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28 июл 2010


ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY Parts Ways With Guitarist, Drummer; Replacemetns AnnouncedU.K. death metallers ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY have parted ways with guitarist Sam Dawkins and drummer Brad Merry and have replaced them with Don Jones and Neil Hayward, respectively.
Commented the group: "Sam decided to leave [the band] after [our American tour with DYING FETUS] to follow home life with his girlfriend and loved ones. His heart wasn't into touring anymore, so he made the decision to leave.
"We parted ways with Brad recently due to a number of reasons, the main one being distance as he lived over 100 miles away from the rest of us and it made it very difficult for us to rehurse. That coupled with disagreements with certain band members [led to our] decision to part ways with him. He is currently looking for a new band within the London area and trying to go further with his MMA."
Regarding the band's latest additions, ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY states, "Don is a guy who we've been playing in local bands with since we were all 14.
"For those of you who aren't familiar with his name, he played on our 'Welcome To Sludgy City' EP.
"The reason Don hasn't been with the band any longer than the EP was other commitments stopping him from touring, but now we finally have him and it's great to be working with him again.
"Taking Brad's place on drums is our longtime friend Neil Hayward. We met Neil a few years ago through playing some shows together. He's a great guy, likes skulls and that, metal and things."
On the topic of the songwriting process for ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY's next studio album, the band states, "So we've now started writting our next CD, we've been listening to all the feedback you guys have given us and have taken it all onboard for this next CD. We don't really wanna do the usual, 'OMG, this is gonna be the heaviest CD ever, so heavy that Lambgoat will hate us,' but it's definitely going to be our angriest-sounding release to date. There will be mixes of both the EP/'Before The Throne Of Infection' [2008] CD sound with the sound of 'The Reign Of Darkness' thrown in with new elements our new members bring. It's all about the groove."
HardTimes.ca conducted an interview with ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY when the band performed at Foufounes Electriques in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on June 2, 2010. You can now watch the 24-minute chat below.
ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY's latest album, "The Reign Of Darkness", sold around 1,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at No. 34 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
"The Reign Of Darkness" was recorded at Foel Studio in Wales and was engineered by Chris Fielding. The CD was mixed by Erik Rutan (HATE ETERNAL, MORBID ANGEL, CANNIBAL CORPSE) at Mana Recording Studio in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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28 июл 2010


BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION\'s Debut To Be Made Available In Three Different FormatsBLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION — the Anglo/American rock supergroup featuring vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH, TRAPEZE), drummer Jason Bonham (LED ZEPPELIN), Derek Sherinian (DREAM THEATER) and blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa — will release its self-titled debut album in Europe on Monday, September 20 via Mascot Records and North America on Tuesday, September 21 through J&R Adventures. The CD was produced and mixed by Kevin Shirley (BLACK CROWES, AEROSMITH, LED ZEPPELIN), and mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig. It was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in early 2010.
"Black Country Communion" will be available in the U.K. in three different formats:
** Format #1 - Limited-Edition 2-Disc CD/DVD
Featuring the 12 album tracks on CD, complete with an additional DVD jam-packed with band member interviews, exclusive studio and live images, Kevin Shirley's album production notes, "The Great Divide" music video, behind-the-scenes in-studio footage, plus live tracks as performed by BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION at Riverside, California.
** Format #2 - Single-Disc CD
Regular 1 disc CD edition
** Format #3 - Vinyl
Double-sided 12" vinyl album edition
The limited-edition two-disc CD/DVD is available for pre-order now at Play.com, while all three formats are available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk and HMV.com.
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28 июл 2010


IRON MAIDEN Cover Artist Discusses \'The Final Frontier\' Mark Morton of Examiner.com recently conducted an interview with IRON MAIDEN cover artist Melvyn Grant about Grant's work on MAIDEN's forthcoming album, "The Final Frontier". An excerpt from the chat follows below.
Examiner.com: As there have been many different incarnations of Eddie that you have painted, how much of his metamorphosis has been your imagination, and how much was input by the band?
Grant: Well, Derek Riggs and his style of artwork never appealed to me, so naturally I wanted to change it and do my version of Eddie. But that was stopped by MAIDEN, who didn't want me to stray too far from the original style, which obviously all of the band's fans like. You get so used to something that it becomes your "thing," and you fall in love with that version of Eddie. I did try to change him a bit, in a way that suited me and made me happier with it. The latest version on "The Final Frontier" is not Eddie, as such. I'm not going to say anything more on that, because I don't know what IRON MAIDEN have got planned, so I'm not going to tread on any toes or mess up any surprises. Okay, I'll tell you, he is actually an alien. The old Eddie might still come around. I enjoy working with the MAIDEN crew, but it does exasperate you when you have to keep changing things. Rod [Smallwood, IRON MAIDEN's manager] and I get on pretty well; I haven't met him for years. But after I did the first one, the teaser "Eddie head," he called me and said how much he really liked it. His words, I think, were "fucking amazing!" Which was very nice of him to do, because they were very busy setting up this tour. Everything's happening all at once, and yet I find that they are very nice people to deal with. On the copyright agreement side, we worked out mutually good things. And if they plan on using things that they like, they pay for it. They don't mess around.
Examiner.com: From where do you draw inspiration for your visions of Eddie? It seems that when you aren't doing a single or a live album, you tend to stray away from the "human" aspect of the Eddie character.
Grant: The original Eddie seemed to be very happy causing all sorts of chaos and hacking people to bits with axes and things like that. I did want to put more psychological tension in it. For instance, on "Fear Of The Dark", the first one I did, I don't think many people realize that Eddie is not actually sitting in the tree. He's actually coming down the tree. So you can really look at it either way. The body is coming down from the tree, and it looks like Eddie has a tail close to the moon. I try to put a little more depth into it aside from utter brutality. On "The Final Frontier", I did various sketches based on the title alone. Then they came up with the idea of doing something on the space craft. Originally, when I did it, it wasn't Eddie reaching in like he is; he was more meaty-like and stealthier in a more evil way. Originally, they didn't want the space craft all ripped to shreds. They wanted it to look like a hatch had come off and there would be a skeletal crew inside. So I wanted to make Eddie almost slither in. But gradually, it molded into the more brutal one, which is what you see now. 23
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28 июл 2010


SONATA ARTICA Frontman To Guest On POWERGLOVE AlbumVideo game metal masters POWERGLOVE will release their new album, "Saturday Morning Apocalypse", on September 28 via eOne Music.
"'Saturday Morning Apocalypse' came out brighter and darker, faster and slower than our previous releases," says drummer Bassil Silver.
This is POWERGLOVE's first record with eOne Music and the band is taking its songs in a new direction.
These new tracks are based off the nostalgia of Saturday morning cartoons and movies that anyone who's grown up in the '80s will immediately recognize.
Silver adds, "No matter what we write, we know all the comments will be about how bizarre we look, how ridiculous this track list is, and the fact that we somehow got Tony Kakko [SONATA ARTICA] to sing the Pokemon theme for us. We would tell you how clown-rapingly awesome it is, but you can decide that for yourself when the album comes out in September."
"Saturday Morning Apocalypse", POWERGLOVE's power metal renditions of '80s cartoon themes, will feature the following tracks:
01. X-Men
02. Gotta Catch Em All
03. The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest
04. This Is Halloween
05. Batman
06. Transformers
07. Inspector Gadget
08. Heffalumps and Woozles (Winnie The Pooh)
09. The Simpsons (feat. Tony Kakko)
10. The Flinstones
11. Gotta Catch 'Em All (feat. Tony Kakko)
POWERGLOVE recently completed two separate, successful, tours with HAMMERFALL and SONATA ARTICA. Watch for them this summer as they continue to add dates for video game festivals and live performances.
POWERGLOVE is composed of four battle-hardened rockers out of Boston: Alex Berkson, Bassil Silver-Hajo, Chris Marchiel, and Nick Avila. This band shreds metal renditions of everything from old-school 8-bit video game classics to contemporary blockbusters, all with a heavy metal attitude. 3
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28 июл 2010


SADISTIK FOREST: \'The Attempt\' Video Released"The Attempt", the first video from Oulu, Finland-based death metallers SADISTIK FOREST, can be viewed below. The clip was helmed by Sami Kokkonen and Toni Hiltunen, who have previously worked with a number of leading Finnish metal acts, including TURMION KÄTILÖT, VERJNUARMU and 2 TIMES TERROR. The song comes off SADISTIK FOREST's self-titled debut album, which will be released on August 12 via Violent Journey Records.
Commented SADISTIK FOREST: "It was definitely a pleasure to work with Toni and Sami. They got easily in the same level with our thoughts for our important first video, and the outcome is 100 percent what we wanted. It's a display of SADISTIK FOREST's strenghts: energy, relentlessness and the original spirit of extreme metal!"
SADISTIK FOREST was formed in 2007 by guitarist Antti Heikkinen, drummer Vesa Mutka and bassist/vocalist Markus Makkonen. The lineup was completed early this year when guitarist Matti Salo joined the ranks.
SADISTIK FOREST's riff-based, ferocious and brutal assault has often been compared to UNLEASHED and early MORBID ANGEL.
"Sadistik Forest" track listing:
01. In the Mazed Pits of the Underworld
02. Dying Work of Art
03. The Thrashed Fate
04. Relentless Torment
05. The Attempt
06. Hopeless, Merciless
07. Äpärä
08. Withered
The CD-release concert will take place on August 14 at the Jalometalli Metal Festival in Oulu. Also scheduled to appear are DESTRUCTION, SUFFOCATION, CARCASS and TRIPTYKON, among others. 3
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27 июл 2010


ROB ZOMBIE: \'Mars Needs Women\' Video Released; \'Hellbilly Deluxe 2\' Special Edition Detailed "Mars Needs Women", the new video from ROB ZOMBIE, can be viewed below (courtesy of AOL's Noiscreep). Footage for the clip was compiled during the "Gruesome Twosome Tour" featuring Zombie and Alice Cooper.
In other news, the CD/DVD edition of Zombie's latest album, "Hellbilly Deluxe 2", will arrive in stores on September 28 via Roadrunner Records. The expanded version of the album will feature three brand new tracks recorded with the band's current touring lineup, including SLIPKNOT drummer/MURDERDOLLS guitarist Joey Jordison, along with a reworked version of the song "The Man Who Laughs". A bonus DVD featuring live footage and a 30-minute touring documentary, dubbed "Transylvanian Transmissions", will also be included.
"Hellbilly Deluxe 2" special-edition track listing:
CD:
01. Devil's Hole Girls And The Big Revolution (new song)
02. Jesus Frankenstein
03. Sick Bubblegum
04. What?
05. Theme Of An Angry Red Planet
06. Mars Needs Women
07. Werewolf, Baby
08. Everything Is Boring (new song)
09. Virgin Witch
10. Death And Destiny Inside the Dream Factory
11. Burn
12. Cease To Exist
13. Werewolf Women Of The SS
14. Michael (new song)
15. The Man Who Laughs
DVD:
01. Mars Needs Women
02. School's Out (ALICE COOPER cover) (feat. Alice Cooper)
03. Transylvanian Transmissions 2
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27 июл 2010


SHINING Wins \'A-Ha Grant\'Last month, the Norwegian "blackjazz" outfit SHINING surprised the ever-growing international jazz-metal scene by taking home the fabled "A-Ha Grant" after first "shocking the living shit" out of the audience of 80,000 people and about one million TV viewers. Even more shocking was the fact that the members of A-HA, the most successful pop act ever to come out of Norway (remember "Take On Me"?), themselves chose SHINING as their favorite band. In addition to giving SHINING one million Norwegian Kroner, A-HA invited SHINING to open for them at their big farewell arena concert on August 21 in Oslo, Norway.
This famed performance of their single "The Madness and the Damage Done" is now finally available on YouTube. See what happened when SHINING won $150,000 in the clip below.
SHINING's Jørgen Munkeby comments on this special event, including being denied the opportunity to perform live: "Due to extreme time restrictions from the TV station, we were denied playing live. We argued until our heads almost fell off, to no avail. But since we play live shows all the time, this was actually a very fun thing for us to do! Then we could instead concentrate on what we were going to have for breakfast the next morning."
Over the course of its impressive 10-year career, SHINING has created its own unique and bizarre hybrid of jazz and extreme metal, which is easily distinguishable from the musical world of their Swedish labelmates sharing the same band name. 12
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27 июл 2010


WITHIN TEMPTATION Announces European Headlining TourDutch female-fronted symphonic metallers WITHIN TEMPTATION have issued the following update:
"We are very excited to make this announcement.
"As you know, we have been very busy working on our new album in the past year. It isn't finished yet, but we're getting there!
"We currently have the album scheduled for the beginning of 2011 and, of course, we will be touring soon after the album release!
"We're returning to the European stages in February and March for the first part of the tour and head straight into the festival season after that.
"We will be sending special links out to our fan club members starting Wednesday, July 28, so they will be able to take part in an exclusive pre-sale for fan club members only. Check TheSilentForce.com to see the details on Wednesday. General pre-sale will start on Friday, July 30 unless otherwise mentioned on our tour page. Check back for all the exact pre-sale links. There will be Twitter tags for all the shows. If you mention them in your Twitter messages, you will be able to see who else is going to the same show as you and communicate with them!"
WITHIN TEMPTATION European headlining tour:
Feb. 25 - Heerhugowaard (NL), De Waerdse Tempel
Feb. 27 - Tilburg (NL), 013
Feb. 28 - Amsterdam (NL), Paradiso
Mar. 06 - Groningen (NL), Oosterpoort
Mar. 09 - Stockholm (S), Annexet
Mar. 10 - Oslo (N), Sentrum Scene
Mar. 11 - Copenhagen (DK), Vega
Mar. 13 - Hamburg (D), Docks
Mar. 14 - Berlin (D), Columbiahalle
Mar. 15 - Warsaw (PL), Stodola
Mar. 17 - Dresden (D), Schlachthof
Mar. 18 - Vienna (A), Arena
Mar. 20 - Munich (D), Tonhalle
Mar. 21 - Zürich (CH), Volkshaus
Mar. 22 - Milan (I), Alcatraz
Mar. 24 - Barcelona (E), Razzmatazz
Mar. 25 - Madrid (E), La Riviera
Mar. 27 - Paris (F), Le Bataclan
Mar. 28 - Cologne (D), E-Werk
Mar. 30 - London (GB), Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Mar. 31 - Brussels (B), Ancienne Belgique
Apr. 01 - Esch/Alzette (L), Rockhal
Apr. 02 - Kerkrade (NL), Rodahal 9
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27 июл 2010


ALICE COOPER, THE RUNAWAYS Re-Record Tracks Exclusively For \'Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock\' Legendary rockers ALICE COOPER and THE RUNAWAYS went back into the studio to re-record "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "Cherry Bomb", respectively, for fans to rock out to when Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock is released this September.
"I AM a Warrior of Rock! Younger fans getting exposed to true classic rock songs is one of my personal crusades," said Alice Cooper in a statement. "The new audience listening to the classic songs of today, like 'No More Mr. Nice Guy', will hopefully be inspired to write the classic songs of tomorrow."
He added, "'No More Mr. Nice Guy' is one of those songs that, it was me screaming back at the public. At the time I was guilty of every single thing that was wrong with America. And then I said, 'OK, that does it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. The gloves are off.' And they said, 'You mean you were being a nice guy?' And I said, 'Yeah. I can get a lot worse.' And it ended up being one of those songs everyone connected to."
An exclusive Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock video announcement featuring commentary from both THE RUNAWAYS and ALICE COOPER can be viewed below.
In Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, join with friends on an epic rock journey to save rock n' roll. Featuring the most music ever in a Guitar Hero game with an impressive 90-plus-track setlist and a host of all-new gameplay features, living room legends and their friends can strum, drum and wail in the most immersive music videogame experience to date. Delivering the quintessential rock music collection that focuses on guitar-shredding hits from bands such as BLACK SABBATH, SLIPKNOT and MEGADETH and larger-than-life band anthems from QUEEN, MUSE and KISS, players can unleash more rewards and unlockable content than ever before in Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock's Quest Mode, the franchise's first ever story-based mode, and Quickplay+, which invites challenge-starved fanatics to test their rock skills.
Running on the powerful Guitar Hero engine that has been expanded and refined and with encores from the critically-acclaimed and fan favorite gameplay features that made Guitar Hero one of the most popular franchises of all-time — such as Party Play, Competitive modes and any combination of up to four instruments — the game offers a complete interactive and connected experience bringing friends and foes to the stage in the ultimate rock music experience.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation3 computer entertainment system and by Vicarious Visions for the Wii system from Nintendo. The game is rated "T" (Teen - Lyrics, Mild Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes) by the ESRB.
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27 июл 2010


STRYPER: More 'The Covering' Audio Samples AvailableFollowing the success of their 25th-anniversary world tour earlier this year, Christian hard rockers STRYPER headed into the studio to work on their new album, "The Covering", tentatively scheduled for release October 13 via Big3 Records.
"The Covering", produced by frontman Michael Sweet, will be unlike any previous STRYPER recording in that it's a collection of cover songs from bands that inspired them and helped to shape their sound and musical identity, including hits from JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, LED ZEPPELIN, KANSAS and many others. A cover of BLACK SABBATH's classic track "Heaven and Hell" will be the first single, with an expected iTunes release in advance of the album. "The Covering" will also include "God", a new original recording from STRYPER.
"STRYPER recorded 'The Yellow and Black Attack' (Enigma Records) back in 1983, and it was released the following year," says Sweet. "Twenty six years have passed and after seven studio releases and multiple compilation and live projects, we decided to show our fans where our roots lie musically.
"'The Covering' consists of particular songs and groups that molded and shaped us and made us who we are today."
One of the highlights for STRYPER fans is that "The Covering" is the first studio album in nearly two decades on which all four original members, plus longtime keyboardist Charles Foley, have recorded together.
"This record includes the original lineup," explains Michael.
"Tim [Gaines, bass], Robert [Sweet, drums], Oz [Fox, guitar] and I haven't recorded a full-length project together since 1990's 'Against the Law' (Enigma Records), so this is truly history in the making. We also had what was probably the best time we've ever had recording a record together and I believe that this comes through in the energy and the spirit of each track.
"We're all extremely excited about this record and more importantly, we're all extremely confident about the future of STRYPER and the four of us making music together for years to come."
"The Covering" track listing:
01. SWEET - "Set Me Free"
02. SCORPIONS - "Blackout"
03. BLACK SABBATH - "Heaven and Hell"
04. UFO - "Lights Out"
05. KANSAS - "Carry On Wayward Son"
06. DEEP PURPLE - "Highway Star"
07. KISS - "Shout It Out Loud"
08. OZZY OSBOURNE - "Over The Mountain"
09. IRON MAIDEN - "The Trooper"
10. JUDAS PRIEST - "Breaking The Law"
11. VAN HALEN - "On Fire"
12. LED ZEPPELIN - "Immigrant Song"
13. God
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