Finland's FINNTROLL will be releasing an EP, titled "Trollhammaren", in March containing one song off their forthcoming album plus four bonus tracks recorded in the same session. As previously reported, the upcoming full-length CD, "Nattfödd" (Swedish for "Nightborn"), will be issued in April. The follow-up to "Visor Om Slutet" was recorded at Sundicoop Studio in Savonlinna, Finland and features 10 songs. The band will also be making their debut video to coincide with the release of the full-length CD.

Band profile:

Finntroll

IMPALED NAZARENE's previously announced European tour with THE LEGION has been cancelled. "The reason is that IMPALED NAZARENE are going on a European tour in May and the booking agency wanted to move the tour from February/March to a future date which wasn't possible for IMPALED NAZARENE," according to a post on THE LEGION's web site.

In other THE LEGION-related news, the group recently went into Art Decay studio to record two exclusive bonus tracks for the limited-edition gatefold-sleeve version of their debut album, "Unseen To Creation": a reworked version of an old original song plus a cover of TESTAMENT's "Curse Of The Legions Of Death". A late February 2004 release is expected.

THE LEGION's next live gig will take place on January 31, 2004 at Kulturhuset in Jönköping, Sweden. Also scheduled to appear are INSISION and NOMINON.

Band profile:

Impaled Nazarene

SODOM are the latest act confirmed for the Gods of Metal Festival, scheduled to take place June 5-6 at l'Arena Parco Nord in Bologna, Italy. ALICE COOPER will top the bill on Sunday, June 6, while JUDAS PRIEST will headline the event on Saturday, June 5 ? the same day that Finland's STRATOVARIUS are scheduled to appear in what is being billed as their only Italian appearance of 2004. Other bands confirmed for the festival include TWISTED SISTER, TESTAMENT, SYMPHONY X, NEVERMORE, W.A.S.P., and MOTÖRHEAD.

Band profile:

Sodom

BLAZE, the British band led by former IRON MAIDEN/WOLFSBANE singer Blaze Bayley, have set "Blood and Belief" as the title of their third studio album, tentatively due in March 2004 through SPV Records. The group, who finished recording the CD on December 20, performed the album's projected title track Saturday night (December 27) at the third annual BLAZE Big Bash at Dudley JB's in England.

As previously reported, BLAZE utilized the services of former PITCHSHIFTER drummer Jason Bowld during the recording sessions for follow-up to 2002's "Tenth Dimension", which took place at Backstage Studios in Derbyshire together with producer Andy Sneap. Also recording with the group was bassist Wayne Banks (SABBAT, MESSIAH'S KISS), who has fulfilled most of this year's touring commitments with the band following the departure of Rob Naylor in April.

The mixing process for "Blood and Belief" is set to commence in early January.

Band profile:

Blaze Bayley

EXTOL (progressive thrash/death masters from Norway), HARMONY (melodic metal from Sweden), ORATORIO (melodic metal wonder from Finland), KEKAL (black metal from Indonesia) and SHADOWS OF PARAGON (fresh black metal from Sweden) are the first five bands confirmed for Bobfest 2004 (Europe's biggest Christian metal festival), which is scheduled to take place held March 5-7, 2004 at Ryttargårdskyrkan in Linköping, Sweden.

Seminar speakers will be metal Pastor Bob Beeman from Sanctuary, USA and Ole Halvard Sveen from Subchurch, Norway. The concerts will be held Friday and Saturday evenings at Cupolen, Folkets Park, Linköping. There will also be a gallery where people will show their artistic talents.

Festival tickets cost 270 SEK for Swedish visitors (if paid before February 15) or 300 SEK if paid later or at the door. For non-Swedish visitors, the price is only 200 SEK (approx. 22 EUR) for the whole weekend. Accomodation is also available nearby for an additional fee of 50 SEK (approx. 5.50 EUR) per night.

For those that want to attend the gigs only, the tickets cost 100 SEK for Friday and 120 SEK for Saturday or 200 SEK for both days.

For more information about this festival, visit www.bobfest.org or mail info@bobfest.org or press@bobfest.org.

Band profile:

Extol

PAIN mainman Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY) has posted the following message on the band's official web site:

"Hello everybody!

"As most of you know, I've been out with my other band HYPOCRISY from Sept.-Dec. and had no time to finish up the new PAIN CD, so I will start after the New Year and change label so I can get a worldwide release. I'm so fuckin' tired of not getting it out everywhere! And I can't go on tour cause I have no back-up from the label outside of Sweden, so when the label have stopped fuckin' around and I have sign with the new record company I will be back with a new album and world tour to support it. You will be the first to know.

"Hope you understand."

Among the tracks tentatively set to appear on the follow-up to 2002's "Nothing Remains The Same" are the following:

01. Tear It Up
02. Don't Count Me Out
03. The Table Has Turned
04. Stay Away
05. Misery
06. The Third Wave

As previously reported, PAIN had postponed plans to record a full-length album of covers after Tägtgren completed 18 new original numbers that he deemed to be "musically stronger" than the material ear-marked for the proposed collection of cover versions.

Band profile:

Pain

Former OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Randy Rhoads will be inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk of Fame on Thursday, March 18, 2004. The induction will be held in front of Guitar Center Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, California. The exact time will for the induction will be announced at a later date.

Randy Rhoads died tragically in a plane crash on March 19, 1982, one day after performing his final show with OZZY OSBOURNE at the Civic Coliseum in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was 25 years old.

Although Randy only recorded two studio albums with Ozzy (1980's "Blizzard of Ozz" and 1981's "Diary of a Madman"), the impact he had on a generation of young guitar players worldwide was truly remarkable. Ozzy Osbourne himself has been haunted by Rhoads' memory. "He was a saint," said the singer who was responsible for discovering him. "He was an angel, and too good for this world. His death's always on my mind."

Band profile:

Ozzy Osbourne

KATATONIA are currently editing their first DVD, due sometime next year. A Polish Cracow gig from April 2003 will be the main attraction of the disc, but there will also be more exclusive bonus footage to go along with it. In addition, one or two of the unreleased tracks from the "Viva Emptiness" sessions will also show up on the DVD.

KATATONIA will be embarking on a Scandinavian tour with AMARAN beginning in early February. Support at the dates will come from BEFORE THE DAWN.

Band profile:

Katatonia

GAMMA RAY's Kai Hansen, HAMMERFALL's Joacim Cans, PRIMAL FEAR's Tom Naumann and GODIVA's Mitch Koonz are among the musicians tentatively scheduled to partake in an "all-star" jam at the 20th anniversary party for the Rockfabrik Ludwigsburg (Germany). The jam, which is slated to take place this Sunday, December 28, will reportedly include selections from HELLOWEEN and HAMMERFALL, among others.

Band profile:

Gamma Ray

MY DYING BRIDE and GRIMFIST are the latest two bands confirmed for the 2004 edition of the Inferno Metal Festival, set to take place set to take place April 8-10 at the Rockefeller and John Dee venues in Oslo, Norway. As previously reported, Norway's MAYHEM and Poland's DECAPITATED are also scheduled to appear at the event.

Limited three-day passes for the price of 666 NOK went on sale November 1 and quickly sold out even before any bands had been announced. Regular tickets are now on sale via www.infernofestival.net.

The whole lineup for the Inferno Metal Festival will be revealed at the kick-off party at John Dee in Oslo on January 24. Toastmaster Geir Kolden (VALHALL) will MC and Britain's RETURN TO THE SABBAT (featuring ex-SKYCLAD singer Martin Walkyier) will perform.

Band profile:

My Dying Bride

Swedish melodic metallers NOCTURNAL RITES have reportedly set "New World Messiah" as the title of their follow-up to 2002's "Shadowland", tentatively due in early 2004 through Century Media Records. Working songtitles include "Against the World", "The Icon" and the projected title track. The group's bassist Nils Eriksson had previously described the new material as "pretty much like we've always done... maybe just a tad better."

Band profile:

Nocturnal Rites

KAMELOT mastermind Thomas Youngblood has posted the following message on the band's official web site:

"Hello Kamelotians!!!

"We are very pleased to tell you all that the writing sessions are going even better than expected. We have now completed 8 new songs and cannot get the melodies out of our heads. A good sign for everyone) We just finished 'March of Mephisto', this should be our heaviest song ever and a live classic. Also, we finished a beautiful ballad that will mostly be piano and a small string ensemble. A first for us as well. So we are always working on new twists to the KAMELOT style we hope you all love. Our beloved producer Sascha Paeth will come to Florida after the New Year to begin preproduction and then the fun starts!"

As previously reported, KAMELOT's forthcoming album will be their first for SPV Records, with whom they signed a worldwide deal last spring. An early 2004 release is expected. Other songtitles set to appear on the CD include "Nothing Ever Dies" and "Serenade".

Upcoming KAMELOT shows:

Feb. 13 - Monterrey, MEX @ TBA
Feb. 14 - Mexico City, MEX @ TBA
Feb. 15 - Guadalajara, MEX @ TBA
Feb. 28 - Granada, SPA @ Piorno Rock Festival

Band profile:

Kamelot

The title track to DEICIDE's forthcoming album, "Scars Of The Crucifix", has been posted online at the Earache Records web site at this location.
"Scars Of The Crucifix" (view cover here) was recorded at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida with producer Neil Kernon (CANNIBAL CORPSE, NEVERMORE) and was mixed at Sonic Ranch studios in Tornillo, Texas. A February 24, 2004 release through Earache Records is expected.

The complete track listing for "Scars Of The Crucifix" is as follows:

01. Scars Of The Crucifix
02. Mad At God
03. Conquered By Sodom
04. Fuck Your God
05. When Heaven Burns
06. Enchanted Nightmare
07. From Darkness
08. Go Now
09. Pentecostal

Band profile:

Deicide

Dutch progressive metallers SUN CAGED, who feature in their ranks STAR ONE keyboardist Joost van den Broek, have announced the addition of drummer Roel Van Helden to the group's ranks. The 23-year-olf Van Helden, a student at the academy of music in Tilburg, Netherlands, joins the band as the replacement for Dennis Leeflang, who left the group earlier in the month. " surprised us with the fact that he managed to play the whole album within a week," the band write on their web site. "Besides that, there is a very good chemistry between us and Roel, musically as well as on a personal level. We never played our songs that well before!

"What's funny is the fact that Roel is already a member of Marcel 's solo band and he is also the drummer our bassist Rob played with, at age 14, in his first band.

"We welcome Roel in the Cage, and we are sure that this has brought SUN CAGED to a higher level. We also would like to thank all other drummers who showed interest, and we also hope that the true SUN CAGED fans will welcome Roel with open arms, possibly at one of our upcoming gigs."

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Band profile:

Sun Caged

Norway's THE KOVENANT are in the process of editing video footage from their appearance at the Inferno Festival for use in two clips ("Star By Star" and "Mirror's Paradise") that are expected to be included on their upcoming DVD and various Nuclear Blast Records DVD compilations.

In other news, THE KOVENANT bassist/singer Lex Icon is going to participate with bass and vocals on the second album from Norwegian "dark masters" CROWHEAD. Lex is also working on a new TROLL album.

As previously reported, THE KOVENANT entered the studio earlier this month to record a demo of some of the songs planned for inclusion on the group's follow-up to this year's "S.E.T.I." (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence), tentatively due in late 2004.

The forthcoming CD, which is tentatively titled "The Dreaming Spires", will be THE KOVENANT's last for Germany's Nuclear Blast Records. One new songtitle has thus far been revealed: "Radiation King".

THE KOVENANT recently added two new members to the group's lineup: RAM-ZET drummer Küth and APOPTYGMA BERZERK keyboardist Geir Bratland.

Band profile:

The Kovenant