DOWNFALL OF GAIA is happy to have found a new drummer. Let the band take over the introduction: “We are very happy to announce that our good friend Michael Kadnar from New York will be the new face behind the drums of Downfall of Gaia and all of us couldn’t be more excited to have him on board! We got to know Mike on our last tour through the United States with his other band Black Table and the chemistry just felt right!  

If you counted Saliva out when you heard that they had parted ways with singer Josey Scott, you have been proven dead wrong - all you have to do is give a listen to the group's upcoming single, "Rise Up" (impacting radio and available for purchase via all digital stores on February 18th), and album of the same name (April 29th, via Rum Bum). And with new singer Bobby Amaru firmly in place, it appears as though there is a bright future for the new-look Saliva line-up, which also includes guitarist Wayne Swinny, bassist Dave Novotny, and drummer Paul Crosby.  

Pennsylvania death metal assassins, RIVERS OF NIHIL, have announced a handful of live assaults leading up to their appearance on The Best In Brutality Tour with Broken Hope, Oceano, Fallujah, and Kublai Khan. The latest run of dates in support of their The Conscious Seed Of Light full-length will initiate in Fayetteville, North Carolina on March 10th and include a performance at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 13th before kicking off The Best In Brutality Tour on March 18th in Phoenix, Arizona. The trek will come to a close on April 19th in Columbus, Ohio and includes an appearance at this year’s edition of the New England Metal & Hardcore Fest in Worcester, Massachusetts.  

Without death metal’s founding fathers, Possessed, Obscene Extreme would be a very different festival indeed. Forming in San Francisco in 1983, the band dragged thrash metal into darker and heavier places with their classic albums ‘Seven Churches’ and ‘Beyond The Gates’ on Combat Records. Possessed created a whole genre and then faded away like ghosts. Reforming around vocalist and founder Jeff Becerra in 2007, the original death cult are back and they’re writing new material too. Obscene Extreme 2014, prepare yourself for a new chapter in the unholy book of the dead… Making an overdue return to Obscene Extreme since their debut visit in 2010, furiously outspoken death/grind San Diego outfit... 

The second issue of the wildly popular new Skybound series DEAD BODY ROAD, written by Justin Jordan (LUTHOR STRODE) and with art by Matteo Scalera (BLACK SCIENCE), keeps gaining readers and has already sold out at the distributor level. As his vengeful manhunt continues, ex-cop Gage’s momentum doesn’t falter as the body count rapidly increases.  

Bazillion Points Books is proud to announce the May 2014 release of HEAVY METAL MOVIES, by Mike “McBeardo” McPadden [ISBN 978-1-935950-06-6]. Lavishly illustrated, gruesomely executed, and featuring well over 1000 of the most intense and headbanging movies ever produced, HEAVY METAL MOVIES is the ultimate guidebook to the complete molten musical cinema experience. Pre-orders are now available, and will ship in may with bonus fabric patch and artisan barf bag!  

Widely acknowledged as one of the most devastating and enthralling live bands on the planet, Skindred have been a perennial force for musical invention and remorseless positivity.  Last year alone, the band performed to audiences of over 2 million and made their Reading/Leeds festival debut on the main stage.  

n support of their most demoralizing recorded works to date with their fourth LP, Vermis, New Zealand death metal innovators, ULCERATE, will bring their audio terror to North American fans this Spring, on their second tour of the continent. Sponsored by Metal Injection, ULCERATE will inundate the American and Canadian peoples for nineteen days and nights on the Vermis North America MMXIV tour, which will include the band’s first shows on the West Coast.  

New York Hardcore legends SICK OF IT ALL have begun writing songs for their new album which is tentatively scheduled for release this fall via Century Media Records. Once again the band will be teaming up with Tue Madsen for what they describe as a “straight up old school New York Hardcore record.”  

Swedish Death Metallers ENTRAILS have just finished recording two songs to be released on a limited 7″ vinyl single on the 28th of February! Side A will feature the title track “Berzerk”, side B a cover of HEAVY LOAD’s classic “Dreaming”. The single will be available in black (300 copies), green (100 copies) and white (100 copies, excl. only available from HERE!).  

Boris Records has set February 14 as the date on which Goathrower, from death thrashers SPEWTILATOR, will be released. Thrashing mania ruptures a minefield of pustule-esque influences on this EP. A “gore-de-force” of all things fast and nasty,  

Legendary Florida death metal pioneers MASSACRE return with their first studio album effort in almost 20 years! Programmatically entitled Back From Beyond, the album will be released on March 24th in Europe and on April 1st in North America via Century Media Records.