As a result of label/management hassles Pod People were forced to cancel their show that was scheduled for last Sat 3 May. They apologise to the people that came out to see them and will endeavor to reschedule the show around Aug/Sept this year.
The new Psycroptic album, 'The Scepter of the Ancients' has just been released Australia wide through MGM Distribution. The Tassie death metal band will also be supporting Incantation on their upcoming Australian tour, the Adelaide leg being at Le Rox on Sun 22 June. The other bands on the bill are Slaughter Thou, Oni, Stargazer and Dephiler.
This Sun 18 May will see another huge metal event at Le Rox. 'May Mayhem' will feature 14 bands, including Sydney death/thrash metal bands Descend and Apolyom, as well as local bands Oni, Diatribe (who have just returned from a very successful tour of Queensland), Deluge (who are also about to head interstate), Shotpointblank, Enemy Of?, Raven Black Night, Skintilla, Spyne plus many more.
Having just re-released their CD 'She Was Red Hot' with five new tracks, screamo kids Love Like Electrocution will play the Enigma Bar on Fri 23 May with Horshell Common, The Wick Effect and I Killed the Prom Queen. They will then play O2 Nightclub on Sat 24 May with Back on Track, Paradise Burning, Hi-End Audio, Shotpointblank and Threechainbreak. This is also Threechainbreak's first gig since bass player Amy's car accident. The show starts at 7pm sharp.
Then on Fri 30 May, Melbourne stoner rock'n'rollers Stiff Meat will play the Enigma Bar with Threechainbreak, Enemy Of? and Black Belt Jones, while O2 Nightclub will host 'Leather Fist' with Raven Black Night, Valhull, Star Ten Hash, Oni and One Step Beyond.
The tracklisting for Napalm Death's forthcoming 2-CD best-of-and-rarities package has now been finalised (read it at www.earache.com). The release, entitled 'Noise For Music's Sake', will be available in Australian stores in July.
Slaughter Thou will launch their new CD 'Lest We Forget' on Sat 7 June at O2 Nightclub. 'Lest We Forget' is being released jointly by the band and Dead By Dawn records and features ten tracks of brutal death metal with a militaristic theme. Supports for the launch will be announced soon.
Bay Area thrashers Skinlab have confirmed an Australian tour in early July. They will play the Enigma Bar on Wed 2 July. Meanwhile, the band is currently putting together 'The Nerve Damage Sessions', a collection of alternate versions of studio tracks, several live tracks recorded on the band's 'ReVolting Room' tour, plus a couple of new songs.
Fear Factory drummer Raymond Herrera has vowed to carry on with the group without co-founder Dino Cazares, saying that the guitarist "limited [Fear Factory] more than progressed it" by refusing to allow new ideas to be introduced to the band's sound over the course of the group's 12-year existence. Herrera told Metal Extreme magazine in a lengthy interview that the other members of the group would often come up with new ideas that they wanted to incorporate into Fear Factory's sound, only to have their suggestions dismissed or openly ridiculed, in the process causing a deep-seeded rift between Cazares and Bell that ultimately led to the band's breakup in March 2002. The reformed Fear Factory, now featuring bass player Christian Olde Wolbers on guitar, recorded a four-song demo late last year with a view towards continuing their relationship with Roadrunner Records.
There have been rumours doing the rounds that there will be a one-off Australian festival show featuring Cryptopsy (Canada), Immortal (Norway), Sodom (Germany) and Doro (Germany) in Melbourne in June. There has been no official confirmation of the show, but Australian support acts are understood to be Vanishing Point, Hobbs Angel of Death, Vomitor and Descend.
Dimmu Borgir are currently working on the follow-up to 'Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia' with producer Frederik Nordstråm at Fredman studios. The recording, which is due out in Sept this year, will include a live orchestra to ensure the highest level of authenticity concerning the classical sounds.
Iron Maiden are set to release a double DVD in June this year. With a running time of over 240 minutes, the DVD documents the career of the band which had over 30 hit singles and sold over 50 million albums. For the first time, this collection features a complete video history of every Iron Maiden clip from 1980 to their headliner performance at Rock in Rio in 2001. Plus there will also be over 40 minutes of bonus material and hidden features, including never-before-seen animated versions of six legendary tracks, interactive menus and a discography. Iron Maiden have just completed work on the follow-up to 2000's 'Brave New World'.
Germany's Kreator are also expected to release a double DVD and CD set sometime soon, entitled 'Live Kreation (Revisioned Glory)'. Band mainman Mille Petrozza has spent three months editing the material, which includes behind-the-scenes footage from the 'Velvet Revolution' tour, plus a detailed history of the band including all the official video clips from 1987 to 2001. A deluxe edition containing the DVD and CD versions will come as a four-CD/DVD box set, plus for vinyl lovers, there will be a limited four-LP box containing a large-size version of the 32-page booklet.
