Heir Apparent
Masters Apprentices
The Baying Of The Hounds
Serenity Painted Death
Bleak
To Rid The Disease
The Lotus Eater
The Night And Silent Water
Deliverance
Demon Of The Fall
The Drapery Falls

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It's been a long time since I spoke to Joe Duplantier during the Cavalera Conspiracy debut gig - and even longer since the release of Gojira's last album, their genre-defining instant classic From Mars To Sirius. Needless to say, I've been very impatient to get this album in my hands to see how the last three years have influenced the band msuically. From the tracks that I've heard available on their myspace, The Way Of All Flesh defines their uniqueness even more. While the resemblances to Morbid Angel, Meshuggah, Mastodon, and Sepultura are still clear, Gojira seem to be getting more confident in their vision and abilities every day. Watch out for the album to hit stores on October 14. For now, we've got the video for you.

[dailymotion id=k52k0R0PkjoiLdNf5a]

Dates for Gojira's November U.S. tour with In Flames, All That Remains, and 36 Crazyfists are after the jump...

Gojira's U.S. tour with In Flames, All That Remains, and 36 Crazyfists:

Nov. 06 - Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
Nov. 07 - Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy
Nov. 08 - Detroit, MI @ Emerald Theater
Nov. 10 - Chicago, IL @ House Of Blues
Nov. 12 - Minneapolis, MN @ Myth
Nov. 14 - Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
Nov. 15 - Edmonton, AB @ Events Center
Nov. 17 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore
Nov. 18 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox Sodo
Nov. 19 - Portland, OR @ Roseland
Nov. 21 - San Francisco, CA @ Warfield
Nov. 22 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Nokia Club
Nov. 23 - Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
Nov. 24 - Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
Nov. 25 - Albuquerque, NM @ Midnight Rodeo
Nov. 26 - Denver, CO @ Fillmore
Nov. 28 - Dallas, TX @ Palladium
Nov. 29 - Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa
Nov. 30 - Houston, TX @ House Of Blues
Dec. 02 - Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live
Dec. 03 - Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
Dec. 04 - Norfolk, VA @ The Norva
Dec. 05 - Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live
Dec. 06 - Worcester, MA @ Palladium
Dec. 07 - New York, NY @ Terminal 5
Dec. 09 - St.Louis, MO @ Pageant
Dec. 10 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave

Australia based metal band TERAMAZE will enter the studio in November to begin recording their follow up 2000's, "Not the Criminal". Producing the album will be Jeff Waters of ANNIHILATOR fame. No release date has been set at the time of this writing. We will keep you posted as more news becomes available on the album.

TERAMAZE is also schedules to perform at 2009's Cornerstone Music Festival which is held annually in Bushnell, IL over the 4th of July holiday.

Iced Earth - Horror Show (2001, Century Media Records)

Track Listing:

DISC ONE
1. "Wolf" ... 5:19
2. "Damien" ... 9:11
3. "Jack" ... 4:14
4. "Ghost of Freedom" ... 5:11
5. "Im-Ho-Tep (Pharaoh's Curse)" ... 4:45
6. "Jeckyl & Hyde" ... 4:39
7. "Dragon's Child" ... 4:19
8. "Frankenstein" ... 3:50
9. "Dracula" ... 5:53
10. "The Phantom Opera Ghost" ... 8:41

DISC TWO
1. "Transylvania" ... 4:23
2. Jon Shaeffer Interview ... 69:27

Band:
Matt Barlow - Lead Vocals
Larry Tarnowski - Guitar
Jon Schaffer - Guitar, Backing Vocals, Mandolin, Keys
Steve DiGiorgio - Bass
Richard Christy - Drums

Additional Musicians:
Yunhui Percifield - Lead Vocal in "The Phantom Opera Ghost" as "Christine", Backing Vocals
Richie Wilkison - Backing Vocals
Rafaela Farias - Backing Vocals
Sam King - Backing Vocals
Jim Morris - Backing Vocals, Keys, Guitar ("Ghost of Freedom")
Howard Helm - Keys ("The Phantom Opera Ghost")

Produced by: Jim Morris & Jon Shaffer

This, the second Iced Earth album I ever picked up, was the one I was most excited about. An album about all kinds of monsters? Dracula, Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper, the Mummy..? Awesome!

Sadly, this was just another disappointing Iced Earth purchase for me. I don't hate the band, I just think they're fairly bland and were/are definitely hampered by Matt Barlow's vocals.

Funny enough, my favorite song from the album is the one song that doesn't even fit the horror theme-- "Ghost of Freedom", which is more of a patriotic song (released just a few months before 9/11). It's an odd choice to put on *this* album, even with a "Ghost" title. I guess the guys just couldn't wait to release it!

A GREAT concept, just not the right band to pull it off. Maybe Mr. Alice Cooper would like to take a stab at it someday?

Highlights: ""Wolf", "Jack", "Ghost of Freedom", "Transylvania"

www.icedearth.com
www.myspace.com/icedearth

Royal Hunt - Live 1996 (1996, SPV)

CD 1

1. Flight
2. 1348
3. Wasted Time
4. Stay Down
5. On The Run
6. Stranded
7. Keyboard solo
8. Martial Arts
9. Far Away
10. Last Goodbye
11. Land Of Broken Hearts
12. Makin' A Mess

CD 2

1. Clown In The Mirror
2. Guitar solo
3. Step By Step
4. Drum & Bass solos
5. Running Wild
6. Epilogue
7. Age Gone Wild
8. 10 To Life
9. Legion Of The Damned
10. Kingdom Dark
11. Time

Total Time = 1:57:31

Royal Hunt official website

In the late '90s, I used to shop at a record store 20 minutes from my home called 2 Guys Music. This shop was a small hole-in-the-wall store in a local shopping plaza that catered to fans of Rock, Classic Rock and Heavy Metal. They had a well-stocked CD section, large used CD section ("Buy 3 Get 1 Free"), and the Import section. I spent hours in that store twice week: new release Tuesday and Saturday mornings when all the CDs traded in for cash Friday night were on the racks! The guys behind the counter used to play all the newer bands on the stereo that I had never heard before, especially albums from the Import section, and that's how I discovered Royal Hunt.

It was 1999 and I was buying up Metal CDs like crazy and the Import section at 2 Guys took a lot of my attention and money. All the new European and Japanese imports were usually there and higher in price but that didn't stop me from taking a chance on a couple of Royal Hunt albums. I grabbed LIVE 1996 for $17.99, not bad for a double disc set, and MOVING TARGET (1995), the first album to feature lead vocalist D.C. Cooper. When I got to the car, I meant to put MOVING TARGET in the CD player but I ended up putting in the first CD of LIVE 1996 in by mistake. The cool thing is that by listening to LIVE 1996 first I ended up getting a sampling of Royal Hunt's entire discography (3 albums & an E.P.) with 7 songs coming from the band's first album LAND OF BROKEN HEARTS (1992), 6 songs from CLOWN IN THE MIRROR (1993), and 7 songs from MOVING TARGET.  LIVE 1996 was recorded on the band's tour of Japan in the first week of June 1996. Royal Hunt was extremely popular in Japan at the time and winning many national awards for Album Of The Year for MOVING TARGET.

Royal Hunt is a Progressive Metal band kind of like Dream Theater but more melodic. The songwriting and musicianship is very strong and D.C. Cooper's vocal range is amazing (he was up for the Judas Priest vocal slot to replace Rob Halford)! Over the course of two discs, Royal Hunt gives off a blistering performance of almost 3 full albums of material and they include 3 solo sections so they rest of the band can have center stage. The stars of the album is D.C. Cooper and his female backup singers, they just really make you stand up and take notice of the powerful vocals and lyrics. As far as individual songs, there are 20 songs here and they are all done extrememly well but some of my favorites are: 'Land Of Broken Hearts', '1348', 'Far Away' (the band's Japanese #1 single), 'Step By Step' and 'Age Gone Wild'. I can honestly say that aside from the 3 solo sections and the instrumental 'Martial Arts', the entire live album is solid.

After buying LIVE 1996 and listening to it non-stop, it took me only a couple of weeks to update my Royal Hunt collection. I picked up the first two albums, 1997's PARADOX (which came as a box set with a bonus CD of the album performed live called CLOSING THE CHAPTER), and D.C. Cooper's 1999 solo album. What I didn't know was that Royal Hunt's original singer, Henrik Brockmann, is featured on the first two albums and that D.C. Cooper had left Royal Hunt sometime in 1998. I've listened to the first two albums with Brockmann on vocals and I prefer the live versions from the LIVE 1996 performance with D.C. Cooper.....Cooper has more range than Brockmann and can easily hit the higher registers. It also sounds like the band had tightened and evolved their sound with Cooper by the live album, making the older material much stronger. I listen to this album a lot to this day because the music is so melodic even with all the soloing and keyboard heavy songs.