NoiseArt Records - a subdivision of Rock The Nation - are proud and extremely enthusiastic to welcome Thaurorod on the roster.

Commented managing director Stefan Hattinger: "A group of great persons, who understands to write outstanding songs and know how to play their instruments. Great melodic vocals from Markku Kuikka and an incredible guitar work performed by guitar hero Emil Phojalainen are the ingredients which stick out. Everybody who loves Dream Theater, Blind Guardian or Wintersun should check out this great band."

With Thaurorod NoiseArt Records signs, after Swedish heavy metal sensation Steelwing and German viking metalheads Varg their third artist.

Thaurorod's so far unnamed debut album will be released later this year. Meanwhile check out the band's MySpace page where you can listen to a pre-mastered version of the song "Warrior's Heart".

Bad English]

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Source:

blogs.myspace.com

French thrashers Lyzanxia have posted a short teaser to their upcoming album Locust. The album will hit the streets on May 31st 2010 through XIII Bis Records - Sony Music distribution. Locust was recorded and produced by David and Franck Potvin between the Déclanché Studio (Switzerland) and the Dome Studio (France).


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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Lyzanxia

"Great Are The Eyed" the first official video from Against The Plagues can be viewed below.

The clip was filmed in Miami with directors, Eduardo and Gregg Alvarez from Elephas Production. The song comes off the band's new album Decoding the Mainframe released in Europe on March 31st via Dutch label Vic Records. The album was mastered by Dan Swanö (Edge Of Sanity, Aeon, Dissection, Katatonia, Marduk).

Commented the band about the new video: "This is our first official video clip. It was filmed during the winter time in the Miami area. We chose the song "Great Are The Eyed" because we feel that it best represents the essence of our music (extreme, melodic, speedy, powerful riffs, etc.) During the filming, we chose 3 different locations and spent a few days to create this video; this included a great deal of involvement coming from Elephas Production directors Eduardo and Gregg and their their awesome crew. Our goal was to give the listeners bit more than what they have been used to as far as Against the Plagues goes. The video presents the band with our strongest line-up. But over all, we thought it would be fun to create simple and solid metal video that would acompany our album Decoding the Mainframe."


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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Against The Plagues

Mors Principium Est vocalist Ville Viljanen has posted the following blog on the band's MySpace page:

"Yeah yeah, it's been a while since last time updated, but there hasn't been anything to update. Anyway, we are writing new material. Have been writing for a long time already, but it's not so easy to get something ready. Couple of songs are kinda ready music wise, but no vocal parts yet.

And this is especially for those people who are asking are we still alive or not and when is our next album coming out. Well, I don't want to sound rude, but if a band still has gigs to play, doesn't that mean that the band is alive??

And about the album. I will not promise anything, because I can't. I really don't know when do we have enough songs ready and also once we have about 4-5 songs ready, then we will start to negotiate with various record labels and that also may take a while. Sooo, IF we are really lucky, we could have a new album out at the end of the year 2010, but I personally think, that 2011 sounds more realistic. But like I said, I can not promise anything. We'll just have to wait and see how things go."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Mors Principium Est

Guitarist Martin Haglund has decided to leave Astral Doors. Martin explains:

"This decision has not been easy to make, but its needed. I have reached a point where I feel I have to focus more on my kids and support them in their hobbies and interests, by doing that I'm not able to give Astral Doors 100%. I don´t want to be the one that´s holding the band back so I let go. I will continue playing, writing and record music but on a more suitable level. I´ll keep the metal flowing that´s for sure.

Being a member of Astral Doors has given me experiences and memories that I'll bring to the grave. I am truly proud of my time in Astral Doors and what we have accomplished and brought to the hard-rock scene. Thanks and hugs to all of you! Now Astral Doors will reload and hit you harder then ever."

Nils Patrik Johansson, singer of Astral Doors comments: "Martin is a great guy and we wish him all the best. He did a great job with the mixing of our previous album that's for sure. Hope the job he did with that album will open a lot of doors for him as a producer."

Astral Doors will not bring in a new guitar player in the band to replace Martin; Joachim Nordlund (founding member of Astral Doors, together with Johan Lindstedt and Nils Patrik Johansson) will from now on handle all guitars himself.

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Astral Doors

Blackmore's Night guitar legend Ritchie Blackmore (ex-Deep Purple, ex-Rainbow) has issued the following short update:

"April 2010 finds us diligently working in the studio and going into final mix stage on the new Blackmore's Night CD. Candice Night and I and our minstrel band are looking forward to performing some of our new songs and your favorites from past albums in September."

September tour dates:

05 - Kloster Buch - Leising, Germany
08 - TBA - Prague, Czech Republic
10 - Prinzgegententheater - Munich, Germany
16 - Theatre des Westens - Berlin, Germany
18 - Rhein - Main Theater - Niedernhausen, Germany
23 - CCH Saal 2 - Hamburg, Germany
26 - Theater am Marientor - Duisburg, Germany

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Source:	blackmoresnight.com
Band profile:	Blackmore's Night

The Obsidian Conspiracy, the long-awaited new album from Nevermore, will be released in Europe on May 31 and in North America on June 8 via Century Media Records. Another teaser video has been revealed too - the previous one can be found here. Watch the clip below.

The Obsidian Conspiracy cover art] tracklist:

01. The Termination Proclamation
02. Your Poison Throne
03. Moonrise (Through Mirrors Of Death)
04. And The Maiden Spoke
05. Emptiness Unobstructed
06. The Blue Marble And The New Soul
07. Without Morals
08. The Day You Built The Wall
09. She Comes In Colors
10. The Obsidian Conspiracy


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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Nevermore

Swedish death metallers Aeon have revealed the upcoming album art and tracklisting for the new Album, Path Of Fire, scheduled for release on May 25 via Metal Blade. The album was mixed at Mana Studio in Saint Petersburg, FL - USA by Erik Rutan. An album trailer can be found below.

Guitarist Zeb Nilsson comments about the album: "We talked to Erik about this idea on the tour we did with Hate Eternal, and he really felt like doing it too, so here we are. Of course he did a great job, the guitars came out HUGE! And this production has more of a classical death metal feel to it, more organic and dynamic than most modern productions out there today. I couldn't be happier with the way it all came out."

Guitarist Daniel Dlimi, on the front art of Path Of Fire: "I created this symbol/badge that for me reflects life, death and the path you have chosen to live your life by. It's about whatever you want to chain yourself to 10 commandments or live free after your own conscience and will."

Path Of Fire cover art] tracklist:

01 Forgiveness Denied
02 Kill Them All
03 Inheritance
04 Abomination To God
05 Total Kristus Inversus
06 Of Fire
07 I Will Burn
08 Suffer The Soul
09 The Sacrament
10 Liar In The Name Of God
11 God Of War


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Source:	aeon666.com
Band profile:	Aeon

"Your Betrayal", Bullet For My Valentine's new video, has premiered and is now available below. The song is off the band's latest album Fever, scheduled to be released on April 26th. All album info can be found here.


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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Bullet For My Valentine

Finntroll proudly present their brand new video for the song "Under Bergets Rot" from their most recent album Nifelvind, which has topped several European charts in February 2010.

Guitarist Routa comments: "This video is definitely a very special video for us. We have been thinking of doing an animation video for years actually, but for some reason we never did it, until now. With the release of the Nifelvind album we were asked to do 2 video. Century Media gave us free hands to choose from which ever songs we wanted. The first video was made for "Solsagan" and was made by Finnish company Vasara Films. As we have always done our music videos by ourselves, as me being a writer and director with the full support of the rest of the band of course, it was very difficult to let someone else do it. Even though the basic concept came from the band, it still didn't feel right. After the "Solsagan" video we weren't 100% convinced about letting someone else do our videos. So we were thinking what to do with the next video...

We decided to do the second video for the song "Under Bergets Rot" and this one we were thinking about doing by ourselves as usual, just to get the right Finntroll-spirit into it. We got the idea of doing a video that's happening in this weird, out of this world jazz-club, where we would play as the house band. The story in the song is more or less about the song that this dude hears, and even though he hasn't heard the song before, he knows it and gets mesmerized by it. And while he's under the spell of this ancient song, he feels that only moments have passed, but then notices that years have gone by. So we wanted to take these ideas of time passing by and metamorphosis and add that to the video: this guy goes to this club, there's a weird band playing and he sees all kind of weird things and eventually ends up being one of them.

That's about it in a nutshell. We were supposed to do this like any normal video, with real actors and such, but we were about to go on the European tour. We realized that there's no chance we would have time to do this and there was no chance that I was going to edit it while on the road, haha. Then we thought that the only way we would get the video done is let someone else do it. We thought, "What the hell...this time let's do the animation one and let's go nuts with it." I called a few places in Helsinki that do animations and actually found out that one of our really old friends is doing animations nowadays. So we told her what we wanted and told her that the company she's working, Animaatiokopla, will have free reign with the video. We only hoped that they'll go over the top with it. Then we went on tour and after a month we got back and saw the final video and we were really satisfied with it. It has all the elements we wanted; weird things that go well with the music and even some gore. And most importantly, we finally got the animation video, haha. I wouldn't be surprised if we do another sometime in the future, but I can't promise anything yet."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Finntroll

Noisecreep are premiering the new Megadeth video for "The Right to Go Insane". Click here to check it out. Here's the story behind the video:

On May 17, 1995, a U.S. Army veteran and unemployed plumber in San Diego, Shawn Timothy Nelson, snapped and stole an M60 Patton tank from a nearby National Guard Armory. He drove down the highway, crushing cars, fire hydrants and an RV before he was stopped and killed by police.

The headline-grabbing story forms the basis of Megadeth's new video for "The Right to Go Insane", the second single from the band's acclaimed 2009 disc Endgame. In the clip, which surprisingly features no performance footage, frontman Dave Mustaine is filmed sneaking onto a military facility, stealing a tank and playing crash-up derby through the streets. Video footage from the cockpit shows him singing and laughing, while shots from a surveillance helicopter depict a missile gunsight tracking him as he pillages.

"If I am going to carjack something, I'm going to do it Mustaine-style and go over the top like my new M-60 Abram's tank with a sunroof," Mustaine joked to Noisecreep. In addition to the action shots, there are numerous flashbacks of Mustaine's character fighting with his wife, being served divorce papers and finding a note on his front door notifying him his home was in foreclosure, the dramatized factors that led to his breakdown.

"The Right to Go Insane" was shot in South El Monte, California and directed by Bill Fishman, who also shot Megadeth's "Head Crusher", the Grammy-nominated first single from Endgame.

"This video was a blast to film; Bill Fishman did a great job; even better in my honest opinion than our first video with him. But let me warn you, even though it looks like fun... don't try this at home."

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Source:	noisecreep.com
Band profile:	Megadeth

It is Sunday morning, there's a huge amount of dead serious news to be reported, so there's certainly no room for fooling around. Just like in the previous editions, this feature only takes care of severely important matters, being the high value metal videos - aka the ones that are not recorded in an abandoned factory/the frontman's backyard/high school parking lots. So sit up straight. Remove that chewing gum. No smiling allowed.

Greatest metal video of all time... for this week... is Red Fang - Prehistoric Dog.

Here's the breathtakingly simple formula for making the greatest metal video ever recorded: you need beer, medieval weaponry, vomit, blood, more beer, armored dudes destroying each other, RPG nerds, you really don't have enough beer yet, the clip should be full of awesome (despite the RPG nerds), there should be some metal in it too, beer cans, make that lots and lots of beer cans, a Chihuahua, and some dudes jamming in a kitchen... or something.

Red Fang's self-titled debut was released in March 2009 through Sargent House.

PS: my apologies to the guy hero who suggested this totally awesome video for not acknowledging his contribution - my mailbox was destroyed by a tsunami/my dog ate your letter/I (accidentally) deleted your PM to make more room for Viagra spam. Sorry brah

Thryce with your suggestions for next week's edition.]

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Norway's Aeternus posted the following brief update on their MySpace blog:

"Aeternus is working soon on their 6th song for their new album. During easter, two songs were more or less completed and the composing continues. Hopefully there will be a chance for the band to go to the studio after the summer."

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Aeternus

Original news, posted on 18.03.2010

Annihilator are due to release a new, self-titled studio album in Europe on May 17 via Earache Records, in Japan via Marquee and in Australia by Riot Entertainment. USA and Canadian dates coming soon.

Annihilator cover art] tracklist:

01. The Trend
02. Coward
03. Ambush
04. Betrayed
05. 25 Seconds
06. Nowhere To Go
07. The Other Side
08. Death In Your Eyes
09. Payback
10. Romeo Delight

UPDATE

"Coward", a new song from Canadian metallers Annihilator, is available for streaming at the Earache Records' MySpace page.

"Coward" comes off Annihilator's upcoming self-titled album, which is due to be released in Europe on May 17 via Earache Records.

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Source:	annihilatormetal.com
Band profile:	Annihilator

Israeli metallers Amaseffer have issued the following update on their official website:

"Hello holy friends,

Few months has passed since our last update for we took some time off in order to focus on the new album. We now want to update you with the latest developments at Amaseffer's camp.

First, we will now reveal the title for the second installment of our Exodus trilogy! Title for the new album is: When The Lions Leave Their Den.

We think that this title is best describing the events of our new album which will mainly deal with the actual Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. The trigger to use this title was actually that it's a part of the lyrics for the opening track, "Pillar Of Fire", written by our dear friend Yotam Avni. Yotam is writing all the lyrics for the new album and so far we think he's "cooking" a divine creation!

As stated before, Mats Leven, our lead singer, has already recorded vocal lines for a few songs and we expect him to finish the album by the end of May.

Now to the real fire: Basically all orchestrations are composed, arranged and recorded, now we just have to add them to the rest of the mix (once we'll finish it) and find the right balance for them so it will blend smoothly in the song structures.

We set a recording date for the 60 piece choir and the drums. Both will be recorded at Gal-Kol studios in Israel and we expect the recording sessions to stretch on a 4 days period in beginning of June. Guitars are mostly written and will be recorded at Amaseffer's studio in Jerusalem right after we finish recording the choir and drums. It will take a few days of guitar recordings and right after that, we will start mixing the album, also at Amaseffer's studio, then we will send it to Germany for final mastering process. If everything works out as we plan, we expect to have a finished album by July or early August at the latest.

The concept for the album art work is also in final stages of development and we are very very happy with it.

It is confirmed that Maya Avraham will sing on our new album as well. In our debut album, Slaves For Life, Maya sang on one track ("Zipporah") and we were truly amazed by her vocal abilities, so for the new album we have decided to give her bigger and more significant vocal parts. We will record Maya at Amaseffer's studio at the beginning of June. Two more very special guests will be revealed right before the album release date, so stay tuned!

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Source:	amaseffer.com
Band profile:	Amaseffer