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Manos Spanos

XANDRIA Begins Recording New Album

Manos Spanos
German female-fronted symphonic metallers XANDRIA have entered the studio to begin recording their sixth album for an early 2014 release via Napalm Records. The follow-up to 2012's "Neverworld's End" is being helmed by Joost Van Den Broek (AFTER FOREVER,STAR ONE, REVAMP) and Sascha Paeth (EDGUY, EPICA, AVANTASIA), alongside the band's main composer Marco Heubaum. XANDRIA in February recruited Steven Wussow (DOMAIN, SHYLOCK, ILLECTRONIC ROCK) as the band's new bassist. "Neverworld's End" was released in North America on March 6, 2012 via Napalm Records. XANDRIA in December 2010 announced the addition of singer Manuela Kraller to the group's ranks.
00 min read

TESTAMENT Singer: ‘We Get Inspired By New, Up-And-Coming Thrash-Style Bands’

Manos Spanos
Brendan Crabb of Australia's Loud magazine recently conducted an interview with vocalist Chuck Billy of San Francisco Bay Area metallers TESTAMENT. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Loud: The further your career progresses, the more beloved many of those staples become to the long-time fans. How difficult is it to compose new material that can sit alongside the usual suspects of your live sets, and become accepted? Chuck: Well, I think because we never really write the same record, so I think that it's not just more of the same thing. You don't know what you're going to get on a record from us. We're always writing and that tends to get better and better as writing goes. We've been fortunate to play a lot more festivals over the summer when we go to Europe, so it kind of sticks in the back of your mind, that it's nice that you wrote a song that has those hooks or melodies where the crowd can respond and participate. We have a couple of those on this record, we always seem to have a song that kind of has a sing-a-long or a sing back or answer back, and it's been working. [laughs] So we've kinda been sticking with that I guess. Loud: On the live front, there's the impending release of your new DVD. What can you tell us about that? Chuck: Well, there's about 19 songs on it, and we put songs from the beginning of our career all the way to where we are now. It's actually a really good representation of where the band is today. The last DVD was in '05, and that's when we had the reunion with the original lineup. They only really wanted to play some of the stuff that they recorded on, so it's kinda nice, here we are now playing more of the current stuff. We decided to capture it, and we're really proud of it because we put a lot of effort into this DVD. It sounds really good, and it looks really good as well. So I'm pretty pumped on it. There's some backstage stuff and interviews, a video on it and the making of the video. Some cool stuff on there. Loud: Is the DVD somewhat of a stopgap before you bunker down to write the next album? Chuck: Well, we start it in January. We're doing the LAMB OF GOD, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and HUNTRESS tour, and after that, that's the last tour and the first of January we start writing. Then hopefully have a record out by summer. Loud: Where do you envision the next record heading then? Chuck: Not sure. I mean, Eric [Peterson, guitar], I kinda play off of what Eric, what the mood or what the riff is, you know? He kinda has the beginning; he starts it out and gets it going first. Then it just kinda develops from there. I don't know what style of vocals I'm going to be singing yet, until he gets those riffs on the demo.
03 min read

MORBID ANGEL: ‘Covenant’ Tab eBook Available

Manos Spanos
In the continuing celebration of the 20th anniversary of the MORBID ANGEL album"Covenant", the Tampa, Florida-based death metal band and World Management have announced that Angel Fortiz has officially completed the transcriptions for a new tab eBook of the album. The eBook features authentic transcriptions with notes, tabs, chords, lyrics andTrey Azagthoth's liner notes. Check out a trailer for the eBook below. To order a copy, go to this location. MORBID ANGEL will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its best-selling album, "Covenant", by embarking on the "Covenant: 1993-2013" tour. In 1992, MORBID ANGEL was the first death metal band to be signed to a major record company (Giant Records/Warner Brothers) and "Covenant" was the group's first release for that label in the USA. The LP was issued on June 22, 1993 and went on to garner great critical and commercial success. On the "Covenant: 1993-2013" tour, MORBID ANGEL will play the "Covenant" album in its entirety and, after a short intermission, some additional surprise classic cuts. Further, there will be special commemorative items produced exclusively for this tour. Asked if it ever irritates him that some MORBID ANGEL fans always expect the band to record a sequel to the group's most successful albums, like "Altars Of Madness", "Blessed Are The Sick" or "Covenant", Vincent told MetalCrypt.com this past January: "We have stuff like that. Listen, we are a very wide band; we are not narrow. There are a lot of narrow bands out there these days, and you know how their records are going to sound before they are even released. You will know exactly what they are going to be and the fans like that. These types of bands don't take any chances; they don't really experiment at all. They just play the same record, you know, there's only a few notes different but it's still the same thing over and over again. And then there are bands that specialize in that, and that's what the listeners are looking for. They should support those kinds of bands. We are just not that kind of band and never have been." MORBID ANGEL's latest album, "Illud Divinum Insanus", sold around 3,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release to enter The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 141. The effort marked MORBID ANGEL's first CD to feature Vincent since 1995's "Domination".
02 min read

IRON MAIDEN Is Biggest Foreign Concert Draw Ever In Chile

Manos Spanos
According to MaidenRevelations.com, Chilean newspaper La Tercera has called British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN the biggest foreign concert draw ever in Chile, with a total of 226,000 tickets sold for the seven shows the band has played in the country since 1996. This feat is made even more remrakble by the fact that MAIDEN was banned by the church from playing in Chile in 1992. IRON MAIDEN wrapped its massive "Maiden England 2013 World Tour" on October 2 in front of an audience of 60,105 spectators at the national stadium Estadio Nacional in Santiago. "Because we were banned in the '90s, people have felt a very strong connection to us," IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson told La Tercera. "And we have always brought great shows with us and worked hard not to disappoint the audience." IRON MAIDEN first played in Santiago in 1996 at a time when the band was fronted by Blaze Bayley. The concert was attended by 18,000 fans and included the infamous "Blaze Gets Mad" version of the song "The Trooper". During a brand new interview with Chile's Radio Futuro, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dave Murraywas asked if there are any plans for the band to return to the studio to begin work on material for the follow-up to 2010's "The Final Frontier". "We've been out on tour quite a few months this year," Dave explained. "So when we finish, we're actually going to go and head back and take a break, really." He continued: "We haven't got any plans, as such, really, what's gonna happen next year. Basically, we're just gonna wait and see. [laughs] But there's things that are going on in the meantime. I mean, we just had a beer come out — it's like the Trooper beer — and that's actually doing really well. So we'll just let the Trooper beer go on tour for us. [laughs] And then we're just gonna spend some time off recuperating. So I'm not quite sure what's gonna be happening next year. It's all up in the air." IRON MAIDEN in August landed at position No. 1 on Billboard.com's "Hot Tours" list of top-grossing tours with $8.5 million in ticket sales from six performances on their summer tour of Europe. The shows were attended by a total of 121,280 fans, including a two-night, sold-out stand on August 3-4 at the O2 Arena in Lonon, England, where the band played to 27,000 fans. With totals added from this summer's Europe dates, overall ticket sales from the tour top $42 million from 45 reported concerts.
02 min read

SEPTICFLESH Begins Recording New Album

Manos Spanos
Greek metallers SEPTICFLESH have entered Devasoundz Studios to record 10 new songs for their as-yet-untitled next full-length album for an early 2014 release via Prosthetic Records in North America. The follow-up to 2011's "The Great Mass" is being produced by formerMACHINE HEAD and SOULFLY guitarist Logan Mader (CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, FEAR FACTORY, GOJIRA) and will once again include a collaboration with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, the group will also utilize full regular and children's choirs on the CD, which will surely further enhance the epic nature of their music. SEPTICFLESH has earned extensive international acclaim for its eight albums to date, as well as its live appearances alongside the likes of CRADLE OF FILTH, AMON AMARTH,GORGOROTH, SATYRICON and CHILDREN OF BODOM. The group, which recently headlined the "Conquerers Of The World" North American tour, will take part in next year's 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise. After the success of the reissues of SEPTICFLESH classics "Mystic Places Of Dawn"(originally out in 1994) and "Esoptron" (1995), Season Of Mist will release a newly remastered version of the Greek demons’ 1997 masterpiece "Ophidian Wheel". Enhanced with three previously unreleased bonus tracks and a brand new cover artwork designed by SEPTICFLESH frontman Seth Siro Anton himself, the reissue of "Ophidian Wheel" will be available on October 25 (October 29 in North America) on CD and various LP editions.
01 min read

NIGHTWISH Announces New Lineup

Manos Spanos
Finnish symphonic metallers NIGHTWISH have announced the addition of Dutch singer Floor Jansen (REVAMP, ex-AFTER FOREVER) and English composer and multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley (uilleann pipes, low whistles, vocals) to the group's permanent lineup. Says the band in a statement: "Originally we were going to wait until 2014 to make a decision about the future lineup of the band, but the past year has clearly shown us that Floor andTroy are perfect matching pieces to our puzzle, and we are really grateful of the bond that has grown between all of us. "We love you, guys." Adds Jansen: "Words cannot describe what I feel! This union is beyond everything, and I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to continue this amazing journey with my new brothers! "Once I had a dream… and this is it!!!" Says Donockley: "'Imaginaerum World Tour' was a revelation to me and in that time, I became aware of a growing unity and then, finally, a transcendence of all the usual nonsense that affects bands. A beautiful process. And since the idea, the musical dream that isNIGHTWISH has been a part of me since before I was born, I am delighted to officially sail into uncharted waters with my brothers and sister. Wondrous scenes Ahoy!" NIGHTWISH will release a new DVD, "Showtime, Storytime", on November 29 as a limited 2Blu-ray + 2CD digipack, limited 2DVD + 2CD digipack, limited 2CD digipack, 2LP (colored) in gatefold and an exclusive Nuclear Blast mailorder edition. "Showtime, Storytime" contains NIGHTWISH's entire August 3 performance at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany. The show, which was played in the front of 85,000 screaming metalheads, was directed by Ville Lipiäinen, filmed with seventeen cameras and has a total running time of 85 minutes. The second disc consists of a 120-minute tour documentary, "Please Learn The Setlist In 48 Hours", also directed by Ville Lipiäinen, with no shortage of drama or overall madness. Also, there is a 16-minute NIGHTWISH Table Hockey Tournament, filmed on tour. In addition, there are two music clips: "I Want My Tears Back"(live at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland) and "Ghost Love Score" (live in Buenos Aires). Check out a trailer for "Showtime, Storytime" below. The Wacken Open Air appearance was the first of the three final shows of NIGHTWISH's"Imaginaerum World Tour", which saw the band and their Jansen playing 104 concerts in 34 different countries, with a total audience of over 1.5 million fans around the globe. Commented NIGHTWISH mastermind and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen: "Our darling flying Dutchwoman, Floor Jansen, has been nothing but incredible during her time in NIGHTWISH on this tour, so this is a perfect opportunity to immortalize the current vibe of the band on film!" Jansen made her live debut as the frontwoman of NIGHTWISH on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington following the abrupt departure of the band's lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon. Holopainen has known Jansen for more than 10 years already, having previously toured with her former band, AFTER FOREVER.
04 min read

ZAKK WYLDE Halloween Costume Now Available

Manos Spanos
A limited-edition Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE) costume beard featuring a black beanie with an embroidered BLS on the front and attached to a long yarn beard can be ordered at BlackLabelSociety.com. BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's new live DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Video, "Unblackened", was released on September 24 by Eagle Rock Entertainment. Wylde's label home, eOne Music, also released the audio version of the "Unblackened" DVD under the same name. The double disc release has six additional tracks not found on the DVD, including two acoustic versions of "Queen Of Sorrow" and "Won't Find It Here", and covers of LEON RUSSELL's "Song For You" and BILL WITHERS' "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone".
01 min read

SLAYER Hopes To Include JEFF HANNEMAN-Penned Material On Next Album

Manos Spanos
Earlier today (Monday, October 7), SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya spoke to Loudwire about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's next studio album — the group's first since the passing of guitarist Jeff Hanneman this past May. "We have two songs," said Araya. He added: "I haven't had the privilege of going through [Jeff's] audio files at the moment, but that's something I plan to do. Once we get some business squared away, that's something I plan to do; to go through his music and see what he has. "I know that he had several ideas together that he had presented to us in the course of the past year. Before he passed away, there was one complete song that he had managed to send to everybody that I listened to and that I thought was really, really good and communicated that to him. There's stuff that I thought would be great to listen to just to see what's there and how we can possibly use what he had done. That's something I have every intension of doing." Araya offered more information about the material that Jeff left behind that may end up on the next SLAYER record. "One song was a song we didn't finish for [2009's] 'World Painted Blood'," he said. "That song is actually complete. Me and Jeff were working on melody and lyric ideas for that song. We weren't really happy with what we were doing or what was becoming of that song, so it didn't make it on the album. It was just something we were working on and we couldn't find anything we were happy with that would work well lyrically and melody-wise, so that's one reason why that one didn't make it on the album, but that song is complete, it's done, it's ready to go." He continued: "I don't want to use the term 'typical' [laughs] but it's Jeff, it's obvious who put the song together. It's Jeff music. He created a certain way and he put music together a certain way; it's signature Jeff. It's new, it doesn't sound like anything else that we've done, in my opinion. Jeff usually just wrote songs and a lot of his stuff had certain signature things he would do to songs. That stuff is in there, but I would consider it new."
03 min read

PHILIP ANSELMO: ‘I Consider Myself An Explorer In Music’

Manos Spanos
Smells Like Infinite Sadness recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current DOWN vocalist Philip Anselmo. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Smells Like Infinite Sadness: When did you decide you wanted to make a solo album? Anselmo: That's a tough thing to pinpoint, but if you look at my track record at all, even when I was in PANTERA and all throughout those crazy years of incredible memories, and, honestly, great success, I was always doing different projects. And really I think as a musician… to be pinned down to one genre, it feels a little bit unfair. I guess I consider myself an explorer in music. You know, DOWN is what is it is: a BLACK SABBATH-based band that happens to have a Southern feel and maybe that's because of where we come from and how we get things across… but we know that at the end of the day when we go to write DOWN music how it's going to turn out and what it should turn out to be. For me as far as doing the solo record… I'm a big fan of extreme music of all sorts, and especially death metal and black metal, and any subgenre that may fall in between the cracks… And I wanted to create a record that I felt was as extreme as anything out there but with perhaps a different twist on its approach, whether it be lyrically or just pure attitude-wise. So whether I've done that, I guess time will tell… so right now DOWN and my solo band (THE ILLEGALS) are my only two working bands, and I'm going to try to keep it like that for semi simplicity, or maybe quasi simplicity's fucking sake. We'll see how it goes from there, man. I have to give a little shoutout to the fact that my solo band has another EP coming out strictly for the [Housecore Horror Film & Music Festival]; it's a two-song, 10-inch vinyl and very different than anything off "Walk Through Exits Only". I think that's its epic in its own way, as a matter of fact. The EP is called "Housecore Horror Film Fest EP"… [I] think the B-side is really one of the most epic songs I've ever written in my life. Smells Like Infinite Sadness: How does the live experience differ from you with DOWN vs. THE ILLEGALS? Does each set feel different for you (for lack of a better term) when playing for an audience? Anselmo: It is different, man. DOWN has been around for a long time. We did our first demo in ‘92, and I guess our first record came out in ‘95… and DOWN has a very strong core fan base whereas THE ILLEGALS are looked at as something new, something different. I think people are still wrapping their heads around it, whereas with DOWN, everyone's familiar with the stuff and they know the personalities on stage and the songs inside and out. So there is a difference there, a different type of energy a different type of approach and a different type of crowd reaction… so it's a little bit different on both scales of the spectrum. But that's fine by me. I'm really cool with the unexpected. It is what it is and that's how the ball bounces and I'll take it.
03 min read

METALLICA’s JAMES HETFIELD: ‘We Want To Make A Record’

Manos Spanos
METALLICA frontman James Hetfield recently spoke to The Detroit News about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to the band's 2008 album "Death Magnetic". "We have been pushing that further and further away," Hetfield said. "We want to make a record, that's what we do best and that’s what we've gotta do in springtime. We've got skeleton bones that we're starting to lay out to make something out of it, but there's a lot of work ahead of us that we're really excited about doing. And that will be next year." Hetfield was also asked if the group planned to stage a third installment of its Orion Music + More festival in Detroit next year, after bringing the show's second edition there last June. The guitarist/vocalist replied: "I sure hope so, that is the plan. The festival itself is not 100 percent greenlit yet. There’s gotta be a powwow where all of us get together and make sure we’re on the same page." This year's Orion two-day event drew at least 20,000 people a day to see METALLICA, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, DEFTONES, SILVERSUN PICKUPS, RISE AGAINST and more. METALLICA surprised fans at Orion Music + More on June 8 by playing its 1983 debut disc "Kill 'Em All" from beginning to end on a smaller stage at the event. METALLICA was officially announced to play a headlining set on June 9 to close out the festival, but hit the stage at 4:30 p.m. one day earlier for a 10-song set that started with "Hit The Lights" and finished out with "Metal Militia".
02 min read

Manos Spanos

Manos Spanos (Metalpaths' co-editor-in-chief), eight years in this site but still can't be characterised as a metalhead.