Edguy frontman Tobias Sammet has taken his metal opera project Avantasia to the stage for the first time. The tour, which kicked-off on Thursday, June 5 at the Rocksound Festival in Switzerland, featureing many guest musicians, is set to take headline stage at both the Masters of Rock open air festival in the Czech Republic and Wacken Open Air in Germany.

Reach out for the Light - fan-filmed footage of Avantasia live at the Rocksound Festival in Huttwil, Switzerland on June 5, 2008

The Toy Master - fan-filmed footage of Avantasia live at at the Rocksound Festival in Huttwil, Switzerland on June 5, 2008

Commented Tobias Sammet on the tour in April: “I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you for your great support. ‘The Scarecrow’ is an album that means a lot to me and it was quite a commercial risk to just follow my heart instead of doing exactly what people expected. But if I take a look at the chart positions and sales — it went into the album charts in 16 countries, hitting the Top10 in four countries — it seems like you appreciate my honesty! Thank you!

Now preparing for the festival summer with Avantasia seems so surreal. Avantasia has never been on stage before and all of the sudden we are headlining the biggest festivals in the world, just been confirmed for the Sziget festival in Hungary on the 13th of August, playing amongst legendary bands such as R.E.M., Die Ärzte, Iron Maiden and the Sex Pistals. Amazing!

“The Avantasia line up will be Jorn Lande (ex-Masterplan), André Matos (ex-Angra), Amanda Somerville, Olli Hartmann, Bob Catley (Magnum — not all shows), Sascha Paeth, Miro, Robert Hunecke, Claudy Yang and Frank Lindenthal who is gonna replace Eric Singer who’ll be playing with KISS. ”

Avantasia, ‘The Scarecrow’ was “officially one of the 20 best-selling albums in whole Europe during the fourth week of January,” according to a press release.

Continue reading ‘Avantasia Project On Stage’

Metallica have recently launched a studio diary type website, MissionMetallica.com, to offer fans a wealth of exclusive content and teasers of new songs. The site also has a “platinum” level, entitling fans to a copy of the new album delivered on street date, with weekly “fly-on-the-wall” video clips, contests to travel to shows and/or Metallica’s San Francisco compound, live show downloads, ringtones and more.

Drummer Lars Ulrich told a Los Angeles radio station on May 5, “We thought, instead of doing the usual DVDs and all that, why don’t we just do it on the Internet and people can kind of tune in every day, watch clips, contests, get updates for what’s going on with the record and kind of watch the last couple of months of song titles, album titles, final mixes…So it’s kind of a little bit of a countdown type of thing. It should be fun.” Ulrich also told the station, “Knock on wood, this week should be our last week in the studio,” adding that the group expects to get its ninth album out in September.

Mission:Metallica Trailer

Ulrich said that fans can expect to hear new material “about five minutes after we finish playing it — thanks to the Internet,” although he did not say how soon the band will begin playing some new songs live.

Continue reading ‘Mission:Metallica Website Launched’

Joacim Cans came out on top in the Swedish version of the reality show “Clash of the Choirs” last week.

“Clash of the Choir” enrolled the help of several music stars — including Cans — to assemble amateur choirs people from their hometowns and compete live for the title of Sweden’s best choir. Team Cans reportedly received 52 percent of the votes in the competition’s final to win the title. Watch footage of Team Cans’ performances below.

Hearts on Fire

Oh, Fortuna

HammerFall recently announced the departure of guitarist Stefan Elmgren, who left the band in early April to focus on his new career as a pilot. His replacement will be Pontus Norgren (The Poodles, Talisman).

“Pontus is a fantastic guitar player with musical roots in Accept and neo-classical metal,” commented HammerFall drummer Anders Johansson. “I have known him for many years. I know how he works as a musician and as a person.”
Continue reading ‘HammerFall Singer Wins Sweden’s ‘Clash Of The Choirs’ TV Competition’

Iconic hard rockers AC/DC have confirmed the band are currently in the studio to record a new album. The following statement was posted recently on the band’s official website: “The waiting is almost over! AC/DC fans can expect the band’s next album of new material sometime later this year. The band are currently recording in Vancouver with producer Brendan O’Brien and long time audio engineer Mike Fraser. This will be the band’s first collection of new material since the release of Stiff Upper Lip in 2000.”

According to Reuters, the new album will be AC/DC’s first for Sony BMG’s Epic Records label, which reissued the band’s back catalog a few years ago.

Shouter Brian Johnson told a Los Angeles radio station this week: “We’re working with Brendan O’Brien, (Bruce) Springsteen’s producer, and he’s a great guy. He knows exactly what we want, and so far, it sounds really good. I’m well pleased.”

Listen to the full interview with Brain Johnson on youtube: Here

Leading Canadian metal webzine, Bravewords.com states that a classic interview from the early eighties with Angus Young and Brian Johnson has surfaced online. Watch the rare clip below…