Fan-filmed video footage of the reactivated California death metal pioneers POSSESSED performing the song "Swing Of The Axe" on June 17, 2011 at Hellfest in Clisson, France can be seen below.

POSSESSED 2011 is:

* Jeff Becerra - Vocals
* Emilio Marquez (SADISTIC INTENT) - Drums
* Tony Campos (STATIC-X, PRONG, ASESINO) - Bass
* Kelly Mclauchlin (DIABOLIC, UNHOLY GHOST, PESSIMIST) - Guitar
* Daniel Gonzalez (NAILSHITTER, OCCISAS) - Guitar

The all new Diary Of Dreams album "Ego:X" will be released in no less than 4 different formats on August 26, namely the 17-track CD Version in 3 different editions with extra bonus material as well as a double-vinyl edition.

Here are the specs on the different editions:
"Ego:X" [Super-Deluxe] BOX: The Super Deluxe limited edition BOX-SET comes in a 7"-sized Package and should include (to be confirmed): an oversized 60 pages booklet, the double-CD version of Ego:X, an exclusive 7" Vinyl.
Ego:X [Limited]2LP
Ego:X [Limited] digi2CD: Limited edition in digipak, including 17 Tracks (of which 3 not included on the 'regular' album) on CD1 and a special 4-tracks bonus-MCD with additional exclusive material, namely the tracks "The Return", "Push me" (X-Version), "Undividable" (E-Mix) and "Undividable" (Alternative-Mix).
Ego:X [Regular] CD

The West Midlands of England, which has been the global home to bands such as BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN and NAPALM DEATH, is celebrating its heavy rock heritage through a new project called "Home Of Metal".

"Home Of Metal - Celebrating Music From Birmingham And The Black Country" is a one-of-a-kind exhibit celebrating 40 years of heavy metal and its unique birthplace. The exhibition runs until September 25 at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in Birmingham, England.

"Since we were so-called inventors of this music, and coming from Birmingham and all the surrounding things that are going on, it's really great for Birmingham and it's really great for us all," BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi — who has been involved with the project — tells the BBC in a new podcast which can be streamed below.

He added, "I wasn't familiar with [the term 'heavy metal'] for quite a few years. I mean, I always looked at what we did as heavy rock. And when that term was first mentioned to me… Somebody said, 'Oh, you play heavy metal.' And I said, 'What? What's that?' And this was a journalist from a well-known magazine. He said, 'Well, that's what you play — it's heavy metal.' And I'd been in America for quite awhile, so when I came back and I heard this term, I'd never heard it. And, of course, ever since that, that's been non-stop. I still think we're heavy rock, but you are put into a bag, and I'm quite proud of it now."

Over the past four years, "Home Of Metal" has scoured the U.K. and beyond for relics, artefacts, memorabilia and interesting stories. The show will offer an insight into the region's industrial history, the early blues-rocks sound, the changing music industry, DIY politics and the global impact of the sound as well as a chance to hear stories from both the fans and the artists.

EMPIRE DROWNS, is a new Danish metal/rock group with ex-members from WITHERING SURFACE, AURORA and DECORATE.DECORATE.

The band recently recorded three songs, 'Crawl', 'Abundance' and 'Sharpen My Teeth' and made them available for free on their Facebook page.

According to a press release, "embracing an addictive pop sensibility and crowned by roaring, yet always melodic vocals, Empire Drowns delivers its own brand of unique, darkly shaded rock with an unmistakable metal edge. Fuelled by equal amounts of desperation and hope, Empire Drowns is a musical construction of almost gothic proportions."

Hello, A press release from Hevein.

SOURCE: www.hevein.com

HEVEIN: ‘NOR’ digital single, video released

Finnish/Australian metal orchestra Hevein have released the 1st single “Nor” off their sophomore album “Gentle Anarchy”.

Hevein featuring cellist Max Lilja (ex-Apocalyptica,Tarja Turunen) have released the song with an accompaning video exclusively online.
“Gentle Anarchy” was recorded at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki, Finland with producers Nino Laurenne (Thunderstone), Joel Attila Peltonen,Janne Joutsenniemi and Max Lilja and mixing was handled by Canadian Shaun Thingvold (Devin Townsend, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory).

Over 2 years in the making and filmed in 5 countries the Nor music video is groundbreaking and breathtaking. It was directed and edited by guitarist Leif Hedström and photographer Tuukka Peltonen.
Tired of music videos being the same old cheesy crap you see over and over and over again they created something never seen before in a music video.

When asked to describe the video Leif said…

“ It’s like a BBC nature documentry edited to the rhythm of the song. It’s kind of like the movie Baraka but with heavy music. No actors, no sets, no band, no naked chicks, no fake crap… just real life.”

Actor Johnny Depp joined Alice Cooper on stage earlier tonight (Sunday, June 26) at London, England's legendary 100 Club. Depp and Cooper performed the shock rocker's classics "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out". Check out photos at this location (scroll down).

Prior to the concert, Cooper stated, "It's been a while since we played such an intimate venue, but strip away the theatrics and we are a pedal-to-the-metal rock band, born in clubs like the 100 Club. We play every show like that anyway and it will be fantastic to reconnect in that atmosphere. This show comes with a health warning — 'We don't do acoustic, this will be loud."

GREAT WHITE are currently on the road with singer Terry Ilous (XYZ) who has been temporarily replacing frontman Jack Russell who was ordered to take a year off from touring while recovering from a perforated bowel.

“We had a hiccup with Jack, but he’s bound and determined to be back,"guitarist Michael Lardie tells Kristin Froneman from BCLocalNews.com. "I think it’s the Irish in him, but we want him to be 100 per cent well before he comes back. He has given his support to Terry and us to do this for a while without him, but he wants to come back... He’s been through a lot. It’ll be a great rock ‘n’ roll story when he does come back.”

Next on the radar for Big White when their front-man does return is to record a live album.

Mainman Ron Vento from Maryland-based death/black metallers AURORA BOREALIS has issued the following update:

"I have decided that I want to make our entire discography available to everyone for free. There are tons of people out there can simply cannot afford to buy CDs in these tough times. Of course we will still continue to sell hard copies of the CDs that are still available to those people who collect CDs, or want the hard copies.

I made this decision after the success we had from offering the new Timeline: The Beginning And End Of Everything CD as a free download. The response was overwhelming from people who appreciated the gesture.

We hope our fans enjoy this. We know some of our first few albums are very hard to find and are pretty expensive. There are still people out there that do not feel right stealing or downloading an album illegally so we want to make it easy for them without breaking the law.

The free downloads section will also include a zip file (Covering The Skies) of every cover song we were involved in or recorded. This is Not for sale anywhere, nor will it be ever. Some of the covers sound really bad because they are so old and some sound great. Either way they are fun to listen to and we have had many people asking about them.

The downloads can be found here

Some of the clips of the making of the new CD can still be found below."

Fan-filmed video footage of JUDAS PRIEST's June 23, 2011 performance at the Sonisphere festival in Basel, Switzerland can be seen below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Rapid Fire
02. Metal Gods
03. Heading Out to the Highway
04. Judas Rising
05. Starbreaker
06. Victim of Changes
07. Never Satisfied
08. Diamonds & Rust (JOAN BAEZ cover)
09. Dawn of Creation
10. Prophecy
11. Night Crawler
12. Turbo Lover
13. Beyond the Realms of Death
14. The Sentinel
15. Blood Red Skies
16. The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown) (FLEETWOOD MAC cover)
17. Breaking the Law
18. Painkiller

Encore:

19. The Hellion (taped intro) / Electric Eye

Encore 2:

20. Hell Bent for Leather
21. You've Got Another Thing Comin' (with Richie Faulkner guitar solo)

Encore 3:

22. Living After Midnight

Veteran progressive metallers ELDRITCH have inked a deal with Scarlet Records for the release of their eight studio album, "Gaia's Legacy", a concept effort dealing with global warming based on Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". Due in late September, the CD will see ELDRITCH going back to its technical progressive roots, with lots of influences raging from thrash to AOR and a modern approach still in the band's distinctive style. Frontman Terence Holler wrote all the lyrics after a deep search of information on every kind of source for the last three years.

"Gaia's Legacy" was produced by Marco Ribecai and Eugenio Simone at Syncropain Products Studio in Pisa, Italy, and mastered by Göran Finnberg (OPETH, IN FLAMES, EVERGREY, DARK TRANQUILLITY) in Sweden. FIREWIND's Bob Katsionis, a longtime fan of the band, is credited as special guest keyboardist on the song "Like A Child".

ADRENALINE MOB — the new band featuring former DREAM THEATER/AVENGED SEVENFOLD drummer Mike Portnoy, SYMPHONY X frontman Russell Allen, guitar virtuoso Mike Orlando (SONIC STOMP), bassist Paul DiLeo and STUCK MOJO/FOZZY axeman Rich Ward — recently recorded a cover version of the BLACK SABBATH classic "The Mob Rules" for inclusion on the group's forthcoming debut album, to be released before the end of the year through an as-yet-undetermined record label. The song was premiered in its entirety on this past Friday night's (June 24) edition of Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM, which featured the members of ADRENALINE MOB as special guests.

A radio-quality rip of ADRENALINE MOB's version of "The Mob Rules" can be streamed in the YouTube clip below.

EVANESCENCE is currently recording its self-titled third album at a Nashville studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz (RUSH, FOO FIGHTERS, VELVET REVOLVER, DEATH ANGEL, TRIVIUM) for a tentative October 4 release via Wind-up Records.

In a brand new interview with U.K.'s Kerrang! magazine, EVANESCENCE vocalist Amy Lee was asked how the material for the new CD came together. "It was a completely different way of doing things for us, but it was exactly what we needed," she said. "As we started to hear the body of work back in the studio, it's become really clear to me that this is a band record. I feel more connected and in sync with my band than I ever have before. Everyone has been involved with the process from the ground up and that's a first for us. This time we all got in a room together to make something, which was scary and different but it's been about letting go of control and being more collaborative. It's paid off in a way I never would have expected. The lineup we have now is really strong and I'm proud to have these guys by me."

Regarding how this new EVANESCENCE sounds, Lee said, "Looser. This album is not so glossy or tight. It's more instinctive. It's big on groove and there's some real musicianship that we're really proud of. Everyone knows our sound but that's just a foundation and we've danced on top of that! It's still very heavy and dark but we're having fun with it. Musically I don't feel trapped. I'm a lot more secure than I used to be. I used to have a lot of silly, self-imposed rules but we're breaking them all on this album. By loosening up, it feels like it's going to a higher place."

On the topic of her lyrical inspirations this time around, Amy said, "It's about life. I'm in a healthier place than I was before, when I was writing some heavy-hearted songs. But that doesn't mean the music sounds happy. I can pull from all sorts of sources and look at different things with a new perspective. The music is about me [and] my relationships. The music and the lyrics have gotten more aggressive than they ever were before too; that's one of the things making this album great."

Vocalist Andy Biersack of Los Angeles theatrical rockers BLACK VEIL BRIDES spoke to AltPress.com about the incident last Saturday (June 18) when he shattered three ribs while attempting to jump from one pillar to another during the band's album release-show at the Hollywood & Highland Center Hot Topic in California. (See video footage below)

When asked what he was trying to do, Andy said, "Really, I was trying to fly — and I've clearly not perfected that yet. No, I wish I had some great story for why I was doing what I was, but I was doing my usual thing where I climb up and then jump back onstage, which usually ends badly — though not this badly. The thing was, I was wearing cowboy boots on a slick, hard, marble surface, which I'd never jumped from before. I started to slip a bit while I was up there, and I sort of sat down thinking that I could push with my arms, and land on the adjacent pillar — and everything sort of worked according to plan, except for the fact my legs fell immediately and just slammed my ribs into the pillar."

Regarding his diagnosis, Andy said, "I've currently got three shattered ribs, most of which are sort of like bone shrapnel in my back area. I'm pretty heavily medicated right now, and I can't really feel my extremities, because if I move too often I run the risk of those pieces of bone shifting and stabbing me, and sort of causing internal bleeding — and there's also one very near my lung, that could potentially collapse it. I have to wait for these bones to fuse before I can really move too often. But this is a double-edged sword, because if I don't move often enough, the excess bone will kind of sit there and cause blood clots inside me, so I have to at least get up and try to walk several times a day."

Robert Plant's journey through the territories that have most acutely informed and inspired his music is perhaps one of the most multi-faceted of any artist from his generation. In a remarkable career that has spanned five decades, Plant has travelled from gold-maned god of hard rock to balladeering country troubadour, a process of reinvention guided by an ever-expanding musical palette and tireless searches through global song. His fantastic voyage has essayed the plantations of Mississippi, the deserts and townships of Africa and the settlements of the Appalachians.

Due on August 23, "Robert Plant's Blue Note" follows Robert's incredible and ongoing tour of musical styles and acts as travelogue in its unique approach to documenting and reviewing a career that has been built on endless fascination, consistent experimentation and a unique talent that makes the incorporation of his discoveries into a popular contemporary form seem almost effortless.

"Robert Plant's Blue Note" (order link) features rare footage, performance archive, recorded interviews, contributions from his closest collaborators, expert critique from the finest music writers, plus location film, news reports seldom seen photographs and a host of other features

British progressive metal act BEECHER has announced that it will be playing no further shows together and there will be no new material; the band is once again calling it a day.

BEECHER was signed to Earache Records, having released two albums and toured extensively before splitting up in 2005. They reformed to play three shows earlier this year, but have so far remained non-committal as to what the future may hold for them.

Commented frontman Ed Godby: "When we knocked it on the head in 2005, our personal lives were in various states of disarray and we had no inclination to continue with things. Several years on, lives sorted out a bit and the urge to pick up where we left off was strong, so we planned a few shows to see how we felt about the whole thing.

"The shows were fantastic, especially London and our hometown show in Manchester, but instead of feeling like a new beginning, it felt like an appropriate full stop to all things BEECHER."

Ed has a new band called CASTLES, which will be recording its debut album with Chris Fielding at Foel Studio, Wales this summer. Dave Hopkinson (bass), Mark Lyons (guitar) and Daniel Jones (drums) are in the early stages of a new band together, with Jones also playing in DAY FOR AIRSTRIKES. Dan Shaw (guitar) currently plays in THE ERGON CAROUSEL and PINE BARRENS.

The song "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" from IRON MAIDEN's fifth studio album, "Powerslave" (which came out in 1984), is being used in a two-minute animation film as part of Why Music Matters, a multimedia campaign designed to stress the importance of paying for music instead of stealing it. Check it below.

Commented the band: "A while back EMI Records approached us regarding the very worthy sounding Why Music Matters campaign — an initiative to try and bring awareness to the value of music. The short animation film that they commissioned with our approval has now been released."

The Why Music Matters campaign, which involves major CD, digital, and mobile retailers, as well as the major record labels, identifies all the outlets where consumers can legally purchase music and also tells the stories of iconic musicians whose work continues to resonate and influence music being made today.

Why Music Matters has reportedly received significant funding from the British Phonographic Industry and claims to be more than just an anti-piracy campaign. Its literature states: "There is an ethical choice when it comes to consuming music and this campaign serves to educate people to these choices. If you want to consume music for free, there are legitimate ways this can be done."