French retailer Fnac has posted what appears to be the cover artwork for "Evermore Darkly…", the new mini-album from British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH. Due on October 10 via Peaceville Records, the follow-up to last year's triumphant "Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa" album will arrive as a CD/DVD package including new tracks and rarities, with a lengthy on-the-road documentary and ten songs filmed live at this year's Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium, as well as the video for the song "Lilith Immaculate".
The "Evermore Darkly…" CD features brand new musical beast "Thank Your Lucky Stars", plus a special remix of "Forgive Me Father", courtesy of ANTHRAX guitarist Rob Caggiano, an extended rendition of "Lilith Immaculate", as well as tempered demo versions of three "Darkly, Darkly…" songs. The mini-album closes with a special taster from CRADLE OF FILTH's impending orchestral project in the form of a haunting, classic reworking of fan favorite "Summer Dying Fast".

The "Evermore Darkly…" DVD contains footage from summer 2011 when CRADLE OF FILTH embarked on a rapid spat of tours, accompanied by two eager filmmakers. The resulting documentary, "You Can't Polish A Turd, But You Can Roll It In Glitter", combined with performance and interview footage culminates in a forty five minute film of the not so glamorous reality of life in a touring band at work and play, as they trawl their way across Europe over eight performances. The DVD includes an interview with ghoul-guide Dani Filth, interspersed and peppered with live footage and backstage shenanigans, culminating in the entire hour long set from this year's Graspop Metal Meeting appearance.

According to Dani, "Evermore Darkly…" is "a much-loved musical stop-gap between albums, a pleasure treasure trove of wild and wicked wonders primed especially for fans. Something for them to sink their teeth into this autumn as the CRADLE invasion fleet is primed for future contagion."

Guitarist Gary Holt of San Francisco Bay Area thrashers EXODUS has slammed Swedish melodic metallers HAMMERFALL for allegedly forcing his band to cut its set short by three songs at this year's edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival.

When asked by Toby Cook of The Quietus how Holt felt EXODUS' performance at Bloodstock — which was held August 12-14, 2011 at Catton Hall in Derbyshire, United Kingdom — had gone, the guitarist replied, "Fuck HAMMERFALL, they can go suck a dick — they cost us, like, three songs! They can suck my balls!

"We had huge problems because HAMMERFALL's sound man rearranged the entire input list — and you just don't do that at festivals.

"I've nothing against them musically; I think they're a great band musically, but you're at a festival, you're not headlining you're actually playing under us — do your job right! They fucking made it difficult for everybody."

During the same interview, Holt also shed some light on what may have been his major motivation for agreeing to fill in for SLAYER's Jeff Hanneman for the recent "Big Four" Sonisphere shows.

"It was all about reconnecting with [current METALLICA and former EXODUS guitarist] Kirk [Hammett]," said Holt. "He was my best friend when we were in [EXODUS] together, and being able to spend time with him again and talk about the old days, that's what it was all about. It wasn't about playing with all the other bands; it was about reconnecting with a very good old friend. It was really, really nice."

Following the July reissues of Against The Modern World and In The Rain, as well as the August reissues of Lex Talionis and In A Garden Green, the first Friday of September will see the release of new editions of two further classics of SOL INVICTUS' back catalogue: In The Jaws Of The Serpent from 1989, and Trees In Winter, which was first released in 1990.

In The Jaws Of The Serpent is the recording of a live performance by Sol Invictus in Tokyo in 1988. This was originally released in 1989 as a mini LP and then combined with the first mini album, Against The Modern World, to form the CD, Sol Veritas Lux, a year later. Now, In The Jaws .. will be released as a stand-alone CD for the very first time, completed with a bonus DVD featuring a nearly 60-minute live performance by Sol Invictus in Hamburg on March 27th, 1993.

Featuring evergreens such as 'English Murder,' 'Media', and 'Looking For Europe', Trees In Winter has always been a highlight of every well-assorted Sol Invictus collection. The album hasn't been available since its original release back in 1990 and is now complemented by three bonus tracks from the 1991 vinyl-only singles, 'Looking For Europe' and 'See The Dove Fall / Somewhere In Europe'. The demo song 'See The Dove Fall' is included in a remixed version.

Like the previous Sol Invictus reissues, In The Jaws Of The Serpent and Trees In Winter will be released in portrait digipak format, feature new artworks as well as liner notes by Tony Wakeford, and will each be limited to 700 copies only.

Jacksonville's ALLELE, the modern hard rock group featuring former COLD guitarist Kelly Hayes has been rejoined by the band's original guitarist Lane Maverick in preparation for the group's sophomore album, Next To Parallel due September 27th via Goomba Music.

Allele (pronounced Uh-Leel) was formed in 2002 by vocalist Wally Wood and guitarist Lane Maverick.

Next To Parallel was produced by the band and mixed/mastered at Jacksonville's MyPlatinumSound by Paul Lapinski (RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS, ALICIA KEYS, EVERGREEN TERRACE, PUDDLE OF MUDD, MOLLY HATCHET and YELLOWCARD). The vocal tracks were engineered by TRAPT bassist Pete Charell at Dexter Dog Studios in Laguna, CA.

Next To Parallel tracklisting:
'Let It Go'
'Closure'
'What I Get'
'Dead and Cold'
'Drone'
'Something Cured'
'Feed the Wolves'
'Hurt'
'Chains of Alice'
'Answers'
'Stay Down'
'Next to Parallel'
'To Arms'

NWOBHM legends CLOVEN HOOF check in with the following release news:

"After overwhelming pre-order sales we can announce that the Dominator re-release will be available on September 1st. The free patch for the first 50 lucky fans was snapped up within hours. As a result of this, so fans will not be disappointed, the new Dominator patch will be available from September 1st on the official website. It will cost £5 excluding postage and packing."

Dominator tracklisting:

'Rising Up'
'Nova Battlestar'
'Reach For The Sky'
'Warrior Of The Wasteland'
'The Invaders'
'The Fugitive'
'Dominator'
'Road Of Eagles'

The album will also be available on vinyl as a special collectors edition in the near future. Updates to follow.

Revolver magazine conducted an interview with METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX for a special issue devoted to the "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal.

When asked to name his favorite ANTHRAX song, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich said, "There's so many. I don't know, the cover they did of 'Antisocial' [off 1988's 'State Of Euphoria'] by [French rock band] TRUST is obviously great. 'Got The Time', [off 1990's 'Persistence Of Time'] which is a cover originally by [English new-wave artist] JOE JACKSON was awesome. 'Only', which they did on the first record with [vocalist] John Bush [1993's 'Sound Of White Noise'] was great. There's tons of them, so I don't even know where to start. Fuck. I was up in the mountains the other day, skiing somewhere, and PUBLIC ENEMY came and played, so I went down and saw them. They played 'Bring the Noise', [which PUBLIC ENEMY re-recorded with ANTHRAX in 1991] which was cool to hear."

BLOOD MORTIZED - the Swedish death metallers featuring former AMON AMARTH guitarist Anders Hansson and CRYPT OF KERBEROS drummer Mattias Borgh – have issued the following update:

"Someone has ripped the 'Rekviem' track from the cassette version of the Bestial EP, click on the link below and listen to it and pre-order the god damn EP NOW! It will be out in a few weeks on Chaos Records on CD and VINYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYL!"

A previous update from the band states: "We are really pleased to be able to reveal the name of our new bass player! Drum roll and here he is... Mattias Söderlund joins Blood Mortized! He will punish his bass on our upcoming album. He is mainly known for A: being a really nice guy, B: playing bass with legendary Swedish punk band CHARTA 77. It will be great to finally get to record proper bass lines and work on a crushing bass sound on the upcoming album The Key To A Black Heart. We are very happy to have him onboard and we welcome him to the band with a masssive TRAKTOR BAS and a bloody CHEERS!"

According to TMZ.com, a note saying "I am Jani Lane" was found in the former WARRANT singer's pocket on the day he died. However, Jani, who had no official ID on him when his body was discovered at a Los Angeles motel on August 11, isn't believed to have written the note himself.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ.com that the note contained a phone number for a person close to Jani, and police contacted that person after Jani's body was discovered.

Investigators have confirmed to TMZ.com that the note was written by one of Jani's friends who had placed a similar note on Jani in the past.

According to the site, members of Jani's family are furious over the fact that the person who wrote the note didn't help Lane seek treatment for the singer's substance-abuse problem instead of simply tucking a piece of paper into Jani's pants.

It's unclear if the same person who wrote the note also checked Jani into the Comfort Inn since it appears the room where Jani was discovered was not purchased by Jani himself.

An autopsy performed on Lane proved inconclusive pending the results of toxicology tests, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter says it may take several weeks to finalize the cause of death.

Lane, born John Kennedy Oswald, was separated from his third wife, the former Kimberly Nash, at the time of his death. He is survived by a brother, Eric; three sisters, Marcine Williams, Michelle Robinson and Victoria Oswald; a daughter from his first marriage, Taylar Lane; a daughter from his second marriage, Madison Lane; and two stepdaughters, Ryan and Brittany.

RAVEN LORD have added Jamie Mallender to their ranks. Jamie is known for his work with the TONY MARTIN BAND (ex-BLACK SABBATH) and will be handling the bass guitar duties, completing the Raven Lord's line up.

Discussing the latest addition to the ranks of Raven Lord vocalist Csaba Zvekan (KILLING MACHINE, SARDONYX, EMERGENCY) said: "The search is finally over and I'm proud to have Jamie in the band. We clicked right away and were on same page and I knew on the spot that this was our bass player. He is a very skilled player and what a great stage presence he has. We welcome Jamie Mallender to Raven Lord."

On joining Raven Lord bassist Jamie Mallender had to say: "I'm thrilled to be part of this band. It's very rare that any new metal music really excites me, you know - I've been around a while and I've heard it all before - but the recordings Raven Lord sent me really captivated me. I just thought, "I have to be part of this!" Everything from the standard of the songwriting, to the calibre of the musicians involved is rather mindblowing. I've been listening to the recordings none stop and I haven't been this excited about laying down some bass for quite some time. I'm currently working on my parts and will be busy recording them by the time this statement is released. I'm looking forward to a very exciting future with this band. The world needs music like this!"

Preliminary work on a new Raven Lord album has already begun, with various songs at different stages of completion. Two new demo songs 'End of World' and 'Saints & Sinners' can be heard below. The band are in the process of securing a new record deal with a view to a release towards the end of this year. Details of live dates, including a tour in two continents with some high profile shows for the summer 2012, are expected to be announced soon.

Raven Lord's line-up is now as follows:

Csaba Zvekan (KILLING MACHINE, SARDONYX, EMERGENCY) - lead vocals
Stefan Lindholm (VINDICTIV) - lead guitars, backing vocals
Alessandro Del Vecchio (EDEN'S CURSE, EDGE OF FOREVER) - keyboards, backing vocals
Tobias Flensburg - drums, backing vocals
Julian Barrett (TARJA TURUNEN, BARILARI, LORIHEN) - lean and rhythm guitar
Jamie Mallender (TONY MARTIN BAND) - bass

Swedish death metal band MALFEITOR has released the following update:

“Right now, all ten tracks for the upcoming full length are going through an extreme drum-treatment by doctor J.Björkenfjäll! Total badass drumming that will make this album crush!

The mighty "beard" has recorded his evil throat on a bunch of the tracks! There might be some vocal collaboration on this album so stay tuned for more details!

Also, Moberg are almost finished with the sound engineering for the devastating guitars. They will have a little more bite than the ones on the demo, but the total sound will still be unpolished old school for sure!

Somewhere during the recording process we will post a studio-video-teaser of a new track, so stay evil and tuned!

Make sure to get our demo-tape, split CD with Birch Mountain and old school t-shirt!”

Chaos Records recently announced the signing of Malfeitor. The band will release the vinyl LP version of their new full-length album, entitled Dum Morior Orior, during the first quarter of 2012.

STATIC-X frontman Wayne Static will release with his first solo album, "Pighammer", on October 4 via Dirthouse Records.

According to a press release, "Pighammer" "has a disarming raw quality of heavy driving guitar riffs and lyrics that will take hold of your bowels and into the mind of Static's dark past and warped mind. This is blatant, as the first single, 'Assassins Of Youth', was inspired by Wayne Static's last days of drugs and partying.

"I wrote this song while living in a hotel room, listening to PINK FLOYD, drinking Crown and doing whippits," explains Static. "I started the song in that condition but never finished it until years later after dumping off the drugs. Now the song has a whole new meaning from when I started it."

"Assassins Of Youth" is an old-school term for drugs. The first verse is about doing drugs, the chorus is going dry and the second chorus is about getting off and no longer being slave to the drugs.

You can now stream "Assassins Of Youth" at SoundCloud.com. It is also available in the YouTube clip below.