Sweden's Spiritual Beggars finally return to the spotlight with their first new studio album in five years, Return To Zero. Once again, the Beggars effortlessly manage to confirm they are a band that continues to defy musical boundaries and that delivers Classic Heavy Rock at its very best! The artwork of the upcoming album is done by the well known Brazilian artist Gustavo Sazes.

Spiritual Beggars's guitarist Michael Amott (Carcass, Arch Enemy) states: "I'm extremely pleased with the Return To Zero cover! To me, it's the quintessential Spiritual Beggars artwork. The artist really managed to capture the essence of our band, the new album and the constant flow of cryptic ideas I was throwing at him! As I'm old school, I can't wait to see this in its full glory on the vinyl LP... But hey, it'll look cool as a minuscular image on your iPod too!"

Return To Zero will be released in Europe on August 30th via InsideOutMusic.

Return To Zero cover art] tracklist:

01. Return To Zero (intro)
02. Lost In Yesterday
03. Star Born
04. The Chaos Of Rebirth
05. We Are Free
06. Spirit Of The Wind
07. Coming Home
08. Concrete Horizon
09. A New Dawn Rising
10. Believe In Me
11. Dead Weight
12. The Road Less Travelled

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Spiritual Beggars

So... apparently MetalStorm.net has been blocked by Iranian authorities. As of Sunday, MS has been "filtered" and is no longer accessible in Iran. Yup, Metal Storm is officially too metal for Iran. Several of our Iranian users have reported though that, next to bypass software, the site is still available through https://www.metalstorm.net.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been filtering social network sites, like MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm, Twitter, Urkat for years now. But since last month authorities have started filtering blogs and websites related to Metal music. The infamous Metal Archives were the first to go down. But also most of the Persian language metal forums and blogs got filtered. Even the official Metallica website had to bite the dust.

Click the thumbnail to see a screenshot of how MS currently looks like in Iran. The text reads as follows: "In the name of Allah the Merciful, the Beneficent. According to internet violence rules, access to this website is denied."

When The Guardian reported about the intensified censorship following the commotion after the 2009 elections, the newspaper wrote that "internet censorship is both routine and highly developed in the Islamic Republic." Iran uses what the OpenNet Initiative calls "one of the most extensive technical filtering systems in the world", as all internet providers are required to go through state-controlled gateways.

According to Wikipedia - who have a surprisingly thorough article about internet censorship in Iran - every ISP must be approved by both the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and must implement content-control software for websites and e-mail. ISP's face heavy penalties if they do not comply with the government filter lists.

In 2008, Iran has blocked access to more than five million Internet sites, whose content is mostly perceived as immoral and anti-social. In recent years, Internet service providers have been told to block access to political, human rights and women's sites and weblogs expressing dissent or deemed to be pornographic and anti-Islamic. The ban has also targeted such popular social networking sites as Facebook and YouTube, as well as news sites.

So yeah... Hail Satam, y'all!

1304 for the information]

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Source:

metalstorm.net

Season of Mist unexpectedly announced that Ukrainian Black Metal legends Drudkh will release a brand new album on September 20th, 2010. The new work will be entitled Handful of Stars and will also be available as a limited edition box set. More news to follow soon!

Source:	season-of-mist.com
Band profile:	Drudkh

Dutch eclectic extreme Metal band Conspiracy returns with a brand new third full-length album entitled Irremediable.

Previously helmed solely by Carpathian Wolf (Lupus Karpatius in Latin) for the previous two full-length albums, the band currently also consists of German guitarist/composer/orchestrator Aryan Blaze to join the ranks of Conspiracy.

Carpathian Wolf (aka Al' Hazred, former member of Sumerian Black Metallers Melechesh) left Melechesh in 2008 to fully concentrate and focus on Conspiracy. Conspiracy's musical direction sees a more logical step towards the fulfillment and ideology of Carpathian Wolf himself.

Conspiracy head-honcho Carpathian Wolf comments: "This time Conspiracy doesn't just spit rage and hatred but presents the symphony of sinister entertainment for the chosen elite black metal consumer. The material on Irremediable ranges from Blackened Heavy Metal with melodic and harmonious guitar solos to Black Metal with unorthodox elements, which will pleasantly surprise even the most spoilt listeners."

"The cover art is based on the painting by the Belgian Satanist painter - Félicien Rops (1833-1898), which goes really fine with the dark poetry of Alister Crowley, Charles Baudelaire and some other classical masters."

"As an additional treat, some of the songs that are on Irremediable will feature pre-recorded drum performances by Dirk Verbeuren (Aborted, Soilwork, Scarve, etc) taken from "The Library Of The Extreme - Blasts & Fills" by Toontrack."

The official street release date for Irremediable will be announced at a later date.

Irremediable cover art] tracklist:

01. Nocturnal Hunters
02. Ouverture
03. Black Mass
04. End Of Religion
05. Pentagram
06. The Invocation Of Hecate
07. Irremediable
08. The Hag
09. Armageddon Broke
10. A Dream Of Fear
11. Carpathian Sunset
12. Bukovina

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Source:

myspace.com

Maple Metal Records have signed Canadian death metal band Massive Slavery and will release their first album Global Enslavement on July 26th.

Massive Slavery hail from the towns of Val d'Or and Ryoun-Noranda, the gold-mining district in Northern Quebec. The province of Quebec, Canada has traditionally been a hot bed for great metal talent and now Massive Slavery can be added to that illustrious list.

Born from a concept conceived by bassist Marc-André Barrette (ex-Paroxysm) and guitarist Joël St-Amant (Descend into Nothingness), Massive Slavery was officially created in the winter of 2009.

Having previously worked with Joel in Descend into Nothingness, drummer Pierre-Alexandre Mercier (Decrepity) did not hesitate to join the crew. Even if the band were still looking for a frontman, they began to write and work on fresh material. After a couple of months of hunting around, their search was finally over when vocalist Jonathan St-Pierre landed the role, to round out this new quartet. His addition to the band gave new dynamics, and a boost of energy to push the band into finalizing the writing of their first album.

The collaboration of this musical assault Global Enslavement, combines a mix of melodic, brutal and technical death metal. The album was produced, realized and recorded by Yannick St-Amand (Despised Icon, Neuraxis, Beneath The Massacre), mixed and mastered by Pierre Remillard (Misery Index, Krisiun, Malevolent Creation).

"In these dark times when the future of humanity seems to be put in danger by individualistic and corrupt leaders, four musicians from Canada work on a musical plan aiming to reach the ranks of opposition, already well established in the middle of extreme metal. Like a wakeup call, their goal is to alert and open the eyes of our society, to reveal the sad and brutal reality, often unseen or denied by man. It's under this shadow of complete disillusion towards our civilization that Massive Slavery emerge from collective ignorance, in order to defend and promote an engaged movement of resistance, fighting against the manipulators of our system."

Global Enslavement cover art] tracklist:

01. MediAssassiNation
02. Shade of Corruption
03. Global Enslavement
04. The Denial of Man's Regression
05. Destroy, Rebuild, Repeat
06. A Cold Interlude
07. Wider We Open Our Eyes
08. Pull the Plug on Modern Civilization
09. Humanity's Last Hope
10. Generalized Cyberphobia

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Source:

myspace.com

Greek black metal band Aenaon are proud to announce the upcomming release of A Parallel Zoetrope, a 7' split between Aenaon and Satanochio. This split will be released in 500 copies worldwide from Floga Records and Orkestral Promenade Productions.

The Aenaon song will be called "I, Tyrant". The Satanochio side is coming with the song "Crimson Grim". Both songs are placed in the avantgarde and experimental dimensions of black metal.

The artwork of this release is done from Costin Chioreanu, an artist well known from works with bands like Decrepit Spectre, Ulver, Aura Noir, Grave etc.

The mastering of the Aenaon song, took place at Strype Audio in Norway. The well-known studio from the works of bands such as Code, Dødheimsgard, Ihsahn, Darkthrone, Emperor, Arcturus, Virus, 1349, Keep Of Kalessin etc. The release was engineered by Tom Kvalsvoll. Release date on the 19th of July 2010.


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Source:

myspace.com

Official press release

Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the signing of US Classic Heavy Metal band Benedictum for the release of a brand new studio album in early 2011. Since 2005 Benedictum has been heralded as one of metal's most exciting bands. Fronted by the awesome talent of Veronica Freeman, her raw and powerful vocals have been the driving force behind this international metal sensation.

This year proves to be a very intense and exhilarating time, as Benedictum are set to deliver their 3rd album of jaw dropping, head banging, female-fronted fury. After releasing two critically acclaimed albums (Seasons Of Tragedy & Uncreation), produced by internationally renowned producer and bassist Jeff Pilson (Dokken, Dio & Foreigner), Benedictum is back to unleash their career defining release!

Benedictum is ready for the next step: with a new label behind them, they are currently working hard on the recording with Grammy Award winning producer Ryan Greene (Megadeth, F5, MXPX, NoFx). Benedictum is firing on all cylinders! Veronica is joined once again by lead guitarist extraordinaire, Pete Wells, bassist Chris Shrum, Tony Diaz on keyboards and drummer Mikey Pannone.

Benedictum's success and legacy have been well documented and the band have already earned their place at the head of the power metal genre. "There is really a feeling of excitement in the air for us, the new material will be another level in our evolution as a band and we have a lot of confidence in our new label Frontiers Records and their willingness to stand with us on our journey!" states Veronica.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Benedictum

German Pagan folk metal act Black Messiah and Russian Viking metallers Nomans Land are the latest bands to join the Black Trolls Over Europe Tour which takes place later this year. The tour also features Negură Bunget, Adorned Brood, Dyrathor and Heathen Foray, with special guest Wolfchant on select occasions. The currently announced dates are as follows:

08.10.2010 - DE - Bonn, Klangstation
09.10.2010 - DE - Gera, Sächsischer Bahnhof
10.10.2010 - DE - Darmstadt, Steinbruchtheater
11.10.2010 - DE - Hamburg, Headbangers Ballroom
12.10.2010 - DE - Flensburg, Roxy
13.10.2010 - DE - Essen, Turock
14.10.2010 - DE - Ludwigsburg, Rockfabrik
15.10.2010 - CH - Uster, Stadthofsaal
16.10.2010 - DE - Ruhla, Waldeshall Festival
17.10.2010 - NL - Rotterdam, Baroeg
18.10.2010 - TBA
19.10.2010 - TBA

More dates to follow next week. All info available here.

Read more ››

Source:	myspace.com
Event:	Black Trolls Over Europe Tour

Angra has finally announced the official title of its seventh full length. Aqua will be the first material released in the last four years and after the return of the drummer Ricardo Confessori (Shaman) to the band. Below is the official press release:

Aqua is a Latin word and means "water" in English. It represents the unique style that presented Angra to the world. Its incredible ability in mixing various music genres, transcending from Classical to Metal, Folklore to Modern, Pop to Experimental, has an unquestionable relevance nowadays and it is described in each detail of the new work.

The whole composition of the album was directly inspired by "The Tempest" - the last play written by William Shakespeare and shown here through an epic vision compared to its dark side.

"We really dedicated ourselves to the last work of Shakespeare to create Aqua. Besides all the qualities of the text, we founded out that the element "water" is one of the main characters of the history. It transforms itself during the cycles and changes the things around. It represents the rage of high tides and tempests, and then the forgiveness and wisdom in calm. Everything happens after a violent storm that occurs in the sea, in an island hill. While the wild waters come from up and down, a ship and the entire crew are fighting for surviving. As from this point, we developed one very interesting narrative that will get the attention of the listeners", said the guitarist Rafael Bittencourt.

Aqua was produced by a new team that confirms the actual renovation purpose of the band. The album was entirely arranged by the musicians, co-produced and mixed by Brendan Duffey and Adriano Daga, from Norcal Studios, and mastered by Maor Appelbaum at Maor Appelbaum Mastering Studios, in California (EUA).

The art concept was created by the renowned Brazilian artist Gustavo Sazes supervised by Rafael Bittencourt and Kiko Loureiro.

Aqua will be released in Japan on July 31st by JVC/Victor and will be distributed in Europe by SPV/Steamhammer afterwards. In Brazil it will be self-financed and released on August 17th. "We need to have a support for the international market and the SPV and JVC have always been done an excellent work related to the promotion of our last records. But in Brazil we will make it different this time. It will be self-financed so that we can control everything referred to the CD", said vocalist Edu Falaschi.

After Aqua is officially released, Angra will start a new world tour.

Read more ››

Source:	msmetalpress.com
Band profile:	Angra

Audrey Y Beeson-Michael, the older sister of Curtis Beeson, former drummer of the '80s/'90s metal bands Nasty Savage, Massacre, Fester and Denial Fiend, has sent the following letter to Blabbermouth.net:

"On Monday, June 28, 2010, we found out that Curtis had a massive brain tumor. Curtis had been complaining of headaches and losing the vision in his right eye for about five months. Being a "man", he did not go immediately to the hospital. My mother and my other brother Sanford (former singer of Low Brow) kind of "dragged" him to Tampa General Hospital on that Monday. After explaining to the ER staff his symptoms, they immediately send him for a CT Scan and MRI. They found a massive tumor, over and behind his right eye. They scheduled him for surgery for Friday, July 2 at 8 a.m. After 16 hours of surgery, his doctor finally came out and said that they had removed all of the tumor. The tumor was the size of a softball.

His doctor did not know the extent of the damage the tumor had caused, but earlier in the week, the ophthalmologist, after looking at his CT, said that he was probably blind in his right eye. His doctor said that after the surgery we would have to wait and see about his vision. He said the tumor had been pushing so far on his eye that the optic nerve might have been completely damaged.

The staff said he is making tremendous progress, even after a few hours. He was up talking and walking, which was a good sign. He told my mother that the first thing he checked were his legs to see if they still worked. I believe he was more worried about that than his vision. He can play the drums blind, but has to have his legs. Later on during the day, he said that the vision in his right eye seemed to be coming back, which was a very good sign.

He's on the road to recovery. We don't know how long it will be, but like the staff said, he's making great progress and has a great attitude towards all of it. I know that once he is well enough, he will want to get back to playing his drums.

Our family wants to thank everyone for all of their thoughts, prayers and support through this rough time. We would especially like to thank Dr. Eric Sauvageau, neurosurgeon of Tampa General Hospital and all of the staff for their wonderful job."

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Source:	roadrunnerrecords.com
Band profile:	Nasty Savage

US technical death/grind metallers Cephalic Carnage have announced the addition of guitarist Brian Hopp to the group's ranks. Brian Hopp will be replacing Zac Joe as lead guitarist.

The band stated: "So yeah yeah old news, but as most of you know Zac left the band, but what you don't know is who our new guitarist is. Please welcome Brian Hopp a.k.a. Legolas to the Cephalic family. He's got a really sweet bow and arrow, and his guitar playing is almost as good as his archery. We are extremely pleased with his work on the new record, and we think you will be too. Come tickle his chin and give him a pinch on Summer's Laughter."

Misled By Certainty, the new Cephalic Carnage's album, is due on August 31 via Relapse Records.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Cephalic Carnage

Shining will make a rare appearance in their home country of Sweden when they headline the Forlorn Festival which is scheduled to take place on the 26th and 27th November at the Fabriken, in Umea, Sweden. According to the organisers this will be Sweden's first ever Black Metal festival, and the line up will feature some of the country's leading Black Metal bands, many of whom, like Shining itself, rarely get to play in their own country. Line up up for the Forlorn Fest is as follows:

Shining, Ondskapt, Sorgeldom, Valkyrja, Elimi, Chainsawtan, Rev 16:8, Hypothermia, Orcivus and Thornium.

Shining's much anticipated seventh album VII / Född Förlorare is due for release on Indie Recordings later this year. The band will be appearing at a number of festivals over the summer, and will embark on a series of European dates with Enthroned during October and November.

More info about the festival at this location.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Shining
Event:	Forlorn Festival

The news is already a tad old, but just in case you missed this moment of rejoice, gore-metallers Exhumed have reformed after a five-year hiatus!

The band will feature founding and original member Matt Harvey on guitars and vocals along with returning members Leon DelMuerte (Phobia, Muder Construct) on bass and vocals, Wes Caley (Uphill Battle) on guitars, and Danny Walker (Intronaut, Muder Construct, (Uphill Battle) on drums. The band will begin recording a new full-length and follow-up album to 2003's Anatomy Is Destiny this fall for a spring 2011 release.

Harvey recently commented on the reformation: "I'm totally fucken psyched to be making music with Exhumed again, it's been way too long. After a few years off and away from the Death Metal scene, I feel rejuvenated and ready to hack, maim and kill once again. I wanted this to be a continuation of what the band was doing and was on its way to doing, not a reunion or some weird nostalgia thing, so the first person I started talking about this with was our guitarist Wes (Caley), who has been writing some great songs for the new album, and once he got the ball rolling with Leon (DelMuerte, bass, vocals) and Danny (Walker, drums), it come together quickly and easier than ever!"

"We've been writing for the past few months, me in Hawaii , and the other guys in California , and now that I'm back on the mainland we'll be getting things together for album number four. We're all really excited about the new shit, it should combine the directness of "Slaughtercult" and the intricacy of "Anatomy..." so it's definitely gonna be our strongest record yet."

The band has confirmed that their first North American appearance will be as part of Maryland Deathfest 2011. To commemorate the band's return to the stage, they are asking for fans to pick their set list.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Exhumed

Swedish metallers Scarpoint have issued the following update on their MySpace blog:

"Hey fuckers!

After a couple months of sharing great moments we are delighted to welcome our new guitar player Ola Englund to the band.

He fits awesome and are a hell of a guitar player. If you have questions to him about anything, such as gear and that kind of stuff, mail to info scarpoint com.

Stay twisted fuckers!"

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Source:	metalstorm.net
Band profile:	Scarpoint

Official press release

After more than 15 years as the driving force in Exmortem, Martin Thim have decided that its time to focus on new adventures and Exmortem is hereby history.

Exmortem have been one of the leading acts in the Danish metalscene for many years and set the bar high with albums like Berzerker Legions and latest Funeral Phantoms.

Our last album Funeral Phantoms is also viewed as the bands absolutely best release and we are proud to leave on the top of our career. With Funeral Phantoms we reached what we have always aimed for, so now it's time for something new.

I'm also extremely proud to look back and be able to say that we never repeated ourselves, each album has it's own sound and atmosphere, no album is alike. That is very satisfying as an artist!

So why stop now? The motivation is simply not there anymore and I would never try and force something just to keep going and I've never found it especially interesting to repeat myself. I've been working on some new material with Andreas for a new band, but there is no guarantee at this point that we will actually record anything, we would need the right people and they are not easy to find here. Apart from that I'm involved in a fully electronic project that is miles away from this genre.

Anyway, I've always been an entrepreneur and fiery soul, so life is simply too short to just focus on one thing, there is new territory to be discovered and I need to make new music. So this is the end of one thing and the beginning of something new, whatever that will be.

Morten will still be active in Spectral Mortuary and Simon got Horned Almighty that will soon have an album out on Candlelight (lyselys in danish... kind a funny). Kim is killing stuff and me and Andreas will be back eventually.

I would like to use this opportunity to say "thank you very much!" to all the past members of the band, you are all part of the history of Exmortem and a big thanks to those we have worked with! I would also like to say a big hello and cheers to all the cool people I've meet through this music... you know who you are... I've also meet a lot of not so cool people, but you probably don't know who you are...

Throughout the years there has been a lot of rumors about this band... and they are all true!

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do"

Martin Thim and Exmortem.

NB.: To all you new folks out there, remember to check out those bands that started death metal, cause they got something most bands just don't have today... So find those first albums by bands like: Death, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Autopsy, Obituary, Dismember, Immolation, Pestilence, Bolt Thrower, Carcass, Grave, Morgoth, Cannibal Corpse, Gorguts, Ripping Corpse, Suffocation, Incantation and so on... that shit just sounded evil and wild... not triggered and clean.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Exmortem