Metal News

* Is one almighty shitstorm about to erupt between ex-Stratovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki and his former bandmates? n April this year, Tolkki announced his decision to dissolve the long-running Finnish power metal outfit, issuing a lengthy and emotional statement in which he claimed the group had been falling apart due to growing animosity between its members, among other things. Just over a month later, the other members of the band fired back with a statement of their own, denying there'd been any ill-feeling between themselves, and accusing Tolkki of being a back-stabbing narcissist whose decision to break the band up had been motivated by his own selfishness and greed. Now Tolkki (who's since started up a new group called Revolution Renaissance) has retaliated with another (somewhat unbalanced-sounding) statement, in which he dismisses as lies everything his bandmates have said about him, and expresses discomfort at the thought they might continue using the group's name, which he feels belongs to him. This could get interesting...

* In more positive news, New Orleans thrash metal band Exhorder have just announced plans to get back together. Releasing a couple of classic underground albums, 'Slaughter in the Vatican' and 'The Law', during the early 90s, the group broke up later that decade and thereafter became known (rightly or wrongly) as "that band wot Pantera ripped off", due to many alleged similarities between the two groups' respective sounds. They reunite with their "core" lineup of Kyle Thomas (better known in more recent years for his work in Floodgate), Vinnie Labella, Jay Ceravolo and Chris Nail, and are on the lookout for a new bassist, their last one, Frank Sparcello, currently in prison. For those unfamiliar with them, check out their Myspace page at www.myspace.com/exhordernola.

* New York State band Brand New Sin have just found a replacement for former vocalist Joe Altier, who left the group at the beginning of the year (a decision precipitated in part by the death of his father). Filling his shoes will be Joe Sweet, a fellow New York State resident who's been involved with a string of bands bearing such unusual titles as Nine Stories High, Jomama, and The Funkdaddy's and Jomama. He's also the organiser of a large annual music festival in his home city of Utica.

* And on the subject of band comings and goings, Norwegian gothic metal outfit Tristania have been left in difficult straits by the shock departure of guitarist Svein Terje (aka Solvang), whose leaving comes "after a turbulent year with injured drummers and runaway female singers", according to male vocalist ¯sten Berg¿y. Terje's departure comes at a particularly inopportune time for the group, who, at the time of writing, are about to make an appearance at a festival in Leipzig, Germany, as well as embark upon a tour of Latin America. According to Berg¿y, "The timing could not be worse, because it was way too late to replace him for the upcoming shows." For the time being, the group will be relying on remaining guitarist H¿yvik Hidle (aka Anders) to take care of all guitar duties.

* John Rutsey, one of the founding members of Rush, has died aged 55 of a heart attack. Rutsey, who played drums for the famous Canadian hard rock/heavy metal act, was a member of the group for six years, and appeared on its 1974 self-titled debut. Departing soon thereafter because health problems prevented him from going on extended tours with the band, he was replaced by Neil Peart, who remains in the group to this day.

* If you thought Paris Hilton's recent brief stint in prison was a joke, that's nothing compared to the time Scott Weiland just served in the slammer for his latest DUI offence - the ex-Velvet Revolver front-man (who's since gone back to his former group, the Stone Temple Pilots) was released a mere 14 minutes after being booked into jail! Weiland was originally to have spent 192 hours (8 days) inside; it's unclear why his already brief sentence was reduced so drastically.

* Of late, I've been pretty slack with the obscure band plugs, so to begin rectifying things in that department, I bring you Eyes Of Medusa, a melodic progressive power metal band from the northern Italian city of Parma. The group have some material posted up at www.myspace.com/eyesofmedusa in the form of four rather lengthy tracks taken from their self-titled 2005 demo debut. They've also got their bio posted up there (though you'll need to understand Italian to be able to read it), as well as an image of what appears to be their mascot, a surprisingly sexy artistic rendering of the titular Gorgon.



James Brazel (jbr09171@bigpond.net.au)