_{Italian singer Mariangela Demurtas has been part of Norwegian gothic metal band Tristania for over ten years and has released two albums with them. On 9th August she released an album with her new band Ardours, in which she partners up with Italian multi-instrumentalist and producer Kris Laurent. Mariangela has also worked on other projects, most recently with Timo Tolkki on his latest album.}

_{Mariangela agreed to answer a few questions by e-mail to tell us more about Ardours and the new album "Last Place on Earth". You can read these below.}

_{American band Eighteenth Hour released their latest album through Escape Music on 23rd August. The band has actually been around for almost twenty years and has released six previous albums but I hadn’t actually heard of them until I got a copy of the new album. Impressed by what I heard, I thought it might be worthwhile to get a little more background on the band. Our friends at Escape Music put me in touch and guitarist David Zullo agreed to answer a few questions by e-mail. You can read the full interview below.}

_{This week The Dead Daisies finally confirmed the rumours that Glenn Hughes was joining the band and replacing singer John Corabi and bass player Marco Mendoza. Those rumours sadly slightly over-shadowed the release of the latest album from The Dead Daisies on 23rd August. The album “Locked And Loaded” was released by Spitfire Music and it features ten great covers performed by the various line-ups of The Dead Daisies to date. The track “Fortunate Son” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 2nd August.}