VOLBEAT has announced a spring 2015 Canadian tour with guests ANTHRAX and CROBOT. VOLBEAT features former ANTHRAX guitarist Rob Caggiano.

ARMORED SAINT has signed a new deal with Metal Blade Records for the release of the band's next album, which is due in 2015. Song titles include An Exercise In Debauchery, Mess, Up Yours and In An Instant.

ACCEPT's new album, Blind Rage, has entered the German chart at No. 1 position.

LYNCH MOB will release the Sun Red Sun EP through Rat Pak Records on December 9. The CD was written and recorded by the same line-up as the Sound Mountain Sessions EP: George Lynch on guitar, Oni Logan on vocals, Robbie Crane on bass and Scot Coogan on drums.

Former ENUFF Z’NUFF singer/songwriter DONNIE VIE will release his new solo album The White Album, in December through Cargo Records. The double CD contains 17 cuts as well as versions of the CHICAGO song 25 or 6 to 4 and JOHN LENNON‘s Imagine.

KILLUS have been confirmed as special guest for the upcoming European tour of AVATAR and THE DEFILED. The band is supporting its latest album, Feel The Monster, by touring countries such as Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, France and the UK.

Spider Rock has signed Italian power/progressive metal bands NEXUS OPERA. The band has been active for over ten years and is finally releasing its debut album, Tales From WWII this month.

BATTLE BEAST will release its next album, Unholy Savior, on January 9th through Nuclear Blast.

CREAM bassist and singer Jack Bruce died on October 24th as a result of liver disease. He was 71 years old.

PRIMORDIAL’s Where Greater Men Have Fallen full-length is out this month through Metal Blade Records. The band is playing several European shows in December.

Denver doom metal band IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS will independently release an EP this winter called Merging In Light.

Former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Downing is about to release a line of perfumes called Metal For Men and Metal Pour Femme alongside UK digital radio station Planet Rock.

KILL RITUAL has announced the addition of drummer Koryun Bobikyan to the group's ranks who takes over for the recently departed Gee Anzalone (DRAGONFORCE). The new drummer hails from Armenia and is a veteran of bands like STRYFE, SACROND and SWORN.

RAVEN has launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance its next studio album, ExtermiNation. The band has also recorded a full-length covers’ CD titled Party Killers for its funders.

ARTHEMIS’ ANDY MARTONGELLI has a solo album. The album is entitled Spiral Motion will be released on the 5th of November through Atomic Stuff.

Infernö Records has signed Colombia’s IRON COMMAND. A new album is due next year.

Swedish hard rockers NUBIAN ROSE will release a new album, titled Mental Revolution, on November 24th through Cargo Records. The cover artwork for the CD was created by Mattias Savage Wil.

Guitarist Doug Aldrich (WHITESNAKE, DIO, etc.), Deen Castronovo (BAD ENGLISH, JOURNEY, OZZY OSBOURNE, HARDLINE) and Jack Blades (NIGHT RANGER, DAMN YANKEES, SHAW/BLADES) have yet another project, REVOLUTION SAINTS. The band has a deal for a 2015 album through Frontiers. The album was produced by Alessandro Del Vecchio (HARDLINE).

ARMAGEDDON, featuring former ARCH ENEMY guitarist Christopher Amott, has signed a deal with Listenable Records. ARMAGEDDON's new album, Captivity & Devourment, will be released on January 26th.

AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was not present during the filming of the videos for Play Ball and Rock Or Bust in October in London, England. He was replaced by Bob Richards, who had played with SHOGUN. Ostensibly Rudd had a family emergency. However, he is also missing from the band’s latest promotional photos.

U.D.O will release a new studio album, called Decadent, in January 2015 through AFM.

NONPOINT's eighth studio album, The Return, sold 8,100 copies in the United States Of America in its first week of release to land at position Number 39 on The Billboard 200 chart.

David Wallin of PAIN has replaced Anders Johansson in HAMMERFALL. Moreover, since bassist Fredrik Larsson is becoming a father again he is temporarily giving his place to former guitar player Stefan Elmgren. The NHL team Minnesota Wild has announced that for its home games in St. Paul, Minnesota, they will be using HAMMERFALL’s song Fury Of The Wild.

MANOWAR has cancelled its Loud Park festival appearance previously scheduled for October 18th. MANOWAR will instead play two concerts at Zepp Diver City in Tokyo on October 29 and October 30. MANOWAR claims a Los Angeles dock fire is responsible for the cancellation.

Toronto’s SKULL FIST has recruited the permanent drummer JJ Tartaglia following three years of working with stand-ins.

HIGHWAY DREAM’s Wonderful Race is out now through Street Symphonies.

LAST IN LINE - featuring DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell and other former DIO members Jimmy Bain, Vinny Appice and Claude Schnell, plus singer Andrew Freeman of LYNCH MOB - has signed a deal with Frontiers Music. The group's debut album is out in the spring.

BLACK DAWN – UNTIL WE MEET
For those unfamiliar with Black Dawn, which is everybody, it would be a reasonable presumption that the Americans are a black or death metal act. The group’s monicker, darker artwork and depiction of a witch on the cover would be indicative of the same. Open the insert and instead of ‘now you’re/you are gone’ the lyrics state ‘now your gone.’ The crunchy music veers groovy and the singer is clearly Anselmo-inspired. Black Dawn, in fact, is more of a Pantera tougher-than-thou macho metal band.
My prejudices come prearranged as such for Pantera and its machismo have never attracted me. The whisper-cum-growls on opener Upon Your Lips, enunciations and mix of slow chugs and faster riffing are all Pantera-ish. Having said that, the quarter gets several things right. The sound is very good and highlights the depths of the band’s arrangement capability. The songs are dynamic and generally heavy. The instruments are well represented and the bass guitar – be it shining by itself on the aforementioned opener or on I Could Never Be or as rhythmic filler on Open The Gates – courtesy of James Lane is one highlight. Speaking of this track, yes, Pantera has a slower track that picks up called Cemetery Gates and Black Dawn has a slower track that picks up called Open The Gates! The band has wisely kept the disc short and restricted to five tracks thus highlighting its best. The promised warning of “explicit lyrics” on the cover never actually materializes unless “I said the sky was falling/you never looked my way” is dangerous nowadays.
The group’s groove metal and the singer’s Pantera bromance are not personal favourites; however, there is no denying that Black Dawn is an accomplished, professional and serious band in composition, instrumentation, production and packaging. Write to the band at shaggy2114@optonline.net or visit www.blackdawn.net. - Ali “The Metallian”

THE BLACK MARBLES – MADE IN CONCRETE
The name and album cover could be understood to imply an evil band is at work here, but on the surface this Swedish band is not particularly Satanic. Where the band focuses is heavy rock, blues and R&B with multiple nods to The Firm, Bad Company and Whitesnake. More than once in the course of listening to the CD one expects the song to fall into a “Smoking in the boys room” groove. That is the band’s biggest fault: the heavy rock contains moments of brilliance, but most of all The Black Marbles relapses into a bar band routine that sounds like any other jamming act at the local pub complete with feigned blues, piano and a slide guitar.
Night And Day, which kicks off the group’s full-length, has a ‘hoo hoo’ type backing vocals patterned after Rolling Stones. Good Lovin’ slows down to a Chris Isaak crawl first. Don’t Fade Away strums like Ye Ye’s Morning. Most of all is the R&B sound that dominates these guys. One is not surprised when parts of it bring The Commitments to mind. Female backing vocals slow grooves, wailing guitars and a hatred for the letter ‘g’ (witness titles like Good Lovin’ or Lovin’ Kind). In this backdrop most songs are naturally geared towards loving, er lovin’, and blues with the notable exception of … Chinese Jambalaya!
The Black Marbles is a good enough easy listenin’ act, but its exceptional moments are surrounded by too many easy goin’ standard songs following the norm to make the marbles break free of the concrete and fly. The website iswww.theblackmarbles.com and the contact e-mail is info@theblackmarbles.com. - Anna Tergel

THE BODY POLITIC – EGRESSOR
The Body Politic tries hard to be modern and mallcore, but there are still a few - very few – respectable elements coming through. The synthesizers, stop-n-go mallcore breaks and clichéd dual vocals, which growl and sing cleanly, are all present, but when the capable lead guitarist comes in a modicum of respectability comes with it given the man’s competence and affinity to progressive metal. Otherwise, the solo vocalizing and harmonic chants are embarrassing. As for the clean singing backed by screaming growls the concept is as desirable and attractive as a Conservative Member Of Parliament at a peace conference… give it up, guys.
The keyboardist is already – in his mind anyway - in an electronica new-age band so no adjustment is needed there.
I like mallcore as much as the next metal fan, which is to say not at all, but this keyboard-laden, emotional popish disc is absurd. One instead could listen for the progressive and beautiful soloing on songs like All Hands. The clean vocals are mediocre or downright embarrassing. Swing For The Fences is excruciating owing to this man. Man and machine meet and man proves his organic genetic make-up by vomiting. The band is at www.thebodypoliticband.com. - Ali “The Metallian”

LAIKA - SOMNIA
Somnia is officially this Winnipeg, Canada's second full-length after 2009's Crafting The Cataclysm. It is not the best of signs when the sextet's bio uses "groove" and "evolution" in its attempt to describe the band. The sound alikes are listed as Insomnium, Dark Tranquillity and Amon Amarth. It seems that these lists are often made only to cover any and all expectations a listener might have. Restless Mind is a piano driven intro. Escalation Of Terror is heavy metal-ish to start and shows promise. The potential is soon diminished when keyboards, piano and start/stop riffing interrupt the heavy flow of the song. When the band just keep it straightforward it works much better. The title track follows and in much the same way works in sections and is somewhat Dark Tranquillity like. Fidelity is more American sounding and is often intense. It is perhaps good that the piano is in the background, but then it adds very little anyway, a good example of this being the start of Caligae A Galea. Dream Of Nothing is a long five minutes plus instrumental, predictably it features a good chunk of the piano and keyboards. It also features atmospheric sections with everybody - minus vocalist Jordan Dorge of course - getting their moment. The Immortal features some more intensity and sounds a bit more Swedish. Predictions (Tide Bearer) seems to let the keyboards take a more prominent space while also remaining fast and heavy. Somnia closes with Invaders and exemplifies the contrasts created by the heavy and fast versus the keyboards. Find the band at www.facebook.com/LaikaOfficial - Anna Tergel

KENNY TEXEIRA - SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Originally from Massachusetts - with obvious Portuguese roots - Kenny has long since relocated to Hollywood. Seven Deadly Sin is guitarist Texeira's eighth release, only three of which are CDs with the rest being DVDs. The bio describes his riffing like and influences as Zakk Wylde, Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page. High praise. Monster is solid hard rock with the guitar certainly at the forefront. The song would have benefited from being an instrumental. Texeira also handles the drums - plus the vocals - and is perhaps better off with his guitar only. Misunderstood offers glimpses of '80s hard rock. You're Goin' Down is let down by its lyrics and the vocals again. Sweet 'N Dirty is more controlled and features dirty sounds! The title track has the man imitating Wylde as best as he can. The guitar sound and production add a bit of extra of heaviness. Once A Lady (Always A Lady) tries to resurrect '80s rock and glam. Feel It Burn features vocals by Rebecca Norris and is Seven Deadly Sins' first and only power ballad. Another Hero is enjoyable with its thick guitars. International Orange goes back to the better off instrumental category. She's On Fire has a strange bass sound otherwise it is an unspectacular closing song. A documentary on the making of this album is coming soon. A video for Monster is available now at www.kennytex.com - Anna Tergel

VIATHYN – CYNOSURE
Looking at the band’s promotional photograph it seems as though the band is entirely joking or parodying heavy metal. The foursome appear in pairs – two civilian tourists to metal and two funsters posing as if. According to the biography, the band hails from Calgary, Canada, the capital of oil, gas, cowboys, animal cruelty, slow witted foolery and reactionary anti-environment bigotry. The band’s name is, bio be believed, a play on the word ‘leviathan,’ Read this review before getting onstartpage.com next time.
Cynosure is the standard-issue confusion mumbo jumbo jumble. The technicality and tight rhythms belie, but by now stereotypically accompany, the clean vocals, folk rock and Celtic melodies. The keyboards and instrument molestations bring acts like Dragonforce and Stratovarius in mind, but folk pop (faux pas) like Eluveitie is not far behind. As pretentious as it can get; matters get worse when the band insists on calling itself “power” (!!!) “metal” (!!?!?!). Of course the band is hip to all the corporate NSA feeder sites like facebook and youtube and whatever else, but has a main page at www.viathyn.com. - Ali “The Metallian”