MEGADETH have selected "Die Dead Enough" as the first single from their upcoming CD, "The System Has Failed", due on September 14 through Sanctuary Records. The single will go to metal radio around July 19 and rock radio approximately July 26.

"The System Has Failed" was recorded at Phase Four studios in Tempe, Arizona and is set to feature cover artwork by Ed Repka. Joining mainman Dave Mustaine on the recording are drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist Jimmy Sloas. Additional lead guitar tracks were laid down by former MEGADETH guitarist Chris Poland.

"The System Has Failed" track listing:

01. Blackmail The Universe
02. Shadow Of Death
03. My Kingdom
04. Of Mice And Men
05. Truth Be Told
06. The Scorpion
07. Kick The Chair
08. Something That I'm Not
09. Tears In A Vial
10. Die Dead Enough
11. Back In The Day

The upcoming CD will be preceded by reissues by all seven of MEGADETH's studio albums recorded during the group's tenure with Capitol Records. Mustaine remixed, remastered and restored each album, all of which will feature previously unreleased tracks as well as demos and alternate mixes, and newly penned liner notes.

"The System Has Failed" will be MEGADETH's first since the announcement that Mustaine was disbanding the group following a serious accident in early 2002. At the time, it was unknown if severe nerve damage in his left arm would leave him able to perform again.

Band profile:

Megadeth

In conjunction with MELECHESH's headlining performance at the Northern Lights Festival in Toronto, Canada on June 26, Profound Lore Records, with the express permission of Osmose Productions, will release a limited-edition collector's item MELECHESH 10" vinyl EP, entitled "The Ziggurat Scrolls". The EP, which will first be made available at the festival, will contain the following track listing:

Side A:

01. Tablets Of Fate (new version)
02. A Summoning Of Ifrit And Genii (promo demo '98 version)

Side B:

01. Wardjinn (promo demo '98 version)
02. Of Magick And Reptilians - Instrumental Magick*

* Re-interpretation of two MELECHESH riffs morphed to become an occult ritualistic ambient composition with traditional instruments.

Band profile:

Melechesh

earlier this week, at the club in Slovakia, guitarist Eric Peterson took a
bad fall down a flight of stairs and broke his leg in three places - Eric
has had surgery to put pins in his leg and he will have a full leg cast
and cannot walk - former guitar player Steve Smyth will return to the band
to help finish the tour

Band profile:

Testament

NEW SIGNINGS
SPV / Steamhammer: Type O Negative
Metal Blade: Neaera
Neoblast Records: Red Tide
Deathwish Inc.: Nine
Retribute Records: Strangulation
Hellion Records: Sunseth Midnight

Darzamat's musicians enter the studio to begin recording their fourth album entitled "Semidevilish". - We have prepared ten songs. Most of them are mixture of black and death metal with symphonic and dark atmosphere. As usual for Darzamat, this record will be very hard to classify, but I am sure, that it will be the most powerful and the best album in the history of the band - explains Flauros, Darzamat's vocalist.

Musicians spend time in "Mular Studio" in ¦wiêtoch³owice, in a new studio of Maciej Mularczyk, who produced the last Frontiside band record. - Mular guaranteed, that we will sound like we want. We work with professional, who knows what to do. We are looking forward to the end of this session and we are sure, that sound will surprise everybody - emphasizes Daamr, guitarist and now also bass guitarist.

The band is going to record two video clips. - We have visions of the clip "In Red Iris". It will be recorded in the beginning of July during production "Semidevilish". Later we will produce second clip and it will be "The Darkest One" or "Fistfull of Ashes", we haven't decided yet. I think, that these video clips will be grim and bizarre - explains Nera, vocalist of Darzamat. Damian Wolff, InDread Cold drummer, who produced some video clips for IDC (www.indreadcold.org), will film and make montage.

The interesting fact is five people wrote lyrics for this album. Words were written by Nera, Flauros, guitarist Daamr and two people outside band: Zaakh, keyboarder of InDread Cold and Cezar from Christ Agony. - Most of lyrics were written by me and Nera. But it was interesting experience to co-operate with people outside band. Thanks to that there is a wider view of subjects in lyrics - adds Flauros.

Album will be ready in the middle of July, but shall be released in Autumn this year.

Darzamat experienced big changes some months ago. After eight years co-operation, co-founder Szymon Stru¿ek left band. But after some years returned guitarist Daamr. New members of Darzamat are: vocalist Nera (Midnightdate), drummer Golem (Dragon and ex-Adrenalina) and keyboarder Spectre (who plays also in Division by Zero). - This line up can guarantee the result we had no chance of getting earlier. Nowadays Darzamat presents a higher musical level. We are also better on live and became convinced about it during a recent gig in Moscow. But this is only the beginning of a new stage in the history of Darzamat. We have many new ideas and we have never worked so hard like now - ends Chris, Darzamat's guitarist.

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Band profile:

Darzamat

From Therion website:

"We have since some months a new drummer called Petter Karlsson and after rehearsing for a while with him, playing both new and old songs, I must say it sounds really good. (...)
We have also rehearsed with Matts Lev'en and it sounds really cool, prepare for a different Therion sound un the upcoming festivals and tours!

Regarding singers there is also a big change. As you all know Sarah Jezebel Deva have been singing with us live for quite some years. Well unfortunatly she will not be able to go with us this time due to some health problems. We are very sad about this, but have found a replacement called Karin Fjellander who is a young swedish soprano that have a background as a viola player, but who now study classical vocals since some years.

We have made a death metal project in secrecy called "Demonoid" that will be released in July! It is mainly Kristian and Johans project musically, but I contributed with some riffs, sang on it and made the lyrics".

Source:	megatherion.com
Band profile:	Therion

From the official homepage, some weeks ago (yeah, I know, quite late, but better late then never, right?)

After 3 weeks in Abyss studio the new album entitled FIENDISH REGRESSION is finally finished. 11 tracks were recorded including 9 brand new songs+a cover version of Saint Vitus
classic "Burial at sea" and a re-recording of a old song named "Autopsied" which was originally written and recorded for promotion in 1989.
The cooperation with Tommy and Peter Tägtgren really payed off and we are very satisfied with the result both song and soundwise.
To say that the songs are brutal would be an understatement. The new blood of Pelle Ekegren on the drums really shows through the whole album.
Fast, heavy and brutal is the only way to describe it.
European release through Century Media rec's is planned to late August.

Band profile:

Grave

Due to original vocalist Pay who is studying opera in Leipzig (Germany), she will not tour with Seraphim in this summer.
Ms. Quinn Weng is the new vocalist of Seraphim from April 2004. Pay may be the guest vocalist for Seraphim in the future.

Band profile:

Seraphim

DIO have pushed back the release date new studio album, "Master of the Moon", to September, according to ElectricBasement.com. The follow-up to 2002's "Killing the Dragon" was recorded at a Los Angeles studio and features lyrics that are are "cynical" and "political", with the music being a mixture of up-tempo and doomy tracks, according to frontman Ronnie James Dio. Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "The Man Who Would Be King", "Living A Lie" and "The End of the World". "Master of the Moon" will be released Sanctuary Records in the U.S. and SPV in Europe.

Band profile:

Dio

RAGE guitarist Victor Smolski fell "seriously ill" following the group's performance at the Gods of Metal festival last weekend. Smolski is now "in the hospital" and "he will not take part at the 24h race at the Nürburgring, and he also can't play the Helfenstein concert in Geislingen ," reads a post on the group's web site. Replacing Victor at the Helfenstein festival will be former RAGE guitarist Manni Schmidt. However, the group point out that Manni's appearance with RAGE in Geislingen will be a one-time-only event and no additional joint live appearances are currently planned. Smolski is expected to fully recover in time for the band's performance at the Raismesfest in Raismem, France on September

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Band profile:

Rage

InsideOut site announced the title of the new Dead Soul Tribe album: The January Tree. The album will be release on on 30.08.2004.
for artcover, follow this link:
http://www.insideout.de/indexx.php?arg=AgcEGgRLQUFMXIsB

Canadian death metallers KATAKLYSM plan on taking most of 2005 off to write their next studio album, according to their latest newsletter. " something we have never done before," said KATAKLYSM vocalist Maurizio Iacono. "Even new drummer Martin Maurais only had one month to put all his drum tracks on 'Serenity In Fire'! So with 4 albums out in 5 years, which have all outdone each other and all have been highly acclaimed, we wanna make sure the next one will be up to par. Hell, we want it to be our 'Masters of Puppets', our 'Reign in Blood'!!!...

"Unlike previous statements, the album will not be self-titled. I have a killer title for it and will unleash it when the time comes.

"The reason we are talking about the next album already is because we have so many ideas floating around and the writing level is peaking right now. Brutality is flowing to the next level, so we just wanna start putting shit together and keep working on it 'till it's perfect. We are still extremely satisfied with 'Serenity In Fire', we just feel we have some great momentum and wanna keep moving forward."

With regards to the band's touring plans, Iacono said, "The band is playing for sure in late August at the Up From The Ground Festival in Germany. We will be headlining Saturday the 28th. This will be the only show of the summer for KATAKLYSM. We will debut round 2 of the 'Serenity in Fire' touring campaign this fall. We will start with a massive headlining European tour in October, including a stop to Iceland and followed by another North American tour, if everything goes according to plan."

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Band profile:

Kataklysm

CHILDREN OF BODOM's upcoming EP, Trashed, Lost & Strungout, which is set for a late summer release will feature two new songs, and a number of covers, has been released. ALICE COOPER's 'Bed of Nails', and ANDREW W.K's 'She Is Beautiful' will be the featured cover songs according to Finnish paper Sonera Plaza. The disc was completed, mixed, and mastered just this past April.

Band profile:

Children Of Bodom

DARK TRANQUILLITY guitarist Niklas Sundin has posted the following update at the band's official website:

"Korea, here we come! It just got confirmed that we'll play at the Busan Rock Festival on the 7-9th of August. The exact date will be announced shortly. We're recieving lots of emails from people wondering about the status of the new album, so it's probably time to let you in on some of the news. The recording and mixing of the as-yet-untitled magnum opus is finished, and we'll soon begin work on the mastering. As we're currently in label negotiations with some of the most interesting players out there, it's too early to know any details concerning the release date and so forth, but rest assured that we'll do our best to make the album available to you as soon as possible. A bit late, but nevertheless: Exposures (: In Retrospect and Denial - new two CD collection) made an appearance on the national Swedish chart and reached #85 a mere two days after it was released. No mean feat for a metal compilation album!"

Band profile:

Dark Tranquillity

Legendary U.K. record label Music For Nations ? current home of OPETH and ANATHEMA and past home of METALLICA, CRADLE OF FILTH, TESTAMENT and countless other metal bands ? has officially closed its doors. The company's catalog ? which has previously included titles from artists as varied as LOST HORIZON and FRANK ZAPPA ? will be folded into parent company Zomba Records Group (the world's largest independent music group).

Launched in 1983 by Martin Hooker, Music For Nations established itself as a European leader in the rock and metal world, with early signings like METALLICA (who had three gold albums while on MFN), SLAYER and MEGADETH paving the way. As Music For Nations grew, the company expanded its operation to include not just licensed acts from the USA, but its own signings.