Bologna’s SAINTS TRADE has signed a deal with logic(il)logic Records for their debut CD Robbed In Paradise whose release is scheduled for early 2015.

Following recent guitar and bass player changes drummer Kelly Smith has left FLOTSAM AND JETSAM to spend time caring for his family.

UFO will release a new album, called A Conspiracy Of Stars, on February 23rd through Steamhammer/SPV.

SCORPIONS' drummer James Kottak has rejoined the band some eight months after he spent a month in a Dubai prison for insulting Islam.

Metal Mind Productions has vinyl releases of three albums by the ‘90s heavy metal band KILLERS, led by IRON MAIDEN’s ex-vocalist Paul Di’Anno. The LPs will be available in the colours of the British flag: blue (Murder One), white (Menace To Society) and red (South American Assault).

SAXON will enter the studio in January to record the follow-up to 2013's Sacrifice. It is due for release in late summer.

U.D.O. will release a new album, called Decadent, on January 26th through AFM. Much of the recording was conducted at Udo's home in the Spanish island of Ibiza.

SAINT VITUS singer Wino was arrested by Norwegian police and immigrations officers for possession of illegal substances on Sunday, November 9th. The band was initially hopeful that he would be released and the tour would continue, but with the singer deported back to the USA the tour was completed with friends and other members performing. The man has reportedly been admitted to therapy.

KISS performed at the 88th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 27 and aired on the American NBC channel.

DOKKEN has asked bassist SEAN MCNABB to leave and replaced him with MARK BOALS. The new man is known as a singer for bands like YNGWIE MALMSTEEN. Apparently, Don Dokken was unhappy with McNabb solo projects.

EINHERJER will release Av Oss, For Oss in North America through Indie Recordings in January. The album was written and produced by the band and mixed by Matt Hyde (HATEBREED, SLAYER, CHILDREN OF BODOM, MONSTER MAGNET et al).

Norwegian heavy metal band TNT has released its 30th Anniversary 1982-2012 Live In Concert With Trondheim Symphony Orchestra release in the USA through Indie Recordings. A Canadian release was not announced.

Karyn Crisis' GOSPEL OF THE WITCHES, which also features EPHEL DUATH’s Davide Tiso, will release an album next year through Century Media Records. The band actually financed the album through Kickstarter and Etsy.

Veteran Brazilian group HAZY HAMLET has released its first official music video for the song Symphony Of Steel. The release date was chosen to celebrate a double anniversary: the fifteenth anniversary of the group's career, celebrated in mid-October, and the one-year anniversary of the Full Throttle album, which was issued by Arthorium Records in November of 2013.

AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd, who has been absent from the band’s video and photo shoots for Rock Or Bust, was charged in November by New Zealand police with attempting to procure a murder in late September. Rudd also faced charges of possessing methamphetamine and cannabis. The murder charges were subsequently dropped.

PARADISE LOST will enter Orgone Studios in London, England with Jaimie Gomez Arellano to record a new album for a spring of 2015 release through Century Media. The band believes it will present a heavy album.

BLIND GUARDIAN has picked Beyond The Red Mirror as the title for its next album, which is out on January 30th through Nuclear Blast.

LARS ERIC MATTSSON is commemorating the 25 years since his first two albums were released in Japan with three digital-only reissues: Earthbound (remixed + bonus track), Eternity (remixed + bonus track) and No Surrender (remixed + bonus track). No Surrender features completely rerecorded vocals while all three albums include bonus tracks.

ANDY MARTONGELLI’s first solo album Spiral Motion is out. It contains ten tracks of instrumental heavy metal. Andy has also released a video for Father, one the songs from his new solo album.

Vocalist Karl Agell, who sang on CORROSION OF CONFORMITY's 1991 Blind full-length and founding drummer Reed Mullin performed the LP in its entirety on Sunday, November 9th at the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina. The concert was a benefit show for Katherine Ludwig, former editor of long-running heavy metal magazine, Metal Maniacs, who is currently battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

DYSNOMIA’s self-titled album has been issued by Suspiria Records. The band has just signed with the label.

British band ALL SEEING EYES has issued its debut release Trinity Road. It features a guest appearance by Ben Jackson of CRIMSON GLORY.

CAN OF SOUL has released its debut album Hearreality through Atomic Stuff Records. It is a concept album. CAN OF SOUL is the new solo project by Tomas “Tomrocker” Toffolo (STYGMA, WHY OUT).

Mick Zane, lead guitarist and founding member of MALICE, underwent brain surgery for a brain tumor.

REPAID IN BLOOD – BORN IN A LAZARUS PIT
By and large, California’s Repaid In Blood is an impressive band whose mix of speedy, death and sludgy metal hits all the right chords. The quintet, however, does incorporate contradictions, which by definition are not necessarily helpful.
The very green cover – no, thankfully it is not a cyber manure band – depicts an attractive babe with the preferred long hair, large breasts, slim combination that men so crave. Excited? Do not be. Look at the back cover and she has a baby. On the musical front the aforementioned elements are seriously powerful and played professionally. Unseriously, the band has a range of movie dubs, sense of humour, acoustic interludes serenading homosexual men and fudge lovers. Indeed, the last ten minutes of this 34-minute CD are taken up by Secret track where the band strums giddily in its acoustic ode to homosexuality, MILFs and Mexican food. It probably makes sense; after all the preceding song was called Count Choculittis. It is too bad, but of course, the band has to be true to itself. Still, overall this band and demo are delivering crushing metal with impressive vocals, huge riffs and gifted lead guitars. The rest of the nonsense may be blamed on the effects of the impure world we live in. Think ‘taco’ served at Taco Bell. The band has several corporate websites, but can be found at http://www.repaidinblood.com/or could be contacted at Repaidinblood@yahoo.com. - Ali “The Metallian”

BLIND RACE - COME AND GET IT
Toronto, Canada's Blind Race started out as a trio but has evolved into a quintet. Come And Get It is the band's third EP. The five songs start with Hypocrite and the thick guitar sound sounds promising, the vocals of Tommy Geraldes make the Godsmack comparison mentioned in the band's 'recommended if you like' seem correct for once. The title track continues in the same way. The band try to remain heavy but grungy influences are always present. Geraldes tries to be Phil Anselmo when he can and the music helps his cause. Hopeless starts a la Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam. The band seems to be intentionally controlling Come And Get It's intensity. The song does however feature a brief showcase of Costas Kentros' lead guitar skills. Truth Or Dare marks the first real appearance by Joannie Cotten on keyboards and is Blind Race doing Dream Theater, the song does revert back to the grunge and groove in sections while adding a catchy touch or two. The EP closes with a short acoustic piece called Gone, it would be very much at home in ‘90s Seattle. Carefully run to www.blindrace.net to check out these Canadians. – Anna Tergel

LAUGH AT THE FAKES - DETHRONE THE CROWN
Perhaps these guys should tour with Manowar? Dethrone The Crown is this Toronto band's first full-length following 2011's One Night Only EP. The first impression after the opener starts is that Everett Mason's vocals do not go very well with the driving riffs. Mason is a bit too high-pitched for what the rest of the band offers, at least early on in the song. On the whole Not Like Me is a basic hard rock song. Death Awaits, much like the opener, does speed up and this time it ends up being reminiscent of Anthrax and other late ‘80s thrash. Cut To The Chase is Ratt/Motley Crue/Dokken type hard rock, the contrast to the song before it is too stark. Killing Time is progressive and NWOBHM with German metal elements. Fighting Dirty features a long instrumental section and tries its hand at mixing heavy metal and progressive rock. Got No Regrets spends more time in hard rock territory. Harmonica Playing Man is over six minutes long and spends a good chunk of it being the ballad or listener friendly song of Dethrone The Crown. And I is hard rock with commercial appeal. The title track closes in a heavier fashion. At over 49 minutes for nine songs Dethrone The Crown uses plenty of time mixing styles, sometimes more successfully than one might expect. The band is at www.laughatthefakes.com. – Anna Tergel

THERAPHOSA – HUNG LIKE MUSSOLINI
Here it comes KLANG industrial techno disc with dubs and effects VROOOM whose five tracks veer from each of those styles KABOOM to lounge music, electronica and back. In the process the band expresses a fetish for Islam ALLAH-O AKBAR on tracks like Adzhan and Neda to George War BUSH and DICK Cheney receiving their orders to launch DESTRUCTION on behalf of the Israeli master SWOOOSH on various vocal expressions, but most notably on Big Paxton. Presumably (on my part) that is a photo of fascist (the WWII one Mussolini, not the contemporary one Berlusconi’s which is coming soon) being hung upside down that is on the cover SHAZAM. So clearly do not expect the music of humanity, talent and triumph. Instead of METAL Theraphosa delivers a mix of synthesizers, guitars, dubs, subs and SHOCK. The band apparently hates self-righteous authority so they should be organizing against the US of A any day now. The band has a corporate website at a multinational corporation that routinely uploads to the NSA here: www.facebook.com/theraphoametal or e-mail them through goldstartalent@yahoo.com and ask them where that metal is. – Ali “The Metallian”

WHERE GIANTS ONCE STOOD – LIVE ABOVE
This type of music was DOA anyway, but its continued existence is both a tribute to the power of humour in this world and to the persistent demand for anything and everything. That is supply-side economics: if its exists someone will copy it and someone will buy it too.
It is commonly called metalcore, but better described as petalcore – and that is not a reference to the patterns on the cover. The musicians are, oh, so sensitive grasping the pains of life and conveying the full range of emotions a young man faces including headwinds like meeting the new boyfriend of the ex-girlfriend or the emotional turbulence of stalking the instagram feed of the girl who got away or the anger caused by the hashtag failure of the "we also tweet" generation. Yes, folks life is so heavy. This music of Where Giants Once Stood grasps and feeds it back.
Seriously, the limp-wristed stupidity in this music is embedded in the so sensitive and flowery 'hard music' power breakdowns, crunches which are augmented by the electronic dubs, then breakdowns and then harsh vocals and then acoustic strum and then group hug vocals coz life is tough and it requires bands like this to give each other support by jointly chanting with clean vocals while holding hands and then conveying their emotions to all their Incubus, Insane Clown Posse and Avenged Sevenfold fans (names vary because by the time you read this everyone has moved on to the next thing).
Sure, this whole review was a joke and a riff on these clueless wanna-be little boys who are too dense to realize what an insult it is to include the word ‘metal’ anywhere within a 1,000 km radius of their piano loving selves, but fact remains that everything in this write-up is fact. I write this while listening to the band strum Latin, conga and “don’t let them see that inside you are hurting…” Boy n Flames would be proud. The band is cool, unique and independent to have a web page on this niche, exclusive, anti-conformist website called Facebook. It is at www.facebook.com/wheregiantsoncestood. If only the band knew how supremely appropriate its monicker is. Wow! – Ali “The Metallian”