Finnish doom metallers SWALLOW THE SUN check in with the following update post-tour update:

"So, friends around the planet, it's time to summarize the New Moon tours of 2009 - 2010 and pick up the pieces of our gloomy and broken bones from countless stages, backstages, buses, hotels, bars, planes and police stations, giving huge thanks to all of you for making the New Moon tours the most successful tours so far for us! Thank you for coming to the shows, buying merchandise, believing in us and supporting the music!

Once again we toured more than ever before, and this time we brought the Finnish winter to 24 different countries, playing 146 shows in total after the album release. During the New Moon touring period we completed three European tours, two North American tours, played many summer festivals and also had the pleasure to play in Israel and Romania for the first time.

In 2010 we also made an endorsement deal with D'Addario strings, Planet Waves cables and Evans drum skins, and we are more than happy to be part of the D'Addario family from now on.

So this year, 2011, we are going to keep things a bit more quiet and start preparing for the next Swallow The Sun album, which will be released at the end of this year or in the beginning of 2012... yeah, if the world doesn't end! Ten new songs are already in the works, but we are not going to rush with recording, album release or new tours because our bodies, hair and especially livers just can't handle it yet, folks!!

We might do a few selected shows and festivals this year if it fits in with our plans, but otherwise this year is going to be a dark road of solitude towards new depths of gloom, beauty and despair – the sixth chapter of Swallow the Sun.

Long, dark winter wishes to everybody."

Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly recently conducted an interview with legendary guitarist Slash (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Entertainment Weekly: What's the timeline for making a decision on the new singer for VELVET REVOLVER?

Slash: There's a short list of people we're looking at right now but we haven't made any decisions…. A decision will be made one way or another I would imagine in the coming weeks.

Entertainment Weekly: How many people have you narrowed it down to?

Slash: There's a couple people and I can't tell you who they are but they're all good. Pretty much everybody has been really, really good. It's just trying to find the right fit and the right style, and somebody who just gets it.

Entertainment Weekly: Are there names we know?

Slash: There's one guy that's definitely pretty well-known.

Entertainment Weekly: Did you see that MusicRadar.com poll in which Axl was voted the greatest lead singer of all time?

Slash: I did. I thought that was actually pretty fucking cool.

Entertainment Weekly: You did?

Slash: Yeah. All things considered, we may have had our differences and this and that and the other, but I will never undermine the fact that I thought GUNS N' ROSES, when it was originally together, was one of the best rock bands, and Axl has always in my mind been one of the best frontmen/lyricists in rock and roll, period.

Entertainment Weekly: Would that have been your vote?

Slash: It might have been. I never stop to even think about it — there's him, Roger Daltrey, Steven Tyler, Robert Plant, Mick Jagger…. I'd probably say Mick Jagger, only because Mick has been doing it for so long and he's one of the most charismatic frontmen of all time. But if I had a Top 5, Axl would be in there. And John Lennon…

Bass player Markus Åkebo has left the Swedish death/black metal band ZONARIA.

Emil Nyström states about the departure: "We've had some great tours the last couple of years with Markus and we're going to miss him bad. But sometimes people need to move on and Markus needed a change in life. We wish him all the best for his future ventures. The departure will not affect our upcoming plans and tours. We've got a good friend of ours stepping in on our upcoming European tour with Nile, Meleches, Dew-Scented and Darkrise."

Zonaria's tour with NILE, MELECHESH, DEW-SCENTED and DARKRISE, dubbed Those Whom The Gods Detest - European Tour 2011, is scheduled to kick off on January 20 at Mega Club in Katowice, Poland. A list of the dates can be found on the band's MySpace page.

Zonaria's second full-length album, The Cancer Empire, was released in the US in January 2009 via Century Media Records. The CD was produced by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman and was mastered by Peter In De Betou at Tailor Maid.

Formed in 2002 by guitarist, main songwriter, and vocalist Simon Berglund along with axeman Emil Nyström (both were only 15 years old at that time), Zonaria outgrew its local underground status with the debut album Infamy And The Breed (Pivotal Recordings, 2007) and gained Europe-wide attention through tours with IMPALED NAZARENE, MARDUK, PAIN and VADER. With influences ranging from HYPOCRISY to DIMMU BORGIR to ARCH ENEMY, ZONARIA's misanthropic mix of brutal riffs, melodic harmonies, maniacal drumming, and ominous synth lines was well received within the metal community and the band succeeded in shaping its own, unique sound.

The first five ORANGE GOBLIN albums are to be re-released via Rise Above Records on Wednesday, January 26th.

All five albums have been re-mastered and will feature bonus-tracks, additional artwork and new sleeve notes. They will come in deluxe individual digi-packs or you can order the limited edition box-set which contains all five albums and an exclusive woven Orange Goblin patch.




The full tracklistings for the remastered reissues are as follows:

Frequencies From Planet Ten: 'The Astral Project (Class A)', 'Magic Carpet', 'Sarumans Wish', 'Song Of The Purple Mushroom Fish', 'Aquatic Fanatic', 'Lothlorian', 'Land Of Secret Dreams', 'Orange Goblin', 'Star Shaped Cloud (Bonus Tracks)', 'Sarumans Wish (Demo Version)', 'Aquatic Fanatic (Demo Version)', 'Black Shapes Of Doom (Trouble Cover)'.

Time Travelling Blues: 'Blue Snow', 'Solarisphere', 'Shine', 'The Man Who Invented Time', 'Diesel (Phunt)', 'Snail Hook', 'Nuclear Guru', 'Lunarville', 'Airlock 3', 'Time Travelling Blues (Bonus Tracks)', 'Nuclear Guru (Mans Ruin Version)', 'Blue Snow (Live At The BBC)', 'Hand Of Doom (Black Sabbath Cover)'.

The Big Black: 'Scorpionica', 'Quincy The Pigboy', 'Hot Magic, Red Planet', 'Cozmo Bozo', '298kg', 'Turbo Effalunt (Elephant)', 'King Of The Hornets', 'You'll Never Get To The Moon In That', 'Alcofuel', 'The Big Black (Bonus Tracks)', 'Quincy The Pigboy (Alternative Version)', 'Scorpionica (Live At The BBC)', 'Into The Void (Black Sabbath Cover)'.

Coup De Grace: 'Your World Will Hate This', 'Monkey Panic', 'Rage Of Angels', 'Made Of Rats', 'Whiskey Leech', 'Getting High On The Bad Times', 'Graviton', 'Red Web', 'Born With Big Hands', 'Jesus Beater', 'We Bite (Misfits Cover)', 'Stinkin' O' Gin (Bonus Tracks)', 'No Law (Exclusive Track - Originally Recorded For High Times Magazine Compilation)', 'No Class (Motorhead Cover)', 'Freelance Fiend (Leafhound Cover)'.

Thieving From The House Of God: 'Some You Win, Some You Lose', 'One Room, One Axe, One Outcome', 'Hard Luck', 'Black Egg', 'You're Not The One (Who Can Save Rock N' Roll)', 'If It Ain't Broke, Break It', 'Lazy Mary', 'Round Up The Horses', 'Tosh Lines', 'Just Got Paid (ZZ Top Cover)', 'Crown Of Locusts (Bonus Tracks)', 'White Night Cyanide (B-side To Some You Win, Some You Lose 7' Single)', 'New Rose (The Damned Cover)', 'Bad Blues (Previously Un-released)'.

Das neue ARCHITECTS Album "The Here And Now" kommt in Europa am 24. Januar 2011 und in den USA einen Tag später via Century Media Records in den Handel. Jetzt wurde das Album auf der Band MySpace Seite komplett zum probehören online gestellt.

"The Here And Now" Track List:

01. Day In Day Out
02. Learn To Live
03. Delete, Rewind
04. BTN
05. An Open Letter To Myself
06. The Blues
07. Red Eyes
08. Stay Young Forever
09. Heartburn
10. Year In Year Out/Up And Away
11. Day In Day Out (Big Chocolate Remix)

This past November, MELIAH RAGE frontman Mike Munro — a deeply faithful Christian — applied his carpentry skills, along with a team of 20, in Haiti for eight days to build a second floor on a school house in St. Michel. The school serves 450 children in the area and there is also an orphanage housing 29 children on the site.

Monadnock Bible Conference Center has a program reaching out to Haiti with short-term mission trips 8-10 times per year (both teams of builders as well as medical personnel).

More pictures from the trip can be found at this location.

MELIAH RAGE recently spent time in the studio putting the finishing touches on a remix of the 2004 record "Barely Human". Overseen by Ted Ostrander at Red Devil Studio in Stoughton, Masschusetts, the new version of the LP will include one freshly recorded bonus track — a cover version of the ALICE COOPER song "Halo of Flies" recorded by producer Pete Rutcho. This is the first cover song MELIAH RAGE has ever done.

More video footage from the "Bonzo: The Groove Remains The Same: A Double Encore!" event on Wednesday, January 12 at the Key Club in West Hollywood, California and on Thursday, January 13 at the Galaxy Theater in Anaheim, California can be viewed below.

Due to the overwhelming success and positive feedback from the audience and drummers at the first "Bonzo: The Groove Remains The Same" John Bonham tribute show on September 25, 2010, Brian Tichy and Joe Sutton agreed to look into doing it again. The problem was Tichy would be on tour this year with WHITESNAKE for most of 2011 into 2012. The only way to go for it again was to have the show sooner than later. And while looking into this, two back-to-back dates came up! The drummers all agreed two shows are better than one. Most of the drummers are back as well.

Musicians performing over the two nights included:

* Carmine Appice (VANILLA FUDGE, ROD STEWART, OZZY OSBOURNE)
* Vinny Appice (BLACK SABBATH, DIO, HEAVEN & HELL)
* Kenny Aronoff (JOHN COUGAR, SMASHING PUMPKINS)
* Frankie Banali (QUIET RIOT)
* Charlie Benante (ANTHRAX) **
* Bobby Blotzer (RATT)
* Fred Coury (CINDERELLA)
* Jimmy D'Anda (BULLETBOYS)
* Sass Jordan
* James Kottak (SCORPIONS)
* Abe Laboriel (PAUL MCCARTNEY, STING)
* Dave Lombardo (SLAYER)
* Khurt Maier (SALTY DOG)
* Samantha Maloney (HOLE, MÖTLEY CRÜE)
* Jojo Mayer **
* Xavier Muriel (BUCKCHERRY) **
* Stephen Perkins (JANE'S ADDICTION) *
* Chris Slade (AC/DC, THE FIRM)
* Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, CHICKENFOOT)
* Jason Sutter (FOREIGNER, CHRIS CORNELL) *
* John Tempesta (WHITE ZOMBIE, THE CULT, TESTAMENT)
* Brian Tichy (WHITESNAKE, FOREIGNER, BILLY IDOL, OZZY OSBOURNE)
* Joe Travers (ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA, DURAN DURAN)
* Simon Wright (AC/DC, DIO)

* at Key Club
** at Galaxy only

LEAVES' EYES — the German/Norwegian band formed by ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull and members of ATROCITY — has set "Meredead" as the title of its new album, due on April 22 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Release dates for other territories will be announced soon. Producer/co-vocalist Alexander Krull is currently overseeing the CD's final mix at Mastersound Studio. The album's artwork was created by Stefan Heilemann.

Commented Kristine: "As we began composing the first song ideas for our fourth full-length album, all of us were very eager to take another step in strengthening both the individual sound and concept of LEAVES' EYES, like we have done album by album. Along with the songwriting process, I made up my mind about the songs' themes, and drowned myself in different sources of literature. Some songs clearly needed lyrics rooted in northern history and culture, as well as having mystical themes.

"Being an Old-English fan, I decided to write some of the lyrics in Old-English, which, of course, included further studies of grammatical and phonetic knowledge, which I really enjoyed doing.

"Next to modern English and Old English, some songs are sung in traditional Norwegian, to keep their strong individuality and focus on certain themes from special genres in Norwegian traditional singing.

"The album is given the title 'Meredead', as one of the songs on the album. It is my own word creation (at least I haven't found it in a dictionary yet), and it may mean both 'dead by/in the sea,' or 'the mortal or killing sea.'

"In my lyrics, you will find traditional themes from Viking literature and Norwegian song tradition, moreover, tales from the Irish isles, some from already existing sources, some made up myself. Sometimes you will hear about men going on adventures, some ending up drowning in the sea, their wives, evil witches, three-headed trolls, or spell-bound princesses, as well as marble halls and blood-thirsty creatures.

"I allowed myself more freedom for the concept of 'Meredead', telling a number of different stories, real, mystical or sometimes maybe even both."

LEAVES' EYES recently parted ways with bassist Alla Fedynitch "for personal reasons." The group played the last show of 2010 — at the Metal Female Voices Fest on October 24 in Wieze, Belgium — with Dutch session bassist J.B. van der Wal (ABORTED, DR. DOOM).

Orange County, California's ATREYU has released the following statement via Twitter:

"Hey all, you have asked, so here goes.

"ATREYU is taking a long, long break after 11 years of rocking. We aren't breaking up, but we aren't writing recording or touring for a while — simply taking a break to recharge and focus on different parts of our lives.

"Thanks to everyone who has supported us and given us a reason to exist over the past 11 years. We hope to see you again one day. Until next time…

"All of us have other projects we are excited about and urge you to check them out if you miss us too much."

Am 25. Februar 2011 wird AFM Records das neue SHAKRA Studio Album mit dem Titel "Back On Track" veröffentlichen. Es ist das erste Album mit dem neuen Sänger John Prakesh! Jetzt wurde auch die "Back On Track" Track List veröffetlicht.

"Back On Track" Track List:

01. B True B You
02. I'll Be
03. Crazy
04. Back On Track
05. When I See You
06. MMTWGR
07. Yesterday's Gone
08. Someday
09. Lonesomeness
10. Unspoken Truth
11. Brand New Day
12. Stronger Than Ever

GOTHMINISTER hat jetzt einen Vertrag beim Deutschen Label Danse Macabre unterschrieben. Hier die Meldung des Labels:

"Wir sind stolz unser neuesten Signing ankündigen zu dürfen. Die norwegische Gothic-Industrialmetal Legende GOTHMINISTER hat bei Danse Macabre unterschrieben. Des Teufels Advokat Björn Brem veröffentlicht sein neuestes Werk Anima Inferna Mitte März und die dazugehörige Clubsingle Liar Anfang März. Auf Euch wartet ein diabolisches Meisterwerk das Orchestral und treibend zugleich einen Höhepunkt im bisherigen Schaffen des Ministers darstellen dürfte. Erste Snippets wird es bald auf dansemacabre-group zu hören geben."

Die schwedischen Darkwavekünstler im Steampunkoutfit haben gerade mal ein Jahr nach ihrem vielgefeierten Debut mit hohen DAC Notierungen nachgelegt und beweisen auf "All Of Your Light" ihre Entwicklungsfähigkeit. "Tomorrow" ist neben "Red Red Star" ein vierversprechender Tanzflächenaspirant.

Kein Wunder, das die Band direkt von Unheilig für deren Abschlusskonzert gemeinsam mit VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk und Diary of Dreams in Düsseldorfs Phillipshalle gebucht wurde. Der Bandname der zum Quartett angewachsenen Gruppe findet in den traumhaft produzierten Klangschlösser seine buchstäbliche Entsprechung.

Elektronische Darkwaveperlen oszillieren zwischen Gothicfeeling und Synthpop und findet mit der elegisch, tragenden Stimme von Angelica einen perfekten Konterpart. Das Artwork aus der Feder des Klangbastlers Johan rundet virtuos die stilbildende Kreation der Skandinavier ab. Ein wundervolles Geschenk für kalte Winterabende an alle synthetischen Träumer. "All Of Your Light" erscheint am 18. Februar 2011 bei Danse Macabre.

This message was posted on RUDRA MySpace page:

"Salutations,

The release date for the final chapter to the Brahmavidya trilogy entitled 'Brahmavidya: Immortal I' will be announced within a week. Here a preview of the Song titles:

Now, Therefore……
Illusory Enlightenment
Ravenous Theories of Deception
Vultures of Slavery
Incredulous Void
Sinister Devotion
Harrowing Carrions of Syllogism
Embryonic Theologies
Supposed Sages of Sensuality
Hymns of the Immortal Self
Advaita Samrajya".

"RUDRA shall be going independent.

It has become almost impossible for any medium or big record labels to have us on their roster. CD sales are dipping and illegal downloads are rising. It is the smaller bands like us who suffer the blow. And the record labels too. So the only logical step for us to move forward is to go independent".