Finland's NIGHTWISH have finished writing the material for their next album and are now preparing to record pre-production versions of the songs so that they can be edited and arranged. The band are currently seeking a replacement for departed singer Tarja Turunen before entering the studio in September 2006 to begin recording the follow-up to 2004's "Once", tentatively due in mid-2007.

As previously reported, NIGHTWISH's "End of an Era" DVD and CD entered the German chart at a No. 3 and has already been certified gold for sales in excess of 25,000 copies. "End of an Era" was also certified gold in Finland the day after its release.

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Former BURZUM leader and convicted murderer and arsonist Varg Vikernes (photo) (a.k.a. "Greven"), who has served 12 years out of a 21-year jail sentence, will not be released from prison just yet.

The Norwegian prison authorities have denied Vikernes' parole application, according to the newspaper Dagbladet.

Varg's attorney John Christian Elden says Vikernes' release is long overdue.

"He is disappointed by the decision because he feels he ...

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TWISTED SISTER are celebrating their 30th anniversary with a new label, Razor & Tie, and a new album on the way. The band's new disc, A Twisted Christmas - featuring metal versions of holiday classics including 'Deck the Halls' and 'O Come All Ye Faithful' - is due October 17th. Twisted Sister are currently recording and have had to cancel performances at European festivals this summer to have the LP completed for the holiday season.

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GUNS N' ROSES frontman Axl Rose could be kept locked up for up to three days by Swedish prosecutors before a court order will be required in order to hold him for a longer period.

"The reason I've decided to keep him locked up is that there's a risk that he'll disappear, and then we won't be able to have a trial," prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad told The Local.

"There is a possibility that there could be a hearing this evening, and I could decide to drop the decision to keep him in custody, but we have not reached that point yet," he told The Local at 5:30 p.m. CET on Tuesday (June 27).

Axl Rose was arrested early Tuesday after allege ...

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Yes! Metalreviews.com has sold out! In an attempt to align ourselves with the current trendsters and emo troglodytes hiding behind dusty monitors, keyboards and webcams, under black lighted black velvet Avenged Sevenfold (not power metal!) and Bullet For My Valentine posters revealing all manner of...stains, we've created a MySpace page of our own!

Be our "friend" and go emo with us here: http://www.myspace.com/metalreviews.

©Sike!, Inc. 2006, All Rights Reserved.

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A brand new LAMB OF GOD track, entitled "Redneck", has been posted online at www.sacrament2006.com.

"Redneck" is the first single off LAMB OF GOD's new album, "Sacrament", due on August 22 via Epic. A video for the song has reportedly been shot by director Bill Fishman (EAGLES OF DEATH METAL, GOOD CHARLOTTE).

"Sacrament" was produced by Machine (BLOODSIMPLE, WHITE ZOMBIE), who also helmed the group's 2004 effort, "Ashes of the Wake".

In a recent interview with MTV.com, LAMB OF GOD guitarist Mark Mo ...

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Sweden's WOLF have set "The Black Flame" as the title of their fourth album, due this fall release via Century Media Records in Europe and Prosthetic Records in the U.S. The band are currently tracking the effort at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden and will be done recording by the end of June. Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "The Bite", "I Will Kill Again", "Silverbullit Eater", and "Black Magic". The follow-up to 2004's "Evil Star" will be the first album to feature new drummer Tobias R Kellgren and longtime session/live guitarist Johannes Losbäck alongside founding members Niklas Stålvi ...

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Nebraska-based power metallers CELLADOR have posted the video for their song "Leaving All Behind", at this location (Windows Media). The video shoot took place in Los Angeles, CA between May 8 and May 11 with director Dan Dobi (CANNIBAL CORPSE, INTO THE MOAT). According to the band: "It was a fantastic first experience in the music video world for us and the resulting neck and head pains from the nine hours of thrashing we will cherish in our hearts for many days to come. We can't say enough good things about our video director Dan Dobi and his producer Jer ...

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WINDS guitarist Carl August Tidemann recently posted a message on the the band's forum stating that he has now completed the solo-guitar recordings for the upcoming album. The rhythm guitars were already completed last year and the recent completion of the solos now concludes all the guitar recordings for the fourth WINDS album.

WINDS — comprised of singer Lars Eric Si (KHOLD), guitarist Carl August Tidemann (ARCTURUS), keyboardist Andy Winter (AGE OF SILENCE) and Jan Axel Von Blomberg (ARCTURUS, MAYHEM) — have also confirmed recent suspicions of a guest performance by Dan Swanö ( ...

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Tim Roth of the Regina, Saskatchewan-based progressive metallers INTO ETERNITY has issued the following update on the band's curent and upcoming activities:

"Things are going well these days in the INTO ETERNITY camp. The recording of our fourth album was recently completed at the end of May. Now we are looking forward to Andy Sneap [NEVERMORE, EXODUS, ARCH ENEMY] putting all of his talent into mixing the new disc. That will take place around June 23/06. The band is excited for everyone to hear the new material.

"Right now Mattias Norén is working on the CD packaging. I've seen the cover and it looks really amazing. Ma ...

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