield, MA with producer/former UGLY KID JOE guitarist Dave Fortman (SUPERJOINT RITUAL, EVANESCENCE) "a couple of weeks after finishes MUDVAYNE" album, according to Ward. "We will probably start touring again in December (headline only)," Scooter said.

Back in April, COLD parted ways with guitarist Kelly Hayes and replaced him with Matt Laughran, formerly of the pre-COLD outfit GRUNDIG. Hayes, who is believed to have joined the Jacksonville, Florida-based "modern rock" band ALLELE, was the second guitarist to leave COLD in less than six months. Late last year, Terry Balsamo exited the group to hook up with EVANESCENCE. He has since been replaced by former DARWIN'S WAITING ROOM axeman Eddie Rendini.

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Adagio separates from David Readman

"It's with great regret that we have to announce that David Readman is no longer the singer of Adagio.

Before anything else, I would like to mention that this decision has nothing to do with our personal feelings with David. We've been great friends, we had a lot of fun together but it was clear that a longer collaboration with Bottom Row (David's management) would have killed the band in no time.

I will not go into details, but all I can say, is that each new show, studio album or new project have been subject to really unpleasant negotiations, under the threat of being blocked many times and it was not possible for us to work under such a permanent pressure anymore.

We've done all the possible to keep on working with David, but after few years, we've decided to stop making compromises, and to finally take the best decision for Adagio's future.

We have now to move forward, and so we're looking for a new singer.

As the band has a lot of upcoming things going on like the Prog power fest in Atlanta in September and the recordings of the next album before the end of the year, some auditions will take place very soon.

So, if you're living in Europe, you have a great voice and above all, if you think you have your chances to become the new singer of Adagio, then please send :

- 1 good quality MP3 representative of your voice

- A short bio

- 2 recent pictures

to: adagio.management@wanadoo.fr

All demos will be listened, and if you're selected for an audition, you will receive an e-mail confirmation within one week.

All the e-mails have to be sent before August 10th.

Thanks a lot for your understanding and support

Adagio

Band profile:

Adagio

ANGTORIA is the new band formed by female singer Sarah Jezebel Deva (CRADLE OF FILTH, THERION, MORTIIS), composer Chris Rehn (ABYSSOS) and Tommy Rehn (MOAHNI MOAHNA). The group recently completed a five-song demo at Virtual Symphony Studios in Sundsvall, Sweden and are currently seeking a record deal. The complete track listing for the CD is as follows:

01. Six Feet Under
02. Confide In Me
03. Little Girl
04. Deity Of Disgust
05. I Cried Alone

For more information, visit the band's official web site: http://www.angtoria.com/