The news you've been waiting for: Enemies Of Reality is in its final mixing stage.
NEVERMORE are confirmed to play the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival the weekend of May 16th & 17th; the Rock Hard Festival in Gelsenkirchen, Germany the weekend of June 7th & 8th; and the first annual Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles' 6-Pack Weekend festival at The Odeon in Cleveland, Ohio the weekend of June 13th & 14th, where they will debut material from the new album. Tickets to the festival are on sale NOW through TicketMaster and www.bravewords.com. For a limited time, every ticket ordered through the Brave Words website will receive a "BW&BK" logo pin (for your leather jacket, of course). The best news: one ticket is good for BOTH days! In addition to the live performances, there will vendors, giveaways, meet & greet and signing sessions. Doors are at 5 p.m. each day and show time is 6 p.m.
GUITAR FANS: To see more of your underground heroes featured in Guitar World, go to their website message board at http://guitarworld.com/mboard/ and tell them about NEVERMORE's Jeff Loomis!
NEVERMORE are currently in the studio with producer Kelly Grey (Queensrяche, Dokken) recording Enemies Of Reality, their follow-up album to 2000's critically-acclaimed Dead Heart In A Dead World.
Vocalist Warrel Dane provides an update on the progress made:
"EoR is well underway, sorry it took so long to get started with the studio report but this time we are all still working our regular jobs and recording so things are a bit hectic. All the drum tracks are done. All the bass tracks as well as the main guitar tracks are done. Jeff [Loomis] is doing solos as we speak. I have 3 main vocals done and things are going very good. [Producer] Kelly [Grey] is really easy to work with... so put your fears to rest!! Be patient... the enemy awaits..."
In addition to playing at the BW&BK 6-Pack Weekend (June 13th & 14th in Cleveland, Ohio), NEVERMORE are also confirmed to play Friday night at the New England Metal & Harcore Fest in Worcester, Massachusetts on May 16th.
NEVERMORE have officially recruited TESTAMENT guitarist Steve Smyth (also in DRAGONLORD) as a temporary replacement for former touring axeman Curran Murphy, who left the group in order to join Canada's ANNIHILATOR and continue work on his own AGGRESSION CORE project.
Here is NEVERMORE's official statement on the matter:
"We just want to clear up some confusion regarding Steve Smyth's involvement with us. He hasn't left TESTAMENT or DRAGONLORD to join NEVERMORE. He's just helping us out with these upcoming European festivals and US Warped tour dates. We need two guitars players live, so when our previous touring guitarist got himself a full-time gig, we immediately asked Steve. He'd always come out and see us play when we were in town. We'd do the same when he'd come through Seattle. He's really been a great friend of ours for years and we're lucky to get to do some shows with him now. We need to send out special thanks to [TESTAMENT vocalist] Chuck [Billy] and [guitarist] Eric [Peterson] for their support in this and allowing Steve to help us out."
Smyth added: "I've always been a NEVERMORE fan and look forward to playing with them. I want to thank Chuck, Eric, Stevie D, Jon and Lyle for all their support."
Steve will be accompanying NEVERMORE on the following dates:
Jun. 28-29 – Balingen, GER @ Bang Your Head Jul. 01-03 – Athens, GRE @ Athens Rock Wave July 20, 2002 - Quincy, WA @ Gorge Amphitheatre July 22, 2002 - Billings, MT @ Oscar Park Amph. July 23, 2002 - Fargo, ND @ Fargodome
