Great Shows Heading to D/FW
Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament barge into Dallas on August 22 at superpages.com, that’s Starplex/Smirnoff/whatever… There’s a Paganfest at the Ridglea on May 15, featuring metal Vikings TYR, along with Turisas, Ensiferum and Eluveitie. It’s TYR’s first North American tour and is in support of their upcoming Napalm Records album, Land…
On the other side of the pond, the reunited Carcass will play a number of European festival shows this summer including Sweden Rock, Hellfest, Tuska and the grand daddy of them all, Wacken…

Quotable “The essence of rock ‘n roll is loud music. How the hell can we be expected to enjoy ourselves if we’ve got to turn it down?” – Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister on being told to turn down the music.

Releases
The long awaited Judas Priest album Nostradamus will be released June 17 through Epic Records… Candlelight Records has set a June 10 release date for the new Headhunter album featuring Destruction vocalist / bassist Schmier… Metal Mind Productions will re-release Hypocrisy’s 1992 debut album Penetralia in a limited-edition digipack on July 8 in America and May 12 in Europe. Go figure. Metal Mind will also re-release Slaughter’s 1986 debut, Strappado, and Not Dead Yet / Paranormal compilation album from 2001 on July 8. Now this is NOT the Slaughter that recorded, “Up All Night, Sleep All Day”…
Los Angeles-based black metal band Sothis has finished mixing De Oppresso Liber… Sweden’s Unleashed will release their ninth full-length album, Hammer Battalion through SPV Records in North America on June 10… Mekong Delta’s new one, Lurking Fear, is out through Locomotive Records… Raven has completed mixing for their upcoming disc Walk Through Fire…
An anthology of Burzum music appropriately titled Anthology will be out on May 13 in the US through Candlelight Records… Kreator has completed seven tracks for their upcoming/untitled CD, whereas American thrashers Hirax have recorded six new tracks for new one, El Rostro de la Muerte… Bloodbath is currently working in the studio on their third full length and, at this time untitled, album…

For the Collector
Slayer’s classic Live Undead and Haunting the Chapel releases have been issued in a combo numbered edition, blue spattered vinyl through Nuclear Blast Records. This is a strictly limited run of 500 copies…

Signings
France’s Glorior Belli and Sweden’s IXXI have signed deals with Candlelight Records… Word is that Bay Area thrashers are in talks with Forbidden about recording a new studio album along with a new full-length live CD to be recorded on the band’s upcoming European tour. Sounds very metalogical… Australia’s Temujin has signed with Renaissance Records… Funeral has extended their contract with Regain Records…

Rambling On
Celtic Frost singer/guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer has announced his departure from the band “due to the irresolvable, severe erosion of the personal basis so urgently required to collaborate within a band so unique, volatile, and ambitious.” Fischer should follow the KISS format - Keep It Short and Simple…

Local Ties
A picture book celebrating the life of local boy turned Metal Guitar God, Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott, compiled by brother Vinnie Paul and father Jerry Abbott, is slated for a summer release. Here’s hoping for unreleased early pictures from the infamous gigs at the Arlington Skating Rink and Southern Palace at Six Flags in 1984… Pantera Ave street signs in Mesa, Arizona, have become the city’s most-stolen street sign...

Just Release It
Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal, a documentary profiling the thrash metal scene of the early eighties and its impact on the music scene has had its projected DVD release date pushed back to August from the previously announced May. This DVD is becoming the Chinese Democracy of DVD’s…

Gwar Mortis
Casey Orr (Rigor Mortis) will slip back into once again the role of Beefcake with Gwar…

Personnel
Pitchblack has parted ways with guitarist Trold… Forbidden has tapped former Machine Head’s skin man Chris Kontos for their upcoming European Tour…

Elementary school metal (or... never happen here!)
Norwegian Viking metal band Helheim celebrated the release of its brand new studio album, Kaoskult, by performing at a public kindergarten. The band played two songs acoustically from the disc as well as telling tales of Norse mythology to the young lads…

High school metal
The 1983 yearbook from the South Gate High School in South Gate, California, featuring some of the earliest pictures of SLAYER was auctioned recently on Ebay with a final winning bid of $202.50. The annual featured some of the earliest photos of the band from circa 1982, before the Show No Mercy era of Slayer history…

Middle school metal
An angry mob of teens attacked three emo kids in the central Mexican city of Queretaro, setting off a wave of anti-emo violence that spread from the capital of Mexico City to the border towns of Tijuana and Juarez.

Business
Eulogy Recordings and Hand of Hope Records today announced that RED Distribution is their exclusive physical and digital distributor for North America... Entertainment merchandising and licensing company Merch Co International, the UK-based European counterpart to The Merchandise Company based in Long Beach, California, has entered into a merchandising agreement with Century Media Records.

Megadeth - at the forefront of metal for two decades Photo: Randy Bookout

Megadeth/In Flames/Children Of Bodom/Job For A Cowboy/High On Fire – Nokia, 4/15/08
For this year’s Gigantour line up, Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) brought out the heavy artillery. First up was Oakland’s High On Fire. The doom metal trio trudged along, delivering a good dose of music from their recent release, Death Is This Communion.
Job For A Cowboy kept the sonic assault coming with Jonny Davy’s guttural roar, accompanied by the twin barrage of guitarists Ravi Bhadriraju and Bobby Thompson.
Finland’s Children Of Bodom served up the next round of metal beat down, opening with the crushing “Sixpounder.” COB’s set included plenty of guitar heroics from singer/guitarist Alexi Laiho on new tracks “Hellhounds On My Trail” and “Blooddrunk” from Blooddrunk, which hit shelves earlier that day.
Next up were Swedish giants, In Flames, also supporting a new release – A Sense Of Purpose. With an extensive catalog, In Flames delivered an explosive set with new songs “The Mirror’s Truth” and “Disconnected,” along with favorites like “Take This Life,” “Cloud Connected,” “The Quiet Place,” and “Come Clarity.”
Megadeth showed the crowd what’s kept them at the forefront of metal for the past two decades. Relying on their vast catalog, they unleashed the fury with new songs like “Sleepwalker,” “Gears Of War” and “Washington Is Next.” However, the real crowd pleasers were “Hangar 18,” “Symphony Of Destruction,” “Peace Sells” and “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due.” This was one hell of package! (Travis Tutwiler)

Ministry - The Palladium, 4/17/2008
This show felt like a rave with sweat, aggression and hell’s house band Ministry as the master of ceremonies. With a resume dating back 25 years, Al Jourgensen had no problem winning over the crowd with classics like “Lies, Lies, Lies,” “N.W.O” and “Just One Fix.” The band slipped in tunes off new album, The Last Sucker, although the crowd really craved the nostalgic older stuff.
The evening even had a special ending with the Hell Paso natives playing a tribute to fellow Texans ZZ Top - doing “Just Got Paid” with their own blend of synth and scowls. Ooh, and there were Ministry balloons that dropped at the end, just like prom - minus the pig’s blood!
With this being Ministry’s farewell tour, people did everything short of selling their children for $50 tickets to this show. And it was well worth it get one last fix. (Marissa Bruce)

Mourning Beloveth - A Disease For The Ages, Grau Records
Mourning Beloveth delivers plenty of Irish doom metal on A Disease For The Ages. There is a ton of guitar melody lines running throughout the five-song, 56-minute disc. At times they are reminiscent of the early Metallica instrumental passages, while the chugging rhythms speak of a darker Black Sabbath. Darren Moore (vocals) delivers deep, bellowing vocals, but slips in an occasional mid-range harmony the hints to early Geoff Tate (Queensryche) or Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden). However, there’s not enough of this to change the monotony. The music is strong but, at times, tends to be redundant. If you like your doom metal slow and full of weaving melody lines, then give this disc a shot.
(Travis Tutwiler)

Burned In Effigy - Burned In Effigy, Self Release
This New London, CT quartet mixes up the old school metal and gives it a modern twist. You get hints of Slayer on “Six Days,” while “One” comes across as a simplified Shadows Fall tune. Jared Meekhoff’s vocals have a nice Layne Staley (Alice In Chains) vibe, at times. But, more times that not, they come across as a poor man’s Phil Anselmo-scream. The drums sound flat, but it may be a product of the low production quality of the disc. Alex Meekhoff’s guitar playing is definitely the highlight, especially on “War Inside,” which has a nice, hard southern groove to it. I’d like to see these guys live to get more of a feel for their sound that may not have been captured on this release.
(Travis Tutwiler)