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.