Gelap Pekat

Swedish black metallers MARDUK will embark on the "Asian Black Death Redemption Tour 2010" in December. Confirmed dates are as follows:

Dec. 04 - Beijing, China - Mao Livehouse
Dec. 06 - Bangkok, Thailand - Rock Pub
Dec. 07 - Singapore, Singapore - Substation Theatre
Dec. 10 - Surabaya, Indonesia - Graha Pemuda
Dec. 11 - Semarang, Indonesia - Gor Tri Lomba Juang
Dec. 12 - Jakarta, Indonesia - Bulungan Outdoor

The vinyl edition of "Wormwood", the latest album from MARDUK, was released this past spring. The effort is available as a regular black vinyl with a gatefold sleeve (700 copies), picture disc (333 copies) and also as a gatefold deluxe edition with a 32-page booklet with lyrics on red vinyl (500 copies). Also newly released are the remastered versions on vinyl of MARDUK's "Germania", "Nightwing" and "Panzer Division Marduk" (available on regular vinyl and picture disc).

"Wormwood", the eleventh album from MARDUK, sold around 650 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 99 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"Wormwood" was released in the U.S. on October 13, 2009 via Regain Records (September 24 in Europe). The CD was recorded at Endarker Studios in Norrköping, Sweden with engineer/producer Magnus Devo Andersson.

The first track-by-track review of "The Final Frontier", the new album from British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN, has been posted on the Radio Metal web site.

IRON MAIDEN's 15th studio LP, "The Final Frontier", will be released in North America on August 17 (one day earlier internationally) via Universal Music Enterprises (UMe).

The band reunited with long-time MAIDEN producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley in early 2010 at Compass Point Studios, Nassau to record the album and then moved to The Cave Studios in Malibu, California to finish the recording and do the mixing. Compass Point Studio is very familiar to the band, it was where they recorded the "Piece Of Mind" (1983), "Powerslave" (1984) and "Somewhere In Time" (1986) albums.

"The Final Frontier" features artwork illustrated by Melvyn Grant.

The track listing for the CD is as follows (total running time 76:35):

01. Satellite 15....The Final Frontier (Smith/Harris) (8:40)
02. El Dorado (Smith/Harris/Dickinson) (6:49)
03. Mother Of Mercy (Smith/Harris) (5:20)
04. Coming Home (Smith/Harris/Dickinson) (5:52)
05. The Alchemist (Gers/Harris/Dickinson) (4:29)
06. Isle Of Avalon (Smith/Harris) (9:06)
07. Starblind (Smith/Harris/Dickinson) (7:48)
08. The Talisman (Gers/Harris) (9:03)
09. The Man Who Would Be King (Murray/Harris) (8:28)
10. When The Wild Wind Blows (Harris) (10:59)

IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dave Murray recently told Billboard.com about "The Final Frontier", "We breezed through the album, really. We actually finished it in six weeks. We were getting down a track a day — all playing together as a band, Bruce (Dickinson) singing, all in the same room, so there's a very live-in-the-studio feel to it. Once we finished a track we'd jump straight into doing some extra guitar bits. It was very quick for us."

Murray said the 10-track set mixes "straight-ahead, uptempo rock songs with good grooves with some other tracks that are kind of longer and more complex." The album closer, "When the Wild Wind Blows", is an 11-minute track that's one of the longest songs IRON MAIDEN has ever recorded. "The rhythm's a little bit different from what we've done before, and there's lots of melodies," Murray said. "It's a big song. We learned it in sections just because it was such a complex arrangement, but it sounds quite natural (on the record)."

Bassist Uriah Duffy has released the following statement regarding his departure from the legendary rock band WHITESNAKE:

"My time with WHITESNAKE was awesome. David [Coverdale; WHITESNAKE frontman] and I have a great relationship; there are no hard feelings. It was simply time for us to go our separate ways."

Duffy spent five years with WHITESNAKE during which time he recorded an award-winning studio album, "Good To Be Bad", and played on the live release "Live In The Shadow Of The Blues". He also performed over 200 live shows on three world tours, including headlining appearances at major music festivals, among them the 2009 edition of the Download festival in the U.K. (to an audience of 80,000).

A member of WHITESNAKE since 2005, Duffy continued to work on outside projects. Officially parting ways with the band allows Dufy to give focus to a range of projects, including new acts THE MEMORIALS (with Thomas Pridgen of THE MARS VOLTA), BLACKGATES (also featuring former ANTHRAX vocalist Dan Nelson, drummer Paul Bostaph [TESTAMENT, ex-EXODUS, SLAYER, FORBIDDEN] and guitarist Jeremy Epp [THE VENTING MACHINE]), ongoing work with renowned rapper Lyrics Born, The Jazz Ma a, and his upcoming solo album for his own project, THE URIAH DUFFY BAND.

At this time WHITESNAKE is still exploring its options for the position of the band's new bassist.

WHITESNAKE is currently in the studio writing and recording the follow-up to 2008's "Good To Be Bad" for a spring 2011 release via Frontiers Records.

The cover artwork for "Under A New Sun", the forthcoming fourth full-length album from Melbourne, Australia's dark rockers THE ETERNAL, can be found below. The band states, "The cover and several images in the booklet are based on photography by fantastic Romanian photographer Felicia Simion. Her photography really touched us and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do."

"Under A New Sun" was recorded at 301 Studios in Byron Bay with acclaimed producer and multi-platinum recording artist Jeff Martin (THE ARMADA, THE TEA PARTY). Songtitles set to appear on the follow-up to 2008's "Kartika" include "The Sleeper", "Control", "Under A New Sun", "A Thousand Shades of You", "Collapse" and "Cast In Stone".

"Under A New Sun" was co-engineered by Paul Pilsneniks who has worked with such artists as THE LIVING END, THE MARS VOLTA, SILVERCHAIR, GRINSPOON and ALANIS MORISSETTE. THE ETERNAL has also enlisted acclaimed Finnish keyboard player Maria Ilmoniemi (TARJA, HUSKY RESCUE) to contribute.

Video footage of THE ETERNAL singer/guitarist Mark Kelson performing an acoustic version of the new song "The Sleeper" off "Under A New Sun" with Jeff Martin (who produced the album and contributed vocals to this track on the CD version) and Jeff's bass player Jay Cortez on May 14, 2010 at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia can be viewed below.

THE ETERNAL has scheduled its first hometown show in a year at Ruby's Lounge in Belgrave on Friday, July 23 with local rockers TREAD. THE ETERNAL states, "We will be playing loads of new material from 'Under A New Sun' so come and check it out."

THE ETERNAL recently made a new DVD, "Kartika World Tour 2009", available exclusively via the band's web site. The disc contains the "Kartika World Tour" and "The Making Of Kartika" documentaries as well at two promotional videos and plenty of photos.