Tom Gabriel Fischer (CELTIC FROST), Gaahl (GORGOROTH) and Maniac (SKITLIV, ex-MAYHEM) will appear on a panel at the the third edition of the Inferno Music Conference (IMC) on March 21 to discuss extremism in metal. 15 years after the climax of Norwegian black metal murders and church fire, it is time to look ahead. Is there a limit to what record labels and other interacting music business-related people can work with? What is the next extreme thing to happen?
The Inferno Music Conference is part of the Inferno festival, which is set to take place March 19-22, 2008 at the Rockefeller and John Dee venues in Oslo, Norway.
The "Can metal become more extreme? Taboos and metal – where do we go
from here?" discussion will be moderated by Michael Berberian of Season Of Mist and will be held on Friday, March 21 at 2:00 p.m. Gaahl will also be the keynote speaker at the event, where he will give his first-ever interview in front of a live audience.
Gaahl being interviewed for the "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" documentary:
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
GORGOROTH, CELTIC FROST, SKITLIV Members To Appear At INFERNO MUSIC CONFERENCE - Jan. 29, 2008
Former MANOWAR Guitarist DAVID SHANKLE Shreds The Axe At NAMM; Video Available - Jan. 29, 2008
Video footage of former MANOWAR guitarist David Shankle shredding the axe at this year's winter NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show, which was held January 17-20 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, can be viewed below.
DAVID SHANKLE GROUP's latest album, "Hellborn", came out on July 6, 2007 through Magic Circle Music.
According to a press release, "Hellborn" is "a very different animal to [its predecessor], 'Ashes to Ashes' [2003], and offers something for all fans of true metal.
"David is known for having a vast array of musical influences and styles at his command. 'Hellborn' is a perfect example of that flexibility. The solid team of musicians that David has assembled, along with the steadfast efforts of soundman, engineer and amplifier guru Jay Walsh of Farview Recording, has ensured that 'Hellborn' is a powerful and impressive sophomore effort from the DAVID SHANKLE GROUP."
DAVID SHANKLE GROUP is:
David Shankle - Guitars
Dennis Hirschauer- Vocals
Jeff Kylloe- Bass
Brad Sabathne - Drums
"Daydreams":
"The Voyage":
OVERKILL: Promo Video For 'Live At Wacken Open Air 2007' Available - Jan. 29, 2008
Veteran New Jersey thrashers OVERKILL will release their second DVD, "Live at Wacken Open Air 2007", on February 5 via Bodog Music.
The 50-minute disc was shot during the band’s headline set at the festival in front of an audience of 40,000, and features songs that span OVERKILL's 28-year career, including "Walk Through Fire" (which can be viewed below) from the group's new disc "Immortalis", "Rotten to the Core", "Elimination", "Fuck You", "In Union We Stand", "Necroshine", "Skull and Bones", "Old School" and "Wrecking Crew".
The show was previously released as the limited-edition bonus DVD with the German digipack edition of the band's latest album, "Immortalis".
"Live at Wacken Open Air 2007" track listing:
01. Rotten to the Core
02. Elimination
03. Necroshine
04. Thanx for Nothin'
05. Skull and Bones
06. In Union We Stand
07. Walk through Fire
08. Wrecking Crew
09. Old School
10. Fuck You
OVERKILL's last DVD, "Wrecking Everything: Live", came out in 2002 and was re-released October 2.
A promotional video for the DVD can be viewed below.
OVERKILL's last DVD, "Wrecking Everything: Live", came out in 2002 and was re-released October 2, 2007.
OVERKILL last fall completed a short tour in support of "Immortalis". The trek began on October 3 in Elmira, NY at The The Amp and concluded with a special appearance at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City on Sunday, October 21.
"Immortalis" sold 2,800 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Issued on October 9 via Bodog Music, the CD marks OVERKILL's reunion with Jonny and Marsha Zazula, previous owners of Megaforce Records, the label responsible for putting metal on the map and bringing OVERKILL's New Jersey thrash metal to the world. The Zazulas are now a part of the Bodog Music team in the United States.
"Immortalis" is the follow-up to 2005's "RelixIV", which has sold around 16,000 copies in the U.S. to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
OVERKILL's top-selling album of the SoundScan era (1991-) is "Horrorscope", which has shifted around 118,000 units in the U.S. since its 1991 release (there is no SoundScan data available for LPs sold prior to 1991).
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Forest Stream - Sign To Candlelight Records
Official Candlelight Records press release:
Forest Stream was founded in 1995 by Sonm (drums, keys, vocals) & Omin (guitars, bass) in a small Russian town called Chernogolovka, 40 km north-east of Moscow. From the very beginning their goal was to create the music that would capture the beauty and magic of existence at the same time showing its triviality, misery, and despair.
The duo worked only together at the beginning, but soon other members started to join and an embryonic full band started to take shape. Silent Anth began to help Forest Stream as bass player, and he quickly became a permanent fixture.
In 1999 this line-up recorded the first demo, "Snowfall". Influenced by the pioneers of the UK doom scene, but complete with a blackened edge, their music expressed deep sorrow and hopelessness of the existence on this pitiable planet.
The second demo, "Last Season Purity" was recorded in 2000 and subsequently uploaded to mp3.com. Thus Forest Stream was introduced to the foreign listeners for the first time.
The year 2002 was marked by serious rearrangements in the line-up: Elhella joined to play drums and Berserk joined as guitar player. Forest Stream also got a record deal for four albums from Elitist records. To get the first album, "Tears of Mortal Solitude", done the band had to withstand quite a number of unpleasant events such as equipment theft, destruction of their rehearsal rooms, and the least expected—Sonm's departure to the Netherlands where he enrolled to a Ph.D. course in physics. Despite all difficulties, the album was still recorded and released at the beginning of 2003 to universal plaudits from press and public alike.
With the release of the full-length album the band got more opportunities to play live and that is when the line-up problems had to be solved. Elhella was shifted to play keys, Kir joined to play drums and T.Moloch was the new bass-man. This coincided with band's morphing towards more aggressive touches in their music due to growing influences of the dark Masters—Emperor; as well as getting more technically advanced following the example of Sweden's Opeth.
Around this time, among various headline concerts throughout Russia and the Ukraine, Forest Stream played a show with Cradle Of Filth and joined Katatonia during their tour in Russia.
Four years passed since the release of their first album. Unfortunately, Elitist records ceased its existence so Forest Stream were looking for a new deal parallel to working on the new material. When Forest Stream were thinking over several offers, Candlelight records suddenly proposed a three-album deal and Forest Stream happily accepted it.
The material for the second album, The Crown of Winter, is shaping up to be something remarkable and truly worth listening to. Mixing duties are to be handled by Brett Caldas-Lima (To-Mera, Kalisia, etc). Taking the symphonic and epic overload of the Norwegian black metal scene and combining it with a seriously emotional core of classic doom, Forest Stream's unique take on the genre is set to explode.
Biomechanical - Announce New Bassist
Following the completion of their new album "Cannibalised" Biomechanical have also completed their line up, with the addition of ex-DragonForce bassist Adrian Lambert.
A blog posted on the band's MySpace page goes as follows:
"We are very happy to announce that the Biomechanical line-up is now complete with the addition of bassist Adrian Lambert! Adrian also plays with Son of Science and has also played for Dragonforce and Intense. His fast and furious bass style is exactly what the band was looking for! The band will get together soon and will get ready for touring the new Biomechanical album Cannibalised (out Feb 2008)."
Biomechanical frontman John K commented the following:
"Its no secret that its a bit of a bitch to find good bass players and I was thrilled when Adrian contacted me. I also had people from Europe and the UK applying for the job and some of them were of very high standards . But after checking Adrian's playing I realized the logical next step would be to welcome him to the band!"
Adrian stated:
"Its really exciting to be playing with a world-class act like Biomechanical. I've been into the band since I got The Empires of the Worlds album back when I was still playing in DragonForce, so it's quite incredible for me to be playing with Biomechanical now. John K's assembled an insanely talented new line-up - he's had to get the best because of the complexity and scope of the new album Cannibalised."
Commenting further on the band's third album, which is set for a February 2008 release date, Adrian states:
"You've got the bombastic film score stuff, you've got the crushing extreme metal riffs and solos… Hell, you've even got some heart-breaking vocal melodies in there as well as John's trademark screams! I think there's more of a groove to this album than 'Eight Moons' and 'Empires….' but it's also even more extreme and brutal than previous releases. I feel that Biomechanical are breaking a lot of boundaries with Cannibalised and I'm proud to be a part of the team taking this album out on the road".
Korpiklaani - Yet Another New Album In The Works
On their MySpace blog, the Finnish Folk Metal band posted the following message:
"We have been in the studio again every now and then since last spring, and we have more material ready than is needed for an entire album. It is already mixed and ready.
The album became quite long, but we just could not drop any of the 14 songs. It was already hard to decide which songs would become bonus tracks.
So, we offer to you 14 new songs plus 2 bonus tracks on our upcoming album "Korven Kuningas", which means 'King of the Woods'
This time the album cover will be painted, not photoshopped. The old man "Vaari" will be figuring on the cover again, so it will look familiar and faithful to everyone, even though a different technique is used."
The album will be released by Nuclear Blast early in 2008.
Aborted - Working On New Album
Belgian Deathmetal butchers Aborted sign in from the european tour with Kataklysm and Behemoth: vocalist Sven comments:
"Hey everyone, its been a fucking pleasure & an honour to share the stage each day with our friends from Kataklysm and Behemoth, both monstrous acts on stage & very down to earth people off stage, the tour has been doing phenomenal so far & we'd like to thank all our friends out there who came & supported us & the other bands, keep on showing up, you guys are the reason this is all possible for any of us.
We'd also like to announce that we have started the songwriting for the follow up record to Slaughter & Apparatus, the album title will be revealed in due time & should be recorded early 2008 & set for a summer release which will coincide with lots of touring activity in the US. Which couldn't make us happier cause we are dying to get out there & play for all of you out there sta tewise who have had to wait since our last tour with Suffocation to come over. We also promise we will be extensively touring the US for the next record so you will get plenty of chances to catch us live then!"
The band also just uploaded their second episode for the Slaughter & Apparatus TV series, which contains on & off stage shenanigans from the current tour, a second part will be uploaded during the tour as the band gets more (and more retarded) footage, for now , check it out at the official youtube, here.
The band has also changed their myspace adress recently to http://www.myspace.com/abortedmetal to make it easier on everyone including theirselves
