TARJA TURUNEN Featured On MIKE OLDFIELD Remix Album

 

"Tubular Beats", the brand new remix album by Mike Oldfield, includes a new song, "Never Too Far", featuring a guest appearance by former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen. The CD will be released on February 1 via earMUSIC and will include the most popular songs by Oldfield, who has worked on new arrangements and new sounds for his compositions. All tracks have been reworked from the original multi-track recordings
and remixed together by Oldfield and German producer Torsten "York" Stenzel. Newly recorded guitar parts by Mike Oldfield have been added to the mix.

Turunen offers one of her most emotional performances ever on "Never Too Far" — something she attributes to the fact that Oldfield is one of her heroes.

Tarja explains: "It was such a pleasure to work with Mike Oldfield. The song turned out to be even better than I could have ever expected.

"Mike has a vast career and experience in pop, instrumental and electronic music. I love his music and his personal guitar sound.

"My work in this song was inspired by Mike's 'Islands', featuring another of my youth idols: Bonnie Tyler. A way to thank them for the nice melodies I grew up with was to add a line from their hit. And I believe Mike liked the idea, too. That's how 'Never Too Far' was born.

"Hope that you enjoy the song as much as I do."

RUSH: 'Clockwork Angels Live' DVD Coming In May

 

According to MusicTAP, RUSH's "Clockwork Angels Live" DVD will be released on May 21 via Concord.

RUSH captured the "Clockwork Angels" tour by filming in Phoenix and Dallas on November 25, 2012 and November 28, 2012, respectively. Reports at the time indicated that the Dallas
show would be the primary source for the film, with the Phoenix footage
used mainly as a backup.

The official Billboard Boxscore attendance and sales figures for the Phoenix and Dallas shows are as follows:

* Show Date: November 25
* Show Venue: US Airways Center
* City/State: Phoenix, AZ
* Attendance: 8,858
* Capacity: 10,121
* Gross Ticket Sales: $604,667

* Show Date: November 28
* Show Venue: American Airlines Center
* City/State: Dallas, TX
* Attendance: 10,509
* Capacity: 10,509
* Gross Ticket Sales: $764,483

The North American leg of the "Clockwork Angels" tour kicked off on September 7 at the Verizon Wireless Arena in
Manchester, New Hampshire and wrapped on December 2 in Houston, Texas.

In addition to adding a lot of rarely played songs to their opening set, RUSH brought a string ensemble out on tour with the band for the first time
ever in its career. Orchestrations provided by well-known arranger David Campbell were used on several tracks from the band's new album, "Clockwork Angels", and RUSH recreated that sound during the tour.

"Clockwork Angels" debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart, selling 103,000 copies in its first week of release. The disc marked RUSH 's highest chart debut since 1993's "Counterparts", which also entered at No. 2.

OPETH Mainman Comments On Upcoming North American Tour

 

Swedish progressive metallers OPETH will return to North America in support of their most recent studio album, "Heritage". Released September 20, 2011, it garnered rave reviews from everyone from Rolling Stone who called the album "a career record that reimagines prog as actual rock 'n' roll" to Pitchfork saying "a pretty, well thought out collection” to NPR who called it “equally vast, thoughtful and heavy.” The tour will kick
off on April 18 in Buffalo and will take the band throughout North
America on a 30-plus-city tour. KATATONIA has been confirmed as direct support for the tour.

There will be several dates of note during OPETH's North American run. On April 20, OPETH will be making a stop to headline alongside ANTHRAX, HATEBREED and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES at the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival. The April 28 show in Clifton Park, New York will see OPETH mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt's STORM CORROSION collaborator and friend Steven Wilson of PORCUPINE TREE join OPETH for a special evening that is not to be missed. There will also be two rare and intimate evenings with OPETH planned for Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on April 29 and The
Roxy in West Hollywood on May 24. These shows will allow fans the
unique opportunity to experience OPETH like never before.

OPETH will also be offering VIP packages throughout the tour that will allow fans the following:

* 1 ticket to the show
* Access to a meet-and-greet with the band
* Early entry to venue after meet & greet
* OPETH fan pack which includes:
- Exclusive VIP T-shirt
- Exclusive VIP double 12" clear vinyl of Heritage
- OPETH tour photo book
- Commemorative VIP laminate & lanyard

Fan club pre-sales begin on January 10 followed by public on-sales on January 11 and January 12.

Commented OPETH vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt: "Looks like we're coming back to North America in the spring. Again we're a 'buddy' package as we're going with KATATONIA once more. On top of that, Steven Wilson will be added to the bill in Albany on the 28th of April. Very much looking forward to this and we hope you are too.

"We've
deliberately booked ourselves in some small sized venues in areas where
we could play quadruple capacity venues. Why? I don't know, really. It
was my idea. More intimate shows are usually my personal favorites. I
know since we played everything from bars/cafes to arenas, and I know
what I prefer personally.

"Setlist-wise, we've been all over the place for the last 200 shows. It will be a mixed set, hopefully something for everybody.

"The band is on top form and I think we'll be able to deliver a show that will be memorable to you. At least I hope so."

The dates are as follows:

Apr. 18 - The Town Ballroom - Buffalo, NY
Apr. 20 - New England Metal & Hardcore Festival Worcester, MA
Apr. 21 - Capitole - Quebec City, QC
Apr. 23 - Halifax Forum - Halifax, NS
Apr. 24 - Casino New Brunswick - Moncton, NB
Apr. 26 - Guelph Concert Theatre - Guelph, ON
Apr. 27 - Crocodile Rock - Allentown, PA
Apr. 28 - Upstate Concert Hall - Clifton Park, NY
Apr. 29 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
Apr. 30 - NorVa Theater - Norfolk, VA
May 02 - Culture Room - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
May 03 - State Theatre - St. Petersburg, FL
May 04 - Georgia Theatre - Athens, GA
May 05 - Lincoln Theatre - Raleigh, NC
May 06 - The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC
May 08 - Buster's Billiards & Backroom - Lexington, KY
May 09 - The Vogue - Indianapolis, IN
May 10 - The Machine Shop - Flint, MI
May 11 - Mojoe's - Joliet, IL
May 12 - House of Blues - Cleveland, OH
May 14 - The Venue - Fargo, ND
May 15 - Wooly's - Des Moines, IA
May 16 - Pop's - Sauget, IL
May 17 - Bourbon Theatre - Lincoln, NE
May 18 - Cain's Ballroom - Tulsa, OK
May 20 - Fox Theatre - Boulder, CO
May 21 - Fox Theatre - Boulder, CO
May 23 - Rialto Theatre - Tucson, AZ
May 24 - The Roxy - West Hollywood, CA
May 25 - The Canyon Club - Agoura Hills, CA
May 26 - The Catalyst - Santa Cruz, CA

In a recent interview with Uppsala Student Radio 98.9, Åkerfeldt stated about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2011's "Heritage" album: "I have one new song, which I really like, a new song. It's the
most miserable song I ever wrote, and it's beautiful, I think. And then I have a song that we jammed, actually, on tour. I came up with a little
lick and became a bit of a director and just told everyone to play this
and that, and we started jamming on something. And it sounded,
immediately from the beginning, which was also my idea, it sounded like
the band GOBLIN, if you heard them, the Italian [progressive rock] band. So it's a crazy riff, a GOBLIN rip-off, and the song is called 'Goblin', which is a good title, I think. And we're gonna record it. I'm not sure if that will be too much of a fucked up song to be on the record,
because there will definitely only be one song ever we do that is gonna
sound like that. So maybe it'll just be some extra thing that we have.
But it's really good; I love it. But then again, it's just because of
the closeness to GOBLIN."

OPETH performed a special "unplugged" show on November 16, 2012 at the Union Chapel in London, England.

"Heritage" sold 19,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 19 on The Billboard 200 chart.

VOIVOD: 'Target Earth' Formats Unveiled

 

Canadian metal innovators VOIVOD will release their 13th studio album, "Target Earth", via VOIVOD's own company, Iron Gang Factory, and Century Media on the following dates:

Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway: Friday, January 18
North America, Spain, Italy: Tuesday, January 22
Sweden, Hungary: Wednesday, January 23
Australia, New Zealand, Finland: Friday, January 25
Rest Of Europe: Monday, January 21

The CD was recorded in January 2012 at Pierre Rémillard's (OBLIVEON, CRYPTOPSY, KRISIUN, MISERY INDEX) Wild Studio in a small town called St-Zénon in Quebec, Canada and was mixed by Sanford Parker (PELICAN, NACHTMYSTIUM). The follow-up to 2009's "Infini" contains the band's first music to be written with Mongrain (MARTYR) following the passing of original axeman Denis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005. The original art was once again drawn by Langevin and features color schemes from each one of the band's previous albums.

"Target Earth" standard CD and digital download track listing:

01. Target Earth
02. Kluskap O'Kom
03. Empathy For The Enemy
04. Mechanical Mind
05. Warchaic
06. Resistance
07. Kaleidos
08. Corps Étranger
09. Artefact
10. Defiance

"Target Earth" will also be available in the same track listing as gatefold-2LP with 180-gram vinyl in the following versions/colors:

* Black (Unlimited)
* Transparent Red (200 copies, Century Media webshop Europe)
* Transparent Blue (200 copies, Nuclear Blast mailorder)
* Orange (400 copies, Century Media USA)
* Purple (6000 copies, Century Media USA)

Additionally, there will be a limited-edition deluxe pressing of "Target Earth" as a mediabook-CD with alternate frontcover (silver on black!), two
quality stickers, expanded booklet as well as the two live bonus tracks
recorded at the band's triumphant appearance at Roadburn festival 2012, which VOIVOD helped curate: "Target Earth" and "Man In The Trees".

"Man In The Trees" is a very special DIE KREUZEN cover version, featuring Daniel Kubinski of DIE KREUZEN on vocals, who commented on the track and his appearance: "I'm truly honored and thankful to have shared the stage with VOIVOD at Roadburn 2012 and I'm completely stoked we were able to cover one of Piggy's favorite DIE KREUZEN songs, 'Man In The Trees'. The melding of VOIVOD and DIE KREUZEN has been a long time coming and I am so glad we had the opportunity to
play and record our performance together. I think our bands are
open-minded within our creativity and like-minded in our approach to
always stretch the boundaries and take our music to the next step!"

And last but not certainly least, "Target Earth" will be released as a CM Distro exclusive mailorder boxset in a numbered limited worldwide edition of 1,000 copies with the following content:

* "Target Earth" mediabook CD (incl. two live bonus tracks and expanded artwork/alternate frontcover)
* "Live At Roadburn 2011" CD (exclusive 10-song live CD with a four-page booklet in jewel case; previously only released by Roadburn Records as limited LP version)
* VOIVOD belt
* 1 poster (DINA3, Design of the mediabook CD cover artwork)
* 2 stickers (included in the mediabook CD)
* 3 exclusive postcards with artwork by VOIVOD's Away

The four members of VOIVOD — vocalist Denis "Snake" Bélanger, Mongrain, bassist Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault and drummer Michel "Away" Langevin — will attend a listening party for their new album, "Target Earth", on January 24 at Café Chaos in Montreal, Quebec, Canada starting at 8 p.m. Admission to this 18-and-over event is free.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA To Perform On 'Conan'

 

New York progressive rockers COHEED AND CAMBRIA will be the musical guests on the January 21 episode of Conan O'Brien's nighttime talk show on TBS, "Conan".

COHEED AND CAMBRIA's latest album, "The Afterman: Ascension", sold 49,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 5 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"The Afterman" is being released in two separate full-length volumes. The first volume, "The Afterman: Ascension", was made available on both physical and digital platforms in the U.S. on October 9, 2012 via Hundred Handed/Everything Evil, and distributed through Fontana/Ingrooves (available in Canada via Universal Music Canada). The second volume, "The Afterman: Descension", is due in February.

A deluxe version of "The Afterman" includes a hardcover coffee-table book with expansive art by Heidi Taillefer and Nathan Spoor with collaborative written work from singer/creator Claudio Sanchez and writer Peter David that creates a song-by-song experience.

The two records follow-up to 2010's "Year Of The Black Rainbow", and feature new bassist Zach Cooper and returning drummer Josh Eppard, who have replaced Michael Todd and Chris Pennie, respectively.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA frontman Claudio Sanchez said of the album: "This is, without a doubt, the most honest record
I've ever written. Though all the songs can be interpreted through our
main character in the story, they were initially written in a very
spontaneous manner. In the past, I've always had a predetermined idea of what the story was going to be when I approached the songs. With 'The Afterman' being a new story within 'The Amory Wars' arc, I allowed the events of my life to drive the concept, and therefore opened up the songwriting to a fuller degree."