Catching up on some of the late 2011 releases that nearly went under the radar, Craig Haze reviews a triptych of death metal albums, including the latest from Horrendous, Ominous Crucifix and Vore.

On From The Devil’s Tomb, Weapon manage to weave a thread of incredible beauty through what should be truly ugly music.

Along with Iced Earth, Jag Panzer remains the cream of the crop for American Power Metal. Welcome back boys, nice to have you.

Last week the inaugural 70000 TONS OF METAL cruise sailed from Miami, FL to Cozumel, Mexico and back and featured live performances by forty-two metal bands. Hellbound.ca was lucky enough to have been able to send four of its contributors on the cruise and here is what they had to say about the performances that took place on Day number two.

Live reviews by Adrien Begrand, Albert Mansour, Kevin Stewart-Panko and Sean Palmerston. All photography by Albert Mansour unless listed otherwise.

Leanne Palmerston wants you to watch this Parrot sing a Drowning Pool song

If you want simple no nonsense thrash delivered in a frenzy high octane effort then you can do no wrong with Descent Into Chaos.

There aren’t many bands around here with the talent SJL has and with everyone splitting off and pursing new projects maybe some new great bands will rise from the ashes but there won’t be a better tech jazz band around here for years to come.

Jason Wellwood had the chance to speak to onetime DIO guitarist Craig Goldy, who played in the band in the late 80s. Jason spoke to Craig earlier this month about the recent DIO live album Dio At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987. The latter show was Craig’s first major festival appearance as a member of DIO, and reminisces about both the performance and that first European tour in this three part interview.