Pure Metal News: January 2006 Part 1

January 2006 News - part 2 To quickly find what you're looking for use the box below. PRIMAL FEAR - Contest winners Congratulations to the lucky winner of the signed PRIMAL FEAR Flying V-guitar, Alain Yerna from Liege/Belgium! Both the band and Nuclear Blast were happy to receive more than 2500 entries to this contest. The "Book Of Seven Seals" was won by Hagen Kley from Schwerin, Germany. Congratulations as well! KATAKLYSM - North American tour dates announced VADER, KATAKLYSM, NUCLEAR ASSAULT, SPEED KILL/HATE, GRAVEWORM and THE ABSENCE will be teaming up for the "Metal Crusaders" beginning in late May. The first confirmed dates are as follows: May 26 - Montreal, QC @ Le Medley May 27 - Bedford, NH @ Marks Place May 28 - Boston, MA @ The Middle East May 31 - Vernon, NY @ Nothing Fancy Cafe Jun. 01 - Cleveland, OH @ The Agora Ballroom Jun. 14 - Houston, TX @ The Ballroom/Wharehouse live Jun. 17 - Arlington, TX @ The Phoenix Music Complex Jun. 20 - Denver, CO @ Aztlan Theater Jun. 28 - Portland, OR @ Rock'n' Roll P. Many more dates will be announced soon. HAMMERFALL - Ready for the next chapter HAMMERFALL Guitarist Oscar Dronjak has posted the following message at the band's official website: Happy New Year! I can't believe it's New Year's already, and the touring is over! We have been on the road on and off since April, so it has been the usual hectic year.  And now, the next chapter is about to be penned; The songs for the new album. Actually, I can't wait to dive head first into the composing, some of the material written so far is very promising. More on this as the song writing progresses. We wish you a Happy New Year, may 2006 bring you all fortune and glory. Cheers!" CLAWFINGER - Almost ready to hit the road CLAWFINGER frontman Zak Tell has posted the following statement on the bands official website: “So the tour is closing in on us good people but before we focus totally on it we need to celebrate the New Years in good old fashion, in other words we'll be eating and drinking too much in the company of friends & family & then we as a human race will just start over with another year of madness, insanity and irrational behaviour around the whole world to prove that we have learned absolutely nothing from all our wrong doings! Anyway we have yet to rehearse or decide which songs we will be playing but obviously we'll be playing quite a few from the new album, at least 6 trax or so, beyond that we might try out a few old classics that haven't been played in a while but I guess we'll just have to wait and see how the rehearsals go down and which songs seem to come across the best!  The Northern Swedish band Calm Chaos will be supporting us on the January dates, still haven't met the guys yet so I can't say much about them but for anyone who likes Rage Against The machine and crossover in general then I'm sure you'll enjoy them if your taste goes beyond listening to what other people consider trendy or not! Anyway I hope they'll enjoy there time with us and of course vice versa!  For February & maybe even further onwards Treekillaz will be supporting us once again, most of you who have seen us in the last few years most surely know what they sound like but for those of you who don't know well it's punkrock popmetal with a grungetwist, damn I hate trying to describe music, anyway it's good stuff!  So people, be sure to buy your tickets, bring your party hats, good attitudes, cameras and whatever else is required to create a good atmosphere! We're looking forward to partying with you, working on our tinnitus & turning our days & nights around completely! Well see you all soon, until then take care and beware, it's a wild fuc*ing place out there, all the same enjoy the ride, peace/Zak” VARIOUS ARTISTS - Bandcontest - top 12 Nuclear Blast were happy to receive more than 1.500 applications for last years Bandcontest! Especially the packagings were really impressing. Due to that reason we decided to award the 5 most innovative packages with a special price. Within the next weeks we'll announce the final winners of the contest! These are the final TOP12 Bands BANDCONTEST - Top 12 WINTERBORN (FINLAND) DEAD MEANS NOTHING (SPAIN) THE SHOWGUNS (SWEDEN) REPULSED (GERMANY) EDDIE BUZZARD (USA) FOREVER NEVER (ENGLAND) AMMOTRACK (SWEDEN) DOMINIK MARX (GERMANY) FROM ALMOST THE END (ENGLAND) AGONIZER (FINLAND) EARSHOT 7 (GERMANY) MYSTERY CONTENDER (UNKNOWN) DEATHSTARS - New video online NUCLEAR BLAST are proud to present the new impressing DEATHSTARS video clip for ‘Cyanide’, taken from their upcoming album “Termination Bliss” Don't miss to check it out, it's surely worth it! Entertainment from hell at its best! Click HERE to get to the video clip and pre-listening page, where you'll find further info about the album and also an audio sample. As there'll probably be lots of people trying to watch the clip and therefore our server won't be able to serve all at a time, we'll shortly announce other locations to watch the video as well on our news page. The album will be released the 27th January. "Let the dark do what the dark does best let it be darkness! -Cyanide Candlelight Are Proud To Announce The Signing Of To-Mera To-Mera was formed by Julie Kiss and Lee Barrett (ex:Extreme Noise Terror / Disgust / Mussolini Headkick) following her acrimonious departure from the Hungarian progressive metal band Without Face (ex: Earache / Elitist recording artists). She felt that she still had a lot more to offer musically and set about finding like-minded musicians in order to persue that goal.  Fellow Hungarian Akos Pirisi, a huge fan of Meshuggah and a master of polyrhythmics, was brought in on drums. Later Tom MacLean was found after he, a big Without Face fan, recognized Julie and introduced himself at a Dillinger Escape Plan concert. Tom graduated from the Trinity College of Music in London, where he studied Jazz guitar.  Although a huge metalhead, His broad musical tastes are evident in his playing, and he constantly pushes himself to attain new levels of skill. When all was finally in place, the band recorded their debut demo in July 2005 at The Peel rehearsal rooms (Kingston-Upon-Thames) on a laptop, and it was mixed in France by up-and-coming producer Brett Caldas-Lima (Kalisia / Malmonde / Fairlight). After the demo was recorded, the band finally found a fulltime keyboard player in the shape of Hugo Sheppard. Hugo is also a graduate of the Trinity College of Music where he studied classical piano. He has already contributed to the band's newer material, and his avant-garde, free-flowing style has added yet another dimension to To-Mera's sound. The songs are worked almost literally around Julie's lyrics, adding flesh to the emotive, dark and esoteric bones. The mesmeric descriptive themes allow the listener a very personal look into a deeply multifarious mindset. The music as a result is a complex, heavy and at times heartfelt hybrid of powerful progressive metal, beguiling acoustic passages, enchanting keyboard soundscapes and unmistakable female vocals. The demo was sent to many webzines and magazines, where universal acclaim was given. The band received "Demo of The Month" at Organ Magazine, Zero Tolerance magazine and Imperiumi.net (Finland). These, and many other, great reviews led to a number of interested record labels getting in touch.  It soon became clear that Candlelight Records (Emperor, Opeth, 1349, Zyklon, Enslaved, etc) was the best choice for the band and a multi-album, worldwide deal was signed at the beginning of January 2006. The demo is still available for download at http://www.myspace.com/tomeraband . To-Mera will record their as-yet untitled debut album in May 2006, again with producer Brett Caldas-Lima. Recording is expected to take place in Veszprem (Hungary) and London (England) for a release later in 2006. It promises to be an ambitious, epic, progressive and generally HUGE slab of forward-thinking metal. Band website www.to-mera.com   Crowbar/Will Haven co headline UK tour The band will be touring the UK with Will Haven, The Seventh Cross , King Size Blues in March. March 2006 12 - Nottingham, Rock City 13 - Liverpool, University 14 - Manchester, Academy 2/3 15 - Glasgow, The Garage 16 - Newport, TJ's 18 - London, Mean Fiddler 19 - Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms 20 - Oxford, Zodiac 21 - Colchester, Arts Centre GOREFEST - European exorcism tour 2006 Dutch death metal veterans GOREFEST have added several tour dates to their current itinerary. Confirmed shows are as follows: The Glorious Dead : European Exorcism Tour 2006 GOREFEST (NL) MASTER (US) – LUNAFIELD (GER) – RESURRECTURIS (I) 16.02.2006 EINDHOVEN - Effenaar (NL) 17.02.2006 OSNABRüCK - Eventcenter B 51 (DE) 25.02.2006 HELSINKI - Nosturi (FI) 26.02.2006 TALLINN - Nõmme Cult (EE) 27.02.2006 RIGA - Salamandra (LV) 28.02.2006 VILNIUS - Mulen Ruzhas (LT) 02.03.2006 PRAHA - Black Pes Club (CZ) 03.03.2006 ALTHOFEN - Kulturhaus (AT) 04.03.2006 WIEN - Planet Music (AT) 05.03.2006 INNSBRUCK - Hafen (AT) 09.03.2006 ISTRES - I'Usine (FR) 12.03.2006 IRUN - tunk (ES) 13.03.2006 PARIS - La Loco Club (FR) 14.03.2006 PRATTELN - Z7 (CH) 17.03.2006 MüNCHEN - Backstage (DE) 18.03.2006 LISBERG - Sportlerheim (DE) 22.03.2006 ESSEN - Turock (DE) 23.03.2006 HALLE - Rockstation (DE) 24.03.2006 GLAUCHAU - Alte Spinnerei (DE) 25.03.2006 BERLIN - K 17 (DE) 26.03.2006 GRONINGEN - Oosterpoort (NL) DIMMU BORGIR - New video clip uploaded Norway’s most prominent and important Melodic Black Metal act have uploaded a video for the song " Sorgens Kammer – Del II". You can watch it here! MNEMIC - Enter studio in May Danish modern metallers MNEMIC have abandoned their previously announced plans to record their next album at The Abyss studio with producer Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN). Commented the band: "We are sorry to inform all the people that hoped for a summer release, but that's simply not happening.  One of the reasons is simply because we are not ready to enter the studio in February, and second we do not want to rush this album. In stead we will be recording in May, with a different producer at a different studio. Be ready for it! AMORPHIS - First tourdates announced AMORPHIS have announced the first details of their upcoming European headlining tour, set to take place in March. 09.03.2006 - Oulu, 45 Special 10.03.2006 - Kuopio, Työnkulma 17.03.2006 - Tampere, Pakkahuone 18.03.2006 - Helsinki, Tavastia 23.03.2006 - Turku, Klubi 24.03.2006 - Jyväskylä, Lutakko 25.03.2006 - Lahti, Sibeliustalo AGNOSTIC FRONT - DVD trailer uploaded AGNOSTIC FRONT continues to be living embodiment that "hardcore for life" isn't an empty slogan or a musical dead end. To introduce the brand new CD/DVD "Live at CBGB", Roger Miret and the boys have uploaded a trailer of the forthcoming release. Click here to view the trailer. EXODUS - Heading "Down Under" Veteran San Francisco Bay Area thrashers EXODUS will support Sweden's THE HAUNTED on their upcoming tour of Australia. Confirmed dates are as follows: Mar. 05 - Perth, AUS @ Heat Mar. 06 - Melbourne, AUS @ Hifi Bar Mar. 07 - Sydney, AUS @ The Forum Mar. 08 - Brisbane, AUS @ The Arena LIQUIDO - Update from Wolfgang Happy new year, everybody! Just returned from Vienna, where we played on new year's eve the last show of about 120 in 2005, I feel like letting you know that I'm looking forward for what's about to come this year... You keep asking about a DVD finally, and that's going to be realized this year as well as a very special show for our ten year anniversary. Sorry I can't say more now, but I'll let you know as soon as possible. You might want to know, that we'll be playing less shows this year, especially in the next two or three months, but we'll be back on stage in spring/summer for some selected gigs. As most of you know already we're as well working on our projects, and 2006 is going to be an important one for them. We'll keep you up to date concerning all the project-releases coming up. What's very new in January is the new website of cages, Stefans and Wolfgangs project, where from now on you can order shirts and watch a terrific short movie/video besides some other things you will be able to explore. (the links to our projects you can find following 1.band 2.links, but who am I telling that...) But this is only the start, there's many things about to happen this year, not only a football world championship... So, bye for now, and rock on in 2006 with us... Wolfgang P.S.: From here I'd like to send a very special HI to Georg, our wonderful manager, who is in hospital these days. Be back soon, Georg, your band needs you! BAL-SAGOTH: The Chthonic Chronicles At last, the legendary BAL-SAGOTH have returned triumphantly with a new album, "The Chthonic Chronicles" – Released March 20th - their first release since 2001's acclaimed "Atlantis Ascendant". Their sixth album overall, "The Chthonic Chronicles" features 12 tracks of the band's trademark symphonic baroque black metal, bringing to a climactic close their epic hexalogy which began in 1994 and has spanned six albums over twelve years. Characterized by the elaborate and intricate occult fantasy stories for which the band are renowned, and the dynamic keyboards integrated into the extreme metal soundscape, "The Chthonic Chronicles" will once again transport listeners and readers on a wondrous and terrifying voyage into the darkling realms of sinister and bombastic maleficent metal fantasy. Often imitated, never equalled, the mighty BAL-SAGOTH once again prove why they stand peerless and triumphant as the true lords of symphonic baroque black metal! The Chthonic Chronicles 1) The Sixth Adulation Of His Chthonic Majesty 2) Invocations Beyond The Outer-World Night 3) Six Score And Ten Oblations To A Malefic Avatar 4) The Obsidian Crown Unbound (Episode: IX) 5) The Fallen Kingdoms Of The Abyssal Plain 6) Shackled To The Trilithon Of Kutulu 7) The Hammer Of The Emperor 8) Unfettering The Hoary Sentinels Of Karnak 9) To Storm The Cyclopean Gates Of Byzantium 10) Arcana Antediluvia 11) Beneath The Crimson Vaults Of Cydonia 12) Return To Hatheg-Kla www.bal-sagoth.com www.bal-sagoth.co.uk Cathedral – "Headline UK tour" After releasing the magnificent album "In The Garden Of Unearthly Delight" last year (no 3 in Terrorizer’s album of the year list 2005) and touring with Cradle Of Filth, our favourite Doomers CATHEDRAL are set to head out on a UK headline tour late February: February 25 ­ Brighton Concorde 2 26 ­ Manchester Academy 3 March 3 ­ London Islington Academy 4 ­ Nottingham ­ Rock City Support comes from Electric Wizard & Grand Magus. The UK dates are part of a full European tour which looks like this: February: Thu 02 ­ Eindhoven - Efenaar (NL) Fri 03 - Haarlem - Patronaat (NL) Sat 04 ­ Rotterdam - Nighttown (NL) Sun 05 ­ Utrecht - Helling (NL) Mon 06 - Berlin - Knaack (D) Thu 09 ­ Helsinki - Tavastia (FI) Sat 11 ­ Stockholm - The Shrine (SWE) Sun 12 ­ Gothenburg ­ Sticky Fingers (SWE) Mon 13 ­ Hamburg ­ Molotow (D) Tue 14 ­ Munich - Backstage (D) Wed 15 ­ Vienna - Arena (AU) Thu 16 - Pratteln - Z7 (CH) Fri 17 ­ Milan - Transilvania Live (ITA) Sat 18 - Sesto Fiorrentino - Zero Circus (ITA) Mon 20 ­ Koln - Underground (D) Tue 21 ­ Bochum - Matrix (D) Thu 23 ­ Strasbourg - La Laiterie (FR) Fri 24 ­ Paris - Le Nouveau Casino (FR) Sat 25 ­ Brighton - Concorde 2 (ENG) Sun 26 ­ Manchester - Academy 3 (ENG) March Fri 03 ­ London - Islington Academy (ENG) Sat 04 ­ Nottingham ­ Rock City (ENG) Ancient Rites in Mixing Mode, Naming Album Ancient Rites have finished the recording leg of their new album and are currently mixing the songs. Meanwhile, they have decided to name the album 'Rubicon'. Song titles will also follow soon. 'Rubicon' was recorded and is being mixed at the Spacelab Studio in Germany, under auspices of veteran AR producers Oliver Phillips and Christian Moos and will be released some time in the first half of 2006. Rise Above Newswire Electric Wizard - We Live second press Gatefold Sleeve & free one sided 7". Ultra Deluxe 2ND Pressing of this long sold out LP available now! Repackaged in gatefold sleeve, with extra track + FREE BONUS 7" featuring non album track - 'THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE'(!!!) which was recorded during the We Live sessions, making this the complete & definitive version. A true cult album for vinyl collectors & Wizard slaves. Pressing amount: 500 Green / 500 Black COMING SOON Electric Wizard - LP's & Mid Price, Remastered, CD's coming soon. Yes, we are currently in the process of remastering the entire Electric Wizard back catalogue in digipak format with extra tracks. All of the bands five albums for Rise Above Records & Pre-Electric Wizard (the CD version which features Thy Grief Eternal, Eternal & Lord Of Putrefaction recordings) will be released in the coming months. All CD versions will be on sale at Mid Price. Also there will be a major treat for vinyl collectors of the band. We will be re releasing the bands debut album in gatefold sleeve + bonus tracks. This will be shortly followed by the vinyl LP debut of the bands seminal second LP - 'Come My Fanatics'. This will include a free 7" & special sleeve. Following this will be a deluxe gatefold LP version of 'Let Us Prey'. All of the aforementioned releases are scheduled to be available before the summer. 7" Singles Club series continues with Leaf Hound & Burning Saviours. Yes, the first new vinyl release from this legendary progressive blues rock band, Leaf Hound comes in the shape of a live 7" limited to 500 copies. Recorded in London 2005. Tracks are; Freelance Fiend/Too Many Rock N Roll Times. Following this will be a 7" by cool Swedish Doom Rockers Burning Saviours, more news on that to follow. Next in the series will be a split Doom riot between Thee Plague Of Gentlemen & Moss – should be sick! In the pipeline The new album from Bill Steers' Firebird plus reissues from Mourn and some of the older Rise Above back catalogue. We plan to re-master & repackage the entire Orange Goblin Rise Above works shortly also. Rise Above Relics Update The first two releases on the new Rise Above Relics label are getting closer to completion. We have been doing considerable research into both albums from Luv Machine & Possessed. We recently remastered the Luv Machine album from the original masters which turned out fantastic. It’s amazing that the tapes stayed in pristine condition, considering their age of 36+ years. We also discovered a couple of cool unreleased tracks too. Before releasing the album, we will put out a limited 45 of the classic single ‘Witches Wand’ with a previously unavailable/unheard b-side. More news on that soon. We have also been in contact with friends and family of Midlands progressive hard rock band Possessed,a band who suffered a tragic fate & who’s music has never been officially released until now. The band's unreleased album from 1973 is in the process of being mastered for it’s debut release in the coming months. Stay tuned for more on that soon. Cathedral Merchandise New Cathedral merchandise available at the Rise Above store. LIVE Doomed Trinity tour 2006 - Cathedral, Electric Wizards & Grand Magus to Bulldoze Europe. Download Tour Poster Here Feb Thu 02 – Eindhoven - Efenaar (NL) Fri 03 - Haarlem - Patronaat (NL) Sat 04 – Rotterdam - Nighttown (NL) Sun 05 – Utrecht - Helling (NL) Mon 06 - Berlin - Knaack (D) Thu 09 – Helsinki - Tavastia (FI) Sat 11 – Stockholm - The Shrine (SWE) Sun 12 – Gothenburg – Sticky Fingers (SWE) Mon 13 – Hamburg – Molotow (D) Tue 14 – Munich - Backstage (D) Wed 15 – Vienna - Arena (AU) Thu 16 - Pratteln - Z7 (CH) Fri 17 – Bassano del Grappa - Transilvania Club (ITA) Sat 18 - Sesto Fiorrentino - Zero Circus (ITA) Mon 20 – Koln - Underground (D) Tue 21 – Bochum - Matrix (D) Thu 23 – Strasbourg - La Laiterie (FR) Fri 24 – Paris - Le Nouveau Casino (FR) Sat 25 – Brighton - Concorde 2 (ENG) Sun 26 – Manchester - Academy 3 (ENG) Witchcraft hit the road with Monster Magnet! March Sat 04 - Wolverhampton - Wolfrun Hall (UK) Sun 05 - Nottingham - Rock City (UK) Mon 06 - Manchester - Academy 2 (UK) Wed 08 -Glasgow - QMU (UK) Thu 09 - Leeds - The Cockpit (UK) Fri 10 - Sheffield - The Corporation (UK) Sun 12 - London - Astoria (UK) Mon 13 - Brussels - AB Club (Bel) Tue 14 - Amsterdam - Paradiso (NL) Thu 16 - Tilburg - 013 (NL) Fri 17 - Hamburg - Grosse Freiheit (Ger) Sat 18 - Gothenburg - Trädgården (Swe) Mon 20 - Helsinki - Tavastia (Fin) Wed 22 - Stockholm - Arenan (Swe) Thu 23 - Oslo - Rockefeller (Nor) Fri 24 - Malmö - KB (Swe) Sun 26 - Copenhagen - Pumpehuset (Den) Mon 27 - Århus - Voxhall (Den) Tue 28 - Berlin - Columbiahalle (Ger) Thu 30 - Herford - Club X (Ger) Fri 31 - Weisbaden - Schlachthof (Ger) April Sat 01 - Leipzig - Werk (Ger) Mon 03 - Dortmund - Soundgarden (Ger) Tue 04 - Cologne - Live Music Hall (Ger) Wed 05 - Stuttgart - Longhorn (Ger) Fri 07 - Munich - Tonhalle (Ger) Sat 08 - Linz - Posthof (AU) Sun 09 - Vienna - Arena (AU) Tue 11 - Zurich - Xtra (CH) Thu 13 - Barcelona - Razzmatazz II (ES) Fri 14 - Madrid - Aqualung (ES) Taint announced as part of Give It A Name 06 Taint are to play alongside My Chemical Romance, Lostprophets, Atreyu, Taking Back Sunday and many more at London Earls Court & Manchester MEN Arena - 29th / 30th April Check www.giveitaname.co.uk for more info. The guys will also be hitting the road in the UK, France, Belgium & Holland earlier in April. More news as we have it. www.taint.co.uk OTHER NEWS Swedish Music Awards Both Witchcraft and Grand Magus have been nominated for MANIFEST which is organised by the Swedish independent record labels (SOM). Grand Magus and their album "Wolf's Return" is nominated in the category "best hard rock/punk 2005". Read about the award here: http://www.som.se/manifest This is the second Swedish award that Grand Magus have been nominated for with the Wolf's Return album the first being as "Metal album of the year" for "P3 Guld", a yearly award from Swedish National Radio. Read more about it here "Wolf's Return" was also named Metal album of the year in Sweden's largest newspaper "Dagens Nyheter", check it out here (in Swedish). Circulus on Swedish TV Circulus documentary for Swedish TV-available to view online now It's in English with Swedish subtitles. www.circulus.org

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