EVERGREY guitarist Henrick Danhage recently spoke to KaffeineBuzz.com about the group's new CD, "The Inner Circle", and their current North American tour with ICED EARTH and CHILDREN OF BODOM, among other topics. Asked if they are trying to come across as "a more emotional power metal band instead of having a science fiction backdrop," Henrick replied, "I don't compare us as a power metal or a progressive metal band. I want to make a point about that - I think we're really different from all those bands. I'm not badmouthing any other bands, 'cause I believe what they play is what they want to do. But I don't want to get caught up in that prog metal shit, because we're not a prog metal band. I could call us a progressive metal band as far as I would say that OPETH or MESHUGGAH is a progressive metal band. But many bands equal standing up and jerking scales. In my book that has nothing to do with music. They're just fucking geeks. But I'm not dissing any bands 'cause they can do whatever they want."

With regards to how they're entertaining themselves on the bus while touring with ICED EARTH, Danhage said, "Alcohol, weed, women, you know - all the standard American stuff . I mean, we share a bus with CHILDREN OF BODOM. They're from Finland. We're crazy Scandinavians. I feel bad for the bus driver 'cause that's not a fun gig. You got 12 drunken people on the bus everyday . It's been good. ICED EARTH treats us really good. There's a lot of stories , but we went into this with a kind of blank eyes. We took it from zero, so we don't care because it has nothing to do with us."

Read EVERGREY guitarist Henrick Danhage's entire interview with KaffeineBuzz.com

http://www.kaffeinebuzz.com/interviews-evergrey.php

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Band profile:

Evergrey

According to www.Bravewords.com, Candlelight Records have set a June 28th release for the reissue of EMPEROR's live DVD, "Emperial Live Ceremony". It's been remastered for better sound, and includes new material such as a photo gallery.

Band profile:

Emperor

According to Barnes & Noble and Circuit City, RUSH will be releasing an eight-song, all-covers EP on June 29 through Atlantic Records. Titled "Feedback" (view cover here), the CD's complete track listing is as follows:

01. Summertime Blues (EDDIE COCHRAN)
02. Heart Full Of Soul (THE YARDBIRDS)
03. The Seeker (THE WHO)
04. For What It's Worth (BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD)
05. Mr. Soul (BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD)
06. Shapes Of Things (THE YARDBIRDS)
07. Seven & Seven Is (LOVE)
08. Crossroads (CREAM)

RUSH will kick off a 30th anniversary tour on May 26 outside Nashville. The trek will mark RUSH's first concerts in Prague, Italy and several territories that were formerly behind the Iron Curtain.

Band profile:

Rush

San Diego extreme metallers CATTLE DECAPITATION have set a June 14 European release date for their new album, "Humanure".

Recorded with producer Bill Metoyer (SLAYER, W.A.S.P., SIX FEET UNDER), "Humanure" marks the recording debut with the group of drummer Michael Laughlin. The band parted ways with drummer David Astor in May of 2003 due to his inability to live up to the obligations of touring and regular necessities of the band.

In other news, the cover artwork for "Humanure" has apparently caused some trouble in Germany, where Metal Blade's distributor SPV has refused to put the album into the stores. As a result, "Humanure" will be available in Germany via mailorder only.
"Humanure" track listing:

01. Scatology Domine (intro)
02. Humanure
03. Reduced To Paste
04. Bukkake Tsunami
05. Cloacula: The Anthropophagic Copromantik
06. Chummified
07. Applied Human Defragmentation
08. The Earthling
09. Polyps
10. Lips & Assholes
11. Men Before Swine (outro)

The Swedish viking inspired death metal band, Amon Amarth, have now entitled their new full-lenght album, which is planned to be released late this year in a contract with Metal Blade. The title will be "Fate of Norns", referring to the three Norns or Godesses of fate : Urd, Skuld and Verdandi.
Some of the song titles that they have revealed in their site are :

· An Ancient Sign of Coming Storm
· The Fate of Norns
· Arson
· Sealed in blood
· The Valkyries Ride

They will be entering the Berno Studio in Malmö next monday to start the recording.

Band profile:

Amon Amarth

http://www.blind-guardian.com/discography/dvd/ittlg/ittlg_cover.jpg

German power metallers BLIND GUARDIAN have posted the cover artwork for their upcoming live DVD, "Imaginations Through The Looking Glass". The disc, which was recorded primarily at the Blind Guardian Open Air festival in Coburg, Germany last June, will come with a bonus DVD, featuring interview and behind-the-scenes footage as well as additional live material. A June 14 release is expected.

In other news, BLIND GUARDIAN revealed in a posting on their web site that select movie theaters in Germany will be showing the new DVD on the big screen before it hits the stores. Dates are as follows:

Jun. 06 - Stuttgart (Cinemaxx)
Jun. 07 - München (Mathäser Filmpalast)
Jun. 09 - Bochum (UCI Ruhrpark)
Jun. 10 - Düsseldorf (UCI)
Jun. 11 - Hamburg (UCI Mundsburg Center)

"Imaginations Through The Looking Glass" DVD track listing:

DVD 1 - Blind Guardian Open Air (Coburg):

01. War of Wrath
02. Time Stands Still
03. Banish from Sanctuary
04. Nightfall
05. The Script for my Requiem
06. Valhalla
07. A Past and Future Secret
08. Punishment Divine
09. Mordred's Song
10. The Last Candle
11. Bright Eyes
12. Lord of the Rings
13. I'm Alive
14. Another Holy War
15. And then there was Silence
16. Somewhere far Beyond
17. The Bard's Song (in the Forest)
18. Imaginations from the other Side
19. And the Story Ends
20. Mirror Mirror

DVD 2 - Bonus DVD

* Interview with BLIND GUARDIAN
* Backstage Scenes of the "A Night At The Opera Tour 2002"
* The making of "The Blind Guardian Festival Coburg 2003"
* Slideshow

Bonus songs:

01. Into the Storm (Stuttgart 2002)
02. Welcome to Dying (Stuttgart 2002)
03. Lost in the Twilight Hall (Stuttgart 2002)
04. Majesty (Wacken 2002)

The DVD with NOT be region free. There will be separate PAL and NTSC versions with the appropriate region code for each country.

A trailer for the DVD will be released in the near future through the band's official homepage. Neither the format nor the size of this trailer is yet known. Distribution of the trailer will most likely be done using BitTorrent (as was done with the Live CD outtakes).

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Band profile:

Blind Guardian

Guitarist Wojtek Lisicki (a.k.a. Transcendental Protagonist) has rejoined Sweden's LOST HORIZON. This was confirmed by the band's promoter, M-Production, in a phone call to Sweden Rock magazine late Monday night (May 10). No further information was given, but according to the promoter, an official statement containing more details will be posted on the band's web site later this week. Wojtek will be on stage with the band when they perform at the Sweden Rock Festival on June 12.

Lisicki originally left LOST HORIZON last July due to "personal reasons." The group's second full-length album, "A Flame to the Ground Beneath", was released in February 2003 through Music For Nations Records.

Band profile:

Lost Horizon

Long-running Canadian thrashers INFERNAL MAJESTY have inked a deal with Greece's Black Lotus Records for the release of their latest album, "One Who Points To Death". Black Lotus Records will have the exclusive distribution rights for Europe, Asia and Oceania while the North American release is being handled by Canada's Galy Records.

"One Who Points to Death" was recorded by Sho at Profile Sound Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and was mastered by Pierre Remillard at Wild Studios in St-Zenon, Quebec, Canada. The 47-minute CD is "packed with old school thrash crunch and modern death metal intensity," according to an official press release.

INFERNAL MAJESTY will be on tour starting June 19 in Victoria B.C. Below is the current itinerary for the tours. City and venue information and exact dates will be added shortly.

Jun. 19 - Jul. 10 - Canadian Tour
Jul. 11 - Aug. 05 - East Coast U.S. Tour
Aug. 08 - Montreal
Aug. 09 - Toronto
Aug. 16-31 - Festivals in France, Belgium, Spain w/ U.K. tour
Sep. 01-30 - European Tour
Oct. 01-15 - Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania
Oct. 17-22 - Canadian Tour
Oct. 23 - Vancouver
Nov 01-15 - West Coast U.S. Tour

Band profile:

Infernäl Mäjesty

Swedish power metallers ISENGARD have announced the addition of keyboardist Peo Lövholm to the group's ranks. "Peo did the first job with ISENGARD during the recording of 'Crownless Majesty'," the group write on their web site. "He was the conductor for the choir we used and with his keyboard skills he is perfect for this job."

ISENGARD are currently writing material for their fourth full-length album, tentatively due later in the year.

GOD AMONG INSECTS, the Swedish "old-school" death metal band featuring vocalist Emperor Magus Caligula (DARK FUNERAL), guitarist Lord K (a.k.a. Kenth Philipson) (THE PROJECT HATE), bassist Tomas Elofsson (SANCTIFICATION) and drummer Tobias Gustafsson (VOMITORY), have set an August 23 Scandinavian release date through ENTOMBED's Threeman Recordings for their debut album, "World Wide Death". Continental Europe and the U.S. will tentatively receive the album in early September.

"World Wide Death" was recorded and mixed at Abyss Studios with engineer Tommy Tägtgren. Audio clips of all nine songs that will be included on the album have been posted online at this location: http://tph.statikmajik.com/gai/disco.php

GOD AMONG INSECTS' only scheduled live appearance will take place at the fifth edition of the 2000 Decibel festival on May 21-22 in Bengtsfors, Sweden (180 km north of Gothenburg).

LACUNA COIL guitarist Cristiano Migliore has revealed to Wichita's F5 that the Italian quintet have written roughly 15 tracks since the release of 2002's "Comalies" and will work on recording a new disc toward the end of this year with a projected release date of early 2005.

With regards to the band's upcoming appearance at this year's Ozzfest, Migliore said, "I grew up listening to OZZY, SLAYER â?" all those bands. So it's interesting that we should be on tour with them. I think this is the best lineup for an Ozzfest yet.

"We're really not going to make money from that tour," the 32-year-old guitarist said. "It's more about promotion. Which is good. Sometimes you only get a few people but the next time, you come back and there are more than you thought there would be."

According to Migliore, LACUNA COIL had no idea that its latest offering, "Comalies", would have the kind of legs that it has had since seeing the light of day in the dimming hours of 2002.

"We knew the record was good," he said. "But we had no idea that it would keep selling the way that it has."

Read more: http://www.f5wichita.com/index.php?pubdate=2004-04-29&story=1529

Band profile:

Lacuna Coil

Polish death metallers Vader, are now back in their studio Radio Gdansk to start the recording of their next full lenght album entitled "The Beast" . The recording of this album is expected to take 1 month. And also, the limited edition of "The Beast" will feature bonus DVD with special studio report, two brand new videoclips, an interview with Peter,and other bonus stuff.

Band profile:

Vader

Swedish experimental extreme metallers MESHUGGAH have set "I" as the title of their new EP, due "around June/July" through Fractured Transmitter Records (the label formed by MUSHROOMHEAD vocalist Jason Mann), according to posting on the band's web site. The group finished mixing the EP on May 4 and are due to master the effort on Monday, May 10.

However, despite reports from the group's record label, Nuclear Blast Records, that the band's next full-length album, "Catch 33", would arrive around November 8, MESHUGGAH are insisting that "all rumors" about release dates for the CD are "bull".

The band, who recently re-signed with Nuclear Blast after their previous contract with the label expired, issued their last album, "Nothing", in 2002.

Upcoming MESHUGGAH tour dates:

Jun. 17 - Hultsfredsfestivalen - Hultsfred, SWE
Jun. 19 - Provinssirock - Seinäjoki, FIN
Jun. 26 - Furyfest - Nantes, FRA
Jul. 02 - Roskilde - Roskilde, DEN
Jul. 16 - Arvikafestivalen - Arvika, SWE
Jul. 31 - Gates of Metal - Hultsfred, SWE

Band profile:

Meshuggah

DREAM THEATER's official web site has uploaded the cover image for the upcoming DVD reissue of the first two DREAM THEATER home videos, "Dream Theater - Images And Words: Live In Tokyo" (1993) and "Dream Theater: 5 Years in a Livetime" (1998). Check it out here: http://www.dreamtheater.net/pics/lit_5yialt_ad.jpg

The DVD reissue is due on June 29 ? one week later than its previously announced June 22 release date. No further information is currently available.

Band profile:

Dream Theater

A brand new MEGADETH song, entitled "Kick the Chair", has been posted at this location: http://www.megadeth.com/ktc/kickthechair.mp3

"Kick the Chair" comes off the group's as-yet-untitled new album, tentatively due in September through Sanctuary Records.

Commented MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine: "This is for the 95% of the people here who are my friends ? the people who, even if they don't agree, they are still decent. This is for the people here who set us apart from the rest of the net, all of the fan sites, chat rooms, and forums.

"This is for you, my fans ? because after this, there will be no more doubt who I am.

"This version of 'Kick The Chair' is a final mix, but is not the 'master' that will be on the new record.

"Please enjoy this and know that I love you all, even the assholes."

The complete track listing for the forthcoming MEGADETH CD is as follows:

01. Blackmail The Universe
02. Shadow Of Death
03. My Kingdom
04. Of Mice And Men
05. Truth Be Told
06. The Scorpion
07. Kick The Chair
08. Something That I'm Not
09. Tears In A Vial
10. Die Dead Enough
11. Back In The Day

Band profile:

Megadeth