The eighth annual Tuska Open Air Metal Festival at Kaisaniemi Park in Helsinki, Finland during 15.-17.7. has confirmed more Finnish and international artists. The 2005 festival will once again present more than thirty bands from different styles of metal, several of which will be announced on a later date. Already at this point, it is once again evident that there will be something for each and every taste, from old school thrash to modern black metal and everything in between.

Saturday 16.7. will be headlined by the infamous Norwegian black metallers Dimmu Borgir. The band has pushed the boundaries of symphonic black metal with every record and are currently preaparing their next release. That is the reason why the group has toured very scarcely in recent times. Their Tuska-performance will be one of few selected festival shows the band will do next summer. Dimmu Borgir was originally scheduled to play at Tuska 2004 but after being offered one of the headlining slots at Ozzfest, they obviously had to cancel their appearance.

Friday night will be closed by American Space-Stoner group Monster Magnet. Vocalist Dave Wyndorf's trimmed moustache and leatherpants were last witnessed on Finnish soil at last year's Ruisrock Festival, where allegedly pants were wet, water turned to beer and the sun stopped shining during their breathtaking performance. Expect no less at Tuska 2005 as well as Ilosaarirock where Monster Magnet will take the stage on Saturday.

Finnish funeral atmosphere will be provided by Sentenced, who will embark on their farewell tour over the summer. This true Tuska-veteran has appeared on the bill several times, therefore it's more than appropriate that their final tour will take them to Kaisaniemi Park, one last time.

Other international competence at Tuska 2005 will be represented by German veteran thrashers Destruction and fellow germans Primal Fear, who will give their debut Finnish performance at Tuska. Swedish goth metallers Lake Of Tears and UK-based folkmetal group Bal-Sagoth have been
requested for a long time by the audience and finally the wait is over, as both have been added to the roster. History is also in the making, as Tuska 2005 will present the first Russian band in the festival's history. Progressive death metallers Hieronymus Bosch have been in the game since the early nineties, therefore their appearance at the festival is very justified.

Speaking of firsts, another one is the debut performance by Wintersun, the new melodic death metal supergroup spearheaded by ex-Ensiferum vocalist Jari Mäenpää. Drum duties are performed by the extraordinaire Rotten Sound -drummer Kai Hahto, second guitar is played by the young Imperanon-axeman Teemu Mäntysaari and Norther-bassplayer Jukka Koskinen will take care of the low end.

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A message posted by Øystein G. Brun on Century Media Records Germany website reveals some interesting new facts:
"Dear fans and associates,

Having created epic metal for several years now, an idea and a vision has arisen within the Borknagar camp, and we hereby want to inform you about how it will affect our forthcoming release: The next BORKNAGAR album will be an acoustic effort based entirely on the epic and progressive aspect of the band. The recording will commence this very spring, most likely in late May, at Toproom Studio in Norway as we are planning an autumn release.

This is something we have wanted to do for many years now, and the idea has lingered within the band ever since the recording of Quintessence and a few private sessions with a grand piano and an acoustic guitar. The album will be acoustic based but largely arranged with a wide range of instruments and vocal styles. It will be recorded by the same line-up that did EPIC, and we will be working with different locations during the recording process in order to catch the sounds of different acoustic environments. Musically the album will be rather dissimilar from what we have done before, though the unique BORKNAGAR-sound will surly shine through.

This is not a permanent change of the bands musical style, but rather a musical quest and a challenge for us as well as for our audience!

The title of the album will be released soon.

Best regard,

Øystein G. Brun
BORKNAGAR"
http://www.borknagar.com

Source:	centurymedia.de
Band profile:	Borknagar

"OHM:, the new band led by former MEGADETH guitarist Chris Poland, are curently laying down bass and drums for their new album with co-producer Petar Sardelich. Songs slated to be included on this Black Note Records release are as follows:

01. Spun
02. Compass Of The Heart
03. Da Vinci
04. Skint
05. William's Amino Acid Flashback
06. Tara
07. Juge In Da Boot
08. What If?
09. Tattoo
10. Icarus Falls

Mike Sherry has been working on the album cover and photography for the record.

There is a strong possibility that OHM: will be recording a vocal-fronted effort later in 2005 consisting of classic rock blues tunes done in OHM: style. Two tracks that may appear on the CD are CREAM's "Spoonful" and "Sittin' on Top of the World", both of which the band have been performing live. More information will be made available soon".

Taken from Blabbermouth:
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/

The band posted the following on their website:

"Yes, Spiral Architect still exists. Not much happening with the band (surprise...), due to numerous side projects... Asgeir's studio is finished and we will finally start writing some new insane metal together.

- Steinar and Lars are back from the USA/Canada-tour with Satyricon (www.satyricon.no). Øyvind has quit Arcturus (www.arcturus.no) because of moving to Stockholm (the distance will make it unable to commit to the workflow that Arcturus has lined up). Asgeir will be on tour in February with Sturmgeist (www.sturmgeist.com) and is currently recording drums and bass for the new Scariot-album (www.scariot.com). Øyvind will also be handling bass as well as vocals and some guitar solos on that album."

Source:	spiralarchitect.com
Band profile:	Spiral Architect

The video for the song "The Pale Haunt Departure", include in the upcoming Novembers Doom album, was posted online in 3 diferents formats:

High/Medium Quality - avi - 84 mb
Medium Quality - Quicktime mov - 30 mb
Low Quality - Windows Media Video wmv - 9 mb

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Source:	label.theendrecords.com
Band profile:	Novembers Doom

Following news is taken from www.taburec.com

It´s with great pride and joy, that we announce that Enslaved is honoured with a Grammy Award for their latest masterpiece, ISA. The Norwegian Grammy ceremony was held in Oslo Spectrum for the 33rd time on Saturday the 26th of February, and was broadcasted live on national TV. This is was the band´s third Grammy nomination. So it´s safe to say that is was well deserved. The other nominees in the metal genre was Mayhem and domestic phenomenon Black Debbath. Enslaved was not able to attend the actual ceremony as they are currently touring Europe, but we´re thrilled when the received the news. Ivar Bjørnson had the following comment: This Grammy Award means very much to the band and reflects the recognition of our efforts not only for this record alone, but for years of hard work. After two nominations, it felt extremely good to get the recognition from the mainstream music circus and to finally finish first for a change. Ivar Bjørnson´s father took the stage, and received the Award on the band´s behalf with the following statement: There is more to the picture, than meets the eye...Rock´n´Roll will never die!
Enslaved has also received the independent Alarm Award for best metal album in 2004. Enslaved was nominated for their latest studio album, Isa, in the metal genre. The other nominees was: Susperia, Khold, Red Harvest and Mayhem.
Enslaved is the first Norwegian band to be confirmed for this years Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Enslaved will also play the Fury Fest in France and Graspop in Belgium this summer. You can still catch Enslaved on tour at the following venues in Europe:

2005.03.03 Antidox Torino Italy
2005.03.04 La Gabbia Bassano del Grappa Italy
2005.03.06 Gaswerk Winterthur Switzerland
2005.03.09 Black Pes - Prague (Czech Republic)
2005.03.10 Arena - Wien (Austria)
2005.03.11 Mostovna Nova Gorica Slovenija
2005.03.12 Mochavara - Zagreb (Croatia)
2005.03.13 E-Klubb - Budapest (Hungary)
2005.03.14 Stara Pekaren Nitra Slovakia
2005.03.15 Underground Cologne Germany
2005.03.16 Voxhall - Aarhus (Denmark)
2005.03.20 Folken - Stavanger (Norway)

Label mates Vreid are providing more than a worthy support to these fine Norse boatmen in Europe.
More and updated info on Enslaved and other Tabu artists will be posted on www.taburec.com frequently.

Band profile:

Enslaved

Century Media posted today a new video clip (in Real Media format) from Dark Tranquility, "Lost In Apathy".
Follow this link to see it: http://www.centurymedia.com/index2.htm

Band profile:

Dark Tranquillity

The french celtic band is back with a new lineup, the last move was the departure of Fir Doirtche who was replace by Llyr. The band is currently in rehearsal mode and will be recording their new album "Sidh" soon.

This is the final lineup:

YOLTAR: lead vocals
NESH KELTORN: electric & acoustic guitar
LLYR: electric & acoustic guitar
HADES: bass guitar, backing vocals
AED MORBAN: drums and percussions
AMORGEN: flute, tin-whistles, bombarde
KRABAN: flute, tin-whistles, long-whistles, backing vocals

Source:

branbarr.free.fr

The following statement was posted on the Waylander website:

"Waylander have not rehearsed as a full band since before the recording of a 2 song promo in October. Dissatisfaction with the end result led to the decision to remove Gaz from the drum stool. We appreciate his efforts, considering he is really a bassist.

We needed a drummer who could play Waylander songs naturally so we asked original Waylander member, Den Ferran to resume his rightful place and he gleefully accepted.

It came as no surprise when disaster struck, with Fearghal Duffy resigning due to medical reasons. Fearghal had trouble with his hands, leading to tendonitis and arthritis, rendering guitar playing practically impossible. Waylander.s thoughts are with him.

A few weeks later, long term bassist Michael Proctor resigned due to complete disillusionment with being in a band, playing music etc.

Obviously, the 3 remaining members are reeling from this and the existence of Waylander has been seriously brought into question.

We will convene again in March and begin 2 months of auditions. So, Waylander once again, require members, a bassist and guitarist. A knowledge of folk music is desired as well as a grasp of what Waylander are all about. Commitment and decent equipment an absolute must. 21+ if possible.

We're not looking for Steve Vai here, just someone motivated to write music and contribute to a band environment.

The timing has been terrible as we now have to withdraw from the Skyforger tour, not to mention, turning down a French tour and keeping the several interested Record labels at arm's length for the time being.

We will search for and audition members until mid May. If the vacant positions are not filled by that stage, we will prepare a set for Day of Darkness which may very well be Waylander's farewell performance.

So, we need musicians, if anyone knows anyone suitable e-mail Ardchieftain667@yahoo.co.uk

Thank you for your time."

ArdChieftain
WAYLANDER
http://www.clanwaylander.org

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Band profile:

Waylander

Here is an update by Rachel Heyzer-Kloosterwaard:

"Dear fans
Sorry for the late update,but here it is,some news about Infinited hate. The recordings are almost done,we've record everything in the excess studio in Rotterdam,also the mixing will be done in the excess studio,again we worked with Hans Pieters,like we did before also with Sinister. This time they don't have a drummachine. We asked Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork,Scarve,Aborted) to join the album and he did a hell of a job!!
Here are the titles of "Heaven termination"

-Horned Priest
-Demonical Supulture
-Citadel of Carnage
-The Purity Corrupted
-Faced Aggressor
-Memento Recollection
-Unholy Commandments
-Pierced with Nails
-See Hell
-Before Creation of T ime(Unleashed)"

Source:

infinitedhate.tk

Here's another update from the Severe Torture camp. We can't really call it a studio update because we still haven't recorded the vocals. Dennis was suffering from throat problems and after a couple of days trying, we
decided to push the recording a couple of weeks forward. We worked really hard to get the instrumental part as tight and brutal as possible and therefore we're not taking a risk with Dennis' voice. Anyway, more news
about that in the next weeks.

We're also working on the layout together with Sven / DirgeDesign. The coverartwork is finished and I can already reveil that we never saw any album cover with this many mutilated corpses on it! Joe Maloney did a great job again!

Last but not least I have uploaded 2 tracks from our upcoming live album 'Bloodletting'. You can find them at MySpace . They are 'Lost Souls' (Pestilence cover, not live) and 'Impelled to Kill' (live, originally on Misanthropic Carnage).

http://www.severetorture.com/

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Band profile:

Severe Torture

Here is what the band posted on their website:

"Lots of new material are in progress. The last couple of months have been spent on creating new songs alongside our touring-activity. We have tons of ideas to pick from and will most likely spend the next few months on perfecting the best of this material. All the songs are meant for our next full-lenght album that most likely will be out in the beginning of next year".

Source:	sirenia.no
Band profile:	Sirenia

German medieval metallers SUBWAY TO SALLY have announced that they will issue their new album, Nord Nord Ost (North North East) on August 22nd through Nuclear Blast.

The album, which deals with the depths of emotional coldness, will be preceded by the first single, 'Eisblumen' ('Ice Flowers'), which is due out on July 25th.

In other Subway To Sally news, there has been a change in the band lineup. Drummer David Patsch has left the band and has been replaced by Christian "Chrishchrash" Gerlach (ex-KNORKATOR).

http://www.bravewords.com/

We finished two tracks with basic ideas from the Leibing camp "Evil Spell" and "Rollercoaster" - "Evil Spell" is the No. 1 contender for the fastest PF track ever. "Rollercoaster" is pure classic Primal Fear double bassdrum & riff mayhem! For the rumour section: no more shows are confirmed aside of the two benefit shows in Germany. We will announce 2-4 summer festival appearances soon!

Some more new songs are ready for the pre-production Signs Of Our Time, Evil That Men Do, Higher Power and Sound Of Thunder. All of the guys participating in the songwriting and the new album is shaping up! Thanks to our fans & of course to our fanclub for showing up at the Metal Forever festival last weekend. Was great to be back on stage! Hope we can tell you more details about some very limited and special Open Air appearances 2005. For our german supporters - nicht vergessen, nächsten Freitag das ROW Festival mit vielen tollen Gästen in Esslingen und für einen guten Zweck (Mat und Ralf sind zusätzlich aktiv bei Shiva bzw Tyran Pace, dazu ein Wiedersehen mit Klaus Sperling) . Der letzte PF Gig für eine längere Zeit - wir zählen auf Euch!

Source:	Official website
Band profile:	Primal Fear

Hi,

Just a short message: We've just come back from our trip to Granada, Spain Edguy.netto play the Atarfe-Vega-Rock festival. It was a lot of fun, although it's been pretty cold in the venue. That was not what we expected from Spain but however, you people who were there were really great. Some technical
problems on stage and we couldn't bring the whole show, but what the fuck - we gave our best and you gave your best, that's what counts. We all had a great evening!

After the show we had a kind of pre-birthday party for Eggi, together with the Primal Fear guys. Great guys, great fun. We will not mention any details, I am not gonna reveal that Jens woke up in his bath tub full of water and that I had to be carried out of the venue by two of our crew guys later that night. Well, you see: We had fun!!! Felix had a food war with himeself which is not very funny. There's a lot of people who starve while two Kiwis accidently slipped out of Felix' hand and exploded on the wall. To his excuse we should mention that he wouldn't have managed to throw them to Namibia anyway. So I want to stress we can't speak about waste of food in this case.

Meanwhile we are working full-steam on our new EP that is estimated to be released in September. A full length album is to follow early next year. I liked the concept of delivering a big value-for-money thing as the official single last time just like the King Of Fools EP. We got very good response to that and we are so creative at the moment that there will be a lot of material as it seems. We'll see, can't tell too much at this point. But we are working on that one. Anyway, the material sounds good, sound like Edguy, very fresh, very cheeky and of course epic at times. You'll hear it later. Have a great week and happy birthday Eggi,

Tobias!

Source:	Official website
Band profile:	Edguy