DIECAST (12/2) : Boston hardcore heroes Diecast have been chosen as featured hotband of the month for December on the Streetwise website. Streetwise are the foremost street team company in the US working with bands like Rob Zombie, System Of a Down, Radiohead, and many more.  Last year they had their own OzzFest stage.  It is an honor to be chosen for this position, so please go and check it out and support DIECAST.

SHADOWS FALL (12/2) : Shadows Fall have written eight songs for the follow-up to their celebrated Century Media debut, Of One Blood. The working title of the new record remains The Art Of Balance. One of the eight new songs has been described as a ballad-type song similar to Pantera's "Cemetery Gates," the prospect of which already has many a metalhead drooling.

Dates and venues have been secured for the band's upcoming tour with their longtime friends in Hatebreed, Converge and Poison The Well. Don't miss this opportunity to see the tour that's destined to shatter any established records for sing-alongs and breakdowns in a single show. Please note that this will also be the last time fans will have a chance to see the band before the release of their new album! Dates and venues are listed below.

Brian Fair, Shadows Fall vocalist, has been asked to summon his demonic vocals for a guest spot on the new Killswitch Engage album (likely to be recorded this weekend). As many know, Killswitch Engage features bassist Mike D'Antonio, who played bass in Overcast, the now legendary Boston-based devilcore outfit for which Fair sang.

Paul Romanko and John Donais, Shadows Fall bassist and guitarist, respectively, have lent their backing vocal talents to "Perseverance," "Unloved," "The Spoiler," "Proven" and "I Will Be Heard" from the new Hatebreed album, tentatively (if not permanently) titled Perseverance.

The great Boston area radio station WERS has a compilation of live in-studio tracks in the works. Shadows Fall will contribute a track to compilation, which is likely to also feature tracks from Candiria, God Forbid, Haste, Dillinger Escape Plan, Killswitch Engage, Poison The Well, 18 Visions, Knut, Origin, Cephalic Carnage, All That Remains and Unearth. On a sidenote, Shadows Fall's Deadworld EP, released earlier this year only in Japan, also features tracks from their WERS session; however, the Shadows Fall track to be included on the WERS compilation will not be one of the tracks on Deadworld. Deadworld is available in the US from Amazon.com.

A new version of Shadows Fall's official Web site, www.shadowsfall.com, is about to be launched. A temporary site is currently in place, so check back soon for the new site in early 2002.