UNEARTH's cover version of the PANTERA classic "Sandblasted Skin" is available for streaming at this location. The track appears on the the "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott (PANTERA, DAMAGEPLAN) tribute album, which was released today (Wednesday, December 16) on the cover of the 200th issue of U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine.

The "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott tribute album includes the following artists/cuts:

01. ZAKK WYLDE - "Suicide Note Pt. 1"
02. MACHINE HEAD - "Fucking Hostile"
03. MALEFICE - "I'm Broken"
04. AVENGED SEVENFOLD - "Walk"
05. EVILE - "Cemetery Gates"
06. FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH - "A New Level"
07. BIOHAZARD - "Mouth For War"
08. SYLOSIS - "Strength Beyond Strength"
09. CHIMAIRA - "Slaughtered"
10. UNEARTH - "Sandblasted Skin"
11. THROWDOWN - "Becoming"
12. KIUAS - "This Love"
13. THIS IS HELL - "Rise"

After their triumphant show in 2008, this will mark the second show of the british Metal legends at the Wacken:Open:Air. Their gig on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 will also be their only German show next year.

Comments Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris: “We had a fantastic time playing at Wacken last year so when we decided to play a few festivals in Europe next Summer it seemed a great idea to return. What could be better in Germany than to play again to the 75,000 true Metalheads who go to Wacken!“

A groundbreaking Metal band like Iron Maiden on the biggest Metal festival in the world - that’s match made in headbanging heaven. After the first time in 2008, even singer Bruce Dickinson said on his BBC radio show: “Wacken is enormous fun! It’s just great, you wander around and see all the sideshows and bits and bobs and everything else. So it’s just a fabulous weekend!"

"Sapari", the new single from Israel's progressive folk metal masters ORPHANED LAND, is currently being streamed on the web site of Israel's Metalist magazine. The song comes off the band's highly anticipated fourth studio opus, "The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR", which is scheduled for release in Europe on January 25, 2010 and in the U.S. on February 9 via Century Media Records. Mixed by Steven Wilson (PORCUPINE TREE, OPETH), who is also responsible for several keyboard parts on the new CD, the effort is a sophisticated concept album which takes ORPHANED LAND's unique brand of exotic, heavy music to soaring new heights in terms of complexity and catchiness.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS frontman Scott Weiland tells Spinner.com that the band is "almost finished" recording its Don Was-produced new studio album. "There will probably be 11 songs on the record and we have nine completed already," he says. "Then you have to have B-sides for Japan, the U.K. and the rest of Europe, so we'll probably record 14 songs total."

Regarding the songwriting and recording process for the new CD, Weiland tells Spinner.com, "It's always been easy. We have a method that we use and it's pretty basic. For the most part, Robert and Dean [DeLeo] write the instrumental riffs and then amongst the three of us we arrange the songs and then I write all the melodies and the lyrics."

Swedish death metal band VOLTURYON entered Black Lounge Studio in Avesta, Sweden this past weekend with producer Jonas Kjellgren (SCAR SYMMETRY, CENTINEX, WORLD BELOW) to begin recording its second album for an early 2010 release. "Everything went really smooth and all drums were recorded," the group states.

The follow-up to 2008's "Blood Cure" will see VOLTURYON "taking [its] music to a new level and develop[ing] [its] sound and style," according to a press release.

Currently unsigned, VOLTURYON has spent the last couple of years playing shows, including at the Sweden Rock Festival in June 2008 where the band performed alongside AT THE GATES and CARCASS, among others.

VOLTURYON is:

* Olle Ekman (PERGOLOS, HARTWIG, DÖD, LETHAL ATTACK, DEALS DEATH) - Vocals
* Johan Gustafsson (EVANGELI, MAGOG) - Guitar
* Andreas Olander (EVANGELI, MAGOG) - Guitar
* Stefan Eriksson (EVANGELI, HELL PATROL, MAGOG, CRYONIC TEMPLE) - Bass
* Christian "Crille" Netzell (IN MOURNING) - Drums

Former MELDRUM vocalist Moa Holmsten has issued

"Hello my dear friends!

As a little Christmas gift to you all I've written and recorded a song, 'You Don't Have To Be Alone', free to download on MySpace. As a token for all the nice things you write to me, for coming to my shows, for adding me on MySpace, and for buying my debut album Do You Want Me Death? Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Much Love."

Yours Sincerely
Moa

Danish symphonic metallers WUTHERING HEIGHTS have issued the following update:

"We're right now in the middle of recording our new album, Salt, which we hope to be able to release in the spring of 2010 (via Sensory). You can already now see the artwork on this site and read the full studio report on how the new album became a reality. It's our plan to give you a little taste of the album around new year when we are done mastering the album, so please check back to this site for some upcoming sound samples.

In the meantime, feel free to jump around this page, read about the band-history, download wallpapers, look at old pictures of Wuthering Heights (all the way back from our early incarnations as Minas Tirith and Vergelmir), join our forum and talk to other Wuthering Heights fans, and lots more."

Salt will feature the following tracks:

'Away!'
'The Desperate Poet'
'The Mad Sailor'
'The Last Tribe (Mother Earth)'
'Tears'
'Weather The Storm'
'The Field'
'Water Of Life'
'Lost At Sea'

There will be one bonus track for Japan and one for the US.

Line-up:
Erik Ravn: guitars, keyboards, mandolin, narration, backing vocals
Nils Patrik Johansson: all lead vocals, backing vocals
Morten Gade Sørensen: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Andreas Lindahl: keyboards, backing vocals
Martin Arendal: guitars
Teddy "Dr.Müller" Möller: bass

PIGEON TOE is the new band featuring former FEAR MY THOUGHTS singer Martin Fischer and drummer Norman Lonhard (also TRYPTIKON). The band have launched a MySpace page and the demo mix of 'Man With The Cat' is currently streaming.

According to a band update, "they have written some really crazy stuff; imagine a mix of MR. BUNGLE, MASTODON and KYUSS."

Fear My Thoughts officially announced in late November that "thirteen solid years of fun, we will now come to an end. The farewell show will be in Lörrach (between Freiburg and Basel) in mid-February 2010."

SPEED X — the new band featuring BLACK LABEL SOCIETY guitarist Nick Catanese, ex-QUEENSRŸCHE axeman Mike Stone on guitar and vocals, DOUBLEDRIVE drummer Mike Froedge, former DOUBLEDRIVE bassist Joshua Sattler and ULTRAPHONIC's Jason Fowler on lead vocals — will release its debut album, "Flat Black", on January 15, 2010.

The track listing for the CD (cover) is as follows:

01. Speed
02. Fly
03. Flat Black
04. Feel
05. On My Side
06. Pretending
07. River
08. Loaded Up
09. Skeletons
10. Criminal
11. Let's Go All The Way

"Louder than 11, faster than light" has been used to describe SPEED X's unique brand of high-energy rock. These five music industry veterans did not want to settle for just any sound, but set out to create something uniquely their own that would appeal to their already existing fan bases from previous projects, as well as bring in a whole new listening audience at the same time.

Combine the blazing guitars of Catanese and Stone, and the pounding rhythms of Froedge, and Sattler, and the band shows its raw power and energy. Fowler's hard-edged melodic vocal style completes the package which gives SPEED X a new sound, texture and feel for their fiery brand of modern rock and roll.

Norwegian extreme metal veterans KEEP OF KALESSIN are competing in the national Eurovision Song Contest called "Melodi Grand Prix". The band will perform a song called "The Dragontower", which was originally written for the group's next album but had to be shortened from 5:20 minutes to 3:00 minutes for the performance. The full, unedited track will, of course, appear on the upcoming KEEP OF KALESSIN CD.

Commented mainman Obsidian C. (real name: Arnt Grønbech): "We're excited to have been picked out from about 1,000 Norwegian contributors to Melodi Grand Prix 2010. The feedback on the song is amazing so far and we hope that we can have a chance to be the first ever extreme metal band in the norwegian Melodi Grand Prix final."

KEEP OF KALESSIN will compete in the first of three initial finals that will air on NRK1 in Norway on January 8, 2010. Viewers will be able to vote via SMS for their favorite artist. The top two artists chosen via SMS will directly go to the national final held at the Spektrum, Oslo on February 6, 2010. The third- and fourth-place artists will get another new chance to compete in a new TV show called "The Last Chance" where the top 2 artists will also go the final.

There are 21 participating artists and eight finalists. The winner of the final in February will be the one to represent Norway at the international Eurovision Song Contest 2010.

Unfortunately, the voting in Norway can only be done by Norwegian cell phones. Foreign fans can watch the show live via the www.nrk.no webcast.

KEEP OF KALESSIN's latest album, "Kolossus", was released in June 2008. The CD was made available via Indie Recordings and was licensed to Nuclear Blast for the following territories: Germany, Austria, Switzerland and rest of the world outside Europe (except Australia and Russia).

Finnish folk metallers FINNTROLL will release their new album, "Nifelvind", via Century Media Records on the following dates:

Finland: Wednesday, February 17
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Italy: Friday, February 19
Spain, Portugal: Tuesday, February 23
Sweden, Hungary: Wednesday, February 24
Rest Of Europe: Monday, February 22
North America: Tuesday, March 9

"Nifelvind" was recorded at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki, Finland and was mastered by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studios. The album cover artwork was created once again by the band's guitarist Skrymer.

Commented FINNTROLL in a statement: "After tough and hectic weeks in the studio, due to lack of time and summer festivals, we are now really, really pleased with the results. 'Nifelvind' is the most advanced and mature FINNTROLL album to date, with musical themes ranging from powerful death metal riffs to dark soundtracks, from pounding black metal to groovy '80s pop music. All this is accompanied by our trademark sound, lots of never-before-heard instruments in the metal scene, folklore and legends that make it overall the most versatile album we have created so far."

"Nifelvind" track listing:

01. Blodmarsch (intro)
02. Solsagan
03. Den Frusna Munnen
04. Ett Norrskensdåd
05. I Trädens Sång
06. Tiden Utan Tid
07. Galgasång
08. Mot Skuggornas Värld
09. Under Bergets Rot
10. Fornfamnad
11. Dråp

The song "Under Bergets Rot" is now available for streaming on the band's MySpace page.

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine recently talked with PrisonPlanet.com's Alex Jones — a syndicated radio personality and conspiracy theorist — about his own personal awakening to the new world order, his recent conversion to Christianity after formerly dabbling with occultism, and how is he now using his music, namely MEGADETH's recent critically acclaimed album, "Endgame", to educate his fans and the general public about the conspiracy behind the march towards global government.

Mustaine explains how the artwork featured on the "Endgame" album symbolizes the enslaved masses being driven towards oblivion, and how America is disintegrating as a country, a fact which has forced Mustaine to prepare to move to Canada as a safer haven.

Mustaine and Jones cover a plethora of subjects in the interview, including the primary reasons behind the assassination of JFK, and the meaning of some of Mustaine's songs, including those influenced by his training as a stockbroker. Mustaine discusses how he has tailored his art towards what eminates from his conscience rather than what is demanded of him from record labels and huge corporations, a compromise that the vast majority of people in the music industry constantly make.

Mustaine tells Jones that the purpose of his music is about showing his fans how to become better people, by thinking more deeply about the world around them and what their own purpose in life really is.

On how MEGADETH's current "Endgame" tour with MACHINE HEAD, SUICIDE SILENCE and ARCANIUM is going:

Mustaine: "The tour's been going really great. MACHINE HEAD is a great band. Played them on my [radio] station [Megadeth Radio]. And SUICIDE SILENCE is a new band that a lot of people are finding a lot of interest in. And the guys in the opening band, ARCANIUM. Very interesting band, too. I like the frontman. He's very timid backstage. But when he gets out on stage, he really — besides the fact that he looks like he weighs about 80 pounds — he really has got a great persona, and I was surprised. So I think that band's gonna have some good things... if he eats a couple of cheeseburgers. [chuckles]"

On how the "message" from MEGADETH's albums is getting out:

Mustaine: "I had a guy from the UN [United Nations] actually call me up... Well, not call me up, but he said something about [MEGADETH's 2007 album] 'United Abominations', and this shows you how pea-brained this guy was. At the very end, after he tried to discredit me, he says, 'Besides, I'm a METALLICA fan anyways.' And I thought, 'What a twat.' 'Cause, I mean, I am part METALLICA, so what are you saying?! That's like going up to somebody who is mulatto and saying they don't have white or black in them. I am part METALLICA. So for him to say that, it just shows you why most of the people up there don't know what they're doing, 'cause you have people that are representing stuff saying childish things like that. That's sandbox mentality. You know what I mean?!"

On what he believes the "endgame" is:

Mustaine: "Well, me as a Christian, I believe that it's a one-world government, one-world currency. It's part of... My belief — and I said so in [MEGADETH's classic song] 'Holy Wars' — is that it's part of the master plan. It's what I believe. I ascribed to that when I became a Christian. I know that there's gonna be a cataclysmic ramping up of all of these things we're seeing right now, and it gets worse and it gets worse and it gets worse. We're watching our country disintegrate right now, and it's scary. You know, when I start thinking that I'm gonna be moving with [MEGADETH's Canadian-born drummer] Shawn Drover back up to Canada, that's scary. And that's what 'Endgame' is all about — it's about educating our fans and showing them a little bit about what's going within the previous administration and that things haven't changed at all; it's just more of people being run by the people who have the money."

METALLICA's official web site has been updated with the following message:

"You've been posting and chatting about it for months and we're here now to confirm it . . . METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH, and ANTHRAX will all share the same stage for the first time EVER! Look for the four of us at the Sonisphere shows in Warsaw, Poland and Prague, Czech Republic on June 16 and 19, 2010, with a few more of the festival dates still in the works. You can be sure these shows won't be the only ones."

Commented METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich: "Who would have thought that more than 25 years after its inception, thrash metal's 'Big Four' would not only still be around and more popular than ever, but will now play together for the first time...what a mindfuck! Bring it on!"

The announcement on METALLICA's official web site seems to directly contradict MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine's December 8, 2009 online posting in which he said, "Although there have been many rumors about a reunion of the 'Big Four' set to happen in Eastern Europe next summer, the plan never came together for us. We are hopeful that this will happen for real one day and will keep you posted as things develop."

Rumors of a massive tour featuring thrash metal's "Big Four" — METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX — first began circulating this past summer after SLAYER guitarist Kerry King told U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine that Ulrich was trying to make the package a reality. Those rumors were seemingly squashed when METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett said that the outing would never see the light of day. Kirk said in an early October radio interview, "That tour is not gonna happen. I've been hearing that, we've all been hearing that for awhile. I get asked about it regularly. And as far as a tour going on, it's not gonna happen." When asked why, Hammett said, "Conflicting schedules, conflicting personalities, a lot of conflicting things. It's a good idea though. And, personally, I can see the significance of playing a tour like that, but... it's not gonna happen."

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield recently gave The Pulse of Radio a little more insight into how the "Big Four" tour rumor started. "I think it was certainly spurred on by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and getting all these great, nostalgic feelings, you know. And, you know, the more we thought about — 'Hey, you know what? We should celebrate the Bay Area thrash scene. Why don't we make a reunion of that or something?' And it basically morphed into, you know, the Big Four doing a gig together, and how cool that would be. Pretty much it went as far as that."

Hetfield added that while the idea was looked into, it never really got that far. "We kind of talked a little bit about it, went back and forth," he said. "No one really looked into it. But then the rumor got out and it's one of those things like, 'Well, is it true?' It's one of those awkward positions that you're in — you have a good idea, and you haven't followed through with it quite yet. But I think it would be a great celebration of the past and where we are now in our lives. I think it would be great."

Much of the fan speculation about such a tour revolved around the participation of MEGADETH, which is led by former METALLICA guitarist Dave Mustaine. Mustaine has expressed ambivalence about opening for the band that kicked him out 27 years ago and has gone as far as to say that he would not be interested in playing "in the round" (with the stage in the center of the arena and the crowd surrounding), which seems to be METALLICA's preferred stage setup nowadays.

According to Roger Friedman of Showbiz411.com, AEROSMITH singer Steven Tyler has changed managers again. The frontman has left Union Entertainment Group — which represents NICKELBACK, CINDERELLA, LYNCH MOB, HINDER and LYNAM — and has signed with Allen Kovac of 10th Street Entertainment (MÖTLEY CRÜE, PAPA ROACH, BUCKCHERRY, DROWNING POOL).

Before signing with Union Entertainment Group, Tyler was being represented by the Boston rockers' longtime handlers, HK Management (headed up by Howard Kaufman and Trudy Green), who have managed AEROSMITH since 1999.

A recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine featured an in-depth look at the rift between Steven Tyler and the rest of AEROSMITH, including interviews with guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, plus drummer Joey Kramer, in which they spoke openly about their relationship with Tyler and their plans for the group's future.

Tyler has been estranged from the band since August, when he fell from a stage in South Dakota and forced the group to cancel the rest of its summer tour.

The other members have revealed that none of them have had any contact with Tyler in months. Whitford and Kramer have hinted that they think Tyler might be using drugs again.

The Rolling Stone article also hints at musical differences between Tyler, who prefers to record radio-friendly pop hits, and the rest of the band, who want to get back to their harder-rocking roots.

Italian metallers SLOWMOTION APOCALYPSE have issued the following update:

"Unfortunately, this time we're writing for giving you bad news.

"Only few days ago we discovered Nicolas [Milanese, guitar] suffers from leukemia. He will have to go through a rather long period of therapy and this won't allow him to give his contribution to the life of SLOWMOTION APOCALYPSE.

"We're all shocked and as a band we decided to wait for him to be able to have a normal life and to be able to play with us again. We are therefore taking a pause for an indeterminate period of time. All our shows are cancelled. We're sure you'll understand the reasons of our choice.

"A special message to all our friends: Nicolas needs first of all to have a rest. We ask you not to call him but rather send him text messages.

"Thank you all."

The forthcoming fourth album proper from English progressive black metal band THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL is in the final stages of completion. Entitled "The Murder Of Jesus The Jew", the CD will feature guest appearances by Hoest (TAAKE) and Vincent Crowley (ACHERON). Songtitles set to appear on the album include "From Eagle To Cross", "God Of Sand", "Apostle Of The Uncircumcised", "Jew Killer" and "The Man From Keiroth". The intro and one instrumental were created by Mirai (SIGH), with guitar and keyboard parts handled by Alisa Coral (SPACE MIRRORS) and Elle Torry (live guitarist for IMPERIAL VENGEANCE).

The core elements of THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL — Metatron (vocals), J.D Tait (guitar), Alan Davey (bass) and Urakbarameel (drums) — have created a concept album that centers around the humanity of the Galilean healer who became a God of western aspirations and whose own roots became washed away with the cleansing of the Roman Church.

"The Murder Of Jesus The Jew" is scheduled for release mid-2010.

Finnish "dark metal" band EVEMASTER — which features in its ranks BATTLELORE's Tomi Mykkänen — has completed work on its new album, "III: Newtopia", for an early 2010 release via an as-yet-undetermined record label.

The track listing for the CD is as follows:

01. Enter
02. New Age Dawns
03. Humanimals
04. Losing Ground
05. The Great Unrest
06. Sweet Poison
07. Harvester of Souls
08. Fevered Dreams
09. Absolution

The following musicians have contributed to the making of the album:

* Jarno Taskula: vocals
* Tomi Mykkänen: guitars, synths, vocals
* Enrico Annus (KHERT-NETER): drums
* Ville Sorvali (MOONSORROW): bass
* Dan Swanö: clean vocals
* Ismo Monola (MY SWEET SORROWS): synths
* Markus Vanhala (OMNIUM GATHERUM): lead guitar on two songs
* Harri Hyytiäinen (AVATHAR): vocals

Death-Illustrated has started working on the cover artwork.

The fourth in a series of video clips documenting the recording sessions for "III: Newtopia" can be viewed below. According to Mykkänen, "It is a concept album revolving around a dystopian dream or a fall of this one pitiful man... Musically this album is the third part of the trilogy. Next album will be musically different going deeper in the emotions and darker side of human mind."

Rising Realm Records released a re-recorded version of EVEMASTER's debut album, re-titled "MMIV Lacrimae Mundi", in early 2005. Drums on "MMIV Lacrimae Mundi" were handled by CHILDREN OF BODOM's Jaska Raatikainen. According to the band, the idea behind the re-recording was to make it "as punk as possible … a lot harsher sounding and heavier than the original version."

EVEMASTER's second CD, "Wither", was recorded at Astia Studios (CHILDREN OF BODOM, WARMEN, ENTWINE) with producer Anssi Kippo and featured a guest appearance on drums by Raatikainen. Also included on the CD was a cover of TAROT's "Wings Of Darkness", with lead vocals courtesy of Marco Hietala (NIGHTWISH, TAROT, ex-SINERGY).

Reactivated Swedish old-school death metallers INTERMENT have issued the following update:

"We are finally ready for the recordings of our first-ever full-length album. On January 2 it's time to crawl into Erebos Studios and start nailing down some deadly old-school tunes under the supervision of Peter Bjärgo known from TYRANT and CRYPT OF KERBEROS.

"No album title is set yet; we have a few to choose from so lets see… The plan is to feature nine or ten tracks on the album including a couple of re-recordings from ancient demo tapes. We will also record a few extra tracks for future EPs etc.

"The album should be released in April 2010 through Pulverised and backed up by some European live massacres. Keep your filthy eyes open!!"

INTERMENT released a split CD with FUNEBRARUM, "Conjuration of the Sepulchral", in January 2007 on Conqueror Of Thorn Records.

The band played its first gig since 1992 at Daniel Ekeroth's (INSISION bassist) release party for his book "Swedish Death Metal" on January 26, 2007 at Kafe 44 in Stockholm.

INTERMENT played its first show outside Sweden at the 2007 edition of the Party.San Metal Open Air festival, which was held August 9-11, 2007 in Bad Berka, Germany.

INFERNAL, the project led by Swedish guitarist David Parland (NECROPHOBIC, DARK FUNERAL), has issued the following update:

"Re-recordings of the first tracks are very soon finished, and will be released as a 7" special gatefold EP by underground cult label GoatHorned Productions.

"These re-recordings had to be done because of several reasons, but only one main reason really forced us to do this. Our previous drummer, Tomas Asklund, has refused to let us use the original recordings, since he plays (the drums) on them, and as well did the engineering job while I laid down the vocals at his Monolith studio, earlier this year.

"When we split up with him (on mutual terms) and after some serious and longer time going problems, (apparently felt from both sides, we don't blame Tomas for what has happened, but these re-recordings would by no means been necessary if we would have been able to use original ones), we wanted to use the original recordings for this particular 7" EP, but he said that he wouldn't agree to that under any circumstances. This despite given the options to simply erase his contributions/drum tracks, but this was not accepted from him either, despite us offering him to pay money for the studiotime being used.

"So, to get this 7" EP out, we have had to re-record everything from scratch, although it, of course, felt somewhat unnecessary, since we already got the stuff recorded. However, after some thinking and planning, we thought, OK, let's do this all over again,' and as well let our new drummer extraordinaire, Carl Engström (from Norway), do his 'trial by fire' wih this re-recording, in about one week.

"So, now these songs are very soon re-recorded and ready for release by GoatHorned (early next year). Check the cover illustration for this special EP entitled 'The Infernal Return' [below].

"Of course, this special EP is just a cool thing. The main thing now is to finish the writing of the coming full-length in 2010. This is the one and only goal now.

"We have 75 % of the material at the moment for the album, and are right now in talks with a certain well-known label about releasing it.

"Anyway, regardless of which label that will end up releasing the album, it will contain nine songs and and an intro and outro and will hopfully be out around autumn 2010.

Regarding the decision to use the INFERNAL name for the new project (INFERNAL's previous lineup split up in 2003), David previously said, "When we started up again, we initially wanted to call the band something totally different, but we never came up with anything good enough, and whenever we did, we found out that these names already were taken. . . The concept still remains 100% Satanic; we see no reason to not call ourselves something less good or half-assed, just because the sound mainly is no longer the hyper-blast stuff we used to do in our earlier bands. This new INFERNAL is still purely Satanic, but generally has a more accessible sound, more melodic, but still brutal, and with some blast parts as well. We generally want to people to think of this as new band, more or less a complete rebirth of a band that once was (and still is again). We don't want people to even compare it with the old stuff since it's in most ways not the same band."

"Against My Will", the new video from Quebec City, Canada's WITHERING CURSE, can be viewed below. The clip was filmed this past fall by D-Clip Production.

"Against My Will" comes off the sextet's debut album, "Only Ashes Remain". The CD was recorded at Studio Unika and was produced and mixed by Steeve Chiasson and WITHERING CURSE. It was mastersed by Steeve Chiasson and Frédéric Fortin.

Described as "modern melodic metal," WITHERING CURSE's first album is described in a press release as "an extremely well-built mix of rock and metal music, intelligently strewn with hardcore influences, catchy riffs and pounding breakdowns."

"Only Ashes Remain" track listing:

01. Save Us (Doomsday Anthem)
02. The Murderous Nurses
03. Against My Will
04. Relic Memories
05. Images of Greed
06. Only Ashes Remain
07. Bullet Inside Your Head
08. Trade the Devil =
09. Where Am I? =
10. Revolution
11. Origins
12. Our Atheist Wedding

WITHERING CURSE is:

Jason Marois - Vocals
Eric Filteau - Guitar
Alexandre Gauthier - Guitar
Patrick Filteau - Drums
David Ruel - Bass
Christophe Neault - Keyboards

SPV/Steamhammer has set a January 25, 2009 European release date for the re-release of DORO's 2000 album "Calling The Wild". The CD comes in a "high-class digipak" with a bonus CD (with two previously unreleased tracks). The extensive booklet includes new photos and liner notes by Doro Pesch and Nick Douglas.

Commented Doro: "Recording 'Love Me Forever' with Lemmy was one of the highlights in my life! Lemmy was so cool in the studio. When I was ready to do my vocals he always gave me a big kiss on my forehead and said: 'Now you sing great, OK? Oh, yes, I felt soooo good and I would sing my heart out. Sometimes Lemmy would move me to tears…

"'Constant Danger' and 'Who You Love' were written in Nashville with Gary as well… We had a great understanding and such a good vibe going… We always wrote at night and I always felt the magic! We were a great team since we've worked together on the 'True At Heart' record in 1991.
"'Ich Will Alles' was the first fast and heavy German song for me. I wrote it really fast and had so much fun singing it. It feels really good to have an aggression song in German and it became the first single of this album. I love to play it loud and proud and always with a sense of humour…

"'Danke' to all the fans and people in this world who love, support and understand me…"

"Calling The Wild" (обложка) re-release track listing:

CD1

01. Kiss Me Like A Cobra (03:18)
02. Dedication (I Give my Blood) (03:54)
03. Burn It Up (02:45)
04. Give Me Your Reason (04:19)
05. Who You Love (03:51)
06. Scarred (04:39)
07. Ich Will Alles (02:26)
08. White Wedding (04:37)
09. I Wanna Live (02:42)
10. Love Me Forever (05:15)
11. Fuel (03:50)
12. Constant Danger (03:39)
13. Black Rose (03:42)
14. Now Or Never (Hope In The Darkest Hour) (03:51)
15. Danke (02:57)

CD2

01. Alone Again (04:20)
02. I Want More (02:25)
03. Rip Me Apart (03:42)
04. I Adore You (03:22)
05. Burn It Up (Thunder Mix) (03:03)
06. Burn It Up (Lightning Mix) (03:03)
07. Burn It Up (Burning Mix) (03:14)
08. Burn It Up (Burning Hot Mix) (03:19)
09. Burn It Up (Lightning Strikes Again Mix) (02:41)
10. Ich Will Alles (acoustic) (01:48)
11. Burn It Up (acoustic) (03:42)

Wearing a "Rehab Is For Quitters" shirt, IN FLAMES guitarist Jesper Strömblad — who checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic earlier in the year in order to receive treatment for his alcohol addiction — rejoined the band on stage Friday night (December 11) at Hovet in Stockholm, Sweden for the last two songs of the group's set, "Take This Life" and "My Sweet Shadow". The band performed the tracks as a six-piece, with Strömblad's temporary replacement, Niclas Engelin from the Swedish band ENGEL, playing alongside Jesper.

The sold-out show was attended by 8,335 people, making it IN FLAMES' biggest headlining show ever.

Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be viewed below.

Engelin has helped IN FLAMES on a couple of occasions in the past and is no stranger to the band's songs or the touring life.

The group previously said in a statement: "Jesper has struggled for some time with alcoholic abuse, and decided to sit this [tour] out in order to seek help and focus on rehabilitation and all that comes with it. We all talked about it and together with Jesper, we chose to ask our longtime friend Niclas Engelin, who helped us before, to complete the tour. We are all sad that it needed to come to this, but health comes first. This is something Jesper needed to do for himself and we wish Jesper all the best with his recovery and hope to have him back on the road with us again very, very soon!"