Massive Music has issued the following statement:

"Tomasz Dziubinski - our long-lasting friend, producer and organizer of our concerts, publisher of many of our albums and the most important person of the Polish metal scene - suddenly passed away on December 16th, after the struggle with a serious disease.

It's even more impossible to understand, as just few days ago we were talking over Tomek's plans for 2011 and his involvement in new undertakings. Tomek has always wanted to be faithful to metal and his Metalmania shows brought up many generations of fans. It's hard to understand the purpose of this death; the more so as Tomek was always an open, kind and very straightforward person. His professionalism was admirable and inaccessible for most of us. Thanks to him we were learning heavy metal in Poland! Tomek was the person who will mark his name on the cards of metal history!

We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Mariola, his children and relatives. We hope that the good spirit of 'Dziuba' will stay in metal hearts forever. We are filled in sorrow, we will bear in mind you and your achivements..."

"Give Up The Rest", the new video from French metallers KLONE, can be viewed below. The song comes off the group's latest album, "Black Days", which was released on April 19 in France and May 17 in the rest of Europe and Australia via Season of Mist.

The track listing is as follows:

01. Rite Of Passage
02. Spiral Down
03. Give Up The Rest
04. Hollow Way
05. Immaculate Desire
06. Closed Season (Interlude)
07. The Spell Is Cast
08. Danse Macabre
09. Rain Bird
10. Behold The Silence
11. Army Of Me (BJÖRK cover)

Audio samples of three new songs from ONE MAN ARMY AND THE UNDEAD QUARTET — the Swedish band featuring former THE CROWN vocalist Johan Lindstrand — are available for streaming on the group's MySpace page. "Inside The Head Of God", "Stitch" and "Skeletons Of Rose Hall" come off ONE MAN ARMY AND THE UNDEAD QUARTET's fourth full-length album, "The Dark Epic", which will be released in Europe on February 25, 2011. The CD was recorded at Black Lounge studios in Avesta, Sweden with producer Jonas Kjellgren (SCAR SYMMETRY, CARNAL FORGE). The cover artwork, which can be viewed below, was created by Björn Goosses of Killustrations.

Portugal's FACTORY OF DREAMS has released the cover art for their third album, Melotronical (click on the picture to the left to enlarge). The album is nearly complete and will be available for pre-order early January 2011 through Progrock Records.

According to a press release: “Melotronical is a conceptual CD revolving around the evolution of an electronic Molecule into a living, breathing entity. This entity, experiences several stages of life, goes through all emotions, love, hate, fear, happiness... The track list is arranged according to this evolution, and one can have a feel of each stage just by reading each song title, listening to the songs and lyrics. More info upon release in January.”

Melotronical's tracklisting is as follows:

‘Enter Nucleon’
‘Melotronical’
‘A Taste Of Paradise’
‘Protonic Stream’
‘Into Oblivion’
‘Obsessical’
‘Back To Sleep’
‘Whispering Eyes’
‘Subatomic Tears’
‘Dimension Crusher’
‘Echoes From Earth’
‘Something Calling Me’
‘Reprogramming

Vocalist Hugo Flores comments: "It's almost here after so much hard work on this new album! Melotronical is different, very special... every track from this album has something unique, maybe related to the way the album was designed. The music pushes and goes far beyond the boundaries of the electronic progressive metal genre.

Early January everyone will be able to pre-order the album, watch the official full promo and listen to a longer preview. So, get ready to feel Melotronical with our brand new album. Wish you all a happy Christmas and a fantastic new year 2011!"

E-FORCE, featuring ex-VOIVOD frontmant Eric Forrest, have announced a string of Euromean tour dates for January. The schedule is currently as follows:


January
13 - Zalaegerszeg, Hungary - Club Grabowski
14 - Croatia - tba.
15 - Schio, Italy - Mac2
16 - Cremona, Italy - Dordoni
17 - Ljubljana, Slovenia - Orto Bar
18 - Padova, Italy - Country Star
19 - Bologna, Italy - Lazzaretto
20 - Chiasso, Switzerland - Murrayfield Pub
21 - Eindhoven, Netherlands - Little Devil
22 - Aalen, Germany - venue tba

More dates for 2011 will be announced soon.

Forrest has also issued the folloiwng update:

"We will finally be recording The Curse Of The C*** record by next summer. Things got delayed, dates got booked, it will be released some time late next yeart. So far eight songs are completed (demo), titled 'Devoured', 'Awakened', 'Into Temptation', 'Serpent's Kiss', 'The Witch Work'. A few special guests will also appear on the record. Stay tuned..."

Coming off a triumphant headlining tour in the U.K. last month with support from GRAND MAGUS, CHTHONIC and MALEFICE, Swedish/German extreme metallers ARCH ENEMY have entered Sweet Spot Studio in the south of Sweden to begin recording their new studio album for a tentative May 2011 release via Century Media Records. The CD is being produced by the band and engineered/mixed by Rickard Bengtsson (who previously worked with the group on 2005's "Doomsday Machine").

Commented ARCH ENEMY drummer Daniel Erlandsson: "After an intense but inspiring stay in the studio, I've just completed recording the drum tracks for the upcoming ARCH ENEMY album! We're working once again with Rickard Bengtsson, who produced 'Doomsday Machine', and he quickly dialed in an absolutely pristine drumtone! I've also had the expertise of local drum guru Beppe Wackelin at hand, helping out with tuning and kindly letting me use some of his vintage drums.

"This time around I've used a Pearl Reference drum kit, while incorporating various snare drums on songs that demanded a slightly different feel.

"We had a very inspiring and creative time writing this album. I think this is definitely evident when listening to the new songs. There's tons of variation in the material, ranging all the way from very melodic to extremely heavy.

"As you can expect there's no shortage of killer riffs and intricate guitar work; the Amott brothers [Michael and Chris] have come up with some very cool yet demanding ideas!

"This album has some of the fastest songs I've ever recorded, along with a bunch of heavy pounding mid tempo songs.

"As always, it's difficult to describe music in words, but rest assured — this album will be one heavy fucker!"

Video footage of Daniel recording the new CD can be viewed below.

Multinational melodic metallers EDEN'S CURSE have completed the recording of their brand new, and third, studio album Trinity.

The album is now in the final stages of the mixing process with long term Producer, and bassist of PINK CREAM 69 and UNISONIC, Dennis Ward (ANGRA, ALLEN & LANDE, SILENT FORCE, KROKUS) and will be released by Spiritual Beast (Japan) on March 16th and by AFM Records (Europe) and Metal Mayhem (USA) on March 18th.

The band recorded fourteen songs in total, which includes two cover versions.

Details of the tracklisting, artwork and news on some very famous guests will be released in early 2011.

"Monologue", the new video from Louisiana-based progressive metallers TETRAFUSION, can be viewed below. The song comes off the band's sophomore album, "Altered State", which was released on October 12 via Nightmare Records. The Fairfield Studios-directed clip was filmed in Shreveport, Lousiana with producer Chris Lyon of Perennial Media.

Commented bassist Mark Michell: "It was a pleasure to work with one of the highest-quality production studios and directors from our region.

"Chris Lyon has directed many recent independent films and is truly a natural at his craft. He and the crew from Fairfield really took the lyrics and story from our track and brought them to life with an amazing cinematic storyline. It brought the track to an entirely new level. We hope to work with these guys again in the future."

"Altered State" was recorded and produced by David Forshee of Queensix Productions.

TETRAFUSION's blend of complex, technical metal blended with a highly-intellectual melodic structure offers an eclectic brand of progressive rock and metal along the likes of PORCUPINE TREE, RUSH, DREAM THEATER, CYNIC, TOOL and MUSE. Originally an instrumental band, the group released its debut record, "Absolute Zero", to critical acclaim, which quickly launched TETRAFUSION into the underground metal scene, sans vocals, along the likes of SCALE THE SUMMIT, ANIMALS AS LEADERS, LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, and CANVAS SOLARIS, and was hailed as one of the top ten albums of 2009 by Ultimate-Guitar.com.

In a recent interview with Examiner.com, Michell stated about the new release, "We really took a new direction musically. It's our first record to feature vocals, and we didn't want to have 'Absolute Zero Part 2' with vocals over it, so we decided to just completely change our approach. I think 'Altered State''s biggest slogan is 'substance over style' whereas our debut was very style-oriented and straightforward. We definitely have our progressive, crazy, fast, heavy moments, but we took a step back and gave it a lot more atmosphere, which is something I think we needed on many levels."

"Altered State" track listing:

01. Collage of the Present
02. Monologue
03. Last Chance
04. The Deserter
05. Altered State (instrumental)
06. Shadows
07. Tears of the Past

TETRAFUSION is:

Gary Tubbs - Vocals, Keyboards,
Brooks Tarkington - Vocals, Guitars
Mark Michell - Bass
J.C. Bryant - Drums

Swiss industrial black metallers SAMAEL have set "Lux Mundi" (which translates as "Light of the World") as title of their forthcoming album, due in the spring via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD, which took almost three years to be completed, was recorded this past summer after the band spent a few days in pre-production in Germany with with longtime collaborator Waldemar Sorychta (MOONSPELL, LACUNA COIL, TIAMAT, GRIP INC.). The actual recordings took place in two different locations in Switzerland and the mix was handled by extreme metal specialist Russ Russell in Kettering, England.

"Lux Mundi" will consist of 10 to 12 new songs, including first single "Antigod" and live monster "Soul Invictus".

Ex-DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy has revealed made a recent attempt to rejoin his former bandmates but was rebuffed by the band he formed and led for 25 years. Writing on his official forum, Portnoy states, "Just for the record, this is indeed true..

"Fairly recently, I reached out to the guys to try and make amends and offered to reconcile for the sake of having peace back in our lives… (plus I know how much it meant to a lot of the fans…)

"I figured it was still possible to try and save us, because they hadn't made any announcements yet or begun any public activity with another drummer… but sadly, they declined my offer (well, actually their lawyer did… they didn't even tell me themselves….)

"Sorry, gang, I honestly gave it my all…

"So now the fans on my Twitter and Facebook can please stop asking me to go back to DREAM THEATER… I tried, and the door is now shut… The ball is now in their court, not mine…

"I'm not crying or looking for mercy by posting this… I am merely trying to set the record straight as that is always the most important thing about my relationship with you guys… No BS, no spins, nothing to hide… and for better or for worse, I tell it like it is… I've also recently seen some people accuse my online activity of 'looking for attention or media coverage,' or 'looking for sympathy,' but it's honestly none of the above… I merely value having an open and active communication with my fans… Always have, always will… It is the cornerstone of everything I've done since day #1 with DREAM THEATER…

"This was posted here FOR YOU GUYS to know about...here on MY message board on MY website.... If it ends up on Blabbermouth or wherever else, that is THEIR choice to spread, I did not request it or send out a 'press release'....

"Anyways, onward and upward...

"I've got a lot of great music and ideas waiting to come out of me and alot of exciting collaborations in the works....so goodbye 2010...bring on 2011!"

Die finnischen Melodic Death Metaller MYGRAIN, haben die Aufnahmen an Ihrem neuen Album mit Produzent Janne Joutsenniemi (SUBURBAN TRIBE, STONE) in den Seawolf Studios in Helsinki abgeschlossen.

Das neue Album kommt am 21. Januar 2011 via Spinefarm Records in den Handel. Den Mix hat Dan Swanö (EDGE OF SANITY, BLOODBATH, NIGHTINGALE) in den Unisound Studios in Örebro, Sweden übernommen.

"Mygrain" Track List:

01. Into The Parallel Universe (5:34)
02. Shadow People (4:28)
03. Dust Devils And Cosmic Storms (4:50)
04. Of Immortal Aeons (5:40)
05. A Clockwork Apocalypse (6:18)
06. Eye Of The Void (5:16)
07. Trapped In An Hourglass (5:47)
08. Xenomorphic (6:06)
09. Cataclysm Child (6:29)

Die Deutschen Hard Rocker BONFIRE feiern im kommenden Jahr ihr 25jähriges Bandjubiläum! Drei Musiker der ersten Stunde, darunter die Masterminds Hans Ziller und Claus Lessmann sind auf dem neuen BONFIRE Album "Branded" zu hören. Dem ersten regulären Studio Album nach fünf Jahren! In gewohnt knackiger Qualität gibt es darauf 10 brandneue Songs zu entdecken sowie zwei außergewöhnliche Bonus Tracks.

Kernige Rock-Hymen, aber auch wunderschöne Balladen in denen die stimmlichen Qualitäten von Claus Lessmann besonders intensiv zum Tragen kommen, dominieren "Branded". Songs wie die Hymne "Just Follow The Rainbow", der Megaohrwurm "Save Me" oder die ergreifende Liebeserklärung "Hold Me Now" haben wieder die Klasse der Bandmeisterwerke "Fire Works" (Goldalbum in Deutschland für mehr als 250.000 verkaufte Einheiten) sowie "Fuel To The Flames" (Top 30 in Deutschland).

Nach ihrem Beitrag zur Fußball WM, die Single "Deutsche Nationalhymne" stand sieben Wochen in den deutschen Charts ist der Fünfer aus Ingolstadt wieder in aller Munde! In ihrem Jubiläumsjahr werden BONFIRE auf zahlreichen deutschen und europäischen Bühnen zu sehen und hören sein nach wie vor getreu dem Motto "Keep The BONFIRE Burning"! Das neue Album "Branded" kommt am 21. Januar 2011 in D/AT/CH in den Handel.

ALICE IN CHAINS' video for the song "Last Of My Kind" can be viewed below. The song comes off the band's 2009 album, "Black Gives Way To Blue", which was the group's first all-new release in 14 years.

ALICE IN CHAINS has been nominated in the "Best Hard Rock Performance" category at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"Best Hard Rock Performance" nominees:

* ALICE IN CHAINS - "A Looking In View" (from "Black Gives Way to Blue")
* OZZY OSBOURNE - "Let Me Hear You Scream" (from "Scream")
* SOUNDGARDEN - "Black Rain" (from "Telephantasm")
* STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - "Between The Lines" (from "Stone Temple Pilots")
* THEM CROOKED VULTURES - "New Fang" (from "Them Crooked Vultures")

"Tragedy", the new single from Pittsburgh traditional metal band ICARUS WITCH, is available for streaming at this location. The song was produced by Dave Watson (MANTIC RITUAL, CROWN THE LOST, D.C. COOPER) at Soundscape Studios in Pittsburgh and was mastered at Prairie Cat Mastering in Belvidere, Illinois by M.J.R. This marked the first time ICARUS WITCH recorded with an engineer other than longtime producer Eric Klinger (PRO-PAIN, BUILT UPON FRUSTRATION) who recently relocated to Belgium.

Further to the recent statement from vocalist Niklas Kvarforth of Swedish black metallers SHINING regarding the delay in the release of the band's seventh album, "VII / Född Förlorare", the group's founder and frontman has issued the following update:

"We have spoken to our producer regarding 'Shining VII' and have come to realize that he is also not to blame for the delay in finishing the album, but rather that it has been caused by a lack of communication between all the parties concerned — these being the label, the producer and ourselves.

"We are happy with the outcome of our discussions, and expect that the album will be fully mixed and mastered by the second week in January, after which time we will hopefully be able to get more information regarding a release date. In the meantime, we would like to thank all the fans for their patience and for all the messages we have been receiving over the past months."

"(Un)bearable Certainty", a reworked version of a song from Portuguese avant-garde maniacs THANATOSCHIZO, is available for free download at this location. The track comes off the band's fifth album, "Origami", which will be released in January via Major Label Industries. The CD was produced by Guilhermino Martins (THANATOSCHIZO guitarist) and was mastered by Mike Jussila (RAM-ZET, NIGHTWISH) at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki, Finland.

"Origami" was recorded at Teatro de Vila Real (in the band's hometown, Vila Real) and the group's own Blind & Lost Studios in Santa Marta de Penaguião, Portugal. The record features guest appearances by FADOMORSE (a Portuguese group that mixes national folk music with Frank Zappa's delirious moments), BANDA DE MÚSICA DE MATEUS (a local brass and woodwind ensemble) and Ricardo Frade, a young promising percussionist. According to a press release, the CD contains "songs from previous records but with a different touch, approach and edge to them. The more harsh and heavy melodies are going to give place to a more acoustic, experimental and ethnic side of the band's enterprise."

"Origami" track listing:

01. Inexistence
02. (Un)Bearable Certainty
03. Nightmares Within
04. Pervasive Healing
05. Rawoid
06. Sublime Loss
07. Dance Of The Tender Leaves
08. Sweet Suicidal Serenade
09. The Journey's Shiver
10. Hereafter Path
11. Last Of The Few
12. Pale Blue Perishes

"(Un)bearable Certainty" audio stream:

Scottish folk/power metal band ALESTORM has issued the following update:

"It is my very great pleasure to announce that on January 10th ALESTORM will be heading to the studio to record our third album, which we're gonna call 'Back Through Time'. It's gonna be an epic adventure through piratical badassery in 11 tracks, with more drunken singalong anthems than you can shake a stick at. There will be songs about midgets. There will be songs about Wisconsin. There will be songs about travelling through time to kill Vikings. And, of course, loads of songs about pirates doing what they do best; kicking your ass and stealing your wenches!

"Lasse Lammert will once again be at the helm of the production, at his LSD Studios in Lubeck, Germany. We'll be there for about a month (one week of recording, three weeks of alcohol abuse), and we're hopefully looking at a release in early summer, in time for us to kick your asses with these songs at all the festivals.

"In no particular order, here's the songtitles that we've got penned for the album:

* The Sunk'n Norwegian
* Shipwrecked (Pure Dead Banjaxed)
* Buckfast Powersmash
* Rum
* Back Through Time
* Swashbuckled
* Death Throes Of The Terrorsquid
* Midget Saw
* Scraping The Barrel
* Rumpelkombo
* Barrett's Privateers

"Of course these are all possibly subject to change, if we go crazy in the studio. There will inevitably also be a silly digipak version with a bunch of daft covers as bonus tracks as well, the exact details of which we'll announce at a later date."

ALESTORM's latest album, "Black Sails At Midnight", landed at position No. 87 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart. The Heatskeers chart 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.

ALESTORM released its debut album, "Captain Morgan's Revenge", in January 2008 through Napalm.

According to a press release, the quartet "plays Scottish 'pirate metal,' by their own definition, and musically resembles the great battle metal bands such as KORPIKLAANI or TURISAS, albeit with a unique touch and Scottish instrumentation."

A number of high-quality photos from this year's edition of the Eindhoven Metal Meeeting festival, which was held December 17-18, 2010 in Eindhoven, Holland have been posted online at Metal-Experience.com.

Included are pictures of the following bands (in alphabetical order):

Friday, December 17 (photos):

ALCEST
ENDSTILLE
HELSTAR
MAEL MORDHA
MAYHEM
MOONSPELL
MORTAL FORM
PESTILENCE
REPUGNANT
ST.VITUS
THE 11TH HOUR
VARG
VICTIMIZER

Saturday, December 18 (photos):

CARACH ANGREN
CHIRAW
DEATH ANGEL
EXODUS
FINNTROLL
IMMORTAL
IZEGRIM
KREATOR
NOTHNEGAL
ROTTING CHRIST
SAMAEL
SUICIDAL ANGELS
THE MENTORS
TRIDENT

Frontiers Records has a February 18, 2011 European release date (February 15 in North America) for PRIMAL FEAR singer Ralf Scheepers' solo debut album, entitled "Scheepers".

Scheepers has built himself quite a reputation for being one of the finest German heavy metal singers. With a career spanning three decades (he debuted with TYRAN PACE's "Eye to Eye" album in 1983), Scheepers sung on true power metal manifesto releases such as GAMMA RAY's first three albums before starting PRIMAL FEAR in 1997 with Mat Sinner. His voice is high-pitched and tenor-esque and his abilities were often compared to some of the finest hard rock and heavy metal singers ever (from Rob Halford to Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan). In addition, oth HELLOWEEN and JUDAS PRIEST considered him for the singer position in their respective bands.

Over the years Ralf wrote and collected a few tracks that did not fit exactly in the PRIMAL FEAR concept. As often happens, he was just waiting for the right chance to present itself and that happened when he, his buddy Mat Sinner and Frontiers Records president Serafino Perugino sat together and discussed plans for the future in… 2007! Over three years later and the results are finally here and in Scheepers' words "I'm really proud of the result!"

Scheepers' artistic intention was to please the existing PRIMAL FEAR fan base, but he also wanted to add some surprises and include as much variation as he could in the recording. So he went ahead and covered one of his own favorite — albeit atypical — JUDAS PRIEST songs, "Before the Dawn", and for the first time, Ralf played all instruments on a track, except the fantastic guitar solos added by Victor Smolski (RAGE). "Compassion" is another special track with a very positive vibe, recorded only with acoustic instruments. Two of the songs were composed with former PRIMAL FEAR guitarist Stefan Leibing, while GAMMA RAY's Kai Hansen added guitar on "The Pain Of The Accused". HALFORD's "Metal" Mike Chlasciak played lead guitar on the album opener "Locked In The Dungeon". One more highlight is the vocal duet with Tim "Ripper" Owens (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH) on "Remission Of Sin". Additional guest appearances include Sander Gommans (AFTER FOREVER), Snowy Shaw (KING DIAMOND, THERION, DREAM EVIL) and Scheepers' PRIMAL FEAR bandmates Magnus Karlsson, Alex Beyrodt and Mat Sinner. The album was mixed and mastered by Achim Köhler and produced by Mat Sinner.

"Scheepers" track listing:

01. Locked In The Dungeon
02. Remission Of Sin
03. Cyberfreak
04. The Fall
05. Doomsday
06. Saints Of The Rock
07. Before The Dawn
08. Back On The Track
09. Dynasty
10. The Pain Of The Accused
11. Play With The Fire
12. Compassion

"Temple Of Kings", a brand new song from NICK HELLFORT, the solo project of TOKYO BLADE/DOMAIN singer Nicolaj Ruhnow, can be streamed at this location. The track comes off the band's new album, "The Mask Within", which is tentatively due in early 2011. The CD was recorded at High Gain Studios in Hamburg, Germany with producer Arne Lakenmacher.

Songtitles set to appear on the CD include:

* Lifeline (From The Devil's View)
* Fame Is Just A Whore
* Stepwise & Silently
* Crusaders
* Temple Of Kings
* The Antichrist Wore Black (Daily Phrases)
* The Messenger
* For All Time
* Perception 3.0
* Journey Throu' A Cup Of Tea

Dutch death metallers SINISTER have announced the addition of bassist Joost van der Graaf (CYPHER, CREEPMIME) to the group's ranks. The band states, "We practiced now a couple of times together and it's going fucking amazing... The band is really happy with him and we cannot wait to show this to you by one of our live gigs."

SINISTER released its new album, "Legacy of Ashes", on December 17 via Massacre Records. The CD was recorded at Soundlodge studios in Rhauderfehn, Germany with producer Jörg Uken (GOD DETHRONED, OBSCENITY).

"Legacy of Ashes" track listing:

01. Herd Of Damnation (intro)
02. Into The Blind World '
03. The Enemy Of My Enemy
04. Anatomie Of A Catastrophe
05. The Sin Of Sodomy
06. Legacy Of Ashes
07. The Hornet's Nest
08. Righteous Indignations
09. The Living Sacrifice