Napalm Records has taken over BraveWords.com's KnuckleTracks Online Audio Player which can be found on the left-hand-side of each page of the website. The hostile (!) take-over features hot new material from TÝR, ALESTORM, STREAM OF PASSION and FAIRYLAND. Some background behind the bands featured read as follows:

Faroese Viking metallers TÝR's new album, By The Light Of The Northern Star, is described as "technically brilliant, once again demonstrating how to impressively unite the contemporary present with the mythological past. Traditional homeland melodies, Viking choruses, and classic heavy metal songs, such as 'Hold The Heathen Hammer High' or even the title track, offer fans new and powerful hymns. Responsible for the brilliance of this "Northern Star" is once again frontman and mastermind Heri Joensen, who provides an undisputed goose bump factor with his clean and majestic vocals. By The Light Of The Northern Star offers Viking Metal that only Týr can forge.

For more info visit www.myspace.com/tyr1.

Scottish pirate metal act ALESTORM have launched their new album, Black Sails At Midnight. It is available in normal jewelcase format, and also as a limited edition digipak with different artwork and a bonus DVD featuring their gig from Wacken 2008. Singer/mobile keyboardist Chris Bowes spoke to BraveWords.com's Mark Gromen for a special online feature - check it out at this location.

For more info visit www.myspace.com/alestorm.

French symphonic metallers FAIRYLAND's epic new album, Score To A New Beginning, features a host of guest musicians including singers Marco Sandron (PATHOSRAY), Elisa C. Martin (DREAMAKER), Lars F. Larsen (MANTICORA), Georg Neuhauser (SERENITY), Flora Spinelli (KERION); guitarists Dushan Petrossi (MAGIC KINGDOM, IRON MASK), Alessio Velliscig (Pathosray), Alex Corona (REVOLTONS), Hugues Lefebvre (ANTHROPIA), Yann Mouhad (Anthropia); drummer Willdric Lievin (HAMKA) and bassist Fabio D'Amore (Pathosray).

For more info visit www.fairyland-metal.com.

STREAM OF PASSION, the brainchild of Arjen Lucassen's (AYREON, STAR ONE) have released The Flame Within. According to a recent press release, "The Flame Within leaves its predecessor in the dust thanks to maturer songwriting that presents a further developed band able to give gothic metal a newfound profundity. Carried by Marcela Bovio's fantastic vocal lines, Stream of Passion delivers the entire spectrum of human emotions-at times dreamy and melancholic, at others uninhibited and forward pressing. In this way, heavy riffs merge with romantic undertones in majestic unity. Jens Bogren's (Fascination Street Studios) mastering work allows the tracks' subtle nuances to come into play. The Flame Within is more than a loosely arranged sequence of songs, but rather a holistic gothic metal masterpiece complete with mystic elements and sonorous symphonic romanticism."

For more info visit www.myspace.com/streamofpassionband.