Pyramaze have announced that the followup to Melancholy Beast will be titled Legend of the Bone Carver. This will be a full fledged concept album and the artwork is being done by Mattias Noren. More details will be revealed at a later date.

In related news you can check out updates on the recording of Legend of the Bone Carver through the official forum at UltimateMetal.com.

Hello Metalreviews readers!

Well here is the first Metalreviews exclusive studio report from the Pyramaze camp. We have been holed up in the studio now for 5 days, and this has been enough to get Morten’s drums and Niels’ bass done so far. It has been a long and tedious journey so far, yet we still have 11 days of recording left to do. Michael started his guitars yesterday, and I can already tell that this album will completely crush you all! I can promise you that this will surpass all your expectations ten fold, on every possible level. For pictures and a video clips of the action you can just go to our official forum at www.ultimatemetal.com [click on the link below the article]. I can’t wait to get started on the keyboards, but in the mean time, it is a spiritual experience to listen to my fellow Pyramaze brothers do what they do best….

May liquid metal flow through your veins- jonah

Taken from the official VELVET CACOON webpage, hosted by Blazing Productions (http://www.blazing.ws/ -> Legions -> VELVET CACOON):

Dear cosmonauts & sybarites,

There comes a time when one needs to take a bow, draw the curtains and call it a night. So now is the case with VELVET CACOON. Our desires have been fulfilled and there is nothing more left to say. Members of the band will continue to separately pursue other avenues of art, literature and music but VELVET CACOON and what it stood for has been put to sleep.

We endlessly thank our half brothers at Full Moon Productions and we can only hope that the "December Star Embassy" trilogy, our masterwork, will continue to serve that strange ardor within all who feed on the serenity of solitude. May your bellies ripen.

Goodnight, goodbye, sleep well. Summer awaits.

-LVG

AURA NOIR bassist/vocalist Ole Jørgen Moe (a.k.a. Apollyon) has issued the following update on the condition of AURA NOIR guitarist Carl-Michael "Aggressor" Eide (INFERNÖ, VIRUS, VED BUENS ENDE, ex-CADAVER, ex-DHG), who fell from (or jumped off, depending on whose story you believe) a five-story building in Oslo, Norway on March 26:

"Aggressor is still being kept unconscious after his leap from fourth floor last Saturday. He's made it through two major surgeries lasting close to 20 hours each. Doctors are still not certain whether he will be paralyzed from the waist down or not. They were threatening to amputate his legs last night, but having had a closer look today they deci ...

German power metallers Blind Guardian have parted ways with longtime drummer Thomen Stauch. Frontman Hansi Kürsch's official statement on the matter reads as follows:

"No news is good news. This obviously is bad news. After walking along the same musical paths for about 20 years and after several long, open and honest discussions between the four band members, we have all (including Thomen) come to the same conclusion that it is now best for Thomen to leave the band.

"Since we developed different musical and personal directions for quite a while now, it turned out to be more and more difficult to find acceptable and suitable solutions for everyone in the band. ...

According to the U.K.'s Terrorizer magazine, Carl-Michael "Aggressor" Eide (AURA NOIR, INFERNÖ, VIRUS, VED BUENS ENDE, ex-CADAVER, ex-DHG) fell from (or jumped off, depending on whose story you believe) a five-story building in Oslo, Norway on Saturday (March 26). He is currently undergoing extensive surgery and the outcome is still not determined. Friends, family and fans all over the world are in shock and can only hope that he'll pull through and make as complete a recovery as possible.

Metal Reviews wishes the best for Carl-Michael Eide.

A representative at DIMMU BORGIR's management company, Dirk Zeiser of Direct Management, has confirmed to BLABBERMOUTH.NET that MAYHEM's Jan Axel Blomberg (a.k.a. Hellhammer) will play on the next DIMMU BORGIR CD as a session drummer (as first reported here on March 30). The Norwegian symphonic black metallers had previously utilized the services of NILE's Tony Laureano and Reno Kiilerich (PANZERCHRIST, EXMORTEM, VILE) as touring members following the departure of Nick Barker (ex-CRADLE OF FILTH) in early 2004.

DIMMU BORGIR recently announced plans to re-record their second album, "Stormblåst" (originally released in 1996 via Cacophonous Records) later in the year. No further information is currently available.