Metal News

· In a rather bizarre bit of news from Italy, a 19 year-old woman by the name of Cristina Balzano has been arrested and charged with attempted murder after stabbing the 16 year-old guitarist of her metal band, Soul Cry. Balzano, who handled the vocals for the aforementioned group, apparently attacked her bandmate after he bungled a riff during a rehearsal session and "sounded evil" as a consequence (funny, I thought that was what metal was supposed to sound like!). On the subject of metal musicians being stabbed, a certain Herr Amoth, the vocalist of a Brazilian black metal band called Symphony Draconis, was also the victim of such an assault recently, although in his case the assailant was a stranger who attacked him after a festival. Amoth was taken to hospital in a critical condition, and apparently nearly died as a result of his injuries, but is now said to be "fine" and back to rehearsing with his band.

· In news from Poland, Behemoth front-man Adam "Nergal" Darski is attempting to sue Ryszard Nowak, the founder of the infamous All-Polish Committee for Defence Against Sects: a group, formed last year, that seeks to have musicians who "promote Satanism" banned from playing in Poland. Nergal claimed he was defamed by Nowak in a recent interview the latter individual did with the Polish media; according to Nergal, Nowak repeatedly labelled him a criminal during the course of that interview. Nergal, who fell foul of Nowak's group after tearing up a Bible on stage during a show in the port city of Gdynia in September 2007, has demanded a written apology from Nowak (to be published in one of Poland's biggest daily newspapers), as well as compensation of three thousand zloty, which he says he'll donate to an animal shelter. Nowak for his part has refused to relent, claiming that to do so would be to give "Satan-worshipping" musicians a "green light" to engage in whatever offensive behaviour they pleased on stage.

· For the final obscure band plug of the year, we visit another unlikely place to have a metal scene: the tiny European principality of Monaco which, despite having an area of only a couple of square kilometres, has given rise to a handful of metal groups. One such band is a one-man project called Godkiller, which has undergone considerable evolution since its 1994 inception, starting as a death metal band yet gradually morphing into an electronic metal outfit. Its current status is unknown - its last album came out in 2000, and a follow-up that's apparently been promised for years has so far failed to materialize. In any case, a few of its songs have been posted up at www.myspace.com/godkillertheband. Also from Monaco are a newish progressive power metal three-piece called Minddust, who put out a demo last year called 'Somewhere in Heaven' - all four tracks from this have been posted up at www.myspace.com/minddust. Finally, there's a death metal band called Kabbal, which has drawn some of its members from parts of neighbouring France. Currently on hold, they've put out one album so far (a work called 'Synthetically Revived'), four tracks from which have been posted at www.myspace.com/kabbaldeathmetal.

· And so another year draws near its close. While there's not much left to happen for 2008, 2009 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for metal and hardcore, with January alone seeing Whitechapel play at Fowler's Live on the Thurs 15, the Boys Of Summer Tour hit the same venue on Fri 23, and Bleeding Through appear at the Gov on the Sun 25. Also don't forget the Soundwave Festival, which will be happening at Bonython Park on Sat 28 Feb, and will feature a positively mind-boggling array of metal and hardcore bands, among many others. See you in the New Year!

James Brazel (jbr09171@bigpond.net.au)