Archive News Jun 06, 2001

The following update on TESTAMENT vocalist Chuck Billy's condition was posted on the group's official web site: 'Chuck Billy says 'Hello!' and wanted me to let you know he is doing well and adapting to the treatment for cancer. Though he's lost some of his hair, he has yet to feel the most common side-effects of the chemo (HE'S TOUGH!). Chuck said that all your prayers and well wishes have helped considerably, and he believes it had a lot to do with the good prognosis.

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'Also, Chuck wants everyone to know how touched he and his family are by the kindness and generosity of some of the greatest musicians coming together for a good cause. 'Thrash Of The Titans' will surely be a once in a lifetime event, so DON'T MISS IT! Besides being a 'metalhead's dream', this benefit is to raise people's awareness of this terrible disease. As you've heard, a portion of the proceeds will go to help another brother, Chuck Schuldiner. United we can fight this disease!'

As has been rumored for weeks, MACHINE HEAD have finally officially confirmed that producer Colin Richardson will be handling the mixing duties for the group's Supercharger effort, which was recently recorded with producer Johnny K and is tentatively scheduled for a September release. If all goes according to plan, Colin and the band will hit an as-yet-unspecified Los Angeles studio in late June to begin mixing the album, which will likely contain the following 12 tracks:

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01. Bulldozer

02. White Knuckle Blackout

03. All In Your Head

04. Kick You When You're Down

05. Supercharger

06. American High

07. Deafening Silence

08. Trephination (formerly 'Enemy')

09. Only The Name (working title formerly 'Egypt')

10. Ten Fold

11. Crashing Around You

12. Blank Generation (formerly 'Nuclear Religion' and

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp 'The Drive')

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Two additional cuts have been recorded, those being 'Rat Race' and 'Finger Tap' (working title),but it is unclear if those tracks will surface on the digipack version of the album or if they will be put aside for future use as B-sides.

The 'I'm-talking-out-of-my-ass' quote of the day belongs to the ONE MINUTE SILENCE frontman Brian 'Yap' Barry, whose shameless exploitation of his apparent friendship with SLIPKNOT percussionist The Clown (aka Shawn Crahan otherwise known as the 'undisputed king of verbal diarrhea') reached new heights in the following quote taken from Kerrang! magazine, where Yap cites the friendship as the basis for a new OMS song entitled 'In The Boat': 'We spent a lot of time with Shawn on the Tattoo The Earth tour last year and he became a good friend of mine. He said, 'I like your band, you hang out with your fans, you're genuine.' He said he wanted to meet people in his life like us, so that one day when he retires, he could go fishing with all his friends-everyone would be welcome to come and chill the f.ck out. That's what he meant by his fishing metaphor, so that inspired me to write 'In The Boat'. The Clown is a cool and wise person to be around and very enlightening. He kind of fits the tone for my whole lyrical approach for the new album. He's salt of the earth and we have a laugh.'

BORKNAGAR will enter the Fagerborg/Top Room Studio in Oslo, Norway on June 8th to begin recording their fifth album, entitled Empiricism. A total of nine songs with a running time of about 45 minutes are expected to be laid down, with the following song titles set to appear on the finished release:

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01. Liberated

02. Gods of My World

03. The Stellar Dome

04. The Genuine Pulse

05. Inherit the Earth

06. The Black Canvas

07. The View of Everlast

08. Soul Sphere

09. Four Element Syncronocity

V.O.D. (VISION OF DISORDER) are strongly rumored to take part in the upcoming Tattoo The Planet European tour, which is presently confirmed to include PANTERA, SLAYER, CRADLE OF FILTH and STATIC-X. The band are also said to be in talks to join the line-up for the Beast Feast Festival in Asia at the end of August, where they will be sharing the stage with the likes of SLAYER, PANTERA, CRADLE OF FILTH, SEPULTURA and others. In other V.O.D. news, the group will be filming a video next month for the track 'Southbound' off the band's From Bliss To Devastation CD, which is scheduled to be released through TVT Records on June 26th.

As previously reported, SEPULTURA shot a promotional International EPK 2001 on May 11th at the group's concert at Elycee Montmartre in Paris, where Jason Arnopp of Kerrang! interviewed the band and behind-the-scenes footage was shot, along with some songs from the performance that night. Footage from the Paris in-store earlier in the day also was filmed for inclusion on the short video, which will be completed in the coming weeks and available for viewing via the Roadrunner Records web site.

Here's an update from FU MANCHU guitarist/vocalist Scott Hill on the progress of the band's current recording sessions with producer Matt Hyde: 'Me and Bob [Balch] are doing guitar overdubs starting on Saturday. Brant [Bjork]'s drumming on the songs is awesome. We changed the guitar tones a little. They sound much better. I've been working on my vocals a lot too. We are trying to get the record out by September/October. We are starting on the artwork next week.'

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In other FU news, it is now unlikely that the band's planned Canadian tour with FINGER ELEVEN will take place, as the group will still be in the studio mixing the as-yet-untitled album around the time when the dates were originally supposed to happen.&nbsp

Norwegian rock'n'rollers GLUECIFER have spent the last six months, on and off, recording their new studio album in between various live dates that have popped up, and they have thus far completed work on some 20 tracks, with five more due to be laid down at Oslo's The Living Room Studios in early July. If all goes well, the as-yet-untitled album will be ready to be mixed at end of August for an early 2002 release through an as-yet-undetermined record label.

Canada's NICKELBACK are currently finishing up the recording of their upcoming LP, tentatively entitled Silver Side Up, at Greenhouse Studios in Vancouver with producer Rick Parashar, and they expect to have all the tracking done by Friday, June 8th. 12 songs were reportedly laid down during the sessions, and if everything goes according to plan, Randy Staub (i.e. METALLICA, BACKYARD BABIES) will mix the effort at the end of the month for an early September release. The band is scheduled to do photo shoots and a video shoot at the end of June or beginning of July for the as-yet-undetermined first single off the album, which is tentatively scheduled to hit radio in early August.

Danish rockers D.A.D. played a 'secret' concert on the roof of Nemoland in Copenhagen, Denmark on Sunday, June 3rd.

SIX, the new 'supergroup' consisting of DROWN/FAMOUS vocalist Lauren and other as-yet-unspecified musicians that has reportedly 'been in the studio for the past year and a half developing material and it is about to surface', has launched its official web site at www.thesixsite.com. Although not much information on the band is available at the moment, visitors to the aforementioned web site can download a sound clip of the band's music, which appears to follow a more 'electronic' direction than that of Lauren's other outfits.

Germany's ANGEL DUST have officially parted ways with guitarist Bernd Aufermann due to 'unbridgeable personality differences' that have made further collaborations 'impossible'. ANGEL DUST have replaced Aufermann with Ritchie Wilkison, who was most recently performing with the group during their US live dates. ANGEL DUST is tentatively scheduled to enter the studio on August 21st to begin recording their new album, provisionally titled Of Human Bondage. Meanwhile, Aufermann is said to be focusing his energies on a brand new project named SHINING.

GRAVE DIGGER have officially confirmed that they have signed with Nuclear Blast Records for the release of their already-completed new studio album, entitled The Grave Digger, which is due to be issued in Europe on October 20th. According to vocalist Chris Boltendahl, 'After all the trouble of the last months, we're happy that we have found our new home at Nuclear Blast. We watched all the work of Nuclear Blast the last years with HAMMERFALL, HELLOWEEN and MANOWAR, and we think that Nuclear Blast is the perfect home for the sound of GRAVE DIGGER.'

UK black metallers HECATE ENTHRONED will be playing The Empress in Bradford, UK on Friday, July 13th. Support will come from SERMON OF HYPOCRACY.

Florida power metal gods KAMELOT's previously-announced support dates with MEGADETH (which were scheduled to take place in mid-June) have now apparently been scrapped, reportedly due to the latter band's touring commitments with AC/DC.

The fourth single from Finland's THE 69 EYES current Blessed Be release, 'Stolen Season', rose straight to number 6 in the Finnish Top 20 Singles Chart this week. Elsewhere, the group's previous album, Wasting The Dawn, rose to number 3 in the Mid-Price Album Charts. In other 69 news, the band have announced that they will be playing in Portugal at the Carvicais Rock Festival on August 10th. For more information, visit: www.carvicais.sbc.pt

Canada's INTERZONE, featuring former SACRIFICE frontman Rob Urbinati, are reportedly still working on their new demo, which will likely be completed later this summer. Meanwhile, the band is scheduled to perform some gigs in Toronto soon.

Finland's ETERNAL TEARS OF SORROW have completed the recording sessions for their new album, entitled A Virgin And A Whore, and they plan on mixing the effort in early August for late 2001 release. The full track listing for the album is as follows:

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01. Aurora Borealis

02. Heart of Wilderness

03. Prophetian

04. Fall of Man

05. The River Flows Frozen

06. The Last One For Life

07. Sick, Dirty and Mean

08. Blood of Hatred

09. Aeon

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According to an official statement from the band, the length of the album will be around 42-43 minutes, and the music itself is more keyboard-orientated than in the past, although there will be 'more and heavier guitar riffs as well'. The first single from the album, 'The Last One For Life', is scheduled for release shortly, and it will be backed by the group's cover of PARADISE LOST's 'As I Die'.

ZIMMER'S HOLE, featuring guitarist Jed Simon and bassist Byron Stroud of STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, have completed mixing their new studio album and are about to master is for a late summer release through HevyDevy Records. According to Simon (aka El Fukkin' Smooche),'We have spent a lot of time with Clint Nielson (the artwork guy...he has also done the Physicist and SYLNo Sleep 'till Bedtime covers) working on this cover and booklet... We wanted to go all-out and we have... Let's hope we can afford to print it!!! Byron and I are in rehearsals for the upcoming Devin tour through Europe. We are gonna shred ass!! When we are done with that, we are hoping to get a ZIMMER'S HOLE tour together. We have been asked if we could go to Australia, and if all goes well, we just might be able to... Fingers crossed.... We also have begun filming for the ZH Video. It is going to be awesome-a mini-epic, if you will. Two songs from the new album with some time-traveling and live show stuff as well. It will rule!!! Well, that's it for now...keep up the faith and get ready for the 'Death of the Resurrection of the Death of Metal!!!!!''

Former DEEP PURPLE/TRAPEZE vocalist Glenn Hughes was forced to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Logo club in Hamburg, Germany on Tuesday, June 5th due to a 'flu' which has 'gone worse'.

SHADOW GALLERY mainman Gary Wehrkamp will be interviewed live on Australia's Screaming Symphony show today, Wednesday, June 6th. Gary will be discussing Legacy, among other things. There is a live web stream on the net at Screaming Symphony. Here are the international times for tuning in:

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Australian Eastern Standard Time 12 midnight - 2 AM

Eastern USA Time: Wednesday 10 AM - 12 midday

Central European Time: Wednesday 4 PM - 6 PM

The Australian Animal Liberation organization is conducting an 'All Star Charity Auction' to help raise funds for upcoming court cases, and SILVERCHAIR's Daniel Johns has donated a SILVERCHAIR Zip Jacket, fan club shirt, glow in the dark key-rings as well as a framed photograph. All items are autographed. Other artists and public figures have also donated items for this very worthwhile cause. Bidding starts on July 1st (Sydney time) and lasts for 10 days. For more info, click here.

THE CULT's 'She Sells Sanctuary' will reportedly be included on the soundtrack to Grand Turismo 3 for Playstation 2.

Sweden's TRANSPORT LEAGUE have lined up a host of Scandinavian live appearances during the summer. Here are the confirmed dates so far:

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July 13- Arvika Festival - Arvika, SWE

July 14 - Tuska Festival - Helsinki. FIN

July 20 - TBA - TBA, SWE

July 21 - Dist Festival - Forshaga, SWE

July 27 - Wasteland - Gävle, SWE

July 28 - TBA - TBA, SWE

Aug. 04 - Peace &amp Love Festival- Borlänge, SWE

Aug. 17 - Liseberg - Gothenburg, SWE

Aug. 31 - Musikcafeén - Århus, DEN (w/2 TON PREDATOR)

Sept. 01 - Matfestivalen - Skövde, SWE

Sweden's OPETH have issued an official statement regarding the recent cancellation of the group's show in El Paso, Texas, where the band were scheduled to perform alongside touring mates NEVERMORE. According to the statement, 'both OPETH and NEVERMORE express their sincere apologies to the fans that came to see the show in El Paso, Texas. This show had to be cancelled as the promoter refused to fulfill his obligations towards the band and the crew, expecting low presales for the show. Those of you who came there know how wrong he was and so do the bands. We hope you will be there next time as well as there is no way OPETH will cancel in El Paso again.'

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS vocalist Scott Weiland and guitarist Dean DeLeo will perform an acoustic set at The St. Moritz Club in Central London, UK this Saturday, June 9th.

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