Porcupine Tree has issued the following statement Steven Wilson mixing the upcoming Orphaned Land album:
“Steven Wilson recently played keyboards and mixed the fourth album by Israeli progressive metal band Orphaned Land. For those who have never heard the band, they are perhaps best described as what Opeth might sound like if they had come from the Middle East instead of Scandanavia. The music has a similar scope and degree of layered sophistication. But the sound of Orphaned Land is very much inspired by their roots, sung in English, Hebrew and Arabic, and featuring many traditional middle eastern instruments. The album The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR is an ambitious and impressive 75 minute conceptual piece combining heavy music and breathtaking beauty. It is released by Century Media in several editions on 9th February 2010 in the US and 25th January 25th in Europe.”
Tennessee progressive tech metallers The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza are hard at work, recording their third album, “Danza III: The Series Of Unfortunate Events,” at Anthem Productions with Jeremiah Scott and Steve Blackmon. Check out the report below.
The band reports that “Danza III”’s themes are exactly what the title suggests – a chronicle of unfortunate events – personal, social, political, and global.
Frontman Jessie Freeland describes the music: “We see it as an accumulation of Danza I and II combined. We spent a lot of time structuring the album with three main musical elements, those being tech, groove, and ambience. It’s a long, pissed-off and sad emotional roller coaster.”
“Danza III” will see a 2010 release on Black Market Activities. In the meantime, the band has posted several pre-production previews for streaming on their MySpace page.
After a long search, progressive metallers Sun Caged have found their new bass player in Daniel Kohn who is also a member of the German Progressive Metal band Vanilla Rex. His first shows with the band will be the two shows as support of the Swedish band Pain Of Salvation in December 2009.
Sun Caged will be supporting the Swedish band Pain Of Salvation during their two day appearance in the Netherlands at December 21st and December 22nd of 2009. Here are the details:
Monday December 21st: Boerderij Zoetermeer
Tuesday December 22nd: Bosuil, Weert
Sun Caged will play these gigs in the middle of finishing their new album, which will be ready somewhere at the end of this year and released somewhere in the spring/summer of 2010.
Guitarist Marcel Coenen has offered up the following information about their new album:
“The band first entered the studio for the third CD in March 2009. We are aiming for a summer 2010 release on Lion Music. The working title for the album is called ‘The Lotus Effect.’ Some titles of new songs: ‘Shades Of Hades,’ ‘Driftwood,’ ‘All But Gone,’ ‘Tip-Toe the Fault Line,’ ‘On Again / Off Again,’ ‘Lotus,’ ‘Seamripper & The Blanket Statement’ plus some more to come!
“Expect an album with some new influences, one song has a typically salsa groove throughout the song, an other song has a real blast beat in it, plus we also recorded a really long epic song, divided into seven parts (total length about 24 minutes) which will close The Lotus Effect.”
New Jersey progressive death metallers THE BINARY CODE have released the tracklisting and artwork for their debut album, “Suspension of Disbelief,” which is planned for a digital-only release through MetalSucks.com Engineered by Paulie Cutri & The Binary Code’s own Jesse Zuretti (who also handles the band’s design and artwork), the record is due to drop December 15, 2009, and features a mixing job courtesy of Kevin Antreassian (Number Twelve Looks Like You, Knife the Glitter).
The tracklisting for “Suspension of Disbelief” is as follows:
1. Suspension of Disbelief (Part I & II)
2. Mechanical Seas
3. Ghost Planet
4. Void
5. the Story
6. Human Condition
7. Awaiting Necropolis
8. Void II
Israel’s progressive folk metal band Orphaned Land will release their fourth studio album, “The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR,” in Europe on January 25, 2010 and in the U.S. on February 9 via Century Media Records. The album was mixed by Steven Wilson, who is also responsible for several keyboard parts on the new CD.
“The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR” track listing:
Part I: Godfrey’s Cordial – An ORphan’s Life
01. Sapari
02. From Broken Vessels
03. Bereft In The Abyss
04. The Path Part 1 – Treading Through Darkness
05. The Path Part 2 – The Pilgrimage To Or Shalem
06. Olat Ha’tamid
Part II: Lips Acquire stains – The WarriOR Awakens
07. The Warrior
08. His Leaf Shall Not Wither
09. Disciples Of The Sacred Oath II
10. New Jerusalem
11. Vayehi Or
12. M I ?
Part III: Barakah – Enlightening The Cimmerian
13. Barakah
14. Codeword: uprising
15. In Thy Never Ending Way (Epilogue)
Vocalist Kobi Farhi comments on the album’s concept: “First of all, I wish to thank each and every one of you for all the comments you left for our new band photo. The comments were from Jews, Christians and Muslims as one. You all know that this unification is what we’re all about. ‘The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR’ is a concept album revolving around a hero: the warrior of light. This hero isn’t someone specific, but could be the listener of the album himself, as this album deals with the problems we are facing in our lives every day. Especially here, in the Middle East, we feel that we are trapped in a loop of confusion and darkness. Living in this region, we see that year after year nothing changes. People continue to die in useless wars and we are trapped in a bloody circle. ORPHANED LAND has been around for 18 years and we continue to sing about the same subjects and stories, because after 18 years we are still living in a tragic, orphaned land. To fight this tragedy we have chosen a peaceful, yet powerful weapon: our music.”
Farhi previously stated about the upcoming CD: “As people that were born into the tragedy of our region, we have always been devoted to creating harmony between conflicts, a musical heaven on earth, a tango between God and Satan. Even in the album’s artwork we combined Hebrew and Arabic, regardless of the fight between Jews and Muslims. I found a Jordanian guy, specialized in calligraphic artwork. He took letters from Hebrew and Arabic and moulded them in his art to create a symbol of peace. Same goes for our band photo, where we portrayed a synergy between the three monotheistic religions that believe in the same God and yet ridiculously have been killing each other for centuries ‘in the name of God’ and turned the holy land into an orphaned land. Naturally, we continued this idea of union on a musical level as well and the result is as always crazy, it’s a miracle — in our concerts: our Jewish fans sing in Arabic and our Muslim fans sing in Hebrew, brave friendships have spawned and our Middle Eastern metal music destroys all this political witchcraft we have been trapped in for so long. This is a musical journey of hope in lands of war, creating heaven on earth, building a new Jerusalem.”
An audio teaser for “The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR” is available for streaming on the band’s official web site.
New Jersey progressive metal band, Divinity Destroyed, has issued the following message to their fans regarding their decision to put the band to rest:
“If any rumors happen to emerge in the coming days, they are all true. Every single one of them. Including those that don’t involve us. But know that you read it here first. Divinity Destroyed has disbanded.”
“More information, personal insights, and rumors we’ll start just for kicks will be posted here frequently so keep checking back. But just know that it’s not your fault and we still love you and your sister.”
“The new album we’ve been prepping since the mid-70s will indeed be recorded and released (via online retailers). And yes, the show on December 19th, originally planned to raise funds for the studio, will be our last show. At least for a while. Should we decide to regroup for an occasional outing (either for all of you, ourselves, or in response to threats), you’ll be the first to know. Even before us. So stay tuned.”
“We apologize to anyone who has a Divinity tattoo. You’re so fucked.”
Themetalheadz.com has posted a video interview online with Opeth keyboardist Per Wiberg. The video clip, which can be viewed below, was recorded during the European Progressive Nation tour alongside Dream Theater.
Washington DC area progressive metal band Periphery has posted a tour promo video on Youtube and below for their upcoming East Coast US tour.
The tour dates are as follows:
11/08 – Alley Katz – Richmond, Virginia
11/09 – Mojo 13 – Wilmington, Delaware
11/11 – 930 club – w/ Darkest Hour and Lamb of God – Washington, DC
11/12 – Santos Party House – New York, New York
11/13 – The Masquerade in Crocodile Rock – Allentown, Pennsylvania
11/14 – Freehold VFW – Freehold, Pennsylvania
11/15 – The Waterfront Tavern – Holyoke, Massachusetts
11/16 – Club Hell – Providence, Rhode Island
11/24 – The Soapbox – w/ Between The Buried And Me, Veil of Maya, and Animals As Leaders – Wilmington, North Carolina