Metal Blade is celebrating its 25 years with a nationwide tour featuring its most successful artists: Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Red Chord, Goatwhore, and The Absence. The Metal Blade 25th Anniversary Tour be-gan at New Orleans’ House Of Blues on Sept-ember 6. From Sept-ember to Oct-ober, it will visit Cali-fornia and Texas for several dates. Dates in Seattle, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are scheduled, and the tour will visit Northern Lights in Clifton Park, New York on October 7. More tour dates are scheduled for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Canada.
Another promotion to celebrate Metal Blade’s anniversary has been co-organized with ESP guitars. ESP designed a custom guitar with the Metal Blade Records 25th Anniversary logo which they presented to the label. The limited edition model is being offered in a giveaway sponsored by Metal Blade, ESP, Jak Prints, Fixion Media and Decibel magazine. The giveaway can be entered by logging on to metalblade.com and clicking the link provided. Visit espguitars.com for info on other giveaways, ESP’s custom guitar shop, and newsletter subscriptions.
Appointment With Death, Lizzy Borden’s first new studio recording since 2000’s Deal with the Devil, will be available October 2. Appointment With Death is a conceptual album in the tradition of classics Love You To Pieces, Menace To Society and Master Of Disguise, featuring guest appearances by Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal), George Lynch (Dokken), and others. The Black Dahlia Murder’s upcoming full length Nocturnal, already being previewed at Sirius Radio’s Hard Attack, can pre-ordered at metalblade.com for $9.99 before its September 18 release. The band is also offering a signed copy of the CD, and a combination CD/T-shirt package through Metal Blade.
The Ocean is mixing its new full-length with Jonas Olsson and Andrew Schneider (Unsane). Titled Precambrian, it is a double CD with over 83 minutes of music. The band is welcoming older and newer guests, namely Caleb Scofield (Cave In), Nate Newton (Converge), Dwid Hellion (Integrity), Tomas Hallbom (Breach), Eric Kalsbeek (Textures) and members of the Berlin Philharmonic.New Metal Blade signing Fueled By Fire released Spread The Fire on August 7. The band is heavily influenced by Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Exodus, Slayer and Testament. Having opened for veterans Fates Warning and Agent Steel besides newcomers Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust, they are planning a full U.S. tour.
Six Feet Under, having wrapped up a promotional video for “Doomsday” (Commandment) with Mario D. Framingheddu directing, will tour Germany, Austria, France, Swit-zerland and Nether-lands with Nile, Finntroll, and Bel-phegor. A trailer is available at Metal Blade’s site. Three recently completed a video for “All That Remains” from their current album The End Is Begun, with director David Brodsky (Gwar, Helmet). The band is presently touring with the Scorpions; this tour comes to the Beacon Theatre September 28. The End Is Begun was mixed by Toby Wright (Metallica, Alice In Chains, Fear Factory, C.O.C.).
As I Lay Dying’s current album An Ocean Between Us debuted at #8 on the Billboard Top 200 and was greeted by praise from Decibel and About.com. The band is now touring Europe with Darkest Hour and will come to the U.S. with All That Remains, Haste The Day and Through The Eyes Of The Dead in October. November 11 sees them perform at Manhattan’s Nokia Theater. Evergreen Terrace are currently touring with melodic punks Strung Out and I Am Ghost. Covering much of the States and eastern Canada, the tour stops at the Knitting Factory in NYC October 6. The band filmed a video for “Chaney Can’t Quite Riff Like Helmet’s Page Hamilton” in Jacksonville, Florida.
More tour updates: Sons Of Azrael, Pyrexia, Crematorium and Infernaeon play Brooklyn’s Europa September 19th and Levittown’s War Arena September 21st. Unearth, Darkest Hour, August Burns Red & Suicide Silence play The Chance in Poughkeepsie October 28. Animosity, Between The Buried And Me, Horse The Band & The End play NYC’s Blender Theatre October 31. Shai Hulud, Misery Signals, Human Abstract, Means & Straight Reads The Line play the Asbury Park Convention Hall Saints & Sinners Festival November 4. Job For A Cowboy, A Life Once Lost, Despised Icon & The Faceless play the Fillmore in NYC November 18. Amon Amarth, Decapitated, Himsa & Sonic Syndicate play the Fillmore December 3. King Diamond, Kreator, Leaves’ Eyes and Cellador will play BB KIng’s Blues Club on April 1 and 2.
AOL Radio is still airing a high number of Metal Blade bands including Slayer, King Diamond, Vader, The Crown, Bolt Thrower, Cattle Decapitation and Born From Pain. More information can be found at music.aol.com/radioguide/bb. Metal Blade’s official site provides the means to request its artists on Sirius Satellite Radio and several radio stations across the country. The Sirius request link features a pop-up form to fill in your preferred band. The radio link provides a list of stations arranged city by city. Local New York stations include WCWP Brookville, WNYU NYC, and WSIA Staten Island.
Listeners of Music Choice On Demand can hear some Metal Blade artists on Metal Maniacs magazine’s current Net program Last Rites, which airs Mondays at 11pm EST. The hour long show offers fans uncensored, commercial-free music from Mayhem, Immolation, Therion, God Dethroned, Dream Evil and others. Music Choice On Demand is likewise airing the latest promotional videos by Six Feet Under, The Absence, As I Lay Dying, The Black Dahlia Murder and The Red Chord in addition to exclusive interviews, studio performances and concerts. Available through most digital cable providers, Last Rites and On Demand can be found at Music Choice’s official site, musicchoice.com.
Metal Blade has been podcasting interviews monthly since January 2006. The current podcast available is with The Black Dahlia Murder for September. Past casts downloadable in their entirety are As I Lay Dying, The Red Chord, King Diamond, Job For A Cowboy/Autumn Special and Six Feet Under. These feature interviews and select tracks by each artist. Podcasts available from 2006 include a report on the Ozzfest and Sounds Of The Underground tours besides a host of interviews including Amon Amarth, Torture Killer, Symphorce and Demiricous. The podcasts can be heard at a page set up for them at metalblade.com. New interviews will be posted each month.
New albums released on Metal Blade September 4 are Machinemade God’s Masked, Desaster’s 666-Satan’s Soldiers Syndicate, Neaera’s Armamentarium, Aeon’s Rise to Dominate and Fates Warning’s re-issue of No Exit. Fleshcrawl’s CD Structures Of Death will be available September 18. Also available on Metal Blade and Blackmarket in October are Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza’s Danza II: The Electric Boogaloo, Demiricous’ Two: Poverty, Paths Of Possession’s The End Of The Hour, and Behold...The Arctopus’ Skullgrid. Visit metalblade.com for release info and mp3 samples of Lizzy Borden, Desaster, Neaera, Aeon, Fueled By Fire, Sons Of Azrael, Evergreen Terrace, King Diamond and others.
Promotional videos for Six Feet Under’s “Ghosts Of The Undead,” As I Lay Dying’s “Nothing Left,” The Red Chord’s “Dread Prevailed,” Goatwhore’s “Forever Consumed Oblivion,” Job For A Cowboy’s “Embedded” can be viewed at Metal Blade’s site. Likewise offered are links to reviews of Metal Blade’s current releases and a newsletter subscription link.
