MARCO MINNEMANN Is Not DREAM THEATER's New Drummer

Despite rumors to the contrary, BLABBERMOUTH.NET has learned that 40-year-old international drumming sensation Marco Minnemann (KREATOR, NECROPHAGIST) **has NOT** joined DREAM THEATER as the replacement for the recently departed Mike Portnoy.

DREAM THEATER has yet to officially announce its new drummer despite the fact that the band has been rehearsing with one candidate exclusively since last fall. DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci previously stated about the group's drummer search, "Auditions went great and we do have someone but we are spending some time getting everything in order before making an official announcement. Let me just say that we are all incredibly excited about our choice and just bursting at the seams to let the world know!"

DREAM THEATER will co-headline this year's edition of Classic Rock magazine's award-winning High Voltage festival, set to take place Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24, 2011 in Victoria Park, London, England. The band will appear on the main stage on July 24. High Voltage 2011 will mark the first U.K. performance of the group's new lineup following the departure of Mike Portnoy.

Just days after it was announced that he'd been dismissed as the touring drummer for AVENGED SEVENFOLD, Portnoy revealed that he tried to rejoin DREAM THEATER, and was rebuffed.

Portnoy, who co-founded DREAM THEATER more than 20 years ago, abruptly quit the band last summer while on tour with AVENGED SEVENFOLD.

He played on AVENGED SEVENFOLD's latest album, "Nightmare", following the death of that band's drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, and has toured with them since early summer.

KANSAS Confirmed For SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL

U.S. classic rockers KANSAS have been confirmed for this year's edition of the Sweden Rock Festival, set to take place June 8-11, 2011 in Sölvesborg in southern Sweden.

The festival billing is shaping up as follows (in alphabetical order):

AGENT STEEL
BUCKCHERRY
CLUTCH
DAN REED BAND
DESTRUCTION
ELECTRIC WIZARD
FLÄSKET BRINNER
GHOST
GROUNDHOGS
HELLOWEEN
JASON & THE SCORCHERS
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS
JUDAS PRIEST
KANSAS
MASON RUFFNER
MOLLY HATCHET
MOONSPELL
MR. BIG
MUSTASCH
OVERKILL
OZZY OSBOURNE
RAGE (acoustic)
RAUBTIER
RHAPSODY OF FIRE
ROB ZOMBIE
SAXON
STRYPER
STYX
THE CULT
THE DAMNED
THE HAUNTED
WALTER TROUT
WHITESNAKE

SAXON will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its classic album "Denim And Leather" by performing it in its entirety at the event, "spiced with a lot of other immortal SAXON classics and yes, they will bring the eagle!"

Source: RNRCola

STRATOVARIUS Singer Falls Ill; Paris Concert Canceled

Finnish melodic metallers STRATOVARIUS were forced to cancel last night's (Tuesday, January 11) performance at the Elysée Montmartre in Paris, France as the support act for HELLOWEEN after STRATOVARIUS singer Timo Kotipelto was taken ill.

Video footage of Kotipelto explaining the reasons for STRATOVARIUS' Paris cancelation from the stage at last night's concert can be viewed below (courtesy of Rock Hard France).

Said Kotipelto: "We were touring with HELLOWEEN and we played, I think, in Poland and the Czech Republic, so I got some food poisoning, some bacteria. And my Christmas was not so nice and I still have some problems — my vocals cords are completely dry. I [saw] a doctor in Paris yesterday and today as well, so it's like... unfortunately, I can't sing a fucking note, and this never happened to me before. I'm very sorry about this and we wanna make it up to you, guys. We're gonna be back in Paris, back in France — I don't know when; hopefully this year. So I hope you understand the situation. Thank you so much. Merci beaucoup."

It is not presently clear if tonight's (Wednesday, January 12) STRATOVARIUS concert in Lyon, France as part of HELLOWEEN's "7 Sinners" world tour will also be affected.

STRATOVARIUS's thirteenth full-length studio album, "Elysium", will be released in Asia on January 12 via JVC, in Europe on January 14, 2011 through earMUSIC/Edel and in North America on January 18 via Armoury Records.

Check out audio samples of all the songs that will appear on the CD at Amazon.co.uk.

"Elysium" will be released as a regular CD; a deluxe digipak edition with bonus track; a "collector's edition" (featuring two exclusive bonus tracks on a seven-inch single); and on vinyl.

STRATOVARIUS 2011 is:

Timo Kotipelto - Vocals
Matias Kupiainen - Guitars
Lauri Porra - Bass
Jörg Michael - Drums
Jens Johansson - Keyboards

The Par Lindh Project To Release New Disc

The Crimsonic Label is pleased to announce that TIME MIRROR, the new CD from The Par Lindh Project, is now available!

TIME MIRROR is the first Par Lindh Project studio recording in ten years. It showcases the group's trademark virtuoso musicianship, complex keyboard-driven compositions, and dynamic performances that have made them one of the foremost bands in modern progressive rock.

The Par Lindh Project consists of PAR LINDH on a vast array of keyboards (including church organ), bassist WILLIAM KOPECKY (Far Corner, Kopecky, Yeti Rain, Michael Angelo Batio, etc), and vocalist/drummer AL LEWIS (of Starcastle fame). The CD also features guest contributions from Svetlan Raket (drums), Stefan Bergman (drums), Anders Lagerqvist (violin), Bo-Inge Svensson (trumpet), and the Villberga Choir.

For More Information Please Visit www.parlindh.com

Van Der Graaf Generator To Release New Album On Esoteric

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "A Grounding in Numbers"

2006 was Year Zero for Van Der Graaf Generator. In January of that year Hugh Banton, Guy Evans and Peter Hammill met for lunch in the shadow of the Royal Festival Hall, the scene of their remarkable reunion show the previous year. At the time the venue was in the process of refurbishment and renewal; in the light of David Jackson's departure from the group VdGG, too, found themselves wondering what - if any - future awaited them.

A number of conclusions were quickly reached: that to be true to the Van der Graaf spirit and to move the story on to the next chapter they had to continue as a trio and simultaneously forge new approaches in method, style and content. They emerged from an exploratory rehearsal period with new material as well as reworked versions of their earlier songs and took to the stage again early in 2007. Fired up by the strength of the audience's response they recorded the album "Trisector" in the summer.

"Trisector", released in 2008, was acknowledged as a step-change up from the first reunion CD, "Present". Live performances of the new material in Europe, Japan and North America followed. In late 2008 and early 2009 preparations began for the next set of recordings. Song fragments were gathered, ideas exchanged, theories, policies and directions discussed. In April 2010 the band met up for intensive tracking sessions in Cornwall, arranging, rehearsing and recording the album in a week. Some of the pieces were already fully-formed songs; others, even at this stage, remained more sketches than fully realised works.

Over the next months the tracks were overdubbed, edited and adapted by the band in their own studios. A constant exchange of files over the internet or on CDR kept the project in full alignment. By September the project was ready to be mixed. Hugh Padgham had agreed to take on this part of the process - the first time anyone outside the band had been entrusted such responsibility. After three weeks in Hugh's London studio, Sofasound (which shares its name with Peter's original home set-up), "A Grounding in Numbers" was completed. With a fantastic clarity and depth of sound and a helter-skelter stretch of tunes, "A Grounding..." sees VdGG pushing ever further forward into the twenty first century. Clearly, they know they're a group with a certain history - but they are also an emphatically modern one.


Cherry Red records and their imprint Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the signing of VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR to the label for their new studio album
"A GROUNDING IN NUMBERS". Released globally on 14th March 2011, the stunning new album is the 12th studio record by the band and is their first since 2008. The album will be released as both a CD and a limited edition numbered vinyl LP (restricted to 2000 copies) and will be backed up by a short tour of the UK and some dates in Europe. The tour dates are as follows:

UK:

March 24: Leamington Spa Assembly
March 25: Glasgow ABC
March 26: Manchester Academy 3
March 27: London Barbican
March 28: Cambridge Junction

NETHERLANDS:

March 30: Utrecht Tivoli

GERMANY
March 31st Berlin—Columbia Club
April 1st Hamburg-Fabrik

CZECH REPUBLIC:

April 2: Prague Akropolis

ITALY:

April 4: Rome Auditorium Parco della Musica
April 5: San Benedetto del Tronto, Palariviera
April 7: Milan Conservatorio
April 8: Vicenza Teatro Comunale
April 9: Cesena Teatro Carisport

Esoteric Recordings label manager Mark Powell said; "The signing of Van Der Graaf Generator's new album to Esoteric is a privilege and a thrill. "A Grounding in Numbers" is a tremendous work and carries on the band's tradition of excellence and musical innovation. To work with a group you've admired for many years is an exciting prospect indeed".
Further details regarding the album release will follow shortly.
4



The Peter Hammill website: www.sofasound.com
The Van Der Graaf Generator website: www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk

Maudlin Of The Well To Release Albums On Vinyl

http://antitheticrecords.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011.html

Shawn Sambol of Antithetic Records has negotiated with Dark Symphonies and now he has the licensing rights to reissue maudlin of the Well's early material on vinyl.

"As far as other future releases go, Antithetic has been in contact with Dark Symphonies in hopes of releasing the earlier maudlin of the Well albums on vinyl. Originally these were not on the table, but we asked again just to be safe, and we're glad that we did! It's confirmed that Antithetic Records will have licensing rights to release the first 3 motW albums on vinyl! Our initial thoughts are to release Bath and Leaving Your Body Map as a 4LP box set. Not sure exactly when this will happen, but all in due time. We have also been in contact with Hydra Head Records about doing a vinyl release for Kayo Dot's Stained Glass EP. This one is also available to us for licensing, so it will be on our radar as a future release as well. "

Tesseract To Release Debut In March

U.K. progressive metal hopefuls TESSERACT will release their debut album, "One", on March 22 via Century Media Records. The follow-up to last year's "Concealing Fate" EP includes a bonus DVD that features "Concealing Fate" being performed live in the studio — no overdubs, no re-recording, just pure and raw; the way music was meant to be. The audio for the DVD will be available in stereo and a 5.1 Surround Sound mix. The DVD also features interviews and footage from the band's recent U.S. tour.

Commented TESSERACT bassist Amos Williams: "Ever since we first started performing and recording, we've always wanted to explore the idea of surround sound. The density and layers of TESSERACT's music lends itself perfectly to multichannel sound. So, we came up with the idea of filming and recording 'Concealing Fate' in 5.1 Surround Sound for a special DVD that would come as standard with the album release.

"It's really great for us to show you guys the evolution of the songs as they've grown slightly since we've started touring them.

"There is absolutely nothing better than the energy and euphoria of live music and hopefully with this DVD we've helped represent that. We enjoyed the experience and the result so much that we may just do the next album like this, too!"

TESSERACT has also teamed with leading Djent site Got-Djent.com to open the official TESSERACT question-and-answer forum. Fans can log on to Got-Djent.com and talk to the band about anything they want. The entire group will be online periodically to answer questions and talk to fans.

"One" track listing:

01. Lament
02. Nascent
03. Acceptance - Concealing Fate Part One
04. Deception - Concealing Fate Part Two
05. The Impossible - Concealing Fate Part Three
06. Perfection - Concealing Fate Part Four
07. Epiphany - Concealing Fate Part Five
08. Origin - Concealing Fate Part Six
09. Sunrise
10. April
11. Eden

Bonus DVD track listing:

01. "Concealing Fate" Parts I-VI recorded live, Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound mix
02. Band interviews
03. Footage from North American tour

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/tesseractband

TESSERACT's promotional video for the song "Conceling Fate Pt. 1", directed by Khaled Lowe and produced by Campbell Beaton, can be viewed below.

TESSERACT is:

Acle Kahney - Guitar
Amos Williams - Bass
Dan Tompkins - Vocals
Jay Postones - Drums
James Monteith - Guitar

For more information, visit http://www.tesseractband.co.uk/

Source: RNRCola

DEVIN TOWNSEND And KING'S X Announce NAMM Showcase Schedules

In a mere three days the legendary NAMM tradeshow will kick off in Anaheim, CA. InsideOut Music is happy to announce the participation of two of the label's most respected acts; Devin Townsend and King's X will both be on hand to participate in this year's festivities. Townsend, who is currently finishing up work on his two new releases 'Ghost' and 'Deconstruction', will be at NAMM on Thursday, January 13th. His schedules is as follows:

DEVIN TOWNSEND
Thur, Jan 13th
1pm - 1:40pm - Mackie stage
3pm - 3:40pm - Mackie stage
3:40pm - Signing session at Mackie
4:30pm - Signing session at EMG

Devin had the following to say, "NAMM time again, and I'm very much looking forward to meeting up with folks who are able to attend as well as the companies whose generosity and understanding of my musical vision allows me to do my job. The guitar I have worked on with Peavey has quietly been released in it's first incarnation (the version I used all last year) and we are on the verge of releasing a fine tuned version in conjunction with 'Deconstruction'. Alvarez acoustics and Mackie have invited me to play an acoustic show at NAMM as well as several signings and DVD performances which will all be seeing the light of day around the release of the two records, 'Deconstruction' and 'Ghost'.

KING'S X recently released their wildly acclaimed 'Live Love in London' CD/DVD combo and are now excited to appear at NAMM on Friday, January 14th with the following scheduled events.

KING'S X
Fri, Jan 14th
1pm - 1:40pm - Mackie stage
3pm - 3:40pm - Mackie stage

Ty Tabor recently completed a six-part video interview with Harmony Central. Check out the first part here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8POFU9FyCIM

Source: Century Media

January News Bytes

• IQ has picked up a new keyboard player named Neil Durant. Neil has been a big fan of IQ for the past 25 years and is itching to learn the vast IQ back catalogue to celebrate their 30th year of music. Many of you will know Neil from his work with Sphere3 and from the fact that he ran the very first internet mailing list for IQ, 'It All Posts Here' in the early 90's before the world wide web became popular and the IQ website started.
• UPDATE: First Mark Westworth, and now John Jowitt has left IQ. The statement from his Facebook page was brief and gave no real detailed reason for his departure. However he does say that he is looking for a new band. IQ are also looking for a new bassist.
  

Keyboardist DEREK SHERINIAN Working On New Solo Album

Keyboardist Derek Sherinian (BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, DREAM THEATER, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) just spent three days in the studio with drummer Simon Philips (THE WHO, TOTO) writing material for Derek's upcoming seventh solo record, to be released this summer

Sherinian and Phillips first collaborated on Derek's "Inertia" record in 2001.

Derek's last solo album, "Molecular Heinosity", came out in 2009. It featured guest appearances by Zakk Wylde (BLACK LABEL SOCIETY), Tony Franklin (THE FIRM, WHITESNAKE), Brian Tichy (BILLY IDOL, OZZY OSBOURNE), Virgil Donati and Rusty Cooley (OUTWORLD).

The self-titled debut album from BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION sold 7,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 54 on The Billboard 200 chart.