Archive News Mar 06, 2001 - update 3

Universal Pictures has decided not to release Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses after dubbing the film's final cut as 'far more intense than we could have possibly imagined,' according to Universal big shot Stacey Snider. 'When I looked at the cumulative effect of the entire film, it was clear that the best version of the movie would end up getting an NC-17 rating, and we felt that would make the marketing and distribution of the movie impossible for us.' Responding to the criticism that she had OKed the production of the movie after reading the film's script, Snider stated, 'There are hundreds of choices Rob made where things played differently than they did in the script. On the page, when you see a cop killed, it reads like a convention of the genre—'Oh no, we've tightened the screws on our heroes.' In the movie, everything was underlined and emphasized, it was a celebration of the assassination of a character.'

...

Zombie, for his part, wasn't surprised that Universal wanted to drop the project, saying, 'I have to admit that it would've been great if they'd released the film, but it felt weird from the get-go. Here we were, making this crazy [expletive] horror film, with this big corporate entity behind us. If you look at the history of horror films, the really scary ones, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, were made by little independent companies, not big corporations.' Zombie adds, 'Maybe some people will be offended, but I think the title House of 1000 Corpses doesn't leave much to the imagination. It's not some weird art movie. It's for Middle America, for people who work at 7-Eleven and listen to METALLICA and love horror movies. And whether this movie ends up on 300 screens or 3,000 screens, I bet its audience is going to find it.'

Former OBITUARY guitarist Trevor Peres' new band CATASTROPHIC (also featuring members of the Long Island, New York band PYREXIA) has officially been added to the Dynamo Festival line-up. CATASTROPHIC will be performing on Saturday, May 26th.

New York's HINGE are due to release their Roadrunner Records debut, The Darker Side Of Nonsense, on June 5th. HINGE, who include in their ranks vocalist Cliff Rigano, guitarist Scott Thomson, bassist David Kowatch and drummer Phil Arcuri, are an ultra-heavy nu-metal entity who make up what they lack in originality with their unadulterated intensity, aided in no small part by the sterling production job of Eddie Wohl, Rob Caggiano and Steve Regina (Scrap 60 Productions),who have helped create what is sure to be one of the most powerful metal debuts of the year.

The House of Hair, former TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider's weekly metal radio show, is switching syndicators from Premiere Radio to United Stations. The show will remain the same (same producer, host, engineer, writer...and same Dee),and they won't even miss one show. Most of you shouldn't notice any difference. However, IF your local station stops playing House of Hair, make sure you call them and let your thoughts be heard. The show is just as readily available to stations as ever.

The reunited DIAMOND HEAD have lined up a couple of acoustic performances in the UK while contemplating their next move. Advertised as 'an evening of acoustic DIAMOND HEAD music performed by Brian Tatler, Sean Harris and Floyd Brennan', the two shows will be taking place on Friday, March 16th at the Bass Museum in Burton on Trent and on Sunday, March 25th at Dudley JB's. These gigs will mark DIAMOND HEAD's first acoustic outings since the band performed a similar show at JB's on November 12, 2000, where the set list included a new track by the name of 'Forever'. In related news, no further information has been made available about the planned collaboration between DH mainman Brian Tatler and MEGADETH vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine, which is reportedly still going ahead, although considering Mustaine forthcoming touring schedule, it is difficult to imagine anything happening on that front before 2002 at the earliest.

Gothenburg, Sweden's female-fronted metal band DRACENA have parted ways with drummer Dennis and are presently utilizing the services of RUNEMAGICK / MINDSNARE skinsman Mojjo. DRACENA will be issuing their Demonic Women demo as a 7' vinyl via Near Dark Productions, while plans also exist for US label Realms of Darkness to release a 7' of all-new material, to be available at the end of the year.

Sweden's ARCH ENEMY have replaced vocalist Johan Liiva with Angela Gossow, a German female who had previously fronted ASMODINA and MISTRESS, two little-known German death metal bands that never went beyond the demo stage. ARCH ENEMY's already-completed new album, Wages Of Sin, is scheduled for release in Japan on April 25th. The European and American release dates are still unconfirmed, pending ARCH ENEMY's alleged contract re-negotiations with current label Century Media Records.

The reformed EXHORDER, cited by many as the originators of the riff-heavy power-groove approach popularized by PANTERA, are scheduled to perform two 'comeback' gigs at Metairie, Louisiana's Zeppelin's on March 23rd and 24th. THE SEDATIVE will be the opening act at the 23rd show.

Gotheburg, Sweden's HARDCORE SUPERSTAR will be joining LOK as the opening acts for AC/DC at the Ullevi Arena in Gothenburg, Sweden on June 24th. More than 45,000 people are expected to attend the show.

JUDAS PRIEST have announced the details of the first phase of the 'remaster' series, with the initial four CDs featuring two bonus tracks each. The cuts in question are as follows:

...

British Steel

01. Red, White &amp Blue (previously unreleased studio track)

02. Grinder (live version)

&nbsp

Point Of Entry

01. Thunder Road (previously unreleased studio track)

02. Desert Plains (live version)

&nbsp

Screaming For Vengeance

01. Prisoner Of Your Eyes (previously unreleased studio track)

&nbsp02. Devil's Child (live version)

&nbsp

Defenders Of The Faith

01. Turn On Your Light (previously unreleased studio track)

02. Heavy Duty/Defenders Of The Faith (live version)

...