Guitarist Eric Rankins has left the band due to dissatisfaction with the group's musical direction - he will be working on a new black metal project with former Putrid Decay members Paul Stasiak (g) and Eric Lucas (d).

The band has decided that it will not suspend touring activities in North America - instead, the band has ended its working relations with former agency Digger International and has hooked up with Universal Attractions in New York - Kataklysm hopes to tour North America in the new year .

Ozzy Osbourne's 'Down To Earth' has been certified gold by the RIAA - meanwhile, Angra's latest 'Rebirth' went gold in Brazil.

Dave Mustaine is remixing 1985's 'Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good' and has invited original guitarist Chris Poland to get involved - the album is expected next year with bonus tracks and sleeve notes by Scott Ian (Anthrax, S.O.D.).

Steve Tucker has decided to pursue other musical and personal interests and is no longer a member of the band - Jared Anderson (Hate Eternal) will continue to provide bass and vocal duties.

Dimmu Borgir has prepared a new aural assault for the loyal masses. Alive in Torment features five live tracks recorded in Stuttgart, Germany on the Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia tour. Guitarist Silenoz described the limited edition release as “extremely raw and brutal, straight in the face, no power ballads.” The shaped CD was mixed by Peter Tägtgren and will be available through our mailorder the 26th November.

The band is also working on a DVD called World Misanthropy, which should be out in April. When asked about the contents, Silenoz said, “[It] contains lots of live stuff from around the ...

The Fallen stands for uncompromising Thrash/Death Metal and hail from California, USA. They have released an album last year independently and are now ready for the next big step!

Band line-up:
Mike Granat - guitar/lead vocals
Mark Venier - guitar/backing vocals
Bryan Klinger - bass/backing vocals
Max Wolff - drums

The Fallen have just entered the studio three days ago with producer Bill Metoyer to begin tracking their Metal Blade debut, "Front Toward Enemy". Originally scheduled to begin recording early next year, The Fallen have preempted those plans and are to begin work on t ...

The already confirmed bands:

Gamma Ray, Magnum, Symphony X, Titan Force, Rhapsody, Nevermore, Overkill, Vanden Plas, Jag Panzer, Tankard, Paradox, Iron Savior, Rawhead Rexx, S.A. Adams, Rival

Johnny Gioeli and his guys are hard at work in the studio for the new album of Hardline under the direction of producer Bob Burch. Johnny decided, in the end, to entitle the album simply "II" because, he explains, "it is a natural prosecution of what we have started with our debut album" !

Also Johnny has discussed with Neal Schon of Journey the idea of having him as guest on the album. Johnny is thrilled about this possibility and this would surely enhance even further the quality of the forthcoming album. Johnny is very excited with the new songs and looks forward to play them live to the European audience sometime during next year !

At this stage Johnny plans to deliver the finished master before Christmas for a planned release date in Europe and Japan in April 2002.

The last studio album "The Mission", was introduced on the Japanese market by the EP "Intervention - Part 1" a few months ago. This served as a prologue to the story which has been narrated on the last concept album. The whole story is concluded by "Intervention - Part 2". Both songs are to be featured on "The Watchers" for an amazing 18 minutes ...