UK hard rock band SILENT JACK is issuing a demo called Play The Game. It is the follow-up to 2012's Snakebite demo.

Test Your Metal Records, a new Canadian label out of Vancouver has signed Brazilian power metal band HIBRIA for its self-titled release, which is out on August 7th.

ROTTING CHRIST will release a live double album, called Lucifer Over Athens, through Season Of Mist. The album was recorded in the capital of Greece in December of 2013.

STORMHOLD'S debut album Battle Of The Royal Halls has been released through Art Gates Records.

Brazilian power metal group DARK WITCH has signed with Arthorium Records, which will promote The Circle Of Blood album for the act.

RUSH, which claims to be stopping major touring, filmed its June hometown shows in Toronto, Canada for future release.

OPERATION: MINDCRIME, the new band of former QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate, will release its debut album The Key on September 18ththrough Frontiers Music.

CHILDREN OF BODOM will release its next album, I Worship Chaos, on October 2nd through Nuclear Blast. The band once again recorded at Helsinki, Finland's Danger Johnny Studio.

TIGERTAILZ has pushed bassist Rob Wylde to sing for the band following the departure of Jules Millis. Wylde was previously a singer in the POISON cover band POIZON.

MOONSPELL has re-signed with Napalm Records for more album following the release of Extinct.

AVATARIUM is in the studio recording its next album, which is due out in October through Nuclear Blast.

Frontiers Music will release an album by former ANGEL singer Frank DiMino, entitled Old Habits Die Hard, on July 3rd.

Sweden’s BLACK TRIP will issue a new album called Shadowline this August through SPV.

PENTAGRAM has reunited with Peaceville Records and will issue a new album, Curious Volume, on August 28th.

MY DYING BRIDE's next album, Feel The Misery, will be released on September 18th through Peaceville.

Pop metal band SOILWORK has a new album, called The Ride Majestic, on August 28th through Nuclear Blast. The band now features bassist Markus Wibom, formerly of hardcore band HEARTS ALIVE. Wibom is replacing Ola Flink.

Graham Bonnet is recording in the studio recording and using FATES WARNING drummer Mark Zonder.

Singer and bassist Peter "Peavy" Wagner of RAGE has recruited a new line-up of Marcos Rodriguez on guitar and drummer Vassilios "Lucky" Maniatopoulos.

Frontiers will issue the next album of NWOBHM band PRAYING MANTIS, which is called Legacy. It will be out on August 21st. Frontiers will also release the new ROYAL HUNT album Devil's Dozen on August 21 in Europe and North America.

Steve Tucker has rejoined MORBID ANGEL and singer/bassist David Vincent has left the former death metal/current electronic band. Drummer Tim Yeung has also left the act hinting at financial differences. Guitarist Destructhor has also been asked to leave. He will focus on MYRKSKOG.

DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell has announced that his cancer has returned despite a stem cell transplant last summer. His replacement for recent shows with DEF LEPPARD was TRIXTER guitarist Steve Brown.

IRON MAIDEN will release a single called Speed Of Light off its next album, The Book Of Souls. The music is written by guitarist Adrian Smith and singer Bruce Dickinson. The latter man underwent cancer treatment earlier this year. The full-length is out through Sanctuary in September.

MOTÖRHEAD will tour the U.S.A this August with SAXON and ANTHRAX as special guests on many dates. A new album called Bad Magic is out at the end of August.

Season Of Mist has issued SHAPE OF DESPAIR full-length Monotony Fields.

Norwegian (originally Siberia) “prog death metallers” DEFECT DESIGNER have an album called Ageing Accelerator being release on Sleaszy Rider Records on July 13th. This release features a killer recording line-up that includes drummer Flo Mounier (CRYPTOPSY), guitarist Stelios Mavromitis (SEPTICFLESH), Martin Storm-Olsen (ex-TROLLFEST) on guitars and clean vocals, Christos Antoniou (SEPTICFLESH) for sampling and orchestration along with Dmitry Sukhinin on vocals.

Infernö Records has issued LADY BEAST’s Lady Beast II album. The band is compared to TANK and ROCK GODDESS.

AGALLOCH bassist JASON W. WALTON is issuing a solo 7”EP called Mara. This is Red Orchard Records’ first release.

KHEMMIS' Absolution is out next month through 20 Buck Spin.

Neil Daniels has issued a biography of the band UFO called High Stakes & Dangerous Men as an ebook. Here is the link:www.neildanielsbooks.com.

ADLER, the band led by former GUNS N ROSES’ drummer Steven Adler, is playing a series of summer shows starting in June. The upcoming tour dates will be the band's first live performances in over two years, and the band's first ever visit to South America. The group is playing USA and Canada.

Suspiria Records has signed power metal band ATREIDES, which was founded by SKYDANCER’s DS. Its debut, Cosmos, is now out properly following an earlier digital issue.

Brennus Music has issued PARALLEL MINDS' new release Headlong Disaster.

INTO ETERNITY has signed a worldwide recording deal with Italian label Kolony Records. The band will release its next album, Sirens, this autumn.

SATAN will release a new album, Atom By Atom, in October through Listenable Records. It is a follow-up to 2013's Life Sentence.

AMORPHIS will release a new album, called Under The Red Cloud, on September 4th through Nuclear Blast.

PRIMAL FEAR has replaced Brazilian drummer Aquiles Priester with UDO’s Francesco Jovino.

CREAM, which many consider an early heavy metal act, drummer Ginger Baker has termed heavy metal music as "an abortion" in an interview with Forbes. The drummer expresses his hatred at the music and imagery.

Allan Fryer, the singer for the Australian band HEAVEN, died due to cancer.

Eidos, the latest by Rome, Italy’s KINGCROW, was issued last month through Sensory Records.

SAVATAGE and TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA guitarist Chris Caffery will release a new solo album, entitled Your Heaven Is Real, on August 21st through Metalville. It is the follow-up to 2009's House Of Insanity.

TITANS EVE - CHASING THE DEVIL
Chasing The Devil is this Vancouver, Canada band's third album. The eight songs start with We Defy, which is full of screaming and heavy metal riffs underneath. The drum sound and production mix is not the best here. The vocals and screams of Brian Gamblin are a bit too dominant for the instruments to truly shine; he gives Chasing The Devil a hardcore feel. The music does peek through in the latter parts of Warpath and rescues the early impressions of the album. No Kingdom seems to signal the band running out of ideas until a solo changes things somewhat. Another Day is often straightforward and features more welcome guitar work, there is a hint of Bobby Gustafson somewhere in the riffing. The title track brings out the more pure heavy metal. The Grind's mid-paced section may be more suited to Gamblin's vocals but the song once again shines more when the instruments take over. Stranded is a five-minute long low key instrumental featuring cellos and violins. The Endless Light is the thrashiest of the eight songs and closes the album on a high. The band has received a lot of attention and toured with the likes of Arch Enemy, Chasing The Devil is not the most convincing however. – Anna Tergel

BROKEN RAIN - HERE COMES THE PAIN
Here Comes The Pain arrives in a DVD package with a 28 page booklet. This Slovakian quintet was formed in 2006 and started as a cover band. Here Comes The Pain is the band's debut album with 12 songs and is 60 minutes long. After a brief intro Burn The Witch brings to mind simple hard rock that is almost generic sounding. The ‘70s a la Deep Purple or Uriah Heep style kicks in for a bit as if to establish the band's influences. Martin Rybár channels a bit of Michael Kiske and this is most evident at the beginning of Seize The Fire, a somewhat low-key song otherwise. Forgotten Heroes has anthem type sections and highlights more of Martin's vocal talents. Wanna Love My Girl's start is reminiscent of Iron Maiden's Alexander The Great; otherwise it is a ballad and longing tribute to a friend. Burning Eyes reverts to ‘80s hard rock and is a Poison type song. The title track ups the tempo and showcases Filip Prašovský and Imrich Šimig's guitar work with a long instrumental section. So Far Away is a catchy song and offers more Helloween. I Want To Play Rock really wants to play hard rock.Tonight is a ballad again fitting well in an ‘80s setting with lyrics like “Can you believe it ... I'm gonna treat you right ... Without you near me ... Can't make it through the night.” Prisoners In The Wasteland returns to the up tempo with the heaviest and fastest riffs of Here Comes The Rain and there are a few high pitched screams thrown in too. Strong tries it hand at the anthem like again with “United We Stand ... Divided We fall' clichés. The "bonus" Broken Rain closes this well produced and professional sounding band's debut and includes some piano. Check the band at http://broken-rain.webnode.sk. – Anna Tergel

RUSTY PACEMAKER - RUINS
Rusty Pacemaker is an Austrian musician and Ruins is his sophomore release after 2010's Blackness And White Light. The bio is keen to mention that Rusty is self-taught and he handles every instrument on Ruins, except the drums. The album was mostly recorded in his own White Studio. Rusty calls the late Quorthon (of Bathory of course) one of his idols. The opener and title track is almost eight minutes long and certainly showcases a dark side. It features a low key structure and Rusty whistling too! It is perhaps not the best idea that the man himself handled the vocals. It sounds robotic at times. The female vocals of Lady K make an appearance on Ocean Of Life to add another layer to Ruins. The songs themselves sometimes conjure up Pink Floyd type feelings. The "personal" nature of the songs makes them too minimal at times and this doesn't always work. The potential for doomy or gloomy feelings is sometimes lost to the listener. Perhaps ironically a song called Candlemass tries its hand at doom but it lacks the needed heaviness or crushing impact. A closing song called Pillow Of Silence provides a clearer view of Ruins, it is like the album can be categorized as ambient rock, almost. Reach the man at http://www.rustypacemaker.com – Anna Tergel

TRIPOD - DEVIL FEEDER
We just reviewed Tripod from Norway, but here they come again with a full-length full of rock songs with metallic riffs. This material barely crosses path with heavy metal fans' tastes, but given the previous review and the harder and edgy riffs it squeezes into the Metallian review pages.
The singer Knut Arne Lillestøl is a wailer and of the kind who occasionally wails on even as the music has slowed down. He is frequently remiscent of Chris Cornell in that sense. Then comes track 7 Meant To be and he also does an impression of Anthony Kiedis. Yes, Metallian readers have stopped reading already, but nevertheless there is enough harder music and depth to Tripod to be signed for real and promoted. One can easily imagine this material played on them local rock radio station. As much as Knut projects feeling and power his delivery when singing straightforwardly is lame as heard on All For Granted. Not coincidentally, the same track piles on with similarly useless female vocals.
To add the aforementioned depth and variety Meant To Be features some orchestration, while Love Stake and Zubr noticeably begin with metallic and aggressive riffs. I Used To Be, in contrast, is slow and one of several obligatory slower tunes. The guitarist knows how to play a lead, but does so sparingly. Finally, the sound is quite good and adds to the Norwegians proferssionalism. It benefits from clear EQs without ever going for obvious pop sensibility. The band has a website at www.tripodrocks.com or can be found on myspace.com. - Ali "The Metallian"

ATKINS/MAY PROJECT - ANTHOLOGY
It was good to receive this double-disc package of music featuring the early singer for Judas Priest, Al Atkins. He had originally left Judas Priest in 1973. Not having heard his output, an anthology of his albums was a welcome chance to hear the music and conduct a review.
If an Anthology is either handpicked to comprise of representative songs or the favourites of a band then the Atkins/May Project is indeed a hard rock band, albeit focused on slower and melodious songs. It is not as if Atkins/May has a plethora of releases in its history, but such is the title for the double-disc at hand.
Firstly, Atkins' voice is gritty a la a gruff Udo Dirkschneider or more accurately Faithful Breath's Heinz Mikus. However, since no one remembers the latter man one should say Atkins sounds like the Teutonic metal singers of the '80s. Whatever the case, the albums lives off the slower and grandiose songs that are often punctuated by heavy or faster tracks as interludes. The songs are book ended by instrumental so first track proper Here Comes The Rain is one of those quieter songs. Bitter Wars cruises along and comes with a solo, which is reminiscent of Priest's Touch Of Evil. May is an accomplished guitarist all around. He solos often, and in a melodious and accessible manner. He is advertised as being Christian. The Shallowing is where the album gets upbeat and heavier. The backing bass is full on. Atkins cruises on. The soloing continues. The next song is all guitars and is reminiscent of the '80s.
The guitars are more modern and fuzzy. It is more aggressive here. The drums are pounding now and the question you have been waiting for an answer to is that, yes, it is a little Judas Priestish. Indeed, Atkins is recording an album worth of Priest songs himself. Atkins loves to enunciate his words and to do so in long songs. Amidst the positives and the not-so is one negative, which is the very artificial sounding toms. The drum machine was not cooperating in a musical manner it seems. Nonetheless, along comes track ten and the thundering bass and the speed so it is mostly good again. Sadly, a cover version of Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight takes up some space here. The Anthology features a DVD disc featuring several videos and an interview with the two men conducted by a Jonathan Downes. - Ali "The Metallian"