I probably overlooked this one before.

[Wyvern]

I know someone must have wrote about here, but I didn't noticed. A band called Dark Empire tried to hook me up on MySpace, and checking before accepting I found this:

Vocalist URBAN BREED joins DARK EMPIRE; new album details announced

For immediate release:
American progressive metallers DARK EMPIRE proudly welcome Swedish vocalist URBAN BREED (PYRAMAZE, ex-BLOODBOUND, ex-TAD MOROSE) as their new singer. URBAN replaces vocalist JENS CARLSSON (PERSUADER, SAVAGE CIRCUS) who split from the band on good terms in 2008.
Bandleader/guitarist MATT MOLITI:
“I cannot express how thrilled I am to be collaborating with URBAN. His vocals have the perfect blend of power and dynamics that I think will truly take DARK EMPIRE’s music to the next level. I’m excited as hell for people to hear the material!”
The band has also set the title for the next album as “From Refuge to Ruin.” Expect demo samples to be posted to the band's myspace in the coming weeks.
MATT on the From Refuge to Ruin sound:
“The new material has the sound that was established on Humanity Dethroned, but we’ve added some new elements, such as 7 string guitars, mellotrons, and a good deal of oldschool Doom Metal and 70‘s prog rock influence. I really think these were the missing puzzle pieces and what we’re going to present on From Refuge to Ruin is the ultimate culmination of what I started back in 2004. We’re looking at 9 songs, with two that are near or over the 10 minute mark. We’ll also be doing two covers for bonus tracks. More details on all of that to come.”
“We will start recording in the fall with producer Jeremy Krull. We're also in talks with drummers, and we should be able to make a final announcement on who will be performing on the album soon. The plans are for a spring 2011 release.”

My problem are the harsh backing vocals, so I don't like the band much right now, but I will check upon their material with Urban for sure.​

 

[Platinum Maze]

Cool. Matt was/is a regular at the UM Symphony X board a while back. I have the first 2 albums. He is a monster guitar player. However, the vocals were always a negative for me too...

This should be interesting with Urban at the microphone.

 

[Hawk]

Cool. Matt was/is a regular at the UM Symphony X board a while back. I have the first 2 albums. He is a monster guitar player. However, the vocals were always a negative for me too...

This should be interesting with Urban at the microphone.

Same here. I liked the band but not the singer.

 

[razoredge]

I checked out their music when Matt posted links, some pretty serious stuff but I also didnt really like the vocalists voice. IIRC there wasnt enough growling secondary vocals to bother me much. It was just the tone, timbre or persentation from the vocalist I wasnt crazy about.