According to here, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest record company, agreed to sell the label of BLACK SABBATH, IRON MAIDEN and MEGADETH to BMG Rights Management as part of disposals required by regulators.
The deal for Sanctuary Records is among the asset sales asked for by European regulators after Universal Music’s acquisition of EMI Group and is the second label bought by BMG Rights among those on offer, BMG Rights said in a statement today. The Sanctuary label was sold for 40 million pounds ($62 million), two people with knowledge of the transaction said.

Sanctuary, which also holds rights to THE KINKS and MOTÖRHEAD, is the second label Universal Music has sold this month. Last week, the record company agreed to sell Parlophone, home to COLDPLAY, THE PET SHOP BOYS and TINA TURNER, to Warner Music Group for $784 million. BMG Rights, controlled by KKR & Co., is a Berlin-based management and rights company expanding into recorded music.

“We have made no secret of our ambition to create a new force in the music industry focused on delivering service and revenue to artists,” BMG Chief Executive Officer Hartwig Masuch said in the statement.

Virgina-based symphonic black death metal act WARTHRONE - featuting former members of DYING FETUS and WITCH-HUNT - are hard at work finalizing the new album which is tenatively set to be self-released summer 2013:

"Recording and mixing is finished and promises to satisfy any fan that can appreciate a mixture of DIMMU BORGIR, OLD MAN'S CHILD, MARDUK to new brutal bands such as old school death metal influenced from bands like MALEVOLENT CREATION, CANNIBAL CORPSE and OBITUARY. Check out the new Facebook page here."

Illinois based Viking thrashers the HORDE are currently writing material for their third full length album which is set to be released on Abyss Records later this year. Title and release date have not been confirmed at this time. Some early song titles are: 'Conquering of the Firevurm', 'Usurper Berzerker', 'Darkened Embers', 'Behold in Despair', 'Destroyer… Slayer of Men and Pray Hater'.
The track 'Pray Hater' was recorded by Drew Webster at the Dungeon of Doom and is available below:

Brazilian thrash metallers MASTERPIECE have released a video for the track ‘Revenge’, featured on their latest album, Heirs Of Freedom. The clip, produced and filmed by Eduardo Wosniak, can be seen below:
Heirs Of Freedom was released via Digmetalworld. It was produced, recorded and mixed by Regisson Silva at RVB Records, and mastered by Caio Duarte at BroadBand Productions, both in Brazil.

The cover art for the album it was designed by Denisson Silva and can be seen below:

Tracklisting is as follows:

'Harbinger’
‘Revenge’
‘No More’
‘Mr. Disgrace’
‘Drowned In The Sea Of Lie’
‘Hecatombe’
‘For the Heir of Freedom (Another Invite To The Suicide)’
‘Trajectory Of Death’
‘Lane’
‘The Thing Out Of Control
‘The Collector’
Masterpiece is:

Denisson Silva - lead vocals, rhythm Guitars
Regisson Silva - lead guitars, accoustic guitars, backing vocals, Keyboards
Pedro Bianchi - bass guitar, backing vocals
Thiago Chiarelli - drums, backing vocals

Montreal-based death metal powerhouse DEPTHS OF HATRED have released a new single entitled 'Secluded Redemption'. A full length audio clip is available for streaming below:
'Secluded Redemption' can be purchased via the band's official Bandcamp page here.

The band’s debut album, Aversionist, was released in March 2012 through Galy Records. The album was mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson (CRYPTOPSY, NEURAXIS, THE LAST FELONY).

Depths Of Hatred's music video for 'Revocation', which features a guest appearance from Elliot Desgagnes (BENEATH THE MASSACRE), can be seen below:
Depths Of Hatred lineup:

Dominic D.D. - Vocals
Martin Trottier - Guitar
Christian Mongrain Theriault - Guitar
Karl Desjardins - Drums
Antoine Millette - Bass

More on Depths Of Hatred at this location.

After signing a deal with Dark Star Records in the fall of 2012, Illinois-based metal band LOW TWELVE has released a new CD/DVD digipak, entitled Skin In The Game. The release contains a 12-song CD with tremendous production, and a bonus DVD that features a documentary, 13 Brutal Years. There is also a 12-page full color booklet featuring artwork by Brian Uziel with lyrics, pics, and more.

Lead singer and bass player Pete Altieri commented, "This is our fifth CD and second DVD release. We're incredibly proud of how well it turned out and so far the reactions have been great. The digi looks awesome!"

This release features the latest Low Twelve lineup of Pete Altieri (bass/lead vocals), Meister (guitar/vocals), Les Aldridge (guitar),. and Travis Waterman (drums). The band is based in Bloomington, Illinois - peforming more than 300 shows, they have supported national acts such as CANNIBAL CORPSE, GWAR, PRO-PAIN, MASTODON, and more.

Two tracks from the new CD have already been selected to be featured on horror movie soundtracks. On their debut release, the song 'Brutal World' was used in the movie Jigsaw.

Skin In The Game is available now on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Rhapsody, Loud Trax, Google Music, and through Dark Star Records.

A promo clip for the release can be seen below:
Low Twelve is:

Pete Altieri - bass/lead vocals
Meister - guitar/vocals
Les Aldridge - lead guitar
Travis Waterman - drums
More on Low Twelve at this location.

Original TROUBLE drummer Jeff "Oly" Olson (who is currently playing with RETRO GRAVE and IN-GRAVED) will appear on TROUBLE's next, as-yet-untitled album, due for release later in the year. Olson states: "[I've] been working on some [keyboard] intros [for the CD]."

TROUBLE announced in February 2012 that it recruited Kyle Thomas as the band's new singer following the departure of the group's frontman of the four years, Kory Clarke (of WARRIOR SOUL fame).

Thomas, former lead vocalist for EXHORDER, FLOODGATE and ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY, was no stranger to TROUBLE as he previously fronted the band for four live shows between 1997 and 1999, including Stoner Hands Of Doom festival in Maryland and Expo Of The Extreme in Chicago. Thomas has also collaborated on projects with members of SLIPKNOT, DOWN, OBITUARY and DEICIDE.

Olson left TROUBLE in 1986 to teach music while also writing musical scores and later receiving a Bachelor Of Music degree in Film Scoring (cum laude) from Berklee College of Music. Olson returned to the band for the albums "Run To The Light" (Hammond Organ), "Trouble" (pre-pro for drums, keys), "Plastic Green Head" (drums), "Simple Mind Condition" (drums, French Horn), "Unplugged" and "Live in L.A.".

In July 2008, Olson announced his departure from TROUBLE. His last show with them took place at The End in Nashville, Tennessee on July 19, 2008.

TESTAMENT's February 15 concert at the Paramount Theatre in Huntington, New York as part of "The Dark Roots Of Thrash" tour was professionally filmed for a 90-minute DVD, to be released later this year via Nuclear Blast.

"We haven't shot a live DVD or CD since our 'Live In London' release and we've had two killer albums since then," commented TESTAMENT vocalist Chuck Billy. "We thought it would be cool to put out a live DVD/CD focusing on the last three records ('The Gathering', 'The Formation Of Damnation' and 'Dark Roots Of Earth') mixed in with a good amount of classics, too. Last time we recorded anything live in America was for 'Live At The Fillmore' on the West Coast. This time we thought we'd give the East Coast a chance to show the world how crazy and loud they can be."

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Rise Up
02. More Than Meets the Eye
03. Burnt Offerings
04. Native Blood
05. True American Hate
06. Dark Roots of Earth
07. Into the Pit
08. Practice What You Preach
09. Riding the Snake
10. Eyes of Wrath
11. Trial By Fire
12. The Haunting
13. The New Order
14. D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
15. 3 Days in Darkness

Encore 1:

16. The Formation of Damnation

Encore 2:

17. Over the Wall
18. Disciples of the Watch

TESTAMENT's new album, "Dark Roots Of Earth", sold more than 20,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No, 12 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on July 31, 2012 via Nuclear Blast Records.

"Dark Roots Of Earth" was produced, mixed and mastered by acclaimed British producer Andy Sneap (ARCH ENEMY, NEVERMORE, ACCEPT, EXODUS). Special bonus tracks were recorded, mixed and mastered by Juan Urteaga (MACHINE HEAD, EXODUS, TED NUGENT, NIGHT RANGER) at his Trident Studios. The cover artwork for the effort (see below) was painted by Eliran Kantor, who has previously worked with ATHEIST, SIGH, ANACRUSIS and GWAR, among others.

Wall TV has uploaded professionally filmed video footage of Taiwanese metallers CHTHONIC performing in Taipei last December. Check out the clip below.

CHTHONIC recently returned to Sweet Spot Studios in Halmstad, Sweden with producer Rickard Bengtsson (ARCH ENEMY, NEMESIS) to begin recording its seventh album for a June 2013 release.

CHTHONIC's sixth full-length effort, "Takasago Army", was released in North America in September 2011 via Spinefarm Records. Produced by Bengtsson, this 10-track outing completes a trilogy of CHTHONIC releases, telling a story that binds together the band's "Seediq Bale" and "Mirror Of Retribution" albums, released in 2007 and 2009, respectively.

Coinciding with the North American release of "Takasago Army", CHTHONIC embarked on a three-week tour as one of the opening acts for ARCH ENEMY. The North American Khaos 2011 trek featured additional support from DEVILDRIVER and SKELETONWITCH.

Tuomas Holopainen, keyboardist and main songwriter of the Finnish symphonic metal band NIGHTWISH, has eight songs "roughly ready" for his "The Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck" project. According to Tuomas, there are "only two months" remaining until he hits "the demo studio" to record the material.

Tuomas previously stated about how the idea for the project came about: "It was back in 1999, during the 'Oceanborn' tour, that I remember first having the idea of writing a 'soundtrack' to my all-time favorite piece of Disney comic, 'The Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck', by Don Rosa, the apparent heir of the almighty Carl Barks. This book has had such an overwhelming effect on me throughout these years, and finally I have the means and the time to make that dream a reality.

"It all started with a story called 'Last Sled To Dawson', which was published in a Finnish Donald Duck magazine in the late '80s. It instantly became one of my favorite Scrooge/Donald stories and also introduced Mr. Don Rosa to my Disney universe. This story is not part of the actual 'Life And Times' opus, though, but 'a companion story,' set in between the chapters #8 and #9. Then when the massive 12-chapter piece was released in mid-'90s, I was completely and utterly hooked. It was similar to reading 'The Lord Of The Rings' as an 8-year-old, or seeing 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' for the first time. Adventure, fun and the strangely familiar feeling of home.

"With Scrooge, there was also a much deeper level hidden between the stories and the gags.

"This is a book about life itself. What an unfathomable privilege it is, what are the things that truly matter during our existence. It's about the immense beauty of the world and its possibilities seen through the eyes of a very relentless, honest and complex character. It's about love and family, gain and loss, darkness and rebirth.

"And on top of that, well, it's just your good old-fashioned storytelling fun!

"I have been twiddling around with certain themes for some months now and have an idea for five songs, but I will start working on this project 24/7 after the Australian leg of the tour, in February 2013. The demo recordings are scheduled for May 2013, just before the festival season starts and we're off with NIGHTWISH again. The actual recordings then start in August-September and should be finished by the end of the year, making a release during the first half of 2014 a possibility.

"Mr. Pip Williams has agreed to do the orchestral and choral arrangements and we will use pretty much the same London session musicians as we did on 'Imaginaerum'. Troy Donockley will bring Scrooge's Scottish origins to life with his pipes and whistles, and there will also be a few more guest musicians and singers involved.

"This journey is very, very dear and personal to me and I'm honored to have Mr. Rosa's approval on the project. It'll be a beautiful storytime, once again!"

STONE SOUR performed its new single, "Do Me A Favor", live for the first time this past Tuesday, Febraury 12 at Rialto Theatre in Tucson, Arizona. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be seen below.

"Do Me A Favor" is the first single from "House Of Gold & Bones - Part 2", the second part of STONE SOUR's two-album series, "House of Gold & Bones", which will be released on April 9 via Roadrunner Records. The albums were recorded at Sound Farm Studios just outside of the band's native Des Moines, Iowa with producer David Bottrill (TOOL, MUSE) at the helm.
"Do Me A Favor", was made available digitally on February 12. The video for the track will be directed by Phil Mucci, whose video for HIGH ON FIRE's "Fertile Green" was named best video of 2012 by Revolver. Singer Corey Taylor gave The Pulse Of Radio a preview of what to expect from the song. "It's quite aggressive, and actually the label asked me if I would go in and tame stuff down and I was like, 'No.' I'm not doing that," he said. "This is going out the way it is and I'm not gonna touch it up. I'm not gonna have people looking for a song that doesn't exist. This is the way it is on the album, that's the way it's going to be when we put it out to radio."

"House Of Gold & Bones - Part 2" track listing:

01. Red City
02. Black John
03. Sadist
04. Peckinpah
05. Stalemate
06. Gravesend
07. '82
08. The Uncanny Valley
09. Blue Smoke
10. Do Me A Favor
11. The Conflagration
12. The House Of Gold & Bones

"House Of Gold & Bones - Part 1" came out last fall.

STONE SOUR is on tour in North America through February 17, and will return in March for the Road To The Golden Gods tour, which will run through May 2.

Taylor recently told Billboard.com recently that the group is planning a world tour in 2014 during which they will spend two nights in each city and perform both halves of its "House Of Gold & Bones" double album in their entirety.

February 15th will see the global digital release of FOREVER STILL’s new EP, Breaking Free.
Recorded by Flemming Rasmussen (METALLICA) and mastered by Troy Glessner (KITTIE), Breaking Free features the following four songs:

'The Key'
'The Last Day'
'Towards The Edge'
'The Last Day - Live Acoustic'

Fronted by female singer Maja Schønning, Forever Still hails from Copenhagen, Denmark, with the band’s lineup completed by bassist/keyboardist Mikkel Haastrup, drummer Chad T. Charlton and guitarist Carsten Christensen.

Both the promotional video and lyric video for 'The Key' can be seen below:
Further details can be found at ForeverStill.dk.

Comatose Music has announced the signing of New Jersey death metallers MORTAL DECAY.

Mortal Decay commented on their forthcoming new album, "In believing that this is our most solid material to date, and that we are individually at our best, it can be summed as a definitive collection of songs. Ranging through every era of the band, and including newer experiments, our collective energy and creativity was reborn and still exploding at a level beyond what we could have imagined. True Mortal Decay fans will get a taste of all levels of our musical direction at its finest."
Recording is scheduled to begin in April and the release date will be set this Summer. In addition to the new release, Comatose Music will also re-issue the highly sought after, A Gathering Of Human Artifacts CD, which will be available this Spring.

Guitarist Joe Gordon adds, "We are extremely excited to be working with Steve and Comatose Music on these releases. The label is definitely on the upswing, and we're very happy to be a part of this amazing roster of bands!"

Further details on Mortal Decay can be found on Facebook.

JACKYL has just issued the following live video for 'Encore (It Makes My Bic Dig Her)' from their 2012 album, Best In Show. The clip was filmed live at Full Throttle Saloon - the world's largest biker bar, housed on 30 acres of land in Sturgis, South Dakota.
Catch Jackyl live at the following shows:

May
4 - Columbia, MD - M3 Festival

June
1 - Wabash, IN - Brandt's Harley Davidson - FREE SHOW
6 - Sandusky, OH - Ohio Bike Week - FREE SHOW
7 - Piercy, CA - Kiwanis Redwood Run
15 - Davenport, IA - Rally On The River
28 - Green River, WY - Flaming Gorge Days at Stratton Myers Park

July
6 - Morgantown, WV - Triple S Harley Davidson
25 - Morgantown, WV - Mountain Fest

September
12 - Ocean City, MD - OC Bike Fest Motorcycle Rally

Video footage of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Chris Ojeda of reunited West Virginia metallers BYZANTINE performing two songs from the band's fourth, self-titled album can be seen below.

"Byzantine" will be released on February 26 through Gravedancer Records, the new label formed by MuseBox VP of marketing, Josh Eldridge, in partnership with marketing company MuseBox.

"Byzantine" track listing:

01. Which Light Shall Never Penetrate
02. Soul Eraser
03. Efficacy
04. Forged In The Heart Of A Dying Star
05. Caldera
06. Signal Path
07. Everything I Touch Bursts Into Flame
08. Posthumous
09. Pathogen

The lyrical content of "Signal Path" is based on the unexpected massive heart attack that BYZANTINE's lead guitarist and founding member, Tony Rohrbough, experienced almost three years ago. Thankfully, he is onto a full recovery and back with the band.

Commented BYZANTINE guitarist/vocalist Chris "OJ" Ojeda: "To have a fourth BYZANTINE album recorded is a feat that none of us band members thought we could pull off. With families, new careers and living apart from each other and a five-year hiatus, we thought getting together and writing a new album would be impossible, but it came along famously. We truly are in our element tucked in the hills of West Virginia grinding out new tunes for the few select fans we have. It's been an honor to give you guys nine new songs to dig on!"

The "Byzantine" cover artwork was designed by David Friedmann, the winner of the contest the band launched on MetalSucks earlier this year. Check it out below.

BYZANTINE was first discovered by LAMB OF GOD and released three highly respected albums and completed several major tours before calling in quits in 2008, just after the release of their most respected effort, "Oblivion Beckons". Earlier this spring, the band entered the studio to begin work on the new CD featuring the following lineup:

Chris Ojeda: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Tony Rohrbough: Lead Guitar
Michael Cromer: Bass
Matt Wolfe: Drums

BLACK SABBATH's Tony Iommi and QUEEN's Brian May are said to be planning a collaborative album that will allow fans to build their own songs around the musicians' unused material.

Iommi lifted the curtain on the rockers' secret project in the latest issue of Kerrang! magazine, in which a number of fellow musicians pose questions to the QUEEN axeman.

Iommi asked, "When are we going to get to work on that album of riffs together? You know what I'm talking about…" May replied: "Yes, I do know what he's talking about and I'm very, very keen. The record he's talking about was supposed to be a secret but I guess he's blown it now!"

He explained that on visiting Iommi's studio, he was struck by the amount of unused material the BLACK SABBATH guitarist had. "I thought it would be great to make a compilation out of them," May said. "The idea was to put all these riffs out in some form so that people could build their own songs from them. You could make your own music with Tony Iommi on guitar!"

Sweden’s ZOMBIFIED have released a video for the track 'Pull The Trigger, featured on their second album, Carnage Slaughter And Death, out now. The video can be seen below:
Carnage Slaughter And Death was mixed and mastered by Ronnie Björnström from Enhanced Audio Productions at Garageland Studios (THE GROTESQUERY, The 11TH HOUR, BONE GNAWER, BLODSRIT).

Cover artwork and booklet layout were done by Costin Chioreanu at Twilight13Media.com (DEMONICAL, PRIMORDIAL, ARKTAU EOS, AURA NOIR, THE DEVIL’S BLOOD, DORDEDUH, NEIGE, GRAVE).
Tracklisting is as follows:

‘Carnage Slaughter And Death’
‘Pull The Trigger’
‘Withering Souls’
‘Suffering Ascends’
‘Clenched Fist Vengeance’
‘Endless Days Of Wrath’
‘Reborn In Sin’
‘Corrosive Spiral’
‘The Flesh Of The Living’
‘The Last Stand’
‘Slayer Fashion’
‘Reign Of Terror’

More on Zombified at this location.

Ahead of their show this Friday night (February 15th) at Toronto's Lee's Palace, California rockers RIVAL SONS stopped into The Kim Mitchell Show, the former MAX WEBSTER singer's Q107 radio program, and performed a cover of JAMES BROWN's 'It's A Man's World'.
Video footage of the performance can be seen below:
Coming on the heels of their success and critical acclaim in the UK, Europe and Canada, Rival Sons have announced their third album, Head Down, will arrive in stores in North America on March 19th via their new affiliation with Century Media Records. Ahead of the in-store date, the soulful, maximum-blues-infused hard rock band will perform Thursday, March 7th on ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35 PM/10:35 PM, CT on ABC.
They’ll perform 'Keep On Swinging' - the video can be seen below:
On the live front, the band - featuring Jay Buchanan (vocals), Scott Holiday (guitar), Robin Everhart (bass), Mike Miley (drums) - are now in the midst of a headlining Canadian tour after which they have dates set in Chicago (February 18th), Des Moines (February 19th), Denver (February 21st), Las Vegas (February 23rd) and a confirmed performance at this year’s SXSW Music Festival.

For more on Rival, Sons including tour dates visit Rivalsons.com.

Legendary NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) band SATAN will release its new album, "Life Sentence", on April 29 in Europe and in May in the U.S. via Listenable Records. The cover artwork for the CD was drawn by Eliran Kantor (TESTAMENT, HATEBREED, SODOM) and depicts a similar graphic concept as that of the band's debut album, "Court In The Act", originally issued 30 years ago .

"Life Sentence" was mixed by Dario Mollo, who is part of TONY MARTIN'S HEADLESS CROSS touring project and has worked with numerous artists as a producer and engineer, including SKYCLAD, ANATHEMA, CRADLE OF FILTH, LACUNA COIL, Tony Martin and Glenn Hughes. The CD was recorded September-November 2012 at First Avenue Studios in Newcastle, England and was mixed and mastered by Mollo at Damage Inc. Studio in Italy.

"We're really happy to have Dario on board to mix the album," SATAN said in a statement. "We've already had a few tracks back and they sound amazing. We wanted to capture the energy the band produce when playing live and we've done just that."

"Life Sentence" track listing:

01. Time To Die
02. Twenty Twenty Five
03. Cenotaph
04. Siege Mentality
05. Incantations
06. Testimony
07. Tears Of Blood
08. Life Sentence
09. Personal Demons
10. Another Universe

The songs deal with the following topics: injustice, impending death, reincarnation, atonement, third-world politics, and biblical retribution.

"Life Sentence" is the culmination of a process that began when the original "Court In The Act" lineup got together for an exclusive "one-off" reunion show at Germany's Keep It True festival in 2011 in what marked their first performance together in 28 years. The band was somewhat overwhelmed with the response — 10 minutes into headliners CRIMSON GLORY's set, the crowd could still be heard chanting, "Satan! Satan!" The SATAN bandmembers immediately booked more shows in Germany, Holland, Belgium and London, and have since kept in close contact with each other, writing songs and making demos.

The recording lineup for "Life Sentence" will be the same as that on "Court In The Act":

Brian Ross (vocals)
Steve Ramsey (guitar)
Russ Tippins (guitar)
Graeme English (bass)
Sean Taylor (drums)

SATAN will perform at the Wings Of Metal festival, set to take place August 30-31 at Katacombes in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This special event will mark SATAN's first appearance in North America.

For more information, visit www.wingsofmetal.com.

SATAN is one of the most important groups that emerged in the early NWOBHM era. Their unique mixture of heavy and power metal spirit with thrash riffage brought a handful of unforgettable tunes and revolutionized heavy music as we know it.

"Court in the Act" was SATAN's debut release and was considered a true milestone at the time of its release (1983). The songs were melodic, but at the same time very aggressive. The band's two guitarists, Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey, delivered a truly amazing performance; although their styles were completely different, they managed to perfectly complement each other's playing and introduced a handful of timeless riffs and solos.

A digipack reissue of "Court In The Act" was made available in November 2008 featuring three bonus tracks.

Fan-filmed video footage of SATAN's performance at the Keep It True XIV festival, which was held April 29-30, 2011 at Tauberfrankenhalle in Lauda-Königshofen, Germany, can be seen below.

The debut album from BLACK STAR RIDERS — the new band formed by THIN LIZZY alumni Ricky Warwick (vocals), Scott Gorham (guitar), Damon Johnson (guitar), Marco Mendoza (bass) with new addition Jimmy DeGrasso (ALICE COOPER, MEGADETH, DAVID LEE ROTH, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES) on drums — is currently being mixed for a late May release via Nuclear Blast. Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "All Hell Breaks Loose", "Someday Salvation", "Bound For Glory", "Kingdom Of The Lost" and "Hoodoo Voodoo".

At the end of March, there will be the first single release that will have an exclusive airing via certain media outlets prior to public release. Around the same time, more tour dates for the fall will be announced.

In October 2012, THIN LIZZY announced that they would not be recording new material under the THIN LIZZY monicker. The last incarnation of the band — Gorham, Brian Downey, Wharton, Warwick, Johnson and Mendoza — would be looking to form a new project.

According to a press release, Brian Downey decided to not become involved with BLACK STAR RIDERS because he didn't want to commit to the touring cycle a new album would entail and Darren Wharton wanted to concentrate on DARE and other music and film projects.

"Brian and Darren just don't want to be on the road 150 days a year. anti that's completely understandable," Warwick tells Classic Rock magazine. "But we do. We work very well together, and there's no better man than Jimmy to gel it together. This is a kick-ass band."

The BLACK STAR RIDERS album will feature material the band wrote while touring as THIN LIZZY and the sound retains that classic feel but is very much its own as well. The BLACK STAR RIDERS record is the next step in the evolution of the THIN LIZZY story.

"There's no way it could sound like THIN LIZZY with [late THIN LIZZY frontman] Phil [Lynott]," Gorham tells Classic Rock. But Johnson disagreees. "I think Scott is too dose to it," he says. "Ricky or I would bring in a song idea, and as soon as Scott starts playing on it, it sounds like THIN LIZZY, whether Scott realizes it or not. Everybody who's heard the new music says it has that dassic THIN LIZZY vibe. No, it can't sound like the original band. But that classic LIZZY vibe is absolutely there."

"I'm not gonna pull any punches here," says Warwick. "It sounds like classic THIN LIZZY brought up to date. l've been singing Phil's songs every night for two years, and although it sounds a bit crass because the man's not here, I feel like I've had these lessons from getting so deep into his work. Phil's songwriting, his lyrics, his phrasing, his pitching, his delivery — it's genius. And that's really helped me as a writer."

It was Warwick who named the new band BLACK STAR RIDERS, after an outlaw gang in the 1993 western movie "Tombstone". As Johnson tells Classic Rock: "Scott said from the very beginning that we did not want a name that was specifically related to THIN LIZZY, because this band has to stand on its own."

Female-fronted metal band FACE OFF release their debut album, The Colour Of Rain, today (February 14th) via Canadian label, Maple Metal Records.
Tracklisting is as follows:

‘The Colour Of Rain’
‘Dream Chamber’
‘Close Enough’
‘War Against War’
‘The Innocence’
‘Voices’
‘Fragile’
‘Lost In Translation’
‘The End’

The Colour Of Rain was recorded in Music Studio Novicic, RS from 2011 to 2012 by producer Vladimir Novicic. The album was recorded with their previous lineup of Marija on vocals, Stefan and Miroslav Veselinovic on guitars, Danilo Svorcan on bass, and Milos Branisavljevic on drums.
Current Face Off lineup:

Marija Kovacevic - vocals
Stefan Vitasovic - guitars
Aleksandar Djordjic - guitars
Stanislav Stanojevic - bass
Zoltan Simon - drums

More on the band at this location.

THE AGONIST out of Montreal have posted the following statement on the cancellation on CRADLE OF FILTH's North American tour, which they were supposed to be a part of:
"We are truly sorry to those of you who were coming out to see us live. This cancellation was beyond our control and we are devastated by this news, both emotionally and financially. We devoted so much to this tour that to say we are disappointed would be an immense understatement. Please accept our sincere apologies and we hope to see you all again soon."

Shortly after the cancellation was confirmed, The Agonist announced they have been added to DANZIG's 25th Anniversary Tour alongside CORROSION OF CONFORMITY.

Dates include:

April
17 - Las Vegas, NV- House of Blues
19 - Denver, CO- Ogden Theater
20 - Albuquerque, NM- Sunshine Theater
22 - Austin, TX- Stubb’s
23 - Corpus Christi, TX- Concrete Street
24 - Dallas, TX- Palladium
26 - Phoenix, AZ- Marquee Theater
27 - Pomona, CA- Fox Theater
28 - Ventura, CA- Ventura Theater

Fan pre-sales start Friday, February 15th at noon local time at this location.

GODLESS RISING mastermind Jeff Gruslin recently announced plans for a new EP titled Coven of Secrecy for the summer of 2013. Guitarist Toby Knapp will once again be handling guitars, bass and drums as on Godless Rising's previous release Trumpet of Triumph (2010 Moribund Records). The band are currently unsigned but will begin shopping to labels upon completion of the project.
"There is a possibility for a limited pressing for diehard fans on my own label Spectral Evidence Records," states guitarist Toby Knapp. "Spectral Evidence has always been a home to my releases until they are licensed to larger labels, I've done this with ONWARD, WAXEN and a few of my solo albums."

Godless Rising updates can be found on Knapp's official website Tobyknappmusic.com.

The YouTube audio link for Godless Rising's 'Christ Cadaver' can be heard below: