Metal News.

A newly-reformed Gospel Of The Horns, from Melbourne, will be appearing at the Lizard Lounge on Fri 18 May, where they'll be sharing the stage with locals Blood Mason, Intended Victim, Treachery and Raven Black Night. On the subject of the latter, this band have been fortunate to secure themselves a place at this year's Headbangers Open Air Festival in Hamburg, where they'll be sharing the stage with the likes of Candlemass and Sinner. They'll be doing a farewell show here on Fri 8 Jun, with support from fellow locals Devonera, Deafening Silence and Mythyca.

Also on the 18th, Carclew's Off the Couch will be presenting its next 'Hard, Heavy, Loud' gig at Fowlers Live. The show will be all-ages and features local emerging bands Late Night Heroes, The Fak, Asphyxia and Subduction. Doors open at 7:30pm and entry is free!

The War Room returns to the Enigma Bar on Fri 25 May with a show headlined by Melbourne's Earth, who'll be paying their first visit here in over four years. Also playing will be locals Truth Corroded, Closed Casket, Nessum Dorma and Order of the Buzzard. Doors open at 9pm.

Billed as "one of Australian rock's best-kept secrets" (and I have to admit I'd never heard of them myself before now), Zombie Ghost Train are a "powerhouse psychobilly band" whose music has been said to possess "the electricity of early 50's rock'n'roll and the passion of 70s punk". On Sat 19 May, their new album, 'Dealing The Death Card' will be appearing in stores; to support this, they'll be going over to Europe and the 'States in July. Before they head overseas they'll be doing a national tour. This will see them stopping by here on Fri 1 June, when they'll be doing a licensed all-ages show at the Lizard Lounge.

The supports have been confirmed for Sodom's all-ages show at Fowlers Live on Mon 11 June; supporting the German metal legends will be locals Cauldron Black Ram and Melbourne's Gospel of the Horns.

Are local Gothic metal band Chalice no more? According to a contact, all the members of this group bar vocalist Shiralee Morgan have embarked upon a new project entitled Black Orchid. For more information, go to www.myspace.com/blackorchidsong. More details as I get them myself.

In my last column, I mentioned that former Cryptopsy vocalist Lord Worm had been kicked out of the band. Although he has indeed left the group, it now appears he did so of his own volition, having decided his health wasn't up to the task of further touring. According to Worm, "every time we went out on the road for any stretch of time, I ended up catching something and killing my health."

Recently, the police department of Oakland (a city in California) came up with a novel way of encouraging people to turn in firearms - reward anyone who did so with free Guns N' Roses tickets. Sadly, however, this magnanimous offer didn't have the results intended, as only 67 guns were surrendered. At least that scheme did marginally better than a similar one back in 1999, which offered a free computer. Although 200 guns were netted then, those weapons all turned out to be "old, rusted and inoperable". Further problems ensued when the city ran out of computers and couldn't get any more.

For this fortnight's obscure band plug, we go back to the Americas. First of all, from another country you'd never expect to have a metal scene - Cuba - comes Combat Noise, an old school death metal outfit. They've four tracks posted up on a Myspace fan page (www.myspace.com/combatnoise), all taken from their debut full-length album, 'After the War... the Wrath Continues', which came out in 2004. Next, from Nicaragua, come a couple of other, equally brutal, outfits: Humangrinder and Corpus Mors. The first are another death metal group, who have some material up at www.myspace.com/humangrinder6, while the second are a grindcore act, who provide a sampling of their material at www.myspace.com/corpusmors. Admittedly, the latter stuff's all in Spanish; then again, can anyone understand grind vocalists even when they're singing in English?

James Brazel (jbr09171@bigpond.net.au)