New vocalist, check. Heavier guitar tuning, check. Bad ass album guaranteed to melt your face, check mate. “Witchkrieg” is the Witchery album that puts them over the fence from more of a blackened thrash sound to crushing death metal.  

Tank – featuring Mick Tucker and Cliff Evans on guitar alongside three new recruits, ex-Rainbow/Yngwie Malmsteen frontman Doogie White, ex-Bruce Dickinson bassist Chris Dale and ex-Zodiac Mindwarp drummer Dave ‘Grav’ Cavill – are back in action and ready to establish themselves once more as one of Britain’s finest rock bands.  

  Nashville’s longstanding Southern-style heavy metal outfit, The Showdown, will release their fourth studio album, Blood In The Gears, on Tuesday, August 24th.   However, fans can get a sneak peek at the soon-to-be-released head banger in its entirety right now on AOL.com.  Head over to:   this week for a glimpse at The Showdown’s Solid State Records sophomore release.             Blood In The Gears was recorded and produced by The Showdown’s own Jeremiah Scott (bass) at his home studio, Anthem Productions, in Nashville.  The album was mixed by Steve Blackmon (Living Sacrifice, Project 86), with Troy Glessener at Spectre handling the mastering.  Artwork comes courtesy of Ryan Clark... 

  Cradle of Filth, one of Britain’s most notorious and infamous names in heavy metal, has unveiled the album art for their forthcoming ninth studio album, Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa, which is due out on November 9th on Nuclear Blast Records.   

“We are Gravehill. We are death fucking metal!” bellows vocalist Mike Abominator at the close of the track “Decibel Ritual” from the rerelease of “Rites of the Pentagram.” After only 2 tracks, any fan of the genre can tell you these guys are for real and Mike’s proclamation is far from a fallacy.  

Richmond, VA rockers CONDITIONS are featured in the upcoming AP/Hot Topic Mini Mag, available on a countertop at your nearest Hot Topic beginning September 7th! A brand new track, ‘When It Won’t Save You’ is included on the Mini Mag sampler. The track is cut from CONDITIONS upcoming GOOD FIGHT MUSIC debut, Fluorescent Youth, which hits stores on September 14th, 2010!  

For all you Gravehill fans that didn’t get to see the band on The Death Metal Purity Tour, check out this awesome footage from Fontana’s in NYC. Podcast: Play in new window | Download  

Following seven historic shows as part of “The Big Four” European festival dates with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth, Anthrax will join Slayer and Megadeth on the Jagermeister Fall Music Tour set to kick off September 24 at Superpages in Dallas, TX. The 20-date concert trek will mark the first U.S. tour Anthrax has done since vocalist Joey Belladonna rejoined the band earlier this year, and the first time the three bands have shared an American stage since the classic 1991 “Clash of the Titans” tour.  

  “Gateways,” the first single from the new album ABRAHADABRA by Norwegian symphonic black metal band DIMMU BORGIR , will be available for purchase in Europe on iTunes at this location: http://bit.ly/cpOaNz from Friday, August 20th on and in North America on Tuesday, August 24th.   

August 17, 2010 – Chicago, Illinois’s TUB RING is set to release their fifth full-length, SECRET HANDSHAKES, August 31, 2010 on The End Records and have just announced a handful of September dates in support of the new album.  The band previously announced their hometown record release show on August 28 at Subterranean and will follow that date with shows in St. Paul, Madison, and Lansing, Michigan among others.  

United Stations nationally syndicated radio shows HardDrive and HardDrive XL have announced the second annual HARDDRIVE LIVE TOUR 2010 branded and produced in conjunction with its’ weekend and nightly radio programs. The 2010 lineup for the fall concert tour features headliners Sevendust, 10 Years, with special guests Since October, Aranda and Anew Revolution. The excursion will begin in Augusta, GA on October 4th and is currently scheduled to arrive in 28 cities across North America by November.  

For the first time in its near 30-year history, Slayer, the single most distinctive and radical thrash metal band ever, will see its ten American Recordings albums released as a limited-edition, high-end box set – The Vinyl Conflict (American Recordings/Sony Legacy).