It was maybe the longest flight I have ever made in my life. By the gods it was almost 24 hours on planes before we got to Athens. But it was worth every minute of flight time because we were soon among friends…no I think maybe family is more like it. It was a gloriously epic night at the Up The Hammers festival for Manilla Road. We were received in the tradition of the Greeks with stage diving and sing a longs that drowned out the band. Remarkable it was and I am just so proud to have been a part of the happenings that night. The festival was run really well and it was one of the most inspiring events I have attended in the last few years. Athena never fails to amaze me. Thanks to one and all that were there that magikal night at the Up The Hammers. I just like saying it over and over.

It’s turning out to be quite an eventful year for Manilla Road. We are now confirming several festival shows for our touring efforts in 2013. Some of the events will be the Sweden Rock festival, Maryland Deathfest, Chaos in Tejas festival, we will be in Portugal for the first time ever at the SWR Barroselas Metalfest and in February we will be headlining the Metal Assault festival in Germany. This will be the first time that Manilla Road has played in any of these festivals. More dates are to come and will be announced on the tour page as they are confirmed. The Metal Assault show will be the next stop for Manilla Road. We are done touring for this year so that we can work on more music in the studio for Hellwell, Manilla Road and another project that I am singing on. So I’m going to hide out in Midgard Sound Labs and let the Muse lead the way. Since the Metal Assault is the next show on our list of tour stops I will tell you a bit about it. It’s a pretty special show in many ways. First of all it is on the same date as the release date for our new album Mysterium. So we will be doing some songs from the new album at the show for the first time. Also it is the 30th anniversary of the release of Crystal Logic in 2013. So we have cooked up a special event at the Metal Assault by bringing Rick Fisher with us to play the whole Crystal Logic album from start to finish live with us. Neudi will be playing through the rest of the show of course. So it should be a really unique show and experience for one and all. I am so honored to have Rick do this with us. We have already been rehearsing with him and he still has the chops of old. It really amazed me at how much the practice sounded like the original album. This should be really fun.

So stay tuned for more announcements in the future. And watch the tour page on this site for all the information about upcoming tour stops for 2013. Thanks to all of you for your undying support of Manilla Road and also thanks to all of you for helping make Hellwell a success. It has been getting really good reviews for the most part and I am very happy at how it is being received. There will be more to come from Hellwell that is for sure. Up The Hammers to all of thee. Trust in the gods….but tie up your camel anyway!

Mark The Shark Shelton