Keith Fay (Vocals, guitars & others instruments) posted the following message on Cruachan's website, concerning the new album:

"Hello! Yes we have finished the new album. Jesus Christ the production on "Pagan" was shite wasn't it? Glad to say that this is the best production I have ever been involved with, the sound is top top quality! Many thanks to Gail Liebling for his endurance. The release date has not been sorted, neither has the title but we will work on this ASAP. Matrin Walkyier was meant to sing on it but had to pull out at the last minute due to personal things at home, I had a chat with him, he feels really bad about it but to be honest he has much more important things to worry about right now. The song he was meant to do is called Diarmuid and Grainne, when I hear it now I actually think I'm glad he couldn't make it, you'll see why. Maybe we will do something in the future. Next project is the Cruachan Scat porn DVD."

Also you can listen to a sneak preview Mp3, click here to download it.

Read more ››

Source:	cruachan.cjb.net
Band profile:	Cruachan

Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos will be releasing a new OSI album entitled "Free" on April 21st, 2006.

The album will once again have Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) on drums and will feature Joey Vera (Fates Warning) on bass on five tracks. A special edition double CD of "Free" is scheduled for release in Europe on April 24th.

Office of Strategic Influence - Free Tracklist:

1. Sure You Will (03:46)
2. Free (03:20)
3. Go (04:16)
4. All Gone Now (05:13)
5. Home Was Good (05:03)
6. Bigger Wave (04:30)
7. Kicking (03:52)
8. Better (04:06)
9. Simple Life (04:00)
10. Once (06:34)
11. Our Town (03:20)

Musicians:

Jim Matheos - guitars, keyboards and programming
Kevin Moore - vocals, keyboards and programming
Mike Portnoy - acoustic drums
Joey Vera - bass on Sure You Will, Free, All Gone Now, Bigger Wave, Kicking

Special Edition Double CD:

CD 1

1. Sure You Will (03:46)
2. Free (03:20)
3. Go (04:16)
4. All Gone Now (05:13)
5. Home Was Good (05:03)
6. Bigger Wave (04:30)
7. Kicking (03:52)
8. Better (04:06)
9. Simple Life (04:00)
10. Once (06:34)
11. Our Town (03:20)

CD 2

1. OSIdea 9 (03:33)
2. Set It On Fire (03:42)
3. Communicant (03:47)
4. When You're Ready (demo) (03:09)
5. Remain Calm (04:08)
6. Old War (01:06)

Read more ››

Source:

osiband.com

The following message on posted at Cancer's website:

"Due to the lack of comitment to the band from John Walker,Cancer is no more.Carl Stokes wishes to thank every one who has supported the band with its return,and say sorry to anyone who is disapointed with this decision .However Carl is working on another band called HAIL OF FIRE .

The band will feature ex Cancer members Dave Leitch,lead guitars,Barry Savage,lead guitars,Ian Buchanan,bass,mysef on the skins,and newcomer Rob Lucas on vocals.

This band is more brutal than the last Cancer albums,although i am very proud of them,its time to get back to the strait ahead ferocity.

More news as it develops.

Cheers Carl Stokes."

Source:

tothegoryend.co.uk

"Discordia" is the title of our forthcoming Relapse Records debut, and is scheduled for a May 16 release and will feature ten new tracks:

01. Unmarked Graves
02. Conquistadores
03. Outsourcing Jehovah
04. Breathing Pestilence
05. Meet Reality
06. Sensory Deprivation
07. The Medusa Stare
08. Dystopian Nightmares
09. Discordia
10. Pandemican

The LP and Japanese CD pressings of "Discordia" will include as a bonus track a cover of Nasum's "Digging In".

Click here to see the cover art.

http://www.miseryindex.com

Read more ››

Band profile:

Misery Index

Finnish band National Napalm Syndicate will be release a new album entitled "Resurrection Of The Wicked" in March 2006 via Poison Arrow Records (in Finland) and Trinity Records (The rest of the world) the Trinity Records edition will have 2 bonus track songs.

You can check out a couple of samples from their new album here and also you can see the cover art of the album in here.

Read more ››

Source:

trinityrecords.com.hk

Live concerts
Dynamic Lights will play live in Rome on Tuesday, March 7th 2006 at Locanda Atlantide. They will be supported by two band from Rome, Damage Done and Glassmode.

French Release
Shape has been officially released in France by a new partner of DVS Records, Underclass Music.

French Forum
We are proud to announce that some fans have created a French forum dedicated to the band Dynamic Lights on Magic Fire Music website. Check out the French Forum.
Dynamic Lights want to thank all the French guys that have visited and posted messages in this forum and especially Cedric that have created it.
You can find our usual forum on the Dynamic Lights' Official Forum.

Shape Action Photos
Check out the "Shape Action Photos" page on our website, featuring pictures of Dynamic Lights fans with the Shape CD in their hands. More than forty people already have sent theirs, do you want to be a part of it? Send us your photos along with your name (or nickname) and your country: you'll see them on that page.
You can see the gallery and find informations on the Shape Action Photos page.

Dynamic Lights

Source:

dynamiclights.net

Poison - Best Of: 20 Years of Rock

Poison, one of hard rock's most iconic, enduring and controversial bands, celebrates 20 years in 2006. To commemorate this anniversary milestone and the band's career tally of more than 25 million albums and DVDs sold around the world, Poison and Capitol/EMI Music Catalog Marketing have partnered to release The Best Of Poison: 20 Years Of Rock on April 4. The new 18-track collection packs Poison's biggest hits and fan favorites and will also debut the group's explosive new version of Grand Funk Railroad's "We're An American Band," produced by Don Was (The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan). In May, Poison will hit the road for a major 20th anniversary summer tour sponsored by Live Nation! and presented by VH1 Classic.

Audio Streams

Talk Dirty To Me
http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/capi001/poison/talkdirty_v100.asx
http://boss.streamos.com/real/capi001/poison/talkdirty_v100.ram
http://boss.streamos.com/qtime/capi001/poison/talkdirty_v100.mov

Good Time
http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/capi001/poison/goodtime_a100.asx
http://boss.streamos.com/real/capi001/poison/goodtime_a100.ram

American Band
http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/capi001/poison/americanband_a100.asx
http://boss.streamos.com/real/capi001/poison/americanband_a100.ram

Retail Link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EHQ80K/qid=1140725844/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/102-3829107-1732922's=music&v=glance&n=5174

Source:

Special Ops Media

Posted 22.02.2006 - New album further delayed...

"The Burning Halo" album will be further delayed due to a longer recording process than expected. Any exact release date is not yet set, but expect a late spring/early summer delivery. More details regarding the album will be revealed soon.

Source:	draconian.se
Band profile:	Draconian

Swedish band Time Requiem have set the release date for their new album entitled "Optical Illusion", the album will be release on 18 April 2006, and it's already out in Japan (since 22 February). You can see the cover art here and also there are two sound sample available of the following songs: Ocean Wings and Optical Illusion.

Read more ››

Source:

anderssonmusic.com

GOREGIASTIC RECORDS has officially inked a worldwide deal with the McAllen, TX long time running death metal act SEVERANCE to release the highly awaited follow-up to their classic debut CD "What Lies Ahead". The new album will be titled "Suffering In Humanity" and will include 12 new tracks among which we'd like to highlight an incredible cover version of the cult Chilean death metal band PENTAGRAM!. The album is scheduled to see the daylight (tentatively) at this year's MARYLAND DEATH FEST. Please keep checking back on our site for more details on this long awaited release!.

Goregiastic Re-Issues on the way:
-Animals Killing People
-Cerebral Effusion
-Ancient Necropsy
Reinfection

Wait for more information on this label; some reviews will be available on Metal Storm very soon.

We're proud to announce that AVULSED's latest album "Gorespattered Suicide" will finally see the daylight in America this Spring via GOREGIASTIC RECORDS!. Having played around 35 shows in 14 different countries, including Japan and the whole Europe, "Gorespattered Suicide" has received an overwhelming response both from fans and media, making this new opus the best album released by the band so far!.

"Gorespattered Suicide" is scheduled to hit the store shelves in America on March 31st featuring a previously unreleased bonus video clip not available in the European version!.

Source:	goregiasticrecords.com
Band profile:	Avulsed

DVD title and release date! 2006-02-20

It's been a tough job to piece everything together, but we're finally closing in on the release of our DVD entitled "Wrath of the Norsemen".

The release dates are:
Germany, Austria, Switzerland: April 21
Rest of Europe: April 24
USA and Canada: May 2

The 3-disc set will be released in a deluxe 10 page digipack with special gold-laminated slipcase - definitely something to look at!

Main body of the content is the Cologne show from last year - filmed with 11 cameras, this was the longest show we've ever played (23 songs!). Bonus footage includes interviews, behind-the-scenes of the DVD recording and other stuff filmed around the Cologne show!

Discs 2 and 3 feature professionally filmed shows from Summer Breeze 2005, the Metal Blade Rrroooaaarrr 2005 (a show with a really unusual setlist!), Wacken Open Air 2004 and the release show for "Fates Of Norns" in Ludwigsburg (Germany) in 2004!

===================================
More new shows confirmed! 2006-02-10

The summer shows are shaping up as followed:
March:
11th: Örebro @ Satin (Sweden)
April:
16th: CLOSE-UP Festival (Stockholm, Swe) www.closeupfestival.se
July:
14th - 16th: EVOLUTION (Italy) http://www.evolutionfest.it
21st - 22nd: METAL CAMP (Slovenia) http://www.metalcamp.com
August:
3rd - 5th: WACKEN (Germany) - Special Viking Show www.wacken.com

Source:	amonamarth.com [thanks to MSer Deuceho...
Band profile:	Amon Amarth

Canada's pioneering metal band Voivod have set "Katorz" as the title of their forthcoming album due out late spring on The End Records in North America.

Voivod, who just finished mixing the album with producer Glen Robinson (Tea Party, GWAR) at Multisons studio in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, are now mastering the album in New York.

The follow-up to 2003's "Voivod" is the first album in the band's 20-plus-year career that did not feature founding guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour working alongside his bandmembers in the studio. D'Amour died August 26, 2005 in a Montreal hospital from complications of advanced colon cancer.

In order to record "Katorz," drummer Michael "Away" Langevin, singer Denis "Snake" Belanger and bassist Jason "Jasonic" Newsted utilized all of the guitar parts that Piggy had recorded for the record on his laptop with ProTools before his death.

Artwork and a full track-listing for the album will be released in the coming weeks.

Source:	theendrecords.com
Band profile:	Voivod

The band spent the winter in writting mode for a new album, and have already booked the studio for April. Also some pictures from their latest concert were posted here.

In other news the band announce some new gigs:

June 24 Graspop Dessel Belgium
July 22 Metal Camp Tolmin Slovenia
August 17/22 Summer Breeze Germany (Exact date t.b.d.)
August 25/26 Hole In the Sky Bergen Norway (Exact date t.b.d.)

Read more ››

Source:	mydyingbride.org
Band profile:	My Dying Bride

The Warsaw-based Melodeath/Metalcore band Sunrise have posted the following message on their official website:

"It is high time to say goodbye after 11 years of being around. It has been a while and we came to the point where we are pretty happy with the shape of the band but in the very same time we realize that we won't go much further and can easily get frustrated, as lives of some of us are not that careless anymore. We went through lots of hardships and we could start one of these 'veteran' talks but the bottom line is that every good show we had paid it off tenfold. There were many of them and we will always remember these great times. We never thought it could last so long and we would meet so many good people. We would lie big time if we wrote that Sunrise was not one of the most important things in our lives and some of us were absorbed by doing this every single day. It might sound pretty weird but calling it quits when Sunrise is in its best shape is the best we can do. We had enough opportunities to break up but we always wanted to carry on. This time we all agreed it is time to call it a day. We are not able to carry it on and we don't want to see how it deteriorates.

Many good things happened to us and we are pretty sure we used our voice in the right way. There were tons of supportive people who helped us out along the way. We will never forget you. You know who you are. You put on shows for us, put our records out, helped us in the studio, lent us gear, drove us, put us up, did merch and other artwork, took pics, stage dove, moshed and sang along. It meant and still means a world to us. We felt cursed but never alone. Thanks to ya'll.

There were many people who played in Sunrise and all of them made this band what it was: Maciek, Roy, Marcel, Kajtek, Czaja, Piotrek, thanks a lot! We played with many great bands who inspired us and helped us out a lot. We had an opportunity to speak out on stage or in interviews. We were part of the HC scene and it was honor for us.

We are playing one last show in Warsaw, on 23 April 2006 and then we're done for good.
The saga continues!"

Source:

sunriseblast.com