Norwegian black metallers Gorgoroth have recruited drummer Dirge Rep (Orcustus, ex-Enslaved, Gehenna) and guitarist Teloch (Orcustus, Nidingr) as session musicians for their upcoming European and Mexican tours.

Gorgoroth will embark on the "Twilight of the Idols" European headlining tour in early October. Support at all shows will come from 1349, the Norwegian group featuring Satyricon drummer Frost. A Mexican trek will follow in early November.

The complete list of tours can be attended here:
http://www.gorgoroth.org/band/concerts.html

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Gorgoroth

Fates Warning has put an MP3 online of their upcoming record FWX, which will be released on October the 5th. The song is called Simple Human, and can be downloaded here:
http://www.metalblade.com/bands/fates_warning/fates_warning-fwx-simhum.mp3

The tracklist of the album will look like this:
01. Left Here
02. Simple Human
03. River Wide Ocean Deep
04. Another Perfect Day
05. Heal Me
06. Sequence # 7
07. Crawl
08. A Handful Of Doubt
09. Stranger (With A Familiar Face)
10. Wish

Source:	roadrun.com
Band profile:	Fates Warning

Deinonychus, the Dutch one-man doom metal project of Marco Kehren (Previously known as Odin), will release a new album which will be called "Insomnia". It will be recorded in The Outer Studio in Rome (as was the previous album) with producer Guiseppe Orlando (better known from the Italian Novembre).

A re-realese of the album Mournament will also occur, which contains bonus video clip of the song "Ascencion - The 40th Day After Easter". This all will be arranged by My Kingdom Music.

Source:

mykingdommusic.net

The American Impaled is done with the recording of their third album Death after Life. The album will be launched at the beginning of 2005 through Century Media en will be the first album released after Mondo Medicale (released in 2002)

Tracklist:
01. Goreverture
02. Mondo Medicale
03. Gutless
04. Theatre of Operations
05. Preservation of Death
06. Wrought In Hell
07. Resurrectionsists
08. Critical Condition
09. The Dead Shall Dead Remain
10. Medical Waste
11. Dead Alive
12. Coda Morte

Keep an eye on the Century Media site for more info:
http://www.centurymedia.de/

While the recordings are finished Behemoth give us a little taste of what will be their new album "Demigod".
A enthusiastic Nergal talks about the new work and about the new sound, he said: "the sound has never been so intense and fresh. Bergstrand brought a lot of new ideas into our music and I'm more than sure that "Demigod" gained new dimension... It's the new beginning for us. "Demigod" with all its might and splendor rises above anything we've done before"... He also describe the album as more extreme: ""Demigod" is a way more extreme record than "ZOS KIA CULTUS" but on the other hand it contains more classic influences"

to listen to the sound clips go here:
http://www.behemoth.metalkings.com/sounds.html

Band profile:

Behemoth

New material is being written for the next album which will hit the streets around October/November next year on Season Of Mist

http://www.thetruemayhem.com/

Band profile:

Mayhem

Patrik Mennander is not longer on the band because of time problems, the band and the singer parted ways in a good way, Patrick will be play one last gig at 29 of October. The replacement will be Tomi Mykkänen of Evemaster, but as only as a session vocalist for the forthcoming tours. Also the bassist Miika Kokkola will not join the tour because of "personal reasons", for him will be Timo Honkanen of Elderthrones (and Battlelore's webmaster) also as session player for the tour.

The germans have set the release date for the upcoming album "Never-Ending" to 25/10/2004.

Band profile:

Mystic Prophecy

The band are currently making recording for their new album, that is plan to be out at early 2005, the new line up of the band is: Cronos on bass and vocals, Antton on the drums and Mykus(ex-Cathedral, and also played in Cronos solo project) on the guitars (that is the new member), to see pics of new line up go here:
http://www.venomslegions.com/venom_mmiv_photos.htm

Band profile:

Venom

Falconer have found a new bassist, it is Magnus Linhardt, who aparently used to play in the death unsigned band "The Choir of Vengeance". Also the band is working in new material.

Band profile:

Falconer

The band just completed the recordings of the bass, drums and guitar for the new album. The vocals will be recorded soon, the album (apparently to be out in November / December) will be followed by a World Tour, the "DEATHMARCH2004/2005" tour, which will star on December.

Also a date will be placed at the Headbangers Ballrom-Hamburg, Germany on the 19th of September.

Band profile:

Marduk

These are Stephan's explanations about an album (the band has already made 15 song with 10 to select forthe new album) and a musical:

"First we wanted to do an album called "Monte Cristo" which should have been kind of a rock musical. But after a while we realized that it would be very hard to find a good solution regarding the songwriting. If the songs are too hard, no one in the theater-scene would listen to them. If they are too soft, our fans could be a bit irritated. At the end we felt limited in both ways. So we decided to make a regular Vanden Plas album (based on Monte Cristo) and a musical (called Monte Cristo). This way we are free to write some heavy stuff and in the same way we are free to write theater-like songs which aren´t heavy at all. That´s the best solution for us, and hopefully nobody will be disappointed!

The musical will star different singers. Hopefully it will be played at a theater someday, but right now I don't even know if it will ever be recorded because that would be a big challenge. We just started the songwriting of
the musical, and if you think about what is neccessary to create a musical, you can imagine that it will take a longer time to realize that.
Anyway, for the moment our regular CD is the most important thing, we have to finish that first."

On the other hand Andy Kuntz's solo album "Abydos" that has been released on 30/08/2004 has entered in the last german Rock Hard Magazine Top ten.
To check sound samples of this album go here:
http://www.insideout.de/indexx.php?arg=AQcSBEtBQUyPAQ

Band profile:

Vanden Plas

More labels movements, in this case is Morbid Angel that part ways with Earache. They will be checking new offers by the interested labels, they plan to decide about it in the next months because they plan a release for 2005, this are few worlds from Morbid Angel:

"We wish Earache continued success in selling our catalogue and have an obvious professional vested interest in this. We wish to thank all of the Earache employees past and present for their work on Morbid Angel's releases. We are looking forward with excitement to the future."

Band profile:

Morbid Angel

The band explains the reason of the separation:

"We have parted ways with NAPALM Records very amicably... We will never forget what this label has done for us so far... giving us the breath for a second birth in 1999... NAPALM RECORDS being actually focusing into a completely different music style from what we offer, we simply decided all together that it would be better for us to find a more suitable label for what we have to offer..."

The band is looking for a record deal.

Band profile:

Nightmare

Helloween has signed a new record deal with Steamhammer/SPV records. After 20 years, 18 published records, and a killer performance in front of 40,000 people at this year's Wacken Open Air Festival, the band has signed with SPV yet again! In 1987/1988, Helloween were already under contract with SPV and this collaboration brought Manfred Schütz and SPV the first two golden records - at that time 250,000 units - for "Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 1 & 2

Original member Michael Weikath stated: "SPV was the at the beginning of it all and that is already the basis for a successful co-operation.

SPV managing director Manfred Schütz stated: "Helloween is one of the first Metal Acts, which set the standard for German Heavy Metal world-wide. The outstanding success with the first two golden records still remains for me as one of the most beautiful moments in memory and I am proud that Helloween is now a SPV/Steamhammer act"

At the end of of 2004, the band will begin the production of a new album with producer Charlie Bauerfeind. The publication date is planned for summer 2005, the world tour begins in October 2005

Band profile:

Helloween