SAXON have confirmed via their official web site that they have been forced to postpone their previously announced March European tour as a result of the band's frontman Biff Byford suffering a major loss when his house in the Normandie area of France burned down. According to a statement from the band's management, Biff, his wife and their children got out of the house at the very last minute and nobody was hurt. The European tour dates are expected to rescheduled for later this year.

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A brand new OVERKILL track, entitled "Within Your Eyes", is available for download at this location.

"Within Your Eyes" comes off the group's new album, "ReliXIV", due on March 22 via Eagle Rock/Spitfire Records.

"ReliXIV" track listing:

01. Within Your Eyes
02. Love
03. Loaded Rack
04. Bats In The Belfry
05. A Pound Of Flesh
06. Keeper
07. Wheelz
08. The Mark
09. Play The Ace

TESTAMENT lead vocalist Chuck Billy and founding guitarist Eric Peterson have announced that original guitar player Alex Skolnick and original bassist Greg Christian (HAVOCHATE), along with previous TESTAMENT drummer Johnny Tempesta (HELMET, ex-ROB ZOMBIE), will be joining them for a reunion tour of Europe, taking place between May 7 and May 15 ONLY. The tour will last for a total of nine shows, according to the group's management.

Each of the other three musicians has other bands, projects, and recordings coming out, but they have all agreed to join forces with Chuck and Eric to blow out this li ...

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German power metallers HELLOWEEN have amicably parted ways with drummer Stefan Schwarzmann. The former RUNNING WILD/U.D.O. drummer, who played the drums during the pumpkinheads' "Rabbit Don't Come Easy" world tour, will not be playing for the Hamburg-based band any longer. During the tour it became apparent to Stefan and to the rest of the members of HELLOWEEN that, although things were going extremely well on the human side of things, Stefan and the band did not entirely share the same views musically. Stefan decided to stay to help out the band during their pre-production for the new studio album until a replacement was found. ...

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A brand new BIOMECHANICAL track, entitled "Empires of the World", has been made available for download at this location.

"Empires of the World" is the title track of the U.K. progressive epic thrash metallers' sophomore album, "Empires of the World", due in early May via Elitist/Earache Records.

The follow-up to 2003's "Eight Moons" (Revolver Records) was recorded by vocalist Jon K and mixed by Andy Sneap (MACHINE HEAD, NEVERMORE, ARCH ENEMY, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE) at Sneap's own Backsta ...

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MARDUK drummer Emil Dragutinovic had his arm broken during a fight with several men Saturday night (Feb. 12) (Emil was reportedly trying to protect himself from a swinging bat) and will spend the next few weeks recuperating. Consequently, all of the band's previously announced shows for February/March have been cancelled, but will be rescheduled as soon as more information about the injury is received.

MARDUK's ninth full-length album, "Plague Angel", is scheduled for U.S. release on March 8. The album was issued in Europe in late November via Blooddawn/Regain Records.

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Melissa Ruggieri of TimesDispatch.com has issued the following report:

It didn't surprise Chris Adler, drummer for LAMB OF GOD, that the band was unceremoniously yanked from an April gig at the Great Western Forum outside Los Angeles because of the band's name and its former moniker, BURN THE PRIEST.

What did surprise Adler was the attention and publicity given to the story since last week. Within a day of the announcement that Richmond-based LAMB OF GOD was banned from playing an April 9 show at the Forum (formerly home to the L.A. Lakers) with S ...

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Italian symphonic metal band RHAPSODY have posted the following message on their official web site:

"Today RHAPSODY confirmed their first live shows in three years. This announcement has been long anticipated and the band are very excited and are sworn to bring the world of metal and their fans the biggest and best RHAPSODY production and the greatest show ever. The band are getting ready to begin rehearsals and are at this very moment designing their one of a kind epic stage. Please take note that this is not a tour and these are exclusive shows at this time there are only two shows scheduled for 2005.

"The first exclusive appearance will be the ' ...

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Guitarist Sami Lopakka of the Finnish metallers SENTENCED has posted the following message on the group's official web site:

"We'd better put this out in the open before you hear it somewhere else.

"The title of the new album is 'The Funeral Album', and with it we, SENTENCED, are coming to the end of our road. This album will be our last one.

"The decision is mutual, thoroughly thought over and final.

"Metaphorically speaking, this is a mass suicide of five, and the new album is the kind of note we want to leave behind. One last time around for good-byes.

"The decision was made during 2004. The reasons are many, and I don ...

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RAMMSTEIN will release the fourth single from their "Reise Reise" CD, "Keine Lust" (view cover here), on February 28. The exact track listing and the international release dates will be announced soon.

The "Keine Lust" video received its MTV premiere on Thursday (Feb. 3) and will be broadcast exclusively on the cable channel for a week. The Viva premiere of the video will take place on February 10 during the program "17" (broadcast time 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.). The clip was directed by Jörn Heitman, who had previously helmed the gr ...

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