Finland's AMORPHIS spent the beginning of the year in the studio preparing its as-yet-untitled eighth album, due on August 29 in Finland and on August 31 in the rest of Europe via Nuclear Blast Records. As a first taste of the new material, a single will be released on June 27. The new CD was recorded at Sonic Pump studios in Helsinki, Finland. Mixing duties will be handled by Mikko Karmila (NIGHTWISH, STRATOVARIUS) at Finnvox studios.

Having recently made a phenomenal return to the pinnacle of the Finnish metal scene, AMORPHIS will be treating their Finnish fans to a mini-tour comprising four gigs in April. The Helsinki show is already sold out, but tickets to the Turku, Eura, and Jyväskylä concerts are still available.

NightOfTheVinylDead.com will release SENTENCED's 1998 album, "Frozen", on limited-edition iceclear splateer vinyl. Due on March 19, the 500 hand-numbered copies feature the following track listing:

Side A:

01. Kaamos
02. Farewell
03. Dead Leaves
04. For The Love I Bear
05. One With Misery
06. The Suicider

Side B:

01. The Rain Comes Falling Down
02. Grave Sweet Grave
03. Burn
04. Drown Together
05. Let Go (The Last Chapter)
06. Mourn (The Last Chapter)

For more information, click here

The title track of the fourth studio album from ANTIMATTER — the project whose recording/touring lineup has included current and former members of ANATHEMA — has been made available for download on the band's MySpace page. Check out the song "Leaving Eden" at this location.

After Duncan Patterson left the band in 2005, Mick Moss gathered a number of guest musicians around him — among others Danny Cavanagh (ANATHEMA) — to record the most depressive and heaviest album of ANTIMATTER's discography. This is attested by the dynamics of "Leaving Eden", the increased use of electric guitars and forceful drumming.

"Leaving Eden" will be released as a limited, first-edition digipak on April 16. The track listing is as follows:

01. Redemption
02. Another Face In A Window
03. Ghosts
04. The Freak Show
05. Landlocked
06. Conspire
07. Leaving Eden
08. The Immaculate Misconception
09. Fighting For A Lost Cause

Finnish melodic metallers ALTARIA will release a compilation album, entitled "Divine Invitation", on May 25. "The compilation is a mid-price release made for fans!" the band writes on its web site. "Due to the high demand and ongoing requests for the songs of the completely sold out first two albums of the band, 'Invitation' (2003) and 'Divinity' (2004), the idea came up to make the best five songs each available again, to introduce new singer Marco Luponero with two brand new songs and add another seven (!) bonus tracks which originally appeared on the band's sought-after demos 'Sleeping Visions' (2001) and 'Feed The Fire' (2002)."

"Divine Invitation" (view artwork at this location) track listing:

01. Fire & Ice
02. Unchain The Rain
03. Darkened Highlight
04. History Of Times To Come
05. Try To Remember
06. Unicorn
07. Prophet Of Pestilence
08. Ravenwing
09. Innocent
10. Final Warning
11. Keeper Of Mystique *
12. Ball & Chain *
13. Fire & Ice (Demo 2001)
14. Innocent (Demo 2001)
15. Kingdom Of The Night (Demo 2001)
16. Unicorn (Demo 2002)
17. History Of Times To Come (Demo 2002)
18. Immortal Disorder (Demo 2002)
19. Emerald Eye (Demo 2002)

* new songs

Polish extreme metal titans BEHEMOTH have started mixing their new album, "The Apostasy", at Dug-Out studios in Uppsala, Sweden with Daniel Bergstrand (MESHUGGAH, IN FLAMES, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD).

Commented mainman Nergal: "Finally I made it to Sweden. I know, we owe you the new video report and some news but lately things were just insane here and physically I wasn't able to deal with anything but recordings. Last few weeks I spent in the studio in Poland were nothing but constant struggle. Tracking down the record for three months straight (!!!) led us to the point where we no longer were able to judge the results objectively. Needless to say, it was me who fanatically tried to complete the recordings with the best possible result. It took me some time to realize that I could go on like this…forever. I'm happy I finally said STOP so we could move on. I still lack objectivism and all I have now is pure faith that THIS is so far the most completed record we've ever committed as a band. The performance on 'The Apostasy' is simply awesome and I have to say that we really outdone ourselves this time.

"Anyway, I'm here in up in the north of this beautiful country, in a little town Uppsala. Daniel is currently putting the final touches to drums. Earlier today we compared this to our last record 'Demigod'. And let me tell you something…we REALLY beat that record! Drums sound sooo tight and intense that's almost impossible to keep up tempo, ha ha. I already see these comments saying that's humanly impossible to play THAT fast and technical, ha ha. We are starting with guitars and bass tomorrow. Also today I managed to download guest vocals to the song called 'Inner Sanctum' but I'm not gonna reveal any names, yet. Sit tight and be surprised. Cross fingers my friends! I'll be back shortly with a longer update and hopefully some video footage from the studio!"

After mixing the record, BEHEMOTH will join the No Mercy bill in Europe for two weeks. In April, Nergal & Co. will visit Israel for one exclusive show and shortly after will fly out to U.S. for a mini tour. An extensive Russian tour is planned for May this year as well as the band's first visit to the Balkans.

A 30-second clip of LINKIN PARK's new single, "What I've Done", has been posted online at the The Linkin Park Times web site. The song comes off the group's third studio album, "Minutes to Midnight", due on May 15. Vocalist/MC Mike Shinoda said in a statement that the new effort was "a breakthrough in the development of the band's sound. We wrote in new ways, and used instruments and equipment we hadn't experimented with before...We tried to question every step in our songwriting process."

Shinoda co-produced the CD with Rick Rubin and said he enjoyed working with the 2007 Grammy winner for Producer of the Year. "Rick's amazing," he said. "He's awesome. He's constantly...the thing about Rick that I love is he's unpredictable. He'll listen to a song and he'll throw out an idea that seems like it's just completely out of nowhere, but it makes a lot of sense and it makes the song better."

Rubin said about the new LINKIN PARK record, "They really are reinventing themselves, it doesn't sound like rap-rock. There's very strong songwriting. It's very melodic...a progressive record."

LINKIN PARK spent 14 months working on the album, demoing more than 100 songs before settling on the final track listing. "Minutes to Midnight" follows 2003's "Meteora", which has sold 5.4 million copies in the U.S.

The group will launch a series of "webisodes" at LinkinPark.com over the next few weeks which will focus on "unseen footage of the history of LINKIN PARK, building up to an inside look at the studio experience of the new album," according to bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell.

LINKIN PARK will headline the second day of this year's Bamboozle festival on May 6 in New Jersey and will announce details of its summer tour next month. Singer Chester Bennington confirmed to MTV.com that the band will revive its Projekt Revolution trek, probably starting around July 24 and extending through Labor Day. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE is heavily rumored to be on the bill.

ROYAL HUNT and John West have decided that at this time (after numerous albums and concert tours) they are no longer able to contribute creatively to each other’s future musical development. It’s been a hell of a ride, but both parties feel like it is about time to move on and explore different musical paths - therefore, they mutually agreed to part ways as of March 16th, 2007 .

“We’re not ruling out possible future collaborations for a joint venture or a side project” – André and John state - “but it won’t be under the RH moniker”.

John had joined Royal Hunt in 1999 during the recording of the “Fear” album and he worked with the band until our latest release – live CD/DVD “Royal Hunt 2006”. We’d like to express our gratitude to John for a great 8-year run and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Frontman Zak Tell of the Swedish rap/metal combo CLAWFINGER has issued the following update:

"I've been going through my lyrics these last few days, correcting spelling mistakes and changing words and lines I'm not satisfied with as it's soon time to do the final
recordings for the new album! Paedophilia, addiction, death, suicide bombers, self-esteem issues and misers are a few of the topics I've chosen to write about this time around. Not very uplifting stuff, I guess, but hey that's just me and it's not as if I actually plan it, it just happens, I promise! There are a few positive lyrics as well so it's not all gloom, doom and troubled thoughts. A majority of the tracks are though.

"Anyway, I guess there are a few different reasons as to why I chose to write about the stuff I do, the logical one being that the music we play is of a slightly aggressive
nature and therefore inspires darker lyrics, although that's not entirely true as we also have softer and less serious songs and I sometimes also break free from the given formula. Most of the time I don't, though, out of fear of getting lost! The second reason is that it's simply my outlet for all the less pleasant things that go through my head. My everyday life is fairly normal and family-orientated so to get some sort of balance I use CLAWFINGER as my frustration ventilator or whatever you want to call it!

"Today we continued work on a new track that is turning into a beerdrinking song with a singalong chorus. It's sort of a mixture between QUEEN and MANOWAR with a little CLAWFINGER flavour added. Normally I would consider that to be a bad sign, at least the MANOWAR part, but when the first thing that came to mind after hearing what we'd done was 'I wanna drink beer,' then I realized it simply can't be bad even if it's not entirely tasteful. That's rock and roll logic for you. The funny thing about it is that is was one of the first tracks we recorded during the demo sessions for this album but we never managed to make the fucker work. Now it's gotten to the point where you can't even recognize the song anymore, it's gone through so many different arrangements and coatings that it's been totally transformed into something else. That's the magic of music!"

CLAWFINGER's latest album, entitled "Hate Yourself with Style", was released in the U.S. in February 2006 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The following message has been posted on METALLICA's official web site:

"METALLICA left the comfort of HQ this week to descend upon the greater Los Angeles area to begin recording their ninth original album. This is the first time they've recorded outside of the Bay Area since they spent an eternity at One On One Studios recording the 'Black' album in '90 and '91. The last couple days have been devoted to each band member working out the right sounds, including Lars [Ulrich, drums] who remembered to turn on the snare and Kirk [Hammett, guitar] who played a solo! The big, shiny red button was finally pushed today — and the wait begins.'

Check put pictures from the recording studio at Metallica.com.

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told a New York radio program on March 2 that the band will lay down 14 songs for its ninth studio album, which the group officially began recording on March 12.

Unlike the troubled, turbulent sessions for the band's last album, 2003's "St. Anger", Ulrich told Launch that pre-production for the new effort has had a whole different vibe. "It's frighteningly tame (laughs)," he said. "The four of us show up and we hang out and we have a great time, and there are no psychiatrists in sweaters, there are no film crews, it's very much like it used to be. It's pretty mellow around here. All that 'St. Anger' stuff seems like a movie (laughs)."

The group plans to work in the studio until early June, take a break for its European tour, then finish recording in August. As for whether METALLICA will release the new album in 2007, Ulrich said, "I'd like to try and get it out this year, I hope we can get it out this year. If it doesn't come out this year, then it will be out at the very beginning of next year."

According to Herzeleid.com, German industrial metallers RAMMSTEIN have been nominated for an Echo award for their latest live DVD/CD, "Völkerball". The German Echo awards are similar to the American Grammy Awards. The basis for the award is simply the best-placed music DVD production as determined by Media Control, the official German charts. RAMMSTEIN are up against DEPECHE MODE ("Touring the Angel"), PINK FLOYD ("Pulse"), ROBBIE WILLIAMS ("And Through it All"), and TOKIO HOTEL ("Schrei"). The awards ceremony will take place in Berlin on March 25.

RAMMSTEIN's latest album, "Rosenrot", received its long-overdue U.S. release in March 2006 via Universal Music. The CD, which was certified platinum in Germany for sales in excess of 200,000 copies within two weeks of release in October 2005, topped the official album chart in Germany, Austria and Finland, and landed at No. 2 in Sweden and Denmark, No. 4 in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, No. 5 in France, No. 6 in Mexico, No. 11 in Italy and No. 29 in the U.K. In addition, "Rosenrot" achieved gold status in Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

RAMMSTEIN's track "Mein Teil" was nominated in the "Best Metal Performance" category at the 2006 Grammy Awards.

On April 13, 2007, long-running British gothic metal leaders PARADISE LOST will release the first single taken off their much-anticipated upcoming Century Media Records debut "In Requiem", which sees the band combine the classic heaviness of "Draconian Times" with the melodic feel of their more recent studio albums. The new single, "The Enemy", will only be released in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

"In Requiem" was produced by Rhys Fulber (who already produced the last two PARADISE LOST albums as well as releases by FEAR FACTORY, FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, etc.) and mixed by Mike Fraser (AC/DC, AEROSMITH, METALLICA, etc.).

Vocalist Nick Holmes on the new masterpiece: "We wanted to make a heavier, darker PARADISE LOST album. But it was also important to write songs that encompass the melody that has become very much an integral part of our music over the last 10 years."

Greg Mackintosh (lead guitar) adds: "The album, 'In Requiem', is a very conscious decision by us to take our sound in a more raw, organic, less polished direction. Musically, it is about finding the balance between brutality and empathy, between horror and beauty. Neither a celebration nor a lamentation. Simply the emotions that arise, being surrounded by life and death."

"In Requiem" will be released in Europe on May 21 (June 5 in North America).

The single "The Enemy" includes a trailer for the upcoming PARADISE LOST documentary "Over the Madness" (directed by Diran Noubar and debuting at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007) as a video enhancement and the exclusive non-album track "Godless".

"The Enemy" track listing:

01. The Enemy
02. Beneath Black Skies
03. Godless (exclusive single bonus track)

German metalcore act DEADLOCK has posted its video for the track "Code of Honor" at YouTube.com. The song comes off the group's third album, "Wolves", due on April 16 in Europe and May 29 in the U.S. via Lifeforce Records. The CD was recorded during September-November by band's mastermind Sebastian Reichl. It was mixed by Jacob Hansen (MERCENARY, NIGHTRAGE, RAUNCHY) and Peter "Ziggy" Siegfredsen (MERCENARY, ILLDISPOSED, HATESPHERE).

"Wolves" track listing:

01. World Domination
02. We Shall All Bleed
03. Code of Honor
04. Losers' Ballet
05. Dark Cell
06. Crown of Creation
07. End Begins
08. As Words to Bullets
09. Praeludium II
10. Bloodpact
11. To Where the Skies are Blue

Drummer Tobias Graf previously stated about the new CD: "We continued the path that we started with our first album, 'The Arrival', in 2002. On this third full-length you can expect the next step of enthralling keyboard overkills, bombastic orchestral stuff and fast lead-attacks combined with one of the most talented female vocalist around, Sabine Weniger. With her songwriting vocation, our songs getting more depth, variability and emotion. For us it's definitely the best and most innovative work we've ever created. We're curious to the audiences reactions and hope, that you all our fans and listeners will love our new baby as much as we do."

Well into the fray of his third era, MORTIIS has reached the industrial apex and will be releasing a remix album, featuring remixes of titles from “The Grudge” album by industrial standards such as VELVET ACID CHRIST, ZOMBIE GIRL, PIG, FUNKER VOGT, and DOPE STARS. Shedding the elfin prosthetic that became his signature in Era 1 and Era 2, MORTIIS has morphed into a industrial/dance floor favorite, combining elements of his black metal roots, industrial, and rock - spewing out earth moving tracks that shine on the industrial dance floor. Titled “Some Kind of Heroin,” the remix album will hit on April 16th and is a moving behemoth, complete with 16 mash-ups of MORTIIS’ work by some of the brightest artist in the industrial community. MORTIIS expresses gratitude for the artists that have contributed to “Some Kind OF Heroin” and had the following things to say about the album:

"I’m really stoked we finally got to do a remix album and since it's been in process for quite some time now I'm happy to be able to finally release it. I've always been fascinated with taking songs and twisting them into something different, the ability to grab the elements you like and put them into a totally different environment. The flexibility of that really appeals to me. I think the mixes all those guys did came out really cool, many of them vastly different from what would have come out of the studio if I had done them. It's cool to see what happens when you let other people inside your head, so to speak. I think the variety of mixers and sonic realms created here will appeal to a large variety of people."
MORTIIS will be touring Europe throughout April with DEATHSTARS, revamping live shows with an extra dosage of visual fixation and sonic majesty! MORTIIS is now available for email interviews – please contact me for all requests and lets take this chance to introduce the newest era of MORTIIS to your audiences!

Listen to EXCLUSIVE streaming audio of the entire “Some Kind Of Heroin” album at: http://www.earache.com/bands/mortiis/skoh/skoh.html
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THRESHOLD's video for the track "Pilot in the Sky of Dreams" has been posted online at YouTube. The song has been edited by producers/bandmembers Karl Groom and Richard West at Thin Ice Studios down from a length of 9:44 to just under 4 minutes for the video version. The video was shot in Leipzig, Germany with producer Film-M, whose previous credits include DISILLUSION, AMON AMARTH, DEW-SCENTED and DEADSOUL TRIBE. The track comes off the U.K. progressive metallers' forthcoming album "Dead Reckoning", due in Europe on March 23 (U.S. March 20, U.K. on March 26) through Nuclear Blast Records.

NAPALM DEATH bassist Shane Embury has issued the following update:

"Busy times ahead indeed. Finally started working on a project with Mick Kenney of ANAAL NATHRAKH last week, which is sounding pretty insane and will be out on the Feto Records label towards the end of the year.

"Had a great rehearsal with some of the guys from BRUJERIA on Saturday in preparation for our forthcoming London show and Italian dates, and right now have the man himself — Dan Lilker — here at my house for a few days after his recent tour with BRUTAL TRUTH as we start writing and preparing songs for the third VENOMOUS CONCEPT album!

"Dan will be taking over the bass guitar duties while I will be steping into the guitarist position. Buzzo [MELVINS/FANTOMAS guitarist Buzz Osborne] will still be guesting from time to time and as his schedule sees fit. Bizzarely enough i have to speak with mad metal producer Russ Russell tommorow as he will be mixing the finally recorded second VENOMOUS CONCEPT album which will be out on Feto also this coming summer."

RUSH's brand new single, "Far Cry", is available for streaming in its entirety at rush.com. The track comes off the Canadian trio's new album, "Snakes & Arrows", due on May 1 via Anthem/Atlantic. Check out the album cover artwork at this location.

"Snakes & Arrows" track listing:

01. Far Cry
02. Armor and Sword
03. Workin’ Them Angels
04. The Larger Bowl
05. Spindrift
06. The Main Monkey Business
07. The Way The Wind Blows
08. Hope
09. Faithless
10. Bravest Face
11. Good News First
12. Malignant Narcissism
13. We Hold On

In a recent interview with Revolver magazine (web site), RUSH vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee stated about the upcoming CD, "It's hard to describe. It's big, it's bold, and I think it's some of the best work we've done in years. I'm really pleased with the quality of the songs, and there's lots of playing on it."

"Snakes & Arrows" promises to be the most organic-sounding RUSH effort in decades, having been influenced by their experience of making "Feedback", the band's 2004 EP of classic-rock covers.

KATATONIA's live performance from last year's Summer Breeze open-air festival in Germany will be released as a double-disc live album/DVD, entitled "Live Consternation", on May 28. The "super jewelcase" packaging will feature both the audio on CD and the show on DVD (including both 2.0 and 5.1 versions). The artwork was once again designed by Travis Smith and will close the visual concept for "The Great Cold Distance" phase. The track listing will be as follows:

01. Leaders
02. Wealth
03. Soil's Song
04. Had to (Leave)
05. Cold Ways
06. Right into the Bliss
07. Ghost of the Sun
08. Criminals
09. Deliberation
10. July
11. Evidence

Italy's DOPE STARS INC. has parted ways with Grace Khold (synths, samples, programming) due to "personal reasons." In addition, the band has announced the addition of guitarist La Nuit. According to a posting on the group's web site, DOPE STARS INC. will continue as a quartet, with Victor Love continuing to take care of all synthesizers and programming like he has done from the band's inception.

DOPE STARS INC.'s latest album, "Gigahearts", was released last November. The CD was produced by Victor Love and includes "11 tracks to kick your ass very bad but also to satisfy your desire of melodies and electronic exploration," according to a posting on the group's web site.

British gothic metallers PARADISE LOST have set "In Requiem" as the title of their 11th album, due in the U.K. on May 21 via Century Media Records. The artwork for the CD will be created by Seth Siro Anton, who was the artwork designer for the group's last album, "Paradise Lost".

Commented drummer Jeff Singer: "The whole process for 'In Requiem' has been very different to the experience of recording [the self-titled 10th album]. The last album was very much a case of 'go with the flow' as I came in very late with the writing pretty much finished. There were bits and pieces changed during pre production but it was about fitting in the right drum parts without much time to work on them and although I think it is a great album I didn't feel I had time to work with the songs and really create my feel.

"Being the 'newbie' at that time meant just keeping my head down and getting the job done. Two and a half years later and after touring with the band I felt a lot more settled, part of the unit and very much part of the creative process.

"It must be a year now since the first ideas were being sent across but it was around August that the first album pre-production took place. It was clear that the bar had been [raised] in terms of the performance that was needed and without putting too fine a point on it I had some hard work to do. I had four months of worry. Let's pull no punches here, love or hate PARADISE LOST, this is an iconic band and as the drummer I have to be a good representation of the band...and now I had been settled in for three years I had alot to prove! It was clear to me that as a band we were all a lot more focused and we rehearsed a lot harder for this album. Fact is that it shows and I genuinely can't wait for people to hear it.

"At this point I have to mention Rhys [Fulber, producer]. He is a really strong part of the team and is with you all the way. He bolstered me up big time and was totally confident and positive with regard to my performances. This is incredibly important to us delicate flowers that they call musicians....alright drummers! We concentrated very much on getting a great drum sound (thanks Gretsch and Sabian) and trying to get a perfect take during recording as opposed to edits or drop-ins. We also worked harder on tempos to make sure each song had a better flow and it really shows.

"One thing that made me laugh was Nick [Holmes, vocals] mentioning that he and Greg [Mackintosh, guitar] were in the studio, in adjacent rooms all day sending insults on Messenger...it is totally true LOL!!

"So what can you expect? Very heavy, very dark and lots of double bass drums..."

KATATONIA's brand new video for the song "July", shot and directed by Charlie Granberg, has been posted online at YouTube.com.

Commented Granberg: "It's basically a perfomance video. But I wanted the feeling of the band playing in a very rough, abandonded or even bombed out house, in an extremely warm country like Mexico or somewere in the middle east. Dark on the inside, but with sunbeams searching their way through the dust, hitting the bandmembers here and there. I really wanted the feeling of the outside world being so much better and brighter than the place the band is in. The biggest challenge with this video I think, was that I wanted to use really warm and grainy colours, wich is kinda rare in this type of music, but at the same time wrap it in a gloomy, apocalyptic feeling. But I think the balance is there and I'm happy the band liked it so much."

In other KATATONIA news, Peaceville has pushed the release date of the physical "July" CD single to April 9, but pre-orders are now being taken from Snapper Music. The digital download was released on February 26 and can be purchased from iTunes, Napster, Sonicstage and Emusic. In addition to the title track, the single includes a brand new/previously unreleased song called "Unfurl", a remix of "Soil's Song" by Krister Linder, and the video for "July",.