SKULL FIST, SKULL FIST und noch mal SKULL FIST… Die Kanadischen Heavy Metal Überflieger sind momentan in aller Munde! Erst kürzlich wurde die Power of Metal Tour extrem erfolgreich zu Ende gebracht, gestern spielte die Band ihre letzte Solo-Headliner Show der Tour in Europa und am Freitag wurde die Truppe für die kommende GRAND MAGUS Tour bestätigt. Dem nicht genug, denn jetzt gibt es das offzielle Video zu sehen!

CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED haben sich mit der schon seit einer Dekade bestehenden Website MetalUnderground.com zusammengetan und feiern dort die Premiere der dritten Single aus ihrem neuen Album Cold Winds on Timeless Days. Der Song hört auf den Namen Admire the Heroes und kann HIER angechekt werden.

Richard Christy, Tim "Ripper" Owens, Jason Suecof und Steve DiGiorgio haben sich erneut vereint und dem neusten Baby Christys, Cold Winds on Timeless Days, Leben eingehaucht. Das Songwriting für das neue Album begann bereits, als die Band noch mit dem Mix ihres Erstlings beschäftigt war. Richard Christy griff dabei auf seine durch die erste Scheibe gewachsene Erfahrung zurück, wodurch er besser auf den Stil jedes einzelnen Musikers und die Produktionsweise von Jason Suecof eingehen konnte. Das Ergebnis waren Demos, die nahezu identisch mit dem Endergebnis auf der neuen Platte sind!

Die Scheibe hat eine Laufzeit von 58 Minuten und enthält zwölf Songs, wodurch die Fans dieses mal mehr Musik für ihr Geld erhalten. Zwölf Songs in kurzer Zeit aufzunehmen ist keine einfache Aufgabe, aber eine, die vollbracht werden konnte, weil sich in der Band herausragende Talente befinden. Richard Christy: "I wanted to get a natural sound out of this album, I wanted everyone to be well rehearsed, not that I wanted the album to be rushed, but I wanted the spontaneous live feel and not over think anything too much."

Richard Christy beschreibt Cold Winds on Timeless Days als einen "perfect storm of producing" – Audiohammer's Jason Suecof hat produziert, während Mark Lewis gemischt hat und das Mastering von Alan Douches im West Westside angefertigt wurde.

Fans können sich die zweite Single Ashes Falling Upon Us ab sofort auf http://www.metalblade.com/cwotd anhören. Dort befinden sich auch Vorbestellmöglichkeiten!

Pulverised Records has announced the signing of Swedish death metal rebels NECROCURSE.

Rising from the filth-lands of Uddevalla and Ljungskile, Sweden, NECROCURSE was spawned in the year 2004 with the musical love for all things brutal and ugly. Consisting of current and former members from NIFELHEIM, NECRONAUT, RUNEMAGICK, DEATHWITCH and SWORDMASTER, to name a few, the band is now ready to incur utter chaos and total annihilation with an upcoming full-length debut album to be released in 2012.

Commented the band: "The time has come for the death metal rebels to rise from the grave, and forge a full album release of the metal of death! NECROCURSE are proud to announce the collaboration with Pulverised Records for the upcoming, yet-untitled album. The upcoming release will be recorded during the coming winter and include at least nine tracks of insane morbid death…"

Added Pulverised Records label manager Roy Yeo: "Having NECROCURSE on our roster was an easy choice, for the fact that the musical style and direction of NECROCURSE fitted perfectly to what Pulverised Records is all about; quality and authentic death metal. We knew immediately that the band badly needed a proper full-length album to further showcase their devastating brand of Swedish death metal at its finest!

NECROCURSE has just released a new seven-inch EP, "Insane Curse Of Morbidity", in through Aftermath Music.

NECROCURSE is:

Hellbutcher - Vocals
Stefan Rodin - Guitar
Martin "Märda" Andersson - Guitar
Johan Bäckman - Bass
Nicklas Rudolfsson - Drums

According to The Pulse Of Radio, CHEVELLE will make a return to the scene before the year closes out, with the band announcing via Facebook that a new album will arrive on December 6, with a single set to hit radio on October 10. The band posted a statement which read, "Hey everybody. 'Face To The Floor' will officially be our first single, and it will be released October 10th to radio. We are also releasing the record on December 6th and we are looking forward to finally playing some new music on tour. We are working on a video concept right now and we will hopefully have it finished in a few weeks."

The post did not indicate a title for the record, which will follow up 2009's "Sci-Fi Crimes".

Drummer Sam Loeffler also hinted at a collaboration with a female vocalist for one song on the album, but did not say that was happening for sure.

The trio will also have a song on the soundtrack of "Underworld Awakening", the upcoming fourth film in the vampire/werewolf series, which arrives in January.

CHEVELLE will head out on the road with BUSH and FILTER starting on Tuesday (September 27) in San Diego, wrapping up one month later on October 28 in San Antonio.

Extreme metal titans ARCH ENEMY have announced that their show in Cologne on December 13th will be filmed for a future DVD release. The band will be supported by label mates WARBRINGER and Taiwan’s premiere metal act CHTHONIC.

Angela Gossow comments: “2011 is my 10-year-anniversary with Arch Enemy. I want to celebrate this with a very special event – we will film my hometown show at Essigfabrik in Cologne, Germany on December 13th for our upcoming World Khaos Tour DVD release! We aim to capture the live insanity of my fellow German metal-heads as intensely as possible with cameras in the middle of the moshpit, in the front row, over, under, left, right and center. We want your blood, your sweat, your passion and get every last drop of it on celluloid! The awesome Filmefahrer Pictures team will make this an unforgettable shooting. So be there and become immortalized!!!”

Austrian "modern melodic death metallers" LOST DREAMS will release their fifth album, "Blinded By Rage", on November 4 via Twilight Zone Records.

A trailer for the CD can be seen below.

"Blinded By Rage" track listing:

01. Hide And Seek
02. The Painted Man (feat. Paul Speckmann)
03. Demons Call My Name
04. Secrets
05. Black Rain
06. Living In A Mass (re-recording of song from band's 2005 album)
07. Black Sheep
08. Loco-Motive
09. Out Of Control
10. Darkness Falls
11. Dust To Dust
12. Nerve (SOILWORK cover)

Professionally filmed video footage of METALLICA's September 25, 2011 performance at the Rock In Rio festival in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil can be seen below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Creeping Death
02. For Whom the Bell Tolls
03. Fuel
04. Ride the Lightning
05. Fade to Black
06. Cyanide
07. All Nightmare Long
08. Sad But True
09. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
10. Orion
11. One
12. Master of Puppets
13. Blackened
14. Nothing Else Matters
15. Enter Sandman

Encore:

16. Am I Evil?
17. Whiplash
18. Seek & Destroy

Professionally filmed video footage of SLIPKNOT's September 25, 2011 performance at the Rock In Rio festival in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil can be seen below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. (sic)
02. Eyeless
03. Wait and Bleed
04. The Blister Exists
05. Liberate
06. Before I Forget
07. Pulse Of The Maggots
08. Disasterpiece
09. Psychosocial
10. The Heretic Anthem
11. Duality
12. Spit It Out
13. People = Shit
14. Surfacing

Keyboardist Martin Brändström of Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILLITY has partnered with studio colleague Joacim Starander to launch a new company, Counterpoint Custom Scoring, for composing custom-scored music.

The company's mission is to deliver high-quality music, targeting the entertainment industry and large-scale commercial presentations.

At this location you can hear some of the work already completed, as well as some conceptual pieces composed to showcase the range of Counterpoint.

DARK TRANQUILLITY has just released a video for the song "Zero Distance", taken from the upcoming tour edition of the band's latest album, "We Are The Void", which will be released in Europe on October 24 via Century Media Records. The clip is the first official music video from Aduro Labs, a new film/production enterprise launched by DARK TRANQUILLITY's own Niklas Sundin, video photographer Peter Herneheim and post-production editor Love Andersson. The aim of Aduro Labs is to produce creative, original and aesthetically challenging video/animation work in a diverse range of styles. Further projects will be announced in the near future.

There’s a quaint perception that grindcore is, in fact, two-dimensional. One (maybe two if you’re lucky) emotion — aggression — and the music follows accordingly. Of course, there are outliers to everything, but Ottawa, Canada-based Fuck The Facts proves that grindcore in 2011 doesn’t have to be like grindcore of 1986, 1987, or 1997. It can be chameleonic, a shape and color-shifting form recognizable for splitting myopic numskulls one second, unrecognizable a toe-tapping machine of melodically-inclined death the next. Like Fuck The Facts’ new track, “Alone”.

Perhaps, what Fuck The Facts are doing — the blending of sounds, influences (a blue guitar/piano bit in a grindcore tune?), and whatever the, uh, fuck they want — amounts to sacrilege. Pissing on the graves of forebears. Inversion of the true. Or smashing grindcore’s un-smashable pillars. Actually, who cares? “Alone” crushes all! Whether it’s the reflective prologue, the megaton post-prologue groove, the inevitable D Day-like assault, the post-D Day-like assault, the old-school death metal vignette, or the hardcore thrust, Fuck The Facts is grindcore evolved. Sure, there’s a bit of hyperbole in that last sentence, but when have the words grindcore + melodic = fantastic? Feel free answer in the comments section.

Drummer Rob Rampy of hardcore/metal crossover pioneers D.R.I. (DIRTY ROTTEN IMBECILES) was sent to the hospital right before the group's Portland, Oregon show on Friday, September 23. Instead of cancelling the concert, the other members of D.R.I. used several local drummers (from such acts as MDC, SPELLCASTER, EXCRUCIATOR, DETHPROOF) and jammed on cover tunes.

New upstarts and support act DETHPROOF not only supplied D.R.I. with gear but also provided a drummer on the song "Thrashard". Check out video footage of the performance below.

Rampy remained in the hospital over the weekend, forcing D.R.I. to play with guest drummers again on Saturday, September 24 in Seattle, Washington.

D.R.I.'s classic 1987 album "Crossover" was reissued in April 2010 via Beer City Records. Available on LP, CD and as a digital download, the LP was remastered by Bill Metoyer, who was the engineer for the original recordings. The CD and digital version of the reissue include the original 13 songs plus 11 bonus tracks.

For the past 29 years, D.R.I. has been the epito

According to CDJapan.co.jp, Universal has set a November 16 Japanese release date for the deluxe edition of DIO's 1985 album, "Sacred Heart". The reissue features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD players) and cardboard sleeve jacket. It includes a bonus disc with live tracks, B-sides and more and is part of a two-album DIO SHM-CD cardboard sleeve reissue series featuring albums "The Last In Line" and "Sacred Heart".

"Sacred Heart" Deluxe Edition track listing:

Disc 1:

01. King Of Rock And Roll
02. Sacred Heart
03. Another Lie
04. Rock 'N' Roll Children
05. Hungry For Heaven
06. Like The Beat Of The Heart
07. Just Another Day
08. Fallen Angels
09. Shoot Shoot

Disc 2:

Bonus Tracks

01. Hide In The Rainbow (EP)
02. We Rock (Live B-Side)
03. Last In Line (Live B-Side)
04. Like The Beat Of A Heart (Live B-Side)

Intermission (Live At The Sports Arena in San Diego, CA on December 6, 1985)

05. King Of Rock N Roll
06. Rainbow In The Dark
07. Sacred Heart
08. Rock 'N' Roll Children
09. Long Live Rock N Roll
10. Man On The Silver Mountain
11. We Rock

SHADOWS FALL drummer Jason Bittner will play on the forthcoming sophomore album from the Massachusetts-based band HALF PAST MY SIN. According to a press release, the CD, entitled "4:44", "will redefine [HALF PAST MY SIN's] sound and direction in modern hard rock music. With strong melodic presences and driving beats, HALF PAST MY SIN will find a place with fans of bands like SEVENDUST, DISTURBED and DROWNING POOL, to name a few."

The recording sessions for "4:44" will begin in November and will include additional appearances by RA guitarist Ben Carroll and original HALF PAST MY SIN bassist Dan Zavadil.

British extreme metal pioneers BOLT THROWER have issued the following update:

"Anniversaries are kind of easy to achieve. For a band, just don't split up and you'll reach one, whether it's 10, 20 or 35 years. And this year we've reached '25 years of not splitting up!' We managed to stop others from making a big fuss about it, and didn't give in to the numerous offers and suggestions on how we should cash in on it! But it has made us appreciate the opportunities we've been given since 1986, and that we've been able to do everything we wanted to do without compromising in any way.

"We've been lucky enough to have played a lot of killer shows with great bands and met a lot of very cool people over the years, and we think that's the stuff that deserves some kind of celebration. So, we want to organize a 'Bolty Birthday Bash', where we can reunite with some of these bands and invite you, the people who have supported us over the last 25 years.

"We were hoping to have everything worked out by now, but it turns out organizing a free show comes with its own unique problems, but we'll get there in the end!

"Well, that's all we can say for now, there will be more news to come soon."

Art of Dying have released the music video for “Get Thru This,” the second single off their latest album, Vices and Virtues, which is out now. The video, which premiered on AOL’s Noisecreep, captures the essence of the band, working hard and playing hard while out on the road. “Welcome to the world of Art of Dying. We play hard, we party hard and life couldn’t be better,” says frontman Jonny Hetherington.

A trailer for "This Mortal Coil", the fifth studio album from REDEMPTION, the U.S. progressive metal band featuring in its ranks guitarist/songwriter Nick van Dyk and legendary FATES WARNING vocalist Ray Alder, can be seen below. Due on September 26 in Europe and October 11 in North America via InsideOut Music, the follow-up to 2009's "Snowfall On Judgment Day" was recorded and mixed with producer Neil Kernon (QUEENSRŸCHE, NEVERMORE, DEICIDE). The CD's cover artwork was created by acclaimed artist and longtime band collaborator Travis Smith (OPETH, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, NEVERMORE).

"This Mortal Coil" track listing:

01. Path Of The Whirlwind
02. Blink Of An Eye
03. No Tickets To The Funeral
04. Dreams From The Pit
05. Noonday Devil
06. Let It Rain
07. Focus
08. Perfect
09. Begin Again
10. Stronger Than Death
11. Departure Of The Pale Horse

In North America, "This Mortal Coil" will also be available as a 2CD package featuring a special bonus CD with the following six (!) cover versions:

01. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (ELTON JOHN)
02. Jane (STARSHIP)
03. Hold The Line (TOTO)
04. Edge Of The Blade (JOURNEY)
05. Love To Love (UFO)
06. Precious Things (TORI AMOS)

Los Angeles-based band THE DREAMING, which features former members of STABBING WESTWARD, MURDERDOLLS and LIVING DEAD LIGHTS, has inked a deal with Epochal Artists Records. The group's new album, "Puppet", will be released on November 1. A single, "Every Trace", is impacting radio now and already lighting up phone lines on stations like KUPD in Phoenix, KXXR in Minneapolis, WIIL in Chicago and WAQX in Syracuse.

Formed in 2005 by frontman Christopher Hall, the voice behind platinum rock outfit STABBING WESTWARD, THE DREAMING assembles and all-star roster of musicians including Johnny Haro on drums (ex-ECONOLINE CRUSH, STABBING WESTWARD), guitarist Eric Griffin (ex-MURDERDOLLS, WEDNESDAY 13), and bassist Martin Kelly (ex-LIVING DEAD LIGHTS). Since its inception, THE DREAMING has toured relentlessly with the likes of ILL NINO, GODHEAD, RA, TRUST COMPANY, FLAW, JULIEN-K, POWERMAN 5000 and WEDNESDAY 13.

"After the death of STABBING WESTWARD, Johnny and I immediately put all our heart and soul into THE DREAMING. We spent a lot of time working on our songs and live show in hopes that we would find the right team to get behind this band. After several years bouncing between managers and potential labels, we found a proper home with Epochal Artists Records," commented Christopher Hall. "Epochal Artists Records understood what we were trying to do, they believe in our music and they are ready to work our album for the long haul. I am so proud to be the first release on E.A.R. and so excited to be releasing 'Puppet' with them at the helm."

"Kicking & Screaming", the new album from former SKID ROW frontman Sebastian Bach, is available for streaming in its entirety at AOL Music. Due on September 27 via Frontiers Records, the CD was produced by Bob Marlette (BLACK SABBATH, SHINEDOWN, ATREYU, FILTER) and features young virtuosic guitarist Nick Sterling and drum pro Bobby Jarzombek (HALFORD, RIOT, ICED EARTH). The follow-up to 2007's "Angel Down" was mastered at Precision Mastering in Los Angeles with Tom Baker. A digital single containing the album's title track will precede the full-length effort on August 23.

"Kicking & Screaming" track listing:

01. Kicking & Screaming
02. My Own Worst Enemy
03. TunnelVision (featuring John 5)
04. Dance On Your Grave
05. Caught In A Dream
06. As Long As I Got The Music
07. I'm Alive
08. Dirty Power
09. Live The Life
10. Dream Forever
11. One Good Reason
12. Lost In The Light
13. Wishin'

Bonus tracks:

14. Jumpin' Off The Wagon (on physical CD/DVD editions only)
15. Ain't There Yet (iTunes exclusive)

CHICKENFOOT's sophomore album, "Chickenfoot III", is available for streaming in its entirety at AOL Music. Due on September 27 via eOne Music in North America, "Chickenfoot III" was produced by Mike Fraser (AC/DC, METALLICA) and is the much-anticipated follow-up album to the successful eponymous debut of a rock band packed with successful veterans — guitar hero Joe Satriani, drummer Chad Smith, former VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony and frontman Sammy Hagar.

"I am very proud of the new album," says lead singer Hagar.

"We're calling the album 'Chickenfoot III' because it's so good, the songs are so tight, it's like we jumped right past having to make a second record." He adds, "We've established a real trust, Joe and I, we truly bring out the best in one another, and that spreads to the whole band."

"Chickenfoot III" features 10 tracks with so many moments of epiphany that one can barely take them all in on first listen. Colossal, stadium-shaking riffs abound on earth-movers such as "Alright, Alright", "Last Temptation", "Bigfoot" and "Lighten Up".

Tradition meets innovation on the Nashville pop-tinged "Different Devil", the Delta-blues flavored "Something Going Wrong" and the aching rock ballad "Come Closer".