Nuclear Blast Records is proud to announce the mighty return of Norwegian black metal legends Immortal to U.S. shores for the following two exclusive concert appearances:

July 13th, 2007 - Ner York, New York at B.B. King's
July 15th, 2007 - Los Angeles, California at The Avalon

Tickets will go on sale October 13th, 2006 at 12:00 noon.

After 13 successful years as one of the pioneers of black metal, Immortal disbanded in 2003 with a legacy of seven full length albums, including the 2002 milestone, Sons Of Northern Darkness. After a long hiatus, the band decided to enter the live battlefield again.

Come 2007, the world will experience a ferocious new Immortal line-up, featuring Abbath, Horgh, and new bass player Apollyon from Aura Noir. Among the audiences who will witness Immortal's resurrection will be those attending Germany's Wacken Open Air 2007, where the band will headline.

Immortal Line-Up:
Abbath - Vocals, Guitar
Horgh - Drums
Apollyn - Bass

Source:	thegauntlet.com
Band profile:	Immortal

Dutch band Textures have posted a video of 'The Making Of Drawing Circles', their latest album, online at their MySpace profile. Click here to watch it.

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Textures

Herman Li from DragonForce checks in for some good and bad news:

'Right! Some of us came back home for two weeks off, a few stayed in Australia for a bit of a holiday. What an amazing first N. American tour weve had! A sold out headlining tour, finally got to meet our fans in the US & Canada and we got to meet loads of cool people!

What more could we have asked for? There were more sold out shows when we arrived in Australia! We would like to thank our fans that have been waiting for a long time, and new fans whove just discovered us for coming out in numbers to our shows. Thanks to our guests on the tour or should we say friends, from the bands Protest the Hero, Sanctity and Black Majesty. These guys kicked serious ass, so check them out!

So, the news has been out about DragonForce playing the main stage on Ozzfest. We are really excited to be touring the US again and be given the opportunity to play in front of our die-hard fans and showcase our skills to a new audience. Despite all the rumours people have read on the internet, we never received an offer to play Gigantour.

Now here comes the bad news. We had to cancel three European festivals that weve been so looking forward to playing. To the fans in the Netherlands, Finland and Spain, sorry but well make it up to you. The World Tour will continue to roll on so see you all soon !

- Herman Li, DragonForce'

Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	DragonForce

An excited Michael Amott released yesterday an update on the upcoming DVD on the official Arch Enemy website:

"Hello dear Arch Enemies!

About time for an update here at archenemy.net - don't you think!?

Ok, so what's happened 'round here? Well, we've actually been keeping busy and focused during our time home since the holidays. A lot of effort has gone into working on the first ever Arch Enemy DVD, 'LIVE APOCALYPSE' which is now very near completion. The DVD is shaping up to be an ultra cool 2-disc affair and I honestly couldn't be happier with it. The main show is from the Forum in London, U.K (December '04) and we also have footage from Manchester, U.K in December '05 (there'll be 3 songs included from that). It goes without saying that there's tons of extras/special features - as there should be! The artwork was done by Niklas Sundin of Cabin Fever Media. We'll be posting the cover ASAP? Paul Smith - who's been editing all the concert footage has done a superb job, it looks stunning. I spent a couple of days in London recently at his studio and that was a blast?had a lot of fun annoying him! Andy Sneap's audio mix (5.1 and stereo) is HEAVY?it almost blew my speakers out. Andy really captured the live feel and power of the show, it's like you are right there in the audience! Brilliant. Rickard Bengtsson did a killer job on the stereo mixes from Manchester too...it all sounds mint! This DVD crushes some of my fave metal DVD's in my collection - and I have a sick collection? Once again, I am happy that we work with the best - they make us look and sound great! There will soon be more detailed information (including release dates!) on the 'LIVE APOCALYPSE' DVD here. Also some cool trailers?so stay tuned.

However, there's a lot of life left in our current album 'Doomsday Machine' - the sales are healthy and so is the band! We ended last year very tired but happy. Now the batteries are recharged, we are raring to get out there again. We will be touring a lot more this year?

We are shooting a new video in about a week with Gothenburg director Roger Johansson (The Haunted, Dark Tranquillity, Hammerfall, etc). It's for the song 'My Apocalypse'. That should be another fun day?we'll let you know how that all goes?

Oh yeah - I was voted number 1 guitar player by the readers of the Greek Metal Hammer - Thank you so much for that! Arch Enemy really needs to play Greece on the 'Doomsday' tour!

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Source:	archenemy.net
Band profile:	Arch Enemy

Vader has officially parted ways with Doc after a cooperation of 17 years. The whole band made the decision and agreed with Doc that he can't be with the band anymore. The following statement was made by the band's leader Peter:

"We have been building "the Vader's Empire" together since '88... The success of our music was no doubt the success of Doc himself. Not just a talent is but the main point of being a part of a BAND, not only musical abilities but - first of all - devotion, utterance.... We had already such a problems before (Shambo,Simon..). Doc pretty hard tried to "fight" against his weaknesses, which were troubles for all of us. Finaly He had not prevail over that battle... All in all He attempted. Vader today is not just a friendship anymore - it's our life with armies of man involved in music, releases and - first of all - Fans waiting for shows or new albums... This is a high responsibility, not too many know about. If a person, even the most talented one, cannot stand it - has to leave... That was Doc's decission as well. "But the world keeps turnin'..." and the same is with Vader. We were and we will be!!! For Doc, his girlfriend and newborn son we all wish good luck and wanna thank Him for all those great years, in which we were touring across the world!!!"

This means that Daray is from now on the new drummer of the band. Though he is not really brand new, Daray has already been playing with the band for a year and recorded the latest album "The Beast".

Source:	vader.pl
Band profile:	Vader

The official website of Cannibal Corpse tells us the following regarding the second guitarplayer:

"We'd like announce that Rob Barrett, who as you all know played guitar with Cannibal Corpse from 1993 to 1997 and appeared on "the Bleeding" and "Vile" albums, will be rejoining the band for our performance at the Northwest Death Fest in Seattle on April 3rd.

Whether or not Rob will be staying with the band permanently after that show is still not certain, but so far we're very happy to have Rob back in the fold. We'll post an update when we know for sure if Rob is permanently rejoining or not.

We also would like to say thank you to Jeremy Turner for doing an amazing job playing guitar with us on "The Wretched Spawn" tour in 2004. Jeremy really helped us out in a tight spot, and we wish him the best in his future musical endeavors".

Source:	cannibalcorpse.net
Band profile:	Cannibal Corpse

Since Joost Van Den Broek (keyboard) and Andre Vuurboom (vocals) left Sun Caged earlier this year, Sun Caged is now back and complete. Joost Van Den Broek was replaced by Rene Kroon in July 2004 and Andre Vuurboom was just replaced by Paul Adrian Villarreal. Paul is currently still living in the USA, but he will relocate to Europe before the new year starts. The band is working on a new album which will be recorded at the end of 2005.

Source:	suncaged.com
Band profile:	Sun Caged

Tiamat's upcoming live appearance in Krakow, Poland on January 13, 2005 will be filmed for an upcoming DVD.

Tiamat will be joined by Theatre Of Tragedy, Pain and Sirenia for a two-week European tour, starting in late December.

Tiamat's Johan Edlund had the following to say about the upcoming trek:"I'm sorry that we didn't tour earlier to the release of the 'Prey' album last year. But I would like to thank everybody who showed up at the summer festivals we did. Finally we are going on tour with Theatre Of Tragedy, Pain and Sirenia. All bands are good friends of us, so feel welcome to join our family. You can expect a fine selection of old and new songs and even some tracks we never played live before."

Check Tiamat's official site: http://www.churchoftiamat.com

Band profile:

Tiamat

Jeff Waters has announced on the official Annihilator site that they are planning on releasing a DVD called Ten Years In Hell. It will feature appearances of many former members like Mike Mangini, Coburn Phar, Neil Goldberg and many others. It will probably also feature some live footage of The Dynamo Open Air Festival in Holland.

If your interested check the official site for more info: http://www.annihilatormetal.com

Band profile:

Annihilator

Nocturnal Rites drummer Owe Lingfall has had a serious accident a couple of days ago, which almost cost him greatly, namely an eye. Today he will have surgery.

According to the other members of the band Owe is a fighter, so they have full confindece that he will recover really fast.

Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Nocturnal Rites

According to RollingStone.com, Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo is in the studio with DJ Spooky recording under the name Drums Of Death. Meat Beat Manifesto's Jack Dangers is producing the project, due early next year, and guitarist Vernon Reid (Living Colour) will guest. No further information is currently available.

Band profile:

Slayer

The Swedish power metal band Falconer have found a new guitarplayer after finding the new bassplayer Magnus Lindhardt. The mans name is Jimmy Hedlund.

---------------
Diary of the Falconer site:

"On the 18:th and 19:th of September we held an audition
for the few guitarists we had chosen out from those who had
applied for the job.
We played one song from every album.

On the evening the 18:th we went to see Kristoffer
perform with one of his coverbands "Copycats" for a full house.
It can´t be only work. Name a rehearsal weekend with Falconer
where everyone is feeling OK on the Sunday. Ha ha!!
We never learn!

When we tested the last guitarist he played the songs exactly as I did.
Every boing, pling and shugga-shugga was there.
But we wanted a good solo guitarist and when he started to do his
solos the rest of the band got lost leaving Jimmy to be the only
one playing correctly.
Hmmm, ehrr well.
It really just took only about 20 seconds into the first song and
I watched Kristoffer's face: yup it was a fact,
Jimmy Hedlund was the guy."

Stefan, 21/9-04
---------------

They now have a full band to rehearse the new upcoming album, and also to play some older material with Jimmy. The title of the next album will be "GRIME VS. GRANDEUR" wich will contain no guest appearances.

See more on: http://www.falconermusic.com/

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Band profile:

Falconer

Founded back in 1983, the German oldschool thrash metal band Necronomicon has released an album after 9 years that will take you right back to the 80s. The album called Construction of Evil is nothing real innovative, but who cares, it's thrash. The old-school thrash fanatics will be very well pleased with this release.

Tracklist:
1. Stormbringer
2. Fiction
3. Hard pain
4. From hell
5. Alight
6. Paralizer
7. Bone daddy
8. Hills of dead
9. Fireball
10. Terrorist attack
11. Insanity
12. Possessed again
13. Hard pain (livetrack)
14. Insanity (livetrack)
15. Terrorist attack (videotrack)

Line-up:
- Freddy-guitars,vocals
- Axel-drums
- Mac-bass, backing vocals
- Jogi-guitars, backing vocals

Links:
http://www.necronomicon-online.de
http://www.remedyrecords.de

Band profile:

Necronomicon

Bassist James MacDonough recently spoke to the Iced Earth fan site http://www.iced-realm.de/ about his departure from Iced Earth and his new gig as the bassist for Megadeth. Several extractions from the interview follow:

Iced-Realm.de: How did you get the gig with Megadeth?

James MacDonough: "I knew the album was recorded at the beginning of the year and the guy that did the bass tracks was a session player named Jimmy Sloas, I didn't know if he was going to do the tour or not and e-mailed Dave (Mustaine, Megadeth mainman) about the position. I got a response a couple of days later that started the communication going. He told me this could be a very good thing and would keep me on a short list. Dave McRobb, Megadeth's webmaster got the ball rolling and was feeling people out for both the guitarist and the bassist position. The next thing I knew I was on a conference call with Dave and Dave, he told what he planned and what he expected of the person that would fill those shoes. I quickly knew that I had formed two very good friendships and the ball kept rolling. I videotaped myself playing a couple of Megadeth tunes and within a couple of days got a call from Dave Mustaine saying that he wanted me for the position."

Iced-Realm.de: Were there any auditions? If so, how did they go down?

James MacDonough: "The audition was not only about being able to play the tunes but had alot to do with personality and chemistry with each other, and of course enthusiasm and sincerity."

Iced-Realm.de: Have there already been any rehearsals with Megadeth?

James MacDonough: "Not as of yet, I'll be going out to work with (Megadeth drummer) Nick Menza for a week then going to full rehearsals, the tour will start on October 26'th in San Diego."

Iced-Realm.de: How is working with Dave? He's known to have quite some ego, as does Jon (Schaffer, Iced Earth mainman). Do they have anything in common/what are the differences?

James MacDonough: "Dave has made me feel like a band member already, he's shown me a lot of personal and professional respect. I haven't experienced any ego whatsoever as many perceive from him. Dave's very straightforward, speaks his mind, knows what he wants, and expects the best that you can give, and sometimes that's misconstrued as arrogance. I call it professionalism. Sure, there's opinionated people out there , but when you ask for the opinion, well, you're going to get it. If you want to know the difference between the two, it's like apples and oranges, two totally different people. Both are professional but have different ways of dealing with people and friends. I have posted something on Megadeth.com. I have a forum there called 'The Deep End' that might answer additional questions on some of these topics."

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Band profile:

Megadeth

Swedish death metallers Unleashed will be touring through Europe, starting at November the 19th in France. The two-week trek is expected to conclude in early December. Support bands for the tour have yet to be announced.

Band profile:

Unleashed