We are sorry for keeping the lid on during the writing and recording process of this album. It has been a quite hard route, at least for me, to get things right and in order. I guess, most art is flowing without restraint and changes during the time of its construction, and sometimes even the artist him/herself needs time to comprehend it.
Jens Bogren of Fascination Street sprinkled his magic over the songs during the production- and mixing process and each and every song found its way. We are grateful to have such a committed producer and we can only feel blessed by the experience to once again have made another album reality at Fascination Street.

The new album is called A Rose for the Apocalypse and deals with a vast dilemma we’re all facing as one species; the horrors and contradictions we’ve created in our ‘nature-divorced’ system. The title refers to the collapse of this structure, built by mindless human opinion. It also refers to the necessity of its demise. We are trying to capture the gloom of its realization. I don’t know if we’d want to call this a conceptual album, but most songs certainly deal with the same topic in one way or the other. I’ve reached a point in my life when my eyes remain open.

To most of you A Rose for the Apocalypse might appear a darker, more threatening album compared to the previous Turning Season Within. And yes, it is different in several ways, but Draconian remains the same. I have often said that our new work resembles a mix between the old and the new Draconian and will unite fans of both preferences. While listening to this album I feel a lot of history comes together in one place, at least sound-wise.

Our old friend Olof Göthlin contributes with some of his excellent violin skills on the album. Cover and layout is created by the amazing Seth Siron Anton (Paradise Lost, Kamelot, Rotting Christ, Moonspell etc). We sincerely hope we’ve created an album that will make impact on our beloved fans. Thank you for keeping up, sticking by us and maintained your faith in Draconian.

Anders,
DRACONIAN

A Rose for the Apocalypse will be released through Napalm Records at June 23rd. A limited beautiful digi-pack version with one bonus song will be available.

LEAVES' EYES — the German/Norwegian band formed by ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull and members of ATROCITY — recently spent time in Gothenburg, Sweden filming a video for its cover of the MIKE OLDFIELD classic "To France" with director Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, IN FLAMES, SONIC SYNDICATE and KAMELOT, among others. You can now watch the clip below.

American metallers KAMELOT kicked off their South American tour last Thursday night (April 7) at Teatro Teletón in Santiago, Chile. Simone Simons (EPICA) and Elize Ryd (AMARANTHE) made guest appearances during the show, which marked KAMELOT's first-ever performance with singer Fabio Lione (RHAPSODY OF FIRE).

Fan-filmed video footage of the third show of the tour — which took place last night (Saturday, April 9) at Espaço Lux in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil — can be viewed below.

KAMELOT's setlist for the São Paulo show was follows:

01. Rule The World
02. Ghost Opera
03. The Great Pandemonium
04. The Human Stain
05. Center Of The Universe
06. Nights Of Arabia
07. A Sailorman's Hymn
08. When The Lights Are Down
09. Soul Society
10. Keyboard Solo
11. Hunter's Season
12. EdenEcho
13. Necropolis
14. The Haunting (Somewhere In Time) (with Simone Simons)
15. Drum Solo
16. Forever

Encore:

17. Bass Solo
18. Karma
19. Don't You Cry (with Simone Simons)
20. March of Mephisto

Dorset, England's doom trio RAMESSES has announced a collection of European tour dates for the rest of April.

Ramesses tour dates are as follows:

April
16 - Roadburn Festival, Tilburg, Netherland
17 - Espace B, Paris, France
23 - Kuudes Linja, Helsinki, Finland

Also Ramesses’ Chrome Pineal LP will be released May 16th via Ritual Productions.

The LP/DL features three brand new studio recordings and three live tracks, recorded in 2007 in Denmark. Artwork for the LP was done by the French surrealist Clovis Trouille.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, former SEETHER guitarist Troy McLawhorn has rejoined EVANESCENCE. McLawhorn first joined EVANESCENCE in 2007 after original guitarist John LeCompt left the band. He departed EVANESCENCE a year later and got the job with SEETHER, only to quit last month over what he said online was "personal friction" with one of the other members.

It wasn't long ago — February, in fact — that Morgan told The Pulse Of Radio about how much he enjoyed writing music with McLawhorn. "Troy's playing is a lot more melodic than a lot of the stuff we've had before.," he said. "When I write something, he'll complete that thought, which is amazing. It's like, you know, he'll do things that — if I had to go back and do overdubs like I did on the last album, he does them better, you know what I mean? So it's really exciting when that sort of thing starts coming together."

Adding an extra layer of tension to all this is the fact that SEETHER frontman Shaun Morgan and EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee had a nasty break-up in late 2005 after dating for over two years.

Swedish folk metal masters YGGDRASIL will release their new album, "Irrbloss" (English translation: "Will-o-wisps") on April 25 via Grand Master Music. The long-awaited follow up to 2008's "Vedergällning" was recorded, mixed and mastered at Grand Master Audio in Sweden.

"Irrbloss" track listing:

01. Höstmörkrets Natt
02. Bergtagen
03. Skaldefader
04. Irrbloss
05. Tokikvad
06. Norrland
07. Uppåkra
08. Kungabål

The album cover artwork was created by Mellergardh Design and can be viewed below.

The song "Uppåkra" is now available for free download at this location.

Today Uppåkra is a small town in southern Sweden but it was once one of the greatest cities in northern Europe. Archeological findings in recent years have proved Uppåkra to be one of the oldest and most long-lived cities in northern Europe, dating back to the 1st century BCE and surviving as a great centre of commerce until the
11th century CE.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, KORN will join the ranks of other world-famous Sony Music artists when "The Essential Korn" is released on May 10. The two-disc, 29-song collection will feature classics from the band such as "Blind", "Shoots & Ladders", "Got The Life", "Freak On A Leash", "Falling Away From Me", "Here To Stay", "Alone I Break", "Did My Time" and many more, including the recent "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)" from the band's latest effort, "Korn III: Remember Who You Are".

Unofficial BLACK SABBATH web site Black-Sabbath.com has revealed more details about the forthcoming deluxe-expanded-edition reissue of BLACK SABBATH's "Born Again" album. Due in the U.K. on May 30 via Sanctuary, the two-disc effort is expected to feature the following track listing:

Disc 1: (marked as "Original Album")

01. Trashed
02. Stonehenge
03. Disturbing the Priest
04. The Dark
05. Zero The Hero
06. Digital Bitch
07. Born Again
08. Hot Line
09. Keep It Warm

Disc 2:

01. The Fallen (previously unreleased album session outtake)
02. Stonehenge (extended version)

Recorded live at the Reading Festival on Saturday, August 27, 1983 (BBC "Friday Rock Show" broadcast):

03. Hot Line
04. War Pigs
05. Black Sabbath
06. The Dark
07. Zero The Hero
08. Digital Bitch
09. Iron Man
10. Smoke On The Water
11. Paranoid

"Dance With Me", the new video from the Croatian female-fronted gothic metal band OMEGA LITHIUM, can be viewed below. The song comes off the group's sophomore album, "Kinetik", which will be released via Drakkar on the following dates:

May 27 - Europe
June 7 - North America

The track listing for the CD is as follows:

01. Colossus
02. Dance With Me
03. Strip Me
04. Time Of Change
05. Kinetik
06. Salvation Refused
07. I Am God
08. Breaking
09. Cut Forget
10. Wind
11. Pjesma
12. Kinetik (Mechanic Remix) (limited-edition bonus track)

An audio sample of "Meredead", a new song from LEAVES' EYES — the German/Norwegian band formed by ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull and members of ATROCITY — is available for streaming at this location. The track is the title cut of LEAVES' EYES' fourth full-length album, which will be released on April 22 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland via Napalm Records. The effort will be available exclusively as limited-edition mediabook CD, including bonus track and bonus DVD "Live At The Metal Female Voices Fest", strictly limited-edition deluxe box set and regular jewel case.

Commented Liv Kristine: "Firstly, let me explain the title, which is my own word-creation: To my grammatical knowledge, 'Meredead' could mean 'dead by the sea,' or 'the deadly sea.' Poetically, we could add some imagination and lyrical sound and say 'sea of death.' Secondly, the word 'Meredead' sums up some of the themes rooted in my lyrics on the album.

"Now you may ask, why sing in Old English? Since my Old English studies, I've taken great interest in both Old English poetry and grammar. I just felt that this song required Old English lyrics, and an Old English 'sound', moreover, it needed this historical feel!

"Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by Angeln, Sachsen and Jüten (Germanic tribes, called Anglo-Saxons) and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. Although, for me, it meant digging my nose into my Old English books for weeks (and buying even more at Amazon), I feel that it was really worth it, moreover, it made so much fun!

"For me, having Norwegian and Danish parents and grand-parents, it's even more interesting that from the 9th century, Old English experienced heavy influence from Old Norse, a member of the related North Germanic group of languages.

"I highly recommend having a look at the book 'The Cambridge Old English Reader' by R. Marsden."

One band that many veteran metalheads feel should have hit the big time was New York's THE RODS. Comprised of members David "Rock" Feinstein (guitar/lead vocals), Garry Bordonaro (bass/vocals), and Carl Canedy (drums/vocals), THE RODS would go on to open arena shows for such renowned groups as IRON MAIDEN, TWISTED SISTER, JUDAS PRIEST, OZZY OSBOURNE (the "Blizzard Of Ozz" tour), SCORPIONS, RAINBOW (Joe Lynn Turner era), and during the mid-'80s, even had a then-unknown METALLICA opening a headlining tour for them. Add to it the fact that Feinstein is the cousin of the late, great Ronnie James Dio (both played together in ELF) and Canedy is an acclaimed metal producer (having worked on classic early releases by MEGADETH, ANTHRAX, OVERKILL, etc.), and it makes it even more baffling why THE RODS never got their due.

But this appears to changing quickly, as the trio has signed on with the Niji Entertainment Group, a label that was created by Ronnie James Dio and his wife/manager, Wendy Dio.

The band's seventh release overall (and sixth release overall for Niji) is titled "Vengeance" and will be made available on May 24 (postponed from the previously announced March 29). The release comes hot on the heels of Feinstein's recently-released solo album, "Bitten by the Beast".

The first single off "Vengeance" will be "The Code", which features vocals from none other than Ronnie James Dio (one of the very last songs that Ronnie ever recorded, before his untimely death in May of 2010).

"Vengeance" track listing:

01. Raise Some Hell
02. I Just Wanna Rock
03. Rebels Highway
04. Ride Free Or Die
05. The Code (feat. Ronnie James Dio)
06. Livin' Outside The Law
07. Let It Ripp
08. Fight Fire With Fire
09. Madman
10. Runnin Wild
11. Vengeance

"Kali Yoga III", the new video from Swedish progressive/experimental metallers THERION, can be viewed below. The song comes off the band's latest album, "Sitra Ahra", which sold around 800 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 44 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

As one of America’s most iconic and successful bands of all time, STYX is so much part of the national consciousness there, songs appear regularly in mainstream TV shows and films on a regular basis. Styx rose to fame in the late '70s and early '80s as pioneers of the pomp rock genre. This is what happened when American bands took prog rock influences from the likes of YES, GENESIS and ELP, and added in a melodic feel to make the music more commercial. Their commercial power was such that they were the first band in the States to have four consecutive albums from 1977 - 1981 selling over two million copies each.




Due out on May 9th via Spectrum Audio, Babe: The Collection represents the band’s most prolific and golden featuring a span of styles from power ballads like ‘Babe’ which reached number 6 on the UK charts in 1980 and #1 in the US in 1979 to US hits ‘Lady’(#6, 1975), ‘Come Sail Away’ (#8, 1977) and ‘Show Me The Way’ (#3, 1990) to pomp rock gems including ‘Mr Roboto’ (#3, 1983), ‘Renegade’ (#16, 1978) and ‘Too Much Time On My Hands’ (#9, 1981).

Babe: The Collection tracklisting:

'The Best Of Times'
'Too Much Time On My Hands'
'Babe'
'Boat On The River'
'Come Sail Away'
'Mr. Roboto'
'Fooling Yourself'
'Lady '95'
'Crystal Ball'
'Renegade'
'Lorelei'
'Mademoiselle'
'Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)'
'Heavy Metal Poisoning'
'Shooz'
'Snowblind'
'Show Me The Way'
'A.D. 1928'
'Rockin' The Paradise'

California hard rockers WARRANT have been in the studio recording their seventh studio album with legendary producer Keith Olsen (OZZY OSBOURNE, WHITESNAKE, SCORPIONS) at the helm. The CD - featuring singer Robert Mason (ex-LYNCH MOB) - is titled Rockaholic and will be released worldwide on May 17th via Frontiers Records/EMI. Check out the artwork below:




Warrant have been working on 14 new songs for Rockaholic.

Bassist Jerry Dixon commented recently: "The last few years has been like holding in a big "secret"from the world and now we get to share it. I really think we captured a perfect mix of the past and present on this record. Each song has its own vibe that's going to take people on a kick-ass Warrant rollercoaster ride. To help achieve an old school sound mixed with the flair of today, we called on the legendary Keith Olsen to do the production. There's enough '80's influence on songs like 'Tears In The City' and 'Sex Ain't Love' to keep the die-hard Warrant fans rocking while introducing them to new material".




Check out behind-the-scenes footage from the Rockaholic recording sessions and photo-shoot below:

Am 15. April 2011 erscheint eine limitierte Tour Edition des "Poetry For The Poisoned" Albums! Es handelt sich um eine Doppel-CD, auf der zweiten CD gibt es 8 Live Songs vom Wacken-Auftritt 2010! Bestellbar ist das Album HIER bei Amazon!

"Poetry For The Poisoned" Tour Edition Track List:

Tracklist CD1:

01. The Great Pandemonium
02. If Tomorrow Came
03. Dear Editor
04. The Zodiac
05. Hunter's Season
06. House On A Hill
07. Necropolis
08. My Train Of Thoughts
09. Seal Of Woven Years
10. Poetry For The Poisoned Part I - Incubus
11. Poetry For The Poisoned Part II - So Long
12. Poetry For The Poisoned Part III - All Is Over
13. Poetry For The Poisoned Part IV - Dissection
14. Once Upon A Time
15. Where The Wild Roses Grow

Tracklist CD2:

16. The Great Pandemonium (Live From Wacken 2010)
17. Human Stain (Live From Wacken 2010)
18. Center Of The Universe (Live From Wacken 2010)
19. Pendulous Fall (Live From Wacken 2010)
20. Hunter's Season (Live From Wacken 2010)
21. Karma (Live From Wacken 2010)
22. Forever (Live From Wacken 2010)
23. March of Mephisto (Live From Wacken 2010)

Former WARRANT frontman Jani Lane has issued the following update:

"I will be back on the road by June. In the meantime, I'm staying holed up in my studio writing for myself and other artists.

"I will be releasing a remastered and possibly re-recorded version of 'Jabberwocky' by September. [Between 1997 and 2000, demos of Lane's solo material began surfacing on the Internet, with some bids on eBay reaching an estimated $100.00 per copy. The project, titled 'Jabberwocky', represented a significant musical departure from Lane's previous work. The CD has never been officially released. — Ed.] Tired of hearing bastardized versions floating all around the world... Guess it's time to put it out there properly.

"I'll also be releasing a five-six song EP on my new website, JaniLane.net. This is, in my humble opinion, some of the best songs I've ever written (I'm not the only one who has said this)!

"I'm planning a RADIOHEAD-type experiment where I will make the entire download free, give you a chance to check it out and several ways to kick me back what you think it's worth... or tell me it sucks and to go back to the drawing board!

"Hope you all have a great spring break and see you this summer!!"

Finnish female-fronted symphonic metallers AMBERIAN DAWN will enter the studio in the summer to begin recording their new album. AMBERIAN DAWN mainman, keyboardist and guitarist Tuomas Seppälä composed all ten songs for the CD and vocalist Heidi Parviainen has already started working on the lyrics.

Commented Tuomas: "There's going to be some changes in our working methods and the next album is going to sound different compared to our previous albums. We're going to use backing vocalists, for example. Earlier we have had only guest lead singers and no backing vocalists at all. There's some really fast songs on this album and also some '80s- style songs like 'Valkyries' and 'Kokko' from our previous albums. Technically, there's great challenges for the band and all the skills possessed by the new lineup will be essential. We're going to break some new limits again and lift the level of our quality even higher than before. With some guest vocalists or musicians on this album, just like on all our previous albums, this new album is going to be more solid than our latest album, 'End Of Eden'."

Added Heidi: "There's going to be some new elements on the lyrics, for example some horror themes".

"Arctica", the latest video from AMBERIAN DAWN, can be viewed below. The clip was directed by Markus Nieminen of Routafilmi.

Former WEHRWOLFE/DARKMOON drummer Scott Pletcher has joined forces with ex-WEHRWOLFE guitarist Art Taylor, guitarist Eric Stewart, vocalist Dave Cowgill, and bassist Wes Studebaker in a brand new band called SHRINE OF SUFFERING. The group has completed a three-song demo CD and a video for the song "Blood Of The Infidel" .

SHRINE OF SUFFERING is currently seeking label support and booking opportunities.

The band can be contacted at shrineofsuffering@yahoo.com.

In zwei Wochen, am 22. April, wird endlich das neues Album "All Beauty Must Die" erscheinen. Bewegt durch Euer wundervolles Feedback möchten Euch die Band quasi für den Endspurt noch einen letzten Song als kostenlosen Download mit auf den Weg geben. Wie funktioniert's ?

Klickt HIER! Dann landest Du auf einer extra für Euch eingerichteten Downloadseite, wo Du Dir entweder via Facebookconnect oder mit Deiner eMailadresse einloggen kannst. Nur wenige Augenblicke später gehört Dir dann "Liberatio" 2011, einer der drei Bonustracks und das möglicherweise ruhigste Stück auf "All Beauty Must Die".

ACRIMONIOUS have announced they have signed with Agonia Records for the release of their upcoming second untitled album.

According to a press release: “ The new album focuses mostly on the feminine aspect of the Adversarial path, but also presents hints and direct references to the solar centre of consciousness through traversing the paths of Draconian Alchemy via their respective spheres.”

Also, prior to release of the new album, the band’s 2009 debut entitled Purulence, is now available on vinyl. Album artwork for the release was done by Kriss Hades, the extensive vinyl sized booklet and layout by Timo Ketola.

Liz Vandall, best known for her extensive vocal work with guitar legend ULI JON ROTH, has agreed to do session work for the LYRAKA metal opera.

Guitarist and composer Andy DiGelsomina has issued the following statement: "Liz Vandall's reputation precedes her, having been vocalist for both the progressive rock band SAHARA in the 90s, and a mainstay of maestro Uli Jon Roth's many lineups. Her voice has a distinct personality and an awesome classic rock influence that will help delineate the personality of her Lyraka character."

The heavy metal opera project, Lyraka, has commissioned top fantasy artist Ken Kelly (KISS, MANOWAR, RAINBOW) for the artwork of their second album entitled, Lyraka Volume 2.