"After a successful show and great weekend overall at the Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse festival in Chicago last April, the band decided that a change was needed in order for Axemaster to best move forward. We are now proud to announce that Denny Archer (who played with the band at the festival) is now the permanent drummer of Axemaster.

"As mentioned in our previous press release, Denny and Joe Sims played together for a number of years in the late 90's with a very successful band called Reign, so they already have chemistry in both playing and writing together which has already proven to be very beneficial. Denny is highly experienced, an absolute professional, and a greatly respected world-class drummer who has played and/or recorded with a number of higher level projects. It's an honor to include him in the Axemaster family, his addition has already done and will continue to do a lot for the project in every way.

"Joe Sims said 'I can't totally express how happy and excited I am that Denny decided to come on board for the long run. I have known him since we were little kids, we're like family! Actually, all the way around, this band has an AMAZING lineup. It's beyond great to be able to work with a group of guys who are not only outstanding musicians, but also professionals in every sense of the word and the best of friends. No egos, no drama, no problems; unless you have been in or worked closely with bands you have no idea how rare that is!!!!'"

"Although a lot of work still needs to be done to finish the new Axemaster album 'Overture to Madness', enough has been completed to allow us to submit material and begin talking to labels about its release. Quite a few have expressed interest, and the band is currently in negotiations with one in particular. We will go into more detail once there is more definite information. Although mixing and mastering each song takes quite a length of time to compete (due to several different factors), all the work is proving to be VERY worthwhile as we believe the most recently completed masters definitely have the sound quality necessary to be considered entirely professional.

"Lastly, as fate would have it, the album that Joe and Denny recorded with Reign (originally released independently in 1997) titled "Now and Forever" was recently re-released on CD by Divebomb/Tribunal Records. It's been re-mastered (much improved sound) and includes new killer artwork, vintage photos, song lyrics, and an interview with Joe."