SINNER have posted a gallery of live pictures from their recent co-headlining European tour with ROSS THE BOSS. Check them out at this location (pages 3 and 4).

As previously reported, frontman / PRIMAL FEAR bassist Mat Sinner has issued the following year end update:

"The year 2008 – great music, new inspiration, many new options and some of my views changed...............

The year started with a goodbye to Stefan (Leibing/guitars). Even it was not like a shock out of the blue and we were all prepared for this moment, it just hurts after rocking nearly for 10 years side by side .... and Stefan is a great character. There's one chance - you can try make the best out of this situation and look for some new blood with a different background. Magnus Karlsson was just like a lucky punch for Primal Fear.

One of the best experiences in my entire career took place in April/May 2009 – the new Sinner recordings! All the songwriting sessions was just fun, as I wrote songs for this album together with Igor Gianola, Magnus Karlsson and of course my partner in crime Henny Wolter. We recorded at the House Of Music studio with our touring line up and for the first time with engineer Dennis Ward, even we know us as musicians since ages..... great vibe, no discussions, just rock – wonderful and the final result is just the Sinner album I’ve always wanted to record. Thanks to Klaus, Henny and Christof for a great time – I hope we can come up with the same kind of vibe next year!

Later this sping, I played bass in the studio for Alex Beyrodt’s new band VOODOO CIRCLE and in the same time for the new DRIVER album and my friends Rob Rock & Roy Z.........

Primal Fear 10 Years Anniversary Tour was just great. The most touching moment was as Stefan and Klaus joined the band at the show at the H2O – Magnus proved that he’s not only agreat songwriter and guitarist – NO – he’s a fantatsic performer and a sensational combination with Henny! This was a new dimension for Primal Fear on all shows and the following 16 festival appearances with highlights like Sweden Rock, Bestfest, Bloodstock or Summer Breeze

Höör, Sweden– was the place we laid the foundation for the new Primal Fear album. Magnus owns a nice house with a recording studio at a lake in the south of Sweden. Henny, Magnus and me had a very creative and magic week at Magnus' studio, followed by two more shows with Primal Fear for the first time in Russia. Especially the show in Moscow was incredible with a fantastic and loud audience!

My new project ..... in January '08 I met my friend Alex Scholpp again and as always we’ve talked about writing and recording some songs together, but this time it was for real and we needed just some more months to realize a new project or better – to form a new band and write a soundtrack together for My Final Day. Together with my former SHIVA brother and ex-LEAVES' EYES / ATROCITY drummer Martin Schmidt, we worked very hard over the summer on a strategy and modern musical direction for this new band. Joining us is singer Nena Schock (SINCEZERO), in the meantime one of my closest friends in real life and Timo from the band MINDEAD. I really love this band and it’s just a nice fresh breeze in my musical life. We will continue in early 2009 with our recordings and more songwriting!

Voodoo Circle received a lot of good feedback by the media, and we signed a deal with AFM Records for a December '08 release. The new band by guitarist Alex Beyrodt has a lot of potential. With SIMPLE MINDS drummer Mel Gaynor and PC69 singer David Readman plus keyboarder extraordinaire Jimmy Kresic, a hell of a line-up with cool musicians. The music is just classic rock with a lot of attitude. Let’s wait what will happen next year with some sonic shows!

Sinner was ready to go on tour again in November and for the first time in 10 years we came back to the stages of Spain and Italy. The band could keep their great spirit and rocked every entire night like it was just for the last time! We had a bar on stage instead of a side-drop built by my friend Tommy and behind the bar was stage-manager Neil Witchard to sing backing vocals and serve some special drinks for the ladies. This was not only a concert, it was entertainment for the band AND the fans and 80 minutes of total mayhem, fun, spirit and attitude!

Primal Fear entered the studio straight after the Sinner tour and even there was not a lot of time to recover, we had a main target – after all the trouble at the New Religion recordings, we want to do a lot of things different this time! We worked a lot on the pre production this time, even we were always on tour, but finally it was just the right vision.

Maybe it is not a wise decision to record music with over 80 minutes playtime in these days, but we were just in a great spirit and very well prepared. The recordings were totaly different this time – creative, smooth, rocking, focused and always peaceful – the first part of this creation of an new album is already done and we’re damn proud of the result.

Primal Fear will go three steps back to their Nuclear Fire roots and another two steps ahead ....... real metal, but we would not be known as Primal Fear if we wouldn’t have some real surprises in our pockets – we will continue to work on the album, we will call 16.6 (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead!) on January 5th with Dennis Ward and this time again with longtime friend Achim Koehler. The album will be released in May 2009 and a extensive touring will follow in 2009 soon after the release!

My favorite albums 2008:

DISTURBED - Indestructible

JUSTIN CURRIE (DEL AMITRI) - What Is Love For

SHINEDOWN - The Sound Of Madness

SLIPKNOT - All Hope Is Gone

HINDER - Take It To The Limit....

My favorite festival 2008 - Sweden Rock Festival

My favorite movie / TV series 2008 - The Black Knight, Taken with Liam Neeson / Prison Break Season 4

My favorite book 2008 - Jean-Christophe Grangé – Das Herz Der Hölle....

Preview 2009 - Primal Fear (new album & tour), My Final Day recordings, Voodoo Circle shows, to continue with my book and updated bio Six Times Dead together with Christof, 24 Season 7 and a better season for my soccer club Schalke 04 ....

Thanks to all friends, supporters, fans and partners for a great year 2008 - I wish you all a peaceful Xmas and a great, exciting and rocking 2009."

Rock’n Roll

Mat