Bring Me The Horizon will officially begin the writing sessions for their next album in around a months time. The group recently announced the news via their Facebook.

Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia joined Megadeth onstage in Camden, NJ last night (January 26th.) She took to the stage with the band to reprise her studio role on the reworked version of their track “A Tout le Monde“. You can watch fan-filmed footage of the pairing below:

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, How To Destroy Angels, etc. fame recently took part in a very insightful (and admittedly lengthy) interview with Tunecore.com. Along with his recent film score work, Reznor shared his thoughts on upcoming projects, the state of the record industry and more.

When asked why he originally parted ways with Interscope Records and abandoned the traditional record company models, he offered:

“Well [pauses], that time would’ve been about two thousand…eight-ish, somewhere in that neighborhood, and, the true reality of that situation was: the record deal that we had signed years and years before had escalating advances based on the current state of the industry when that was negotiated. Meanwhile, the industry has collapsed, and those advances didn’t make any sense for the record label at that point.

They were astronomical compared to what an expected return would be. We were kind of presented with the situation of, “Hey, if you wanna stay here, let’s renegotiate something that’s more realistic for us in terms of an advance, or, do it on your own.”

Now, at that time in my life, it felt very much like, “OK. The record business is broken. The model is broken.” I’d go through periods of having to look in the mirror and say, “Let’s see. I just made an album I spent a year working on. I turned it over to the record label to get manufactured. It leaked, and I’m online, just boiling furious, at fans who’re talking about how much they love this new album, that they just stole.”

And then I’d think, “Wait a minute. They’re not standing outside my house, bootlegging copies out the back of their van, y’know, to make money. They’re sharing their excitement about songs I’ve written, and music I’ve done. And they’re excited about it. And I’m pissed off at ‘em, because what?

They didn’t wait until a month from now, when they’d have to drive to a record shop (if they can find one,) to buy a piece of plastic they don’t want, then rip it back to their computers, to…man, this sucks.

Ok, something’s not right.” Or they can buy it from iTunes at a lower bit quality, which at that time was also copy protected, which I was strongly against.

It becomes very clear, if you can remove the emotion from the equation, that, OK. The delivery system is broken. And the relationship between fans and artists and record labels is also broken. I thought I was smart enough to get that right. What I learned is it consumed… The following years coming up to the present, have been spent trying to experiment with different business models.

First and foremost, spending time paying attention to what consumers want. You know, it all sounds like market research and boring marketing-type crap, and it is, but it also became clear: nobody else has figured it out. And managers aren’t gonna tell us what to do, and record labels, it’s clear they don’t know what to do.

And the internet at large, their proposition that everything should just be free? That’s great if you’re a kid at home, it’s not so great if you’re a content provider that’s thinking “OK, how am I supposed to keep doing this if everything is just free?” That’s not right, in my opinion.

But nobody wants to be Metallica and, stand up and [say] “Hey, on the one hand look how rich I am. On the other hand hey man, you should be paying me, poor college kid.” Nobody wants to be on that side of the argument, including them.
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Lionheart have checked in with an update from their ongoing “Persistence Tour” overseas with Suicidal Tendencies, Biohazard, Terror, Walls Of Jericho and more. You can watch it below. Meanwhile the bands new album “Undisputed” will see a release in the coming months through Mediaskare.

A new posting from Behemoth vocalist/guitarist Nergal over at the bands Facebook confirms new material is in the works. The post reads as follows:

“it’s not so official…but just wanted to let u know coz I’m excited about new ideas I’m collecting for the next studio album. Just came back from the dangeon. there’s two new killer riffs I’m super proud of…rest have to grow on me or fuck off;)”

Iwrestledabearonce will head out on the “Road To Metal Fest” tour in April with Molotov Solution, Glass Cloud and The Greenery as support. The trek will lead the bands into their stop at this years “New England Metal And Hardcore Festival” and beyond. Here’s the dates:

04/16 Oklahoma City, OK – Conservatory
04/17 Memphis, TN – New Daisy Theater
04/18 Knoxville, TN – Valarium
04/20 Springfield, VA – Empire
04/21 Worcester, MA – The Palladium (“New England Metal And Hardcore Festival“)
04/23 Pittsburgh, PA – Altar Bar
04/24 Evansville, IN – Boney Junes
04/25 Bloomington, IL – The Castle Theater
04/26 Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
04/27 Iowa City, IA – Blue Moose
04/29 Denver, CO – Marquis Theatre
04/30 Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad
05/01 Flagstaff, AZ – Cinnabar

Turisas, Alestorm, Ex Deo, Arkona and Huntress have all signed for this years “PaganFest“. Dates for the this years trek, which is dubbed “PaganFest: America Part III“, include:

03/29 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
03/30 Worcester, MA – Palladium
03/31 New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre
04/01 Montreal, QC – Club Soda
04/02 Toronto, ON – The Opera House
04/03 Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s
04/04 Detroit, MI – Blondie’s
04/05 Chicago, IL – Reggie’s Rock Club
04/06 Saint Paul, MN – Station 4
04/07 Louisville, KY – Vernon Club
04/08 Charlotte, NC – Tremont Music Hall
04/09 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
04/11 Dallas, TX – Trees
04/12 Lubbock, TX – Jake’s
04/13 Denver, CO – The Marquis
04/15 Seattle, WA – Studio Seven
04/16 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre
04/17 San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
04/18 West Hollywood, CA – Key Club
04/19 Tempe, AZ – 910 Live

Impending Doom have unveiled the cover art for their forthcoming album “Baptized In Filth“. You can check it out below, while the album itself is slated to arrive in stores on March 13th through eOne Music. In the meantime, pre-orders have been launched at Merchnow and through iTunes.
click here to check out the “Baptized In Filth” cover art…

Revocation‘s cover of Faith No More‘s “Surprise You’re Dead!” has been posted for streaming over at Ultimate-guitar.com. The song was previously available as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of the bands latest album, “Chaos Of Forms“.

Word is that Refused have booked another New York City, NY stop for April 22nd at Terminal 5. Tickets will go onsale next week with the band recently hinting at the stop, offering “NYC Round 2, who is ready for the New Beat?”

Update – January 27th 1:24pm:

Refused have since confirmed the message with the following update:

“We are extremely flattered at the overwhelming response to our New York City show. Tickets sold out in less than an hour. Unfortunately we realize that there are some people who are abusing this and attempting to re-sell those tickets at an unfair price. In order to serve our fans we will be adding a second show at TERMINAL 5 on Sunday, April 22nd. The pre-sale tickets and bundles will benefit Shirts For A Cure and will go on sale Tuesday, Jan 31 at 3PM EST with the public on-sale to follow on Wednesday, February 1 at 12PM EST. Tak Som Fan (Thank You!).”

More details can be found over at their Facebook.

Ex-Korn drummer David Silveria has resurfaced with members of former Roadrunner Records artists Anyone in a band dubbed Infinika. A promotional video for the group and their forthcoming “Echoes And Traces” release can be found below:

Byzantine will be returning with a new album this year and are seeking help from fans to fund it via Kickstarter. The band posted the following message regarding their return:

“West Virginia’s Byzantine has decided to announce a reformation of the band almost 4 years to the day since their last album; “Oblivion Beckons” was released. The group’s 2012 lineup is as follows:

Chris Ojeda: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Tony Rohrbough: Lead Guitar
Michael Cromer: Bass Guitar
Matt Wolfe: Drums

As singer/songwriter Chris Ojeda states, “We’ve all kept in contact through the past few years and have worked on each other’s projects as well. With our guitarist Tony moving back to WV from NC, we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to hang out again and jam. Before we knew it, we were tossing around riffs and song ideas and realized we had what seemed to be the foundation for a pretty kick ass Byzantine album.”

Since Byzantine is no longer tied to any record company, the band has decided to finance the recording of their 4th CD independently. The band will record most of the music themselves alongside engineer/producer and Gizmachi guitarist Jason Hannon of 7 over 8 Studios. Vocal tracking will be handled by Byzantine’s longtime engineer Aaron Fisher at 101 Studios. Ojeda states that no time frame has been set for the release and no show dates have been set.

Ojeda states, “We are not focusing on playing live just yet. We all still live pretty far away from each other and have family and career obligations to meet. Our focus right now is to put together a real nice collection of songs that we and our fans can be proud of. Doing it on a smaller budget will be a little harder but it will be fun to take our time and be able to be creative on our own terms.”

In the meantime, Byzantine has decided to enlist the help of kickstarter.com for the financing of the album. Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. It will allow the fans of Byzantine to help back the release of their new album through donations. Donations will be set up on a tier program and each tier will have incentives packages such as signed CD’s, back stage passes, official sheet music and early digital downloads, etc.”

Details for this years annual series of “Sonisphere Festival” stops have begun to trickle out. In particular the initial roster of bands for both the Madrid, Spain and Helsinki, Finland stops have come to light. Here’s how they will run this far:

05/26 Madrid, Spain – Getafe Open Air:

Metallica
Soundgarden
Slayer
Within Temptation
Mastodon
Children Of Bodom
Kyuss Lives!
Gojira
Clutch
Orange Goblin
Skindred
Ghost
Vita Imana
Sister

06/04 Helsinki, FIN – Kalasatama:

Metallica
Machine Head
Amorphis
Gojira
Ghost

Freya will hit kick off a brief Northeastern U.S. trek with Letter To The Exiles next month. Dates for that run include:

02/09 West Chester, PA – The Note
02/10 Wilmington, DE – Mojo 13
02/11 Elmira, NY – Elmira VFW Post 901
02/12 Syracuse, NY – The Lost Horizon (feat. Scale The Summit and Elitist) (no Letter To The Exiles)
02/13 Brooklyn, NY – Club Europa
02/14 TBA – TBA
02/15 Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall
02/16 Hartford, CT – Webster Theater

Meanwhile, you can watch the second studio webisode from the sessions for Freya‘s forthcoming new album “Paragon Of The Crucible” below:

Skeletonwitch have booked three headlining shows for the off-dates of their upcoming run with The Black Dahlia Murder, Nile and Hour Of Penance. Those stops include:

03/31 Boise, ID – The Venue (feat. Black Tusk, East Of The Wall)
03/28 Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
04/08 Lubbock, TX – Jake’s Sports Cafe