Dirty Rig, fronted by ex-Warrior Soul vocalist Kory Clarke, have signed to Escapi Music. New album ‘Rock Did It’ will be released in late June.

Bloodsimple drummer Chris Hamilton has left the band, for undisclosed reasons. No replacement has been named so far.

Alabama Thunderpussy have a new frontman. He’s Kyle Thomas, previously with Exhorder. The band intend to start work shortly on an album.

Swedish all girl hard rock band Vision recently performed the Kiss classic “Lick It Up” on Swedish national TV. The TV program “RundgГҐng” visited the group’s rehearsal space for a show segment, which included a live performance of the song.

Soilwork are to use Darkane drummer Peter Wildoer for a handful of European festivals. This is because current drummer Dirk Verbeuren lives in Los Angeles, and the band couldn’t get him reasonably priced flights, as the shows in questions were confirmed at the last minute.

Audioslave have canceled their entire European tour including a slot at the Carling Weekend Festival in Reading and Leeds. No official statement has been published by the band (who are expected to be releasing a new album later this year). The follow up to 2005’s Out of Exile has a working title of Revelations.

Congratulations to Finland’s Lordi on winning the Eurovision Song Contest this year. They are the first Finnish entry to do so.

King’s X have moved swiftly to deny reports that they’re about to split up. The Texan trio have no intention of so doing.

Chrome Division, who include Dimmu Borgir frontman Shagrath on guitar, release their debut album in August. It’s called ‘Doomsday Rock ‘N’ Roll’ and is on the Nuclear Blast label.

Veteran British metalheads Xentrix and Onslaught are to headline a bill being dubbed ‘A Night Of British Thrash’, This happens at Bradford Rio’s on June 3, with the rest of the line-up being young bands Evile, Pitiful Reign and Headless Cross.