Finland's NIGHTWISH have posted the cover artwork for their upcoming album, "Once", here.

The much-anticipated follow-up to 2002's "Century Child", "Once" is scheduled for release on June 7 through Spinefarm Records. A U.S. release date for the album has yet to be announced. The band recently shot a video for the first single, "Nemo", with renowned director Antti Jokinen, who has previously directed music videos for such international artists as CELINE DION, EMINEM and SHANIA TWAIN. "Nemo" is due in the Finnish shops on April 26 (postponed from its originally announced April 19 release date).

NIGHTWISH will launch their world tour in support of "Once", dubbed "Once Upon A Tour 2004-2005", this summer. The trek is expected to last until the autumn of 2005.

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Nightwish

We know the name of the new drummer of the band,

The old EXMORTEM drummer Reno Kiilerich is the new drummer of DIMMU BORGIR

Band profile:

Dimmu Borgir

Swedish black metallers LORD BELIAL have set a June 20 European release date through Regain Records for their fifth album, "The Seal Of Belial".

The self-produced effort was engineered by Nicklas Rudolfsson and Andy La Rocque (KING DIAMOND) at Los Angered Recording studios in Gothenburg, Sweden and was mixed by Andy.

LORD BELIAL were recently rejoined by original drummer Micke Backelin following the departure of Daniel Moilanen (half-brother of former SHOTGUN MESSIAH guitarist Harry K. Cody) last October.

Upcoming LORD BELIAL shows:

Apr. 10 - Club Nocturnal - Gothenburg, SWE
May 01 - Club Adrian/Hvitfelt - Uddevalla, SWE
May 07 - Belsepub - Gothenburg, SWE
May 29 - Körpehölsfestivalen - Uddevalla, SWE

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Lord Belial

DEICIDE have reportedly dropped off the SUPERJOINT RITUAL U.S. trek for reasons that are not entirely clear. Although no official statement has yet been released on the matter, one attendee at SUPERJOINT's show in Huntington, West Virginia Tuesday night (April 6) has told BLABBERMOUTH.NET that SUPERJOINT frontman Phil Anselmo was heard announcing from the stage that "stupid fuckin' DEICIDE have been kicked off the tour." Adding fuel to the reports is a posting on the web site of Annies Entertainment Complex in Cincinnati confirming that SUPERJOINT's show there Wednesday night (April 7) will not include an appearance by DEICIDE. Furthermore, DEICIDE's official web site, www.deicide.com, has removed all references to the SUPERJOINT tour, with no U.S. dates currently listed for the group prior to the start of their European jaunt in early June. More information is expected soon.

Band profile:

Deicide

French black metal band SETH have pushed back the release date of their fourth album, "Era-Decay", to September 6.

" 'Era-Decay' was supposed to come out , but after talks with Avantgarde Music, it seemed necessary and unavoidable to push back the release," the band write on their web site. "We lost quite some time finishing mixing this fourth album, and the mastering is still not over yet. decision was not an easy one to make, but we have to be patient to release this album in the best possible conditions. We'll do our best to offer you an exclusive track on our website around June/July."

SETH's lineup during the recording sessions for "Era-Decay" consisted of the following: Heimoth on guitars, Alsvid on drums, Black Messiah on vocals, Helldryk on bass, and the newest addition, Cyriex on guitars.

"Era-Decay" track listing:

01. Marchemergence
02. March Of The Consistory
03. Umbilical Cutting
04. A Pallbearer's Gloom
05. Ascention
06. H-Eradicate
07. Xtasian Ostix
08. Co-Existent Species
09. The Blade Upon Mankind

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Dutch "atmospheric doomsters" OFFICIUM TRISTE will be re-issuing their classic debut, "Ne Vivam", on vinyl through the Badger label. Originally released in April 1997 through Tuetonic Existence Records, the LP will be issued on 180-gram vinyl in a limited edition of 500 copies and will be available in five different colors (100 copies per color) featuring black neon print on black background. For more information, visit www.badgerrecords.nl.

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Officium Triste

Swedish thrashers CARNAL FORGE have finalized the track listing for their upcoming live DVD, "Destroy Live", due in May. The disc contains 20 songs recorded the last weekend of January 2004 in Krakow, Poland and clips from "The 2003 Metal Gods Tour" in New York and "Extreme Bleeding Japan Tour 2003" in Tokyo.

"Destroy Live" DVD track listing:

01. Destroy Life
02. I Smell Like Death (Son Of A Bastard)
03. Hand Of Doom
04. Ripped & Torn
05. Who's Gonna Burn
06. Baptized In Fire
07. Divine Killing Breed Machine
08. Deep Rivers Of Blood
09. Firedemon
10. Welcome To Your Funeral
11. Twisted
12. Butchered, Slaughtered, Strangled, Hanged
13. Totalitarian Torture
14. Everything Dies
15. Born To Hate
16. Chained
17. The Other Side
18. H.B.F. Suicide
19. No Resurrection
20. Too Much Hell Ain't Enough For Me

CARNAL FORGE's new studio album, "Aren't You Dead Yet", is scheduled for release in June through Century Media (Europe and USA) and Soundholic (Japan). 12 songs were recorded and mixed at Studio Underground for the follow-up to last year's "The More You Suffer", with the new material being described by guitarist Jari Kuusisto as " up from where the last album stopped. The new songs are a little bit more aggressive, but all of you that liked our previous albums won't get disappointed."

Band profile:

Carnal Forge

After much controversy the Seattle-based band NEVERMORE have officially re-signed with Century Media Records worldwide and are now preparing for a slew of activity in support of Enemies of Reality, their latest effort. The dynamic quartet will embark on a headlining U.S. tour this summer with support acts to be announced soon. NEVERMORE wrapped up a highly successfully tour alongside Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom and Hypocrisy last fall and look forward to getting back on the road and being able to play a longer set. The group will also be featured on the upcoming New England Metal and Hardcore Festival DVD compilation. Enemies of Reality, their fifth full-length release, showcases the band's aggressive songwriting style with a dizzying array of solos, easily satisfying any metal fan's expectations. A video clip for the track "I, Voyager" will also be shot early next month.

Warrel Dane (vocals) checks in with the following update, "The members of NEVERMORE would like to announce that after long negations, we have re-signed to Century Media Records. Both sides worked very hard to repair past problems and in the end, after fielding numerous offers, we felt this was the best to carry us into our future. We are currently writing new songs in our downtime and preparing for our first release under our new contract. We have four solid songs down at the moment and hope to hit the studio in early fall. In the meantime, we will be doing some major festivals in Europe, a headlining U.S. tour and a new video. All is well in NEVERMORE, and expect another major announcement to be made soon."

Band profile:

Nevermore

Bloodbath, Sweden's death metal super-group, has announced the addition of vocalist Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Lockup, Pain) who replaces the departed Mike Åkerfeldt (Opeth). Tägtgren joins the ranks of Bloodbath with fellow Swedes Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström (Katatonia, Diabolical Masquerade, Bewitched), Jonas Renkse (Katatonia, October Tide) and Dan Swanö (Nightingale, Dan Swanö Unicorn, Edge Of Sanity, Infestdead, Odyssey, Pan-Thy-Monium), and new drummer Martin "Axe" Axenrot (Witchery, Satanic Slaughter).

"We're currently in the heat of fire composing the last material for the follow-up to 2002's Resurrection Through Carnage and will soon deliver some titles." said Blakkneim in an online posting. "Until then, let the blood run red."

Band profile:

Bloodbath

Frontman Dave Mustaine of MEGADETH has checked in with an update to the band's official website:

"What's done is done.

Droogies!
Today I officially finished the last song of MEGADETH and am on to the MD.45 record.
The news is that excluding Risk which will only have two, every other record is going to have four bonus tracks. I enjoyed watching all of the ring pieces say that I was holding onto songs for later release for the money.

Boy don't you look stoopid now. Yes, you do.

There are Randy Burns mixes, Paul Lani mixes, RIP demos with Chris Poland, with Marty Friedman, and just with me as guitarist before I started interviewing anyone. There are Countdown and Youth demos, Cryptic demos, alternate mixes of Cryptic and Risk and then there are unreleased tracks. And I know none of you have these suckas!
One track that I know none of you have or have ever even heard was the track that MEGADETH did for the KISS - Kiss my Ass record. Well, you will.
I am honored to have performed for all of you, and I am very proud of what has been accomplished here in the last couple of months. I hope you know, this has never been done before where a person re-mixed his enitre catalogue for re-release in this short amount of time, AND it not sounding like ca-ca!

And let me close by sayng that the MD.45 record is hella kewl! I was worried about not being able to do justice to the vocal parts that Lee did, but I just remembered that I sang some of them to him when we were in the studio anyways, and I got over it.

I know Lee would rather I re-sang this record AND have our music get out to the masses, then it just remain in a vault somewhere, unheard of.
BTW - The surprise that I said I was working on hasn't been mentioned in this or any post made by me yet.

Now go get a tissue; you're dribblin'!

MSGD!"

Band profile:

Megadeth

Ex-STRATOVARIUS singer Timo Kotipelto was asked by Skipmag.de last month if he has any intentions of performing with his former bandmates at their scheduled appearance at Germany's Rock Hard festival in late May. "Let me put it like this," Timo replied. " One and a half weeks ago I played a festival in Spain. I really tried to give my best to the fans and to sing as good as possible. Jörg did the same. But the other guys, especially Tolkki and Johansson, messed up the whole show. That really pissed me off! I don't know if you've already read it somewhere but after the first song Mr. Boss left the stage and return later really drunk. And then Johansson did something that really shouldn't be done on stage (Johansson urinated on Tolkki's leg during the song "Forever" ? Ed.). That's simply not fair. I try to give my best for those people who paid all that money for their tickets. And I really don't want all this shit to happen on the stage. That really sucks! It was already hard enough for me to go to the rehearsals and then on stage with those people. If they do such shit then, it's not fair. At the moment I'm really not interested in playing another show with these people. But this can change within one month. I also think that these shows will take place, though I heard that Tolkki has in mind to dissolve the band. But I think there are many fans that want to see us live and also people that want to see me sing live and never saw us live or missed the last tour. I think we should try to do all this professional . I don't have to talk to these people after the show and they don't have to talk to me, but I think if these gigs take place, that every one of us should play as good as possible instead of doing all this shit."

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Stratovarius

Long-running Swedish death metallers DISMEMBER will have their April 14 gig in Stockholm recorded for future broadcast via Sveriges Radio P3's "P3 Live" concert series. More information will be made available soon.

DISMEMBER's brand-new album, "Where Ironcrosses Grow", is scheduled for release in the U.S. on April 20 through Candlelight Records. The follow-up to 2000's "Hate Campaign" was recorded at Stockholm's Sami studio and features artwork by acclaimed artist Dan Seagrave (ENTOMBED, SUFFOCATION, MORBID ANGEL).

DISMEMBER will be releasing a double DVD, entitled "Live Blasphemies", through Escapi later in the year. The first disc will contain the group's live performance from May 27, 2003 at Klubben in Stockholm, while the second disc will feature a 90-minute documentary/home video spanning the group's entire career.

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Dismember

Swedish thrashers CARNAL FORGE have set "Aren't You Dead Yet" as the title of their new album, tentatively due in June through Century Media (Europe and USA) and Soundholic (Japan). 12 songs were recorded and mixed at Studio Underground for the follow-up to last year's "The More You Suffer", with the new material being described by guitarist Jari Kuusisto as " up from where the last album stopped. The new songs are a little bit more aggressive, but all of you that liked our previous albums won't get disappointed."
The tentative track listing for the album is as follows:

01. Decades of Despair
02. My Suicide
03. Burn Them Alive
04. Waiting For Sundown
05. Exploding Veins
06. Sacred Flame
07. Inhuman
08. The Final Hour
09. Totally Worthless
10. The Strength of Misery
11. Ruler of Your Blood (Japan only)

Band profile:

Carnal Forge

Audio clips of HAMMERFALL singer Joacim Cans talking about each track on his upcoming solo album, "Beyond the Gates", have been posted online at this location: http://208.203.139.81/cans/btg/liners.shtml

"Beyond The Gates" is scheduled for release on April 19 through Sanctuary Records. The album was recorded between November 2003 and February 2004 at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden, Frankie's Hideaway in the U.S. and House of Music Studios in Germany, and was mixed and mastered at Twilight Studios in Germany. The recording lineup on the CD was as follows: Cans (vocals), Mat Sinner (bass, SINNER), "Metal" Mike Chlasciak (guitars, ex-HALFORD, PAINMUSEUM), Stefan Elmgren (guitars, HAMMERFALL) and Mark Zonder (drums, FATES WARNING). The album track "Fields of Yesterday" can be downloaded in MP3 format at this location: http://208.203.139.81/downloads/Cans@www.noiserecords.com-Fields_Of_Yesterday.mp3

Band profile:

HammerFall

DIMMU BORGIR have won the Norwegian Grammy award "Spellemannsprisen" for their current album "Death Cult Armageddon". The band outrivaled ENSLAVED and OLD MAN'S CHILD that were nominated in the "Metal" category as well.

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Dimmu Borgir