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Manos Spanos

AURA NOIR Pays Tribute To SLAYER’s JEFF HANNEMAN At France’s HELLFEST (Video)

Manos Spanos
Fan-filmed video footage of Norwegian black/thrash butchers AURA NOIRperforming a cover version of the SLAYER classic "Fight 'Till Death" as a tribute to late SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman at this year's Hellfest, which was held June 21-23 in Clisson, France, can be seen below. AURA NOIR's fifth full-length album, "Out To Die", was released in March 2012 via Norway's Indie Recordings. "Out To Die" marked the return of guitarist Rune Eriksen (a.k.a. ex-MAYHEM guitarist/songwriter Blasphemer), who resides in Portugal and previously led his own band AVA INFERI. Eriksen made several trips back to Norway to work on the new AURA NOIR songs with Aggressorand Apollyon (guitar, bass, vocals, drums; also bassist in IMMORTAL). Members of SLAYER released a statement on May 9 saying thatHanneman died of alcohol-related cirrhosis. He is credited for writing many of the band's classic songs, including "Angel Of Death" and "South
01 min read

METAL CHURCH: New Album Title Announced

Manos Spanos
Reunited METAL CHURCH — Ronny Munroe on vocals, Kurdt Vanderhoof and Rick Van Zandt on guitars, Steve Unger on bass, andJeff Plate on drums — has set "Generation Nothing" as the title of its new album, due before the end of the year via Kurdt's label Body Of Work Recordings. The CD was recorded at Vanderhoof's English Channel studio in Washingtion. The band previously stated about the new effort: "This could be the best MC record of the METAL CHURCH MK3 era!! Woohooo!!" Munroe said in a recent interview with Metal Assault that the newMETAL CHURCH CD would contain material that is "very reminiscent of the old days with some stuff that's very 'now.'" He added: "There's a bit of… I'm not going to say 'prog' because it's not, but there's a couple of elements in there that are a little bit progressive. For the most part, out of this batch of songs, they really sound more reminiscent of the early days than anything we've done before with this lineup. This excites me very much, and I think the fans are really going to dig it." Regarding the circumstances that led to METAL CHURCH's breakup in 2009, Ronny said: "Well, in a nutshell, without going into a huge and long story here, it was certain aspects of things that had continued to happen to the band throughout its career. Not having the proper management and the proper people in place that were handling us
03 min read

AVENGED SEVENFOLD Singer Breaks Down Three Songs From Upcoming Album

Manos Spanos
AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows spoke to U.K.'s Kerrang!magazine about three of the songs that will appear on the band's sixth studio album, "Hail To The King", due on August 27. The new disc was once again produced by Mike Elizondo and is the first to be wholly written without drummer and key songwriter James "The Rev" Sullivan, who died in December 2009. Sullivan has since been replaced by Arin Ilejay, a former member of CONFIDE. "Shepherd Of Fire" M. Shadows: "This is the very first song. If you just listen to the music, it feels you've been taken down to Hell. From the riffs, to the bells ringing, to the horns, to the drumbeat, it feels like you've been dragged down. It's very like [THE ROLLING STONES'] 'Sympathy For The Devil', in that there's a silver-tongued Devil speaking to you. He's not all about fire and brimstone; he's luring you down and telling you he can make your life better than the guy above. There's a temptation vibe to it, with pure chaos going on behind it."
04 min read

Extract From MINISTRY Mainman’s Memoir Available

Manos Spanos
Metal Forces has exclusively published an extract from the newly released book "Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen", written by MINISTRY mainman Al Jourgensen with Jon Wiederhorn and published through Da Capo Press. A portion of the extract is reprinted below. "You know you're in trouble when you try to say goodbye to your wife and all you can do is gargle blood. I was dying. Well, that was nothing new. I'd tempted fate for more than four decades. I've had kidney failure; liver failure; hepatitis A, B, and C; and I tried to invent D, but all the doctors I saw were too dumb to grasp my creativity. I lost a toe, all my teeth, and nearly an arm, and I'd overdosed on heroin twice and had to be resuscitated. "That's how I was supposed to go out, like a rock-star cliché with a needle in my arm and a groupie on my dick. But that wasn't happening. See, I've always done things back-assward. I became a singer even though I hated singing, sold out to a major record label before anyone even knew who I was, and then wrote slow, desperate, crushing music when everyone wanted to hear fast thrashy stuff.
03 min read

VINNIE PAUL On How Close DIMEBAG Came To Joining MEGADETH (Audio)

Manos Spanos
Cindy Scull of the Dallas radio station 97.1 The Eagle recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current HELLYEAH drummerVinnie Paul Abbott. You can now listen to the chat below. On the differences between European and American heavy metal audiences: Vinnie Paul: "I would just say the main difference is that the people there still live and breathe the music; they really believe in the lifestyle of the music, and they wanna know everything about the bands. That's why some of these bands that have been around forever are still huge there, because [the fans] never forget, they're really into, whereas the U.S. is more 'here today, gone this afternoon' kind of thing. It's really hard to keep staying current here, because people just move on to the next thing so fast." On how MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine has been to tour with on this summer's Gigantour:
02 min read

PHILIP ANSELMO: Entire ‘Walk Through Exits Only’ Album Available For Streaming

Manos Spanos
"Walk Through Exits Only", the his career-first solo album from Philip Anselmo, legendary frontman of PANTERA and DOWN, is available for streaming in its entirety below. Due on July 16 via Anselmo's ownHousecore Records (MRI/Megaforce), "Walk Through Exits Only" will be available digitally, on CD and on vinyl. Produced by Anselmo and Michael Thompson, and recorded over the past couple of years at Philip's New Orleans studio, Nodferatu's Lair, with his band THE ILLEGALS — guitarist Marzi Montazeri(ex-SUPERJOINT RITUAL) and drummer José Manuel Gonzales(WARBEAST) — "Walk Through Exits Only" is abrasive, aggressive, anthemic and 100% Anselmo. The album's eight songs are as unstrained as it gets, from "Battalion Of Zero" to "Usurper's Bastard Rant", to the album's title track that goes against the grain and right through the exits. Brash, brutal guitars cut through punishing percussion as Anselmoscreams with uncompromising ferocity and uncontainable fire. "Walk Through Exits Only" track listing:
07 min read

THE HAUNTED Guitarist: ‘The New Stuff Is Definitely Going To Be Heavy And Fast’

Manos Spanos
David E. Gehlke of DeadRhetoric.com recently conducted an interview with new THE HAUNTED guitarist Ola Englund (also of SIX FEET UNDERand FEARED). A few excepts from the chat follow below. On joining THE HAUNTED: Ola: "[Patrik] Jensen [guitar] gave me a call after he's been watching a lot of my videos, really. Started talking about gear and stuff and he eventually popped the question. I didn't know any one of the guys from before. I've been knowing this for almost six months and it's hard to keep it in, for sure, especially when you're so excited about something. But we kept our cool, which definitely gave the unveiling a lot more impact.” On new THE HAUNTED material:
01 min read

NEWSTED: Audio Sample Of New Song ‘Above All’

Manos Spanos
A 30-second audio sample of the song "Above All" from NEWSTED — the new band led by former METALLICA, VOIVOD and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM bassist Jason Newsted — can be streamed in the YouTube clip below. The track comes off NEWSTED's full-length debut, "Heavy Metal Music", which will be released on August 6 in North America viaChophouse Records/Collective Sounds and August 5 in Europe throughSpinefarm Records. Jason told Billboard.com the 11-song album will be very similar to the band's debut EP, "Metal", which sold around 6,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 62 on The Billboard 200 chart. "The EP was always intended to be the primer, a sampler of what was to come on the LP," he said. "It's all metal all the time. It's not all fast, but it is all heavy." "Heavy Metal Music" track listing: 01. Heroic Dose 02. Soldierhead
02 min read

WITHIN TEMPTATION: Teaser For New Single, Video

Manos Spanos
Dutch female-fronted symphonic metallers WITHIN TEMPTATION have posted a 20-second teaser for their forthcoming single and video. Check it out below. WITHIN TEMPTATION's new album is expected in late 2013 via BMG Rights. The band's fifth studio CD, "The Unforgiving", sold around 12,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 50 on The Billboard 200 chart. Released on March 29, 2011 the effort was produced by Daniel Gibson and is based on a comic book story written by script writer Steven O'Connell (BloodRayne, Dark 48). The band asked comic artist Romano Molenaar (Witchblade, Darkness, X-Men) to draw the characters and scenery of "The Unforgiving", which was made available via Sony Music in Continental Europe and Roadrunner Recordsin the U.S., U.K. and Ireland, Japan and Australia.
01 min read

SONATA ARCTICA To Enter Studio In September

Manos Spanos
According to Timo Isoaho of Finland's Soundi magazine, Finnish melodic metallers SONATA ARCTICA will enter the studio in late September to begin recording their new album for a tentative April 2014 release. VocalistTony Kakko has written around 50 songs for the follow-up to 2012's"Stones Grow Her Name", with plans to track and mix the effort over a three-month period. Regarding the musical direction of SONATA ARCTICA's next CD, Kakkotold Soundi that he has come up with some "diverse and versatile" material this time around, and that "at least the slower and heavier stuff will find its place on next record." The band is planning to make a slightly heavier and "more metal" album than "Stones Grow Her Name", which was certified gold in Finland for sales in excess of 10,000 copies. Kakkoalso revealed that he has composed a 10-minute song for the newSONATA ARCTICA LP, but he wasn't sure if the track was going to make its way onto the finished product. Released in Europe on May 18, 2012 and in North America on May 22, 2012 via Nuclear Blast Records, "Stones Grow Her Name" was recorded in several studios all over Finland, mixed at Sonic Pump Studios by Mikko Karmila and mastered at Chartmakers by Svante Forsbäck. The effort was released as a limited-edition digipak, standard jewel case, vinyl and download.
01 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.