HALFORD guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak will release a digital-only EP, "This Is War", next month. The offering named after the second single from Mike's upcoming solo album, "The Metalworker", will also feature additional tracks from the full-length CD.

"This Is War" will be released on Tuesday, August 14 via Chlasciak's own imprint CMM Entertainment and will be available via iTunes, Amazon MP3 and most other major digital distributors.

"This Is War" track listing:

01. This Is War
02. Tonight We Ride (Instrumental)
03. Hell No!
04. M Is For Metal (Instrumental)

"The Metalworker" features Chlasciak and vocalist Carlos Zema (OUTWORLD, VOUGAN) alongside Kevin Talley (DAATH, CHIMAIRA, HATE ETERNAL, SIX FEET UNDER) on drums and Mike LePond (SYMPHONY X) on bass.

Produced by Mike, "The Metalworker" was mostly recorded at Mike's House Of Metal Studios in New Jersey and mixed by Orlando Villasenor at Dead Room Studio in San Antonio, Texas. Artwork was provided by Guilherme Sevens of Sevens Design Studio (ADAGIO, PAINSIDE).

"I am looking forward to releasing 'This Is War' in just a few weeks," says Mike. "It is a four-song collection of uncompromising metal that also features some definite straight-up sick guitar shred. You have two songs that Carlos sang on, one of them being 'This Is War', while 'Tonight We Ride' and 'M Is For Metal' are great, over-the-top, heavy guitar-hero instrumental tracks."

In other news, in the prog-rock special September issue of Guitar World magazine (Steve Vai/Tosin Abasi cover) you can find the latest installment of Mike's "Metal For Life" guitar column called "Pick Your Power Metal". In this column, Mike shows metal guitarists a wide variety of pick-hand techniques, from using all downstrokes the alternate picking to economy picking and more. The lesson offers guitarists a systematic approach to building up an arsenal of techniques that will allow them to play with more expression, control and power.