Shadow Gallery and Soilwork are among the first group of bands confirmed to appear at next year’s ProgPower Festival in the USA.

Joining them over the course of two days are Armoured Saint, Sabaton, Circus Maximus, Wolf, Ashes of Ares, Heaven’s Cry, Xandria, Damnation Angels, Myrath, Reinxeed and Wolverine. More bands are to be announced later.

The two day even will take place on September 6th-7th in Atlanta, Georgia.

Soilwork’s last album ‘The Panic Broadcast’ was well received, reaching #29 on the Swedish chart, #24 in Germany and #14 in Finland.

2011’s ‘Digital Ghosts’ marked a new beginning for Shadow Gallery, being the first album to feature vocalist Brian Ashland, who replaced long-serving frontman Mike Baker who passed away in 2008.

Chicago punks Screeching Weasel – led by their sole original member Ben Weasel – have confirmed two live appearances for the end of December.

To mark the band’s 27th anniversary, Weasel and his current band will play two shows in Chicago on December 30th and 31st.

Both shows take place at Reggie’s and both feature support from The Queers and The Manges.
The show on 30/12 features a set by The Vatican Junkies, 31/12 features The Stay Dead, featuring current Screeching Weasel bassist Dave Klein.

The band had originally planned to celebrate their quarter century in 2010 by headlining their own Weaselfest, but several bands dropped out and Screeching Weasel quickly disbanded after Ben got into a fight with a female fan onstage at SXSW in 2011.

The incident dissolved the band instantly. Weasel quickly formed a new line-up reinstating Zac Damon, a renowned punk guitarist who was previously a member of SW back in 1998 and played on their LP ‘Television City Dream’.

In the 1980s, hard working metal band Sacrilege played many small venues in the UK, before throwing in the towel in 1987.

Twenty-five years on, original frontman Bill Beadle has resurrected the band with a new line up. The rejuvinated band will make their comeback appearance at The Red Lion in Northfleet, Kent on 25th October. Support at the gig comes from two other UK rock acts, Slam Cartel and Highdrant.

In the build up to the comeback performance, the band have shot a new live video, which can be seen below.

Tickets for the Sacrilige / Slam Cartel / Highdrant gig can be purchased from this link: http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/48186#.UFNCd3VeusE.twitter

Megadeth’s ‘Countdown To Extinction’ is to get reissued in November as a 2CD expanded edition.

The band’s 1992 masterpiece and most critically successful album is to be remastered and coupled with a partially unissued live set from Cow Palace (also recorded in 1992) on November 6th.

The previous reissue of ‘Countdown’ featured a new mix by Dave Mustaine and a handful of demos as bonus tracks. While, regrettably, those demos are absent from this new deluxe set, the album’s original mix is said to have been restored. That mix has been given a new remaster by Mustaine himself.

CD 1

01. Skin O’ My Teeth
02. Symphony Of Destruction
03. Architecture Of Aggression
04. Foreclosure Of A Dream
05. Sweating Bullets
06. This Was My Life
07. Countdown To Extinction
08. High Speed Dirt
09. Psychotron
10. Captive Honour
11. Ashes In Your Mouth

CD 2 Live At Cow Palace, 1992

01. Intro
02. Holy Wars…The Punishment Due
03. Skin O’ My Teeth
04. Wake Up Dead
05. Hangar 18
06. Countdown To Extinction
07. Foreclosure Of A Dream
08. This Was My Life
09. Lucretia
10. Sweating Bullets
11. In My Darkest Hour
12. The Conjuring
13. Tornado
14. Ashes In Your Mouth
15. Symphony Of Destruction
16. Peace Sells
17. Anarchy In the UK

A release date of October 20th has been confirmed for the upcoming new EP from punk legend Jello Biafra.

‘Shock-U-Py!’, recorded with The Guantanamo School of Medicine, will be released on the Alternative Tentacles label and features three new tracks: ‘Shock-U-Py!’, ‘Barackster O’Bummer’ and ‘We Occupy (Jello Biafra Remix)’.  ‘We Occupy’ features DOA, with whom Biafra previously released a full-length LP ‘Last of the Missing Neighbors’ in 1990.

The digital version of the new EP features a bonus track, ‘Shock-U-Py! (Rock-a-Long Mix)’.