Swedish metallers EVERGREY have issued the following update:

"Could you become the next bass player for EVERGREY? You sure could! Now is the time and here is your chance. You should be either living in Sweden or be able to move here. Please send your bio, pic and samples (either video or mp3) of your playing to tom@evergrey.net. All entries will be viewed and decided upon and we will announce when the time comes ...

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Oidium Publishing will release the third annual "Wacken - Metal Dream Girls Calendar" on July 1. Check out sample photos from the calendar at this location.

The girls featured in the calendar were selected from more than 2,000 hopefuls via an Internet-based voting system at www.metaldreamgirls.de. The winners were then invited to last year's Wacken Open Air festival, where the final photos were shot.

This year, for the first time, 13 male candidates will be selected to appear in t ...

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KILLSWITCH ENGAGE has tapped Brian Thompson to direct its video for the cover of the DIO classic "Holy Diver". The shoot will take place in the Calistoga, California area the weekend of June 16-17.

Commented Thompson: "We need a good crowd of medieval period people from the era of the knights in shining armour (please forgive my lack of specific knowledge of what era in time this is; I know th ...

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Norwegian heavy rockers SAHG, who feature in their ranks members of GORGOROTH, MANNGARD and AUDREY HORNE, have issued the following update:

"The second SAHG album is set for an October release [via Regain Records]. The specific date is not confirmed yet, but will be shortly. The band has completed the material, and will re-enter the studio within the next few weeks to complete the recordings. More news on this coming shortly."

SAHG is being assisted in the studio by Brynjulv Guddal, who is doing triple duty as drummer, engineer and co-producer.

SAHG was recently voted "Norwegian Band of the Year" by the list ...

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Andreas Aubert of Imhotep webzine recently conducted an interview with IMMORTAL guitarist Demonaz. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Imhotep: It will be seven concerts this year?

Demonaz: "Yes.

Imhotep: After that, what's next?

Demonaz: "Studio album. Abbath and I are working with the material. Abbath has also started to rehearse the songs with Horgh."

Imhotep: Appolyon, is he stand-in?

Demonaz: "No, he is a fullworthy member of the band. A new studio album will be the next thing after these concerts.”

Anneke van Giersbergen, singer for world-renowned Dutch rock act THE GATHERING, has decided to pursue new goals in life and music.

In a statement from van Giersbergen, she says:

”Dear people, I wanted to send out this message to all of you to inform you that I have decided to leave The Gathering. After much consideration and some serious soul searching, I feel that it is time for me to change my direction in life and develop and search out new goals.

In all the wonderful years that I have been a part of The Gathering, we, as a band, have always strongly believed in sincerity: both personally and within our music. I have always been able to give one hundred percen ...

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Nearly ten years since X JAPAN's New Year's "farewell" concert and nine years after the death of the band's influential lead guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto, X JAPAN has officially reformed and is planning a new tour and single, tentatively due before the end of 2007.

According to an article in the Japanese newspaper Sponichi, X JAPAN founder Yoshiki summoned former vocalist Toshi to Los Angeles in November 2006 to work on a song that was written as a tribute to late guitarist Hide, entitled "Without You" (originally released instrumentally on Yos ...

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After three months of auditions, Nebraska extreme power metallers CELLADOR have announced the addition of drummer Rick Halverson to the group's ranks.

"Wow! I'm so excited about the new music and lineup!" commented Halverson. "We've all known each other for a while and it just seemed like a no-brainer decision for me to join the band. We're gonna blow some minds...that's for sure!!"

Baz Anderson of MetalStorm.ee recently conducted an interview with MASTERPLAN/ex-HELLOWEEN guitarist Roland Grapow. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

MetalStorm.ee: So how well do you think the album "MK II" has come across?

Roland: I think pretty good, honestly, because I think people, you know, lost a bit of faith in this band and when we released the album of course many people checked it out to see "how bad we are" — but people were surprised that nothing really changed so much, I mean the music is still the same kind of style and yeah, it's good. We did our b ...

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Chad Bowar of About Heavy Metal recently conducted an interview with CELTIC FROST mainman Tom Gabriel Fischer. An excerpt from the chat follows:

About Heavy Metal: You've been on the road with TYPE O NEGATIVE for about a month. How has it been going?

Tom Gabriel Fischer: It's fantastic. Both bands are mutual fans of each other. We have a very good relationship with them. The only thing that's difficult sometimes is that since we are not playing huge places a lot of times, the stage size is really small. Sometimes we have to make do with very l ...

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