Monday, July 12, 2010

Music News & Notes

American Idol's Blake Lewis Announces Special Release

American Idol's Blake Lewis will release his newest album, Heartbreak on Vinyl, on vinyl of course, with a wealthy of new, never before released content, this August.

Lewis, who recently topped Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay Chart and the Dance Club Play Chart at #1 with the title track "Heartbreak on Vinyl," will sign, hand-number and personalize each of the only 500 available Limited Edition Double LP copies sold. The album, pressed in a unique red vinyl, is currently available for pre-order at www.blakelewisofficial.com and will be delivered to customers beginning August 3rd.

In addition to the personalization of each LP, Lewis is offering a slate of new content with each purchase including free instant access to the digital album, 13 remixes of the chart-topping single "Heartbreak on Vinyl," and free membership to his VIP Opendisc site. The VIP Opendisc site offers exclusive content from Lewis including video messages, promo videos and "making of" clips, interactive Q&A sessions, remixes, bonus audio and track by track commentaries and much more. To top it all off, by the time each LP is delivered, those who purchased it will also receive a free MP3 of an unreleased track "'Till We See The Sun."

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Corrosion Of Conformity To Record New Song Featuring Classic Line-Up

Legendary metal act Corrosion Of Conformity have announced plans to release a new 7-inch single titled "Your Tomorrow Pt.1 & 2" through Southern Lord Records. The new recordings features the same line-up from their iconic "Animosity" album. "Your Tomorrow" is to be pressed onto black 180-gram wax vinyl.

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Exhumed Announces Reunion, Plans To Record New Album

American death metal group Exhumed has announced their reformation after a five year hiatus. The band will consist of vocalist/guitarist Matt Harvey, guitarist Wes Caley, bassist Leon DelMuerte and drummer Danny Walker. The band will also be recording a brand new album, their first since "Anatomy Is Destiny" in 2003, which is eyeing a Spring 2011 release.

Matt Harvey stated: "I'm totally fucken psyched to be making music with Exhumed again, it's been way too long. After a few years off and away from the death metal scene, I feel rejuvenated and ready to hack, maim and kill once again. I wanted this to be a continuation of what the band was doing and was on its way to doing, not a reunion or some weird nostalgia thing, so the first person I started talking about this with was our guitarist Wes (Caley), who has been writing some great songs for the new album, and once he got the ball rolling with Leon (DelMuerte, bass, vocals) and Danny (Walker, drums), it come together quickly and easier than ever!"

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Atheist Reveals New Album Details

Progressive death metal legends Atheist have revealed details regarding the band's upcoming studio album, the first release from the band in over seventeen years. The album's title has been set as "Jupiter" and is planned for release by mid November, 2010.

Founding member Kelly Shaefer commented by saying:

"we are almost done with guitars and vocals, and we start mixing with the tone goblin himslef Jason Suecof in Orlando, FL on July 15. We have been working our asses off for a year and have taken great strides to make this the record we, as fans, would want to hear from Atheist . It’s ferocious, intelligent, and dead balls heavy as shit! When people hear this they’re going to say, ‘it’s Atheist!”

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Pearl Jam Play 'Last Gig For A Long Time' In Portugal

Pearl Jam are set to take a break from music after playing their last gig in “a long time” in Portugal. The band's frontman Eddie Vedder made the announcement during the band's set at the Optimus Alive festival on Saturday (July 10).

Speaking in Portuguese, he told the crowd: "Thank you for coming to our last show. Not our last ever, but our last in a long time."

Pearl Jam's appearance at Optimus Alive was the last date scheduled on their 2001 tour calender. The group were among the performers at last month's Hard Rock Calling festival in London.

They released their last studio album, 'Backspacer', in 2009.

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DIMMU BORGIR: New Album Title, Complete Artwork Revealed

Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR have set "Abrahadabra" as the title of their ninth studio album, which will be released in Germany on September 24, in the rest of Europe on September 27, and in North America on October 12 via Nuclear Blast Records.

When asked about the central figure in the artwork and who/what he's supposed to represent, artist Joachim Luetke responds: "I think that's obvious. Since the whole 'setting' is located in an icy, bleak, winter-y, post-industrial era, we're pretty close to H.P. Lovecraft's nameless elder gods. They're represented by the mask's tentacles. In short: the mask/face personifies dominion of powers far beyond mankind. The nameless gods witnessed the birth of our universe and they'll watch it implode. To them, the age of mankind is but a blink of an eye."

Luetke's artwork and layout art also graced two other DIMMU BORGIR albums: 2003's "Death Cult Armageddon", which has sold 130,000 copies in the U.S. (according to Nielsen SoundScan) and debuted at No. 7 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, No. 10 on the Top Independent Albums chart, and No. 170 on The Billboard 200 chart; and 2007's "In Sorte Diaboli", which has sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. (according to Nielsen SoundScan) and debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and at No. 43 on The Billboard 200 chart.

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TOMORROW'S OUTLOOK: Debut Album Track listing, Final Cover Art Revealed

Norwegian metallers TOMORROW'S OUTLOOK have revealed the track listing and the final cover artwork for their forthcoming debut album, "34613".

Commented the band: "'34613' has been in the works for the past two and a half years, so it feels real good to complete the tracklist with a new song called 'Ice Mountain'.

"'Ice Mountain' is about one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. It's about how the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time (1912), struck an iceberg and sank.. resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people.

Love the artwork on this one.....









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NIGHTFALL: 'Astron Black' Track Listing, Artwork Unveiled

The cover artwork for "Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants", the new album from reformed Greek metallers NIGHTFALL — featuring frontman and lyricist Efthimis Karadimas alongside Evan Hensley on guitar, Stathis Kassios on keyboards and Jörg Uken on drums — can be viewed below. The CD is scheduled for release on August 31 (one day earlier internationally) via Metal Blade Records. The cover artwork was created by Travis Smith (OPETH, DEATH, NEVERMORE, KATATONIA).

Commented the band: "The front cover depicts the sea, the grand opposite of the sky-cum-space, and the means we humans are inventing to explore the unexplored. We are part of this universe and we use its planets to navigate, to tune our lives through the 'time' set by their motion, and who knows, may be to escape to some day in the future."

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