August Burns Red are offering the following stream of their new track “Provision“. You can also find a stream of the song via the bands app. It is the lead-off track from their nearing album “Rescue & Restore“, which will receive a June 25th release date on Solid State.
click here for the stream…

A new Texas In July song titled “Time-Lapse” is available for streaming below. The track is one of three new bonus cuts which appear on a newly-expanded digital deluxe version of their self-titled album, out July 16th.

The songs were produced and engineered by Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland (August Burns Red) with mixing and mastering helmed by Will Putney (Vision Of Disorder, Suicide Silence).

The track listing for the digital deluxe edition of Texas In July runs as follows:

01 – “Initiate”
02 – “Cry Wolf”
03 – “Shallow Point”
04 – “Without A Head” (feat. Chadwick Johnson of Hundredth)
05 – “Bed Of Nails”
06 – “Repressed Memories”
07 – “C4” (feat. Dave Stephens of We Came As Romans)
08 – “Crux Lust”
09 – “Paranoia”
10 – “Black Magic”
11 – “Cloudy Minds” (feat. Matt Greiner of August Burns Red)
12 – “Time-lapse ”
13 – “03 Deville”
14 – “Forbidden Fruit”
click here for the stream…

This past Friday, June 14th, saw Katatonia launch this crowdfunding campaign which will find them reworking their latest release, “Dead End Kings“, in a “stripped down, semi-acoustic way”. The funding for that project has now exceeded its goal with the group eyeing a September 09th release of the revised outing.

The reworking will be titled “Dethroned & Uncrowned” and according to the band:

“The synopsis is simple and album title won’t lie; the drums will be dethroned and the distorted rhythm guitars will be uncrowned! Instead, we’ll place the emphasis on the many layers of ambience, with the melodies staying central and the vocal harmonies representing the heart of the album.

Also by pledging you are helping the bands ability to be able to tour further afield. Although the songs are the same and the track listing doesn’t change, we hope the end result is something entirely different!

Think of the album like a person’s face in the hands of a surgeon, whose appearance is gonna change, but it’s still the same person behind that face and we guess an important factor, in this case, would be that the surgeon itself is obviously Katatonia, not a stranger! If there’s one album in our repertoire that’s suited for a thing like this, it’s ‘Dead End Kings’.”

The Great Commission have launched the below stream of their previously unreleased song “Sacrifice“. It features a cameo from Joe Musten of Advent. It is also the first track to emerge from the groups new album, “Cast The First Stone“, pre-orders for which can be found here.
click here for the stream…

Ministry‘s new studio album “From Beer To Eternity has been given a September 06th release date through 13th Planet Records. Once again described as the bands ‘final’ studio album, it features performances from late guitarist Mike Scaccia, who passed away at the end of 2012. According to band leader Al Jourgensen”

“We have never, in the history of Ministry, ever had a tracking session like that before. Everything went so smoothly, it was surreal. And Mikey was so on fire and inspired, and really a driving force for this record.”

He continued:

“During the tracking sessions, Mikey was smiling and going, ‘You know what, Al? This is by far and away the best Ministry album we’ve ever done together. This is awesome.’ I’m super proud of From Beer to Eternity because it’s my tribute to Mikey‘s incredible talent, and I feel it honors him and all of the years we spent together making music.”

A three-track maxi single for the new album single “PermaWar” will arrive digitally in late July while a deluxe and special ‘FanBox’ editions of the album are also being readied. On a more curious note, an official press release from the album also included this blurb:

“Ministry will support From Beer to Eternity with a cavalcade of music videos, off-the-wall “making of…” digital clips, and an on-going “dog-blog” commentary by Jourgensen‘s two Labradors, Lemmy and Ozzy, who were present every step of the way during the recording and mixing of From Beer to Eternity, and have launched their own Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/Ozzyandlemmyjourgensen ) to tell the tail. Uh, tale.”

Prior to the release of the aforementioned album Jourgensen will issue his authorized biography “Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen“, which was penned by Jourgensen and Jon Wiederhorn. It is due out on July 09th. A two disc live set titled “Ministry: Enjoy The Quiet – Live at Wacken 2012” of Ministry‘s 2012 “Wacken Open Air” performance is also forthcoming and is set for an August 02nd release date.

Locrian‘s new album “Return To Annihilation” can now be streamed online in its entirety via Spin. Relapse Records will have the album in stores on June 25th.

Testament, etc. drummer Gene Hoglan joined Down onstage during their appearance at this past weekend’s “Copenhell” festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hoglan sat in on “Bury Me In Smoke” with stage-shot footage available below:
click here for the footage…

Battlecross have recruited drummer Kevin Talley—who up until recently was under the employ of Six Feet Under—for their summer touring plans. The group performed with Talley earlier this month at Metallica‘s ‘Orion Music + More‘ festival. They will be appearing all summer long on the ‘Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival” and will release their new studio album “War Of Will” through Metal Blade on July 09th.

The Amity Affliction, Chelsea Grin, Stick To Your Guns and In Hearts Wake will be touring Australia under the banner of ‘The Brothers In Arms Tour‘ come October. Dates for that run include:

10/18 Brisbane, AUS – Riverstage
10/19 Newcastle, AUS – Panthers
10/20 Sydney, AUS – Big Top Luna Park
10/22 Melbourne, AUS – Palace
10/23 Melbourne, AUS – Palace
10/25 Adelaide, AUS – Thebarton Theatre
10/26 Perth, AUS – Metro
10/27 Fremantle, AUS – Metropolis

Mastodon‘s track “Island” from their 2004 release “Leviathan” will appear in the new Disney-Pixar film, “Monsters University“. According to the film’s director Dan Scanlon:

“There is a great moment in ‘Monsters University’ when we thought it would be funny if the tunes were some of the most intense heavy metal imaginable. Mastodon was the obvious choice. They show off an unexpected monstrous side for one of our great new characters.”

Despite being featured in the film, the song does not appear on the official soundtrack. The movie will open in theaters on June 21st.

Dust off your Walkmans, Prosthetic Records are throwing their weight behind the cassette tape with a planned limited edition run of various releases from their catalog on the format. Expected out later this month from the label are cassette versions of the following albums:

Lamb Of God – “New American Gospel”
Trap Them – “Darker Handcraft”
Ramming Speed – “Doom To Destroy, Destined To Die”
Castle – “Blacklands”
Holy Grail – “Ride The Void”
Skeletonwitch – “Beyond The Permafrost”

Pre-orders for all of those are now live at this location.

Lamb Of God guitarist Mark Morton has tracked a guest bass cameo on the forthcoming new studio album from Unearth. Morton tweeted yesterday:

“So far today I’ve gotten my new skateboard put together, got some fresh new Chucks & played bass on the new Unearth album. Great day off!”

Meanwhile, Unearth guitarist Buz McGrath shared this picture from the sessions. Unearth have been in the studio lately with producer Mark Lewis (The Black Dahlia Murder, DevilDriver) tracking their new album, for which they recently found four new label homes.

Revocation have debuted their new song “The Hive” online below. The track itself is featured on the groups new self-titled album which is set for an August 06th release through Relapse.
click here for the stream…

Iron Reagan have tweaked their lineup a bit with the addition of bassist Rob Skotis (Hellbear). Featuring members of Municipal Waste and former members of Darkest Hour, the group will be out this summer in support of their full-length debut, “Worse Than Dead“, which is now available. Here’s where they will hit:

06/27 Richmond, VA – Punk Hause
06/28 Brooklyn, NY – The Acheron
06/29 Philadelphia, PA – Blow the Scene! Fest
07/02 Tempe, AZ – Cantina
07/03 Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory
07/04 San Diego, CA – The Yard
07/05 Los Angeles, CA – Whiskey A Go Go
07/06 Oakland, CA – Oakland Metro
07/07 Oakland, CA – Eli’s Mile High Club

With Gwar & Hatebreed:

09/11 Lexington, KY – Busters
09/12 Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue
09/13 Baltimore, MD – TBA
09/14 Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls
09/15 Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom

Five Finger Death Punch have revealed the track listing for the first volume of their coming double album, “The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell Volume 1“. Due in stores on July 30th, you can expect it to shape up as follows:

01 – “Lift Me Up” (feat. Rob Halford of Judas Priest)
02 – “Watch You Bleed”
03 – “You”
04 – “Wrong Side Of Heaven”
05 – “Burn MF”
06 – “I. M. Sin”
07 – “Anywhere But Here” (feat. Maria Brink of In This Moment)
08 – “Dot Your Eyes And Cross Your Teeth”
09 – “M.I.N.E. (End This Way)”
10 – “Mama Said Knock You Out” (LL Cool J cover) (feat. Tech N9ne)
11 – “Diary Of A Deadman”
12 – “I.M. Sin” (feat. Max Cavalera of Soulfly)
13 – “Anywhere But Here” (duet with Maria Brink of In This Moment)
14 – “Dot Your Eyes And Cross Your Teeth” (feat. Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed)

The deluxe version will also come with a fifteen song live CD titled “Purgatory [Tales From The Pit]“, it is due to shape up as follows:

01 – “Intro”
02 – “Under & Over It”
03 – “Burn It Down”
04 – “American Capitalist”
05 – “Hard To See”
06 – “Coming Down”
07 – “Bad Company” (Bad Company cover)
08 – “White Knuckles”
09 – “Drum Solo”
10 – “Far From Home”
11 – “Never Enough”
12 – “War Is The Answer”
13 – “Remember Everything”
14 – “No One Gets Left Behind”
15 – “The Bleeding”

Pre-orders for the album can be found through leading digital retailers with physical copies and bundles available here. An instant download of the new album track “You” is available with select pre-orders.

In related news, the group have also begun a six part webisode series for the release breaking down the album. The first episode can be seen below via Loudwire with an additional episode to be made available each Tuesday leading up to the July 30th release date.
click here for the video…