09.10.09: SAKADOYA released their debut LP, titled "Back to the age of slaves" :

Moroccan metal band SAKADOYA released their first full-length album, "Back to the age of slaves". some songs from the CD, are available for streaming on the group's MySpace page.

"Back to the age of slaves" track listing :

1-Get Back
2-Victims History
3-Dismal Moments
4-Crime Without Punishment
5-No More Submition
6-Let us Pray
7-Resistance Victory
8-Back to the Age Of Slaves

www.myspace.com/sakadoyaband

19.08.2009 : ARCH ENEMY will release a new album:

ARCH ENEMY will release a new album, "The Root Of All Evil", on September 28 in Europe and October 6 in North America via Century Media Records. This special collection features re-recorded versions of songs from the band's first three LPs — "Black Earth" (1996), "Stigmata" (1998) and "Burning Bridges" (1999). Acclaimed British producer Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, EXODUS) mixed and mastered the CD, which was recorded at a few different locations in Sweden and produced by ARCH ENEMY with Daniel Erlandsson and Rickard Bengtsson handling the engineering.

"The Root Of All Evil" track listing:

01. The Root Of All Evil (Intro)
02. Beast Of Man
03. The Immortal
04. Diva Satanica
05. Demonic Science
06. Bury Me An Angel
07. Dead Inside
08. Dark Insanity
09. Pilgrim
10. Demoniality (instrumental)
11. Transmigration Macabre
12. Silverwing
13. Bridge Of Destiny
 

21.05.2009: Nervecell European Festival Dates Announced :

Nervecell are proud to announce the addition of 3 new festivals to the band's current European Festival Tour 2009 which is soon underway next month. Nervecell are now scheduled to perform at Way of Darkness Festival in Germany (with Cannibal Corpse, Malevolent Creation, Vader, Marduk and more), New Jam Festival (headlining) in Austria and Occultfest 2009 in The Netherlands.

Nervecell have also previously confirmed their performance at the 4 biggest German Rock/Metal festivals set to take place this year - Wacken Open Air, With Full Force, Rock AM Ring & Rock IM Park, with the addition of Portugal's Metal GDL Festival.


Nervecell European Festival Tour 2009 dates:

Rock IM Park Festival (Nurnberg, Germany) - June 5, 2009
Metal GDL Festival (Grandola, Portugal) - June 6, 2009
Rock AM Ring Festival (Nurburgring, Germany) - June 7, 2009
With Full Force Festival (Leipzig, Germany) - July 4, 2009
Wacken Open Air Festival (Wacken, Germany) - July 31, 2009
Occultfest (Hoogeveen, Netherlands) - Sep 5, 2009
New Jam Festival [headlining] (Linz, Austria) - Sep 19, 2009
Way of Darkness Festival (Lichtenfels, German) - Oct 2, 2009

 

07.05.2005: Morocco’s metalheads make return

SETTAT, MOROCCO // With four brothers, his mother and himself living on his father’s meagre salary as a medical assistant, sometimes the gloom at home is more than Mohammed Makroum can take.
“I see only sad faces, so I go out again, pick up my guitar and chg-chg-chg-chg!” said Makroum, 20, miming the urgent downstrokes of his chosen music, heavy metal.
But things are starting to look up for Makroum. With victories at two music competitions last year and a first album in the works, his band, Sakadoya, is at the vanguard of a heavy metal scene that is slowly recovering from charges of Satanism that seemed to have stopped it in its tracks.
Trouble began in 2003, when a court in Casablanca, Morocco’s commercial capital and the heart of its music industry, jailed 14 heavy metal musicians and fans on charges of undermining Islam following newspaper stories that dubbed the young men “Satanists”. Nine of them were in leading heavy metal bands.
“That silenced the voice of metal in Morocco,” said Samir Alorchi, the founder of Zero Tolerance, a heavy metal online magazine that serves as a hub for Moroccan “metalheads”, as fans of the music call themselves. “There were some powerful bands, but they all stopped playing because they didn’t want to risk their futures.”
Now a new generation of Moroccan youth is turning to metal, Alorchi said. For many, it gives voice to common frustrations – clashes with parents, a conservative society and recent economic growth that has brought wealth to Morocco but failed to create enough new jobs.
“Where you find problems, you find people who want to reflect their feelings,” said Alorchi. “And that means metal music.”
Some of those problems are easing as the government gingerly welcomes heavy metal into the national fold.
Last year Sakadoya won Mawazine, an annual state-funded music festival and competition considered a premier showcase of young Moroccan talent. Their prize was funding to record an album, and a headline spot at this year’s festival.
“But most venue owners are still wary of bringing in metal bands,” said Mohamed Merhari, who founded Casablanca’s yearly L’Boulevard festival in 1998 as a platform for what he terms “marginalised music”.
“Rap, fusion and electronica have found a place in Morocco,” he said. “Only metal remains outside the mainstream.”
For the metal enthusiast in Morocco there are few music shops, fewer recording studios and no record labels. Bands post home-made videos on MySpace and Facebook of themselves performing with knock-off guitars and beat-up amplifiers.
“In the beginning we didn’t even have amps,” said Sakadoya’s singer, Khalid el Hasbi, 25, who founded the band in 2005 with its drummer, Hicham Hamzi, 22.

Today the group practises in a cramped room beneath Hamzi’s house in Settat, a farming town south of Casablanca. Their music is fast and driving, with Hamzi’s machine-gun drumming giving shape to the thundering guitars. Hasbi’s shrieked lyrics cover everything like a sheet of white noise.
The group’s forthcoming album, Back to the Age of Slaves, is a classic assault on free trade and capitalism. But like many metalheads, they have embraced the technology of globalisation.  Read More
 

Written By : John Thorne, Foreign Correspondent  " THE NATIONALE "

16.04.2009: ROCK In K-zA Festival :

ROCK In K-zA Festival! Returns once again to host young talent and a public thirsty for creativity and originality. Despite the many obstacles and drawbacks that represent such a consecration, organizers have taken action to advance the moroccan Rap/Rock&Metal scene offering a chance for young people to develop this kind of music.

ATMOSPHEAR and PARANOIA and more are among the confirmed bands for ROCK in K-zA Festival! The event will take place in the province of ROCK In K-zA on 1 and 2, May 2008 with "complexe culturel Hassan Skalli ". The complete list of artists currently confirmed to appear at the festival is as follows:


PARANOIA (CASABLANCA)
RAINING MADNESS (TETOUAN)
OLD SCHOOL (CASABLANCA)
REDEMPTION LIFE (RABAT)
HOLLY ANGEL (CASABLANCA)
BREAK 4 THE BORDER (RABAT)
SOLDAT (CASABLANCA)
ATMOSPHEAR (RABAT)
NECROPHILIA (CASABLANCA)
LUCKY TROUBLE (RABAT)
SAD HILL (MEKNES)
CLUB 27 (KENITRA)

21.02.2009: SEPULTURA: 'We've Lost You' Video Available :

"We've Lost You", the new video from Brazilian/American thrashers SEPULTURA, can be viewed below. The clip was filmed on December 15, 2008 in São Paulo, Brazil with director André Moraes. Check out photos from the video shoot at this location. A few of the pictures can also be viewed below.

"A-Lex" — SEPULTURA's first LP to be recorded without either of the founding Cavalera brothers (Max and Igor; on guitar/vocals and drums, respectively) — sold around 1,600 copies during its first week of release in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

SEPULTURA's previous CD, "Dante XXI", has sold 19,000 copies in the United States since its March 2006 release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"A-Lex" (which stands for "no law" or "without law") is available in three versions: in a deluxe digipak with an embossed cover, in a regular jewel case and on a vinyl gatefold LP.

On "A-Lex", SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser and his three colleagues, Derrick Green (vocals), Paulo Jr. (bass) and new addition Jean Dollabella (drums), have dedicated themselves to Anthony Burgess's book "A Clockwork Orange", creating an awesome thrash metal opus around this timeless and exciting subject.

The material was produced by SEPULTURA and Stanley Soares at the Trama Studios in Sao Paulo and mastered by George Marino at New York's Sterling Sound studios. "A-Lex" is the first SEPULTURA album to feature new drummer Jean Dolabella, who joined the fold during the "Dante XXI" tour.

 

17.01.2009: TESTAMENT Confirmed For Germany's WACKEN OPEN AIR Festival.

Veteran San Francisco Bay Area metallers TESTAMENT have been confirmed for this year's Wacken Open Air festival, set to take place July 30 - August 1, 2009 in Wacken, Germany.

The festival billing is shaping up as follows:

AMON AMARTH
AXEL RUDI PELL
BORKNAGAR
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
CALLEJON
CATHEDRAL
DRAGONFORCE
EINHERJER
EPICA
GWAR
HAMMERFALL
IN EXTREMO
IN FLAMES
KAMPFAR
KINGDOM OF SORROW
KORPIKLAANI
MACHINE HEAD
MOTÖRHEAD
NAPALM DEATH
NEVERMORE
TESTAMENT
TRISTANIA
VOLBEAT
WALLS OF JERICHO

ICS Festival Service GmbH, which organizes the Wacken Open Air festival, has announced that all 70,000 tickets have already been sold for this year's event. "Never before [has] a festival of this size [been] sold out two times within one year," they write in a statement. "But we are not chasing after records — we 'only' want to create a great festival for you and are working on it since more than 20 years now and standing in responsibility and duty for the best fans in the world! We thank you all for your amazing support and loyalty!"

In 2008, Wacken Open Air festival was honored with a Live Entertainment Award in the "Festival Of The Year" category. This award recognizes distinguished achievements in live entertainment and is given out by Live Entertainment Award (LEA) committee. The winners were announced on March 11, 2008.

 

02.01.2009:  WACKEN OPEN AIR 2009 Sold Out!

ICS Festival Service GmbH, which organizes the Wacken Open Air festival, has announced that all 70,000 tickets have already been sold for next year's event, which will be held July 30 - August 1, 2009 in Wacken, Germany. "Never before [has] a festival of this size [been] sold out two times within one year," they write in a statement. "But we are not chasing after records — we 'only' want to create a great festival for you and are working on it since more than 20 years now and standing in responsibility and duty for the best fans in the world! We thank you all for your amazing support and loyalty!"

The Wacken Open Air 2009 festival billing is shaping up as follows:

AMON AMARTH
AXEL RUDI PELL
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
CALLEJON
CATHEDRAL
DRAGONFORCE
EINHERJER
EPICA
GWAR
HAMMERFALL
IN EXTREMO
IN FLAMES
KAMPFAR
KORPIKLAANI
MACHINE HEAD
MOTÖRHEAD
NAPALM DEATH
NEVERMORE
TRISTANIA
VOLBEAT
WALLS OF JERICHO

Wacken Open Air festival was honored with a Live Entertainment Award in the "Festival Of The Year" category. This award recognizes distinguished achievements in live entertainment and is given out by Live Entertainment Award (LEA) committee. The winners were announced on March 11, 2008.

Contraband Candy's two-part report on this year's Wacken Open Air festival, which was held July 31 - August 2, 2008 in Wacken, Germany, can be viewed below.

News Source :  Blabbermouth

29.11.2008 : IRON MAIDEN Singer Interviewed About 'Chemical Wedding' Movie; Video Available :

Chemical Wedding" — the supernatural horror-thriller written by IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson and longtime "Monty Python" editor Julian Doyle, who also directed the film — premiered at France's Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. A 10-minute interview with the pair conducted in Cannes can be viewed below.

Bruce Dickinson was in Paris, France on Wednesday (November 26) to promote the DVD release of "Chemical Wedding". The screening and press conference were held in a private cinema in front of Europe 1 radio near the Champs Elysées. Check out a photo at this location.

A UK TV commercial for the DVD release of "Chemical Wedding" can be viewed below.

According to Variety, Cinema Management Group has closed key deals in major territories on "Chemical Wedding".

Starz/Anchor Bay Entertainment is set to handle distribution in the U.S. and Canada, while Universal Pictures Video will cover France, Belgium and the Netherlands for an early 2009 release.

Video footage of Dickinson in Cannes promoting the "Chemical Wedding" movie can be seen on the BBC News web site.

Dickinson is not the first rocker to be inspired by Crowley, who died in 1947. LED ZEPPELIN guitarist Jimmy Page was a big collector of Crowley's writings and even bought his Scottish estate. OZZY OSBOURNE, meanwhile, eulogized him in the song "Mr. Crowley".

17.11.2008: BLACK STONE CHERRY Shoots Video For 'Please Come In' Single:

Edmonton, Kentucky rockers BLACK STONE CHERRY have selected "the southern bluesy love track" "Please Come In" as the second single from their sophomore album, "Folklore and Superstition". "We're very excited about this song being our next single as we've shot a KILLER video for it," the band says. "Seriously… you won't believe it!"

"Folklore and Superstition" sold 13,600 in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 28 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee at Black Bird Studios, which is owned and operated by country music star Martina McBride. It was produced and mixed by veteran Bob Marlette (OZZY OSBOURNE, SALIVA).

BLACK STONE CHERRY's "Blind Man" video (see below), was shot on July 10 in Louisville, Kentucky at the famous Waverly Hills Sanatorium.

27.08.2008: MEGADETH Preparing To Record New Album :

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine has revealed in an online posting that acclaimed British producer Andy Sneap (NEVERMORE, EXODUS, ARCH ENEMY, MACHINE HEAD) will fly over to Southern California on September 8 to "tweak some last-minute stuff" at Mustaine's new recording studio before returning again at the end of the month, presumably to helm the recording sessions for the group's new album.

Sneap produced MEGADETH's last album, "United Abominations", which came out in May 2007 via Roadrunner Records. Mustaine previously stated about working with Andy, "We'd been working with Jeff Balding, who does a great job. But we knew we needed something else to give the material that extra push, so we brought in Andy. It was cool because he isn't like some big rock-star producer. He was just another Joe to me. So we were trading jokes and laughing and it was fun. My sense of humour is pretty close to a British one, so we worked well together. Also, Andy told me I was the reason that he got into playing metal in the first place, which was really flattering."

MEGADETH's forthcoming album will be the group's first with guitarist Chris Broderick (NEVERMORE, JAG PANZER), who replaced Glen Drover at the end of last year.

News Source :  Blabbermouth

07.08.2008: RODRIGO Y GABRIELA Incorporating More Metal Elements On Upcoming Album :

Rodrigo Sanchez, one half of RODRIGO Y GABRIELA — the dynamic Mexican duo who became international world-music superstars with their self-titled album of aggressive acoustic guitars and irresistible Latin rhythms — has told the Miami New Times that the group's new album will see RODRIGO Y GABRIELA getting back to its roots by incorporating more metal and rock elements.

"Now we feel free to do whatever we like," Sanchez enthuses about the act's new direction. "It's naturally coming back to the rock. The metal thing hasn't ever really left our sound, but the music we're working on for the new album — without a second thought — sounds more like metal, with hints of Latin music. It's the other way around. It probably won't be successful, but who cares? We feel we'll be closer to what we truly are."

Returning to their rock roots is also part of the personal growth the pair has experienced through the whirlwind success of the past couple of years. "I've learned how not to give a lot of value to things that aren't worth it," Sanchez notes. "I don't look at the reviews, and I don't get involved in the industry. I stopped being obsessive and got older and more mature — let's just say older. I'm just trying to enjoy it."   Read More
 

23.07.2008: SOULFLY Acoustic Session With MAX CAVALERA, MARC RIZZO; Video Available :

The French branch of Roadrunner Records recently filmed an acoustic session with SOULFLY's Max Cavalera and Marc Rizzo. They play a mix of several songs, and Max reflects on his long career. Watch the clip below.

SOULFLY's new video, "Unleash", was directed by Robert Sexton, who has previously worked with MONDO GENERATOR, AMEN and ICED EARTH, among many others. The song is the first single from SOULFLY's new album, "Conquer", which is due on July 29 via Roadrunner Records.

In addition to the standard edition of SOULFLY's forthcoming album "Conquer", a special edition of the LP will be released featuring three bonus tracks and a bonus DVD containing a full 65-minute live concert.

11.07.2008: THE HAUNTED: New Album Details Revealed; Video Footage Of New Song Available - July 11, 2008

Swedish thrashers THE HAUNTED have set "Versus" as the title of their new album, due late September via Century Media Records. The CD was recorded in part at PUK studio in Denmark with producer Tue Madsen (HEAVEN SHALL BURN, DARK TRANQUILLITY, MOONSPELL, etc), who previously worked with the group on its two most recent LPs, "rEVOLVEr" (2004) and "The Dead Eye" (2006).

Commented the band: "Somewhere along 'The Dead Eye' tours, we started to see a pattern in what songs we kept coming back to, and what we felt really good about in the live setting and started talking about making a record that reflected the live energy of the band. As things went along and we finished a live session for Swedish national radio P3, we knew it could be done. We decided to record the whole album live, and add vocals and solos once we had the songs down with the right energy and groove. Tue loved the idea.

"Like always Peter [Dolving, vocals] confused the hell out of everyone by presenting 25 ideas almost a year before we were even going to record, but later calmed the mood by explaining it was mostly to inspire and provoke. It worked. Anders [Björler, guitar] and Jonas [Björler, bass] started dropping CDs of scatterbrain ideas and mixed riffs and we started digging. Anders bringing industrial and melodic ideas to the table, and Jonas traditional metal roots. Initially, Jensen [Patrik Jensen, guitar] felt he didn't know where to go with it, he told Peter, 'All I come up with is grind...' 'So what? Then write grind riffs! It's all gonna sound like THE HAUNTED in the end anyway,' Pete told him, and shortly after Jensen started pounding us with typical simplistic Jensen trademark riffs.

"Recording was a quick and painless process, once all was in place, we spent ten days in PUK studios getting the music tracked under the supervision of the king cool, Tue Madsen. We spent eight days of vocal tracking at the IN FLAMES studio, and at Antfarm, with a short pause where Pete underwent surgery for an infected jaw. Then Tue mixed and mastered most of the record in his head, driving around with his kid, eating French fries and rocking out, before returning to Antfarm to turn the necessary knobs and switches.

"So what does it sound like? Definitly THE HAUNTED: Great songs, catchfire riffing, hooks catchier than herpes on a biker slut, explosive groovy beats and lyrics as sharp, dark, and dripping sarcastic bile like someone who just got back from hell with a bone to pick.

"'Moronic Colossus' and 'Trenches' are songs we've already picked up and added to the live set with fan approval. While TROUBLE-inspired 'Ceremony' will have your head bobbing, 'Pieces' draws to mind the current AT THE GATES tour, while perhaps even more efficiently constructed in its heaviness. Hardcore sniffer 'Crusher', a straight-up ode to heavy music and metal in particular and the inimitable fury of 'Little Cage' will have you smashing furniture and breaking speed limits.

"It's safe to say we're really looking forward to letting this bastard sink its fangs into your minds. Ladies and gents, it's clobbering time!"

Fan-filmed video footage of THE HAUNTED performing a new song at the Hultsfred festival, which took place June 12-14 in Hultsfred, Sweden, can be viewed on YouTube.

News Sources :  blabbermouth

11.07.2008: DRAGONFORCE: New Song Available For Streaming

British extreme epic power metallers DRAGONFORCE have posted a new song, "Heroes Of Our Time", on their MySpace page. The track comes off the group's new album, "Ultra Beatdown", which is scheduled for release on August 25 via Roadrunner Records.

The cover artwork for the CD can be viewed below.

"Ultra Beatdown" track listing:

01. Heroes Of Our Time
02. The Fire Still Burns
03. Reasons To Live
04. Scars Of Yesterday
05. Heartbreak Armageddon
06. The Last Journey Home
07. Inside The Winter Storm
08. The Warrior Inside

News Sources :  blabbermouth

11.07.2008:NEVERMORE want to thank their worldwide fans on "The Year Of The Voyager" DVD/Live Album.

In July 2005, Nevermore released their latest studio album, "This Godless Endeavor" which became their biggest success in a career that started 16 years and 6 albums ago back in 1992. The touring cycle for "This Godless Endeavor" began July 21st, 2005 with the North American Gigantour supporting Megadeth and Dream Theater. Since then, Nevermore played close to 200 shows in 23 countries, all over Europe, Japan, Australia, Brazil, North America, and on August 14th, they will even play in Tel Aviv, Israel at the Anthem Metal Festival (together with their label mates Dark Tranquillity and The Haunted).

In October 2008, Nevermore will release their first ever DVD and Live album "The Year Of The Voyager".

"The Year Of The Voyager" covers the "This Godless Endeavor" touring cycle featuring amazing, live footage from the 2005 U.S. Gigantour, the 2006 Metal Mania Festival in Poland, the 2006 Wacken Festival in Germany and the main DVD showcasing their live set recorded at the Zeche Bochum in Germany on October 11th, 2006.  Read More