As a preview the first single Cain will be released September 29th, 2003. The single contains a radio edit of the album opener, the straight up-tempo rocker Love In Chains and an exclusive cover-version of the old Wasp classic Sleeping (In The Fire) - everything packed in a nice Digipak with cover artwork by Edlund himself.

Cain pretty much sums up the best parts the Prey album and Tiamat themselves - melodies for eternity, biblical lyrics (though influenced in which direction is up to the listener to decide), hard-rocking guitars and overall Edlund's deep, dark and ...

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JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI, and YNGWIE MALMSTEEN will be teaming up for the G3 '03 tour beginning in early October. The only date announced so far is October 11 in San Diego, California at Humphrey's By The Bay. Tickets for the show go on sale on August 16 at 10:00 a.m., and can be purchased through Ticketmaster. A lot more dates will be announced soon.

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Former JUDAS PRIEST frontman Tim "Ripper" Owens contributed vocals to the upcoming ICED EARTH album, "The Glorious Burden", as a guest singer only and has not yet made up his mind as to whether he will join the band permanently.

Speaking to Canada's BW&BK, ICED EARTH mainman Jon Schaffer clarified Owens' status in the group.

"Tim was hired to do the vocals for the record only," he said. "Two days after we finished, he lost his gig with PRIEST. Obviously this changes things and maybe he will be the new guy someday in the future, but right now he needs some time to figure out what he's going to do."

"Th ...

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The recordings of THUNDERSTONE's untitled second album have begun at Sonic Pump Studios, where the debut album was also recorded, with Nino handling the recording and production departments.

A few song titles so far: ‘Mirror Never Lies’, ‘Until We Touch The Burning Sun’, ‘Drawn To The Flames’ and ‘Tin Star Man’.

With their acclaimed debut album, Thunderstone supported STRATOVARIUS on their Elements Tour, also being voted the Best Newcomer in 2002 by the readers of Germany’s Rock Hard Magazine.

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A two-minute, 21-second MP3 clip from the forthcoming EDGE OF SANITY album, "Crimson II", has been posted online at this location. "Crimson II" (view cover here), due on August 26 through Black Mark Records, is the group's first release since 1997's "Infernal" to feature multi-talented Swedish producer/musician/songwriter Dan Swano.

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More dates have been announced for the forthcoming North American tour featuring KING DIAMOND and ENTOMBED. As exclusively reported here yesterday, the Metal Maniacs magazine-sponsored trek will kick off on October 18 in Los Angeles and will feature KING DIAMOND presenting one of their most elaborate stage performances to date. The veteran Danish metal combo will be touring in support of their new album, "The Puppet Master", which will be released prior to the start of the tour. ENTOMBED's current CD, "Inferno", will not be officially re-issued until early 2004 through Century Media Records (after the initial pressing through Koch In ...

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Swedish thrashers THE CROWN have set an October 20 release date through Metal Blade Records for their new album, "Possessed 13". The self-produced effort, which was recorded at Gothenurg's Studio Fredman during May/June, will be released in a special limited-edition double-CD digipack, featuring a bonus CD that will contain the band's 1993 "Forever Heaven Gone" and 1994 "Forget The Light" demos, a cover of BATHORY's "Burnin' Leather", and a demo version of "Rebel Angel" (off 2000's "Deathrace King" CD).

The complete track listing for the "deluxe" version of "Possessed 13" (view album poster

DREAM THEATER frontman James LaBrie recently spoke to Dabelly.com about the progress of the recording sessions for the group's follow-up to 2002's "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence". "After the tour [with QUEENSRYCHE and FATES WARNING], [we'll take] a week off and then [head back] into the studio to lay [down] vocals. Um, right now we are slated for a release near the beginning of October and that's pretty much has been written in stone as I speak to you now. Give or take a week, you know? We really don't have much time to play with. I have to get back and get the vocals done and then we have to allow time for the mix and packaging and everything ...

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Sweden's FALCONER have finished the recordings for their third album, "The Sceptre Of Deception", due on October 6 through Metal Blade Records.

Says mainman Stefan Weinerhall, "This album is a concept album about greed, falseness and megalomania in the 1300s in Sweden. It is based upon a true story. Actually, a concept album to me is always a bit hard to listen to and sort of strange with all those short 'who cares songs' between the real ones. This one is not like that, but is a normal FALCONER album with some more variations and unexpected turns.

"Well, the fact that we've changed the singer makes it not 100% a 'normal' FALCONER albu ...

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Italy's RHAPSODY have slammed Brazil's ANGRA and SHAMAN over the negative remarks made by the latter two groups in the Brazilian Cover Baixo magazine about the relationship between RHAPSODY and their German producer Sascha Paeth.

In a posting to their official web site, www.mightyrhapsody.com, RHAPSODY guitarist Luca Turilli writes, "It's since 1997 that we are facing lies around our band... We decided to never reply to not place [ourselves] at the same level of these people. But now happened something that we didn't like at all... a lie bigger than ever before...
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