Chimaira frontman Mark Hunter has publically addressed the recently announced departure of keyboardist/programmer Chris Spicuzza. Speaking on the bands official forums, he offered the following:

“all hail spicuzza good to see the love you guys express for him. the feelings are mutual.

as we know this news sucks… hopefully this cheers you up a little

there are definitely samples, keys, electronics, and all sorts of other wizardry on this record. we’ve spent the past 12 years creating the atmospheric side of chimaira, and we can’t imagine listening to us without those cool bits either. each album brought new noises and a vibe to accompany that particular record. nothing has changed in that regard. this has always been an evolution. while it may seem like the end of days, we see this as another chapter. chimaira developed our sound together with chris, and although he is gone, his spirit, class, and the foundation he helped lay, will always remain.

you know us. we don’t drive our cars looking through the rearview mirror. never have, never will. keep the glasses half full, amigos. it makes for a much more interesting ride….and we’re just getting started.

btw…yes, rob is still in chimaira.
six feet under is a side project. maynard james keenan sings for 3 bands. rob plays guitar for 3.
it’s all gravy.

thanks for your continuous support”

Opeth have parted ways with keyboardist Per Wiberg. An official statement posted on the bands website on the matter reads as follows:

“Keyboardist Per Wiberg has been relieved of his duties in Opeth as part of a mutual decision with the band. Keyboard duties on upcoming tours will be handled by a musician who is already rehearsing with the band. Said musician’s identity will be released at a later date.

Vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt released the following statement about the matter: “Well, it’s been somewhat of a revolving door of members during the last couple of years, and now, Per is no longer a member. Mendez, Axe and Fredrik and I came to the decision that we should find a replacement for Per right after the recordings of the new album, and this came as no surprise to Per.

He had, in turn, been thinking about leaving, so you could say it was a mutual decision. There’s no bad blood, just a relationship that came to an end, and that’s that. We wish Per the best, and he did a splendid job recording keyboards for the last record, which stands as his final recording with Opeth.”

Opeth remain hard at work on their next album, which follows up 2008’s critically acclaimed Watershed. The album is due out this Fall on Roadrunner Records.

New material from dredg‘s forthcoming album “Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy” can be found in the video below. The video documents the making of the mask used on the albums cover. “Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy” is slated for a May 03rd release date.

Black Breath have wrapped up tracking a new album and will release it later this year through Southern Lord. For now the band posted the following on their official website, Blackbreath.com.

“We just finished tracking a new LP that will be released later this year on Southern Lord Records and are playing some more U.S. dates this month. Come July we will be heading overseas to do a European tour, dates of which will be announced soon. Bang on..”

The upcoming new vinyl pressing of Zao‘s 1999 outing, “Liberate Te Ex Inferis“, has been made available for pre-order. The outing, which features new cover art, will see a release in early May and is available in a variety of colors.

Revolver recently offered up an unpublished portion of an interview they conducted with Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez which focused on the bands departed frontman, Layne Staley.

The portion of the interview in question can be found above, while an excerpt can be read below:

“Layne was just such a real human being, and such a good human too. He never had an ulterior motives. He’d never do any racist jokes, I never heard him talk shit about anybody. He was always very supportive of other bands, like on Lollapalooza, we had Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Fishbone, Dinosaur Jr., Primus, and Arrested Development.

And by the end of that six-week tour in the states, we were all jamming with each other. Dudes would come down with us, and we’d go jam with them. But there was this crazy industrial Belgian band called Front 242 that was on that. And they didn’t speak good English, and they were kind of like doing their own thing. Turns out, they were great guys. It was just hard to relate to them because they were so foreign and everything was just a traveling circus.

For some reason, Layne just loved that band. He would go up and jam with them; it was really cool. Out of the all the rocks stars—you know, Rage Against the Machine and Tools and all the rock star bands—he wanted to jam with the opener and play some crazy industrial music.”

In addition to their recently announced “Rockstar Mayhem Energy Festival” off-dates, Unearth have booked a trio of shows to lead them up to the festival itself. Those stops include:

07/05 Lubbock, TX – Jakes
07/06 El Paso, TX – Club 101
07/08 Las Vegas, NV – Hard Rock Cafe

Weedeater were recently forced to postpone a number of Southeastern U.S. shows as a result of injury. This time however no firearms were involved as the cause of injury is said to have been a broken hand sustained by guitarist Dave ‘Shep’ Shepherd. According to the official press release:

“…guitarist Shep broke his hand and could no longer wield his mighty axe of six strings for the remaining shows. But, as with every previous injury this band has sustained — while on or off of tour — Shep has been healing his mangled bones and WEEDEATER will be getting back out there to hit you all with a dose of their inhumanly heavy live show almost immediately. And of course it follows that WEEDEATER‘s upcoming European tour and appearance at Roadburn 2011 are still happening, so Europe, get ready to be pummeled.”

Rescheduled stops for the postponed U.S. shows will be announced shortly.

War Of Ages have signed a new deal with Facedown and will enter the studio this fall to begin recording their new album for the label. An early 2012 release date is being planned while band frontman Leroy Hamp had the following to say:

“We are honored and excited to continue our career with Facedown records! In 2005 Facedown looked to the north western tip of PA to find 5 passionate guys who loved to play music with a purpose. We promised to work hard and do so with honor and integrity, holding onto every value God has given us.

With 6 years of album writing, touring, ups and downs, bumps and busies, Facedown stood behind us pushing War Of Ages every step of the way. As we grow as men every album gets better and better due to the strong foundation Facedown has built. We are blessed to not only call them our label, but FAMILY!”

According to recent tweets from Hatebreed, the band have been working on new material as of late. More details are expected as the sessions progress.

Parkway Drive‘s music video for their track “Karma” has made its way online and can be viewed below:

Neuraxis have recapped their winter touring with Deicide with the following video footage:

In Flames are set to release a digital single for their new track “Deliver Us” on May 10th through Century Media. The song will appear on the bands new album “Sounds Of A Playground Fading“, which will land in stores on June 21st through Century Media.

Morbid Angel are planning some elaborate special editions of their new album “Illud Divinum Insanus” (due out June 07th in North America through Season Of Mist.) Along with vinyl, a deluxe digipak and a metal starpak version (Europe only), an ornate wooden triptych foldout box edition will be released as well.

That version will feature the following:

“MORBID ANGEL wooden foldout triptych box – Limited Collector’s Edition

Made of solid fine wood with all panels engraved – box contents:

“Illud Divinum Insanus” CD in real leather-bound book

“Illud Divinum Insanus” double gatefold LP in coloured heavy weight (180 grams) vinyl

2 black candles with red wax Blasphegram and their holders

Incense burner with incense

Exclusive poster

Exclusive full colour t-shirt with back print”

Giants will be physically issuing a re-recorded version of their debut EP as a limited edition 7″ on June 14th through The Mylene Sheath. Currently the effort is available through various digital retailers, while the band are working on new material for their third full-length offering which should surface in early 2012.