Continuing with its "In The Studio" series, Rock n' Roll Books will release HEART: In The Studio in June, 2007. Featuring a chapter-by-chapter account of the recording of the entire Heart catalog, including the making of hits like 'Magic Man', 'Crazy On You', 'Barracuda', 'These Dreams', 'Alone', 'All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love To You)', and others Ann and Nancy Wilson made famous over their 25-plus year career, the book will feature exclusive interviews with all of the band's producers, including Rick Flicker, Keith Olsen, Ron Nevison, Ritchie Zito, Duane Baron, and others, as well as interviews with band members chronicling the recording of the band's catalog of multi-platinum albums. Authored by biographer Jake Brown, the publishing house will also release Rick Rubin: In The Studio in June, 2007.

Source BW&BK

Rob Halford has given the exclusive interview with Orpheus Spiliotopoulos, Metal-Temple, about wide range of topics including his departure from Priest (and the reasons), and his upcoming album of the band, titled Nostradamus. Few excerpts are follows:

Q: Since on the next issue of Rock Hard magazine there's going to be a huge article on Judas Priest, focusing mainly on you, a lot of significant people from the world of Metal have been asked what their opinion is about the Priest story in the 90's with you parting ways with the band back then etc. One of the world's most renowned music authors, Martin Popoff (BW&BK), believes it was a number of factors, one of them being your sexual orientation, the fact that for a long time you had to keep it as a secret from the public and then a lyrics kind of thing, since he believes that with FIGHT, TWO and HALFORD you were able to address some adult themes for a change. He adds 'I would suspect it's a bit like Bruce Dickinson leaving IRON MAIDEN.' What's your response to Martin's thoughts?

Halford: "Well, Bruce didn't leave Maiden because he was gay! [jokingly, Rob Laughs]. But that's my response to Martin's observation about my sexuality. You must know, 1000% it has nothing to do with why I left Priest. The only reason why I stepped away from Priest, as you know the story goes... It was never my intention. I never wanted to leave Priest. It was the ugly contractual almost litigation condition that I was involved with, on purely words on paper. That forced me to step aside from the Sony contract and that's when the shit hit the fan, so to speak. But Martin's right on the other areas."

Q: About the adult themes?
Halford: "Yeah, I mean, Priest never was and never will be a kind of sociopolitical band. Priest was never a RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE or anything like that. So it was an opportunity for me as a lyricist to write things about, you know, War Of Words... those were the things that I didn't do while I was in Priest. Subjectively I've covered that in Priest, I've made ambiguous content with Priest lyrics that to me refer to more reality-based issues in the world. That's not what we're about in Priest. Priest's world, lyrically, has been one of escapism, fantasy and less reality-based. Unless you take songs like 'Living After Midnight' and 'You've Got Another Thing Coming'... The closest we ever got with making a statement was with 'Breaking The Law'. 'Breaking The Law' was a real statement. I'll be interested to see what people have to say because that moments of my departure had way more impact and significance to more people than I really considered."

Source Metal-Temple

Kamelot has announced two dates for Finland adding to their Euro tour dates. The complete tour schedule is as follows, with more dates expected to be announced soon.

March
29 - Zoetermeer, Netherlands at Boerderij
30 - Helmond, Netherlands at Plato
31 - Cheltenham, England at ProgPower UK Festival (no Leaves' Eyes)

April
3 - Bochum, Germany at Zeche
5 - Paris, France at Elysee Monmatre
6 - Antwerpen, Belgium at Hof Ter Loo
7 - Pratteln, Switzerland at Z7
8 - Offenbach, Germany at Capitol
10 - Nürnberg, Germany at Hirsch
12 - Zlin, Czech Republic at Masters Of Rock Cafe
13 - Budapest, Hungary at Wigwam
14 - Belgrade, Serbia at SEC

May
1 - Göteborg, Sweden at Trädgårn
2 - Stockholm, Sweden at Fryshuset
5 - Haugesund, Norways at Karmøygeddon Festival
8 - Helsinki, Finland at Tavastia (NEW DATE)
9 - Tampere, Finland at Pakkahuone (NEW DATE)

July
15 - Kvinesdal, Norway at Kvinesdal Rock Festival (no Leaves' Eyes)

Source Kamelot