US Doom metal band Unearthly Trance have inked a deal with Relapse Records. Unearthly Trance, consisting of Ryan Lipynsky - guitar / vocals /noise, Jay Newman - bass /noise and Darren Verni - drums, "are currently completing the writing process for what will become their third album and Relapse debut."

Source:

unearthlytrance.com

Former Iced Earth frontman Matt Barlow ? who is currently employed a police officer in the Georgetown Police Dept. in Georgetown, Delaware ? has resurfaced as the lead singer of the First State Force Band.

According to a posting at FirstStateForce.org, First State Force Band "was comprised of law enforcement members from different departments throughout the State of Delaware. These law enforcement members through their dedication, performed concerts several times a month to the children of Delaware using music to stress the importance of staying drug free and to stay away from violence. The band was on a serious mission. The first three years the band had performed for every school district in Delaware."

Check out a recent photo of Matt Barlow at this location. Pictures of the entire band can be found here.

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Source:	blabbermouth.net
Band profile:	Iced Earth

Funny record collector jabs from Aquarius Records website. We recently offered to let them license it on embroidered handkerchief edition.
SUNN 0))) / BORIS / EARTH Reserve Not Yet Met (Southern Lord / Inoxia / Sub Pop) cd single 99.00
In an attempt to record an album that will induce coronaries in record collectors worldwide, the current monsters of sludge: Sunn 0))), Earth and Japan's mighty Boris, got together and recorded a single track, 11 minutes long, one chord, an E to be exact, with each band handling one of the notes in the chord. Sunn 0))) deftly tackle the G, as if it were a blackened, dying sunn. Earth spews forth the B, with as much vitriol as they can muster. And of course Boris offer up a soul crushing E to complete what is quite possibly the heaviest chord ever recorded. EVER! Unfortunately this is super limited, in fact we didn't get any copies at all. We're currently bidding on the only copy in existence on Ebay right now. The Buy It Now was $25,000, so the fact that the bidding is now at $18,301 and the reserve has still not been met is not very encouraging. But c'mon, three bands, three notes, one chord, eleven minutes, one copy. You just can't put a price on that!
And while we all want to own the first edition of this already out of print triple threat sludge match cd, rumours on several message boards suggest there will be a repress, another single copy, but this will be the timeshare version. For a small fee, you will be able to own, listen to, and gaze adoringly at the cd for a brief period of time each year (determined by the number of buyers, limited to 365, so at the very leat you can own the disc one day a year), before a courier shows up to deliver it to the next owner. We'll of course keep you posted.

http://www.ideologic.org

MANOWAR is proud to announce the upcoming release of their newest video, Hell On Earth IV, which contains 2 video discs and 1 audio disc for a total of 4 1/2 hours of total viewing time.

More details on the availability to be confirmed soon on their official website.

MAIN DISC:

- Highlights of the entire 2002 "Warriors Of The World" tour
- 1 hour and 30 minutes of main program
- 6 bonus songs equaling 30 minutes of additional material
- 11 full live songs
- Subtitles in 12 languages (Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish)
- 5.1 surround sound mix
- Private behind the scenes footage
- A true visual tribute to the fans
- Highlighting concerts in 35 cities throughout Europe
- Shot with 70 camera angles
- Commentary track with all band members
- Director Neil Johnson's commentary track
- Personal commentary track by Joey DeMaio
- New artwork by fantasy art legend Ken Kelly

BONUS DISC:

- 1 hour of behind the scenes footage
- 1 hour of complete TV shows featuring MANOWAR (incl. TV-total, Olli Pocher, VIVA Comet and Popkomm Gala)
- Special commentary track featuring director Neil Johnson and Joey DeMaio
- Subtitles in 12 languages (Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish)
- 30 minute hidden easter egg with special commentary track by editor and director

AUDIO DISC:

- Contains brand new audio track by MANOWAR (taken from their forthcoming album)

Source:	manowar.com
Band profile:	Manowar

The band will be entering the studio between the following dates: March 10-]17, April 8-]12 and April 17-]23. They had also release a live album entitled "Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword" at 08/02/2005.

Source:	thronesanddominions.com
Band profile:	Earth

"The new year will begin for Iced Earth with the delivery of the long-awaited Gettysburg DVD. This unique release will feature the epic work "Gettysburg (1863)" from 2004's The Glorious Burden stepping out of its stereo confines and expanding into a powerful 5.1-channel surround-sound mix. In fact, there will be two different surround-sound mixes (one "metal" and one "theatrical"), set to moving images. Additionally, the DVD will feature a historical commentary from the Gettysburg battlefield, and an in-depth interview with Jon Schaffer. More details will follow.

A brief trailer for the DVD can be seen at the Downloads page".

http://www.icedearth.com/

Band profile:

Iced Earth

Iced Earth bassist James MacDonough has officially left the band to join Megadeth as their touring bassist. MacDonough's statement on the matter (as posted at Iced-Realm.de) is as follows:

"A while back I had heard that Megadeth might need a bassist, so I contacted them via email and much later got a response, to my suprise. Before I knew it, I was on a conference call with Dave . I sent in some video of me playing a couple Megadeth songs and I got a call a couple of days later. Everything with Iced Earth has been up in the air as far as touring, so I told Jon Schaffer about this when I got the first email back, and being my older bro, he told me to go for it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to play with Iced Earth in the future because this will be a very lengthy tour, but we'll see what happens down the road. I am keeping in touch with Jon and maybe something in the future will happen.

"MEGADETH has always been one of my favorite bands and I have a lot of respect for Dave and what he's done for music. I feel honored to have been picked for this endeavor."

MEGADETH's lineup for the upcoming tour will be as follows:

Dave Mustaine - Guitar/Vocals
Glen Drover (Eidolon, ex-King Diamond) - Guitar
Nick Menza - Drums
James MacDonough (ex-ced Earth) - Bass

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Band profile:

Iced Earth

ICED EARTH bassist James MacDonough has posted a message on the ICED EARTH fan message board Iced-Realm.de regarding the recent departures of drummer Richard Christy and guitarist Ralph Santolla:

"Ok, just so you can stop freaking out and saying all kinds of outlandish things this statement should be sufficient for the situation.

"All of us were worried because this situation was dumped in our laps, in the middle of a tour. Richard got in touch with Bobby as soon as everything was transpiring and within days were talking to him personally at the shows. Bobby practiced his ass off for the gig and when we rehearsed he jumped in the pocket like he had been there all along. There's a true sense of chemistry with this line up and I'm happier more than I've ever been with the rhythm section. So yes, he's in for the duration. It's kind of hard to describe, you play with awesome musicians and you think 'well that's the peak' then another 'fated' face comes into the fold and you're like' DAMN, that's what it's supposed to be like, well that's the feeling I get when I'm grooving with Bobby, enough said. Richard is an awesome drummer and one of the best I've ever played with and a damn good true friend at that. I'm overjoyed he got his position with the Stern show and it's because of Richard that we have Bobby, he didn't want to leave us high and dry. I've had some of the best times of my life playing with Richard and he is on his way to achieving all of his dreams. Kudos to Richie, he's my bro and I'll miss him always. However, people are destined for their roles, and like I said, Bobby is the man and every time I look back at him on stage it's telepathy, perfect symmetry.

"Ok, on to Ralph. Ralph is the best guitarist I've worked with on this level and there are always things to be considered. There are personal goals to consider on both ends, the way you interact, what you get out of your performance, the whole nine yards. Chemistry. Some things are destined to be and others aren't. I love Ralph's solos and his style, it was exactly what Jon wanted for this album. There was no 'out or in' for Ralph. It was as you saw it. Jon writes the songs, and the solos are the ear-candy, and I love that ear-candy by the way, but other issues come into play and Ralph was destined to do other things instead. Ralph has become a good friend of mine and will definitely do things in the future with him. He's a character and we talk all the time, his plate is pretty full and I'm glad for him. There are no hard feelings between the ICED EARTH camp and Ralph and that's the bottom line, sometimes things fit and sometimes they don't. There is no reason to look further than that. We are in talks with a few people for that role and all will be 'very well' before the next leg. Jon and I talked the other day, and we were wanting to find that person where before they even played a note you could tell that your souls were connected, exactly what Jon felt with Tim the first time they met. In closing, I hope this answers some questions and when we find that last link to the puzzle you'll be the first to know. We're looking for that soulmate that belongs in the band and when we meet 'like Jon and Tim met' then we'll have the stable lineup we've always wanted."

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Band profile:

Iced Earth

Guitarist Ralph Santolla has officially left ICED EARTH and joined SEBASTIAN BACH's solo band. "There are several reasons for this decision, and for the moment I will keep them to myself," Santolla writes in a statement sent to BLABBERMOUTH.NET. "The other guys know my reasons, and hopefully this won't turn into a public pissing match. On the other hand, if it does, at least execution by musketry has gone out of style. I made some great friends, played some great, albeit difficult (!) metal tunes, and learned a lot from the experience. Whatever anyone else says about Jon , he IS a phenomenal rhythm guitarist.

"On a different note, I am the new lead guitarist for Sebastian Bach. We start playing July 22nd, and I can't wait. We'll do a new album later this year, so look for that, and I hope to see some of the cool people I met on tour with at some of these gigs. I am also in talks with Steve DiGiorgio , Gene Hoglan , and Tom Englund from EVERGREY about making an epic, orchestral metal album called 'ex Cathedra'. More on this later."

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Band profile:

Iced Earth

Century Media is releasing a 2CD best of collection from ICED EARTH called The Blessed And The Damned on July 27th.

The album features 23 remastered tracks (over two hours of material) with two different album covers. IE leader Jon Schaffer talks about each song in the 20 page booklet that's included in the package.

Band profile:

Iced Earth

ICED EARTH have been forced to postpone their previously announced Japanese tour due to the recent departure of drummer Richard Christy. "Though we tried everything in our power to keep this from happening we have no other alternative," ICED EARTH mainman Jon Schaffer writes on the group's web site. The affected dates are as follows:

May 25 - Osaka, JPN @ Shinsaibashi Club Quattro
May 26 - Tokyo, JPN @ Shibuya O-East
May 27 - Tokyo, JPN @ Shibuya Club Quattro

As previously reported, ICED EARTH's final show with Richard Christy will take place on Thursday (May 20) at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California. Replacing Christy for the second leg of the group's North American tour will be former HALFORD/RIOT drummer Bobby Jarzombek. ICED EARTH will resume touring on June 1 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Support on the upcoming tour will come from BEYOND THE EMBRACE and TRIVIUM.

Source:	roadrun.com
Band profile:	Iced Earth

JAG PANZER guitarist Mark Briody has issued an update on ICED EARTH's much-anticipated "Gettysburg" DVD, which he is currently producing for his recently formed video production company. According to Briody, "the DVD is still in production so don't look for it in the stores just yet. It's coming out very cool. Jon 's got some excellent ideas and I'm working hard to make them happen. I can't give out anymore information, that's something for Jon or SPV to do. But I just thought I'd say that the DVD is coming out excellent. I probably have another 4 to 6 weeks of production time left. There are issues beyond just making a killer DVD. Things like historical accuracy. I can't have a still from Sharpsburg in there, this is Gettysburg. The flags, maps and everything need to be historically accurate. At the same time it needs to be very entertaining for the average metal fan. To get an idea of the work involved, I have 2 terabytes of data (yes, 10 200-gig drives) in use for this project."

ICED EARTH will kick off a U.S. tour with CHILDREN OF BODOM and EVERGREY on April 18 in Cleveland, Ohio.

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Band profile:

Iced Earth

ICED EARTH guitarist Ralph Santolla demanded to be let off a flight to England earlier today (March 17) after he spotted two fellow passengers behaving strangely while boarding the plane. The following is Ralph's detailed account of the whole experience, as provided exclusively to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

"OK. First of all, let me say unequivocally that I am not a racist. I have three Moroccan-Arab nieces, and more than a couple of Muslim family members (I'm Catholic).

"I was leaving today for the Manchester/Liverpool area of England to work on mixes for my modern rock/metal project, STARE. At the gate in Tampa, there were two Arab dudes getting on the plane. The three of us were at the end of the line boarding. One guy was dressed in a suit, the other like a college student. They were acting (?) like they didn't know each other. They seemed very nervous. About four elderly folks got in between the two guys. I noticed that the guy next to me, the one in the suit, had, at a minimum, his hands and wrists shaved. I thought that was weird, in a disturbing kind of way (shaving one's body hair is a religious obligation often observed by would-be suicide bombers so that they are 'clean' before entering heaven). They both noticed that I was watching them closely. The college-looking guy kept looking back and making eye contact with the other guy and then looking away. When we got on the plane, the guy in the suit turns out to be a pilot getting a free ride of the jumpseat in the cockpit. After the other guy looked around making eye contact with me several times, as if to see if I was still keeping an eye on them, I called the flight attendant. I told him there was something not right about these guys, and I wanted off. They had to bring the jetway back out to get me off the plane! The airline will let me use the same ticket on Friday, but I was pretty spooked!"

ICED EARTH will kick off a U.S. headlining tour with CHILDREN OF BODOM and EVERGREY on April 18 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Taken from Blabbermouth.net

Band profile:

Iced Earth

ICED EARTH mainman Jon Schaffer has posted the following message on the band's official web site:

"Hello All,

"As some of you may have heard I recently had lower back surgery. It seemed early on that things were going well with my recovery, however in recent weeks a new problem has developed. I will be undergoing some intense testing in the next week to 10 days to see what the next steps will be. Which leads to the bad news, due to the serious complications with my back, we're going to have to postpone the European leg of the tour and possibly even the first 2 weeks or so of the US Tour. It really depends on what the doctor says after all testing is done and the options are on the table. If another surgery is necessary it may push the tour back even more. Obviously this is the absolute last thing that we ever want to do, but my health has to come first, and the potential of causing permanent damage is very real.

"Those of you that have been following the band for a long time know that it's always top priority to give you the best show possible. At the current and very intense level of pain that I'm in, there's no way that I'd be able to do my part and give 100%, and you don't deserve anything less.

"The guys in the band are as disappointed as I am but they are understanding and supportive at the same time.

" 'The Glorious Burden' is by far the album that has received the best reviews in the band's history, charted the best around the world, sold more than double in the early stages compared with 'Horror Show' in all major territories, and continues to grow full steam ahead. It is the album that I knew it would be and I hate that we have to change our plans due to my back problems. However, in the big picture, it's the only decision that I can make.

"I hope you all can understand the seriousness of the situation. Please know that as much as this sucks, it's the best thing for me, the band, and for you.

"The tour WILL happen, and when it does, I guarantee you will see the best ICED EARTH show you ever have! I feel 10 years younger and am having fun again, it totally sucks that my back is causing these problems!

"I thank you in advance for your support through this tough time and will keep you posted as to my progress...

"Take care, Jon Schaffer"

Band profile:

Iced Earth

In addition to entering The Billboard 200 chart at No. 145 with their new album, "The Glorious Burden", ICED EARTH have debuted at No. 15 on the German charts, No. 24 in Austria, No. 30 in Finland, No. 80 in France and No. 77 in Switzerland.

ICED EARTH are gearing up for a full-scale North American tour beginning April 18, with support coming from CHILDREN OF BODOM. A European trek with PRIMAL FEAR and THUNDERSTONE will kick off on March 18 in Tilburg, Holland.

Band profile:

Iced Earth