DIRTY LITTLE RABBITS — the band featuring SLIPKNOT percussionist M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan — will release its self-titled debut album on July 6 via The End Records (the digital single will be released on May 11).

The track listing for the CD is as follows:

01. Simon
02. You Say
03. Put It In The Rock
04. Hello
05. Happy
06. I Love You
07. Professional Hit
08. If
09. Leave Me Alone
10. The Didn'ts
11. Rabbit Holes

Swedish melodic metallers BLOODBOUND have parted ways with lead vocalist Urban Breed due to "musical and personal differences" and have replaced him with 27-year-old Patrik "Pata" Johansson (pictured below; DAWN OF SILENCE) from Finspång, Sweden. The band states , "Patrik has been a good friend to the band for a while, and with a great voice sounding like a mix between Bruce Dickinson and Tobias Sammet, he will fit perfectly into the band."

Swedish death metallers AEON will release their third album, "Path Of Fire", on May 25 (one day earlier internationally) via Metal Blade Records. The CD was recorded in September 2009 at Empire Studio in Östersund, Sweden and was mixed the following month at Mana Recording Studios in St, Petersburg, Florida by Erik Rutan (HATE ETERNAL, MORBID ANGEL, CANNIBAL CORPSE). The mastering was handled by Alan Douches at West West Side Music (CONVERGE, HATEBREED, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) in New Windsor, New York. All artwork and layout was made by Daniel Dlimi.

"Path Of Fire" track listing:

01. Forgiveness Denied
02. Kill Them All
03. Inheritance
04. Abomination To God
05. Total Kristus Inversus
06. Of Fire
07. I Will Burn
08. Suffer The Soul
09. The Sacrament
10. Liar In The Name Of God
11. God Of War

Swedish metallers HOSTILE CELL have parted ways with bassist Johan Andreassen. According to a band update, "this decision was made quickly due to a series of events related to the making of our new album The Deafening. Johan has failed to fulfill his part in order to get this album out, and we have not spoken to him in days. Apparently he has no interest in explaining himself or pay the money that he owes us as he has made himself unreachable in every way. The good news is that we are all extremely happy to announce, that original bass player Per Romvall, is once again a permanent member in the band. A good friend and talented musician is back to make Hostile Cell better than ever!"

Hostile Cell will release their new album, The Deafening, on May 12th through Coreshot Productions with distribution through Plugged Records Distribution.

The cover art by David Heleander of All Custom Tattoo has been revealed (click image at left to enlarge). The Deafening will include the following tracklisting:

'River Runs Black'
'Sound Of Revolution'
'Ghost'
'Reanimation'
'Freedom Fix'
'Reborn'
'4 Walls'
'Speak Or Be Gone'
'The Poison'
'Hatesick' (featuring Tony Jelencovich - MNEMIC/TRANSPORT LEAGUE)

Danish power/thrash/prog metallers MANTICORA have issued the following update:

"We have three shows here in Denmark during the next 14 days and we have also been booked for the Metalfest Hungary for May 23rd. Looking forward to that!! In the meantime, we're going to pay Tommy Hansen (HELLOWEEN, PRETTY MAIDS, JORN) and the Jailhouse Studios a visit, to record drums and vocals for the upcoming album. Then back to record the guitars, bass and eventual keyboards in the Room Of Doom (our dungeon in Copenhagen), before we return to Jailhouse and mix the album in late May/early June. A release date should be around September. This will be followed-up by a headliner European tour!"

ABIGAIL WILLIAMS has completed recording of individual performances for its as-yet-untitled second album. Captured at Conquistador Studios in Cleveland, Ohio, eight new songs were laid down with vocalist/guitarist Ken Sorceron and engineer Cole Martinez controlling the audio takes. The tracks are currently being mixed by Peter Tägtgren (DIMMU BORGIR, IMMORTAL, CELTIC FROST) and are expected to be completed later this month.

Commenting briefly on the new material, Sorceron notes, "There is a lot less keyboards on the new songs. They are far more guitar-driven and have a bit more of a traditional sound in some ways but still very ABIGAIL WILLIAMS-sounding.

"We let ourselves have much more room with writing this album; kind of a more open, free environment than any we have employed before.

"The studio experience this time round was very natural to us. We recorded everything with much more ease and I think it has helped in capturing a very honest vibe."

"The Obsidian Conspiracy", the long-awaited new album from Seattle metallers NEVERMORE, will be released in Europe on May 31 and in North America on June 8 via Century Media Records.

In addition to the album's standard edition, a two-CD version will be made available featuring two cover versions — "The Crystal Ship" (THE DOORS) and "Transmission" (THE TEA PARTY) — and a bonus "Play The Guitar Like Jeff Loomis" disc containing "Your Poison Throne" and "The Obsidian Conspiracy" play-along videos and guitar tabs for both songs.

Disc 1:

01. The Termination Proclamation
02. Your Poison Throne
03. Moonrise (Through Mirrors Of Death)
04. And The Maiden Spoke
05. Emptiness Unobstructed
06. The Blue Marble And The New Soul
07. Without Morals
08. The Day You Built The Wall
09. She Comes In Colors
10. The Obsidian Conspiracy
11. Crystal Ship (THE DOORS cover; bonus track)
12. Temptation (THE TEA PARTY cover; bonus track)

Disc 2 - "Play The Guitar Like Jeff Loomis":

* "Your Poison Throne" - without guitar
* "Your Poison Throne" - guitar only
* "The Obsidian Conspiracy" - without guitar
* "The Obsidian Conspiracy" - guitar only
* Video Enhancement: Play-along video for the song "Your Poison Throne" with guitar-playing instructions from Jeff Loomis
* Video Enhancement: Play-along video for the song "The Obsidian Conspiracy" with guitar-playing instructions from Jeff Loomis
* Guitar tabs of both songs as PDF files

MONSTER MAGNET recently entered the studio with producer Matt Hyde to begin recording its new album for a summer 2010 release via Austria's Napalm Records.

Speaking to Metal Injection at last week's Revolver Golden Gods Awards in downtown Los Angeles, guitarist Ed Mundell said, "We're about to finish a new record coming out in the summer. [It will have] 15 tracks and Dave [Wyndorf] is doing the vocals right now. He couldn't make it tonight 'cause he's in Van Nuys doing vocals. We're waiting for him to finish it up."

Regarding the new CD's musical direction, Mundell said, "It's more like space rock and THE STOOGES. There's no hit singles — it's all just rocking, lots of crazy effects. And Dave's singing better than ever. Lots of guitars. Four weeks of tracking guitars — nothing but guitars."

Former Hollywood rocker JOHN CORABI, best known as frontman for THE SCREAM, MÖTLEY CRÜE and UNION is preparing a career spanning Greatest Hits. The album is slated for a mid-July release. More info as it becomes available.

BraveWords.com's Aaron Small caught up with Corabi recently. The frontman continues to work on his forthcoming solo album. An affair that promises to be “all over (the map). As much as I love a lot of metal bands and rock bands… the bands I like were really diverse like ZEPPELIN, QUEEN, THE BEATLES, even AEROSMITH to a degree. I just like diversity. Again, I don’t sit down with anything in mind when I write, I just write."

Former MOONSPELL bassist Ares, who is currently involved with the Portuguese female-fronted act WITCHBREED, has released the following statement regarding the passing of TYPE O NEGATIVE frontman Peter Steele:

"These are sad and shocking news.

"I had the chance to tour with TYPE O NEGATIVE as a support band for their 'October Rust' European tour, meet Peter Steele and every single night I would watch TYPE O NEGATIVE take the stage and play; it was never enough. The impression he left was that of a gentle giant, kind, polite and down to earth.

"I was a CARNIVORE fan before and his voice and music deeply marked my youth and imagination as a musician.

"In my bass rig there's this Swedish Octave pedal that was offered to me by Peter himself and after 13 years or so I'm still using it reminding me of those glorious days.

"The reason why I felt I should dedicate some words on Pete is because during [WITCHBREED's] meetings as a band, TYPE O NEGATIVE is a regular mention as a source of inspiration and admiration for their music and Pete's unique vocal style and tone.

"Life sucks and your existence will be missed."

Sweden's WITCHERY will release a new album, "Witchkrieg", in July via Century Media Records. The CD will mark the recording debut of the band's new vocalist, Legion (MARDUK, DEVIAN).

Commented guitarist Jensen: "So it's finally, finally, FINALLY time for a new WITCHERY album! And not just any ol' new album, no sir. This is quite possibly the best WITCHERY album to date. Let me correct myself. This IS the best WITCHERY album to date.

"I know a lot of bands claim their current releases to be 'their best work' and everyone knows that's a load of bullshit. However, in our case, I can say its 100% true. If you don't believe me, then check out the album. You will notice how your flapping jaws slowly close, how you crank the volume and how you forget about your miserable life for while!

"On a sadder note, due to conflicting schedules, we have had to part ways with founding member Toxine. We wish our brother in metal all the best in the future. Therefore, I would like to introduce to the world, a new unholy axis of musical terror. We wish to welcome a new fulltime member to the WITCHERY coven; none other than: Legion!!!"

"Witchkrieg" was mixed and mastered Antfarm studios by Tue Madsen (DARK TRANQUILLITY, THE HAUNTED, HEAVEN SHALL BURN). The cover artwork was created by Andreas "Diaz" Pettersson.

St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada "stoner" rockers SHEAVY have completed work on their new album, "The Golden Age Of Daredevils", for a tentative May release. The CD was recorded as part of the RPM (Record Production Month) challenge, a creative challenge offered yearly to musicians, similar to other time-based challenges such as NaNoWriMo (the National Novel Writing Month held each November).

RPM invites musicians to create a whole album of music, 10 songs or 35 minutes, in the month of February. This is not a contest so there is no winner. The challenge functions solely to give musicians a needed push towards finishing original material and help them achieve a sense of satisfaction. The challenge is open to all participants regardless of style, solo artists or groups, country of origin, language or theme. The albums are then made available for streaming and sharing via an online jukebox, and a listening party is held.

A song from "The Golden Age Of Daredevils" is available for streaming at this location.

SHEAVY's second new project, entitled "Disfigurine" is almost finished as well. According to the band, "vocals need to be done on three tracks and then it's off for mixing and mastering. This album should be available in early July."

SHEAVY has scheduled a hometown show on Saturday, April 24 at Distortion. Also scheduled to appear are SACROSANCT and BLOODSHOT MONK.

SHEAVY's last album, entitled "The Machine That Won the War", was released in 2007 via Candlelight Records.

wiss goth metal veterans LACRIMOSA have issued the following update:

"From today (April 17th) on each day we will introduce to you one song from the new anniversary CD at Lacrimosa.com

With the CD following on May 7th the songs in full length will follow together with a booklet of 32 pages with unpublished pictures of Lacrimosa as well as personal production notes from Tilo Wolff in which he unveils the story of each single song. In the next days and weeks there is a lot to discover and we wish you to enjoy yourself with it."

As previously reported, Schattenspiel will include 17 previously unreleased tracks, including the first demos from 1990 and brand-new songs. The tracklisting is as follows:

'Seele In Not' (Urversion)
'Requiem' (Urversion)
'Seelenübertritt'
'Schuld Und Sühne'
'Dreht Euch'
'Dem Ende Entgegen'
'Schakal' (Urversion)
'Vermächtnis Der Sonne' (Urversion)
'Ein Hauch Von Menschlichkeit' (Late Night Remix)
'Morgen'
'Schönheit Straft Jedes Gefühl'
'Ein Fest Für Die Verlorenen'
'Mantiquor'
'Der Verlust'
'Déjà Vu'
'Sellador' (new song)
'Ohne Dich Ist Alles Nichts' (new song)

"Nicole", the new video from Finnish hard rockers ANCARA, can be viewed below. The song comes off the band's third album, "Chasing Shadows", which entered the official chart in the band's home country last October at position No. 32. According to the group, the CD's release was "postponed by two months because the band decided to release the album independently though their own Dks Music label and give the Finnish distribution in to Bonnier Amigo Music's hands. Co-operation with Timo Kotipelto (STRATOVARIUS, KOTIPELTO) [who released ANCARA's last album, 2007's 'Beyond the Dark', through his High & Loud label] still continues."

Founding guitarist/principal songwriter Tim Roth of Canadian extreme progressive metallers INTO ETERNITY has issued the following update:

"We have started rehearsals again and things are coming along. We have also started on 'song 1'.

"I have lots of music demoed at home now, so we are looking through it and starting our first new song. So far the song starts with an arpeggio instrumental and then heads into some heavy riffing."

The newly reunited SOUNDGARDEN performed its first show since 1997 earlier tonight (Friday, April 16) under the name NUDEDRAGONS (anagram of SOUNDGARDEN) at the Showbox at the Market in its Seattle hometown.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Spoonman
02. Gun
03. Searching With My Good Eye Closed
04. Rusty Cage
05. Beyond The Wheel
06. Flower
07. Ugly Truth
08. Fell On Black Days
09. Hunted Down
10. Nothing To Say
11. Loud Love
12. Blow Up The Outside World
13. Pretty Noose
14. Outshined
15. Slaves And Bulldozers

Encore:

16. Get On The Snake
17. Big Dumb Sex
18. Waiting For The Sun (THE DOORS cover)

Vocalist Kenny Winter of Canadian thrash metal pioneers EXCITER has released the following statement regarding the passing of TYPE O NEGATIVE frontman Peter Steele:

"Kenny Winter and EXCITER would like to extend our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Peter Steele. I had the opportunity to meet him back in '93 at the famed Limelight in New York City. I don't have to elaborate how intimidated I was by his height but he had such calm demeanor and a soft spoken way about him that immediately put me at ease. Our conversation was short but he made such an impression that I became a fan. I saw his CARNIVORE reunion show at the Limelight as well, one of the most primal performances I have ever witnessed. Fan reaction was enviable. But, funny as it may seem, one of the things I remember the most is his car [see picture below]… it scared the hell out me.

"From CARNIVORE to TYPE O NEGATIVE, Pete Steele was an ass-kickin' performer.

"Forever immortal."

METALLICA and FEAR FACTORY have made it to Riga, Latvia for tonight's performance at Riga Arena.

"It took us over 24 hours to get from Oslo, Norway to Riga, Latvia with METALLICA and their crew of 50-plus people on a charter bus and ferry," FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares tells BLABBERMOUTH.NET.

"All flights were canceled because the Iceland volcanic ash in the air."

He added, "I hope we can make it home."

We just launched the "Countdown to recreation"! From now we will post a cool surprise every week until the day of release of "Rekreatur" on June 18.!

For a start the cover and the tracklist has been posted! The cover has been designed by Alev who already did the design for "Unbesiegt". Furthermore we also uploaded a brandnew song. Since the songs on "Rekreatur" are way more diverse and varied than ever, it wasn't an easy decision which song to post first. We chose "Die Affeninsel" ("the monkey island") to begin with! But there's also a reason to it:

Club single artwork contest "Die Affeninsel"

You've got the opportunity to create the cover for the radio- / club-single "Die Affeninsel"! The best piece will be printed on the sleeve of the single's cardboard! The winner will also get a signed copy of the single as well as the huge, self made EQUILIBRIUM banner that has been with the band on stage for the passt years!

To feed your inspiration, Andreas Völkl (who wrote the lyrics to this song) shares a bit more info on the song:

"Die Affeninsel" is about an adventure in a land far away where three tests must be passed to fullfil a fraternity pledging. It's been inspired by an old pirate tale that some gamers of you might know. So free your minds and let the creation flow - we're looking forward to your works!"

Send you art until April 26, 2010 to equilibrium@nuclearblast.de - the winner will be announced on April 27.! Please submit .jpg files, 300 dpi, 15x15 cm! Do NOT submit files larger than 15MB!! Also keep your original .psd files including all layers, if needed!