Hello everyone and welcome to this ninth Hanker newsletter! We have a lot of information and some excellent Hanker news for you as you'll see.

Hanker news:

Here are some great Hanker news:

Hanker has signed a Greek distribution contract with Cult Metal Classics Records! At first the company will distribute In Our World and Snakes And Ladders... in vinyl format!!! They will be available February 1, 2002 (maybe before). Here are some stores where you would find them: Else's Metal Mail-order (Germany), Shiva Records (Greece), OPM Records (USA), Iron Glory Records (Germany), Castle Black Records (Belgium), Disk Heaven (Japan), Steel Gallery Records (Greece), No Remorse Records (Greece), RIP Records (USA) and Hellion Records (Germany). Check out the Hanker Web site under Order for more details.

Also, Hanker are working on new compositions for their fourth album! No title available yet, but the band is working toward releasing the album next summer. Don't worry, once again the band is working on a pure, uncompromising heavy metal album!

Snakes And Ladders:

The new Hanker album has been extremely well received by reviewers. To prove that, there are presently 22 reviews of Snakes And Ladders on the Web site and there is no bad reviews! Also, the global average of all reviews with ratings is 88.3%! Note that, until now, all the reviews have been published without exception, same thing for the two others albums, which have also received excellent reviews. In Our World (and In Our World Revisited), 15 reviews, 89.6% and The Dead Ringer, 27 reviews, 84.3%. Take some time to read the reviews of Snakes And Ladders under CD Reviews.

Hanker has been online for over 5 years!!!

June 2001 marked the 5th anniversary of The Official Hanker Web Site, that's huge! The Web site opened on June 19, 1996. Hanker have had their own domain name (www.hankermetal.com) since September 9, 1999. To celebrate this event, I added a new banner under Download. The Web site has been visited more than 43,000 times since the opening in 1996 and the number of visitors has increased considerably every year.

Main additions to the site:

Here are the main additions to the Hanker Web site since the last newsletter: added eleven excellent reviews: nine of Snakes And Ladders, one of In Our World and one of The Dead Ringer under CD Reviews. Added many excellent live shots under Pictures. Added Snakes And Ladders lyrics, an interview with Pascal, a quiz, a new section called FAQ (frequently asked questions), 3 gig reviews of the Hanker show at the Aréna de Beaupré, many updates to the Order section, including Disk Heaven, a store in Tokyo (Japan), and many improvements on the Web site.

Finally, here is an excerpt of Greek Tombstone Fanzine's review that describes very well the quality of the band:

«Hanker are Canada's premier underground metal band and not without a reason. They are playing classic heavy metal and for me it's a big fucking surprise that they have not signed so far to a major label. They've got more talent than all the other underground metal bands together.»

That's all for this newsletter. Thanks a lot to everyone that support Hanker. I would like to wish you, in the name of the whole Hanker family, a merry Christmas and a happy new year 2002!