Magic Circle Music has signed an exclusive worldwide distribution deal for MANOWAR with SPV.

Magic Circle Music spokesman and MANOWAR management team member Hinrich Stuerken commented, "With their professional attitude and international structure, SPV won out over all the other major and independent record companies in negotiations that lasted more than a year."

MANOWAR bassist Joey DeMaio added: "We are proud that our past with Nuclear Blast was a success that ultimately brought them their first gold record in their home territory of Germany. However, since the formation of our own label Magic Circle Music, we have the very same level of responsibility to our artists and their fans as we do for MANOWAR and the MANOWAR fans, so it was absolutely necessary to find a company that could interface with our structure and would commit 100 percent of their support to us as well as to all Magic Circle bands."

MANOWAR are set to release their new single as well as their new DVD, "Hell On Earth Part IV", in July of this year. The new MANOWAR album will then follow early 2006. MANOWAR will also perform live with several other Magic Circle Music bands at the Earthshaker Fest 2005 in Geiselwind/Germany on July 23, 2005.

SPV president Manfred Schuetz commented: "My first working experience with MANOWAR began in 1985. SPV was the exclusive distribution partner for Roadrunner Records in Germany and as such was responsible for MANOWAR's album 'Hail to England' and therefore marketed it successfully 20 years ago. I believe that signing MANOWAR will be the beginning of a long-term and fruitful pairing with the Kings of Heavy Metal. This has been a true wish for two decades to continue this early collaboration on a higher level. Now with this current deal structure I am sure all of SPV's hopes and visions for a band like MANOWAR with their own label environment will come true.

"The importance of MANOWAR for the whole scene, not only in Germany but in the other major markets around the world is reason enough for me to be personally involved in all aspects of this great collaboration as it has been proven right in all of our past negotiations — the most recent of which is the collaboration between Magic Circle Music and SPV with the outstanding success of Italian melodic-rockers RHAPSODY with Christopher Lee.

"With two experienced teams working together this can only bring success!"

To date MANOWAR have sold over eight million records. Their latest album, "Warriors of the World", was released in 2002 and achieved Top 5 chart positions worldwide (i.e. #2 in Germany's Media Control Top 100 Charts, where it has been certified gold).