Melodic metal act ARTIZAN have announced Steffen Robitzsch (pictured far right) as their new lead guitarist. Steffen lives and teaches guitar in Jacksonville, FL. He has extensive training in classical and jazz theory. Steffen has studied with Tony Smotherman and Terry Syrek at the National Guitar Workshop. Some of Steffen's influences include Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, Jeff Loomis and Alex Skolnick. You can see him performing live with Artizan this summer.

Artizan is:

Ty Tammeus - Drums

Tom Braden - Vocals

Shamus McConney - Guitar

Steffen Robitzsch - Lead Guitar

Jon Jennings - Bass

Artizan will release their first full-length CD, Curse Of The Artizan, on April 29th worldwide via the German based label, Pure Steel Records. The following is the final tracklisting:

'Trade The World'

'Rise'

'The Man In Black'

'Fire'

'Fading Story'

'Game Within A Game'

'Torment'

'Curse Of The Artizan'

The album artwork was recently revealed. Fantasy artist Marc Sasso (DIO, HALFORD) has created characters based on the conceptual idea of the album's title track, 'Curse Of The Artizan.'

The album contains an intro track to 'Curse Of The Artizan' titled 'Torment' which illustrates the Artizan as a child being bullied and ostracized. As the Artizan matures, he discovers he was born with a gift to sculpt and paint characters which come to life and seek retribution on those that were cruel to him.

In the CD artwork we see a beast that he has sculpted from granite that is coming to life and breaking free. The beast will soon be delivering vengeance to those who scarred the Artizan. Check out the artwork below:

Artizan founder/drummer, Ty Tammeus, states: “Marc has outdone himself with this project. The characters he has created and the level of detail applied are beyond what I envisioned. I wanted to establish unique, identifiable characters relating to the Artizan concept that are captivating to the viewer. Marc has achieved that for us. The artwork is just plain badass!”

Artizan has also announced that Ty Tammeus will be at this year's Keep it True Festival in Germany to promote the CD release. Ty will be at the Pure Steel Records merchandise booth. The festival is April 29th and 30th.

Samples of the new material can be heard here.