Century Media Records has signed Swedish hard rock band THE DAGGER (formerly DAGGER). THE DAGGER features singer Jani Kataja, former DISMEMBER personnel David Blomqvist (guitars), Fred Estby (drums) and Tobias Cristiansson (bass).

RATT singer Stephen Pearcy has quit the reformed band citing personal differences with the rest of the group as well as unspecified and unresolved business issues. He will focus on his solo work. Oddly, the singer subsequently announced that he is open to recording again with the band.

Frontiers Records will release TESLA's next album, Simplicity, on June 6th.

Slovenian doom metal band MIST will be busy in the coming months. The group will embark on its first European mini-tour in Belgium and The Netherlands this month. Before that the band will appear at Doom Fest 2014: Night Of The Fallen Angels II in Italy and also support heavy metal veterans HELSTAR in its hometown, Ljubljana. MIST has also been confirmed for the Malta Doom Metal Festival 2014 and Hammer Of Doom Festival in Germany.

Collectors Dream Records has announced May 16th as the release date for CINDERELLA's Stripped live album. It was recorded on October 2nd and 3rd, 1998 at the Key Club in Hollywood, California.

ELECTRIC WIZARD has a new as yet untitled album out soon through Spinefarm Records.

Drummer Daniel Liljekvist has left KATATONIA to concentrate on his family and day job.

Irish pagan metal band PRIMORDIAL will release a new album, Where Greater Men Have Fallen, in November through Metal Blade Records. The band will also play three shows in Germany with openers PORTRAIT and BÖLZER.

KIX will release its first new album in years on July 22nd after signing with Loud & Proud Records. The band is singer Steve Whiteman, guitarist Ronnie Younkins, bassist Mark Schenker and drummer Jimmy Chalfant.

The new BLACK LABEL SOCIETY studio album, Catacombs Of The Black Vatican, sold 26,000 copies in the USA in its first week of release to debut at position Number 5 on The Billboard 200 chart. BLACK LABEL SOCIETY will be on US show Late Night With Seth Meyers on Tuesday, May 6th performing the song My Dying Time.

The man who stabbed and killed five young people at a Calgary, Canada house party in April posted the title of a MEGADETH song, Dread And The Fugitive Mind, and the album title The World Needs A Hero on his Facebook page in the hours before committing his crime. Matthew De Grood himself the son of a local policeman was killed.

Original KISS guitarist ACE FREHLEY will release Space Invader through Entertainment One Music on June 24th and SPV in Europe on July 7th. Upon release of his autobiography Face The Music: A Life Exposed KISS singer and guitarist Paul Stanley conducted publicity including insisting the band would and could continue without bassist Gene Simmons.

Joining KISS? ACCEPT has been contracted with Hellbrecht Optics to launch the ACCEPT line of sun glasses. Ironically, the band’s Blind Rage album is due in July through Nuclear Blast. It is produced by producer Andy Sneap. A European tour will follow.

LOUDNESS will release a new album, The Sun Will Rise Again, on June 4th.

This June VICIOUS RUMORS will release a new live album called Live You To Death 2 - American Punishment through SPV/Steamhammer. It was recorded on the American Punishment Tour in the autumn of 2013 in New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Oakland and was produced by guitarist Geoff Thorpe. The band is working on a new studio album as well.

TIAMAT singer and founder Johan Edlund has thrown in the towel due to health reasons. The band may continue without him, but Edlund will leave following several pre-booked summer festivals. TIAMAT rose from the ashes of black metal band TREBLINKA to deliver Swedeath before going pop and goth with age.

FATAL SMILE releases its new album, White Trash Heroes, on April 25th through FS Records/GMR Music Group. It was produced by Mr. Y.

Inspired by KEEL? The reformed OSTROGOTH is playing shows in Europe. The band is Original members Rudy "White Shark" Vercruysse on guitar and Mario "Grizzly" Pauwels on drums alongside singer Josey Hindrix, guitarist Dario Frodo and bassist Stripe, who replaced Marnix "Bronco" Van de Kauter.

PAUL DI’ANNO was in Poland last month for a string of shows as part of the Doładowanie Festival 2014. The festival is an annual non-profit initiative of young Polish musicians and consists of 5 concerts in five Polish cities: Warszawa, Krosno, Kraków, Wrocław and Łódź. The show at Lizard Club in Kraków on April, 9th was recorded for a future live DVD release.

Metal Mind Productions has announced the release of the seventh studio album by stoner band CORRUPTION entitled Devil’s Share.

Candlelight Records has announced June 24th as the North American release date of IX, the new album from CORROSION OF CONFORMITY. It is produced by the band and long-time collaborator John Custer. A single for the album is called On Your Way.

NOCICEPTOR has signed a two-album publishing and distribution deal with Rogue Records America. The company will reissue the group's third album, Among Insects, as the band works on its fourth.

MASTODON has picked Once More Round The Sun as the title for its sixth album. It will be released by Reprise Records on June 24th and was recorded in Nashville with producer Nick Raskulinecz.

Former GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff will be filling in for the band's current bassist, Tommy Stinson, for the South American shows. Stinson is playing with his original band, THE REPLACEMENTS, in mid-April and unavailable to GUNS N’ ROSES.

KRUK’s fourth full-length release is entitled Before and out through Metal mind in June.

ANATHEMA will release its new album, Distant Satellites, on June 10th through Kscope.

Inspired by KEEL? The original line-up of ROCK GODDESS is working on a new album tentatively entitled Unfinished Business. The band was planning on reforming in 2009, but those plans were shelved.

MAGNUM’s Escape From The Shadow Garden album is now out through SPV.

JUDAS PRIEST has picked Redeemer Of Souls as the title for its new album. The album will be released on July 15th through Epic/Columbia. It is the first record without guitarist KK Downing and the first including Richie Faulkner, formerly of LAUREN HARRIS who is the daughter of IRON MAIDEN’s Steve Harris.

PROJECT ROCK (formerly called ROCKSTAR) is completing its debut album. The band is singer Tim "Ripper" Owens (JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH, etc.), guitarist Keri Kelli (RATT), bassist Rudy Sarzo (QUIET RIOT), drummer James Kottak (SCORPIONS and KINGDOM COME) and piano man Teddy "Zig Zag" Andreadis of GUNS N' ROSES.

ATTACKER has recruited new bassist Brian Smith as the replacement for Jon Hanemann. The band is working on a new album.

OPETH will release its next album, Pale Communion, on June 17th through Roadrunner Records. The album was produced by the band's Mikael Åkerfeldt.

LEAD PIPE CRUELTY is another new project, this time featuring former ANTHRAX singer Dan Nelson, GOD FORBID’s Corey Pierce, THY WILL BE DONE’s J. Costa and Eric Tavares and guitarist Rob McElroy.

IN FLAMES has announced Siren Charms as the title for its next album, which is out in September through Epic. The album was recorded at Hansa Studio in Berlin, Germany.

CRIMSON GLORY guitarist Jon Drenning was arrested on April 8th in Sarasota, Florida on charges of conspiracy to purchase cocaine.

CANDLEMASS Performed the entire Ancient Dreams Album at the Roadburn festival in The Netherlands last month. The album is 25 years old.

On 16 April 2014, following media reports that the band may be retiring due to Malcolm Young having had a stroke and being unable to perform, Brian Johnson announced the band is not retiring and will still gather in Vancouver in May. AC/DC subsequently announced that Malcolm Young would be taking a break from the band. AC/DC singer Brian Johnson climbed the stage at Billy Joel’s March 21st concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City and performed the AC/DC song You Shook Me All Night Long. AC/DC is at the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, Canada working through July with producer Brendan O'Brien.

According to the band, QUEENSRŸCHE and former singer Geoff Tate, who was fired in 2012 and has been pursuing a solo career since, have reached a comprehensive settlement in their legal arguments for the rights to the group's name. Tate retains the rights to Operation: Mindcrimes I and II and to perform them in their entirety. He will conduct a farewell tour this summer. The rest of the band, with Todd la Torre on vocals, will retain the use of the band’s name for recording and touring. Both camps are working on new material.

URIAH HEEP will issue the Outsider album on June 9th through Frontiers Records. The band intends to tour the world this year.

Where have we heard this name before? Rome-based parody metal band NANOWAR OF STEEL has a new demo called A Knight At The Opera, which is a collection of re-recorded songs from the group’s demos as well as a bunch of new tunes in Italian, German, Spanish, Serbian and Russian languages.

JON OLIVA'S PAIN has recruited Bill Hudson (CELLADOR, POWER QUEST, CIRCLE II CIRCLE and NIGHTRAGE) as its new guitarist.

BORNBROKEN – THE HEALING POWERS OF HATE
The band has difficulty with grammar. Metallian to the rescue. The band’s name should actually be written as ‘Born To Break.’ This is deathrash metal with crunch to heavy and speed to crush. Think At The Gates (as on the track Old News), Lamb of God, Obscene Crisis, Bolt Thrower and a touch of hardcore.
With doubled vocals, a sharp guitar tone, absolutely booming drum sound – none of that pots and pan-ish nonsense here - and a versatility to deliver based on song writing prowess Bornbroken is a serious contender operating at the elite echelon. The band has apparently changed drummers since the recording and one hopes it has not suffered for it. Bleed The Sky and the title track deliver superlative lead guitars, Reborn From The Ashes delivers blast beats and the lyrics apparently go beyond ignorance and are topical. As far as titles go, Can’t Quiet The Riot is a good one.
Bornbroken is out to prove that Canada still has it. – Ali “The Metallian”

WORKHORSE III – FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD
In a world of unfulfilled fantasies and squalid salesmanship where corporate entities further and further impoverish the masses by feeding them consumerism and materialism art is a multinational theme park, public airwaves are used for attacks on governments of the same public and music is a tool to sell commercial and crass imagery. In comes a band as unknown and unhip as purity and lofty goals at Disney World.
Workhorse III connects immediately because for whatever reason it is so perceptibly genuine in everything it does. Sure, it helps if the listener likes loud guitars and galloping drums, but more than that, the trio that comprises this unit cuts through the clutter in a way that is indescribable unless one hears the music. This is variously punk, rock, indie and so on sure, but the nurse-cum-wife-cum-singer Lisa Flynn has a voice that reverberates because its wail packs no pretension. Her guitar is bold and free. The bass of Brian Blunker is warm and filling. It begins the whole thing and really does well on Anytime. The drumming of Eric Perfect is cymbal-heavy and attacking. Why aren’t these guys selling us a rock star fantasy? Don’t they want to be on the Grammys? Kim Kardashian just bought some shoes, you know. Kate is elegant. Queen Latifah is not hating on the Caucasian nemesis and has a talk show I need to watch.
The band quite unintentionally goes into the rhythm of Iron Maiden’s debut on Leave Me Alone and Kiss Me Goodbye and sucker counterpunches Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man on the track after, Broken Man, but beyond those anecdotes this is a collective of short and direct tracks with brightness, transparency and honesty. In a World of Avril Lavigne doing sponsored ‘songs’ for Hello Kitty or Justin whateverhislastnameis bedding unoriginal whores this is a refreshing mix of The Donnas, Black Flag and DOA. The band’s website is at http://www.workhorsethree.com and can be contacted via its publicist clintweiler@gmail.com. – Ali “The Metallian”

ROSES UNREAD – Same
To be transparent and fair to the band the quintet’s style leaves me cold. We are looking at five guys with no image, bermuda shorts and baseball caps, a chick singer being sensitive and all, playing melodious demi-operatic commercial rock. Roses Unread is not bad for what it does by any means, but then again adds absolutely nothing or individualistic to the structure. Where there is fondness that is a good thing, but for sub-genres like this one hopes for something to latch onto. Roses Unread moves slowly and is trapped in the affliction that comes with the territory.
Allison Teague Purifoy has a limited range, but has a competent and controlled voice that is surprisingly good. The typical macho ‘hard’ male backing vocals naturally jump in and out. The distorted guitars are there, but remain firmly in the commercial and melodic lane. The same pattern exists for the bass and drums. The latter sound is strong and warm as is the whole production incidentally. With the exception of the disc’s closer, Without A Name, the songs are all shorter and ready for commercial airplay. Evanescence would be jealous of Blind Lead The Blind’s marketable structure. The song is also a video clip for the band.
This full-length is professional and in possession of clear commercial potential from start to finish. It is just that it is so formulaic and predictable that one has no leeway in praising it beyond what is in this review already. – Anna Tergel

REVONTULET - HEAR ME
Revontulet is now only a two-piece of singer and drummer after several line-up changes. The band is Russian, but the name means ‘northern lights’ in Finnish. Obvious influences of this self-described 'symphonic metal' band is Nightwish and the band's singer and main song writer Alexandra does indeed merit comparisons. This 54-minute eight-song debut is dominated by violin, cello and other instruments like the flute. The guitars - along with most other instruments mostly finished before the former members parted ways with the band - kick in to add the metal, such as it is. The drums of the only other current member, Sergey, are often basic and do not attempt to overshadow the singing or other aforementioned extra instruments. The third song is called Suomi as if to emphasis the fascination with Finland and all things Finnish. The band’s bio includes as many mentions of Finland as it does of Russia. Melodic, laid back and simple are dominating adjectives for the other songs and when they are called Rainheart, Velvet Night, The Pianist Of The Darkest Night and Eternal Autumn it is little surprise. The closer and title track is over 15 minutes long. The album has been mastered by Hiili Hiilesmaa (HIM, Amorphis and Moonspell) at Yellow House Studios and there is no prize in guessing where that studio is located. Reach the band at http://www.revontuletband.com. – Anna Tergel