German metallers WARHEAD, whose original lineup included former REBELLION/current SILVER MAIDEN guitarist Björn Eilen, parted ways with singer Michael "Mitch" Mueller shortly after the completion of the band's fourth album due to "personal/business matters."

WARHEAD has yet to secure a record deal for "Captured", which is expected to be released later this year. It is rumored that the group's former singer Björn Eilen (SILVER MAIDEN, ex-REBELLION) may return to front the band, but this has not yet been officially confirmed.

The follow-up to 2000's "Beyond Recall", "Captured" will feature the following tracks:

01. Thanx Killing
02. Lies!
03. Captured
04. Battle Royale
05. Deatheater
06. Alive
07. Zombie Ride
08. Phantoms
09. Purple People
10. City Of God

To check out the song "Lies!" from "Captured", visit WARHEAD's MySpace.

WARHEAD's third album, "Beyond Recall", was produced by former GRAVE DIGGER/current REBELLION guitarist Uwe Lulis

Roadrunner Records has announced the signing of progressive metal pioneers DREAM THEATER. A new studio album, "Systematic Chaos", is due in June. DREAM THEATER will hit the road in support of the album for a world tour, including major festival appearances in Europe.

Since their first studio release in 1989, this U.S.-based five-piece has notched up record and DVD sales in excess of six million and headlined to audiences of 20,000. Having undertaken seven world tours across 42 different countries, DREAM THEATER has established a live reputation that has swept them to arena-status around the globe. They have appeared alongside acts such as DEEP PURPLE, IRON MAIDEN and YES.

Recognized by peers and public alike for their advanced musical expertise, the band (Mike Portnoy, drums; John Petrucci, guitar; John Myung, bass; James LaBrie, vocals; Jordan Rudess, keyboards) has long held the ability to combine complex arrangements with unadulterated songwriting skills, the material often underpinned by riffs as heavy as anything in the METALLICA repertoire.

"This album's got all of the elements we've become known for," reveals Portnoy. "The focus on musicianship, the skull-crushing riffs, the big progressive epics and the heart-wrenching melodies. We've got one of the strongest and most devoted fan bases in the world, and they should certainly be happy with the new material. By working closely with the label we hope to turn a great many new heads too."

"DREAM THEATER and Roadrunner Records have led parallel careers on the cutting edge of metal for many years," say A&R men, Derek Oliver and Dante Bonutto, "We're thrilled to be working with a genuine market-leader, and when you add everything the guys bring to the table to the independent spirit and work ethic of the label, the results can only be exciting in the extreme!"

Prior to teaming up with Roadrunner, DREAM THEATER was signed to a seven-album deal with Warner Music Group worldwide. The deal commenced with the critically acclaimed and commercially successful "Images And Words" (1992), a gold-certified U.S. release, and concluded, in equal style, with "Octavarium" (2005), a Top 40 Billboard outing. In August of last year the band issued "Score", a live album/DVD (recorded at Radio City Music Hall in New York), which went straight to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard DVD charts, knocking PINK FLOYD from the top!

By the following month, the five were holed up at Avatar Studios in New York, working on the new album with veteran engineer/ mixer Paul Northfield (RUSH, QUEENSRŸCHE, PORCUPINE TREE). As usual, Portnoy and Petrucci chose to co-produce the project, which features seven compositions (one a 25-minute epic), and word on the grapevine is that the DREAM THEATER/Roadrunner alliance looks all set to kick off with a classic.

"Systematic Chaos", DREAM THEATER's ninth studio release, arrives at a time when the band is casting a longer-than-ever shadow across the rock and metal landscape. Their influence is being acknowledged by an increasing number of contemporary, cutting-edge acts such as STONE SOUR, TRIVIUM, SHADOWS FALL, OPETH as their fan base continues to grow.

A little more than a year has passed since Scream Silence have cast their spell on both reviewers and the growing fan community.

Just 15 months after “Saviourine” the hard working Germans release their sixth work so far. Scream Silence never looked back to their own created horizons. More and more months of creative work they invested at their label-own Plainsong Studio to build their own musical microcosm and to extend the borders with every of the following four records as well.

“Aphelia”, a word from Greek mythology for the farthest point from the sun, ignites a firework of excellent songs, which are discharging in inexhaustible passion straight into the listener.

At first sight "Aphelia" seems to be rawer than its predecessors. The songs from the new material not only have the band-typical catchy melodies but also much more alternative- or progressive elements.

Club-fitting uptempo singles like “Kerosene” or “The Vitriol”, gloomy gothic rock songs as “Harvest” and “In Every Sin” or dark rock hymns like “Nothingness” and “Unspoken” and even the dearly beloved epic ballads “My Eyes” and finally the 10-minute title track “Aphelia” melt into a harmonic concept album of eternal beauty.

The extensive designed artwork of the multiple folding DigiPak cover explains the meaning of the lyrical work.

“Aphelia”, a small girl, here the symbol for the fragility of the human soul, strolls between unreal worlds she never belongs to and finally finds her only home world in the darkest of all places – herself.

The limited first edition of the album comes with additional Bonus-Live-Tracks, long awaited by every fan, recorded in December 2006 at the biggest dark music hall in Berlin, the K17.

All infos, pics + mp3 teaser under http://www.plainsong-records.de/pressarea.htm
login: presse password: psr006

Swedish "Viking metal" act MÅNEGARM will release its new album, "Vargstenen" (The Wolfstone), on May 4 via Black Lodge Records. The CD was recorded at Studio Underground with producer Pelle Saether.

"Vargstenen" projected track listing:

01. Uppvaknande-Ur själslig död
02. Minnen-En fallen fader
03. Den gamle talar (acoustic)
04. Genom världar nio
05. Visioner på isen
06. Vargbrodern talar (acoustic)
07. I underjorden
08. Nio dagar, nio nätter
09. Vargstenen
10. Vedergällningens tid
11. TBA (acoustic)

German-Romanian dark power metal band POWERWOLF has finished mixing its second album at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden with Fredrik Nordström and Patrik J. Sten. The as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2005's "Return in Bloodred" was recorded at Woodhouse studios in Hagen, Germany and is tentatively scheduled for release in Europe this spring via Metal Blade Records.

Commented the band: "Good god, it's done!!!! We finished mixing the last two songs today and transferred all the mixes to the mastering studio in Stockholm, where Peter in de Betou will lay final touches to the masters. A strange feeling right now to finally having finished that project after six intense weeks of production, editing and mixing. But now, sitting here in the recreation room of Studio Fredman listening to the finished unmastered mixes, it really feels goddamn great. We're proud as hell and I'm sure you all will love the album as much as we do. We'll relax now, celebrating we're done and then fly back home to Germany tomorrow."

METALLICA has issued the following update:

"Greetings from not-so-sunny Northern California. We know that things have been pretty quiet here in web-land, so we thought we'd throw some shit your way... here goes...

"We are finishing up the last couple weeks of pre-production on the album and... really... seriously...(drum roll)... we're going to start recording on March 12th. We're pretty fuckin' psyched about it and pretty fuckin' psyched to be sharing this experience with Rick [Rubin, producer].

"But wait... there's more. We kinda sorta figured that by the time June rolled around, we would be ready for a break from recording (escape??) and since we had so much fun in Europe last summer, we thought, 'Why not go back for some more fun and games?' We're planning to share the summer love with our friends in some different countries we didn't get to last year... Okay, fuck it, maybe one or two repeats. We haven't quite worked out all the details yet, but we thought that for once we really would be the first site to break a piece of METALLICA news.

"So keep your eyes open for more details in the next few.. the plan right now is to head out in late June and hang out for a couple/three weeks. We might even do a certain festival that we've played 19 times in July that starts with a 'W,' maybe hit a certain band member's home turf... blah, blah, blah.

"It's a start . . . ."

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

"The Royal Artist Club has invited MANOWAR to join them on www.royalartistclub.com. Armed with four cool, new Nokia phones, the band members will now constantly be taking pictures and uploading them directly (without the use of a computer) to their own official MANOWAR blog. The first reactions from fans have been overwhelming and MANOWAR would like to thank Nokia for this great opportunity to bring them closer to the fans! Log on and join us and please make suggestions as to what kind of pictures you would like us to add."

IN FLAMES was honored with the Swedish "Grammis" award in the "Best Hard Rock" category during a ceremony that was held Tuesday night (January 30) at Hovet in Stockholm. A total of five bands were nominated for their most recent releases, all of which came out during 2006. The nominees were as follows:

BACKYARD BABIES – "People Like People Like People Like Us" (RCA)
EUROPE – "Secret Society" (T&T/Sanctuary)
HAMMERFALL – "Threshold" (Nuclear Blast)
IN FLAMES – "Come Clarity" (Nuclear Blast)
THE HAUNTED – "The Dead Eye" (Century Media)

In accepting the award, IN FLAMES frontman Anders Fridén asked the audience to get up on their feet.

"This is the third time IN FLAMES have won a [Swedish] Grammy and it feels extremely good," he said and joked: "Thanks a lot to the Swedish people, [distributor] Sound Pollution and all you people sitting down!"

THE POODLES, who recently signed a deal with the German label AFM Records, were nominated in the "Best Cell Phone Ringtone" category for their song "Night of Passion".

A video clip of IN FLAMES performing the song "Come Clarity" on the Swedish music awards show "Rockbjörnen" on January 11 in Stockholm, Sweden has been posted online at YouTube.com. The band's lineup for the performance included guitarists Björn Gelotte and Jesper Strömblad, who were both absent from the group's most recent U.S. tour.

IN FLAMES was nominated in three categories at the "Rockbjörnen" awards: "Best Swedish Band", "Best Song" and "Best Album".

ANTIMATTER, the project whose recording/touring lineup has included current and former members of ANATHEMA, has completed work on its fourth studio album, "Leaving Eden".

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, 2007. 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

U.K. progressive metallers THRESHOLD will travel to Leipzig, Germany next week to shoot a video for the song "Pilot in the Sky of Dreams", taken from their forthcoming album "Dead Reckoning". 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 will be produced by Film-M, whose previous credits include DISILLUSION, AMON AMARTH, DEW-SCENTED and DEADSOUL TRIBE. The band was meant to shoot the video this week, but snow at London's airports made it impossible to travel. "Pilot in the Sky of Dreams" will also be released as a download single on March 5. The track listing for the single will be as follows:

01. Pilot in the Sky of Dreams (radio version) (3:53)
02. Pilot in the Sky of Dreams (album version) (9:44)
03. Elusive (radio version) (3:53)

Under new chart rules, the single should qualify for the official U.K. singles chart on downloads alone.

THRESHOLD's forthcoming album, "Dead Reckoning", will be released on March 23 (March 20 in the U.S., March 26 in the U.K.) through Nuclear Blast Records.

The complete track listing has been released for the upcoming DVD from German power metallers RAGE, entitled "Full Moon in St. Petersburg" (cover). Due on February 23 via Nuclear Blast, the double DVD was filmed in St. Petersburg, Russia last year in front of 15,000 fans. "Full Moon in St. Petersburg" will contain the complete concert in St. Petersburg, Russia, plus a lot of behind-the-scenes footage and material from personal archives. A three-and-a-half-minute trailer for the DVD has been posted online at this location (Windows Media, 7.44 MB).

"Full Moon in St. Petersburg" track listing:

DVD:

Live in St. Petersburg, Russia - May 20, 2006:

01. Speak Of The Dead
02. No Fear
03. Sent By The Devil
04. Soul Survivor
05. Enough Is Enough
06. Baby, I'm Your Nightmare
07. Morituri Te Salutant
08. Prelude Of Souls
09. Innocent
10. Depression
11. No Regrets
12. Confusion
13. Black
14. Beauty
15. Don't Fear The Winter
16. Full Moon
17. Higher Than The Sky

Bonus Tracks:

18. Straight To Hell (Video Clip)
19. No Fear (Video Clip)
20. Don't Fear The Winter (Stay Heavy TV Brasil)

Live At Masters Of Rock Festival, Czech Republic 2006:

21. Depression
22. No Regrets
23. Confusion
24. Black
25. Beauty
26. Full Moon
27. Higher Than The Sky

Bonus DVD:

01. Documentary: Making of St. Petersburg
02. Documentary: Russia Tour 2006, Moscow
03. Documentary: Russia Tour 2006, Kiev, Ukraine
04. Documentary: Europe Tour 2006
05. Private Documentary Victor:
a) Flying Notes
b) Tricky Strings
c) Motorsports Documentary
06. Private Documentary Peavy:
a) Ice Age Collection Documentary
b) Skull Cast Documentary
07. Private Documentary Mike:
a) The Rhythm Beast

Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR have finalized the track listing for their new album, "In Sorte Diaboli", due in North America on April 24 via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD will arrive in Europe on April 30 (April 27 in Germany).

"In Sorte Diaboli" was recorded and mixed at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden with producers Fredrik Nordström and Patrik J. Sten. A limited-edition digipack version of the CD will include the bonus cut "The Ancestral Fever" along with a bonus DVD containing the video for the album's opening track, "The Serpentine Offering", shot by director Patric Ullaeus of Sweden's Revolver Film Company.

"In Sorte Diaboli" track listing:

01. The Serpenitine Offering
02. The Chosen Legacy
03. The Conspiracy Unfolds
04. The Ancestral Fever (bonus track)
05. The Sacrilegious Scorn
06. The Fallen Arise
07. The Sinister Awakening
08. The Fundamental Alienation
09. The Invaluable Darkness
10. The Foreshadowing Furnace

The cover artwork for AFTER FOREVER's new self-titled album has been posted online at this location. Due in Europe on April 20 via Nuclear Blast Records, the follow-up to 2005's "Remagine" will contain the following track listing:

01. Discord
02. Evoke
03. Transitory
04. Energize Me
05. Equally Destructive
06. Withering Time
07. De-Energized
08. Cry With A Smile
09. Envision
10. Who I Am
11. Dreamflight
12. Empty Memories

A single, "Energize Me", will precede the album on March 23, featuring the songs "Energize Me" (radio edit), "Energize Me" (album version), "Sweet Enclosure" (non-album track).

AFTER FOREVER's former record label, Transmission Records, last year issued a two-disc compilation album containing the best songs from the band's first ten years of existence, plus previously unreleased material, non-album tracks, alternate takes, rarities and previously unreleased remixed versions.

Eight of BLIND GUARDIAN's albums will be re-released in June to celebrate the band's 20th anniversary. The LPs due to be reissued are as follows:

* Battalions of Fear (1988)
* Follow the Blind (1989)
* Tales from the Twilight World (1990)
* Somewhere Far Beyond (1992)
* Tokyo Tales (1993)
* Imaginations from the Other Side (1995)
* The Forgotten Tales (1996)
* Nightfall in Middle-Earth (1998)

All albums will be digitally remastered and will feature new liner notes and pictures.

First-week sales (approximately 3,000 copies) of BLIND GUARDIAN's "A Twist in the Myth" in the U.S. landed Germany's favorite sons at No. 21 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and No. 288 on the Billboard Album chart. The CD debuted at position No. 4 in Germany and No. 3 in Greece.

American/Norwegian melodic metallers KAMELOT have posted the following message on their official web site:

"Full steam ahead on the new KAMELOT album due this spring/summer 2007. Producer Sascha Paeth is working on the mix at the moment in Germany's Gate Studios. Cover artwork for the new album is being handled by Swedish artist Mattias Norén as well as some additional images by french artist Ravendusk.

"KAMELOT is just returning from Belgrade, Serbia after shooting the first of many new videos for the upcoming release. The video was shot for the song 'Ghost Opera'.

"Rehearsals for KAMELOT's upcoming world tour start in March and [it] promises to be their biggest and most prestigious production to date. The Norwegian/German band LEAVES' EYES will be the special guests on most of the shows."

SPV Records has set an April 16 European release date (April 13 in Germany) for the new ANNIHILATOR album, entitled "Metal". According to a press release, "Anybody reading the album title of the latest ANNIHILATOR release, 'Metal', will know what to expect. What we have here is no pseudo-intellectual moniker, no term that suggests pensiveness or indeed ambiguity, but boldness, directness and determination. It's a title that suits Jeff Waters' dynamic guitar style down to a tee. Like few other musicians, Waters' name stands for a tough-as-nails, energetic and always brilliant metal guitar."

Commented Waters: "It may sound a little strange when I say that the new album reminds me of the first three ANNIHILATOR recordings. You could be tempted to think that I am looking back artistically, when the opposite happens to be the case. I always try to evolve musically. But it's a fact that I composed the new material the way I went about the early ANNIHILATOR tracks. Instead of writing them with the help of state-of-the-art studio equipment and recording them immediately, almost all of the guitar riffs were developed on a simple ghetto blaster. I only went on to find a rhythm and arrangements to suit an idea if it really floored me."

The ten new tracks were recorded by Waters, playing guitar and bass and on lead vocals for one number ("Operation Annihilation"), drummer Mike Mangini and vocalist Dave Padden. A literal "army" of renowned guest musicians, whose names Waters will reveal soon, also dropped in to be a part of this. ANNIHILATOR fans had better brace themselves for a big surprise. Waters says, "This is one of the coolest guitar albums of all time. And I'm saying this despite the fact that I don't happen to be a friend of exaggerated superlatives. The fact is that 'Metal' is a dream-come-true for me, and this new ANNIHILATOR CD is going to rock and awe."

April will see ANNIHILATOR embark on a major European tour as TRIVIUM's special guests, playing over 40 shows until early May in countries such as Germany, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Italy and France. "The business side of our career rests in capable hands at last," says the musician from Canada. "We have an ambitious record label, a committed management and a concert agency that knows how to present us."