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KEEP IT TRUE Organizers Canceled DARK ANGEL’s Appearance

Manos Spanos
"Keep It True stands for many years for honesty and credibility and we fear that these actions around the DARK ANGEL reunion can put damage on the good name of the festival. So we decided that NO version of DARK ANGEL will play on Keep It True 2014. We do not want to be in the middle of a fight where there is no end in sight. "I hope you all understand our decision. We know some of you will be disappointed, but this is the only way for us. We will now look for a different Saturday headliner." DARK ANGEL's management issued a statement yesterday accusing the band's original lead singer, Don Doty, of displaying a "lack of responsibility" by posting "false information" and starting "unfounded rumors" that have been "creating confusion" among the group's fans. The management confirmed that DARK ANGEL will reform for a limited number of appearances in 2014 with a lineup that will feature Gene Hoglan (drums), Jim Durkin (guitar), Ron Rinehart (vocals) and Michael Gonzalez (bass). Doty made an online posting earlier this week in which he claimed that Hoglan would not take part in the DARK ANGEL reunion because Gene was "unable to make the practices" due to his "many commitments." DARK ANGEL guitarist Jim Durkin said in a statement last month that any talk of the band's reunion was "premature," and added that "when I was last in the band, Ron Rinehart was my singer. And IF the band were to come back and continue. he would STILL be my singer. He was our rock when we needed him and there is NO WAY I would do this without him. He and I talk daily and are as close now as ever. If anything, all this talk has brought us all back into more frequent contact! Which is a wonderful thing."
04 min read

DARK FUNERAL Reissues Detailed

Manos Spanos
After recently signing to Century Media Records for their upcoming studio album, Swedish black metallers DARK FUNERAL are now ready to present a series of stunning reissues for their previous six albums that offer melodic yet blasting satanic hymns in absolute perfection. Created with the band's close cooperation, the first batch ofDARK FUNERAL reissues covers the self-titled MCD (plus bonus material), "The Secrets Of The Black Arts" (including the remixed/remastered eight-track Unisound mix as a bonus), and "Vobiscum Satanas" (including live tracks). These titles will be released in Europe on September 9 and in North America on November 12 via Century Media Records. In regards to these upcoming re-issues (plus DARK FUNERAL's new vocalist search), the band's mastermind, Lord Ahriman (guitar), comments: "I'm proud to announce that we are finally doing proper re-issues of our classic albums through Century Media. And to really spice things up, I have dug deep into my personal photo archives to come up with some killer photos/flyers, previously mostly unseen by the public eye. These will be the definite versions of our classic albums, especially the nice vinyls! Each album also contains detailed liner notes — and besides
04 min read

DARK TRANQUILLITY: Bassist-Less With ‘Great Results’

Manos Spanos
Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILLITY have issued the following update: "As most of you know, we're hard at work preparing the live set for the upcoming 'Construct' touring cycle. Spirits are high and we're confident that we have a lot of very special shows ahead of us. Those of you located on the North American continent will be pleased to know that we'll announce some good news tomorrow. "On another note: Those of you who have seen us play this year might have noticed that we haven't had a bass player on stage. "'Construct' was written and recorded as a five-piece, and since the band chemistry is at an all-time high and we've never been the ones to shy away from new creative solutions, we wanted to try out playing with the bass on a backing track as opposed to bringing more flesh and blood to the fold. Much to our delight, the results have been great, and we have decided for now to let the band be represented on stage by the five people who have spent a total of more than 100 years in the service of DARK TRANQUILLITY." DARK TRANQUILLITY's tenth studio album, "Construct", was released on May 27 via Century Media Records. The CD was mixed by Jens Bogren (PARADISE LOST, OPETH, KATATONIA) at his Fascination Street studios in Örebro, Sweden. DARK TRANQUILLITY filmed a music video for the song "Uniformity" on April 13 with Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, IN FLAMES, SONIC SYNDICATE and KAMELOT, among others.
03 min read

TARJA TURUNEN: Part One Of ‘Colours In The Dark’ Track-By-Track Breakdown (Video)

Manos Spanos
The first in a series of clips featuring a track-by-track breakdown of former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen's forthcoming album, "Colours In The Dark", can be seen below. Tarja Turunen released a new single, "Victim Of Ritual", as a digital download, CD single and on seven-inch vinyl on July 12 via earMUSIC, the Hamburg, Germany-based international rock label which is part of Edel Group. The official "Victim Of Ritual" video can be seen below. An evocative snare-drum that sounds like it was coming from a mysterious place, the tender sound of an orchestra joins followed by a familiar and seductive melody played by an oboe. When Tarja's distinctive voice resounds through the speakers, her warm timbre fills the room. Her melody is full of emotions and tender, before the song explodes into an epic, heavy chorus: "Hysterical, tragical, Victim of ritual, Cynical, critical, Victim of ritual, She's a killer, killer, She's a killer, killer." Inspired by the one-movement orchestral piece "Boléro" by Maurice Ravel, the almost-six-minutes-long "Victim Of Ritual" is the first single from Tarja's forthcoming album, "Colours In The Dark". Both physical releases will surely become rare collector's items, being made available in strictly limited quantities. The four-song digipak CD-single is limited to 3,000 copies worldwide, whereas the two-track sevn-inch vinyl is limited to only 1,500 units worldwide.
05 min read

DARK TRANQUILITY Guitarist Says ‘Practical Conditions’ Of Touring U.S. Are ‘Getting Harder’

Manos Spanos
Louder Than Hell recently conducted an interview with guitarist Niklas Sundin of Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILITY. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Louder Than Hell: You have mentioned before that you rarely feel excited for an album at the end of recording sessions because of the amount of time you spend on it, but that you feel good about "Construct" now that it is done. What about the end of the new album's sessions is different for you? Sundin: Well, that was something that I put on Twitter for some reason, and it got misunderstood quite a bit. What I tried to say was that a typical effect of being locked up in a studio for 2-3 months listening to every single second of the new songs over and over again is that you're getting extremely tired of the material. At the same time as you know that you've created something great, there's a part of you that never want to hear the songs again. Also, the collaborative and democratic nature ofDARK TRANQUILITY means that there always are riffs and ideas that a single member doesn't find too interesting according to his personal preferences, so what normally happens directly after a studio session is that I sit down and think that the result is OK, but if X and Y would have been done differently, it would have been even better (again: for my own tastes). In this case, there were two main parameters that were different: The members' opinions on the material were a bit more uniform — i.e. no great clashes in taste — and the actual mixing process brought out a lot of details and nuances in the songs that we previously weren't aware of. The result is that I for a change actually was a massive fan of"Construct" from the first time I heard the final mix. Well, as you can see, I'm not a guy that gets my opinion across very well in 140 characters, ha ha!
04 min read

TARJA TURUNEN To Release ‘Colours In The Dark’ In August

Manos Spanos
Former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen will release her new album, "Colours In The Dark", on August 23 via earMUSIC, the Hamburg, Germany-based international rock label which is part of Edel Group. Despite her light and shiny personality, Tarja's music has always been dressed "in black" — the color of heavy rock, of mystery and elegance.
03 min read