KAMELOT have set a February 28, 2005 release date through SPV Records for their new album, "The Black Halo". The follow-up to last year's "Epica" was produced by Sascha Paeth and Miro at Gate Studio in Germany and features guest appearances by Jens Johansson (Stratovarius), Simone Simmons (Epica) and others. Songtitles expected to appear on the album include "March of Mephisto", "When The Lights Are Down", "Moonlight Falling", "The Black Halo", "Abandoned", "Master of the Game", "Soul Society", "Pride", "Nothing Ever Dies" and "Serenade".

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Kamelot

Sweden's Dark Tranquillity have revealed the track listing and artwork for their new album, "Character", due in Europe on January 24 and North America on January 25 via Century Media Records. The band recently released an EP, entitled "Lost to Apathy", as a teaser for the upcoming full-length. It includes four songs, a video-clip (for the title track) and a screensaver.

"Character" (view cover here ) track listing:

01. The New Build
02. Through Smudged Lenses
03. Out of Nothing
04. The Endless Feed
05. Lost to Apathy
06. Mind Matters
07. One Thought
08. Dry Run
09. Am I 1?
10. Senses Tied
11. My Negation

Speaking to Portugal's LOUD! magazine recently, Dark Tranquillity frontman Mikael Stanne said about the upcoming CD, "The album is very diverse. There are songs that are heavier, other ones that are much more complex and a couple of others that are really fast. Overall I feel it's more varied and also much angrier, the whole thing just fells different. We wanted to make an album that wasn't that easy? We don't want people to listen to one of our records today and think it sounds great, just to forget about it two weeks later. We tried to do something that sticks with the listener, which they can explore over a long period of time. I personally haven't got tired of it yet, so I think we managed to do it pretty well ? we didn't want to be too obvious with this one. It was actually kind of a conscious effort to do it this way? We love music with a progressive edge and we played around with these songs for months, worked every little detail to make it as interesting as possible to play."

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Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Dark Tranquillity

Sweden's Soilwork have confirmed via their official web site that the limited-edition European/U.S. version of their upcoming album, "Stabbing the Drama", will include a bonus track, entitled "Wherever Thorns May Grow". The Japanese edition will feature "Wherever Thorns May Grow" and an additional bonus cut by the name of "Killed by Ignition".

The follow-up to 2003's "Figure Number Five" was recorded at Fascination Street studios in Örebro and Dug-Out Productions in Uppsala, Sweden with producer Daniel Bergstrand (Meshuggah, In Flames, Stuck Mojo). A February 28, 2005 release through Nuclear Blast Records is expected.

With regards to the new material, Soilwork vocalist Björn "Speed" Strid recently said, "In my ears it sounds like a mixture between 'Natural Born Chaos' (2002) and our latest effort, 'Figure Number Five' with a slight and interesting development."

"Stabbing the Drama" final track listing:

01. Stabbing The Drama
02. One With The Flies
03. Weapon Of Vanity
04. The Crestfallen
05. Nerve
06. Stalemate
07. Distance
08. Observation Slave
09. Fate In Motion
10. Blind Eye Halo
11. If Possible

Bonus:
12. Wherever Thorns May Grow (ltd. edition U.S/Europe + bonus for Japan)
13. Killed by Ignition (bonus for Japan only)

Regarding the artwork for the new CD, the band write on their web site, "We have selected the cover for the album and it looks pretty different from what we've had in the past but really looks killer!!"

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Soilwork

Impaled Nazarene's Frontman Mika Luttinen has posted the following message on band's official website:

"Here is the update about our live album and let me tell you, somebody out there seem to be against this album a lot.

Original plan (as it was announced here earlier) was to record three shows in Italy. Things got, well, really fucked-up. Our first show was in Milan and we had flights via Paris with Alitalia. We arrive to Milan, our luggage does not. After spending (read fighting) hours there, we manage to get info that some of our luggage will arrive later that day. Well, we got some stuff but our guitars and bass remained in Paris.

We borrowed equipment from support band and did our best, the show itself was great, fantastic crowd. We did record it but something was wrong and we got only 8 drum tracks on tape, nothing else.

We said "fuck it, we still have two shows left". We arrive to Sicily next day and it turns out that the mixing console of the club is so dated that it does not have digital outputs for our recording gear. The same thing was in Ascoli, the last show, no digital outputs on the mixing console. We could not believe our bad luck. And this was just the beginning of this misery?

Well, we had a show in Stockholm, Sweden, a week later. We made sure that their mixing console was up-to-date, got an excellent backline and all was well. Until some cocksucker decides to take out electricity while we are on stage. We were near the end of our set and suddenly power is cut off. After ten minutes or so, power is back on and we do rest of our set. We get off stage and then our soundman breaks the news: We have exactly THREE songs on computer (digital recording, you see), rest was lost during power break. We were like what the fuck.

So we said, we do have two shows in Russia, let us record them. Great country to do a live album, insane audience. Once again we check all the shit to make sure that we can actually record both of the shows.

We meet everybody at Helsinki railway station and there comes our soundman without recording gear. We are like "what now?" and well, let´s just say that thanks to somebody (not our soundman), we did not get the gear we were supposed to get. Somebody fucked up big time. Off to Russia sans recording gear.

St. Petersburg show was really a fucking blast (even though we had to cut our settime because whole thing was running late), really a shame we couldn´t record it. But Moscow?well, here is a story for you:

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Source:	impnaz.com
Band profile:	Impaled Nazarene

Candlelight Records has set a January 25, 2005 U.S. release date for "Kraft", the debut album from Norway's Vreid (Norwegian for "wrath"). Formed earlier this year, the band features the surviving members of WINDIR (Hváll on bass, Steingrim on drums and Sture on vocals/guitar), disbanded due to the unexpected death of singer/founder Valfar.

"Kraft" was recorded during the summer at Hváll's Studio 1184 and was mixed at Subsonic Society Studio (Susperia, Windir, Red Harvest, Darkhrone) in Oslo.

Vreid's music is being described as a continuation of the sound and style Hváll had created with Windir and Ulcus, but with "its own personal sound ? a mixture of the ambience of Windir, the rawness of Norwegian black metal and the rocking groove of Motörhead." The lyrics are written both in Norwegian and English. Rounding out Vreid's lineup is a guitarist named Ese ? a close friend of the Vreid members for years, and co-engineer on Windir's "Likferd" album.

WINDIR, founded by Valfar in 1994, leave behind four recordings, all recorded for Head Not Found Records. The band graced stages at Inferno, Quart and Hole in the Sky European Festivals plus an appearance (and now only U.S. show) at the Milwaukee Metal Fest. The band were set to record their fifth album and first to receive worldwide release via Candlelight/Tabu Records before Valfar's death.

"Kraft" track listing:

01. Wrath of Mine
02. Raped by Light
03. Helvete
04. Unholy Water
05. Eldast, Utan Å Gro
06. Evig Pine
07. Empty
08. Songen Åt Fangen

Band profile:

Vreid

A video clip of the Finnish "pagan battle metal" act Turisas performing the song "Battle Metal" live at the Tuska Festival 2004 in Helsinki, Finland has been posted online at the German Metal Hammer web site. Check it out at
http://www.hammer-mag.de/audio_video/video/index.html

Source:

www.blabbermouth.net

Thunderstone has begun recording the follow-up to the highly acclaimed self-titled debut album and last year's "The Burning". The recordings take place at the familiar Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki and will last until the end of the year. The mixing will take place in the beginning of 2005, at a yet-undecided location. The planned release date for the album is in April 2005.

Expect hard riffs combined with rich melodies and brilliant musicianship - the Thunderstone trademarks! Also look forward to possible surprise guests and covers. Stay tuned!!!

Source:	thunderstone.org
Band profile:	Thunderstone

Statement about current events:

"On November 2nd we had a show in Paris, La Locomotive.
During the sound check everything was ok, and the day went by as usual, without any worries. When the starting act played, the air ventilation system we did not know about was turned on, blowing REALLY chilled air on the middle of the stage.
Tony complained about this from beginning of our show.
Sweating under the hot stage lighting and getting a cold air blowing at you for 1 1/2 hours will get you a flue, 100% sure. Despite the efforts of our own crew, the local people were unable or unwilling to turn this "wind" off. And it was not on during the soundcheck, so...The soldout house saw the first time anyone in Sonata has gone off stage between songs to get a longsleeve, because he's on goosebumps 'cause he's freezing on the stage...indoors...
On the following day Tony woke up with no speaking voice...

When we yet one more day later on Nov 4th arrived in Madrid, the situation felt a bit better, but before the soundcheck Tony started feeling he had fever. We tried a song in the soundcheck, but it was obvious we cannot play that night...this was a deep shock for the whole band. A local doctor checked out Tony and gave him something for the fever and his infected throat. The remaining members made a statement on stage about the situation, while Tony was sleeping in the bus.

Next morning in Barcelona we decided to play no matter what. Can't leave Spain without one single show! Pulling a show with medication on would propably mean cancelling the next show in Montpellier. We agreed on risking this after weighting all the pros and cons. There was no guarantee we could play in Montpellier anyway...The show was pure pain, but the fans were fantastic and it felt a good decision.

So today, on Saturday, November 6th we arrived to Montpellier, the show we had already announced we'd be forced to cancel. Tony needs to rest and recover before the last show together with Nightwish in Amsterdam and the four other headlining shows we have on the row after that. Playing in Montpellier would have been a BIG risk and we do not want to cancel any more shows!! A doctor checked Tony again, ordered medication and adviced not to do the show, but rather stay quiet and rest as long as possible.

We sadly apologize our fans and friends that had to leave Madrid and Montpellier venues without a show. It broke our hearts to see so many teary eyes...

We all think our fans deserve none less than 100% from us, and we are not able to deliver that currently. Hopefully everything will be ok when we reach Amsterdam.

Read more ››

Source:	sonataarctica.info
Band profile:	Sonata Arctica

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi's official message board http://www.iommimessageboard.co.uk/ has launched a competition inspired by a topic started by Nero Kalem. This is how it will work:

1. Design an album cover picture related to Black Sabbath in some way, whether it be a song title, an alternative album cover or a new Black Sabbath album cover.

2. Upload your picture to the web, send the URL through a PM, it will be posted on the message board for all to see. Another way of doing it is to upload it to the "Ideal Black Sabbath Album Covers" thread saying that you want it as a competition entry, and it will be added to the competition thread.

One entry per member, please.

The prize is a copy of "The 1996 DEP Sessions" signed by both Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes. The competition will be judged by Tony Iommi himself.

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Black Sabbath

Finland's Lullacry have finished recording their new single, "Stranger In You", at Finnvox studios in Helsinki. "The song is definitely the most '80s we've done to date," guitarist Sami Vauhkonen said in a posting on the band's web site. "Great catchy chorus and massive backing vocals in the vein of Bon Jovi, haha! We got some great help from Heikki of Twilightning."

The "Stranger In You" single will be out worldwide on March 9, 2005 and will also include a cover of Kiss' "I Stole Your Love".

Lullacry are currently recording the follow-up to 2003's "Crucify My Heart", tentatively due in early 2005 through Spinefarm Records in Finland and Century Media Records in other parts of the world. The group issued a five-song EP, "Fire Within", in August, featuring two new songs ("Fire Within" and "The #1 Rebel"), two remakes of classic Lullacry tracks, as well as a cover version of W.A.S.P.'s "L.O.V.E. Machine".

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Lullacry

Norwegian black metalllers Gorgoroth will be playing the only show anywhere close to the U.S. only minutes from San Diego at Box Underground (1500 Revolution Ave.) in Tijuana, Mexico on Friday, November 12. Also appearing on the bill will be Sadistic Intent, Infinitum Obscure and Sumeria. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 day of show, and are available at Dark Realm Records (Downey, CA), Blue Meannie Records (El Cajon, CA) and Last Temptation (Tijuana, Mexico). A flyer for the show can be viewed here http://www.infinitumobscure.com/Images/2004/Poster.jpg .

Band profile:

Gorgoroth

After the long wait, we can officially confirm Damnagoras' return in the band. The singer who left ELVENKING two years ago, has joined his fellows back in order to re-create the original heathen spirit and essence that bound every single member to each other. The band, after the release of their last album WYRD (recorded with a different singer, Kleid) entered a difficult period due to various reasons related to the musical direction to take, personal relations, business affairs, etc. Put in front of this situation, there was no choice for EK to keep on expressing themselves still being faithful to what the band was born for. Now that the original line-up is still together, things are going great and the songwriting process for the third album has been nearly completed!

After the release of Wyrd the contract between Elvenking and AFM records was about to end, but following the amazing results both for sales and critcs of the two albums, we're happy to announce that the band and AFM will keep on working together also for the next one!

Pre-production
The band has just finished recording a 6-track promo of the songs that will be included in the next Elvenking album, for pre-production and for future decisions.
Damnagoras about the songs: "This is the most incredible material I have ever heard and Elvenking will be back with strength and magic!" while Aydan states "I've never been so satisfied when it was to write new songs! This material will probably become the best ever written by the band!"

Source:	elvenking.net
Band profile:	Elvenking

Holland's Within Temptation will release their new album, "The Silent Force", on November 15 via BMG. The complete track listing for the CD is as follows:

01. Intro / See Who I Am
02. Gillean
03. Stand My Ground
04. Pale
05. Forsaken
06. Angels
07. Memories
08. Aquarius
09. It's The Fear
10. Somewhere
11. A Dangerous Mind (bonus track)
12. The Silence (bonus track)

Audio clips of all the album cuts can be heard online at www.Bol.com and www.MusicBay.se.

As previously reported, "The Silent Force" will be released in three formats: a limited digibook version with a DVD bonus, a regular jewel case version, and a version without the booklet, at a special price.

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Within Temptation

Deicide have cancelled the remaining dates on their European headlining tour due to a "family crisis" (believed to be the death of drummer Steve Asheim's father). The group's last live appearance took place on Friday, November 5 at at the Hard Club in Porto, Portugal, where the band reportedly performed for less than 45 minutes. Joining founding members Asheim and Glen Benton (bass/vocals) in the group's touring lineup were guitarists Jack Owen (Adrift, ex-Cannibal Corpse) and Dave Suzuki (Vital Remains). No further information is currently available.

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Deicide

Masterplan, the new band featuring ex-Helloween guitarist Roland Grapow, ex-Helloween drummer Uli Kusch and former Yngwie Malmsteen/Ark singer Jorn Lande, have set "Aeronautics" as the title of their sophomore full-length album, due on January 24, 2005 via Germany's AFM Records. A four-song EP, containing two non-album cuts plus a multimedia section, will precede the album on November 29. The songs included on the EP are as follows: "Back For My Life" (single and album version), "Crimson Rider", "Killing in Time" (two different versions, non-album cut) and "Love Is a Rock" (non-album cut).

The material was produced by Andy Sneap (Machine head, Exodus, Skinlab, Nevermore) and was mixed by Mikko Karmila. Mastering duties were handled by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studios.

Source:	wwww.blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Masterplan