Only Heavy Metal

Century Media Records and DEMONS & WIZARDS are proud to announce February 21st, 2020 as the worldwide release date of the group’s highly anticipated studio album, “III”!

Jon Schaffer states: “I’m excited to be releasing another D&W album after all of these years. I feel like we’ve put together something really special, and I'm looking forward to hearing what the fans think about it. I’m proud of this album. It’s definitely a journey of epic proportions.”

Hansi Kürsch adds: “2019 is an extremely exciting year for Demons & Wizards in general. We have accomplished a lot. A lot! This third album is the peak of our career for sure. Mark my words, you will love this album!”

DEMONS & WIZARDS is one of the most legendary collaborations in the history of heavy metal, uniting the talents of Jon Schaffer (Iced Earth) and Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) who are friends for nearly three decades.

DEMONS & WIZARDS musically embodies both musician’s stylistic trademarks and has resulted so far in two hugely celebrated studio albums, “Demons & Wizards” and “Touched by the Crimson King”. Both records have been reissued in 2019 on time with the group’s extremely successful return to the world’s stages. Throughout the year, DEMONS & WIZARDS presented an impressive stage production and intense sets, toured North America for the first time, performed at renowned festivals such as Wacken Open Air (DE), Hellfest (F), Sweden Rock (SE), GMM (BE), Barcelona Rock Fest (ES), Copenhell (DK), Chania Rock (GR), Metaldays (SI), and played shows in Moscow, London and many more.

Now, the band presents “III”, a stunning monument of dynamic and powerful heavy metal that simply has all you would expect from these iconic musicians! “III” is epic, melodic, crushingly heavy, atmospheric, and all in between. 65 minutes of heavy metal mastery!

BLIND GUARDIAN frontman Hansi Kürsch has quit his long-running project with ICED EARTH's Jon Schaffer, DEMONS & WIZARDS.

Hansi announced his departure from DEMONS & WIZARDS two weeks after Schaffer was arrested for his involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The 52-year-old ICED EARTH guitarist, who resides in in Edinburgh, Indiana, is facing six federal criminal charges after he was accused of spraying a police officer with a pepper-based bear repellant.

Earlier today (Monday, February 1), Kürsch released the following statement: "I notified Jon and Century Media [DEMONS & WIZARDS' record label] on Monday that I was leaving the DEMONS & WIZARDS project with immediate effect. My collaboration with Jon in DEMONS & WIZARDS is over."