Sverker "Widda" Widgren - also known for his guitar work in Diabolical and as the co-owner of Necromorbus Studios - has joined Demonical as the new fulltime vocalist. After a splendid session-job on the Finnish tour the band came to the conclusion that Widda is the right man for the job. His first "official" show will be at Tantogården in Stockholm on April 4th together with Necrophobic and Spazmosity. Fan-filmed footage of Demonical, with Widda on vocals, performing 'Death Metal' (Onslaught cover) in Jyväskylä, Finland, on January 18th 2007 can be viewed at this location. Demonical are very sorry for the fact that they have to cancel the scheduled show in Västerås, Sweden, set for May 9th due to various timing problems.

Cleveland's oldschool Thrashers DESTRUCTOR will play a one off club show together with US Power Metallers LETHAL and local heroes ETERNAL REIGN on July 30, 2008 at the Meisenfrei Club in Bremen, Germany. For more info check out www.meisenfrei.de.

Helsinki based Death Metal band DEMOLISHER recently recorded two new songs called 'Darkness Evolution' and 'Crucifix Head Crush' which are available as free download from their myspace site (www.myspace.com/demolisherband). The band plans to release them officially on CD within the next weeks. Next to these two songs you can still download the songs from their great "Enter The Suffering" MCD (see review in the review-section).

After two years of hard work Polish Death / Black Metallers Deneb have returned to the scene with a new concept album entitled "Exoriare Aliquis Nostris Ex Ossibus Ultor". The CD features guest vocals by Jadwiga Siwicka (ex-Different World) and was released by Metalrulez Productions (www.mzprod.com), limited to 500 copies. Sound samples can be found at the band's myspace page www.myspace.com/deneb1 and two tracks are also available for download from their official website www.deneb.metal.pl.

El Paso Thrashers TERRORIST have been signed to Embrace My Funeral Records and will have their 12 track debut CD "Blessed By The Beast" released in June / July of 2008. This will be preceded by a Mexican tour with Obeisance in May.

Ibex Moon Records will be releasing MASTER's “Slaves To Society” CD with bonus tracks this Summer. John McEntee, owner of Ibex Moon Records: "In the 80s when I started really getting into the Metal underground I would have never thought one day I would be releasing a recording by one of my favorite bands and biggest influences MASTER. For me and most other die hard underground Metallers in the 80s and early 90s understand the massive impact MASTER has had on the world of extreme Metal. Most of the extreme bands that have gone on to massive success in the early 90s wave of Death Metal would be lying if they said they weren't affected one way or another by the powerful aggressive songs of MASTER. “Slaves To Society” is quite possibly MASTER's most aggressive album released to date and I'm honored to be working with them.” Paul Speckmann states, "This is an album that deals with the situation happening in the world today. We are all slaves of the greater machine, just slaves to society. "Slaves To Society" is the fastest and most interesting CD that MASTER has released since "On The Seventh Day...". Forget listening to the many imitators of Master. There is only one true original MASTER, and this CD "Slaves To Society" speaks for itself." Keep posted to the Ibex Moon Records website for the exact release date to be announced soon. www.ibexmoonrecords.com

FUNERAL PROCESSION have finished recording, mixing, mastering and layouting the forthcoming digipack mini-CD "The Red Vine Litanies", scheduled for release later in Spring (May / June). These recordings were originally meant for a multi-split-album on Van, but since this release will not come into existence, the material will be released separately through the aforementioned label. The mini-CD will additionally be accompanied by new shirts, also manufactured by Van. To keep up with what is happening, it is therefore highly recommendable to sign up to the label's newsletter on their newly-designed homepage www.van-gbr.de. The band also announced that currently there are FUNERAL PROCESSION bootleg logo patches being sold via ebay and similar channels which are of very low quality. These were not manufactured with the consent of the band, and anybody can only be advised not to buy these. New buttons and patches (for the first time) were planned for a long time and should be available in Spring through the band's label Van, which should be the first place to look for genuine band-related things. For more info check out www.funeralprocession.net

Brazilians Thrashers CHAOSFEAR have entered the studio to record their new album "Images Of Disorder", the follow-up to their debut full length "One Step Behind Anger", which was released worldwide through Old School Metal Records. "The new record will include 10 new songs and will be recorded with our original line up", comments Danilo Freitas of Chaosfear. One new song will be made available soon on the band's myspace page. It is scheduled for a Fall / Winter 2008 release through Old School Metal Records. Besides the recording sessions the band was selected to participate in the Brazilian leg of the contest "Wacken Metal Battle". For more info and pictures of the recording sessions, go to www.chaosfear.com. 

Iron Kodex Records have announced the signing of Sweden's traditional Metal hopefuls PORTRAIT and the release of the band's self-titled debut album on April 3rd 2008. The album will feature eight songs of highly energetic traditional Metal in the vein of bands like SAVAGE, MERCYFUL FATE, early IRON MAIDEN and WITCHCROSS and come with an exclusive cover artwork by renowned Bulgarian artist Dimitar Nikolov. Founding member Christian Lindell on the debut album: "If our previous stuff sounded more like Sledgehammer, you can compare our new album a lot more with Iron Maiden. As a whole the album is more worked-through. We paid more attention to the fine-tuning of the songs. Some of the tracks, 'Hell' and 'A Thousand Nightmares' are faster than our previous material. Both tracks remind more of BATHORY or MOTÖRHEAD than anything we did earlier... with a very Danish touch, though, in the vein of WITCHCROSS, EVIL, KIM SIXX... In some places we have acoustic guitars and one long, epic piece titled 'The Adversary'. You will definitely be able to recognize, that you're listening to PORTRAIT, but you will also find things, which differ from our earlier material." Two songs of the new album have been made available on the label's myspace site: www.myspace.com/ironkodex

SHINING will enter the Slaughterhouse once again on April 28 in order to record the new album "Tillbaka På Ruta Ett". It will feature 6 songs (as usual), performed by 6 different vocalists.

Sweden's NOMINON have a new live 7” EP out, entitled "Legiões Em Portugal". It features live versions of the tracks 'Hordes Of Flies' and 'Condemned To Die',  recorded in Portugal at Colinas Bar, Branca a couple of years ago when the band toured Europe with VITAL REMAINS. The cover art was made by Abboth Intoxication (who previously had been doing art for INCINERATOR as well as a few other acts) and it has been released througfh Badger Records from Holland. It comes with an inlay and a sticker (if they will arrive in time). The sound was originally mixed by Locke and mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound Studios. In related news NOMINON will go to the USA in July for the first time ever. The band has already been confirmed for the Central Illinois Metalfest in Urbana, IL and the Michigan Extreme Fest 2 in Kalamazoo, MI. NOMINON will most likely be doing a two week tour over there including these two festival appearances between July 9th and July 21st. Updates will be posted at their official website www.nominon.com as soon as there's further dates to announce. They are also negotiating with a booking agency here in Europe at the moment about joining two of the most gigantic oldschool bands out there when they will be touring Europe during September / October. Besides all this NOMINON are working on some new material, and for now have a couple of new demo-songs recorded. The plan is to record the 4th NOMINON album early next year, as this year the band will concentrate on playing live and touring. Other possible happenings during 2008 is a DVD release to celebrate the 15th years of existence as a band. Early March a show was recorded with a couple of cameras in Holland at Stadijk, Nijmegen.

HAIL OF BULLETS have finished recordings for their debut album "…Of Frost And War". The album was recorded in February / March of 2008 at Excess Studios in Rotterdam, Holland and mixed and mastered in Sweden by Dan Swanö of Edge Of Sanity fame. Comments drummer Ed Warby: "The soundtrack to all-out, total war is here! If you've ever wondered what it feels like to be run over by a 50 ton Tiger tank, now's your chance...". "…Of Frost And War" will be available as a limited first edition digipak CD including bonus track and special pop-up packaging. After this first edition is sold out there will only be a regular jewelcase edition without the bonus track available. The album will be released on vinyl, too. The tracklisting reads as follows: 'Before The Storm (Barbarossa) / Intro', 'Ordered Eastward', 'The Lake Ladoga Massacre', 'General Winter', 'Advancing Once More', 'Red Wolves Of Stalin', 'Nachthexen', 'The Crucial Offensive (19-11-1942, 7.30 AM)', 'Stalingrad', 'Insanity Commands' (bonus track), 'Inferno At The Carpathian Mountains' and 'Berlin'. In other news HAIL OF BULLETS have upgraded their European deal with Metal Blade Records to a worldwide deal! Says Ed: "We are proud to announce we'll be signing to Metal Blade Records for worldwide domination! This is great news for us since we're already part of Metal Blade's European rooster, and we're stoked as hell to go global with the mighty Blade!" "…Of Frost And War" will be released on the May 16 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy) and May 19 (rest of Europe).

BLACK DEATH drummer Phil Bullard passed away of colon cancer on February 6, 2008 at age 59. Bullard is survived by two daughters (Philicia and Earlicia), four grandchildren (Warren, Curstie, Curtis and Julian) and two sisters (Nicola Ammons and Roberta).

OSM Records have announced the addition of HEXEN to the roster. HEXEN is a L.A. based Metal band that fuses the elements of melody, heaviness, speed and technicality within the lair of Thrash. Their debut album titled "State Of Insurgency" is slated for a late summer 08 release.

OSM Records has set June 13, 2008 as the new release date for the sophomore album from Bangalore, India-based Thrashers KRYPTOS, entitled "The Ark Of Gemini". According to a press release, the CD will feature "nine new tracks of heavy, precision, melodic Metal with lethal doses of Thrash aggression... Imagine CORONER, DARK TRANQUILLITY, CANDLEMASS and JUDAS PRIEST in a bar room brawl and you'll be somewhere in the ballpark about what this album will sound like." The cover art has been posted online at this location. The Tracklist is as follows: 'Sphere VII', 'Order Of The D.N.A.', 'Heretic Supreme', 'Tower Of Illusions', 'The Revenant', 'Vulcan', 'Trident', 'Liquid Grave' and 'In The Presence Of Eternity'.

U.S. Black / Death Metallers SATHANAS have inked a 2-album deal with Poland's Pagan Records. The band is currently writing material for their first full length release through that label. SATHANAS' latest album "Crowned Infernal" was released via Pulverised Records. You can hear samples at myspace.com/sathanasmetal. SATHANAS are planning a tour in Europe later this year. Promoters and booking agents are encouraged to get in contact at: sathanaspaul@hotmail.com

Swedish label Blood Harvest Records which only focused on vinyl releases so far recently released its first time ever CD release, NECROVATION's "Breed Deadness Blood". The vinyl edition should be available 29th of March 2008. Besides that they just released the first album from oldschool Thrashers LETHAL called "Annihilation Agenda" on vinyl and the re-issue of the "Scarlet Slaughterer" album and first time ever on vinyl from Polish Thrasher MAGNUS. In the first week of March the next releases will see the light of day, which are BLOODSTONE's "Hour Of The Gate" LP and one more "first time ever on vinyl" with GOD MACABRE's Death Metal classic "The Winterlong". Check out www.bloodharvest.se or www.myspace.com/bloodharvestrecords for ordering details.

Dutch Death Metallers STENCH OF DEATH have announced the arrival of Richard Noordzij as the band's new lead vocalist, who replaces Niels Klompen. Richard is well known as former vocalist for bands like Her Enchantment and Eria d'Or. Both his clean and grunting capabilities are exactly what the band was looking for. Richard comments his engagement as follows: "Unfortunately my adventure with Eria d'Or didn't turn out the way I had in mind. Therefore I'm extremely happy to join the ranks of Stench. The new material sounds promising and we'll make a worthy follow-up for Retrospect!" Stench of Death is currently working on their next album. The line-up includes two new members: Hans Hensinck on guitars and Pol Ramaer whom you might know from Conquestador. The name and release date of the album is not known to this date. www.stenchofdeath.com

Members of 80s German Thrash Metal cult EXUMER began negotiating a full fledged reunion for 2009. The projected reunion includes a new album, re-releases of the band's two albums from the 1980s and a substantial tour. EXUMER vocalist Mem V. Stein of NYC Thrashers SUN DESCENDS comments: "This reunion won't be like the one-off show we played at the Wacken Open Air, in 2001. This time we will deliver the entire package and release a new, third EXUMER album. It's been close to 22 years since the second EXUMER release in 1987 and it seems that the band is still relevant, especially when you consider the new generation of Thrash Metal bands that quote EXUMER as a major influence of theirs. I will keep SUN DESCENDS alive and I'm not abandoning the project but most of 2009 will be dedicated to a new EXUMER album and its promotion. We also have Paul Arakaki (guitars / bass) in the band who replaced me on the second EXUMER album and now lives in Hawaii. I frequently get emails from fans asking for a EXUMER reunion and I feel that the time is right to finally go ahead and make it a reality. We have never played live in North America and I believe that we owe it to the fans here in the States to see the band at least once with full-on live production." EXUMER has not yet decided with which record label to work with for the releases, but plans to enter the studio to record their new cd in late 2008 / early 2009. SUN DESCENDS' new album titled "The Entropy Formula", will be released on Khaosmaster Productions in April and on Twilight Distribution in Fall 2008.