Ireland's Stormzone has checked in with BraveWords, offering the following update:

"After 10 years of leading from the back, drummer Davy Bates has decided to leave Stormzone. Davy was highly influential on a very young Lars Ulrich when the Metallica drummer witnessed Davy's early band Sweet Savage supporting Thin Lizzy in the early '80s. 

Replacing Davy is the brilliant Gordy Gray who has been playing with Northern Ireland band The Irontown Diehards. Gordy's first task will be to commence working on the drums for Stormzone's sixth album, tentatively entitled Release The Beast. The band are also set to play at DistortionFest 16 in The Limelight, Belfast on October 29th as main support to Warrior Soul. 

To mark this appearance Stormzone will be releasing a remixed and remastered version of their third album, Zero To Rage, featuring all new artwork and bonus tracks. This version, entitled Return To Zero (Zero To Rage Revisited) will be available prior to DistortionFest 16 as an absolutely free download. This is simply to thank all the Stormzone fans who have faithfully stuck by the band over the last 10 years and hopefully to introduce some new ones!"