On November 25th Armando Acosta, best known as the ex-drummer of Saint Vitus passed away.
More details will be enclosed once they are available.

The source is the official Saint Vitus Facebook page.

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Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Saint Vitus

After eight years and two well-received releases, it is with regret that Old Season announces Frank Brennan's departure from the band. They would like to thank Frank for his contribution to the music over the years and wish him all the very best in the future.

Source:

facebook.com

It's with heavy hearts that we announce that Jay-Jay Winter, bassist & singer with ASOMVEL has lost his life in a car accident. He was driving home Today on October 18th when en route he was forced off the road by another drivers incompetence. Jay later died in hospital from the injuries he sustained.

Jay was a great man, he was one of the most honest, forthright and brutally truthful people you could ever hope to meet. With his razor sharp wit and frank opinions, he was loved and respected by all of his peers in the UK Metal community because of his strength of character. He was generous and helpful to a fault with people who deserved it, and sometimes even with people who didn't deserve it. Such was his love of fair play and the underdog getting the upper hand.

He was more than just a bandmate, he was also a family member and a true friend. We are all stunned by this turn of events and hope that you will all understand why all our forthcoming gigs are now cancelled.

R.I.P. Jay Jay.

Lenny Robinson & Ian Wright (ASOMVEL, October 18th 2010).

"Jay Jay Winter - A REAL MAN, he played every English shithole under the sun and spoke the truth like we all should and nothing else. Let this be a lesson to us all. IF SOMETHING WAS SHIT HE SAID IT. 100% Respect to the man. Jay was like a big brother to me, he introduced me to the pleasure of cheap whiskey and a love for loose Women, How can anyone deny that to a man ? But he also cared for the underdog, he was a warm hearted bastard and would never see anyone on their arse?he looked after my goodself even when I was passed out in the piss filled toilets whilst wearing his own leather jacket back in Harrow 2008...

Turn it up LOUDER you daft twats??I'm playing some Venom and downing a bottle of Jameson's tonight for the man!"

Randy Reaper - THE LAMP OF THOTH

"Jay Jay Winter was the perfect sardonic counterpart to Lenny's playful enthusiasm. If he wanted to take the piss out of you and rip you a new one - he could do it with ease. His command of the well timed phrase and put down was legendary. I learned that to take him on in a piss-taking contest was like bringing a blunt and rusty pen-knife to a gun fight. I remember being quite wary of him at first - here was a guy you just would not mess with. But as I got to know him, I realised that he was also a true Yorkshire gentleman possessed with the unyielding commonsense and common courtesy of that race - he was a force of nature on and off the stage.

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Slayer's gig tonight (August 2nd) in Tilburg, The Netherlands, was cancelled shortly before Slayer was to take the stage. Apparently guitarist Kerry King was taken to hospital.

No further details are known, as of yet. We'll keep you posted on whether or not tomorrow's gig will still be on and what eactly happened to Kerry King.

UPDATE:

According to the venue site, Kerry King has been taken to the hospital due to dehydration caused by food poisoning earlier this week. The other Tilburg gig on Tuesday August 3rd will, for now, go on as planned.

UPDATE:

Kerry King has recovered enough for tonight's (August 3rd) gig to be on. Tickets to yesterday's cancelled gig will remain valid for a replacement gig in the near future, of which the date will still have to confirmed.

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Source:	013.nl
Band profile:	Slayer
Event:	Slayer: European Tour 2010

This ninth edition will feature Hooded Menace, Desire, Fall Of The Idols amongst others. As usual the festival will be a stage for new and emerging talent (locally bred) as well as for bigger established acts within the doom genre.

The festival will be held on November 6 and 7 and will once again host around fifteen bands. The first names that have been announced are Hooded Menace (Finland, first show in the BeNeLux), Desire (Portugal), Fall Of The Idols (Finland), Iron Hearse (England), and Evadne (Spain).
Former organiser Pim Blankenstein has been quoted saying: "Also for the upcoming edition of the world's longest running doom festival the first bands announced are finger licking good. Variation within the doom genre is enormous and, once again, we will try to feature as many subgenres as possible.
What about the debut on Duch soil of the Finnish Hooded Menace and the return of the Portuguese Desire, who already made a huge impression during the second edition in 2003?
During the first weekend of November Rotterdam will once again confirm its "name" Rotterdoom and tremble on its foundation due to all the heavy tunes.

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Event:

Dutch Doom Days IX

Official press release

It is with great pleasure that I welcome my former Gorefest buddy Frank Harthoorn to the triple axe live incarnation of The 11th Hour! He'll be sharing the stage with us at all upcoming gigs including the renowned Doom Shall Rise festival in Göppingen (9th of April). This means we're saying goodbye to Petra Guijt who will of course continue to perform with her bands Deadcell and Toxocara, we wish her all the best with her future musical endeavours!

Frank meanwhile has mastered the 6 chapters of doom that comprise The 11th Hour's debut album Burden Of Grief and adds considerable weight to the already massive live-sound. His dedication to delivering the Riff, the whole Riff, and nothing but the Riff is legendary (at least it is to me) and I look forward to exploring the road to musical misery with this new yet old companion.

The 11th Hour is:
Ed Warby - Guitar & Vocals
Pim Blankenstein - Vocals
Bram Bijlhout - Guitar
Frank Harthoorn - Guitar
Daniël Huijben - Bass
Dirk Bruinenberg - Drums

Upcoming shows:
Doom Shall Rise VII, Göppingen - 9-4-2010
Stonehenge Festival, Steenwijk - 31-7-2010
Springstof Festival, Kampen - 14-8-2010

More to follow!
Cheers,

Ed

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	The 11th Hour

Shattered Hope are really grateful to announce that they are supporting My Dying Bride for their show in Athens. The gig will take place at Gagarin 205, on January 31st.

The band comments: "A great experience is waiting for us as we'll share the stage with the godfathers of DOOM. See you there..."

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Source:	myspace.com
Event:	My Dying Bride & Shattered Hope

Shattered Hope are glad to announce the co-operation with Lugga Music Productions and Adrian De Buitléar.

Lugga Music Productions is well-known in the doom scene for its promo campaigns and tours. Bands like Saturnus, Mourning Beloveth, Mar De Grises, Officium Triste and many more have trusted and are members of the Lugga Music family.

The band comments: "Our booking agent, band & tour manager Adrian De Buitléar will be responsible for the promo campaign for our upcoming album Absence. Soon more details will follow about the album release date!"

Official Lugga Music Productions website and MySpace.

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Source:

myspace.com

The final line-up for Dutch Doom Days VIII 2009 has been announced.
The following 14 bands will perform on Saturday October 24 & Sunday October 25.
In addition the distro's Millennium Records & Grau will be present.

Satuday October 24
Lord Vicar (FI classic doom)
The Prophecy (UK doom/death)
Saturnalia Temple (SE 70's psychedelic doom)
Process Of Guilt (PT doom / death)
Unsilence (UK melodic classic doom)
My Lament (BE doom / death)
Tekhton (NL sludge)

Distro's: Millenium Records (http://www.millennium-records.nl) & Grau (http://www.grau.cd)

Sunday October 25
Count Raven (SE classic doom)
Ereb Altor (SE epic doom/viking)
Spiritus Mortis (FI classic doom)
The 11th Hour (NL classic epic doom)
Sardonis (BE sludge)
Möse (BE sludge)
Fatum Elisum (FR doom / death)

Distro's: Millenium Records (http://www.millennium-records.nl) & Grau (http://www.grau.cd)

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Source:	baroeg.nl
Event:	Dutch Doom Days 2009

The following six new names have been announced:

Fatum Elisum (FR doom / death)
Process Of Guilt (PT doom / death)
Unsilence (UK melodic classic doom)
Sardonis (BE sludge)
My Lament (BE doom / death)
Möse (BE sludge)

together with the five names which had already been announced:
Lord Vicar (FI classic doom)
The Prophecy (UK doom/death)
Ereb Altor (SE epic doom/viking)
Spiritus Mortis (FI classic doom)
The 11th Hour (NL classic epic doom)

making it a total of eleven bands up to now.

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Event:

Dutch Doom Days 2009

Dutch Doom Days have announced the first five names for this year's edition which will be held on October 24 and October 25.

Lord Vicar (FI classic doom)
The Prophecy (UK doom/death)
Ereb Altor (SE epic doom/viking)
Spiritus Mortis (FI classic doom)
The 11th Hour (NL classic epic doom)

Soon more names will be revealed.

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Savannah, GA's Baroness will head to Dallas, TX next week to begin work on a brand new full-length and follow-up to 2007's critically-acclaimed
Red Album.

Baroness will be working with the Grammy-nominated producer / engineer John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, The Polyphonic Spree, The Roots,
Buddy Miles, Black Mountain) on the band's second full-length. The still untitled album is expected to see a fall 2009 release date.

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Band profile:

Baroness

After Forever have posted the following statement:

"Dearest Fans,

After nearly 15 years and with heavy hearts, we have decided to call an end to a great and exciting time as After Forever. We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished, and especially of the road we took to get here. After Forever has never been a band that repeated itself; we always tried out new things, even though many of them were certainly done at a risk. We think that that has been one of the reasons we've always enjoyed enormous support from all our loyal fans.

The break we took in 2008 made us appreciate all the more what we'd experienced. Now more than ever, we can look back on so many fantastic moments, something we never would have expected to be part of when we started the band all those years ago.

However, that break also made us aware of the fact that we can only continue After Forever with the energy, the full 110%, that we have always put into it and we've noticed lately that there is something missing. We have always been musicians who create music with lots of passion, and during the break we built up our own lives again and have been musically active and experimenting in several genres.

Although After Forever is very special to us, we feel that we have reached the point where we need to explore the world of music in each of our own different ways. Thus, we've decided to quit while we're ahead. We are sincerely proud of every CD; each album represents a unique period, and all comes together in our last album "After Forever," which made all of our dreams possible. We hope After Forever will continue to be a source of inspiration for new bands and musicians alike so that our music can live on.

As band members, but also as friends, we've experienced so very much; highs and lows, good times and bad. We'll keep supporting each other in all of our various individual projects and continue inspiring one another in making music.

Our MySpace page will be used for updates on all of these projects and of course After Forever-related news, as well.

You can be sure that this is not an easy decision for any of us. We'd like to thank all of our fans for their support, also during the break.

We know that this will be a big disappointment to you, dear fans, and it makes it that much harder for us. You have always given us your all and it was our pledge, in turn, always to give at least as much back to you for as long as we exist. In this moment, that's unfortunately just not possible, so we'd rather leave you all the albums and gigs we achieved with maximum input. We'd also like to thank Nuclear Blast, TEG and MOJO for their patience and enthusiasm, the live crew, the fan club, the fan sites and everybody who's helped in every way possible.

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Source:	afterforever.com
Band profile:	After Forever

Sadly we have to announce, what most insiders and fans already know:
British Doom Legend Warning split up after 15 years of existence and two album masterpieces.

The only remaining original member and founder Patrick Walker has provided us with the following statement:

"The decision to discontinue Warning has been both a pain and a purgation to me. For the past two years or so, Warning has been a considerably important part of my life, what with travelling and playing shows, writing new music and a gradual but increasing interest in the band, largely helped by Cyclone Empire's rereleasing of both records and making them for the first time easily obtainable to people.

However, I started the band in 1994. I was a different person when I began playing with Warning; I had different musical objectives; different ideals; different influences and inspirations. Now in order to make music that retains some semblance of integrity and wholeness I realise I need to move on. This shouldn't be thought of as "the end" of something. I have, after all, been the sole remaining original member of the band in its most recent line-up for almost a year now; in this respect Warning is little more than a band name. So before I complete work on what will be the material for the next album, I need a new band; a new context within which to work.

I hope people continue their interest in my music, and all further information concerning it will be officially made known through Cyclone Empire with whom I am very happy to say I will continue to work as originally proposed, so please look no further than these pages for more news.

Many thanks,

Patrick Walker.

22nd January 2009"

We provide you with further news as we have them!

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Source:	cyclone-empire.com
Band profile:	Warning

The 11th Hour's mastermind is no other than jack-of-all-trades Ed Warby, who already carved his name into the history of Metal with Gorefest and Hail Of Bullets. With his new band, Warby takes a turn towards old-school Doom Metal. Slow motion grooves, viscious riffs, and a bleak atmosphere are at the heart of the music. The songs resonate with darkness and despair and grab the listener from the get-go. A full length release is tentatively scheduled for fall 2009.

"The 11th Hour is upon us, and it is with great pleasure that we announce our freshly forged bond with Napalm Records. It's an honor to be added to such a great and diverse artist roster and we feel it's the perfect home for our massive brand of doom metal! Now let's open those floodgates of doooooom…"

The 11th Hour are:

Ed Warby: Drums, Guitars, Bass, Vocals, Programming
Rogga Johansson (Ablaze My Sorrow, Paganizer) : Vocals, Additional Guitars

More info about the band and a promo song at http://www.myspace.com/11thhourdoom.

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Source:	napalmrecords.com
Band profile:	The 11th Hour