KISS today announced one of the most spectacular concert events Australia will ever see, Kiss Symphony. Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss announced details of a one-off concert with the 60-piece Melbourne Symphony to be held at Telstra Dome on February 28, 2003. The event will celebrate the band's 30th anniversary, and will be filmed, recorded, and broadcast via pay-per-view around the world.

The idea for the event came from the office of promoter Andrew McManus, who toured with the band in Australia 18 months ago. "Once the idea came to us and we presented it to the band, they were in all guns blazing from day one. This will be undoubtedly one of the most incredible concerts Australia has ever seen and will reach fans all over the world," McManus said. At today's press conference, 14 members of the Melbourne Symphony performed two songs "I Was Made For Loving You" and "Rock'n'Roll All Night", adorned in full KISS makeup!!

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A pre-listening session of five tracks from the forthcoming PARADISE LOST CD, "Symbol Of Life", has been launched online via MTV Germany at this location.

The cuts available for preview are as follows:

01. Isolate
02. Erased
03. Mystify
04. Symbol Of Life
05. Self Obsessed

"Symbol Of Life" is due on October 21 through G.U.N./Supersonic Records in Europe.

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In a very surprising and shocking move, Neal Morse of Spock's Beard has announced his departure from the band. He wishes to pursue his spiritual interests and may be qutting the music business for good (another Cat Stevens like story??). The future of Neal's other band, the Transatlantic project is in jeopardy as well. The following is a statement from Neal:

Dear fans and friends of Spock's Beard,

I'm sorry to say that the rumours are true; I am leaving Spock's Beard for parts unknown. I feel that God wants me to do something else, and I'm not sure why exactly, but it's a feeling I've had for a while. I've been hoping it would change, but it hasn't, and so I'm quitting. ...

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MANOWAR kick off their upcoming tour with the release of a new single, ”The Dawn Of Battle” the third from their Warriors Of The World album. The single features the album's opening song, “Call To Arms” , plus two unreleased tracks, “The Dawn Of Battle”, and “I Believe”. The single will be available in three formats: 1) a standard CD-single with additional enhanced material such as excerpts from a documentary shot during the performance at the Ringfest 2002 in Cologne on August 17, 2002. 2) a premium CD-single with an additional DVD side, featuring the full documentary of the Ringfest 2002 and ...

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According to the band's official website, the new album, Elements Part 1 is finished. It's now off to the record company to master and print the final product. According to Timo Tolkki, this new album will be more epic and uses more orchestrated sounds including choirs on a few tracks. The sound is rumoured to be the best they've ever produced and the album will include a killer track called Stratofortress which is rumoured to be one of the most technically difficult tracks the band has ever recorded. The album is slated for a late January or early February release.

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SEPULTURA finished all the recordings for the upcoming cover songs EP. All 7 tracks are done and Steve Evetts started working on the mixing of the songs. They already have a title for the cover songs EP and the cover artwork is almost done. The CD is going to be released in Brazil in October, the tracklist: 1. Mongoloid (Devo) 2. Angel (Massive Attack) 3. Bullet The Blue Sky (U2) 4. Messiah (Hellhammer) 5. Piranha (Exodus) 6. Mountain Song (Jane's Adiction) 7. Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos (Public Enemy, features rapper Sabotage and DJ Zé Gonzales)

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The "Era One" project, recorded in Switzerland has recently been remixed at Woodhouse studios (Germany). Release date is currently under discussion.

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W.A.S.P. have canceled their US tour scheduled for fall 2002. The band has decided to continue work on the forthcoming studio album, which will be a double record set scheduled for release in the fall of 2003. Due to the enormity and the complexities of what will be a concept/opera, the band feel that they will need as much time as possible in effort to make this forthcoming release everything that it can possibly be. These records will be released as a two part set with the first album being released on Halloween 2003 and the second album Christmas of 2003.

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Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted has officially joined Canadian metal legends, VOIVOD. The band are currently in preproduction and are preparing to enter the studio in mid-October to record 13 tracks for Voivod’s 13th album. As well as playing on the new album, rumor has it that Newsted will also join the band on the road to support the release. The new album is due out on March 4th. Stay tuned to Chophouse Records.com for all access coverage of Voivod in the studio.

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According to Launch, the new BON JOVI album, Bounce, which is due October 8, may not see release on that date because of a lawsuit filed over anti-piracy technology in the record packaging. An anti-piracy service, DownloadCard, is suing the band's parent company, Universal Music. The album will include a serial number in the CD packaging, which will allow users to access exclusive content from the band's website. DownloadCard has filed a claim that it created the program used for access and offered it to the record label. DownloadCard is seeking monetary compensation for damages.

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