"2011 was an incredible year for us! We finally recorded our third album, in the classic "Mem V. Stein/Ray Mensch" line-up of the "Possessed by Fire" days.
We signed a worldwide record deal with Metal Blade Records and are set to release "Fire & Damnation" next year.
I can only imagine what 2012 will bring for EXUMER, but you can be sure that we will play as many live shows all over the world as our schedules allow it.
However, none of this would have been possible without our families, friends and fans - and for this I would like to thank you from all of us and wish you a healthy, successful and fun 2012! C u on tour..."
Hello, thrash heads, the most spectacular year in our history comes to an end, and it was a wild ride!
Apart from playing a bunch of great shows, the highlights have of course been the European Tour with british thrash metal flagship Onslaught and leading German folk metal band Suidakra - and the performance on the main stage of Metalfest Germany in Dessau.
The tour was almost beyond belief. Truth is, we had never even played two consecutive shows before. You can imagine that twenty shows with such great and experienced bands in sixteen European countries have been quite a challenge - but it was the time of our lives so far. We've been treated great by everyone on the tour, learned a damn lot and although almost nobody in the audience did expect us, it was a major success for us. Thanks, everybody, and especially to our mates of The Very End for making the contact!
It shall not be concealed that this tour also had a sad note to it: turned out our bass player Tobias has a life planning that doesn't meet ours, so we had to part ways. Alex, the replacement for the tour, fitted in immediately and we could announce him as our new permament member in summer!
The spring season was crowned by the show at Metalfest Germany. Not only did we have a blast on the biggest stage so far, the trip was also a tremendous staff outing. Just one cue: Grim Reaper's eggnog...
We took a break from live shows in summer to finish composing our second album and the final show before the break was a support slot for Arch Enemy in a packed Matrix Bochum. However, Dennis went on the road a bit and played three shows in two days with our mates Harasai at Dong Open Air and The Very End at Ragnarock and Summernight Open Airs.
The break ended at Exile Festival, where we performed with a.o. Cripper in September. November saw a show with The Very End and the new band of former Sodom drummer Bobby Schottkowski, Hungöver. We finished the 2011 performances by being the last band to play at Mysteria Metal-Pub, owned by Exumer drummer Matt K., and a garage show at the birthday party of Exile promoter Hoschi. Very special!
Now here's the major plan for 2012: the second album!! Post-production began in the end of November, we'll have a show in Krefeld in January and retreat from performing after that until the end of spring to record the album.
There are zillions of people we have to thank for this incredible year, and maybe it's a bit unfair just to mention a few names here. But first and foremost we'd like to thank our wrecking crew Hannes, Jürgen and Sascha. These guys are in place of all the support we received from everybody throughout the year.
To everyone we met in 2011: we wish you a Happy New Year and a thrashin' 2012!
Interested in what made us bang our heads the most this year? Check this out:
Dennis "Blaze" Baron: 1. In Flames - Sounds Of A Playground Fading 2. Machine Head - Unto The Locust 3. Trivium - In Waves 4. Onslaught - Sounds Of Violence 5. DevilDriver - Beast
Oliver Hey: 1. In Flames - Sounds Of A Playground Fading 2. Onslaught - Sounds Of Violence 3. Trivium - In Waves 4. Machine Head - Unto The Locust 5. DevilDriver - Beast
Alex Voß: 1. Onslaught - Sounds Of Violence 2. Iced Earth - Dystopia 3. Machine Head - Unto The Locust 4. Obscura - Omnivium 5. Suidakra - Book Of Dowth
Tristan Maiwurm: 1. Origin - Entity 2. Tesseract - One 3. Animals As Leaders - Weightless 4. Blotted Science - The Animation Of Entomology 5. Obscura - Omnivium
Dear readers, friends and partners, the 2011 highlights for our artists have certainly been FA's highlights as well. You all accompanied us through the year and know what I'm talking about. Thanks for your interest! You're invited to read the 2011 round-ups by our artists on this blog and to check out older posts, so instead of a detailed FA recap, I resumed some "Most Valuable" lists for this year.
Happy New Year to all of you out there.
Here's to a great 2012!
These are FA's Top 5 in different categories for the exiting year of 2011: Most Valuable Albums 1. The Very End"Mercy & Misery" 2. Kataklysm "Heaven's Venom" 3. Onslaught "Sounds Of Violence" 4. Electric Light Orchestra"Time" 5. Bolt Thrower "Those Once Loyal" Most Valuable Live Shows 1. Each and every show mixed for FA bands 2. Metallica at Big 4, Gelsenkirchen (GER) 3. Slayer at Big 4, Gelsenkirchen (GER) 4. Kataklysm at Metalfest Germany 5. Extrabreit at Zeche Carl (GER) Most Valuable Drinks 1. Coffee
2. Coke 3. Water 4. Beer 5. Whisky Most Valuable TV Series
1. Criminal Minds 2. Boston Legal 3.NCIS: Los Angeles 4. Star Trek: The Next Generation 5. Two And A Half Men Most Valuable Electronics 1. PC 2. Smartphone 3. Mixing Desk 4. CD Player 5. Coffee Machine Most Valuable Twitterers 1. Michael Brandvold Music Marketing 2. Thorny Bleeder Records 3. Social Media Konzepte 4. Hypebot 5. SoundCloud Most Valuable Networks 1. Facebook 2. Twitter 3. SoundCloud 4. ReverbNation 5. YouTube
The show on December 30 featured an interview with special guest Gabriel Canoro of LIVIN GARDEN and tracks by Brainstorm, Widow, Dynahead, Communic, Hibria, The MFC Dragon Slayer All Star Project, Cypher Seer, Dead Season, Godsic, Harasai, Evile, Crisix, Livin Garden, The Very End, Trivium, Man Of Kin, Evil United, Destruction, Lefutray, Necropsya, Sanctorum, Diamond Plate, Final Depravity, Automatic Self Destruct, Recrucide, Hate Squad and Davidian.
"Hey, everybody, we're checking in from the studio to round up the bygone year for you.
The year 2011 had a painful start for us because of the departure of our guitarist Henrik. We had to find a replacement fast, but luckily our friend Dennis Baron (Final Depravity) stepped in to help us out on the second guitar spot.
There have been a lot of great shows on the schedule this year: we had the honor to share the stage with bands like Iced Earth, Motorjesus, Night in Gales, Canopy, Kadavrik and Sodom.
So far, so good!
Meanwhile we worked silently and behind closed doors on our second album "Psychotic Kingdom". Riffs became more technical, melodies more epic and lyrics more hateful. To give you a first impression of what to expect, we made the song "Dying Race Domain" available for free downloading in October. We started recording the full album at the studios of Sebastian Levermann (Orden Ogan) in Werl and Arnsberg around Xmas. Nico does a fantastic job behind the drum kit right now. The drum takes will be completed on new year's eve before we continue with recording the guitars, bass and vocals. We hope to release the new album in autumn 2012.
Special thanks go out to our roadcrew for their unconditional support at all shows this year: Sascha, Hannes & Jürgen.
And last but not least we would like to thank our fans who once more gave everything to make our live appearances something special.
"Night In Gales – wait a minute..." - some reviews of our new album "Five Scars" started like that. For quite a while we ourselves didn´t really consider our "comeback" to happen soon, either. Not that we would have been completety lazy during the last years, but we were at least almost invisible for the public eye. Now it´s more than ten years after our last full length album "Necrodynamic". Enter "Five Scars".
After "Five Scars" had been mixed & mastered by Melodeath icon Dan Swanö in spring 2011 and a record deal with Lifeforce Records had been inked in summer 2011, our new album has hit the stores about a month ago – and has put Classic Melodic Death Metal back on the map again! The reactions from the press and the fans are overwhelming so far, and we´re surprised, happy and grateful for all those words of praise, rich points and even one or another "Album of the month"-compliment! All within a few weeks!
So it´s about time to scream out a huge "Thank you!" to Dan Swanö, Darius & Synesthesy Studios, Roger & Studio 141, Stefan & Arne from Lifeforce Records, Sascha & Featured Artists Promotions, our guest cello player Gunnar and everybody else involved in the making of "Five Scars"!
Not to forget about those of you who, old school style, bought the new album on CD. If you didn´t get your copy of "Five Scars" yet – it´s not too late to come up with some reasonable New Year´s resolutions...
"Five Scars" has already made its live debut, but we´ll definitely switch to "Super Pursuit Mode" for 2012. Some really promising shows are already marked in our calenders, and we´re pretty damn eager to bring those five scars upon you!
Along these lines we wish you all a heavy new year - may the five scars be with you!
"Out Of Order Comes Chaos" Out March 2012 On DVD And Blu Ray
As previously announced Metal Mind Productions will release the brand new DVD. The Live DVD entitled "Out Of Order Comes Chaos" will be available in March 2012. It contains a show recorded in Katowice during the Polish leg of the tour promoting the band’s most recent album "Passion". For the first time in their career live material will be released also on a Blu-Ray. The DVD and Blu Ray, as well as a 2 CD set will be available through the Pendragonwebsite. The artwork has been created by German design studio Killustrations(a.o. Nervecell, The Very End, Dew-Scented, Hackneyed).
Commented vocalist/guitarist Nick Barrett: "We've tried to do material that we haven't played very much before, particularly in Poland, and for the DVD we've changed the set drastically so that people don't buy the new DVD and just get the same songs as the last one. In fact it's probably the best DVD we've ever made, lights, visuals and sound are stunning." Here is the final tracklist:
1. Passion 2. Back in the Spotlight 3. Ghosts 4. Not of this World 5. Comatose 6. If I Were the Wind 7. Freakshow 8. Empathy 9. This Green and Pleasant Land 10. Shane 11. Feeding Frenzy 12. Nostradamus 13. Last Man on Earth 14. Indigo 15. Prayer 16. Paintbox Bonus video: Interview with Nick Barrett and tour diary Also includes: Biography Discography Photo gallery Desktop images
"2011 is almost over – time for a quick recap. And quite a lot of things happened around The Very End.
First and foremost we released "Mercy & Misery" in January, and your reactions told us that many of you have gladly let our fallen-between-the-cracks German Metal kick their asses. Thank your for that! Our first official video clip for "A Hole In The Sun" (shot by Filmefahrer Pictures) was premiered in January as well, and with over 150.000 views up to now we can call it a great success!
Furthermore we proudly presented our new drummer Daniel Zeman (also in Enemy Of The Sun), who made his live debut in January, too. Yet 2011 was also the year of stand-in musicians for The Very End, who fortunately made us forget about carnal or mental malfunctions of one or another band member. Hence, a big thanx goes out to Alex Bartkowski (Guerrilla), Dennis Baron (Final Depravity), Martin Below (Guerrilla) and Roland Smigerski.
Apart from those fine guys we´d also like to thank our label Steamhammer / SPV and our roadcrew Sascha, Anja, Birte & Lolli and all the other helping hands for keepin´ the faith!
Some sticky, sweaty live shows later – we shook the stages with e.g. Forbidden, Morgoth and Sacred Reich, the year is almost over again already and we´re writing this recap. But we definitely ain´t gonna leave you without a short preview of what´s to come in 2012: the songwriting for our third album is going full throttle, some great live shows are booked and we promise that even if the Maya will be proved right and 2012 will hold the very end of it all – we will at least provide you with the perfect soundtrack for it!
On that note – happy new year, see you in 2012 and bang that head that doesn´t bang!"
Dear readers,
the first full year in the history of Featured Artists is almost over.
2011 was filled with shows, new albums and recordings, a bunch of highlights and lots of work.
Although 2012 is already casting its shadow, now's the time to lean back a little, recapitulate the past year and regain powers for the projects to come.
From FA and all our associated artists: we wish you and your families Happy Holidays and a Merry Xmas!
Germans METALETY have released the third episode of their studio video diary "Our Way To The Second Record - Recording at the Gernhart-Studio".
This final chapter features guest vocalist Björn Goosses (The Very End / Night in Gales) and producer Martin Buchwalter (a.o. Destruction, Suidakra, Tankard, Accu$ser).
The follow-up to the 2010 album 'March To Hell' is set for release in spring 2012.
The latest episode ofBEYOND THE BLAZE metal radio show hosted by DJ Valkyrie is now available for streaming.
The show on December 16 featured an interview with special guest Terence Holler of ELDRITCH and tracks by Voodoo Terror Tribe, Dorota Malek, Ecliptyka, Primal Fear, Nox Eterna, Widow, Painside, Sinbreed, Charred Walls Of The Damned, Dynahead, Eldritch, Eternal Flight, Agent Steel, Vendetta, Speed Kill Hate, Lefutray, Project46, Enemy Of The Sun, Godslave, Recrucide, All Shall Perish, Chaos Inc and Fallen Fortress.
Die Gelsenkirchener Thrasher FINAL DEPRAVITY können auf ein erfolgreiches Jahr zurückblicken, und zum Dank für Eure tolle Unterstützung purzeln beim Merchandise vor Weihnachten die Preise:
CD 'Nightmare 13' + Metalfest oder Scream For Violence T-Shirt 11,99 € CD 'Nightmare 13' + Red Skull/ Girlie oder Nightmare 13 T-Shirt 19,99 €
Am Samstag, 17.12., spielen Final Depravity ihre letzte Live Show 2011 in Recklinghausen in der Mysteria Metal-Kneipe. Neben freiem Eintritt gibt es 50% auf alle Merchandise Artikel!
"We got some news for ya! First of all, our drummer Adriano will be a daddy soon. Which is "the Good".
But due to the fact that his wife is heavily pregnant and both live 500km from us, Adriano will not be playing the next shows. Which is "the Bad".
Fortunately we found a great temporary replacement: Hartmut Stoof (formerly a.o. Deadsoil and Symbiontic) will beat the shit out of the kit for the next shows. If this is "the Ugly" you gotta find out yourselves. :-)
Hartmut will make his live debut with Night in Gales this Saturday, December 17th at Sputnikcafe in Münster, along with Mourning Caress and Fleshworks.
See ya there to bang the head that doesn´t bang!!"
ARCH ENEMY have announced that their show in Cologne on December 13th will be filmed for a future DVD release. The shooting will be handled by German production company FILMEFAHRER PICTURES, known for their tremendous work on '2012 - The Movie' and THE VERY END's music short film 'A Hole In The Sun', directed by Marcus Overbeck.
Angela Gossow comments: “2011 is my 10-year-anniversary with ARCH ENEMY. I want to celebrate this with a very special event – we will film my hometown show in Cologne, Essigfabrik, Germany 13 Dec 2011 for our upcoming ‘World Khaos Tour’ DVD release! We aim to capture the live insanity of my fellow German metal-heads as intensely as possible with cameras in the middle of the moshpit, in the front row, over, under, left, right and center. We want your blood, your sweat, your passion and get every last drop of it on celluloid! The awesome Filmefahrer Pictures team will make this an unforgettable shooting – so be there and become immortalized!!!”
The latest episode ofBEYOND THE BLAZE metal radio show hosted by DJ Valkyrie is now available for streaming.
The show on December 9 featured an interview with Tuomas 'Tommy' Tuovinen of MyGRAIN and tracks by Gloryful, Mastercastle, Kittie, Iron Mask, Mystic Prophecy, Astral Doors, Manticora, Savage Messiah, Bywar, Onslaught, Drone, Before The Dawn, MyGrain, Profane Omen, Unearth, DevilDriver, Slasher, Black Label Society, Legion X, Davidian, Enemy Logic, D.A.M.N., Deadsoil, Blakk Market, Sanctorum, Arch Enemy and Harasai.
Germany's DAVIDIAN have revealed the cover artwork of their upcoming album 'Our Fear Is Their Force'.
As with the 2008 album 'Hear Their Cries', the artwork was designed by KILLUSTRATIONS (a.o. Nervecell, Hackneyed, The Very End, Dew-Scented, Night in Gales and Motorjesus).
'Our Fear Is Their Force' has been produced by Tue Madsen at Antfarm Studio in Aarhus/Denmark.
The album will be released via Massacre Records on February 24, 2012.
Beginn jeweils 22:00 Uhr. Freier Eintritt bis 23:00 Uhr, danach 5,- € (inkl. ein Freigetränk). Bier, Jägermeister und Grillwürstchen je 2,- €.
Achtet bitte auf die aktuellen Flyer für Gäste und Gast DJ's!
"Während wir so in den Nieselregen des ausgehenden Sommers starrten, wurde uns wieder einmal klar, dass der Mensch viel mehr Gemeinschaftserlebnisse benötigt. Es gibt nämlich andere Waffen gegen den Burn Out, als literweise alkoholische Getränke darauf zu kippen. Lichter und Klänge in der Dunkelheit können die Lebensgeister wecken. Die Wärme einer Partycrowd kann einem die Heizung ersetzen.
Deshalb haben wir zwei Festivitäten erfunden, die den rotgeklinkerten Norden der Stadt Essen erhellen!
10.12.2011 GRUBENRAUSCH
Dieses neue Partyformat wird ein rauschhaftes Erlebnis. Die DJs Sabrina und Non-Divine fächern mit Alternative Rock, Hardcore, Punkrock und Metal ordentlich Luft unter die Hirnrinde.
Zwischen Agnostic Front, Foo Fighters, Pennywise, System Of A Down oder Turbonegro ist alles erlaubt, was für mächtig Druck in der Bauchgegend sorgt.
17.12.2011 GRUBENGOLD
Grubengold ist das neue Premium-Pop-Format in der Zeche Carl. Die DJs Segeroth und Dr. Culturevulture begeben sich mit ihren runden Scheiben aus schwarzem Gold in den rotgeklinkerten Norden der Stadt und regeln dort ab jetzt den Kreisverkehr des Pop.
Mit flinker Hand machen sie den Weg frei für Justin Timberlake und Prince, Jan Delay und Madonna, Gossip oder New Order. Sie servieren einen umdrehungsstarken musikalischen Cocktail, der zu einer hochgradig tanzbaren Pop-Explosion wird. Das ist Jungsmusik für Mädchen und Mädchenmusik für Jungs. Also Lieblingsmusik für alle!"
