Medford, Oregon's KTVL.com reports: A van carrying nine members of two California-based "death metal" bands lost control crashed on Interstate 5 in Central Point when the driver fell asleep, killing one passenger and injuring two others just after 5:30 a.m. Monday.

Photos of crash scene:

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Oregon State Police say the van, pulling a trailer, was the two bands to California when it crashed in the southbound lane between the Central Point and Blackwell Road exits.

OSP didn't release the names of the band and van occupants. But KTVL.com has confirmed the van was transporting the two bands EARLY GRAVES, of San Francisco, and THE FUNERAL PYRE, of La Habra, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb. THE FUNERAL PYRE's MySpace page described their music as "melodic black/death metal."

(NOTE: According to unconfirmed online reports, the passenger who was killed in the accident was EARLY GRAVES singer Mahk Daniels.)

Classic Swedish heavy metal veterans OVERDRIVE have finished recording their new album and are currently mixing the effort at Studio Underground in Västerås, Sweden with Pelle Saether (STEEL ATTACK, AXENSTAR, GRAND DESIGN, INSANIA). The band states, "It sounds KILLER, we think!"

Songtitles set to appear on the album include:

* Thriller
* Cold Blood Chaser
* Angelmaker
* Wavebreaker
* Run Out
* On With The Action
* It's Not As Easy As It Seems
* Signs All Over
* Mother Earth
* Brand New Sinner
* In Gut We Trust
* See The Light
* I Know There's Something Going On (cover)

OVERDRIVE's seventh LP will be mixed by Pelle Saether (STEEL ATTACK, AXENSTAR, GRAND DESIGN, INSANIA) in July.

Commented guitarist Janne Stark: "Musically this album is true to the '80s way of heavy metal, bringing in influences from the classic metal era of bands like ACCEPT and JUDAS PRIEST with no modern elements whatsoever. Not that we've ever been modern. I know all bands say it, but we do sincerely feel this will be our strongest album ever."

The lineup is still Per "PerilOz" Karlsson on vocals, Janne Stark and Kjell Jacobsson on guitars, Kenth Ericsson on bass and Kenta Svensson on drums.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2010, OVERDRIVE will appear at several festivals in Scandinavia, such as Muskelrock in Alvesta, Hasslöfestivalen in Karlskrona and Metal Warning in Helsinki.

Spanish gothic symphonic metallers FOREVER SLAVE are working on material for their third studio album, tentatively due in early 2011. Singer Lady Angellyca's sister, Lady Darkness, is collaborating on the lyrics for the CD, which will mark the band's first release since 2008's "Tales For Bad Girls" (Armageddon Music/Wacken Records).

Lady Darkness previously handled the keyboards and backing vocals for FOREVER SLAVE during 2001 and 2002.

Norwegian metallers MANIFEST will release their third album, "Written In Blood", in Norway on October 11 via their own record label, Violent Media.

Violent Media has inked a distribution deal with Norway's top metal distributor Indie Distribution for this CD.

Commented the band, "For the first few months we'll concentrate on giving the album a decent release in Norway, and when we feel the timing is right we'll release the album in the rest of Europe as well."

"Written In Blood" was recorded in MANIFEST's hometown of Trondheim and produced by Knut "Fug" Prytz (KEEP OF KALESSIN, NECROPHAGIA, BLOODTHORN).

01. Tonnie Von Adelaine
02. They'll Have To Carry Me Home
03. Food For Flies
04. The Worst Is Yet To Come
05. Pitch Black Inside
06. A .45 To Pay The Rent
07. Lullaby (Bedtime For Bastards)
08. Letter From The Grave
09. Irreversible
10. Savage
11. Written In Blood

Veteran German thrashers SODOM have set "In War And Pieces" as the title of their new album, due on November 22, 2010 via SPV/Steamhammer. The CD is being produced by Waldemar Sorychta, who has previously worked with TIAMAT, MOONSPELL, LACUNA COIL and SENTENCED, among many others. SODOM bassist/vocalist Thomas "Angelripper" Such recently stated about the group's new material, "There has never been a SODOM album which is so wide-ranged, as powerful and as typically SODOM as this one."

NME TV and Sonisphere TV conducted separate interviews with SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor at the U.K. edition of the Sonisphere festival, which is being held July 30 - August 1 at Knebworth Park. Watch the footage below.

When asked about what the future holds for SLIPKNOT following the recent passing of the band's bassist, Paul Gray, Taylor said, "It's really soon, it's really too son to tell. I mean, we're all still kind of dealing with it. I've just now kind of started talking about it. Obviously, he was honored the other night at the Kerrang! Awards with the ['Services To Metal'] award, which I thought was great, because he really was... I mean, not only was he just such a big part of my life, but he was the spirit of SLIPKNOT; he wrote most of the music. Not a lot of people know that, so I've really been trying to get the word out about him and give him the recognition that he deserves.

"As far the future [of SLIPKNOT is concerned], like I said, it's really soon to tell. None of us can even fathom what to do yet. But as soon as we do, the world will be the first to know. It's not that we don't want to, it's just like, how do you do what makes sense when such a big piece of that puzzle is gone?

"To me, I'm kind of fortunate that I have STONE SOUR to concentrate on. And I've been able to work some stuff out. Plus, me and my wife have been taking care of [Paul's] family right now.

"But, I mean, we'll just have to wait and see."

SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison, who's out touring with ROB ZOMBIE, has confirmed that SLIPKNOT will continue making music despite Gray's death. While SLIPKNOT is only in the very earliest stages of planning its next record, Jordison told The Pulse of Radio they've already decided they will not recruit a new bassist. "There will be no other bass players besides Jim [Root, guitarist], Mick [Thomson, guitarist] and me, more than likely," he said. "Everyone actually kind of plays guitar in the band, so I think we're all gonna play bass on the record. We're not gonna have anyone come in. But live, we'll deal with that when it comes."

Gray's body was found on May 24 in a suburban hotel room outside Des Moines, Iowa. A medical examiner ruled that the 38-year-old died of an accidental overdose of morphine and a synthetic form of morphine.

German melodic metallers SYMPHORCE, who feature in their ranks guitarist Cédric "Cede" Dupont and singer Andy B. Franck (BRAINSTORM), have issued the following update:

"The [new SYMPHORCE] album recordings have been finished, the whole thing is mixed and mastered and what can we say? It sounds FUCKING AWESOME!

"There's no doubt that the small break we had turned out to be good for us, and we'll be back with the best SYMPHORCE record for sure. It's what we believe at least.

"We will come up with some more news very soon; exact release date, album title, artwork, and so on.

"We're absolutely excited, and so will you be when the album's out, we're pretty damn sure about that!"

SYMPHORCE's new album will be released before the end of the year via AFM Records.

MARILLION have posted a trailer for their new DVD, Out Of Season. Check it out below.





"The DVD features over 6 hours of music, recorded over three nights at the Marillion Weekend 2009.

-- Disc 1 features the whole of the 1989 album Seasons End plus 5 tracks from 2008's Happiness Is The Road.

-- Disc 2 includes all the songs from the Saturday night set counting down the years from 2008 - 1981. The audio from this night is also available on the Racket Records CD Tumbling Down The Years.

-- Disc 3 features all the long songs from the Sunday night 'Shortest Setlist in The World'. The audio from this night is also available on the Racket Records CD Size Matters.

Filmed with 16 Cameras by the makers of Somewhere In London, this DVD is the definitive Marillion Live experience. 47 songs spanning Marillion's 30 year career brought to you in a visually stunning format with uncompressed Stereo & DTS audio.

The three separate DVD's are presented in a deluxe box set with a slip case & photo booklet. Available to buy at www.marillion.com."

Former NIGHTWISH singer TARJA (Tarja Turunen) has issued the following update:

"My new album is finally ready! It took a while, but the result is so good that I think it was worth to sweat a bit.

It has been the hardest and toughest project so far in my career, but very rewarding. I am very proud of all the people that were involved and took their time for my art. I am deeply grateful.

While I’ve been working on the album, we have already started performing summer shows and done few of them. The shows have been wonderful so far. We’ve been in Hungary, Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden, Estonia, Czech and Bulgaria. All of them very different events on their own.

We have met many friends in the shows and had lots of fun to play the new songs. Just wait to hear the rest of the album!

At the moment I am preparing myself for Wacken, Germany, which is happening next week.

There are only two shows still to come during this summer. But I will keep on travelling around the globe since the promotion for my new album has already started some time ago.

It was only yesterday that this song was mastered and ready to be added to the rest. When I thought that the production for the album was finished and everything was ready, my record company in Germany wanted me to still work on this one: 'I Feel Immortal'. That meant to get everybody back to studio again to record their parts, me to write new lyrics and music and to get my head back to where I had it during the whole spring…the production.

If this song turns out to be the success that my company believes it’s going to be, I am giving them all the credits.

For me it was hard to work in a song that was written already, but I decided to make it my own. I did my very best though to get the correct spirit for it, so in the end I could stand behind it; but I have to say, it was not easy.

I went to Iceland to shoot the video for 'I Feel Immortal' and I know that it’s going to be probably the most beautiful video I have ever done in my career. The country is just unbelievably amazing with its stunning landscapes, so we managed to find incredible places for shootings.

I am very happy how the video turned out to be!!

In Bulgaria the city of Kavarna and it’s Mayor surprised me by organising a painting of me on a city building. It was nice to walk the streets and find similar paintings of BILLY IDOL, Klaus Meine (SCORPIONS), Ronnie James Dio (HEAVEN & HELL, DIO, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW), Ian Gillan (DEEP PURPLE)… and me.

It is a real honour!

My forthcoming single 'Until My Last Breath' leaked to internet by accident few days ago. If you had the chance to listen to it, I hope you liked it. Please be so kind not to spread it all over that we can preserve it until the single will be released. I would really appreciate it very much. Thank you!"

On Friday, July 30 at 4:28 p.m. Swedish time, NIGHTWISH singer Anette Olzon gave birth to her second child (and first with her current boyfriend, bassist Johan Husgafvel of the Swedish metal band PAIN). He was 52 centimeters tall and he weighed in at 3930 grams. Olzon, 39, also has a nine-year-old son, Seth, with her now-ex-husband.

Commented Olzon: "We have tried to get him out the natural way since Tuesday and used different methods, but like with my first son, I didn't get enough strong contractions so it was decided to finally get him out through a C-section.

"We all are just fine but still in the hospital where we are resting and just being so happy to have this beautiful and precious boy with us.

"Life is so wonderful and I am so, so happy and just floating with joy."

The other members of NIGHTWISH are in "the deepest countryside of Finland" working on material for their new studio album, which they will begin to record on October 15 for a late 2011 release.

U.S. cult metal band DAWNBRINGER have completed work on their new album, "Nucleus", for a September 21 release via Profound Lore Records. The follow-up to 2006's "In Sickness And In Dreams" is described in a press release as "one of the mightiest heavy metal albums of the year and an album in which metal fans will have no choice but to take notice. While still incorporating many elements of the metal spectrum, 'Nucleus' showcases how traditional metal can uphold the classic heavy metal spirit while at the same time come across as an observation that's forward-thinking and, of course, unique; an album which will help push the genre of heavy metal forward and help to lead the charge into metal's future."

Formed over 15 years ago by mastermind Chris Black, DAWNBRINGER put out the "Sacrament" EP followed by two acclaimed underground gems in the '90s (namely the band's "Unbleed" debut and its "Catharsis Instinct" follow-up). The sound DAWNBRINGER would manifest is one that incorporated many elements of metal. Whether it would be a combination of traditional metal, NWOBHM, progressive metal, and melodic technical death metal, DAWNBRINGER brought a uniqueness that no other metal band in America would harness. This was solidified even more in 2006 when after a six-year rest, Chris Black would unleash "In Sickeness And In Dreams". On top of this, Black's repertoire had already extend even further by heavily collaborating and producing fellow Chicago maniacs NACHTMYSTIUM along with being involved in such bands as SUPERCHRIST, PHARAOH, and the recently formed HIGH SPIRITS.

"Nucleus" track listing:

01. So Much For Sleep
02. You Know Me
03. The Devil
04. Swing Hard
05. Cataract
06. Like An Earthquake
07. All I See
08. Old Wizard
09. Pendulum

The limited-edition version of "Women And Children Last", the sophomore album from the reactivated MURDERDOLLS — the band consisting of Joey Jordison (SLIPKNOT, ROB ZOMBIE) and Wednesday 13 — will be packaged in a unique first-aid kit. It's not your usual first-aid kit — this frightening set includes the CD/DVD edition of "Women And Children Last", an exclusive t-shirt (size L), digital download, autographed booklet, patch, sticker, pill case, plus other gruesome extras.

"Women And Children Last" will be released on August 31 via Roadrunner Records. The CD was recorded at a studio in Hollywood Hills, California with producer Chris "Zeuss" Harris (HATEBREED, SHADOWS FALL, 3 INCHES OF BLOOD).

CD:

01. The World According To Revenge
02. Chapel Of Blood
03. Bored 'Til Death
04. Drug Me To Hell
05. Nowhere
06. Summertime Suicide
07. Death Valley Superstars
08. My Dark Place Alone
09. Blood Stained Valentine
10. Pieces Of You
11. Homicide Drive
12. Rock N Roll Is All I Got
13. Nothing's Gonna Be Alright
14, Whatever You Got, I'm Against It
15. Hello, Goodbye, Die
16. Motherfucker See, Motherfucker Do (bonus track)
17. The Funeral Ball (bonus track)
18. A Moment Of Violence (bonus track)

DVD:

Filmed live on June 17, 2010 at the Key Club in Hollywood, California, MURDERDOLLS returned to the stage after seven years away without skipping a beat. Playing a mixture of classics and new favorites, this DVD captures their amazing and triumphant return.

Norwegian black metallers SVARTTJERN entered Strand Studio in Oslo on May 22nd to begin the recordings for their forthcoming as-yet-untitled second album.

The band check in with the following studio update from guitarist HaaN:

"Guitars and bass are recorded for the upcoming release, (title yet to be revealed). Due to various reasons the remaining instrumentation will commence on the first of September and hopefully the album will be complete within the same month.

As written before the album will consists of 9 tracks, and will be relased by Agonia Records within 2010."

As previously reported, two tracks can be viewed below, from the band's performance at the 2010 Inferno Festival.

KISS have issued the following update:

"We've now passed the 1 million fans mark on Facebook! The Army, the tribe, the family continues to grow at a pace that staggers even us. Anyone who has seen us on one of the last two tours knows we've taken KISS to a whole new level. You deserve it. We deserve it. It's only getting better. We're only getting stronger. We're only getting started.

Thanks a million!

You Wanted The Best, You GOT the Best!"

Ann and Nancy Wilson of HEART fame have announced the release of a special heart-shaped collector's vinyl single featuring the songs 'WTF' and 'Magic Man (live)'. A video message from the Wilson sisters regarding the release can be viewed here.

As previously reported, Legacy Recordings has announced the release of Red Velvet Car, the first new studio album in six years from the Heart, available everywhere on Tuesday, August 31st, or pre-order your copy now from Amazon (see link below).

Britain's DEEEXPUS have revealed the cover art for the follow-up to their debut album, Half Way Home.

The artwork for The King Of Number 33 (click image at left to enlarge) was painted by renowned artist and the band's good friend Gavin Mayhew.

Tony Wright (vocal) and Andy Ditchfield (guitars, vocal) met with Gavin in the Black Bull in Wolsingham late last year to discuss concepts for the painting. Gavin took Tony's (plentiful) lyrics away and represented them perfectly in this stunning oil painting depicting various scenes from the song; a story of a local eccentric's demise.

Andy says: "The band would like to thank Gavin so much for this painting, which he literally did for a 'song'. If you get a moment, stop by his website, he's an incredibly tallented guy and there really is something there for everyone."

"He waits in his Perspex chamber room
On the road in the Market Place
A two pound fifty haircut
Crowns his well groomed wisened face
Dons his care in the community trainers
Whiter than a super nova
He awaits his royal carriage
For the journey made day over...."

Deeexpus' new album is well under way and the band is hoping to have a tune online in the near future. Andy and Tony are currently working on vocals for the title track whilst production continues on whats proving to be a stormer of a song 'Maybe September'.

Andy: "Thanks for your patience all... its coming."

German power metallers GRAVE DIGGER will release their new album, "The Clans Will Rise Again" in Europe on October 1 via Napalm Records. The CD was recorded between mid-May and mid-July at the Meadow Studios, which is owned by GRAVE DIGGER's new guitarist Axel Ritt, and Principal Studios, where all of GRAVE DIGGER albums since 1995's "Heart Of Darkness" have been tracked. It was produced by Chris Boltendahl and mixed by Jörg Umbreit.

According to a press release, "Chris Boltendahl, Jens Becker, Stefan Arnold, HP Katzenburg and Axel Ritt offer an explosive mixture of the typical GRAVE DIGGER riff metal, combined with awesome epic chorus hooks, which will fascinate the fans from the very first note.

"'The Clans Will Rise Again' is a loose sequel of the 'Tunes Of War' album, but this time not a concept album about the Scottish history, rather a work about Scotland, its mysticism and its people."

"The Clans Will Rise Again" track listing:

01. Days Of Revenge
02. Paid In Blood
03. Hammer Of The Scots
04. Highland Farewell
05. The Clans Will Rise Again
06. Rebels
07. Valley Of Tears
08. Execution
09. Whom The Gods Love Die Young
10. Spider
11. The Piper Mcleod
12. Coming Home
13. When Rain Turns To Blood

ARTISTdirect.com editor Rick Florino recently conducted an interview with MÖTLEY CRÜE/SIXX: A.M. bassist. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ARTISTdirect.com: Where are you at with the new SIXX: A.M. record?

Nikki: The record's just about finished. It's pretty magical! The thing about SIXX: A.M. is we've set ourselves up for failure by saying that we don't tour. We had never even intended to do videos. We've been pushed into things like touring out of demand, which is a nice feeling. It's not like, "We're going to write songs. We're going to form a band. We're going to get a logo. We're going to go on tour. We're going to release a record." I do that in MÖTLEY CRÜE, and I love that. I've done it in other bands. To do a project that's set up to not do any of that stuff is really exciting. We write some music, and we don't even know if we'll record it. We record it, but we don't know if we're going to release it. Now, we know we're going to release the music, but we don't know anything more than that. I know there's a band, an album and I don't know what'll come after that [Laughs]. It's kind of exciting! It seems like uncharted territory.

ARTISTdirect.com: The first album had a real cinematic side to it.

Nikki: There's a lot of that organically inside the band, so the new record has those elements as well.

ARTISTdirect.com: If you were to compare this new SIXX: A.M. record to a movie or combination of movies, what would you compare it to?

Nikki: It's very positive — but from a serial killer's point of view [Laughs]. That's really all I can say. That probably won't even make sense to anybody, and that's okay too [Laughs].

ARTISTdirect.com: What was it like to re-approach "Shout at the Devil" with HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD?

Nikki: It was cool! Danny Lohner was producing HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD, and he told me the guys were going to do a version of "Shout at the Devil". I said, "Cool, when do you want me to show up and play bass?" And, he said, "Really?" I was like, "Yeah!" It's funny because they didn't think that they could "afford" me, and I go, "Why would I charge someone to play bass?" He started laughing! I just said, "Listen, I'll be there at 4 p.m. and I'll be gone at 4:04 p.m. Just be sure the bass is tuned. That's how long the song is. I'm going to do one take and be in-and-out." I drove up the street, pulled into his driveway, walked in the house, the bass was plugged in, I played the song one time and left [Laughs]. He just said, "Do what you do!" I've never even heard it, but I loved that they were doing the song and I like the band so I just went for it.

ARTISTdirect.com: Is there any chance we'll see another book from you?

Nikki: I'm working on a book right now. It's 99 percent finished. "The Heroin Diaries" was really a year in my life, and it showed my addiction and recovery. If you to peel the onion and go deeper to the core, you've got to go back to when I was six- or seven-years-old. You have to go back to what happened to me as a child and how I got from that point to being a teenager, then from being a teen to starting MÖTLEY CRÜE and becoming an addict. Then recovery… we know that story, but what we don't know is what happened when I was so young and how that, going through my brain, was filtered out into all of these different artistic things I do. I'm a photographer. All of my photography is based around a lot of what happened when I was much younger. A lot of what I do in MÖTLEY CRÜE is based around that too, but people don't know what that is. By reading the book, you're going to start when I was a kid. It's exciting for me because the book has about 150 of my photographs in it as well, so you start to see the tie-in between who I was as a kid, who I am as an adult and then what happened in that journey and how this fucked-up brain of mine works. You see why it works the way it does, why I'm so positive in my life and why all of that positivity turns into successful things that I do. Everyone I'm around is successful because I don't lose at anything I do, and it all goes back to the beginning.

ARTISTdirect.com: Do you have a favorite memory of when you toured with Ozzy back in the day?

Nikki: I think it'd have to be Ozzy going on stage, pulling up his dress with just white underwear on, grabbing the mic, looking at the crowd and saying, "Stop, stop, stop…I'm not an animal." The audience lost their mind, and the band broke into some song. It wasn't an act. He'd been up for days, and he was losing his mind. Seeing that happen, I was like, "Fuck, this guy's taken it farther than I ever want to take it." Ozzy's done so much in his life, and he also comes from a place of being positive all the time. Everything he touches is also successful because of that. It's a journey to get to this place that's made us who we are. I'm excited we're going out with Ozzy. He's my neighbor; it's kind of bizarre! He lives a few doors down from me, and it's just a weird place we've ended up in our lives.

German "true" metallers STORMWARRIOR have inked a deal with Massacre Records. The band's fourth album, tentatively titled "Heathen Warrior", will be released before the end of this year as a limited digipak with bonus material, CD and numbered gatefold vinyl. The mixing and mastering will be handled by Tommy Hansen (HELLOWEEN, HAMMERFALL, PRETTY MAIDS) at Jailhouse Studios in Denmark while the artwork will be created by Uwe Karczewski. According to a press release, "Metalheads can expect another combinationof explosive guitar works, catchy hooks but also some new toppings to the "typical STORMWARRIOR sound!"

Swedish progressive metallers KATATONIA will kick off their North American tour — dubbed "Night Over North America" — on September 8 in Baltimore, Maryland. To coincide with the 26-date U.S. and Canadian trek, Peaceville Records will release a special edition of the band's acclaimed 2009 studio album, "Night Is The New Day", in a hardback mediabook, featuring a 20-page booklet and bonus track, "Ashen".

The special edition of "Night Is The New Day" will be available on August 24.

"Night Is The New Day" special edition track listing:

01. Forsaker
02. The Longest Year
03. Idle Blood
04. Onward Into Battle
05. Liberation
06. The Promise Of Deceit
07. Nephilim
08. New Night
09. Inheritance
10. Day and Then The Shade
11. Ashen (exclusive bonus track)
12. Departer

After the massive success of the Manchester, U.K. live recording by Abbey Road Live, legendary guitarist Slash (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES) has decided to record the Australian shows in August and make a limited number of double-disc CD sets available to the fans Down Under and abroad.

The Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney shows will all be recorded and offer a limited number of CD sets per show, which are sure to sell out fast. Manchester sold out before the show even started.

"Undead Army", the new video from Swedish old-school death metallers SINNERS BURN, can be viewed below. The clip was produced, cut and directed by Jacob Johansson of Planets Align.

"Undead Army" comes off SINNERS BURN's third album, "Insanity Warmachine", which will be released on August 6 via Khaosmaster Productions. The CD was recorded at The Undead Studios and was mixed and mastered by Patrick Bruss (CRYPTICUS).

Formed in 2007 by former members from PAGANIZER and influenced by bands like GRAVE, DISMEMBER and early ENTOMBED, SINNERS BURN has kept the old-school death metal spirit alive.

SINNERS BURN is:

Marcus Ankarberg - Vocals
Richard Karlsson - Guitar
Jocke Ringdahl - Drums
Fredrik Nilsson - Bass