Barge To Hell – “The World’s Most Extreme Metal Cruise” from the creators of 70000 Tons Of Metal – which will run from December 3rd to 7th – have confirmed LOCK UP, the supergroup featuring Nicholas Barker on drums (ex-CRADLE OF FILTH, DIMMU BORGIR), Shane Embury on bass (NAPALM DEATH), Anton Reisenegger on guitar (CRIMINAL) and Tomas Lindberg on vocals (AT THE GATES, DISFEAR).
The cruise route begins in Miami, FL and then travels to Nassau, Bahamas and then back to Miami, FL.
Confirmed acts out of 40 total for Barge To Hell include: ARTILLERY, AT THE GATES, BEHEMOTH, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, ENSLAVED, HACKNEYED, HOLY MOSES, HYPOCRISY, KAMPFAR, KRISIUN, LOCK UP, LOUDBLAST, MAYHEM, MOONSPELL, MORGOTH, MUNICIPAL WASTE, NAPALM DEATH, NECRONOMICON, PARADISE LOST, POSSESSED, ROTTING CHRIST, SACRED REICH, SANCTUARY, SEPULTURA, SIX FEET UNDER, SODOM, SOILWORK, SOLSTAFIR.
Not in the mood for a quiet holiday season? This December, 40 of the most extreme Metal Bands and 2,000 headbangers from around the world will go to the Caribbean to take over a luxury cruise ship for a five day and four night trip to the undead!
Make no mistake, this is not one of the cruises where you share the ship with regular cruise guests… It’s like everyone has a backstage pass and you can mingle side-by-side with the Artists in this incredibly fan-friendly scenario that has no comparison.
See every band play two live shows on our three stages, each with it’s own unique atmosphere: The luxurious “A Chorus Line” theater, the cozy “Spectrum” club and our jewel: The open air stage on the pool deck. Get all your memorabilia signed at the Meet & Greet sessions. Be part of our infamous Metal Karaoke and many other very special activities with the Artists on board. Last but not least: Don’t forget that we have bars on board that never close! What are you waiting for? You might even need a vacation from this vacation when all is said and done!
Metalheads can start up this year’s Sziget Festival (6-13 August 2012 – Óbudai Island, Budapest) with a day in paradise, as DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, HAMMERFALL, MOONSPELL, IGNITE and SUPERBUTT will all appear on the dedicated Metal Day of the event on August 7 in Budapest, Hungary.
Day 0 of Europe’s Best Major Festival will provide a dedicated metal event, hosted by the Hungarian Main stage at the northern part of the island and presenting a quality international line-up, reaching out to many styles of the hardest and heaviest genre. All this from 2PM all the way until 11PM.
The Metal Day line-up starts with Hungarian rock-metal heroes Superbutt, a Budapest based five-piece combo that has already released five full length albums and toured all across Europe. The next act on stage will be Californian hardcore-punk group Ignite, playing their hard, but still melodic tunes with an unstoppable intensity.
Then it’s time for Portuguese heavy metal stars Moonspell, well known throughout the continent, having released their newest double LP – Alpha Noir / Omega White – this April, which is already the ninth full length album of the band. After them the stage will be ready for Oscar Dronjak’s legendary Scandinavian power metal act, Hammerfall. Last time they played at Sziget was in 2007 and since then released 2 studio albums. And if you know what they are up to, you know they will prevail! Producing great gothic metal is evidently not just a privilege of northern countries. This theory is clearly proven by Italy’s Lacuna Coil, who are also amongst the Sziget Metal Day bands. The last 17 years already saw them selling more than 2 million albums world-wide, also achieving huge successes in the United States.
And the night will be closed by Norway’s nr. 1 black metal act, the unbelievably strong and monumental Dimmu Borgir. After spending the last 20 years on stage, they belong to the elite of the Scandinavian scene, releasing dominant albums and playing on the biggest metal events all over the world.
Sziget nr. 20 starts strongly and plans to celebrate in style. See you in the mosh pit!
Miguel “Mike” Gaspar, drummer for Portugal’s MOONSPELL, is featured in a new interview with Kelley Simms at Hails & Horns. An excerpt is available below:
Q: As the original drummer, what did MOONSPELL set out to create from the beginning?
Gaspar: “When we started the band, (we never) thought that this band would ever reach this kind of success or ability. You have to understand, coming up in Portugal in the ’90s, it was very difficult to even find instruments, to have a proper rehearsal space or find record companies. Especially the style of music that we were into, which was black metal, death metal, atmospheric metal. It was all very taboo in this country. People weren’t even listening to hard rock acts. It was not that normal or that popular, or a mainstream thing. When this (metal) started arriving in Portugal, it was a smaller underground group of people who were into heavy bands like METALLICA, SLAYER, SEPULTURA and these other bands who I grew up with. That’s what really made us start a band.
Everything after that just took its course and everything happened naturally. We just kept working as much as we could to reach these bands. When I think back in particular and what I had to go through with my parents and society’s acceptance and that crazy stuff you go through but you hate. I guess we should be pretty proud of it because we’ve had a pretty solid career. It’s a pretty good thing especially for Portugal. There aren’t many Portuguese metal bands and our music is not like the kind of thing that parents would tell you to pursue for a career. There’s not a lot of opportunity here. But we just showed people that you can make a good living.”
Q: The Portuguese Postal Service released a stamp with the cover of Wolfheart on it. I guess you’re not famous in your native land until you have a stamp!
Gaspar: “It’s pretty amazing that we have our own stamp. You’d never think a band like us would have our own stamp! This is part of the Portuguese hard rock collection. with all the popular Portuguese bands. We’re the youngest band picked. They chose our first album as a landmark for Portuguese metal culture to represent what we’ve done internationally. This stamp is worth 1 Euro which is worth more internationally than others. Which is really cool for us because our music reaches other markets. The original cover that came out in ’95, it’s the one that everyone remembers. So it’s very nice. Sometimes I’ll send them to fans that will write to me.”
As previously reported, Moonspell recently their new video for the Omega White track ‘White Skies’. Check it out below:
Alpha Noir/Omega White has achieved more chart positions in Europe. The list is now as follows:
Germany: #37
Finland: #37
Austria: #44
Switzerland: #48
The Netherlands: #83
Norway: #87
Belgium: #87
Portugal: FNAC Top Seller #2
Alpha Noir is available in a digibook with slipcase, limited double vinyl and strictly limited edition deluxe box set, containing the limited-edition double album mediabook, including two album covers, and Alpha Noir’s counterpart, Omega White, and an exclusive Moonspell logo pendant.
Check out BraveWords.com scribe Carl Begai’s new Moonspell feature at this location.
“White Skies”, the new video from Portuguese gothic metallers MOONSPELL, can be seen below. The song comes off MOONSPELL‘s new album, “Alpha Noir”, which was released on April 27 via the band’s new label home, Napalm Records. The cover artwork for the CD — an intricate, marvellous and symbolic creation by Seth Siro Anton, the Greek artist who collaborated with the band on “Night Eternal” — can be seen below. Also available is an image of the strictly limited edition “Alpha Noir” deluxe box set containing the limited-edition double album mediabook, including two album covers, and “Alpha Noir”‘s counterpart “Omega White” and an exclusive MOONSPELL logo pendant.
“Alpha Noir” deluxe box set track listing:
CD 1
01. Axis Mundi
02. Lickanthrope
03. Versus
04. Alpha Noir
05. En Nome Do Medo
06. Opera Carne
07. Love is Blasphemy
08. Grand Stand
09. Sine Missione
CD 2
01. White Omega
02. White Skies
03. Fireseason
04. New Tears Eve
05. Herodisiac
06. Incantatrix
07. Sacrificial
08. A Greater Darkness
MOONSPELL‘s previous video, “Lickanthrope”, can be seen below. The clip was directed byFilipe Melo, who worked with the band on the “I Will See You In My Dreams” video ten years ago. The shoot took place in Nandufe, Tondela, in the central region of Portugal.
Rock The Nation has added shows in Paris, France and Berlin, Germany to the previously announced Into Darkness Tour featuring PAIN, MOONSPELL, SWALLOW THE SUN and LAKE OF TEARS. The final routing is as follows:
According to a press release, “the gaping, sinister and black abyss has many faces – just like its musical offspring…for the second time, the Into Darkness tour will crawl upon Europe! In time for the dawning of black winter days, a live package will start hitting clubs November 9th and boasting a line up full of dark gems of the widest stylistic variety: industrial metal, gothic tunes, melancholic doom – this tour has it all!
“Lickanthrope”, the new video from Portuguese gothic metallers MOONSPELL, can be seen below. The clip was directed by Filipe Melo, who worked with the band on the “I Will See You In My Dreams” video ten years ago. The shoot took place in Nandufe, Tondela, in the central region of Portugal.
The full version of “Lickanthrope” will be released on MOONSPELL‘s Facebook page at 16:00 CET.
A synopsis of the “Lickanthrope” video by the director Filipe Melo:
“Little red riding hood enters a bar in an abandoned house amidst the woods. In this bar, the regulars are not your average kind of people — it’s a place of vice, where a pack of wolves and other unearthly creatures find solace. MOONSPELL are just another part of the varied local entertainment. However when things go wild we will see that the band isn’t just what meets the eye. In a cross between the pagan Portuguese folklore and a tribute to the classic Hammer movies this videoclip will bring out not only the ferocious intensity of this song but will have its place in Portuguese film history as the first werewolf transformation ever made in Portugal. The video clip features also several local theatre and cultural groups, Portuguese actors and a special appearance by the very own Suicide Girls Portugal, in a task force which will blow your mind. Beware the wolves at night, beware the lunar light!”
“Lickanthrope” comes off MOONSPELL‘s new album, “Alpha Noir”, which will be released on April 27 via the band’s new label home, Napalm Records.
The cover artwork for the CD — an intricate, marvellous and symbolic creation by Seth Siro Anton, the Greek artist who collaborated with the band on “Night Eternal” — can be seen below. Also available is a preview image of the strictly limited edition “Alpha Noir” deluxe box set containing the limited-edition double album mediabook, including two album covers, and “Alpha Noir”‘s counterpart “Omega White” and an exclusive MOONSPELL logo pendant.
“Alpha Noir” deluxe box set track listing:
CD 1
01. Axis Mundi
02. Lickanthrope
03. Versus
04. Alpha Noir
05. En Nome Do Medo
06. Opera Carne
07. Love is Blasphemy
08. Grand Stand
09. Sine Missione
CD 2
01. White Omega
02. White Skies
03. Fireseason
04. New Tears Eve
05. Herodisiac
06. Incantatrix
07. Sacrificial
08. A Greater Darkness
Commented MOONSPELL frontman Fernando Ribeiro: “A true band has to have to a glorious past, a solid present and a bright future. More than that, a true band has to know how to live throughout all these seasons, dealing with their ghosts, their shadows, their aim at the light, moulding darkness with personality, with the impulse to be better, to do better while getting close to theirselves. Their true heart, soul and flesh.
“Never a MOONSPELL album came so close to be absolute like the new opus magna (masterpiece) ‘Alpha Noir’, scheduled to be proudly released by Napalm Records on April 27th, when spring racks through the wastes of winter, bursting new colours over familiar sights, once silent and white, now fiery under the blackest of suns.
“The concept of this new record, painstakingly composed by the Portuguese gothic metal knights over the past three years, after the public and critically acclaimed ‘Night Eternal’, is bulletproof. The band managed to split their heart and soul in half and the result is that they came even closer to themselves, the ambitious band they always were, with a undying wish not to claim any throne but to build their own ships that would take them and their fans to ‘give new worlds to the world,’ like in the age of discovery where the Portuguese were a leading force in the world.
“With their country drowned in a corrosive crisis, MOONSPELL filled their lungs with pride and created an incendiary album, with nine outbursts of their rockiest and thrashier riffs made superiorly dimensioned by the reindivictative lyrical content and songs structure that take you by storm from the first listen on. MOONSPELL has tapped a notch into their energy filled gothic metal by adding a guitar wall forjed by timeless artists like BATHORY, KING DIAMOND or in a twist ofthe knive to old thrash metal legends like ONSLAUGHT, METALLICA early works or even TESTAMENT and ARTILLERY, making ‘Alpha Noir’ a truly surpring and fresh record where all the songs have a climax effect about them, an high tension charm that will for sure electricize audiences when played on a stage.
“Songs like the title track (‘Alpha Noir’), the infectious ‘Versus’, the wolf hymn ‘Lickanthrope’ or the Portuguese sung ‘Em Nome Do Medo’ (In The Name Of Fear) and the closing epic ‘Grandstand’, might get you a welcoming chilling of the past but make no mistake: ‘Alpha Noir’ is a leap of faith and belief in their writing skills and progressive musicianship.
“Together with ‘Alpha Noir’ packed in a deluxe and special edition on digipack, MOONSPELL and Napalm offers no live DVD, making-of or any kind of filler. Instead they put in the table another offerend: ‘Ómega White’, the musical twin of ‘Alpha Noir’, a collection of eight songs of pure atmosphere and shadow, close to their breakthrough album ‘Irreligious’, in a just homage to their TYPE O NEGATIVE and SISTERS OF MERCY roots. Tracks like the erotic ‘Herodisiac’, the catchy ‘White Skies’ or the heartbreaking ‘Whiteomega’ will for sure keep you in dark company through a night of fear and loss, both soothing and provoking.
“Both masterpieces were produced and mixed by Tue Madsen, pre-produced by Benny Richter.
“Each song a jewel, each song a stronghold!
“Keep your watch and do not miss this new MOONSPELL record, for it is a true mortal sin to stay away from these eighty minutes of music, beautifully and violently craved by one of the most legendary and imaginative bands ever to surface the European scene. Do not forget to get your hands on this masterpiece and to watch the band live in the summer festivals around Europe. ‘Alpha Noir’/‘Ómega White’ will also be played in their entirety in Lisbon’s Campo Pequeno, that holds 5,000 fans, in their homeland Portugal in the most daring stage set and visuals the band has ever tried.”
MOONSPELL released a DVD, “Lusitanian Metal”, in December 2008 in Europe via Century Media Records.
The band’s latest album, “Night Eternal”, entered the national chart in Portugal at No. 3 and in Germany at No. 62. The follow-up to 2006’s “Memorial” was recorded at Antfarm studios in Denmark with producer Tue Madsen (THE HAUNTED, DARK TRANQUILLITY, HALFORD).
Source: Blabbermouth
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Metalheads can start up this year’s Sziget Festival (6-13 August 2012 – Óbudai Island, Budapest) with a day in paradise, as DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, HAMMERFALL, MOONSPELL, IGNITE and SUPERBUTT will all appear on the dedicated Metal Day of the event on August 7 in Budapest, Hungary.
