In their annual Christmas calendar, Wacken Open Air has announced a number of new bands to play at the 23rd edition of the festival in 2012.

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Source:	wacken.com
Event:	Wacken Open Air 2012

Swedish dark rockers Katatonia will be recording their ninth full-length album in the first months of 2012 and plan to release it before the summer.

The band posted an update on their official website: "2011 has been a very busy year mostly out on the road and we'd like to thank everyone who came out to see us! Also thanks to all our friends, families and the loyal 'Katatoniacs' worldwide for showing support. We know you're impatient to know what's up next and in brief the big news are that the first couple of months of 2012 will see us hard at work on the recording of our 9th album and if everything goes according to plan the album will be out before summer. We're also busy on a double duty finishing up the Last Fair Day Gone Night anniversary DVD. More info on all of this as we take the step over to the other side, but today we just wanna have a toast and wish everyone a happy new year! Cheers!"

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Source:	katatonia.com
Band profile:	Katatonia

Swedish black metallers Marduk have announced that the band is currently recording their new album, set to be released in the spring via Blooddawn/Century Media. The update was posted after the end of the tour where the band performed in over 220 shows to support Wormwood, released in 2009.

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Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Marduk

Amazon is hosting samples of all the songs from German power metallers Primal Fear's upcoming album Unbreakable and you can listen to them at this location. The song "Metal Nation" taken from the album is also available online and you can listen to it below. Unbreakable will be out in stores on January 20th, 2012, in Europe and January 24th in North America. More album details here and here.


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Source:	bravewords.com
Band profile:	Primal Fear

The album artwork for US brutal death metallers Deeds Of Flesh's upcoming album Portals To Canaan has now been revealed and can be seen below.

The artwork was created by the freelance artist/illustrator Raymond Swanland.

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Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Deeds Of Flesh

In this last month of the year, we asked you to tell us what Slo from Smohalla considered as the best representation of his band's sound. Two people with the correct answer have been selected to win the band's debut album Resilience.

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US metallers Chimaira have announced that bassist Jeremy Creamer and guitarist Matt Szlachta have now joined the band.

The band posted the following on their official website: "We are proud to announce the addition of Matt Szlachta and Jeremy Creamer to Chimaira. The plan was to build an undeniable string section and we have done just that. Jeremy will be pounding on the bass, and Matt shredding alongside Emil on guitar."

Source:	chimaira.com
Band profile:	Chimaira

Danish prog/power metal band Evil Masquerade leader Henrik Flyman has written a new track entitled "Let's Unite In Rock" for the The MFC Dragon Slayer All Star Project to benefit the charity Metal For Cancer. The song can be purchased at http://www.metalforcancer.com/ and all proceeds will be donated to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation. You can listen to "Let's Unite in Rock" below.

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Source:	metalforcancer.com
Band profile:	Evil Masquerade

Canadian heavy metallers 3 Inches Of Blood have announced new North American tour dates for 2012. The band will take part of the Metal Alliance Tour 2012, headlined by DevilDriver. The other support bands will be The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Job For A Cowboy, Wretched and Impending Doom.

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Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	3 Inches Of Blood
Event:	Metal Alliance Tour 2012 - North America

After releasing several successful albums worldwide with their main band Disarmonia Mundi, poly-instrumentist Ettore Rigotti and screamer Claudio Ravinale joined forces with guitarist Elliot Sloan (also known for being a professional skater in the Tony Hawk team) to form a new band called The Stranded. Keyboard player Alessio NeroArgento has been subsequently added to the line-up to complete the songs for their debut album entitled Survivalism Boulevard, tentatively scheduled for a 2012 release.

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Disarmonia Mundi

Finnish power metallers Stratovarius performed in Pakkahuone in Tampere, Finland, on November 19th, where a DVD was filmed for a future release. The show was part of the band's Jörg Farewell Tour, the last one to feature Stratovarius longtime drummer Jörg Michael, who is leaving the group for personal reasons. Jörg, who has been in the band for sixteen years, will play all the remaining tour dates until the end of January.

Stratovarius is inviting its fans to come up with a title for the forthcoming DVD by posting their suggestions on the band's official Facebook page. The winner will receive two copies of the DVD and a credit in the liner notes.

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Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Stratovarius

Norwegian death metallers Blood Red Throne have announced the replacements for the vocalist Osvald "Vald" Egeland and the bassist Erlend Caspersen. Yngve Bolt Christiansen (Goddamn) and Ole Bent Madsen (Horizon Ablaze) have now joined the band.

The band posted two updates on their MySpace page recently confirming the two new members: "We're happy to announce that the young and talented Ole Bent Madsen is the new permanent bass player in Blood Red Throne!"

"We're happy to announce that Blood Red Throne is complete again and we welcome Yngve N. Christiansen as our new singer and frontman!"

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Blood Red Throne

After the announcement of the friendly split of Rhapsody Of Fire, the birth of the new Luca Turilli's Rhapsody band and the announcement of the new album coming out in June 2012, Luca Turilli released his first official and exclusive interview, where he talks about his new album, Rhapsody Of Fire and future plans. To read the full interview, head over to this location.

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Source:	lucaturilli.com
Band profile:	Luca Turilli

French doom metal outfit Remembrance are set to start working on a new album soon, the follow-up to 2010's Fall, Obsidian Night. In a somewhat unusual statement, the band posted the following update on their Facebook page: "This season is depressing, everything is so fucking grey and cold, night falls at mid-afternoon... and the news from the outside world aren't likely to cheer us up at all... seems it's time for us to compose a new album."

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Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Remembrance

The True Call, the most recent album from Russian funeral doom metallers Septic Mind is now streaming online in its entirety at the band's bandcamp page. You can also listen to the first 25-minute song of the album below. The album was released on October 24th via Solitude Productions.


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Source:

septicmind.bandcamp.com