Czech heavy metal act SEVEN has inked a deal with Nuclear Blast Records. The band's new album, "Freedom Call", will be released on September 2.

"We are very delighted to announce that the new record is being released under the Nuclear Blast label, which is one of the biggest and most professional labels on the whole world," says SEVEN guitar player and founding member Honza Kirk Behunek. "We are very proud of it and looking forward to the new fans."

In the Czech Republic, SEVEN is already an established name. The band has thus far released several instrumental records, some of which have featured guest appearances by such vocalists as Doro Pesch and Blaze Bayley.

SEVEN recently supported RAGE on the German band's European tour. In addition, RAGE guitarist Victor Smoski produced "Freedom Call", performed as a guest musician and wrote some of the lyrics on the CD.

"Victor isn't only a great musician, but also an amazing and modest person," says Honza. "I would even consider him as a part of SEVEN, even though he doesn't play with us."

"Freedom Call" is the first SEVEN album to feature vocalist Lukas Pisarik. Honza says, "Lukas is a young and talented singer. He's also a great person and everything is only ahead of him. He came to our audition and I knew from the very first moment that he is the one we're looking for."

Fan-filmed HD video footage of SLIPKNOT's June 24, 2011 performance at the Sonisphere festival in Basel, Switzerland 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

HAAVAT, the new Finnish band featuring Lauri Tuohimaa (CHARON, ex-EMBRAZE, FOR MY PAIN) alongside two other former members of EMBRAZE, has made its four-song demo EP available for free download at this location.

The track listing for the effort is as follows:

01. Kaikki Katoa
02. Vie Pois
03. Kahleet
04. Ajasta Ja Uskosta

HAAVAT is:

* Lauri Tuohimaa (CHARON, ex-EMBRAZE, FOR MY PAIN) - Vocals
* Janne Regelin (ex-EMBRAZE) - Guitar
* Tuomas Päkkilä - Guitar
* Olli-Pekka Karvonen (ex-EMBRAZE) - Bass
* Seppo "Sidi" Vainio (ex-SHADOWPLAY, ex-BRIARD, PÄÄT) - Drums

Athens, Ohio's SKELETONWITCH has set "Forever Abomination" as the title of its new record, due in the fall via Prosthetic Records. The follow-up to 2009's "Breathing The Fire" is being recorded at a Los Angeles studio with producer Matt Hyde (SLAYER, MACHINE HEAD, KREATOR). The effort will include the track "The Infernal Resurrection", the demo version of which appears as the B-side on the final seven-inch of a limited-edition vinyl trilogy. This marks SKELETONWITCH's first recording with the group's new drum

California traditional heavy metallers WHITE WIZZARD have parted ways with vocalist Wyatt Anderson and are currently on the road with a stand-in singer, former CELLADOR frontman Mike Germino. According to a posting on the WHITE WIZZARD Facebook page, "Wyatt Anderson wrote WHITE WIZZARD three weeks before [the group's current] tour [with FORBIDDEN] and said he did not want to tour for personal, health and family reasons. This well after tour was booked and his flights. Mike has stepped in and is doing a stellar job. There will be a full press release soon. Ask Wyatt for further explanation."

Fan-filmed video footage of the reactivated California death metal pioneers POSSESSED performing the song "Swing Of The Axe" on June 17, 2011 at Hellfest in Clisson, France can be seen below.

POSSESSED 2011 is:

* Jeff Becerra - Vocals
* Emilio Marquez (SADISTIC INTENT) - Drums
* Tony Campos (STATIC-X, PRONG, ASESINO) - Bass
* Kelly Mclauchlin (DIABOLIC, UNHOLY GHOST, PESSIMIST) - Guitar
* Daniel Gonzalez (NAILSHITTER, OCCISAS) - Guitar

The all new Diary Of Dreams album "Ego:X" will be released in no less than 4 different formats on August 26, namely the 17-track CD Version in 3 different editions with extra bonus material as well as a double-vinyl edition.

Here are the specs on the different editions:
"Ego:X" [Super-Deluxe] BOX: The Super Deluxe limited edition BOX-SET comes in a 7"-sized Package and should include (to be confirmed): an oversized 60 pages booklet, the double-CD version of Ego:X, an exclusive 7" Vinyl.
Ego:X [Limited]2LP
Ego:X [Limited] digi2CD: Limited edition in digipak, including 17 Tracks (of which 3 not included on the 'regular' album) on CD1 and a special 4-tracks bonus-MCD with additional exclusive material, namely the tracks "The Return", "Push me" (X-Version), "Undividable" (E-Mix) and "Undividable" (Alternative-Mix).
Ego:X [Regular] CD

The West Midlands of England, which has been the global home to bands such as BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN and NAPALM DEATH, is celebrating its heavy rock heritage through a new project called "Home Of Metal".

"Home Of Metal - Celebrating Music From Birmingham And The Black Country" is a one-of-a-kind exhibit celebrating 40 years of heavy metal and its unique birthplace. The exhibition runs until September 25 at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in Birmingham, England.

"Since we were so-called inventors of this music, and coming from Birmingham and all the surrounding things that are going on, it's really great for Birmingham and it's really great for us all," BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi — who has been involved with the project — tells the BBC in a new podcast which can be streamed below.

He added, "I wasn't familiar with [the term 'heavy metal'] for quite a few years. I mean, I always looked at what we did as heavy rock. And when that term was first mentioned to me… Somebody said, 'Oh, you play heavy metal.' And I said, 'What? What's that?' And this was a journalist from a well-known magazine. He said, 'Well, that's what you play — it's heavy metal.' And I'd been in America for quite awhile, so when I came back and I heard this term, I'd never heard it. And, of course, ever since that, that's been non-stop. I still think we're heavy rock, but you are put into a bag, and I'm quite proud of it now."

Over the past four years, "Home Of Metal" has scoured the U.K. and beyond for relics, artefacts, memorabilia and interesting stories. The show will offer an insight into the region's industrial history, the early blues-rocks sound, the changing music industry, DIY politics and the global impact of the sound as well as a chance to hear stories from both the fans and the artists.

EMPIRE DROWNS, is a new Danish metal/rock group with ex-members from WITHERING SURFACE, AURORA and DECORATE.DECORATE.

The band recently recorded three songs, 'Crawl', 'Abundance' and 'Sharpen My Teeth' and made them available for free on their Facebook page.

According to a press release, "embracing an addictive pop sensibility and crowned by roaring, yet always melodic vocals, Empire Drowns delivers its own brand of unique, darkly shaded rock with an unmistakable metal edge. Fuelled by equal amounts of desperation and hope, Empire Drowns is a musical construction of almost gothic proportions."

Hello, A press release from Hevein.

SOURCE: www.hevein.com

HEVEIN: ‘NOR’ digital single, video released

Finnish/Australian metal orchestra Hevein have released the 1st single “Nor” off their sophomore album “Gentle Anarchy”.

Hevein featuring cellist Max Lilja (ex-Apocalyptica,Tarja Turunen) have released the song with an accompaning video exclusively online.
“Gentle Anarchy” was recorded at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki, Finland with producers Nino Laurenne (Thunderstone), Joel Attila Peltonen,Janne Joutsenniemi and Max Lilja and mixing was handled by Canadian Shaun Thingvold (Devin Townsend, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory).

Over 2 years in the making and filmed in 5 countries the Nor music video is groundbreaking and breathtaking. It was directed and edited by guitarist Leif Hedström and photographer Tuukka Peltonen.
Tired of music videos being the same old cheesy crap you see over and over and over again they created something never seen before in a music video.

When asked to describe the video Leif said…

“ It’s like a BBC nature documentry edited to the rhythm of the song. It’s kind of like the movie Baraka but with heavy music. No actors, no sets, no band, no naked chicks, no fake crap… just real life.”

Bassist Rex Brown has confirmed that he is no longer a member of DOWN. Speaking to Patrick Musumeche of 8countnews.com over the weekend, he said, "I'm officially out of the band. Things came to a head and they're better off doing what they're doing. They've got Patrick Bruders [from CROWBAR] playing bass and I kind of lost my passion after a while. There were some other problems that we had to address and it just turned out better that we just parted ways."

Actor Johnny Depp joined Alice Cooper on stage earlier tonight (Sunday, June 26) at London, England's legendary 100 Club. Depp and Cooper performed the shock rocker's classics "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out". Check out photos at this location (scroll down).

Prior to the concert, Cooper stated, "It's been a while since we played such an intimate venue, but strip away the theatrics and we are a pedal-to-the-metal rock band, born in clubs like the 100 Club. We play every show like that anyway and it will be fantastic to reconnect in that atmosphere. This show comes with a health warning — 'We don't do acoustic, this will be loud."

GREAT WHITE are currently on the road with singer Terry Ilous (XYZ) who has been temporarily replacing frontman Jack Russell who was ordered to take a year off from touring while recovering from a perforated bowel.

“We had a hiccup with Jack, but he’s bound and determined to be back,"guitarist Michael Lardie tells Kristin Froneman from BCLocalNews.com. "I think it’s the Irish in him, but we want him to be 100 per cent well before he comes back. He has given his support to Terry and us to do this for a while without him, but he wants to come back... He’s been through a lot. It’ll be a great rock ‘n’ roll story when he does come back.”

Next on the radar for Big White when their front-man does return is to record a live album.

Mainman Ron Vento from Maryland-based death/black metallers AURORA BOREALIS has issued the following update:

"I have decided that I want to make our entire discography available to everyone for free. There are tons of people out there can simply cannot afford to buy CDs in these tough times. Of course we will still continue to sell hard copies of the CDs that are still available to those people who collect CDs, or want the hard copies.

I made this decision after the success we had from offering the new Timeline: The Beginning And End Of Everything CD as a free download. The response was overwhelming from people who appreciated the gesture.

We hope our fans enjoy this. We know some of our first few albums are very hard to find and are pretty expensive. There are still people out there that do not feel right stealing or downloading an album illegally so we want to make it easy for them without breaking the law.

The free downloads section will also include a zip file (Covering The Skies) of every cover song we were involved in or recorded. This is Not for sale anywhere, nor will it be ever. Some of the covers sound really bad because they are so old and some sound great. Either way they are fun to listen to and we have had many people asking about them.

The downloads can be found here

Some of the clips of the making of the new CD can still be found below."

Fan-filmed video footage of JUDAS PRIEST's June 23, 2011 performance at the Sonisphere festival in Basel, Switzerland can be seen below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Rapid Fire
02. Metal Gods
03. Heading Out to the Highway
04. Judas Rising
05. Starbreaker
06. Victim of Changes
07. Never Satisfied
08. Diamonds & Rust (JOAN BAEZ cover)
09. Dawn of Creation
10. Prophecy
11. Night Crawler
12. Turbo Lover
13. Beyond the Realms of Death
14. The Sentinel
15. Blood Red Skies
16. The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown) (FLEETWOOD MAC cover)
17. Breaking the Law
18. Painkiller

Encore:

19. The Hellion (taped intro) / Electric Eye

Encore 2:

20. Hell Bent for Leather
21. You've Got Another Thing Comin' (with Richie Faulkner guitar solo)

Encore 3:

22. Living After Midnight

Veteran progressive metallers ELDRITCH have inked a deal with Scarlet Records for the release of their eight studio album, "Gaia's Legacy", a concept effort dealing with global warming based on Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". Due in late September, the CD will see ELDRITCH going back to its technical progressive roots, with lots of influences raging from thrash to AOR and a modern approach still in the band's distinctive style. Frontman Terence Holler wrote all the lyrics after a deep search of information on every kind of source for the last three years.

"Gaia's Legacy" was produced by Marco Ribecai and Eugenio Simone at Syncropain Products Studio in Pisa, Italy, and mastered by Göran Finnberg (OPETH, IN FLAMES, EVERGREY, DARK TRANQUILLITY) in Sweden. FIREWIND's Bob Katsionis, a longtime fan of the band, is credited as special guest keyboardist on the song "Like A Child".

ADRENALINE MOB — the new band featuring former DREAM THEATER/AVENGED SEVENFOLD drummer Mike Portnoy, SYMPHONY X frontman Russell Allen, guitar virtuoso Mike Orlando (SONIC STOMP), bassist Paul DiLeo and STUCK MOJO/FOZZY axeman Rich Ward — recently recorded a cover version of the BLACK SABBATH classic "The Mob Rules" for inclusion on the group's forthcoming debut album, to be released before the end of the year through an as-yet-undetermined record label. The song was premiered in its entirety on this past Friday night's (June 24) edition of Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM, which featured the members of ADRENALINE MOB as special guests.

A radio-quality rip of ADRENALINE MOB's version of "The Mob Rules" can be streamed in the YouTube clip below.