Metallian Heavy

CRYPTOPSY (with the band’s original frontman Lord Worm) is appearing at Rockfest in Montbello Canada this June 14th and 15th. Lead guitarist and songwriter Jon Levasseur rejoined CRYPTOPSY in May of 2011.

CHILDREN OF BODOM have picked Halo Of Blood as the title for its next album, which is due on June 11th through Nuclear Blast Records. Halo Of Blood is to feature a guest appearance by ANNIHILATOR’s Jeff Waters.

ANTIGAMA has completed the recording of its sixth full-length album, Meteor. Consisting of eleven new tracks, Meteor was recorded earlier this year at Progresja Studio in Warsaw with producer Pawel “Janos” Grabowski (MASACHIST, LOST SOUL, etc.).

DEADLOCK have signed a deal with Napalm Records. The band is recording the follow-up to 2011’s Bizarro World for an autumn 2013 release.

Former THE HAUNTED and current AT THE GATES guitarist Anders Björler is working on his first solo album, Antikythera. It was previously called The Antikythera Mechanism. It is due this autumn.

Reformed grindcore band CARCASS has recruited Andy Sneap at the eleventh hour to mix its comeback album, Surgical Steel, after Colin Richardson quit two weeks into the mixing. Richardson had taped the album. According to CARCASS Richardson was burnt out.

German death metal band LAY DOWN ROTTEN has signed a deal with Apostasy Records. The band’s next album will be released in autumn. The band was previously on Metal Blade.

DRUGS OF FAITH is in the studio recording an EP at Developing Nations.

Swedish metal band THE RESISTANCE will release its full-length debut on May 14th. Entitled Scars, the 12-track follow-up to the last year’s Rise From Treason EP is “an old-school death metal flashback that brings listeners to a time when bands like ENTOMBED, GRAVE and DISMEMBER.” THE RESISTANCE features within its ranks IN FLAMES’ founder (and main songwriter until his departure in 2010) Jesper Strömblad on guitar alongside second guitarist Glenn Ljungström (ex-IN FLAMES), vocalist Marco Aro (ex-THE HAUNTED and FACEDOWN) and drummer Chris Barkensjö (ex-KAAMOS and ex-REPUGNANT).

EVILE will celebrate Record Store Day by releasing a split seven-inch picture disc with ENTOMBED. The 7” will feature ENTOMBED’s 1990 track, Drowned.

AGRIMONIA’s Rites Of Separation will see a North American release on April 30th through Southern Lord.

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions will reissue the MASTER album Faith Is In Season this month. The band is touring the USA with SACRIFICIAL SUICIDE.

ANTIGAMA has completed a full-length album called Meteor. It will be issued through Selfmadegod this June.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES will release a new album, called 13, this month. The band is touring the USA.

DEW-SCENTED will release Insurgent on May 28th through Prosthetic Records. DEW-SCENTED played with TESTAMENT and BLEED FROM WITHIN in Europe last month.

DARK FUNERAL is commemorating its twentieth anniversary in 2013 with a number of festival shows in Europe. In the absence of a permanent singer Emperor Magus Caligula, who left the band in 2010, will front the act.

Ireland’s GAMA BOMB will release a new album, called The Terror Tapes, on April 19th through AFM Records.

IMMOLATION will release its next album, Kingdom Of Conspiracy, on May 14th through Nuclear Blast Records. The band is touring with NAPALM DEATH and CANNIBAL CORPSE this spring.

SUFFOCATION has recruited DYING FETUS’ John Gallagher to handle the vocals for a week’s worth of shows on its North American tour this April. Gallagher is filling in for SUFFOCATION’s vocalist, Frank Mullen.

ARSIS will release a full-length album, called Unwelcome, on April 30th in North America through Nuclear Blast Records.

ENTRAILS will release its album, Raging Death, on May 13th in Europe through Metal Blade.

LAMB OF GOD singer Randy Blythe was found not guilty of manslaughter on March 5th by a panel of Czech Republic judges in the death of one of the band’s fans, Daniel Nosek, at a concert.

Season Of Mist has announced the signing of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based technical death metal force ARCHSPIRE. The band is currently in the studio, preparing material for their second full-length CD.

Season Of Mist has signed Vancouver Canada’s ARCHSPIRE. The band is in the studio recording an album.

Dirty, the next full-length album ABORYM, will be released on May 28th through Agonia Records. The label will also issue SVARTSYN’s Black Testament on May 28th. The album was was recorded at Mortsella Studio in Sweden.

ARCKANUM will release its next full-length album, Fenriz Kindir, on May 10th through Season Of Mist. The album “is a dedication to the flaming giant-wolf, son of Loki; created from the Chaos-fires of Múspellsheimr.

German thrash metal band ACCU§ER will release an album, called Diabolic, on April 12th through Red Shift Music. The album was recorded in autumn of 2012 at Gernhart studio with producer Martin Buchwalter.


Metallian Hard

JOE SATRIANI will release his next album, Unstoppable Momentum, on May 7th through Epic Records. The album was produced by Satriani and Mike Fraser (AC/DC).

BON JOVI has topped the Nielsen Soundscan Album chart for its fifth consecutive release, this time with its twelfth studio album, What About Now through Island Records/Universal Music Canada.

Former IRON MAIDEN drummer Clive Burr died on March 12th in his sleep at his house at the age of 56. He was suffering from multiple sclerosis for many years. He was also in SAMSON and the ignored DESPERADO. Burr played on the first three Maiden LPs.

People, Hell And Angels is a new album with twelve previously unreleased studio recordings of JIMI HENDRIX. It sold 72,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position Number two on The Billboard 200 chart.

The mayor of Las Vegas declared Friday, March 22nd Def Leppard Day in the city to coincide with the band's residency there.

ICED EARTH's Live In Ancient Kourion will be out on April 15th through Century Media. The performance stems from August 19th, 2012.

Former OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Jake E. Lee has picked JAKE E. LEE'S RED DRAGON CARTEL as the name for his new project. The project features Ronnie Mancuso (BEGGARS & THIEVES) on bass and Jonas Fairley (BLACK BETTY) on drums.

Dirty Dynamite by KROKUS has entered the German Media Control chart at position Number 17. This is the first time a KROKUS album has landed in the Top 20 of the German chart.

Finland’s BATTLE BEAST will release its self-titled full-length album on May 17th through Nuclear Blast Records.

France’s HACRIDE will release a new album, called Back To Where You've Never Been, on April 19thy through Indie Recordings.

KAMELOT will go on a North American headlining tour this autumn with support from DELAIN and EKLIPSE.

UK’s BLEED FROM WITHIN will release its album, Uprising, on March 25th through Century Media Records.

XYZ-A, the band of LOUDNESS singer Minoru Niihara, will release a new album, Seventh Heaven, on April 3rd The band is touring with Zig+Zag and Pan-d-ra..

The Todd La Torre version of QUEENSRŸCHE has signed a deal with Century Media Records for the release of a new studio album, which is due on June 11th.

EDENBRIDGE has announced the recruitment of bassist Wolfgang Rothbauer. The new man has worked with drummer Max Pointner in IN SLUMBER and EDENBRIDGE and with guitarist Dominik Sebastian in THIRDMOON.

LEATHERWOLF is touring live in support of its live album, Unchained. The album was produced by Roy Z.

ATROCITY’s part one of its album trilogy, Okkult, is out on April 24th through Napalm Records. The album was produced by singer Alexander Krull at Mastersound Studio.

MASTERPLAN will release a new album, Novum Initium, on April 26th through AFM Records.


Metallian Demos

CHARIOTS OF THE GODS – TIDES OF WAR
This is a worthy band. The five-piece commits the sin of which many amateur bands are guilty. The CD contains fifteen tracks, which normally is ten too many for a demo. Rarely can a band keep the level and quality up, but Chariot Of The Gods achieves the feat by offering song after strong song. The music is a slanted mixture of growl metal, thrash metal and many a heavy metal riff. Several tracks even hint at the band’s publicist-mates Titan’s Eve. These tracks are strong because they are solidly unyielding, dynamic, action-paced with several diverse moments to keep one on his toes. Blind Assassin is a particularly strong song with its guitar savagery. Collapse Of An Empire contains a guitar solo lifted off Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tears. Snow Falls On The White River (1914) is a soft and interesting instrumental. Incidentally, several tracks seem to compile a historical theme into the album’s middle.
Chariots Of The Gods is a strong and true metal band. www.chariotsofthegods.net or e-mailashermedia@gmail.com. - Ali “The Metallian”

DANNY STODDARD – MELINDA ROSE
This whole thing threatened to be beyond bad. A shorthaired singer/songwriter who plays the guitar, bass, synthesizer and drums as well as sings has issued a disc here with rose petals on the cover. Then the biography cheerfully adds the man is 17 years old!! The biography adds something else too. The word ”hardcore” is mentioned several times. Hardcore punk is possibly bands like Dead Kennedys or Agnostic Front. Could Danny sound like those bands all on his own? No, he does not! Most of the five tracks’ music sounds like an alternative band that goes My Bloody Valentine here and there. The vocals are not far from that kind of a vibe, but switch over to really old Pink Floyd too. Everyone here has stopped reading so it is probably pointless to add that the mentioned hardcore appears on the second song My Promise whereas it was nowhere to be found on the previous tune, A Single Promise. The hardcore has one of those nice heavy beats too. It sounds like a band that happened sometime ago called Macabre. Some kind of a mix here! The CD lists the e-mail as mattyamendola@825records.com and the website at www.facebook.com/dannystoddardMusic. - Sheila Wes Det

SPLATTERS – FEAR OF THE PARK
Splatters is an old-fashioned and raw band that is probably influenced by a little bit of Rob Zombie and a little more of The Misfits. The sound is not state-of-the-art, but it is probably not meant to be. There is a little inconsequential piano intro and then song after song of lo fi fun and roll. Killer Clown, Welcome To Zombieland, Die In A Leather jacket and of course My Lucky 13 are several of the tracks. Select tracks are positively better than others. Welcome To Zombieland is weak, Killer Clown and Minotaury are better. The disc ends with a little ditty dug up from the band’s early days in the 1960s (cough cough). Back then recording quality was obviously lower and the band used pianos more. www.myspace.com/splatters 13 or promotion@atomicstuff.com. - Anna Tergel