Metal News

· On Fri 17 Oct, local metal outfit Raven Black Night will be doing a show at the Enigma Bar with The Loving Tongue, Century and new local band Blood Of Abaddon. Doors open at 9 PM.

· On Sat 25 Oct, the Northern Sound System will play host to Elizapalooza 2008, an all-day, all-ages musical extravaganza that'll take place over four stages, one featuring nothing but metal bands. Among the artists performing on the metal stage will be Abandon All Hope, Bloodsport and Melbourne's The Rose Line, while Melbourne rockers The Getaway Plan will be headlining the event as a whole. Doors open at midday, with the last act expected to finish around 11:30 PM. For more info, go to www.myspace.com/elizapalooza.

· Also on the 25th, new metal venue Channel Events (120 Gouger Street) will be hosting a fundraiser for cancer charity Canteen. Entitled Metal 4 Relief, the 18+ show will be held in memory of Kieran Mueller, a keen follower of the local metal scene who died of cancer, aged only 22, this April. Hopefully to become an annual occurrence, the event will feature Blood Mason, Imminent Psychosis, Double Dragon, Mammoth, Asphyxia, Order Of The Buzzard, Raven Black Night, One Step Beyond, Treachery, The FAK and A Murder Of Crows, all of whom will be donating their services for free on the night. A raffle and sausage sizzle will be held at the event, while a compilation CD featuring music from the performing artists will also be on sale. Doors open at 7:30 PM. For more info, go to www.myspace.com/pythonpromotions.

· Moving onto news from overseas, the metal world has seen a couple of deaths during the last few weeks. First of all, ex-Iron Maiden vocalist Blaze Bayley (who now fronts his own, self-titled band) has lost his wife, Debbie, who'd been in hospital since July. Debbie passed out in the couple's UK home after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, and had another stroke two days before her death on September the 27th. She and Bayley only married in February last year, but had known each other for many years beforehand. Debbie had been the manager of Blaze Bayley (the band), and had been credited by her husband for helping him overcome problems he'd been having with alcohol and depression. Meanwhile, over in Canada, Brian Lourie, a longtime member of now-defunct death/ thrash outfit Slaughter, has died of a heart attack; he was only 39. Not to be confused with the US glam metal band of the same name, Slaughter were an influential outfit in the Canadian metal scene who formed in Toronto in 1984 and disbanded in 1992 (although they've remained sporadically active ever since). After the dissolution of the band (with whom the also-deceased Chuck Schuldiner had a very brief involvement in 1986), front-man Dave Hewson formed a short-lived group called Strappado, which Lourie also played in.

· In my last column, I announced that Sweden's Scar Symmetry had gotten rid of old vocalist Christian €lvestam. Well, his position has now been filled - not by one singer, but two! The group decided to take on two new vocalists after realizing that the material on their last album, 'Holographic Universe', was so complex in the vocals department that it'd be difficult, if not impossible, to perform live with only one singer. The new vocalists are former Edge Of Sanity member Roberth Karlsson, as well as his longtime friend, Lars Palmqvist.

· Finally, melodic death metal/ metalcore band The Agony Scene (who hail from Tulsa, Oklahoma) have just announced that they're splitting up. According to vocalist Mike Williams, "We reached a point where it wasn't making financial sense and we felt it was better to quit while we were ahead rather than dragging it out and dragging ourselves further into debt." Williams also revealed that he's "starting something new musically, something that couldn't be further away from metal and hardcore."

James Brazel (jbr09171@bigpond.net.au)