More fan-filmed video footage of VENOM's November 12, 2011 concert at the Rock Legends festival at Arenele Romane in Bucharest, Romania in front of approximately 1,000 people can be seen below. Check out photos from Bloodbath.ro.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Black Metal
02. Bloodlust / Black Flame (Of Satan) / Bloodlust
03. Straight To Hell / Welcome To Hell / Calm Before The Storm / Krakin' Up / Ressurection / Evil One
04. Antechrist
05. Hail Satanas
06. Nemesis
07. Possessed / Countess Bathory / 7th Gates Of Hell / Possessed
08. Hammerhead
09. At War With Satan / Too Loud For The Crowd / Nightmare / Rip Ride / At War With Satan
10. Warhead
11. Metal Black

Encore:

12. Pedal To The Metal
13. In League With Satan

Encore 2:

14. Witching Hour

Video footage of PAPA WHEELIE, the "stoner punk metal" crew consisting of former METALLICA/VOIVOD bassist Jason Newsted (a.k.a. Jaylor) on guitar/vocals, Steven Wiig (a.k.a. Swiiglor) on drums and Joe Ledesma (a.k.a. Joefus) on bass, performing two songs on November 12, 2011 at Road House Studios in Walnut Creek, California can be seen below. The concert was professionally recorded and filmed for possible release.

COLDWORKER — the Örebro, Sweden-based "blasting" death metal band consisting of current and former/current members of such acts as NASUM, RELENTLESS, RUIN and PHOBOS — will release its third album, "The Doomsayer's Call", in February 2012 via Listenable Records. The CD was recorded in part at Soundlab Studios in the group's hometown and will feature 13 songs. Mixing took place at Unisound studios with Dan Swanö (OPETH, KATATONIA, DISSECTION).

"The Doomsayer's Call" track listing:

01. A New Era
02. The Reprobate
03. The Glass Envelope
04. Flesh World
05. Murderous
06. Pessimist
07. Monochrome Existence
08. Vacuum Fields
09. Living is Suffering
10. The Walls Of Eryx
11. Violent Society
12. Becoming The Stench
13. The Phantom Carriage

The song "Violent Society" is now available for streaming in the YouTube clip below.

In August 2011, RHAPSODY OF FIRE guitarist Luca Turilli and keyboardist Alex Staropoli announced their decision to go their separate ways.

Due to legal reasons, Staropoli will continue under the RHAPSODY OF FIRE name. Turilli, on the other hand, will make his future efforts available under the RHAPSODY moniker (RHAPSODY OF FIRE's original name), in which he will be joined by guitarist Dominique Leurquin, bassist Patrice Guers, and drummer Alex Holzwarth. A singer for the group has has yet to be announced.

A video trailer for the upcoming release by Luca Turilli's RHAPSODY — which will feature a full choir and orchestra — can be seen below.

More details will be made available on December 19.

A trailer for "La Hora De Lucifer", the new album from Pennsylvania-based black/death metallers SATHANAS, can be seen below. The CD was mixed at 905 Studios in Ambridge, Pennsylvania and will be released via Pagan in Europe, Astral Holocaust in South America, Evil Dead in Asia and an as-yet-unannounced label in North America. Each version of the effort will contain different cover art from such "masters" as Kris Verwimp, Chris Moyen and Daniel Desecrator. Pagan will also release the vinyl version later with bonus tracks. According to SATHANAS guitarist/vocalist Paul Tucker, the forthcoming album will be the band's most aggressive and best release to date.

"La Hora De Lucifer" will contain the following tracks:

* Angels Forsaken
* La Hora De Lucifer
* Forged In Eternal Fire
* Engraved In The Book Of Death
* Battle Of Bewitchment
* Darkconjurings
* Hammer Of Demons
* Nocturnal Reign
* Blackest Hate

German metallers RAGE entered Twilight Hall Studio in Grefrath, Germany last month to begin recording their 21st studio album, tentatively titled "21", for a March 2012 release via Nuclear Blast Records. The recordings are once again being helmed by Charlie Bauerfeind, who has previously worked with SAXON, BLIND GUARDIAN, HAMMERFALL and HELLOWEEN, among others. Songtitles set to appear on the 10-track CD include "Psycho Terror", "Forever Dead", "Twenty One", "Serial Killer", "Concrete Wall" and "Death Romantic".

Dutch rockers THE GATHERING have issued the following update:

"Some exciting news! After years we (THE GATHERING) came in contact again, thanks to Facebook, with the nice people from ACROSTICHON (Corinne and Richard). Of course, we talked a lot about the good old days, especially the ones we had at the Willem II concert hall in Den Bosch. There was a matinee gig every month (I think it was every last Sunday), and we saw some great bands such as CANDLEMASS, MORBID ANGEL, DEATH, and, of course, we played there as well. Those days were so much fun. We had a great nostalgic trip talking about those days. Soon we came to the conclusion we would love to do this again!

"As you might know, our debut album, 'Always…', is almost 20 years old (April 1992). I contacted all old-school THE GATHERING 'Always…'-era members and everybody immediatly liked the idea to do something together. An old-school doom/death party! ACROSTICHON released their debut album, 'Engraved In Black', almost the same period, and our friends from PENTACLE released their debut demo, 'Caressed By Both Sides', as well 20 years ago. Why not celebrate this?

"So, grab your agenda: THE GATHERING, ACROSTICHON and PENTACLE will play live together at the Willem II (now called W2) Sunday afternoon 1st of April (no joke!), 2012! Like 20 years ago, ACROSTICHON will be headlining, THE GATHERING and PENTACLE will be support acts.

"Last, but definitly not least: All profit will go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation."

REVAMP/ex-AFTER FOREVER vocalist Floor Jansen has released a new video message in which she updates fans on her condition after her "burnout" caused the cancelation of REVAMP's participation in the "Out Of The Dark" tour with VAN CANTO, TRISTANIA, XANDRIA and AMBERIAN DAWN. "I'm starting to get energy, I'm starting to feel more creative, starting to feel like planning ahead again, starting to feel much more like myself again, and well, that's a relief, I can tell you," she says in the three-minute clip, which can be seen below. "It doesn't mean that I'm 100 percent cured, of course — there's nothing that can just magically make you better; it's a process and I'm still in this process, but I'm happy that I'm able to pick things back up again."

REVAMP will return to the live stage in January when it is scheduled to support EPICA for two dates in Holland — in Hengelo (January 12) and Heerlen (January 13).

Los Angeles-based, female-fronted metallers HUNTRESS have inked a deal with Napalm Records. The band's debut album is scheduled for release next spring/summer.

The official video for the CD's first single, "Eight Of Swords", can be viewed below. The clip was directed by Simon Chan of Artificial Army and was produced/engineered by Chris Rakestraw of Sunset Lodge Recording.

According to a press release, "HUNTRESS lead singer Jill Janus is an operatic banshee with an unparalleled four-octave range and lust for the occult. Born and raised in the Catskill Mountains of New York, she toured Europe as a teenage opera starlet. Upon her return to the States, Janus embraced Manhattan nightlife, creating Felliniesque cabarets and parties in a nihilistic club scene. Years later, Janus moved to Los Angeles and began the gestation period of HUNTRESS. In 2009 she met underground metal band PROFESSOR. The universe spread her legs and delivered HUNTRESS to Janus, combining former members of PROFESSOR, DARK BLACK and SKELETONWITCH."

HUNTRESS is:

Vocals: Jill Janus
Lead Guitar: Blake Meahl
Rhythm Guitar: Ian Alden
Drums: Carl Wierzbicky
Bass: Eric Harris

According to ABC15.com, legendary rocker Alice Cooper's Alice Cooper'stown restaurant in downtown Phoenix has lost thousands of dollars already because of the NBA lockout and stands to lose even more if additional games are canceled.

Cooper'stown is located right across the street from US Airways Center, home of the Phoenix Suns.

If the entire season is lost, manager Ryan Rowland told ABC15 Cooper'stown expects to lose more than $500,000.

Professionally filmed video footage of MEGADETH's performance at this year's edition of the SWU Music And Arts Festival earlier today (Monday, November 14) in Paulínia, São Paulo, Brazil can be seen below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Trust
02. Wake Up Dead
03. Hangar 18
04. A Tout Le Monde
05. Whose Life (Is It Anyways?)
06. Head Crusher
07. Public Enemy No. 1
08. Sweating Bullets
09. Symphony Of Destruction
10. Peace Sells… But Who's Buying?!
11. Holy Wars

Keyboardist/mainman Tuomas Holopainen of Finnish/Swedish symphonic metallers NIGHTWISH has issued the following update:

"It's Wednesday the 9th of November and the first single of [the new NIGHTWISH album] 'Imaginaerum' called 'Storytime' is finally out today. It's part one of a very long homecoming, four years in the making. Makes me feel a bit sad, fairly relieved and ultimately proud. Sad that a certain journey is finally coming to an end, relieved that everything worked out beautifully, and proud of the band members' and the fellow imagineers' effort in getting this colossal project together. Thank you.

"I saw the first edits of 'Imaginaerum The Movie' a week ago. Stobe [Harju, director] and Mathieu [Bélanger, film editor] have been working with the edits a few weeks now and the parts I saw were very convincing. The demo scores (by the tech wizard Petri Alanko) are working out wonderfully, even though we still need to toy around with them quite a bit. The special-effects guys have also begun their work, so once we get all these layers together some truly mind-blowing movie magic will be born. Basically now we just have to wait patiently and try not to breathe too much into their backs, and let them do their magic.

"In the meanwhile, loads of promo and rehearsals still to be done.

"Such exciting times."

Orange County, California's BLEEDING THROUGH has set "The Great Fire" as the tentative title of its new album, due in early 2012 via Rise Records. Vocalist Brandan Schieppati states, "The production is going really well. Marta [Peterson, keyboards] is in the studio right now recording. Dave [Nassie, guitar], Brian [Leppke, guitar], Derek [Youngsma, drums] and Ryan [Wombacher, bass] are all done with their parts. I'm about 80% done with vocals and then we get down to mixing!"

The previously unreleased second album from DARK NEW DAY — the band featuring Clint Lowery (guitar; SEVENDUST), Corey Lowery (bass; ex-STEREOMUD, STUCK MOJO), Brett Hestla (vocals, guitar; ex-CREED, VIRGOS MERLOT), Will Hunt (drums; EVANESCENCE, ex-SKRAPE, TOMMY LEE) and Bradley "BC" Kochmit (guitar; SWITCHED a.k.a. SW1TCHED) — will finally be made available in February 2012 via Goomba Music. The deluxe edition will include exclusive bonus tracks.

Music-News.com last week conducted an interview with KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons at the Sanctum Hotel in London, England. You can now watch the chat below.

When asked about what advice he would offer the members of GUNS N' ROSES with respect to staying at the top of their game, the rock icon said, "You get to sleep in the bed you make. It's simple. If you're lucky enough to be accepted on stage by the audience, if you're lucky enough to be able to write a song, if you're lucky enough to have charisma on stage, that's the beginning. And then you've got to be able to deliver night after night after night. And not everybody is designed to run a marathon. Because to be a rock star for decades means you're running a marathon.

"GUNS N' ROSES could have been the best band in the world, and the reason they're not is because of [singer] Axl Rose. I mean, the drugs, the heroin, the alcohol and all that. But ultimately, it falls on Axl's shoulders."

After he was asked what Axl could have done to change that path, Gene said, "A good beating would have helped. I mean, when you misbehaved as a little kid and continued to do it, there was somebody there to give you a what for. Then when you become a grown-up, who's there to set you straight?"

Simmons was in London to host the seventh annual Classic Rock Roll Of Honour, which was held on November 9 at the world-famous Roundhouse in Camden, England.

According to HindustanTimes.com, four officials of promoter DNA Networks, which is accused of cheating fans in connection with METALLICA's canceled October 28, 2011 concert in Gurgaon (a suburb of Delhi), India, have been granted bail.

Police arrested Rajesh Kumar, the general manager of DNA Networks, and his colleagues Umesh Chinara, Ashok Singh and Savio Faleiro on reported fraud charges. The court granted them bail against surety bonds of Rs 30,000 each and all the accused have been asked not to leave the country without court's permission while the case is pending.

In their bail application, the organizers countered the allegation that the concert cancelation was orchestrated by them and said the event was called off at the eleventh hour because of the unruly behaviour of some fans. "DNA Entertainment Network had made all necessary arrangements for the show. The show couldn't happen because some fans broke the barricade," the petition said.

The organizers argued that they had already paid Rs 84,77,340 as entertainment tax to the Haryana government in advance and had submitted Rs 1 crore bank security. Also, the event management firm has already paid more than Rs 5.60 crore as refund for tickets to the fans.

A representative for DNA Networks told Pollstar that the cancelation of METALLICA's performance at the Indian Formula 1 motor racing Grand Prix show was caused by an "unruly" section of the crowd climbing over safety barriers and damaging the stage set.

Karuna Prithvi from the DNA's press department told Pollstar it's difficult to explain what sparked the fuss because "it was all so quick."

Prithvi said the company always has barriers in place for its shows and the problem was caused when fans broke through them.

She said unruly fans "vandalized and destroyed" a lot of stage equipment, which meant it was impossible to fix it and get permission for a new show within 24 hours.

Other media reports, however, claimed fans became unruly when the gates opened several hours later than the scheduled opening times. Still other media reports said fans became angry after DNA sold more tickets than the venue's estimated 30,000 capacity and because the organizers failed to inform ticket holders of the cancelation.

IMPALA, the European independent music companies’ body confirmed today in a press release that it would oppose any attempt by the Universal and Sony duopoly to buy EMI. This follows reports over the weekend that Universal might be back in the race to buy EMI. Sony is understood to remain one of the bidders on the publishing side. Independent companies believe reinforcing the duopoly would be the worst possible outcome of the EMI negotiations - for music, those who make it and those who want to access it.

The organization has requested the EC to investigate all possible options to intervene. The concerns cover not only music but also the vital online and mobile market, despite the fact that certain players there are much larger.

IMPALA was established in April 2000 to represent independent music companies. 99% of Europe’s music companies are small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Known as the “independents”, they are world leaders in terms of innovation and discovering new music and artists - they produce more than 80% of all new releases. The independents also produce 80% of the sector’s jobs.

IMPALA has 4,000 members including the top independents: !K7 (Germany), Anaconda Productions (Poland), Beggars Group (UK), Cosmos Music Group (Sweden), CLS Music (Hungary), CNR (NL), Cooking Vinyl (UK), Edel (Germany), Epitaph (US/NL), Everlasting (Spain), Gazell (Sweden), Kobalt (Sweden), Menart (Croatia), Musicvertrieb (Switzerland), Naïve (France), [PIAS] Entertainment Group (Benelux, UK and France), Playground (Sweden), Red Bullet (NL), Wagram (France), as well as national trade associations from the UK (AIM), France (UPFI), Germany (VUT), Spain (UFI), Italy (PMI), Belgium (BIMA), Denmark (DUP), Netherlands (STOMP), Norway (FONO), Israel (PIL), Indieco (Finland) and Sweden (SOM).

U.K.-based metallers POWER QUEST have announced the addition of singer Colin Callanan to the group's ranks.

Colin, 31, is from Galway, Ireland and will make his live debut with POWER QUEST in Wakefield on November 27. The show will be streamed live on the Internet as well.

Commented POWER QUEST keyboardist Steve Williams: "We are thrilled to welcome Colin into the band. He impressed each and every one of us at his audition a couple of months back and he really understands what POWER QUEST is all about. His voice and personality are exactly what we have been looking for."

Colin, who previously fronted his own projects DARK CRYSTAL and KARUNA, added: "I'm really happy to be joining POWER QUEST! I've been following the band since their very first demo release on mp3.com and have already been singing POWER QUEST songs for many years to help me keep my vocal skills up to scratch. I've always thought it would be great to get the opportunity to sing with an internationally acclaimed outfit such as POWER QUEST, and was really glad when I got the invite from Steve to come over and jam with the band to see how the chemistry is. Well, it was really cool hanging out with the POWER QUEST family over those days and I tried to give them a good blast of my voice in the rehearsal room so they could see if my technique and style was what POWER QUEST are after. We both agree it's a good match, and I'm really enthusiastic about being the new voice of POWER QUEST and offering as much as I can to the band on the old songs, as well as working with the guys to write new material together. I look forward to many more gigs and tours, and plenty of craic, as we say in Ireland!"

The Irish act Clannad performed in front of some 300 people in the Stadsschouwburg in Bruges last night. It was a very rare opportunity to see the band live these days, especially in the Benelux where they have only performed a few times since the band released its self-titled album "Clannad" in 1973. Right before the concert we spoke to the entourage of the band and learned that they are working on a live DVD which should be out somewhere early 2012. It will be the band's very first live DVD. Expect the material to be broadcasted first in the USA before it hits the shops.

There are no signs of when the band's newest material would be released. Clannad's Pádraig Duggan announced earlier that Clannad would be recording a new album in February 2009 and that the album would be unplugged and could consist of their old songs.

Clannad reached mainstream attention with the album "Macalla" (1985) featuring "In a Lifetime", a duet with U2's Bono which begins with Máire being heard teaching Gaelic to Bono during the instrumental intro. You can check the video for this single here or after the jump.

For those who didn't know, Enya began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad, before leaving to perform solo and become Ireland's best-selling solo musician. And in case you wondered, she is working on a new album and tour. Part of the recordings take place in Abbey Road studios in London.

Steve Grimmett's GRIM REAPER is currently on tour in Greece, a country in a deep financial crisis. A YouTube video (see below) from a small pub gig in Swindon, U.K. has suddenly gone viral in Greece (at nearly 200,000 views in three days and still climbing) due to what many say is an uncanny resemblance between Steve Grimmett and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos.

The remaining dates of GRIM REAPER's Greece/