by Anita Abedian

Skinny Puppy, Ministry and Cabaret Voltaire! Darkness, morbidity, black eyeliner and Baudelaire! My infallible love for all things industrial and/or gothic move me to urge anyone that enjoys a bit of cryptic textural conflict in their music to pick up Metal Machine Music: Nine Inch Nails and the Industrial Uprising.

With over two hours of footage (including in-depth interviews and seldom seen live performances), the documentary provides extensive coverage of the industrial music movement from Europe to North America, profiling seminal groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche Mode and Ministry--groups that had a profound impact on Trent Reznor back when he was playing keyboards in a synth-popband in Ohio to his transition in becoming one of the most vital artists in music with Nine Inch Nails.

And even though the documentary aims to trace the history of industrial rock with NIN as the focal point, it appeals beyond the confines of genre or subculture, so fans of any music that pushes the boundaries of art and performance should get in on this as well.

Click here to buy the DVD.

Norwegian symphonic black metal group DIMMU BORGIR will be streaming their concert 'LIVE' on Saturday, April 5, 2008 at:
5:00pm (Pacific)
6:00pm (Mountain)
7:00pm (Central)
8:00pm (Eastern)
(For those of you living in Europe, this will be Sunday morning your time!)
...from the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio exclusively at YeboTV.com.

The stream is FREE for fans around the world to view right from the comfort of their home computers. Visit http://www.yebotv.com/evt/?id=126 to register in advance for this exclusive event.

IRON MAIDEN North American tour dates - first leg announcement:

May 21 - San Antonio, TX - Verizon Wireless
May 22 - Houston, TX - Woodlands
May 25 - Albuquerque, NM - Journal Pavilion
May 26 - Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Pavilio
May 28 - Concord, CA - Concord
May 30 - Los Angeles, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
May 31 - Los Angeles, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Jun. 02 - Seattle, WA - White River Amphitheatre

Has there ever been a rock-star more associated with guns and ammo than Ted Nugent? Sure the man can shred on his '62 Byrdland electric guitar, but it's his passion and skill with a rifle that truly set him apart from the rest of Rock 'n' Roll. Now, thanks to the folks at searchwithtednugent.com, you can have the opportunity to accompany Ted in the flesh, as he hunts for outdoor delicacies like wild boar, pheasant, venison and even buffalo.

This exciting giveaway is only available to users of searchwithtednugent.com; a search engine portal that functions just like Google except it rewards fans of the hard-rocking Nugent with prizes. Let's see the Wall Street darlings from Mountain View do that!

Searchwithtednugent.com has become a favorite for Nugent's legions of fans and admirers. The site is powered by Google and Ask search technology, meaning that users receive the same great search results they are accustomed to. Unlike other search engines, however, this one rewards users with digital dollars called Swag Bucks, which can be redeemed for exclusive artist prizes, including Nugent autographed CDs, DVDs and even copies of Ted's official cookbook: "Kill It and Grill It." Every search is a chance to win.

"Ted cares deeply about staying in touch with his fans," said Prodege VP of Marketing, Ron Leshem. "It's a surprisingly high-tech solution for someone so associated with the great outdoors. This is the perfect way for fans to connect to Ted, while also earning a chance to win some amazing prizes for themselves."

Fans can increase their likelihood of earning top prizes by downloading the Ted Nugent toolbar at: https://owa.cnet.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.searchwithtednugent.com/. Please visit site for full sweepstakes rules and regulations.

A bulletin from Metal Church's MySpace today stated that Jay Reynolds, guitarist, has left the ranks for "personal reasons". The full announcement is as follows:

The Grammys is historically not the place for metal. We don't get them, they don't get us.

This year King Diamond was actually nominated which is quite the fluke and I'm not sure how that happened!

Still, Slayer took one yet again and Tom looked very sharp accepting the award in his suit on the early webcast -- of course they won't have metal on the prime-time show. It's just as well. WE DONT WANT TO CONFORM, haha! -- or something.

Watch some metal high-lights on this yoinked youtube vid.

"A Chicago developer now plans to tear down the record shop and construct a three-story, 52,000-square-foot combination office building, retail shop and health club. It would feature underground and rooftop parking for 276 cars.

Preservationists, however, hope to save the building and turn it into a long-discussed West Hollywood rock 'n' roll museum. Besides commemorating Tower Records' domineering presence on the Sunset Strip, advocates say such a museum would be an appropriate place to showcase memorabilia from the second half of the 20th century -- when Los Angeles emerged as the center of this country's recording industry.

The Sunset Strip has been a entertainment industry hot spot since the 1930s. Clubs like Ciros, Mocambo and the Trocadero were favorite hangouts for Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Humphrey Bogart, Bugsy Siegel and many others.

But there are few historic markers left for that era of the Strip. And some historians worry that the markers of the Strip's following era -- the music scene of the last 40 years -- are quickly fading as well.

During the Strip's music heyday, the likes of the Doors, the Byrds, Frank Zappa and later Van Halen and Motley Crue performed there. The Strip's Hyatt Hotel became infamous lodging for the stars, where musicians famously "trashed" rooms.

And Towers Records was there selling their music. Clubs such as Pandora's Box and The Trip are long gone. The record company billboards that lit up the Strip at night have been overshadowed by building-size supergraphics more likely to advertise movies or cable TV series than music."

For the full story see the L.A. Times site.

GORGOROTH and GOREFEST are among the newly announced bands for the INFERNO METAL FESTIVAL, set to take place March 19-22, 2008 at the Rockefeller and John Dee venues in Oslo, Norway. For the complete, 40-band line-up, please see the fesitval website.

Inferno organizers are launching the third edition of Inferno Music Conference (IMC) in 2008. Promoters, journalists, designers, artists, managements, labels, venues, booking agencies, photographers are welcome. It will be four days of metal industry featuring keynote speakers, panels, speed meeting sessions, listening sessions, meet-and-greet parties every evening, black metal bus sightseeing, Inferno Metal Expo and more.

In a particularly compelling IMC panel discussion, Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl, metal forefather Tom G. Fischer and former Mayhem/current Skitliv vocalist Maniac will discuss "Can Metal Get More Extreme?". Gaahl will also be the event keynote speaker in a conference immediately following the above panel discussion. IMC is a daytime event in tandem with Inferno Music Festival and Inferno Music Expo. An additional registration and ticket is required to attend IMC.

For more information, visit http://www.infernofestival.net/

U.S. death metallers NUNSLAUGHTER have scheduled two Canadian dates in March:

March 14 - Toronto, ON @ Sneaky Dees
March 15 - Montreal, QC @ [to eb announced]

In other news, NUNSLAUGHTER is working on the layout for the "Damned In Japan" DVD, due in early 2008.

The band recently completed work on a split 7" with RABID, to be released soon.

The two who co-wrote Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals, and Holywood will be sharing the stage once again. Joining Manson and Twiggy onstage for the U.S. leg of the Rape of the World Tour will be Chris Vrenna, Rob Holliday, and Ginger Fish. Tim Skold has amicably split with Manson, but future collaborations aren't being ruled out between the two. Expectations for the upcoming tour are best described by quoting one of Manson's most infamous lyrics, "Everyone will suffer now". Looks like the sh*t is gonna hit the FANS.

Tour dates are as follows:

Sat Jan 19 Orlando, FL Hard Rock
Sun Jan 20 Miami, FL The Fillmore
Tues Jan 22 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
Thurs Jan 24 Baltimore, MD Rams Head
Sat Jan 26 Boston, MA The Orpheum
Sun Jan 27 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory
Tues Jan 29 New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
Weds Jan 30 New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
Fri Feb 1 Cleveland, OH House of Blues
Sat Feb 2 Columbus, OH LC Pavilion
Mon Feb 4 Detroit, MI The Fillmore Detroit
Tues Feb 5 Chicago, IL Aragon
Thurs Feb 7 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom
Fri Feb 8 Minneapolis, MN Myth
Sun Feb 10 St. Louis, MO Pageant
Mon Feb 11 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater
Weds Feb 13 Denver, CO The Fillmore
Thurs Feb 14 Salt Lake City, UT Saltair
Sun Feb 17 Vancouver, BC QE Theatre
Mon Feb 18 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre
Wed Feb 20 San Francisco, CA Warfield
Fri Feb 22 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern
Sat Feb 23 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern
Mon Feb 25 San Diego, CA House of Blues
Weds Feb 27 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
Fri Feb 29 Dallas, TX House of Blues
Sat Mar 1 Austin, TX Austin Music Hall
Sun Mar 2 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater

With the release of "Demon Entrails" on February 18, 2008, the days of numerous sub-standard bootlegs of the classic HELLHAMMER demos "Death Fiend", "Triumph of Death" and "Satanic Rites" are finally over! Currently also working on a book dealing with the history of HELLHAMMER, Tom Gabriel Fischer points out the importance of this release:

"The release of these demos is very significant to both Martin Eric Ain and me. No matter how one looks at HELLHAMMER, this was our first recorded music so many years ago, and it represents the radicalness of our own lives at the time. These demos became the foundation to everything we later created in CELTIC FROST. Hell reigned on earth."

"Demon Entrails" has been specially remastered from copies of the original master tapes under the supervision of Tom Gabriel Fischer, and the demos now represent HELLHAMMER exactly as the band sounded when recording these songs in June and December of 1983. Drawing from a wealth of previously unknown historical liner notes material and artwork as well as plenty of unreleased HELLHAMMER photos from 1982 to 1984, "Demon Entrails" features all lyrics and essays detailing the individual demo recording sessions.

Here is the tracklisting information for the CD formats of the release:

HELLHAMMER - "Demon Entrails" 2-CD track listing:

CD 1: "Satanic Rites" Demo, December 2/3/4/7, 1983

01. Intro
02. Messiah
03. The Third Of The Storms (Evoked Damnation)
04. Buried And Forgotten
05. Maniac [re-recorded version]
06. Eurynomos
07. Triumph Of Death [re-recorded version]
08. Revelations Of Doom
09. Reaper [re-recorded version]
10. Satanic Rites
11. Crucifixion [re-recorded version]
12. Outro

CD 2: "Death Fiend & Triumph Of Death" Demos, June 10/11, 1983

01. Crucifixion
02. Maniac
03. (Execution) When Hell's Near
04. Decapitator
05. Blood Insanity
06. Power Of Satan
07. Reaper
08. Death Fiend
09. Triumph Of Death
10. Metallic Storm
11. Ready For Slaughter
12. Dark Warriors
13. Hammerhead
14. Angel Of Destruction
15. Bloody *******
16. Chainsaw
17. Sweet Torment

"Demon Entrails" will be available as an opulent oversized double CD media-book packaging and as a gatefold triple vinyl album. Both versions will feature a lavish booklet and a poster. There will also be a third, bare-bones lower-price CD version.

To check out the artwork and some rare HELLHAMMER photos as well as discover more info on this release, visit http://www.hellhammer.org/.

San Diego based death metallers Disgorge announced this morning the passing of bassist Ben Marlin. Ben had been fighting cancer for the past 18 months.

I spent many an evening watching Disgorge or just bending elbows out and about with its members and I hope that he rests well.

He will be missed.

R.I.P. Ben

\m/

Rob Halford has a free Fight Xmas MP3 for you. Just make a user account on halfordmusic.com and you will be given a link to download a short xmas greeting from Rob as well as a Xmas song by Fight called "Christmas Ride".

ho, ho, ho

Marilyn Manson has scheduled the following U.S. dates:

Jan. 19 - Hard Rock - Orlando, Florida
Jan. 20 - The Fillmore - Miami, Florida
Jan. 22 - The Tabernacle - Atlanta, Georgia
Jan. 24 - Rams Head - Baltimore, Maryland
Jan. 26 - The Orpheum - Boston, Massachusetts
Jan. 27 - Electric Factory Ballroom - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jan. 29 - Hammerstein Ballroom - New York, New York
Jan. 30 - Hammerstein Ballroom - New York, New York
Feb. 01 - House of Blues - Cleveland, Ohio
Feb. 02 - Promowest Pavilion- Columbus, Ohio
Feb. 04 - State Theatre - Detroit, Michigan
Feb. 05 - Aragon - Chicago, Illinois
Feb. 07 - Eagles Ballroom - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Feb. 08 - Myth - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Feb. 10 - Pageant - St. Louis, Missouri
Feb. 11 - Uptown Theater - Kansas City, Missouri
Feb. 13 - The Fillmore - Denver, Colorado
Feb. 14 - Saltair - Salt Lake City, Utah
Feb. 16 - Orpheum Theatre - Vancouver, British Columbia
Feb. 18 - Paramount Theatre - Seattle, Washington
Feb. 20 - Warfield - San Francisco, California
Feb. 22 - The Wiltern - Los Angeles, California
Feb. 23 - The Wiltern - Los Angeles, California
Feb. 25 - House of Blues - San Diego, California

By now anyone who is into black metal has probably read about the recent takeover coup concerning Norwegian black metal favorites Gorgoroth.

For those who have not, here is the nutshell.

Bassist/composer King and vocalist/lyricist Gaahl have been the creative force for lo these past 8 years or so and finally decided to take over all things Gorgoroth and exclude the only existing founding member Infernus from being involved moving forward, ie. "fired" him. This has created a clear dividing line among fans, however marginal those on the opposition might be --every metalhead seems to have an opinion about this rift.

The King and Gaahl-fronted Gorgoroth just completed a highly successful 5 week European tour and yesterday announced their headlining appearance at the mother of all metal festivals, Wacken Open Air 2008. They've also adopted the differentiating "The force" and are now referring to themselves as "The force Gorgoroth".

Check out this video interview conducted in the UK while on their recent tour. King and Gaahl comment on the recent spilt with Infernus and the recent tour.

By now you've probably already read that Quiet Riot's frontman Kevin DuBrow passed away quietly in his Las Vegas home over the Thanksgiving weekend. No official cause of death has yet been announced.

Bill Chavis, owner of Chavis Records, the label that issued Quiet Riot's last LP, 2006's Rehab, confirmed the news.

"DuBrow's body was found by friends on Sunday, November 25, in his Las Vegas home," reads the label's site. "As I mourn his death with a heavy heart, I will remember hearing his voice and the music for the very first time on the radio back in 1983. I will remember all the great music Kevin and Quiet Riot gave to so many of us over the years and I will say, 'Thank you, Kevin. May you rest in peace.' "

Credited with helping to launch the 1980s glam-metal scene, Quiet Riot are perhaps best known for their cover of Slade's "Cum on Feel the Noize," which appeared on 1983's Metal Health and eventually peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was the first by a metal band to reach the chart's #1 position.

Watch Quiet Riot from 1983's US Festival in California doing the title track "Metal Health" (I was there!)

RIP Kevin