Quite cool isn't it.

The Christmas number one is a big thing over here. Every year, even if you didn't normally listen to the chart show, people would tune in on their radio to find out what the UK Christmas number one was.

Since 2005 however, Simon Cowell and his popular TV show The X Factor has stolen Christmas and the number one spot with the TV show's winner's single. This year the show was won a week ago by a young lad called Joe McElderry and has released his first single "The Climb" (originally Miley Cyrus) in the hopes of fulfilling the X Factor tradition and be the fifth X Factor winner to steal the Christmas number one spot.

To some people this has taken some of the magic away from Christmas, and so a Facebook group has been campaigning to get people to buy none other than Rage Against The Machine's 1992 track "Killing In The Name" in the hope of getting it to the Christmas number one spot and being the "David to the X Factor's Goliath" as Tom Morello has commented.

It started as an unrealistic idea to protest against Simon Cowell and his stranglehold on the UK charts, but soon captured the nation's attention and right now the group currently has nearly one million members! The Christmas number one battle is back, and has been one of the top national stories all week.

The Rage Against The Machine song was at a slight disadvantage by only being available via download, where Joe's single was in every shop in the country as well as available for download sales.

And we did it! The people of the UK have made themselves heard as we made Rage Against The Machine and "Killing In The Name" Christmas number one 2009 and stopped Simon Cowell's run of the charts he has had for four years.

The Facebook campaigners can be proud of themselves for bringing the rap/funk metal anthem back into the spotlight and certainly making headline news tomorrow morning. History has been made this evening, the people have spoken!

Tom Morello has promised a free headlining Rage Against The Machine show in the UK next year to celebrate. Zack de la Rocha has commented that the money made is going to be going to a shelter charity, and confirms the band will do a free show here next year.

Also making a one-off appearance in the top ten was Journey, with their 1981 hit "Don't Stop Believin'" at number nine after a similar, smaller campaign to stop The X Factor single reaching number one.

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Band profile:

Rage Against The Machine

"Wolf And The Moon", the new video from Finnish metallers Leverage, has been made available online.

"Wolf And The Moon" comes off the band's latest album, Circus Colossus, which was released on November this year via Spinefarm Records.


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Source:	youtube.com
Band profile:	Leverage

German metallers Rage have posted online a new song, "Into The Light", on their MySpace page.

"Into The Light" comes off the band's forthcoming album, Strings To A Web, which is scheduled for release on February 5, 2010 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Strings To A Web cover art] tracklist:

Disc I
01. The Edge Of Darkness
02. Hunter & Prey
03. Into The Light
04. The Beggar's Last Dime
05. Empty Hollow
06. Strings To A Web
07. Fatal Grace
08. Connected
09. Empty Hollow
10. Saviour Of The Dead
11. Hellgirl
12. Purified
13. Through Ages
14. Tomorrow Never Comes

Disc II
01. Carved In Stone
02. Higher Than The Sky
03. Set This World On Fire
04. All I Want
05. Invisible Horizons
06. Lord Of The Flies
07. From The Cradle To The Grave
08. Prayers Of Steel
09. Suicide
10. Down
11. Soundchaser
12. Set This World On Fire
13. All I Want
14. Carved In Stone
15. Never Give Up

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Source:	nuclearblast.de
Band profile:	Rage

Japanese metallers Outrage have finished recording their upcoming self-titled full-length with producer Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden. Originating from Nagoya, Japan, Outrage was formed in the early 80's. The band has led the Japanese Metal scene for over 20 years and still with their energetic releases and live shows. The new album will be available in stores for sale on November 25, 2009, in Japan.

Outrage cover art] tracklist:

01. Rise
02. You Care? I Don't Care
03. Reign
04. Until You Are Dead
05. Fists Full Of Sand
06. Shells Rain Down
07. Landshark
08. Shine On
09. Tor
10. Terrorizer

Several samples are available at this location

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Source:

myspace.com

Nightrage have announced, they now have added an additional eight shows to the Mexican tour in February-March 2010. Some of these dates and venues are tentative, so check back with regularly to get the latest updates.

Here are all Nightrage Mexican tour dates:

Feb 27 2010 - Mexico City - Hard Rock Live (Extreme Sound Festival)
Feb 28 2010 - Cuernavaca - Foro de PIT
Mar 05 2010 - Guadalajara - Auditorio FEU
Mar 06 2010 - Torreon - TBA
Mar 07 2010 - Durango - TBA
Mar 12 2010 - Ciudad Obregón - Salon Chaparral
Mar 13 2010 - Hermosillo - TBA
Mar 14 2010 - TBA - TBA

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Source:	myspace.com
Band profile:	Nightrage
Event:

Original news, posted on 18.08.2009

Theatre Of Tragedy have made two album samples available online. Both samples come off the band's forthcoming album "Forever Is The World", to be released on 18 September. Samples from "Deadland" and "Hide And Seek" can be listened at the band's official website and MySpace.

The album cover artwork has been found at this location. The band added: "We are proud to present the 7th Theatre of Tragedy album cover! This was one again made by the ingenious artwork wizard Thomas Ewerhard. Following up his excellent work on "Assembly" and "Storm", Thomas has once again managed to amaze us with his skills. The album artwork is also a challenge to the die hard ToT fan. Somewhere inside this cover there are incorporated elements from all 6 studio album covers of the band. See if you can find it?"

UPDATED, on 21.08.2009

Norwegian metallers Theatre Of Tragedy have posted online a sample of a third new song, "Hollow", at the band's official website and MySpace page. The sample comes off the band's forthcoming album, "Forever Is The World", which will be released on 18 September via AFM Records.

UPDATE (thanks to 817)

Norwegian metallers Theatre Of Tragedy have posted online a sample of a fourth new song, "A Nine Days Wonder", at the band's official website. The sample comes off the band's forthcoming album, "Forever Is The World", which will be released on 18 September via AFM Records.

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Source:	theatreoftragedy.com
Band profile:	Theatre Of Tragedy

Original news, posted on 17.06.2009

The seventh Theatre Of Tragedy album has finally gotten a real title: "Forever Is The World". The official release date has been set for september 18th in Europe. Other release dates will follow.

The songs are currently in the middle of mixing and the results sounds great. Very ToT like, and not! Mastering will be done by the infamous Bjørn Engelmann at Cutting Room in Sweden.

UPDATE (thanks to 13767)

As the message from Theatre Of Tragedy goes, the album is finally completely done. "Mastering went great and Mr. Engelmann did a marvelous job. We can now officially announce the final running order for the upcoming "Forever is the World" album:

01. Hide and Seek
02. A Nine Days Wonder
03. Revolution
04. Transition
05. Hollow
06. Astray
07. Frozen
08. Illusions
09. Deadland
10. Forever is the World

The album will be available in three different versions. A limited digipak with one bonus song, a very limited double vinyl version with two bonustracks (one exclusive only for vinyl edition!) and finally a regular jewelcase. The albumcover is almost done and will be announced shortly. August 1st should see the premiere of the first soundclip."

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Source:	theatreoftragedy.com
Band profile:	Theatre Of Tragedy

Swedish metallers Nightrage have posted online a new song, "Shed The Blood", on their MySpace page.

"Shed The Blood" comes off the band's forthcoming album, entitled "Wearing A Martyr's Crown", which will be released on June 22 in Europe (August 4 in US) via Lifeforce Records. The CD was tracked at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden with producer Fredrik Nordström (Dimmu Borgir, Arch Enemy, In Flames).

"Wearing A Martyr's Crown" cover art] tracklisting:

01. Shed The Blood
02. Collision Of Fate
03. A Grim Struggle
04. Wearing A Martyr's Crown
05. Among Wolves
06. Abandon
07. Futile Tears
08. Wounded Angels
09. Mocking Modesty
10. Failure Of All Human Emotions
11. Sting Of Remorse
12. Holier Than Thou
13. Failure Of All Human Emotions

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Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Nightrage

...In Deviltry was formed by Tommy Lindal in late 2008. Tommy Lindal who left the Norwegian band Theatre Of Tragedy in 1997 for medical reasons, moved to Brasil, was not ready to quit making music and formed the band "...In Deviltry" with all Brazilian members. ...In Deviltry will be Tommy´s sequel.

The whole idea of the band is to continue the saga that Theatre Of Tragedy began writing in the beginning. It has been decided to only play old Theatre Of Tragedy material from this epic for one reason, to get all members to "communicate" in the same language, before they start writing new material early this year.

2009 will be a very busy year for ...In Deviltry that will consist of shows, touring and recordings. They are still waiting for the bands Ravenland and Semblant to release their albums and go on tour which is aparently going to be in march/april next year. ...In Deviltry´s Tommy Lindal also did a guest appearance last week and recorded two songs for the release of Ravenland´s "And A Crow Brings Me Back" CD that is scheduled for an release by the Brazilian recordcompany "Free Mind Records" in March 2008.

Last week, though, 3 members (vocalist Gerson Carvalho (Primordium), bassist Alex Pereira (Lord Blasphemate) and drummer Matheus Medeiros) left the band.

The remaining ...In Deviltry line up looks as follows:

Larisse Katarine (Mystic Melody) - vocals
Tommy Lindal - guitars
Thiago Varella (Primordium) - guitars
Ariane Salgado - violin
Luciana Varella - keyboards

More info about the band on http://www.indeviltry.com and http://www.myspace.com/indeviltry.

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Source:	indeviltry.com
Band profile:	Theatre Of Tragedy

Theatre Of Tragedy have updated their website with the following news:

"Another year has passed and not much has happened publically with the band. Rest assured we haven´t just been lazy (well a bit of that too :-). The year has mainly been spent writing and rehearsing the new material for the upcoming 7th Theatre Of Tragedy album. So far 12 songs are done and 10 of those will make it to the album.
As usual we are nowhere near a title for the album, not even a songtitle is ready, but it will come.

The drums have been recorded together with a really nice guy called Alexander Nyhus and now we are waiting for our producer to finish up his current project with some elderly pop legends. Recordings are planned for February and March so a release date should be either June or August depending on what AFM Records want to do.
Erik Ljunggren will be handling the production side of things. We are very pleased about working with him again. He knows the band very well and is a wizard when it comes to sound. He has turned the knobs for The Kovenant, Kari Rueslåtten, A-Ha, Seigmen, Zeromancer, Satyricon. But for us he will alway be the mastermind of the legendary industrial metal band Vampire State Building. We even played support for VSB in our early beginnings of 1995. Time goes by fast.

As the year reaches an end we want to wish you all a nice christmas, or whatever you celebrate, and a happy new year. Here are two new demo clips for all of you to enjoy over the holidays!"

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Source:	theatreoftragedy.com
Band profile:	Theatre Of Tragedy

German Heavy Metal band Rage have just revealed some details for their upcoming EP "Gib Dich Nie Auf" which will contain the German version of the songs "Never Give Up" and "Full Moon" as well as two bonus tracks, one brand new song and a video clip.

Tracklist "Gib Dich Nie Auf":

01. Gib Dich Nie Auf (German version of "Never Give Up")
02. Vollmond (German version of "Full Moon")
03. Never Give Up
04. Terrified (taken from the album "Nuclear Blast Allstars - Into The Light")
05. Lord Of The Flies (orchestral version)
06. Home (new song)

+ enhanced video clip "Refuge" (recorded live at Wacken Open Air 2007)

"Gib Dich Nie Auf" will be released on January 16th as a boxed set cover art] including Rage's latest album "Carved In Stone". The EP cover art] will also be available separately via the Nuclear Blast Mailorder

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Source:	nuclearblast.de
Band profile:	Rage

Sweden's Nightrage have issued the following update:

"As you know, we are currently writing songs for our forthcoming album. It has now been confirmed that these songs will be recorded, produced, and mixed by our old friend Fredrik Nordström (Dimmu Borgir, Arch Enemy, In Flames) at Studio Fredman.

We are more than happy to work with Fredrik again, the man that helped us so much on the first two albums, "Sweet Vengeance" and "Descent Into Chaos". We feel that his help will be the return to form we've been searching for. We are coming back to the guy with the magical sound, and we can't wait to start recording and later share this music with you our fans.

The studio has moved once again very close to the downtown in Gothenburg. We will enter the studio in February 23 and we won't leave until March 13! That's a lot of time for Antony to eat a lot of Turkish Pizza!!!!! Marios will cook his nice Greek dishes, Olof will do his laundry, Anders and Jo will fight for who is recording first!

Also we can let you know that another brother of ours, Gus G. Firewind, ex-Nightrage] will be making a guest appearance on the new album as well. So expect some crazy three way soloing from the Nightrage guitar team! Lots of crazy riffs and ethereal melodies done the Nightrage way."

Nightrage's new album, "Wearing a Martyr's Crown", will be released in June 2009 via Lifeforce Records. Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "The Failure of All Human Emotions", "Among Wolves", "Opposite in Black", "Abandon", "Shed the Blood", "Wearing a Martyr's Crown" and "Mocking Modesty".

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Source:	roadrunnerrecords.com
Band profile:	Nightrage

A few days ago German Metal band Rage have added the newest video clips "Lord Of The Flies" and "Open My Grave" to the Media Section on their official website.

Lord Of The Flies - Videoclip (5:47min - 59 MB) -- YouTube]
Open My Grave - Videoclip (4:42min - 48 MB) -- YouTube]

Shortly before Christmas, Rage have shot two videoclips for their new album, featuring the songs "Lord Of The flies" and "Open My grave". While "Lord Of The flies" is a dark and occult clip with a lot of actors and guests (like singer Jen Majura), "Open My Grave" presents more the musicians of the band on their instruments. The location was a very old basement-cavity from the beginning of the 18th century, which is located under a whorehouse! You can imagine, that the boys had a couple of guests while their stay. The clips were produced by Katja Piolka, who had Rage infront of her lences already before.

The band's latest album "Carved In Stone" was released via Nuclear Blast Europe on February 22nd.

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Source:	rage-on.de
Band profile:	Rage

The release date of the new Rage album "Carved In Stone" has been set. Nuclear Blast will release the CD on 22nd of February 2008.

Rage guitarist Victor Smolski previously stated about the upcoming CD: "From the beginning we decided to compose the songs for this CD more straight, concentrating on cool riffs and catchy melodies. Actually, with our new lineup it was easy to realize everything, as we pulled together with André Hilgers on drums perfectly! All the recordings with our co-producer, sound engineer and almost fourth band member Charly Czajkowski runs perfectly, as well as the final mix with Charlie Bauerfeind. From my point of view I promise you brutal guitar riffs with fancy soli. In one song, I've hidden a modification of a real famous melody ? the one who will first recognize this melody will get a present! At 'Open My Grave', my sitar guitar came into operation, at 'Lord of the Flies', I've contributed a phat keyboard arrangement."

Other song titles set to appear on the CD include "Carved in Stone", "Drop Dead", "Gentle Murders", "One Step Ahead" and "Without You"

Source:	rage-on.de
Band profile:	Rage

German metallers Rage will embark on the "Metal Firestorm" tour of Russia in November.

The dates are as follows:

Nov. 06 - Moscow - Apelsin-Club
Nov. 07 - Nizhniy Novgorod -
Nov. 08 - Vladimir -
Nov. 10 - Ryazan -
Nov. 11 - Tula -
Nov. 12 - Bryansk -
Nov. 14 - St. Petersburg - Roks-Club

At the moment, Peavy, Victor and André are working with high pressure at their new album, with the working title "Carved In Stone". "Carved in Stone" is also the title of a new song, a super hymn, which could open the live shows in future. More titles are (under reserve): 'Open My Grave', 'One Step Ahead', 'Long Hard Road' and 'Without You'.
You can check out the new studio report with lots of photos at this location.

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Source:	rage-on.de
Band profile:	Rage
Event:	Rage: Russian Tour