FEAR FACTORY will embark on their first full headlining tour in support of 2012’s conceptual mega-album The Industrialist. Performances begin next week, with the tour set to visit 38 cities throughout the US and Canada. The tour represents the first live dates by the band on American soil in nearly a year. The World Industrialist tour will feature support from Hate Eternal and Kobra And The Lotus.
Speaking with Full Metal Jackie, vocalist Burton C. Bell describes The Industrialist as, “a very deliberate album and one that came about very naturally to us. There is something so tight about the album. Focus is the one thing that is on this record that doesn’t really appear on any of our other records. The focus of the music, the sounds, the aggression and the concept. Everything had its purpose and we knew exactly what we were doing and what we had to do.”
Hellish Rock Part II:
HELLOWEEN & GAMMA RAY
with ShadowSide
Pakkahuone Tampere Finland
The 30th of March 2013
The leading names in German power metal conquered Finland yet again with Hellish Rock Tour Pt II. Hellish Rock Pt II will be crisscrossing the global the whole year, in Europe, Asia, etc. All the three gigs on the Finnish soil were totally packed as over 4000 people had arrived to witness Gamma Ray and Helloween on the stage again. Both the bands truly enjoy a loyal and even a bit of a fanatical following amongst the Finnish metal fans. That could be witnessed at the Tampere show, when the venue was nearly to explode when over 1000 fans had crawled in. Therefore, moving to any side was more or less a “mission impossible” task. The night was definitely full of triumphant power metal as both Gamma Ray and Helloween delivered a fistful of power metal with catchy melodies.
According to Hollywoodreporter.com, BLACK SABBATH will do a cameo in CSI’s season finale. In the lead-up to the release of their upcoming album, 13, the band will appear in the finale of the crime drama on May 15, CBS announced Wednesday. The band will play a concert in the show attended by some of the characters. The performance in CSI will debut 13′s first single, ‘End Of The Beginning’.
“When we first heard that Black Sabbath was interested in premiering a song on CSI from their first studio album in 35 years, we were all really excited,” said the show’s executive producer, Don McGill, in a release. “So many of us are longtime fans.”
Sabbath’s Geezer Butler adds: “I’ve seen almost every episode of CSI, so it’s cool to say I’m actually in the season finale! Black Sabbath will be playing a track from the new album; watch out for it!”
Century Media Records is very pleased to welcome Sweden-based metal outfit BOMBUS to the family.
BOMBUS was started in late 2008 in Gothenburg by axe men Feffe and Matte as a two-piece, but then they quickly emerged to a full band with Ulf (bass) and Peter (drums) joining the party. Heavily influenced by the greats of MOTORHEAD, THE MELVINS, METALLICA and POISON IDEA, the newly arisen four-piece started to play their first live shows and evolve their own unique sound. After releasing three 7″ singles and their praised self-titled debut album in 2010, the band matured greatly by performing many live shows throughout Europe, which earned them a massive die-hard fan base. Recently, a new bassist, Jonas, joined the band, which allowed Ulf to step back from his duties onstage to focus on the band’s artwork and video clips. In the summer of 2011, Century Media Records discovered BOMBUS, and a deal was quickly signed. To start off this new relationship, BOMBUS will release a special single, as well as a full-length album, later this year via Century Media Records.
Releasing their brutal six track masterpiece ”Coils of Entropy” at the beginning of 2012 to international praise along with winning the Best Metal category at theToronto Independent Music Awardsandtaking the #9 position on the Top 20 of 2012Canadian College Radio Loud Charts. Nephelium, the brutal death metal band that traces its roots back to the late 1990s from the city of Dubai, UAE and whom have now re-established themselves in Toronto, Canada for the last decade has issued an update on their follow up release.
Drummer Alan Madhavan comments:
“Like the churning of molten rock in the entrails of a livid volcano, we have been brewing up some of Nephelium’s most unyielding and devastating work to date. This stuff is NUTS!!! From abstract and eccentric yet masterful riff writing with our signature twist of worldly melodies to time shifts analogous to the precision of a woodpecker and vocals, you wish you believed in God when you hear, brace yourself for the one of the most fierce, violent and viciously musical sprees you’ve ever been on. This album is going to trample and slaughter anything in its path…”
Extreme metallers THE AGONIST will be hitting the road this week with DANZIG, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, and more in support of their recently released new album, Prisoners! Check the dates below to see when THE AGONIST will be coming to a city near you.
This Spring will see another chapter unfold in the life of Wings, the UK rock group formed by Paul McCartney after the break-up of The Beatles – and one of the most successful bands the UK has ever produced.
Wings Over America
First, the historic live album, which documented the band’s triumphant 1976 tour across North America, will be reissued in a range of formats. Fans and hardcore devotees alike will be especially thrilled with the stunning four-book, four-disc (3CD, 1DVD) Deluxe Edition Box Set. The box set’s superior audio and video include the two-disc Wings Over America album remastered at Abbey Road, a bonus audio disc recorded live at San Francisco’s Cow Palace, a bonus DVD containing the rarely seen 75-minute television special “Wings over the World’’ and the photo gallery montage entitled “Photographer’s Pass.” Moreover, the Deluxe Edition Box Set contains four exquisitely rendered art books packaged with an incredible array of exclusive memorabilia, souvenirs, mementos, keepsakes and never-before-seen photos and art work from this historic tour. The spectacular 110-page commemorative tour book beautifully recounts the behind-the-scenes drama through dozens of live performances and backstage photos along with new interviews and liner notes from eminent music journalist David Fricke. The Wings Over America leatherette-bound “Tour Itinerary” contains extravagant memorabilia including printed 8×10 glossy band photos, a backstage guest pass, facsimiles of the invitation to the infamous end-of-tour party at the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills along with Wings over America concert tickets, original album art work, tour posters, set lists, lyrics, press materials and much more. “Look”, the box set’s warm and intimate book of Linda McCartney photography features Paul and the band in their everyday life as they made their way across the country in the spring of ’76. Lastly, the set contains “The Ocean View,” an extraordinary hardbound compendium of drawings and sketches by artist Humphrey Ocean that captures the band on tour in relaxed and revealing ways. A striking artistic achievement in and of itself, the audacious Wings over America Deluxe Edition Box Set is a must have for any McCartney enthusiast.
Rockshow DVD Release
Second, for the first time a DVD will be released by Eagle Rock of the live concert film Rockshow which was shot in 1975 and 1976 when Paul McCartney & Wings undertook the epic Wings over the World tour which was the largest-scale tour they would ever undertake as a band. Packed with all the classic Wings hits – plus some of The Beatles’ and Paul’s solo classics – the film is released on both DVD and Blu-ray formats. Although filmed on this tour at the enormous Kingdome in Seattle, Rockshow, originally a cut down version of the concert, was not premiered until November 1980 in New York and April 1981 in London. It was originally released on Betamax (later on laserdisc) but it’s only now that the complete full-length concert is being made available fully restored from the original 35mm film and with restored & remastered sound, including a 5.1 mix for the first time.
Rockshow Theatrical Release
And then third, but by no means least, Eagle Rock has partnered with distributors Specticast who are releasing the film theatrically worldwide for a “one night only” event on May 15th (see here for more details: http://rockshowonscreen.com/) – meaning the film will be shown in more than 500 cinemas across the world! The theatrical release features an exclusive introduction with Paul McCartney, but there will also be an exclusive VIP premiere screening of Rockshow, with Paul in attendance and introducing the film, at BAFTA on May 15, 2013 in London.
For Wings across America, Paul brought with him one the most sophisticated and dazzling rock shows of the mid-Seventies (it was a time when nobody worried about extravagance or expense) and the band would eventually perform to more than 600,000 people at 31 shows in the US and Canada, ending with three mind-bending nights at The Forum in Los Angeles. It’s no exaggeration to say that the demand that greeted Paul McCartney & Wings (Linda McCartney, Joe English, Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch) in the spring of 1976 as they embarked on what would become their one and only North American tour was overwhelming. Having released four consecutive chart busting albums including Red Rose Speedway, Band on the Run, Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound – not to mention 1973’s Academy Award-winning James Bond theme “Live and Let Die” – Paul’s solo career was in full flight… and having not performed in the States for 10 years either solo or with The Beatles, excitement had reached fever pitch.
Now Paul gives fans the chance to be able to immerse themselves in a concert that is destined to live forever.
Rockstad: Falun has popularly been called the “Sabaton festival in Falun”, and we have naturally been proud of that since we started it all thanks to the band Sabaton.
The festival has never had the ambition to be the greatest festival in Sweden and never had to book the most famous bands in the world. We have however offered high quality and several exclusive artists at a good price every year, on maybe Sweden’s best festival area.
The band Sabaton, from the town of Falun, has grown to one of the greatest hardrock bands with fans travelling every year from more than 25 countries to Falun to visit us.
Finnish masters of melancholic dark metal, AMORPHIS, have released a video that includes snippets of all songs from the band’s upcoming album Circle,along with track-by-track commentary by guitarist and founding member Esa Holopainen.
The Black Dahlia Murder’s sixth full-length album, Everblack, will be released worldwide in June 2013. The album art for Everblack was painted by renowned artist Nick Keller and recording was completed at Audiohammer Studios (lead guitars and vocals), Rustbelt Studios (drums), and Regal Fecal (guitar and bass). Mixing was handled by Jason Suecof and Ryan Williams, mastering was completed by Alan Douches at West Westside. Trevor Strnad’s horror-inspired lyrics persist on Everblack, beginning with In Hell is Where She Waits for Me,a reference to the murder from which the band took for their moniker.
Vocalist Trevor Strnad elaborates on the lyrical concepts: “The opening track is the first actual song we’ve done about the Black Dahlia. This one is for the fans… they’ve been asking for this to happen for a long time. The story takes place at the Elizabeth Short’s rain drenched funeral, where her killer in attendance… just one of the many macabre tales woven into the fabric of Everblack. Subterranean flesh-farming vampires, vine rape, Jeffery Dahmer, amputation… it’s all here! With this sixth slab of sickness I tried my best to honor the band’s legacy and write lyrics that will keep the legions of horror fiends perspiring with fear.”
The debut single, Into the Everblack, is streaming now on metalblade.com/bdm.
Virginia-based melodic tech-death metal masters ARSIS have made a lyric video for the track “Scornstar” available for viewing here http://youtu.be/SNDf5y9CU7Q.The song comes from the group’s upcoming fifth full-length album entitled Unwelcome. Artwork was handled once again by longtime collaborator Mark Riddick. The follow up to their 2010 release Starve for the Devil, will be released on April 30, 2013 in North America via Nuclear Blast records.
AS I LAY DYING, fresh off their co-headlining tour with The Devil Wears Prada, have announced that they will be joining fellow metal pioneers, Killswitch Engage, for the headlining tour this summer. The bands have toured together on multiple occasions, including 2005′s Ozzfest, and 2004′s tour with In Flames. Additional support on this tour will come from Miss May I and Affiance. The tour will begin May 30th in Oklahoma City and will conclude on July 8th in Joliet, IL. The entire list of dates can be found below and on facebook.com/asilaydying.
AS I LAY DYING vocalist Tim Lambesis adds, “We are excited to be touring with our long time friends and looking forward to sharing the stage with them every night.” Read the rest of this entry »
Nuclear Blast is very excited to announce the signing of ASHES OF ARES – the new group featuring Matt Barlow (ex-ICED EARTH), Van Williams (ex-NEVERMORE) and Freddie Vidales (ex-ICED EARTH).
ASHES OF ARES is a band which represents the culmination of experiences, and trials and tribulations of founding members Matt Barlow, Van Williams and Freddie Vidales. Within months of their departures from the iconic metal bands ICED EARTH and NEVERMORE, the trio came together with a renewed drive to create a sound which is a true collaboration of their personal influences, ideas and visions. Armed with the knowledge acquired through years of the writing, touring and recording cycle, and with the support of an army of loyal fans across the globe, ASHES OF ARES is poised to carve out a new legacy and stand alongside those who have helped pave the way.
The band comments on their incredible alliance: “We are proud to announce that we have signed with Nuclear Blast records! We’re really looking forward to working with them in bringing our music to the world. It’s great to be added to the ranks of the already impressive roster of bands that Nuclear Blast represents. We will be entering the studio at the beginning of April under the masterful watch of producer Jim Morris of Morrisound Recording. We and Nuclear Blast are aiming for a release date late in the summer of 2013. This will be followed by a European tour with POWERWOLF. It’s a new beginning for ASHES OF ARES, and we couldn’t ask for a better label than Nuclear Blast to go into battle with. Attack!”
Nuclear Blast A&R Jaap Wagemaker adds: “After we received their first demo we were totally blown away by the power of their music! We are all huge fans of classic NEVERMORE and classic ICED EARTH and we knew that just like us their fans are waiting eagerly to hear this! Their new band is named after the Greek god of war and together we will go forward into to battle conquering the hearts of metal fans worldwide! At the moment the band is hard at work forging their debut album which will see the light in the late summer this year. If you can’t wait that long, make sure not to miss them at the legendary “Rock Hard Festival” this year. ASHES OF ARES: welcome to the Nuclear family!”
