On January 23rd, new CRADLE TO GRAVE vocalist/bassist Donavan "Demon" Mason was rushed to Vancouver’s UBC Hospital after he was unresponsive to his family attempting to wake him up.

Mason is blind and suffers from advanced diabetes, which can cause his immune system to shut down periodically. His family and bandmates suspected that he was just battling a bad case of the flu, but upon arrival at the hospital doctors diagnosed Mason with a severe case of the H1N1 virus.

The medical staff at UBC Hospital were able to bring Mason back, but warned family and friends that he had been near death and had they waited a few more hours, the case could have turned tragic. Mason is now recovering at home while Cradle To Grave take a break from recording their upcoming new album.

Vancouver based Cradle To Grave are currently working on their third studio album; the follow-up to 2008’s Texas Medicine. The veteran band - which features in its ranks Denis "Sasquatch" Barthe of AGGRESSION and Matt Fowler of ASSAULT/KARRION — just completed pre-production with producer Clay Haluk (INFERNAL MAJESTY, Aggression) and have entered Screen Machine Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia. The album is expected to surface later this year through Year of the Sun Records.

"Our goal with this album is to release material as relevant as VENOM's Black Metal or VOIVOD’s War and Pain albums," commented Barthe.

"The pre-production sessions for the new record were awesome," added new Cradle To Grave vocalist/bassist Demon Mason. "It gave us the opportunity to make our material a little bit more in line with what Venom did with “Welcome to Hell” and “Black Metal.” We can't believe how this band sounds now and we are anxious to show it to the world."

More on the band at this location.