Masters Of Rock 2005 takes a place in Vizovice, Czech Republic on July 15th to July 17th 2005. You'll have a possibility to enjoy festival feeling without worries about rain or bad weather, a festival under the roof. The lineup for this summer is following:

Foreign bands:

* Manowar (USA)
* Rhapsody (Ita)
* Nightwish (Fin)
* Sweet (GB)
* Die Happy (Ger)
* Hammerfall (Swe)
* Edguy (Ger)
* Subway To Sally (Ger)
* Rage (Ger)
* Waltari (Fin)
* KJU: (Ger)
* Uniklubi (Fin)
* Skareface (F)
* Ratos de Porao (Bra)

Inland bands:

* Tři Sestry
* Chinaski
* Wohnout
* Divokej Bill
* Kurtizány z 25 avenue
* Vypsaná fiXa
* ?kwor
* Desmod (Sk)
* Southpaw
* Plexis
* Doctor PP
* Tleskač
* SPS
* NVÚ
* Brouci (Sk)
* Dark Gamballe
* Insania
* Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy
* Checkpoint

More info and tickets http://www.mastersofrock.cz

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The band is currently in the studio recording the new album "Inventor of evil" that will be mixed by Peter Tätgtren. The album is schedule to be release at 15 August in Europe (in the rest of the world will be a bit later).

The band is expecting to have some guests on the album. It seems like the ex-guitarist Harry will be doing some apparence on the album. Also the band is preparing a song "dealing with more unity and tolerance in the 'szene'!" and this would include "many 'well-known' Metalsingers from all exiting styles". More news to come.

Source:	destruction.de
Band profile:	Destruction

Raismesfest announced that the following bands will be performing for the 8th edition of the festival (September 10 & 11, France)

- SONATA ARCTICA
- ANATHEMA
- MANIGANCE
- DEAD SOUL TRIBE
- EDENBRIDGE
- ANYONE'S DAUGHTER

Taken from raismesfest newsletter.
http://www.raismesfest.com

Flo Mounier is going to release a Instructional Drum Video to come about summer this year, on this matter Flo also published his own website: http://www.flomounier.com , there you will find more info about the video, here is some of the content that the dvd will include:

- Warm ups for practices and shows.
- Various stretching exercises.
- Endurance and speed building exercises.
- Foot and hand technique.
- Grind library: Samples of various grind beats used in extreme metal.
- Gear & Drum Setup details.
- Live footage: Approximately 5 songs from different shows filmed from behind the drums during the Canada 2004 and U.S. 2005 Tours.
- Notations for these songs.
- Montreal Drumfest 2003 footage: An instrumental medley of new and exclusive material with fellow Cryptopsy members followed by a 7 minutes drum solo, Phobophile (instrumental) and a duet with drummer Ange Curcio.
- Sound check/solo from the pre-prod of the new Cryptopsy album at St-Zenon (Wild Studios), recorded in the summer of 2004.
- Drum solos.
- Radio-Canada's Adrenaline TV show documentary (in French with English subtitles).
- Multiangle content.
- Photo section.
- Bonus material.

Source:	cryptopsy.net flomounier.com
Band profile:	Cryptopsy

The band announced in their website the adquisition of John Ryan. He plays Fiddle, Banjo, Bouzouki and tin-whistle, and has been with the band since April 2004, but now he's an official member of the band.

Source:	cruachan.cjb.net
Band profile:	Cruachan

The band had posted the video for the song "Shelter" from their llatest album. To download it, go to the news section at http://www.celesty.net

Band profile:

Celesty

Dream Theater have completed work on their 8th full length studio album Octavarium, which is tentatively set for release through Atlantic Records on June 7th, 2005.

The track listing is as follows:

The Root Of All Evil
The Answer Lies Within
These Walls
I Walk Beside You
Panic Attack
Never Enough
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium

Dream Theater's 2005/2006 World Tour will kick off on June 10th in Sweden with a leg of European Festivals and select headlining shows which will then be followed by a North American leg throughout July/August as part of a "package" tour with several other bands TBA very soon.

Band profile:

Dream Theater

Manowar has just revealed some of the incredible things that are scheduled to happen at the Earthshaker Fest 2005 Germany ( July 23 ). Manowar will invite all of the original members from each lineup to join them on stage for a once in a lifetime event. Ross The Boss and original Manowar drummer Donnie Hamzik will perform and so will Rhino and David Shankle.
Speaking of special guests the legendary actor Mr. Christopher Lee will narrate the original parts recorded by Orson Welles in the songs Dark Avenger and Defender live on stage with Manowar. The festival will be filmed in high definition with 30 cameras and recorded live in surround sound with Germany's best mobile recording truck. This will be Manowar's biggest production ever that will feature a 100 piece orchestra and a 100 piece choir.

MANOWAR's Webring The Worldwide Web Warriors are proud to announce the First International Mega Manowar Fanconvention. This 3 days - event ( July 21-) will be organised during the Earthshaker Festival and will be held in the music hall which is located at the same area.

Much more information will follow, but a few of the very special activities will be :
- An opening - ceremony, which will promise to become very special
- Meet & Greets with Joey DeMaio, Eric Adams, Karl Logan, Scott Columbus, Donnie Hamzik, Ross the Boss, Rhino and David Shankle !!!!
- Guitar - and Drum clinics with current and old bandmembers
- Picture - / autograph sessions with current bandmembers, old bandmembers, special guests.
- Seminars with special guests, like Ken Kelly,John Kalodner, Paul Clark, Jay Bergen, Dawk, Dan Lee, crew members, artists from Magic Circle Music bands.
- Auction private items band, from their personal archive.
- A Manowar Shop with very special merchandise
- Interview sessions with current and old bandmembers
- Many fan - activities
- A cinema : the release of Hell on Earth part 4 !

ALL people with a 3 days fanconvention ticket will be able to see the soundcheck on Thursday ! This is promising to become very special !

Watch out : there will be plenty of room on the festival area, so there is no limit there to see Manowar's show on Saturday, but the FANCONVENTION HAS LIMITED SPACE.

Ticket - sale has started, tickets for both events ( festival / fanconvention ) are for sale at www.earthshaker-fest.com

Much more info can be found at : www.webwarriors.tk

Band profile:

Manowar

The band, in a little post in their website, says that they're currently recording their follow up to "Anthens of Rebellion".

Source:	archenemy.net
Band profile:	Arch Enemy

Due to the recent departure of the guitarist Tripp Eisen, Wayne has posted the following message:

"I am very excited to announce that former Static-X guitarist Koichi Fukuda has rejoined the band. Koichi was with us back in the club days here in Los Angeles, played on our first record, Wisconsin Death Trip, and did the first two years of touring with the band. He's been in the studio with us since October working on the new record and this feels like a very natural transition. The first shows with Koichi will be at the Galaxy in Santa Ana on March 25th and at the Key Club in Hollywood on March 26th. We'll be releasing details very soon about more extensive touring plans as well as the title and release date for the new record. Tony, Nick, and I want to thank all of you for your continued support...you guys have never let us down. Thanks! -Wayne Static"

Also the band has an album on the way, they expect to release it by summer, more info to come.

Source:	static-x.com
Band profile:	Static-X

Some interesting facts from Devin Townsend website:

"Devin continues to work on the DTB DVD. With everything else going on he has not been able to devote a consistent amount of time to the project but has been diligently working when time allows. The audio should be mixed while he is on the promo tour so not much longer to completion. He has also been writing and jamming the new DTB album that he hopes to begin recording after the SYL tour, we will keep you updated about the new album recording process very soon.

Thanks to all the fans that opened their mind to Devlab. It was surprising for us to see all the attention that went into this record. Records like Devlab are very useful for Dev's creativity. As there is no musical boundary for him, we will continue to release website-only projects as Dev likes to make little records and share them.

After a little promo tour in Europe for SYL (February) Devin started production with the Ozzfest and Victory Records band Darkest Hour in Vancouver : "Devin is the man and it is only going to get crazier".

WHAT THE HECK IS DEVIN DOING ON MTV/HBO/VH1 !!!

It's a secret for everyone but in December, we received a mail from MTV people that they would like Devin to play in ad clips for the Osbournes final season. Devin agreed and flyed in New York to for a few days of filming in a serie of 5 ads. The whole experience was a lot of fun and Dev has an all-new respect for actors and highly praises the kids he performed with".

Source:	hevydevy.com
Band profile:	Devin Townsend

The band posted the following message on their website:

Dear Fans,

The recordings of our fourth full length album ´Remagine´ has finally begun!

Monday, March 7, the recordings of the drums started. The first thing we asked the studio engineers, was to give a professional assessment of the recording quality of the drums on the pre production we had recorded.

Andre had drummed on this pre production and we hoped we would be able to use this material. To our great relief the engineers thought this was Top Quality material. So, without Andre being present in the studio, his drums will be on Remagine!!!
We thank Ernst van der Ee, Andre's friend and professional example, who was prepared to drum the album, for being there if necessary.

After hearing this positive news André was very excited and hopefully that happiness will make him recover faster!

He started with his second chemical therapy session and so far there are no complications. He is responding well to this treatment so lets hope he will not get sick like last time.

He´ll be in the hospital until Friday, then he can go home again to recover and get ready for the next chemical treatment. If everything stays normal he´ll be home for two weeks.

André and After Forever want to thank everybody who have supported us the last few weeks in these difficult times!!!

We hope André stays in your hearts and that you keep helping him by sending nice mails, postcards, etc. to get him back behind the drum kit as soon as possible!

Greetings,

After Forever"

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Source:	afterforever.com
Band profile:	After Forever

The band has finished the guitars recently and the vocals are expected to be recorded on 12 & 13 March, the bass will be handled by Michael Håkansson of Evergrey as a sesion member. After all is done it will be sent to Dan Swano, who will be responsible for the mix of the album.

The release date of the album hasn't been decided yet but the band expect to have everything ready by April.

Source:	theprojecthate.net
Band profile:	The Project Hate MCMXCIX

Black Sabbath bassist Terrance Butler is going to release his new album "Ohmwork" through Sanctuary tentatively at April 2005, the tracklist will be the following:

01. Misfit
02. Pardon My Depression
03. Prisoner 103
04. I Believe
05. Aural Sects
06. Pseudocide
07. Pull the String
08. Alone
09. Dogs of Whore
10. Don't You Know

Together with Butler will be: Clark Brown on vocals, Pedro Howse on guitars, Chad Smith on drums.

Source:	black-sabbath.com
Band profile:	Geezer

The swedish band posted the following message in the band's official website:

"Ever since Push Music Group purchased our previous record label; No Fashion Records, there has been very little room for heavy metal and a band like WOLF. We therefore asked the company to be released from our contract. They accepted. We part like friends, and are now free to sign with what ever company we like.

This obviously means that we are on the look-out for a new label. A label that most importantly has a whole lot of love for heavy metal, and also a label that is genuinely interested in working closely together with a band like us.

Right now we are in the midst of writing new material for what will become Wolf's fourth album. The plan right now is to have everything ready for serious studio work later this year.

Right now we are booked for upcoming shows at both Rock Hard Festival (D) and 2000 Decibel (S), and we are negotiating/planning a U.S trip in May plus shows in Germany this September and possibly a two week tour of Scandinavia later this fall.

If you are interested in WOLF, please e-mail your offer, contact info, and any questions you might have to this address: wolf@wolf.nu

All the best WOLF"

Source:	wolf.nu
Band profile:	Wolf