Toronto, Canada's DIEMONDS is gearing up for Maharani Madness, a tour of India. The promotional tour is timed for the Indian release of the debut EP In The Rough on Percept Networks.

KATATONIA has lost the brothers Fredrik Norrman and Mattias Norrman. To fulfil touring obligations filling in for Fredrik on guitar will be long time guitar technician and also guitarist of BLOODBATH Per 'Sodomizer' Eriksson while Niklas 'Nille' Sandin is filling Mattias’ shoes. Full-time replacements are being sought.

LUNA MORTIS has been dropped by Century Media. Despite the lack of tour support the band is still booked to open for PRIMAL FEAR in the USA in May.

HIGH ON FIRE has completed work on its fifth studio album and the follow-up to 2007's Death Is This Communion. Entitled Snakes For The Divine, the record will be released on February 23rd, 2010 through E1 Music.

Noiseheadrecords (NHR) has The Almighty Love the new album of Austria’s heavy rocker BOON out in January, 2010.

Inspired by KEEL? The reformed Dutch band PICTURE has issued a demo CD called Old Dogs New Tricks. The new disc arrives 30 years following the group’s debut.

Shrapnel Records has announced January 26th, 2010 as the release date for Instrumental Intensity, a new compilation from MICHAEL SCHENKER.

Koblenz, Germany’s AT DAGGERS DAWN is searching for a drummer following the departure of drummer Markus. The departed member wished to concentrate on his job. Candidates may e-mail info@at-daggers-drawn.net.

Bill Zebub (Grimoire Of Exalted Deeds Magazine, Metal Retardation, Breaking Her Will et cetra) is issuing Pagan Metal: A Documentary featuring interviews and live shows by some of the genre's bands including KORPIKLAANI, PRIMORDIAL, FINNTROLL, ENSIFERUM, LEAVES' EYES, TURISAS and TYR. For more information, visit http://www.billzebub.com.

Chilean band SIX MAGICS has signed a deal with Coroner Records for the release of its album, Behind The Sorrow, which is scheduled for February 15th 2010. The band is female-fronted.

EIZO JAPAN, is a new project featuring ANTHEM singer Eizo Sakamoto and AREA51 guitarist Yoichiro Ishino which is dedicated to playing metal covers of popular anime themes. The band has released part 2 of its debut in Japan.

Nightmare Records has signed a deal with Tunisian progressive metal band MYRATH (‘Legacy’) and will release the album on January 26th, 2010. The band’s third album, entitled Desert Call is being issued in Europe through XIII Bis Records. More information can be found through http://www.myspace.com/myrathband.

Jon Schaffer of ICED EARTH has completed work on an album for his new political act, SONS OF LIBERTY. The new act’s album, Brush-fires Of The Mind, is available for free and is affiliated with conspiracy theory website http://www.infowars.com.

Sirre and Roger from Swedish ‘80s heavy metal band BEHEMOTH are back as DEATHWINGS. The new name was inspired by the band’s 1982 EP name.

Neil Farrington, the drummer for WARLORD UK, BENEDICTION, CEREBRAL FIX and DAMN DIRTY APES, committed suicide on the 20th of December 2009 at the age of 38. He had struggled with depression for years. A memorial concert is expected to arrange to create a trust for his son Ollie, aged 8.

Loyalty & Fidelity! Chris 'The Destroyer' Mills, drummer for CONQUEST OF STEEL, was in the hospital last month recovering from surgery to remove an infected appendix. The surgery was successful, but he had to return to hospital with a severe infection in the wound. The Destroyer was expected out of hospital in time and would then begin a period of recuperation before he was able to return to take his position back behind his drum kit. In the event of The Destroyer not being fit for the January shows stand-in drummer John Savage (HYPNOSIS) was on standby.

GAMMA RAY will be releasing a new album, To The Metal, on January 29th, 2010 through earMUSIC/Edel. A limited edition version features a 60-minute DVD.

ROYAL HUNT’s next album will simply be called X as it is the band’s tenth record. The album is due in May.

FREEDOM CALL will release a new album, Legend Of The Shadowking, on January 29th, 2010 through SPV/Steamhammer.

Finland’s CELESTY has announced that vocalist Antti Railio has decided to pursue a different style than the band. The group is searching for a replacement and can be contacted at rekry[at]celesty.net.

RAVEN’s next album is called Walk Through Fire and out on March 29th. It will be out through SPV.

KROKUS’ next album is called Hoodoo and out in February. The band is Marc Storace, Chris Von Rohr, Fernando Von Arb, Mark Kohler and drummer Freddy Steady.

After much drama, erratic behaviour and rumours of departure from the band, AEROSMITH singer Steven Tyler has entered rehabilitation for “addiction to prescription painkillers.”

Is there anything more insipid than bands’ promotions ‘e-cards?’

TOXIC HEART – RIDE YOUR LIFE
Toxic Heart is a new – to me anyway – name in the world of hard rock and glam metal. The CD sent to me has no less than eleven full tracks and 36 minutes of state of the art hard revenge. The group looks delicious with long hair and cool costumes. What’s more, they can play for real. What is even more astonishing is how they can write tunes too. Toxic Heart is fantastic. Not sure what Ride Your Life means but anyhow…
From where in the US or Canada does the band come? Take a guess. Toxic Heart is from Slovenia! That’s right, smack in the centre of Europe. Perhaps that is why the band doesn’t do a Bon Jovi and try to be modern rock or some such idiocy. Guys, you rock. Don’t cut your hairs. Please!
Song-wise the album’s opener is called Ticket and is more like Poison than anything else on the demo. New Generation next quickly adjusts course from Ticket’s glam and is a hard rock song extraordinaire. The One is the one disappointing song where the group tries its hand at being U2. Bad choice guys. Ride Your Life, the title track, is track number five and like Van Halen’s poppier days with Klaus Meine on vocals. By the way, Axl the singer is most like good old Klaus in his singing… and no, he is not on loan from Guns. Big Time is big time heavier and even a little abrasive. Toxic Heart’s toxic part comes out. This is a gooood song. Makin’ Me Bad has a ‘70s groove, insane soloing and a hint or two of early Skid Row. It is sleazy, cool and incredible. The album leaves the best for last though. Like The Way I Feel just plain rawks. What a tune. This tune kills in 1989, 1999 or 2009. What a professional band, which is reflected in the sound. The cover should have been way more kicking though!
Sure, Toxic Heart embraces the clichés of the genre (“one night stand is what you mean to me” or “living on the edge” or “baby baby”), but that’s why we love this genre, right ladies? This CD is hard, heavy, sleazy, glammy, definitely not Lemmy and extremely cool. I will be listening to this CD as you are reading this review.– Sheila Wes Det

SIXGUNS OVER TOMBSTONE – PUTTING REVENGE ON THE MAP
What a strange band. The band is from Alberta so it makes sense that they have a name like Sixguns Over Tombstone and a title like Putting Revenge On The Map. The same goes for the cartoon cover artwork. Well, maybe a dirty oil slick should have been there too. The music is not what one would expect. It is more like European hard rock than some sort of modern rubbish. The vocals are high and sometimes hysterical. The music is upbeat and even has extensive guitar solos. All good stuff until the band figures out how to mess things up with its many many infusions. Of course, there are several more quirks than just the above. Most of it is wiped out because these guys look good with their hair all around them.

Rumours Of My Death should fill the void for all Euro power metallers missing Blind Guardian. The backing harmonies are ‘interesting.’ The redneck strums ain’t. Songs like Dragonbuster (ha?) are very melodic and almost classically composed. Anti-Photon is almost thrash so there is that here too, but goes soft on us soon. And weird. When The Walls Fell needs to keep the wailing in check. This is what I was talking about earlier. Boot Hill is thrashy again. Back when Much showed metal, this is the type of thrash metal they profiled. The song Black Plague is ten minutes long and ironically doesn’t kick off with a blast. Instead, it is similar to very old Scorpions. Really! Carry The Flag is an iron Maiden-ish instrumental and, back to strangeness, the Alberta band has a song called Solar. The lyrics don’t help that much. By the way, this disc comes with a full package. Fire From The Sky might have been taped at a different studio. It sounds different. Crazy guitars are running amok on the song.
Overall, there is a lot of metal of most sorts on Putting Revenge On The Map. Some of it like All Hallows End is really professional and world-class. The band should still pull it all together and, of course, keep growing out the manly hair. The band’s website is at www.myspace.com/sixgunthrash and the e-mail is timarine1@hotmail.com. - Sheila Wes Det

AUTERE – BEING DEAD IS A PLACE
Last we heard of Finland’s Autere it was through the band’s 2005 demo, Lines & Fragments. Four years later and the band is still at it thrashing hard. And let me tell you that the reason the band is still unsigned is that they wisely refuse inferior offers waiting for something good and tangible. This music is simply that pro and impressive.
The disc begins with a backward intro and Circle Of Kinetic Damage. The band could make a trademark out of its rhythmic thrashing. It is incredibly powerful and tight when 1:30 into the track the roof caves in and all of a sudden the band is grooving to a Soilwork-like ambient clean passage. What a cold shower. If one were to ignore this transgression the dagger is metallic and implanted into the skull. Suppressed To The Slumber is a lie. The track does no such thing. It start with a hint of Arch Enemy and has some very nifty harmonic guitar work. Sadly, the silly chanting vocals show up again. Black Center (sic) – great title – is more harsh and mechanical in construct. It is approaching a Meshuggah posture on the song and again shows off a brilliant production job. Contorted Leftover is probably a good title for a last song and feature a gazillion vocal dubs and layers. The music is hard, but the band clearly wants to emphasize the vocals.
Autere is a little heavier, a little harder and a little different than most bands. The stupid clean vocals should go the way of N Flames and homophobia, but Being Dead Is A Place is still a good place to be. The disc comes with a video and can be ordered by e-mailing autere@autereband.com. - Ali “The Metallian”