According to 7Days.ae, British heavy metal legends SAXON will not be performing at this year's Dubai Desert Rock Festival — set to take place on March 16 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates — because one of their songs from the 1980s includes lyrics about freeing the Holy Land and spilling Muslim blood.

Concert organizers Centre Stage Management (CSM) said yesterday (March 12) that Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) had withdrawn permission for the band to perform on Thursday "without citing a specific reason."

However, CSM said that controversy created b ...

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Heavy Metal has long been a stigmatized musical genre characterized by aggressive rhythms, dark lyrics and satanic worship. "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" is a ground-breaking film that explores the history of how these stereotypes came to be and explains the motivation and truth behind the music through candid interviews with metal icons, including Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Dee Snider, Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Bruce Dickison, Lemmy Kilmister and many more.

"Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" two-disc set will be released by Warner Home Video on May 23, 2006 for $24.98 just in time for metal's most popular music ...

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Australia's dark-metal-hybrid act VIRGIN BLACK will follow up their well-received 2003 offering "Elegant...and Dying" by releasing three albums simultaneously in 2006 on The End Records. Each CD is "a separate entity, but each is also linked through recurring musical themes and artistic motifs," according to a press release. "When fully unfurled in all its grandeur, listeners will experience a grandiloquent two-and-a-half hour requiem mass with three stages of evolution."

The three albums are described in the following way:

* "Requiem – Pianissimo" is an entirely classical album with instrumentation performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra< ...

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Norwegian black metallers KEEP OF KALESSIN, featuring Obsidian C. (a.k.a. Arnt Grønbech, also a touring guitarist for SATYRICON) on guitars/bass/synth, have finalized the track listing for their new album, "Armada", due in Norway on April 3 (April 24 in the rest of Europe) via Tabu Recordings (a division of Tuba Records). The new CD is the group's first with vocalist Thebon, who made his live debut with the band during their live shows in 2005, including the Eastern European tour with EXODUS and HYPOCRISY in December. b>Vyl is playing drums on the album and a new bass player, Wizziac, is being introduced. MA ...

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PECCATUM, the Norwegian band featuring EMPEROR frontman Ihsahn and his wife Ihriel, have issued the following statement:

"After eight years of creating within the borders of PECCATUM, Ihsahn and Ihriel have decided to go elsewhere with their music. Ihsahn is going solo and Ihriel will continue her work in STAR OF ASH. They both still run Mnemosyne Productions and Symphonique Studio, and will definitely continue to explore the outer boundaries of dark music in many years to come — 'To boldly go where no man has gone before.' Ihriel and Ihsahn would like to take the opportunity to thank a ...

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Billboard.com is reporting that Ozzy Osbourne, who will be inducted — along with the rest of BLACK SABBATH — next week into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a New York ceremony, plans on returning to the recording studio this year.

"I'm gonna get with [guitarist] Zakk [Wylde] soon and start hopefully writing a new studio [album]. I've gotta get a studio album this year," Osbourne tells Billboard.com. "I'm well overdue."

Osbourne is also still involved in the musical "Rasputin", which has been a wo ...

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VICIOUS ART, the Swedish death/thrash metal band featuring former DARK FUNERAL members Matias Mäkelä and Robert Lundin, along with Jörgen Sandström (THE PROJECT HATE, ex-ENTOMBED, GRAVE) on bass, have posted a brand-new three-song EP, "Weed the Wild", on their official web site, ViciousArt.se. The tracks available for download are as follows:

01. Weed the Wild
02. Tanja Joins the Beating
03. Exit Wounds

"Weed the Wild" was recorded at the Offbeat studios in Stockholm in February 2006 and contains material that "will not be re-recorded [for] a future release," according to the band.

VICIOUS ART's debut album, "Fire Falls and the Waiting Waters", is now available via Threeman Recordings (Europe) and Candlelight Records (U.S.).

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ANOTHER LIFE, the Swedish project featuring Andreas Karlsson (ex-PAGANIZER, RIBSPREADER) and Dan Swanö (EDGE OF SANITY, BLOODBATH, PAN THY MONIUM), will release their debut album, "Memories from Nothing", on March 20 via VIC Records. A teaser MP3 containing selections from the album can be downloaded at this location.

"Memories from Nothing" (view cover here) projected track listing:

01. Firstborn Unicorn
02. Falling Apart
03. The End Of Days
04. I Am Nothing
05. Cotton Pines
06. Everlasting
07. The Last Goodbye
08. The Everflow
09. Poltava (Part I, Part II, Part III)

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London-based "extreme power metal" band DRAGONFORCE have added two North American headlining dates as part of their "Inhuman Rampage World Tour". The band's schedule is now shaping up as follows:

Apr. 28 - Toronto, ON @ Opera House
Apr. 29 - Montreal, QC @ Medley
Apr. 30 - Worcester, MA @ New England Metal and Hardcore Festival
May 01 - New York, NY @ Avalon
May 03 - Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
May 04 - West Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
May 05 - Cleveland, OH @ Agora Ballroom
May 06 - Chicago, IL @ Metro
May 08 - Denver, CO @ Cervantes
May 10 - San Francisco, CA @ The Pound
May 11 - Los Angeles, CA @ Whisky

Support at the shows will come f ...

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A .ZIP file containing the title track from FRAGMENTS OF UNBECOMING's upcoming sophomore album, "Sterling Black Icon", has been made available for download at this location. Due on March 24 via Metal Blade Records, the follow-up to 2004's "Skywards – A Sylphe's Ascension" was recorded at PMT and Sound Tunnel studios and will contain the following track listing:

01. Carmine Preface
02. Sterling Black Icon
03. Weave Their Barren Path
04. Dear Floating Water
05. Breathe In the Black To See
...

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