Metal News.

In a small piece of good news, it appears that Adrian “Covan” Kowanek, vocalist for Polish death metal band Decapitated, is recovering from the head injuries he sustained during a road accident the band were involved in last October (an accident that saw band drummer Witold “Vitek” Kieltyka perish from similar injuries). While details of Kowanek’s condition are still vague, the remaining members of the band state that, to the best of their knowledge, “he is stable and on his way to a full recovery.”

In less happy news, Pain front-man and founder, Peter Tägtgren, was recently assaulted in Leipzig, as were a couple of touring members of the industrial metal outfit, bassist Johan Husgafvel and drummer David Wallin. In the former East German city to support Nightwish, the band were walking back to their tour bus after an evening of drinking when three men jumped them from behind, inflicting injuries that required each of the victims to go to hospital (and forced the group to cancel its gig in the city). Only touring guitarist Marcus Jidell escaped the attack, being in the tour bus watching a movie at the time.

And in news of another assault, As I Lay Dying were forced to cut short their performance during the Sydney leg of the Soundwave festival when guitarist Nick Hipa was hit in the head by an empty bourbon bottle. While Hipa wasn’t seriously injured, the attack drew blood and also left him “quite discombobulated for a good while”.

Local metal band Skintilla have recently undergone a couple of lineup changes: guitarist Jason Beveridge and drummer Peter Stewart having been replaced by original member Chris Benyk and newcomer Jaryd Dorey respectively. For more information, go to www.myspace.com/skintilla. The new lineup will make its debut at the all-ages Asphyxia CD launch, to be held at the Underground on Sat 8 Mar.

Thousands of AC/DC fans recently converged on Claremont Showground in Perth for the unveiling of a bronze statue of Bon Scott, which is to be placed on Fisherman’s Wharf in Fremantle – the Scottish-born artist’s home town for much of his time in Australia (and the place where he was buried after his death in 1980). Many well-known Australian pub rock acts provided entertainment at the event – among them The Angels, Rose Tattoo and The Screaming Jets – while original AC/DC vocalist Dave Evans also made an appearance.

In another news item relating to metal musicians and movies, L.A. Guns front-man Phil Lewis has scored a part in a film called “Witchmaster General”. The glam metal musician will play a character called Dr. Gordon, whom he describes as “a man with connections to Satan, whose voodoo powers are used in a murder-for-hire scheme.” In other ominous signs the movie is likely to be a trashy affair, its director, Jim Haggerty, has also been responsible for such classy-sounding films as “I Dream of Dracula” and “The Slasher”, and has been praised by Lewis for “working very quickly”, a trait he’d share with famed bad director Ed Wood.

Keep an eye out from May 15 onwards for ‘True Norwegian Black Metal’, a book on the famed Norwegian black metal scene put together by American documentary photographer Peter Beste, and due to be released on the above date by Vice Books. With considerable input from Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen – creator of Norwegian underground publication, ‘Slayer’ magazine – the book will feature pictures of artists from such outfits as Darkthrone, Mayhem, Satyricon, Emperor and Gorgoroth, and also include essays and interviews.

For this column’s obscure band plug, I’ve decided to look at a few groups from Morocco, a country where it seems it’s not that easy to be a metalhead. (In 2003, eleven young fans of the genre were sentenced to a year in prison for distributing material said to undermine Islamic morals.) Nonetheless, the scene has proven admirably resilient; as a result, the North African nation has spawned a reasonable number of groups. One of these is a death metal act called Ephemeral Promise, who formed only last year and whose stated aim is to use death metal to “destroy dectators (sic).” A couple of tracks of theirs can be found at www.myspace.com/ephemeralpromise. Also with a couple of songs posted up on Myspace is black metal band Bismillah, whose logo incorporates a beautiful piece of Arabic calligraphy and whose songs deal with, among other things, “the noble aspect of hatred.” Check them out at www.myspace.com/bismillahbm. Finally, there’s Imperium, a thrash metal act who have three original songs and a cover of Accept’s Fast as a Shark posted up at www.myspace.com/imperiummeknes.

James Brazel (jbr09171@bigpond.net.au)