Wovenwar are a very different beast from AILD, aided greatly by new frontman Shane Blay's soothing but robust tones and the band's reborn enthusiasm for making soulful but strident modern metal. This is an instantly lovable, consistent and convincing debut, brimming with razor-sharp melodies and subtly expressed technical prowess – a marked improvement on AILD's rather one-dimensional sound, and a breath of fresh air for a metalcore scene that does tend to chase its own creative tail. Joyously anthemic, the likes of Death to Rights, Profane and The Mason revel in their own redemptive power and sound very much like the first fruits of a potentially world-beating meeting of minds.

Germany has yet again contributed to power metal in the form of Winterstorm. Winterstorm released their third studio album ‘Cathyron’ on 7th February 2014 via Noise Art Records. They have created such a thin line between these two sub-genres that it is difficult to comprehend when the power metal elements are playing and when the folk metal elements are doing so. They have mixed both sounds in such a way that it gets hard to differentiate between the two.

WHITESNAKE fans worldwide now have something to be excited about! To celebrate the 30th anniversary of WHITESNAKE's multi-platinum "Slide It In" album, Frontiers Music Srl, the Italian-based label, will release "Live In '84 - Back To The Bone", a complete celebration of the group's awe-inspiring lineup during what many feel was the incredible beginning of what singer David Coverdale called his desire to make WHITESNAKE more "electrifying" on record and on stage.

"Life of Pause" is the third studio album from American indie rock act Wild Nothing. He revealed dates for his world tour in support of the new release. The North American portion of the tour kicks off on April 20 inside The Casbah in San Diego, California, and it will conclude inside The Regent Theater in Los Angeles, California on May 20. For the Canadian fans, the trek will make its way to Vancouver's Biltmore Cabaret on April 26 and Toronto's Opera House on May 5.

Formed in 2008 under the (thankfully dropped) name Rightdoor, Within Silence are a melodic power metal band in the vein of Blind Guardian. As such you can expect huge swathes of guitar, souring vocals and banks of keyboards all vying for space amidst the pounding rhythms and heroic soloing. Growing steadily, the band have taken their time to draft their debut offering, the gleaming ‘gallery of life’, and it appears that it has been time well spent because the rehearsals, the time spent writing and then honing material on the road with the likes of Blaze Bayley has paid off with this confident and powerful album.