December 31

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

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Dcember 22

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December 9

Due to the riots, anarchy, disorder and chaos that goes on in Greece at the moment, we're in the unfortunate position to inform you that the upcoming shows in Greece and Bulgaria this weekend will not happen and are being postponed.


We feel that the situation is not safe for anyone right now and it's beyond our control to make these shows happen. We appreciate your understanding and support.

The shows are postponed to the following dates:

FIREWIND + Eldritch
(special guest: Tara Teresa)

Friday Jan. 9 2009 - Sofia, BUL @ Blue Box Club
Saturday Jan. 10 2009 - Thessaloniki, GR @ Principal Club Theater
Sunday Jan. 11 2009 - Athens, GR @ Gagarin 205

To those who have already purchased tickets: The tickets are still valid for the shows!

We really hope that things calm down and we will Rock with you very soon!


As for the after show party planned for December 14, will also take place on january 11 right after the gig in Athens.

Sincerely,
Firewind

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November 27

Firewind will celebrate the closing of their "Premonition over Europe" tour in Athens at the legendary Greek Metal Club "REVENGE OF ROCK" on December 14.

The "After shjow party" will be right after their concert at the Gagarin in Athens, Greece!
Support act will be ELDRITCH!

See you all there!

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November 26

TARA TERESA to join FIREWIND in Greece and Bulgaria!

As the "Live Premonition over Europe" tour is coming to an end, we are happy to announce that Tara Teresa is confirmed to appear with FIREWIND on the 3 final shows of 2008 which will take place in Thessaloniki, Athens and Sofia!

TARA was last seen performing with FIREWIND in various festivals in 2006 and collaborated with the band on their single "Breaking The Silence" which went on to become a Top 20 single in Greece and remained in the charts for several weeks.

Tickets for these shows are selling fast, so make sure you get yours NOW!

PRE-SALE Points:

Thessaloniki: Metropolis, Patsis, Ticket House, Emerald cafe, Dizzy Dolls
Athens: Ticket House, Rock City
Sofia: www.abvpro.com

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November 25

Sorry that I really haven't posted any further tour reports yet, but we're too busy and unfortunantely not every day online! The only thing I can say is that the tour has been quite successful and that we're all very happy. Of course we met up and downs, but in a whole it has been great so far! I promise to give you an exclusive update these days or the latest early December.
:)

Meanwhile here's the following for a cancelled show two nights ago!!

Treviso show cancellation

As some of you know by now, last night's show in Treviso was cancelled.

The reason for that is Apollo feeling very ill. It's no secret that he has been suffering from a throat infection during this European tour and lots of fans witnessed him performing sick in quite a few shows.

After the show in Rome he felt very ill and for the sake of continuing this tour succesfully, we spoke to our Italian promoter (Live) and agreed to cancel the show.

We're sorry about this and we promise to make it up to you on our next visit to Italy.

The rest of the shows will continue as orginally planned!

For ticket refunds in Treviso, please visit www.liveinitaly.com

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November 9

Well, i guess it is day 5 of the second leg of the European tour!

We've simply been so busy setting up, travelling and facing the usual first 3 day troubles and hick ups that accure. Two toms lost and found, a blown up bass amp (once more!!) and a dodgy bass cab that caused all this and a three day headache until all new gear had been replaced. Also we needed to leave a few heavy cases in Hanover at Saxon's Tour guide's storage behind to lower the trailer's overweight!! European regulations!

Now I believe we're good to run and roll into your cities to cause trouble :)

Day one in Hamburg was of course for me feeling myself at home hanging with my friends and former band mates of Helloween and Metalium and the Gamma Ray.

Today we are at the legendary BeeBop in Vosselaar in Belgium!

Kiuas keeps up the tradition and shows everyone how to drink the booze :), Stormwarrior travels with their own van so we don't have much time to party yet, but your time will soon come my friends!!

Some of our new crew members (I call her my little sister Zoe) is responsible for the lighting and just baught a water pistol!! Well, I hope she'll refill it with chilled burbon at night! Schrotti my tech does a superb job and got it all together. Good to know because setting up my new frame ain't easy. The mountain of steel :)

MORE NEWS IN A FEW DAYS....

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October 25

Right before the kick-off of their first European headliner tour, FIREWIND have announced exclusive "Meet-and-Greets fan packages" for their fans in Hamburg, Essen and Hannover!

For more info, go to www.rock-voyager.com

Tickets and info for ALL upcoming shows at: www.firewind.gr

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October 14

Mark Cross features in an exclusive interview in German Drummer magazine "Drums & Percussion" in the 6/2008 edition. In stores October 22!

Check it out it soon!!!

Webmaster Jimmy
www.mcross.com

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October 14

FIREWIND's European headlining tour will be kicking off in early November and promises a live feast for all metal gourmets. A brand-new European tour trailer can be watched here: http://www.youtube.com/firetv

A third Italian date has just been confirmed and that finalizes the 2008 touring cycle of the band. The show info:

22.11.2008 IT, Rome @ Blackout

Furthermore, FIREWIND will release their first DVD "Live Premonition" in November offering a stunning 22-song set filmed earlier this year as well as many extras. The live set will also be available as specially priced 2CD, stay tuned for more info on that!

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October 11

Firewind's new video "HEAD UP HIGH" to debut MTV's "Headbangers Ball" this week. Click on the link to help increase its popularity!!

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=279599

Thank you all and see you soon!!

Firewind

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October 7

In related France news, Adagio announced their cancellations on their dates with Firewind. The band issued the following comments:

"Adagio's cancellation marks the 2nd time that a band pulls out on the French dates, which is something we didn't see coming and never expected to happen. All we can say is that we will be extra careful with who we pick as " guest / support act" for the future.

But of course, this is a FIREWIND tour and the purpose of it is to give our fans a proper and full headline show. That's what it's all about and that's what our fans will get! Therefore, we decided not to add another "special guest" for France, with the exception of the Paris show where Heavenly has been added to the bill.

We are very excited about our return to French soil, it's been almost 2 years since we toured extensively there and you can count on some killer shows full of Fire and Fury!"

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October 3

FIREWIND Complete Successful UK Headlining Tour; Launch New Instructional Video

The Greek metal sensation, FIREWIND, just completed a highly successful UK headlining tour and are now preparing for another massive European run this Nov. in support of their highly acclaimed album, The Premonition. Be sure to check out www.myspace.com/firewind to view their complete touring itinerary.

Mark Cross (drums) recently recorded an instructional lesson that can now be viewed on the band's official YouTube page www.youtube.com/firetv .

Stay tuned for new episodes featuring vocal lessons from Apollo, and additional Gus G. clips, which should be posted over the next couple of weeks. Also, don't miss out on their new live video for "Head Up High," which can be viewed now on their MySpace page.

For additional information on FIREWIND, feel free to contact me any time.

George Vallee/Publicity and Video Promotions
Century Media Records
2323 W. El Segundo Blvd.
Hawthorne, CA. 90250
323-418-1400 x133
www.centurymedia.com

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September 30
TOUR UPDATE VI

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September 27
YOUR UPDATE V

It's Friday night or Saturday morning 3:30am and I finally found some time to continue my tour reports!

2 nights ago we played Manchester, which was quite nice in a venue with basic local equipment that made our engineer's work quite difficult!
It was students night and we ended up after the show at the "Prostitutes and Police men's" party next door and made a bunch of new friends! Manchester rocks ...

Thursday we played in London, which of course is always the highlight where everyone who's important shows up, apart from friends and family. The Scala is a great venue which was packed and believe that we did a great show.
A special thanks to James, who designed the lighting that evening and made the whole thing look just great!!!
During the day our Manager brought us dwntown to visit the Maiden office.

After the show we all ended up partying in Soho and closed the Crobar at 3:30am and got back on the bus drunk and quite late!
Dear Superstar, the bunch of young Brit rockers who are the first band every night, started whaling early and simply spread the good time philosophy in the backstage areas! Indeed a lot of beer started to flow ......

Kiuas didn't miss out and arrived at Earl's Court much later, around 7am.... I believe some of them had lost their way :)

Today I woke up very late and really needed to sweat last nights booze out! The gig was fantastic and Milton Keynes once more proved their dedication to rock'n roll! Carry on, carry on ....

Tomorrow we'll be in Peterborough!

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September 24
TOUR UPDATE IV

Here we go again.... Since yesterday morning we are in Dublin, and it's our day off after a day of travelling and a sold out show in Wolverhampton 2 nights ago and a packed Wheelan in Dublin last night!!

Sorry I didn't play the drum solo in Wolverhampton, (I owe you a double time :), but I had a little injury on my arm and decided to leave it out that night!

Now it's better and am back in the row for soloing! The show in Dublin was also amazing and am enjoying local hospitality and Guiness pints at the Bruxelles Pub next to Phil Lynott's statue! I guess it's a historical place to be for musicians and rockers!

Tonight's our day off and I already can feel everybody's good mood being in Ireland, I guess it will be a long night! Something to worry about??
Greg, our tour manager needs to take care of us, who's easier to look after, us ... or Maiden?

I guess he will call me in 5 minutes and check what I've done ... again, hehehe :)

Greets, and next post will be "hopefully" tomorrow!! manchaster I suppose?

Cheers,
Glasgow Pirate....


I heard tremendous stories about me that evening, are they really true? 

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September 22

European Tour Ticket Links!!

Online Ticket links for ALL upcoming European FIREWIND shows are now available!
Just clickHERE

The latest ticket links added are Budapest and Sofia as tickets went on sale just a few days ago!

For our Greek fans besides these online links you can also get your tickets at the following stores / spots:

Thessaloniki - Metropolis, Patsis, Ticket House, Emerald Cafe
Athens - Ticket House, Rock City

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September 21
TOUR UPDATE III

Hi again,

yesterday we played Leeds, an awesome show with a packed venue!

It's been our third show and it seems that there's always something going wrong, but definitely less serious than the first two nights!!. During my drum solo my snappy snare broke and made me cut it shorter. While getting back in the song I found myself hitting cymbals by myself wondering why noone else was back on stage!!!
I later found out that my boys were having deep conversations backstage and simply missed getting back ontime into the song. What a laugh...... blimey :)

Today we play Wolverhampton, which appears to be a sold out show!
More news tomorrow.... Dublin calling!

Cheers,
Mark

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September 21
TOUR UPDATE II

Ahoi pirates,

Yesterday was "Pirate's day" and Glasgow was on a patch, Rum and sword trip.
Enough reason to celebrate and spend a great evening at the Cathouse! The gig was fine with unfortunately plenty of technical problems, Bob's amp died during the set etc.... but my missing drum cases did arrive and made my life easier.
But basically we all had a fab evening and hope you did too!

Tonight we play in Leeds.

Cheers,
Mark

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September 19
TOUR UPDATE

Hi all,

The Tour started last night in Nottingham and was nearly sold out! Great to see all our friends again.

As usual day one always brings up a few hick ups, technical or other! Well, what happened was that two of my drum road cases, hardware, snares & accessories were left behind in London.
For those wondering what happened to my cross', they were in one of the cases and I had to play the show with Kiuas' drumset.

Tonight we'll play Glasgow and I hope the cases have made it to the venue to be able to set up in full. More updates tomorrow!!

Apart from that everything else went as planned and everyone in the band feels fine and confident to be back on the road in the UK!

Cheers,
Mark

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September 12

Greek metal sensation, FIREWIND, who are just about to kick off their UK headlining tour next week and then follow it up with an extensive European headlining tour in November, are now premiering an exclusive cover-version from legendary US metallers NEVERMORE.

To listen to FIREWIND's great version of the song 'Believe In Nothing' (the original version appears on NEVERMORE's "Dead Heart In A Dead World" album from 2000) head over to www.myspace.com/centurymediaeurope NOW!

This song will be featured on a very special 2CD compilation entitled "Covering 20 Years Of Extremes" which will be out on September 15th, 2008 in Europe celebrating Century Media's 20th anniversary!

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August 15

Brainstorm cancelled their participation on the Firewind Tour!

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July 9

Please note that there's been a venue change on the FIREWIND + KIUAS show in Dublin on September 22nd. The new venue is called WHELAN's!

Click to see the POSTER
/>Click to get your TICKETS

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July 8

"THE PREMONITION" EUROPEAN TOUR - first tourdates announced!!

Following up the success of their new album "The Premonition", FIREWIND will return to European stages this time for a headline tour! The first few dates, besides the already announced UK dates are announced below.

Special guest exclusively for the Spanish and French dates will be Germany's BRAINSTORM and Finnish KIUAS (for the whole European tour)

THE PREMONITION EUROPEAN TOURDATES

FIREWIND
Special guest: Brainstorm + Kiuas

More dates to be announced VERY soon as well as ticket info!

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July 1

Firewind announced UK and first European tour dates for autumn 2008.
These are the first confirmed dates for the autumn headline tour across Europe!

more dates tba soon ...

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June 24

FIREWIND is confirmed for a one and only exclusive show in Greece this summer – Schoolwave festival!

Schoolwave is a very special event which gives the chance to young unsigned bands from all over the country to play their music in front of thousands of people. The festival is free of entrance.

FIREWIND will headline this event and are confirmed to appear on Sunday July 6^th.

July 6 – Athens , GR @ Theatro Vraxon

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March 15

Firewind release party announced at the WIZARD Club in Athens Greece on March 20.

Kifissias 119
Athens, Maroussi

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February 28

North America Tourdates w/ ARCH ENEMY, Dark Tranquillity & Divine Heresy announced!

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:

ESP Guitars, Randall Amps, Guitar World and Revolver Magazine
Presents The "TYRANNY AND BLOODSHRED 2008" tour!
 
ARCH ENEMY are excited to be making their much anticipated return to North America in May with what could well be hailed as one of the best guitar-shredder packages of the year. This headlining tour, dubbed "Tyranny and Bloodshred 2008" takes off on May 9th and as well as the headliners features the awesome yet diverse talents of Dark Tranquillity, Divine Heresy and Firewind. The sensational twin guitar attack of brothers Michael and Christopher Amott created the blueprint for modern day shredding and they continue to raise the bar with each release. The young Greek guitar god Gus G. adds to this dynamic with his flamboyant speed and precision. The renowned Dino Cazares whose lightning-fast speed picking and riffing made Fear Factory world beaters and last but by no means least the dark and sinister spells of Niklas Sundin and Martin Henriksson who have consistently led the melodic death metal field. This package is tailor made for those who crave supersonic shredding, sublime solos, technical precision and relentless riffing.
 
Michael Amott of ARCH ENEMY further comments on the upcoming tour:
"Everyone in the ARCH ENEMY camp is looking forward to returning to North American soil to play these headline dates! We had a blast on the co-headline stint last year with Machine Head and this is looking like it's going to be another tour de force! Also it feels great to come back to the U.S and Canada with such a killer package – something with some substance and musical credibility. We'll be digging deeper into the 'Rise Of The Tyrant' album and also playing a few things we've never performed for our U.S. fans before! A lot of exceptional talent on this bill for sure – I urge everyone to come early and check out all the bands - 'cos otherwise you'll be missing out big time! TYRANNY AND BLOODSHRED is here!"
 
Niklas Sundin of Dark Tranquillity states: "We're very pleased to let our growing hordes of U.S. fans know that we'll once again return to your shores to serve you in metal. Starting in the beginning of May, we'll head out as main support for our long-time buddies in ARCH ENEMY. It'll be a powerful and diverse package that will satisfy everyone."
 
Dino Cazares of Divine Heresy states: "I'm excited that Divine Heresy will be in such good company on our fourth North American tour. Between Mike Amott and Dark Tranquillity, you have two architects of modern extreme metal -- and not to sound egotistical, but I like to think that I've helped to influence that sound as well. This will be our first domestic touring with European metal bands, and we know they'll deliver the goods and keep us on our toes, but we look forward to proving once again that this threat is real."
 
Gus G. of FIREWIND states: "I'm so happy that Firewind gets to return to North America as a part of this package! It's very versatile, with really good bands on the bill. Personally speaking, I'm happy for the fact that I'll get to tour with ARCH ENEMY again. It was a blast playing with them in 2005 and Michael Amott and Co. are such great musicians and people. I have a lot of respect for them. We will give the fans a really intense setlist as we present material from our new album, "The Premonition", for the first time."
 
The full 'Tyranny And Bloodshred' tour itinerary is as follows:

Fri/May-09 Philadelphia PA @ The Fillmore
Sat/May-10 Towson MD @ Recher Theater
Sun/May-11 New York NY @ Irving Plaza
Tue/May-13 Montreal QC @ Le Medley
Wed/May-14 Quebec City QC @ Imperial
Fri/May-16 Toronto ON @ Opera House
Sat/May-17 Detroit MI @ The Majestic Theater
Mon/May-19 Chicago IL @ House of Blues
Tue/May-20 St. Paul MN @ Station 4
Wed/May-21 Winnipeg MB @ The Garrick Centre
Fri/May-23 Calgary AB @ MacEwan Ballroom
Sat/May-24 Edmonton AB @ Starlite
Mon/May-26 TBA
Tue/May-27 Seattle WA @ Showbox
Thu/May-29 San Francisco CA @ Slim's
Fri/May-30 West Hollywood CA @ House of Blues

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February 2

New track “Mercenary Man” @ MySpace!
Greek melodic metal masters FIREWIND are glad to premier the first track taken off their forthcoming, much anticipated fifth album “The Premonition” at MySpace. The song is entitled “Mercenary Man” and will also be released as a CD-single in the band’s home country, so check it out now @ www.myspace.com/firewind!

Furthermore, the band has just unveiled the track-listing for “The Premonition”, scheduled for a release on March 24th in Europe:

FIREWIND – “The Premonition” CD:
[click the see the cover]

1. Into The Fire
2. Head Up High
3. Mercenary Man
4. Angels Forgive Me
5. Remembered
6. My Loneliness
7. Circle Of Life
8. The Silent Code
9. Maniac
10. Life Foreclosed

Bandleader and guitar-wizard Gus G. advances some own words about the new material:

“Although the CD starts out with a pretty intense song (“Into The Fire”) which is like a six and half minute riffing, shredding and double bass madness, the next few songs are what I’d call modern hard rock – if I HAVE to put a tag on it!

I think there’s a lot of cool guitar stuff all over the album and generally this is a more guitar-oriented effort. Our influences draw from Thin Lizzy to Black Sabbath and Megadeth and you can clearly hear that on the riffs and guitar melodies.

Songwriting-wise I think all songs are special and once again everyone was involved in the writing – we basically kept the Allegiance “winning team” together.

Thus, we once again recorded and mixed @ Studio Fredman in Sweden. Fredrik really knows the sounds we’re after and delivers it in no time! We tried a few different things in the engineering this time – mainly with the drums and guitars and I feel we have a pretty tight, bone crushing Metal sound.

As for surprises we decided to cover the 80s pop smash hit, “Maniac”, not because we’re such lovers of the film “Flashdance”, but because it’s a kick ass song, period. Who knows, maybe we’ll get to do a remake of that famous video one day!”

“The Premonition” was mastered at Peter in de Betou’s Tailor Maid Productions (Dark Tranquillity, Meshuggah, etc.) and offers about everything that a lover of quality modern melodic metal can ask for. FIREWIND’s ability to combine heavy riffing and classic metal structuring with immense catchiness and glorious hooklines all in an up-to-date and ever-entertaining way are outstanding and triumphantly elevate “The Premonition” to become of the melodic metal genre’s early highlights for 2008. Witness FIREWIND live in Europe throughout April and May with KAMELOT and FOREVER SLAVE!

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January 26

FIREWIND – reveal album title & artwork for their new album; touring Europe with Kamelot in April/May 2008! 
Greek melodic metal sensation FIREWIND will release its successor to 2006’s highly acclaimed “Allegiance” album on March 24th, 2008. Guitarist Gus G. checks in with details on the programmatically entitled “The Premonition”: 

“The Premonition” is a strong title and our drummer Mark came up with the idea. A premonition means feeling something is about to happen. We’ve worked hard the past two years and we just have a premonition that 2008 is going to be a very fun and exciting year for us as we plan to visit again many places and countries and hope to play for our fans as well as make new ones!

Of course, you can interpret the album title in any way you want. Some people might read our lyrics and see that at times they’re about the course of mankind and the so-called “end of days”. So maybe this could be taken also as a warning or omen, because it’s definitely something that has been on our minds lately. 

I feel that the new FIREWIND album is yet another step up in our career – musically speaking. Once again we aimed for a highly variable effort as I really don’t like those albums where you’ve listened to the first song and it’s like you heard them all! This doesn’t happen on a FIREWIND album and certainly not on the new one!

Regarding touring, we’ll start off in Europe right after the album’s release and we’ll spend about five weeks on the road with Kamelot (we recently toured Japan with them and it was just fantastic!). We plan to return to the US right after that, but no dates are confirmed yet. Of course, a Japan and Pan-Asian tour is being planned currently as well as several appearances at summer festivals.

The artwork for “The Premonition” was created by Brazilian artist Gustavo Sazes (www.abstrata.net) and you can now view it in higher resolution by clicking HERE! 

See FIREWIND touring all over Europe upon the release of the new album. Check here all dates

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January 1

Most of the recordings for the new album are done by now! We've been locked @ Sweden's Studio Fredman for about a month now and we're super excited with the way things are shaping up! Killer sounds on the drums, guitars and bass. We've recorded 12 original songs and a few covers which will be revealed in time.

We also want to set something straight since some people seem to be confused: Apollo is still in the band! Yes, he is singing on the new album (currently finishing up his vocal tracks - which in my opinion are his best performances ever!) and yes, he is going back on the road with us in 2008.

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SPECIAL DVD IN CONCERT RECORDING ON JANUARY 12, 2008

Now onto something different and very special: Since we have gotten such a great response on our world tour 2006-2007 and have received so much love from our fans, we would like to give back by doing something special for them:
We will play a one and only exclusive show in our hometown (Thessaloniki, Greece) on Saturday January 12th, 2008 at Principal Club Theatre, where we will perform our full upcoming brand new album LIVE!
So consider this as a very special event since we don't plan on doing this again. Of course we'll play an extra set of other older material in addition to the new songs. What makes this even cooler, is that we'll record and film this event for future DVD use, so we hope to see all our Metal brothers and sisters at this special event!

For those of you who don't live in Greece and plan to travel to see this show, please email us at r_evolution13@yahoo.gr and let us know of your participation.
We'll get back to you and provide info on how to get to the venue, hotels, etc.

For more information you can also contact our Streeteam at streetteam@firewind.gr

Firewind

Mark signs new deal and teams up with Tama drums!

"I've been waiting for this for a long time since I have been playing Tama drums for over 15 years!
A thousand thanks to those who believed in me and brought me back to where I belong!

Last year on tour I used one of my old kits, a white Tama Artstar II limited series set and will present my new Starclassic BB setup on the following tour in 2008!

Also Mark is featured in an exclusive interview in German drum magazine "STICKS" in the  January 2008 edition.

Click here

More interviews will be announced soon.