THE AGONIST - ALLISSA WHITE GLUZ

http://www.myspace.com/theagonist

Canada’s most exciting female fronted export, THE AGONIST, strikes back with their second full length, "Lullabies For The Dormant Mind“, combining raw, driving shreds with pure technicality, topped off with sexy Alissa’s brutal growls as well as dramatically melodic clean vocals, taking THE AGONIST to a new level of musical grandeur. The quintet, born in 2004, covers a wide range of styles from classical to black metal. Their debut album, “Once Only Imagined” (2007), caught the eyes and ears of many musicians and music fans alike, and their sophomore album, “Lullabies for the Dormant Mind”, set to be released throughout Europe on February 23rd, 2009, and North America on March 10, 2009, will, once again, prove the diverse talents of these young musicians. The a cappella version of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is only one example of the band’s musical abilities as it impressively exhibits Alissa’s mind blowingly wide range of vocal skills and professionalism as a singer.

Produced by Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy, Mythosis), "Lullabies for the Dormant Mind" exposes new facets of the band and touches upon classical, jazz, opera, grindcore, thrash and black metal (etc) influences in a complete metal opus. Featuring guest violins by Avi Ludmer (Mahogany Rush), orchestrations by classical pianists Melina Soochan and Jonathan Lefrancois-Leduc (Blackguard) along with many other Montreal-based contributors, this album is refreshing to hear upon every listen. Following a dark, twisted yet beautiful, surrealist visual concept from Natalie Shau once again, THE AGONIST have created an uncomfortable yet addictive setting for their metal, like being awoken from a bad dream, or falling asleep to escape a nightmarish reality.

On the back of their debut album, THE AGONIST has completed several North American tours alongside a variety of bands including Sonata Arctica, Overkill, Enslaved, Arsis, God Forbid, Epica, The Faceless, Doro, After Forever, etc. and thus managed to build a solid, devoted fan base who loyally supports the music, the message, or both. They were pleased to have their single, ‘Business Suits and Combat Boots’, win honors on Headbanger’s Ball for Viewer’s Choice Best Music Videos of 2007. The Agonist is excited to turn heads with their newest work, “Lullabies for the Dormant Mind”, a daring mix of moods and styles – a challenging album well ahead of its time!

SHERI MOON ZOMBIE

EPICA - SIMONE SIMMONS

http://www.simonesimons.nl/

Simons has had an interest for music since she was ten years old, and after listening to the Nightwish album Oceanborn at the age of fifteen, she began taking classical singing lessons. She sang in a choir for a couple of months in 2002, joining Epica soon after. She was previously in a romantic relationship with Epica guitarist Mark Jansen and co-writes the band's lyrics with him. Her current boyfriend is Oliver Palotai, keyboardist of the American power metal band Kamelot,^[2] a band for which she has provided guest vocals on several occasions, as well as appeared with on stage many times. Her favourite song to perform is "Reprendo mai più" by Emma Shapplin.

EMILY AUTUMN

http://www.emilieautumn.com/dates.html
http://www.myspace.com/emilieautumn

Courtney Love's "anarchy violinist" returns to the stage and is keeping the spotlight all to herself. With appearances on Leno and Letterman, glossy magazine covers, and guest spots on the albums of such artists as Love, Otep, Billy Corgan, and TV's "Metalocalypse," under her corset strings, Emilie Autumn's devilishly dark lyrics, metal-shredding violin solos, and industrial-strength voice reinvent "gothic" for the masses, and goths have never had so much fun.

Emilie, who claims to live in an insane asylum for wayward girls, will support "Opheliac -- The Deluxe Edition" on her very first North American tour in October, 2009. Entitled "The Asylum Tour: The Key," this major-city tour promises to unlock the gate and bring the Asylum experience to those who have been waiting to see it for the very first time.

Of course, for those who can't want to wait to get past the Asylum gates, EA's debut autobiographical novel, "The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls," is soon to be released in 2009. Written and lavishly illustrated by EA, "The Asylum..." book is more than a gorgeous volume that will take up most of the space on your coffee table -- it is also one of the most complete accounts of bipolar disorder ever penned, and will take readers behind the doors of both modern day psych ward and Victorian insane asylum in this true life horror tale of madness, murder, and medical experimentation.

But beware: It is much easier to get into the Asylum than it is to get out...

ARCH ENEMY - ANGELA GOSSOW

http://www.myspace.com/archenemy
http://www.myspace.com/angelagossow

Angela Nathalie Gossow (born 5 November 1974, in Cologne, Germany) is the lead vocalist for the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. Her previous bands include Asmodina and Mistress. She is considered to be one of the few successful female metal singers to use growling as her primary singing style. Her main influences are Jeff Walker of Carcass, David Vincent of Morbid Angel, Chuck Billy of Testament, John Tardy of Obituary, Chuck Schuldiner of Death, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Gossow is a vegetarian.

WALLS OF JERICHO - CANDACE KUCSULAIN

http://www.myspace.com/wallsofjericho

After completing ‘With Devils Amongst Us All’ in 2006, Walls of Jericho hit the road... hard. Along the way, they destroyed city after city on Ozzfest an Family Values, as well as tours with Stone Sour, Unearth, and Bullet For My Valentine just to name a few. When all that winded down, it was time for a new adventure.

In October 2007, Walls of Jericho decided to take some time out to record their new EP. They decided they'd finally do something they haven't had the chance to do: record an acoustic EP. "It's something we've been wanting to do for a long time," said Dustin Schoenhofer, drummer. "You can hear it on pretty much every record the band's ever done. We've always had some kind of acoustic with some kind of metal thing going on. The opportunity came so we decided to do it." To helm this project, the band chose to enlist Corey Taylor (Slipknot/Stone Sour) to produce the record.

For vocalist Candace Kucsulain, this was a chance to do something she loved. "I was really into singing when I was younger. This band didn't really allow for that, especially live," she commented. "I'm really proud of what we did. It was our first time really doing something like that and even writing that way. Living for two weeks together and doing it, I definitely want to do it again. I'm very proud of the end result."

After two weeks, the end result was a new EP called ‘Redemption’. While the EP is an extreme departure from previous Walls of Jericho records, the band is very happy with the project. "It's really different than the things that we do, yet at the same time I hear us in it everywhere," said Mike Hasty, guitars. "We were able to capture a whole, completely different feel yet keep every element that makes us who we are and that was important." Producer Corey Taylor, who also lends guest vocals on the album, sees this as a unique project. "It's one of those albums that comes around every once in awhile that every track is a piece unto itself."

"Redemption" will be released April 29th 2008, and their new full length album produced by Mudrock (Avenged Sevenfold/Godsmack) will be available this Summer. Walls of Jericho are heading out on the road on the inaugural run of the Mayhem Festival with Slipknot, Disturbed, Mastodon, Dragonforce and many more.

EVANESCENCE - AMY LEE

http://www.myspace.com/evanescence

Lee co-founded the band with guitarist Ben Moody. The two met at a youth camp after Moody heard Lee playing Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" on the piano.

Within a month, the pair were playing acoustic sets at Arkansas book stores and coffee houses, and they eventually recorded two EPs, Evanescence EP (1998) and Sound Asleep EP (1999), selling them at various local venues. In 2000, Evanescence recorded the longer EP Origin. This demo contains three songs from the debut album Fallen and was written by Lee and Moody: "Whisper", "Imaginary" and "My Immortal".

Whereas "Whisper" and "Imaginary" were altered before being included on Fallen, "My Immortal" is virtually unchanged. A later band version of "My Immortal" was made available for download for those who had bought an official version of Fallen through their web site, but required that a CD checker program also be downloaded for verification before it would play. The band version was included on later copies of Fallen, notably the Brazilian, Bolivian, and Argentine editions.

IN THIS MOMENT - MARIA BRINK

http://www.myspace.com/inthismoment
http://www.myspace.com/brinkinthismoment

In August 2005, singer Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth met through some common friends. After becoming acquainted, and finding that there was much in common between them, they began writing songs together. Soon thereafter they enlisted the help of Los Angeles drummer Jeff Fabb and formed the band Dying Star.

Unhappy with where the band was headed, they decided to take on a new musical direction. By mid-2005, the lineup included Brink, Howorth, Fabb, guitarist Blake Bunzel, and bassist Josh Newell.

The band recorded demos and posted them on MySpace, where they generated an internet following. The demos included rough versions of "Ashes", "The Legacy of Odio", "Next Life", "This Moment", and "Prayers", as well as a cover of Slayer's "Postmortem". During the summer of 2005,