Fan-filmed video footage of NECROPHOBIC's June 7 performance at the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden can be seen below.

NECROPHOBIC was recently rejoined by vocalist Anders Strokirk.

Anders was in NECROPHOBIC during the years 1992-1994 and sang on the band's legendary debut album "The Nocturnal Silence" (1993).

Said NECROPHOBIC in a statement: "Anders' voice is both strong and characteristic.

"We are now ready to play live again and support last autumn's album release, 'Womb Of Lilithu'."

NECROPHOBIC in October 2013 officially parted ways with vocalist Tobias Sidegård.

A Swedish appeals court in September 2013 reduced the prison sentence for Sidegård, who was accused of beating his wife multiple times between September 2011 and April 2013.

Sidegård was originally sentenced to 18 months in prison for "gross violation of a woman's integrity," and offense that was first introduced into the Penal Code in 1998 dealing with repeated punishable acts directed by men against women who have or have had a close relationship with the perpetrator.

On September 20, 2013, the Svea appeals court found Sidegård guilty of simple assault — a less serious offense than "gross violation of a woman's integrity" — and reduced his prison sentence to six months. The musician was also ordered to pay his wife 16,000 Swedish kronor (approximately $2,500) in damages plus interest.

Sidegård previously denied all charges through his attorney, claiming that the injuries suffered by Tobias' wife that were described in the indictment occurred in "other ways" than through physical abuse perpetrated by the musician.

Tobias sent an e-mail to the Metal Insider and MetalSucks web sites insisting that he was "set free after second appeal in higher court." "I've been fucking innocently accused and never hit a woman in my life," he wrote.

NECROPHOBIC's seventh full-length album, "Womb Of Lilithu", came out on October 29, 2013 (four days earlier in Europe) via Season Of Mist. A digital single featuring the new song "Splendour Nigri Solis", taken from the CD, was released exclusively through Spotify on August 19, 2013 (September 3 in North America).

"Sailor's Prayer", the new video from Mmtal titans THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, can be seen below. The clip was helmed by director Robert Sexton (SOULFLY, HELLYEAH, DEATH ANGEL, THE DWARVES, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, AMEN, MONDO GENERATOR, GENÖCIDE) in Hollywood, California. The track is taken from the band's fifth studio album, "8:18", which sold around 16,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 20 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on September 17, 2013 via Roadrunner.

Long acclaimed as among one of the most potent and provocative bands in modern American metal, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA made a massive leap forward with the stunning "8:18". The album — executive-produced by KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's Adam Dutkiewicz and produced by the band along with producer/engineer Matt Goldman (UNDEROATH, THE CHARIOT) — sees the group driving its relentless sonic approach with more might than ever before, giving extreme power to vocalist Mike Hranica's grim, emotional lyricism.

In a January 2014 interview with Loudwire, Hranica stated about the lyrical inspiration for "8:18": "I don't think it's too much of a departure from what I've been drawn to as far as darker stuff — more misery and depression. I've always felt an immediate draw to that and I know that within our music, misery has the strongest impact compared to something brighter and warmer. I just wanted to hone in on that and use the same tools within the stuff that I do. Within the things that I read and what not I'm very drawn to mediocrity, monotony and just ordinariness — it's just all of those things that has been a part of my writing and taste in general. With '8:18', it's built off of suffering and looking at suffering from all different perspectives."

After taking a creative break last year, Swedish metallers HAMMERFALL are fully recharged and back with a vengeance. The band's new album, "(r)Evolution", will be released on August 29 in Europe and September 2 in North America via Nuclear Blast. The first single from "(r)Evolution", "Bushido", will be released on July 18 digitally as well as on vinyl. The song sums up the band and its history perfectly, seeing as "bushido" means "the way of the warrior" in Japanese.

"Bushido" single track listing: A: BushidoB: The Way Of The Warrior (remixed by Fredrik Nordström) Comments HAMMERFALL guitarist Oscar Dronjak: "This album has more single quality songs than anyone we've ever done before, as evidenced by the fact that pretty much the only single choice we all could agree on was 'Bushido'. It captures the essence HAMMERFALL as much as any other song we have ever written, and it is one of the absolute strongest efforts from our camp, ever. It's filled with energy, hunger and pure adrenaline, and if you don't like this one, you have no love for HAMMERFALL heavy metal!"

The artwork for "Bushido" was created by Samwise Didier and can be seen below. With "(r)Evolution", HAMMERFALL takes things back to the roots in many ways, as the band once again worked with producer Fredrik Nordström, who helmed HAMMERFALL's two milestone releases "Glory To The Brave" and "Legacy Of Kings" during the group's early years and thus played a major part in the development of HAMMERFALL.

The music for "(r)Evolution" was recorded in March and April at guitarist Oscar Dronjak's Castle Black Studios. Singer Joacim Cans then went to the United States for vocal recordings, once again working with James Michael (SCORPIONS, MÖTLEY CRÜE), who previously collaborated with HAMMERFALL on "Infected". The album was mixed and mastered by Fredrik Nordström and Henrik Udd at Studio Fredman.

"(r)Evolution" represents yet another reunion of sorts for HAMMERFALL, who hired cover artist Andreas Marschall, the "father" of HAMMERFALL's mascot Hector, to design the artwork for the new CD.

"(r)Evolution" track listing: 01. Hector's Hymn02. (r)Evolution03. Bushido04. Live Life Loud05. Ex Inferis06. We Won't Back Down07. Winter Is Coming08. Origins09. Tainted Metal10. Evil Incarnate11. Wildfire

HAMMERFALL's "Gates Of Dalhalla" DVD entered the Swedish Music DVD chart at position No. 4. The set also landed on the German Music DVD chart at No. 6.

"Gates Of Dalhalla" was released as a DVD+2CD and Blu-ray+2CD on November 30, 2012 via Nuclear Blast. The set features the band's extraordinary 135-minute 15th-anniversary show that took place on July 28, 2012 on the historic open-air stage Dalhalla, built in an old quarry near the small Swedish village Rättvik. The footage was captured by Swedish director Patric Ullaeus of the Revolver Film Company AB, who has previously worked with IN FLAMES, DIMMU BORGIR, EUROPE and LACUNA COIL, among many others. Special guests during the concert included original HAMMERFALL members Jesper Strömblad (IN FLAMES) and Mikael Stanne (DARK TRANQUILLITY), as well as ex-HAMMERFALL guitarist Stefan Elmgren.

HAMMERFALL's last album, "Infected", sold around 1,700 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD debuted at No. 16 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

Swedish hard rockers BULLET will release their new album, "Storm Of Blades", on September 5 in Europe and Sepember 9 in North America via Nuclear Blast. The band's fifth longplayer marks the first recording to feature BULLET's new guitar player Alexander Lyrbo, who replaced Erik Almström in 2012.

"This is a fast and heavy back-to-the-roots album," the band comments. "A lot of the feeling, BULLET had in the beginning is there but with a up-to-date sound and craftsmanship.

"Now with the young blood Alex on the guitar, always thirsty for metal, the songs ended up just like that: Heavier, faster and more raw than on previous albums. We can now at last truthfully say; this is our best album this far and most likely the rawest since the 'Heavy Metal Highway' recording in 2002”

BULLET came up with the "Storm Of Blades" album title during a soundcheck before a show last year. "We wanted to make the toughest BULLET song ever and this riff popped up," says the band. "The first impression was the image of knifes falling from the sky and the title 'Storm Of Blades' was born. To make this song the title track of our new album became a must as it is a tale about destruction, apocalypse and horror!" "Storm Of Blades" was recorded during December/January 2014 and April/May 2014 at the Pama Studio in Torsås, Sweden. It was produced by BULLET and Magnus "Mankan" Sedenberg.

Immediately after making several summer festival appearances and the album release, BULLET will hit the road again, with two well-chosen support bands. "STALLION and STRIKER will be our fellow hellraisers on the first leg, and this tour should not let a fan of heavy metal music down," says BULLET. "We will raise hell, we will drink beer, we will bang our heads together and kill grunge... again! Prepare for the storm of blades!"

Following the April premiere of "Super Duper Alice Cooper" at the Tribeca Film Festival, and the subsequent release of the documentary on DVD, Blu-ray, deluxe editions, and digital formats this month via Eagle Rock Entertainment, rock's greatest showman Alice Cooper heads out on a lengthy North American tour. The summer trek starts with three shows in Michigan June 26-28 before Cooper joins MÖTLEY CRÜE's final "All Bad Things Must Come To An End" tour as a very special guest on July 2, running through late November. The tour marks the debut of Alice's new guitarist Nita Strauss (pictured), who was recently ranked #1 on Guitar World's list of "10 Female Guitar Players You Should Know." She takes the place of Orianthi, who has toured with Alice for the past few years.

Nita, who has made her name in bands, including THE IRON MAIDENS and FEMME FATALE, joins Alice's band's three-guitar attack, which also features guitarists Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen, plus longtime bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel.

Alice Cooper has completed work on a covers album featuring songs that were originally written and recorded by THE DOORS, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and THE WHO, members of the so-called "Hollywood vampires" of the early and mid-'70s. The disc, which is expected out in early 2015, will also include "four or five new songs," which the legendary rocker wrote specifically for the new CD. He told VH1 Radio Network's Dave Basner: "We decided that in order to set up the 'Hollywood Vampires' thing, you had to kind of tell the story, and you had to write songs that were going to set up the story, and then get into the covers. So we had fun sitting there writing these new songs around it. So it's going to be quite a package, this thing is."

Regarding how the idea for the covers album came about, Cooper told Yahoo! Music: "Producer Bob Ezrin said to me, 'You know, you're a rock 'n' roll singer. It would be great to hear you doing someone else's material once in a while. And then we thought, 'Well, we can't just do a covers album where we bounce around from song to song.' So Bob came up with the idea, 'Let’s concentrate it on all the guys that you drank with in L.A., the Hollywood Vampires, the ones that are all dead.' It’s really an ode to all my dead, drunk friends: Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, some of the SMALL FACES, Harry Nilsson, T. REX. These were all of my drinking buddies. I like the title 'All My Dead Drunk Friends'. It's just offensive enough to work, but all those guys would have totally got it. They had the same sense of humor. If you told them you were going to do an album after they were gone called 'All My Dead Drunk Friends,' they would have died laughing."

Official Metallica.com footage of METALLICA's June 3 performance in in Horsens, Denmark can be seen below. The 31-minute clip includes footage of the pre-show meet-and-greet, the band warming up in the tuning room and both "Battery" and "St. Anger" from the show.

The setlist for the concert was as follows:

01. Battery02. Master of Puppets03. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)04. Ride the Lightning05. The Unforgiven06. Lords of Summer07. Wherever I May Roam08. Sad But True09. Fade to Black10. ...And Justice for All11. One12. For Whom the Bell Tolls13. Whiskey in the Jar14. Nothing Else Matters15. Enter Sandman

Encore:

16. St. Anger17. Creeping Death18. Seek & Destroy

As previously reported, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told "Metal Zone" host Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic": "I can tell you, all kidding aside, I'm pretty convinced that 90 percent of the record is actually written, it's just gotta be kind of assembled between all those riffs. It's just a matter of connecting this to this and sort of shaping it into a song. And so, I'm pretty psyched about that."

Ulrich added: "Like I said, I'm pretty convinced that most of the raw material actually exists. It's just a matter of connecting the dots. And we're not busy with all this other stuff that we're doing . . . I've said this before, we've applied for 28-hour days, but we haven't gotten word back yet, because the four extra hours that we would get out of that would certainly expedite the making of the next record . . . it would get it sooner. But we're still stuck with 24-hour days and something about six-hour minimum sleep requirements and kids that have to go to school and all the rest of it. So we try to use the rest of the time as wisely as we can in connecting these dots. And it does move forward, but maybe not as fast as we would like and certainly not as fast as a lot of our fans would like. It's certainly not 'cause we're avoiding it."

The group debuted a song, "Lords Of Summer", earlier this year.

Fan-filmed video footage of ANNIHILATOR's June 6 performance at the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden can be seen below.

ANNIHILATOR's latest album, "Feast", was re-released as a limited edition featuring re-recorded ANNIHILATOR classics on CD and the full Wacken Open Air festival show on DVD, all in a special Ecolbook version with a new 3D cover!

This edition contains:

* The new album "Feast" in a CD-sized book with extra pages in the booklet* The 15-song bonus CD "Re-Kill" with newly recorded ANNIHILATOR classics* Plus a never-seen-before live DVD filmed at last year‘s Wacken Open Air, when the band opened the festival relentlessly regardless of the blistering heat!

* Not to mention a brand new 3D cover taking over where the original "Feast" cover left us. Which means: More zombies, and they are coming closer!

The "Feast" Ecolbook version was made available in U.S. on March 11.

ANIHILATOR's 14th studio album, "Feast", was released in August 2013 to critical acclaim and reached the charts in several countries, among them Germany (#20), Finland (#17), Switzerland (#36) and France (#76).

"Feast" sold around 800 copies in the United States in its first week of release.

In an interview with Ghost Cult Magazine, ANNIHILATOR guitarist/mainman Jeff Waters stated about "Feast": "As an artist, you're sometimes lucky when it all comes together, be it painting, singing or whatever. Sometimes you want to do something good and when you're busy with it, you seem to hit the nail on the head. When you listen back, it doesn't contain your best work. Sometimes it just works. Bands like IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, SLAYER and also we in ANNIHILATOR have great records and we have our share of not-so-good records. Different times, different places, you know. Maybe we were lucky with 'Feast' and maybe we were inspired. A lot of it comes from that my partner in ANNIHILATOR, singer/guitarist Dave Padden, said that we should take a break for three years from writing music and focus on other things. We did a lot of touring, I worked in my studio, give guitar clinics for Gibson and Epiphone and we played the 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise, all these cool things. The break breathed a lot of new life in the ANNIHILATOR music and that's probably where a lot of the inspiration came from."

Fan-filmed video footage of SEPULTURA's June 12 performance at the Copenhell festival in Copenhagen, Denmark can be seen below.

SEPULTURA's new album, "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart", sold around 1,800 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD came out on October 29, 2013 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Although it was inspired by Fritz Lang's classic 1927 movie "Metropolis", "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart" is not a concept album or a soundtrack like its precedessors "Dante XXI" (based on "The Divine Comedy") and "A-Lex" (based on "A Clockwork Orange").

"The Mediator Between The Head And Hands Must Be The Heart" was tracked over a 40-day period at producer Ross Robinson's (KORN, LIMP BIZKIT, SLIPKNOT) studio in Venice, California and was mixed and mastered by co-producer Steve Evetts, who previously worked with SEPULTURA on the "Nation" (2001), "Revolusongs" (2002) and "Roorback" (2003) albums, in addition to having collaborated with Ross on a number of other projects in the past.

In a 2013 interview with Live-Metal.net, SEPULTURA singer Derrick Green stated about the new album title: "We always have the simple one-word titles or very basic. And with this we knew what we wanted to do. We wanted to maybe make people think a little bit.

"I think we have become lobotomized, including myself, because I'm not putting myself outside of anything. I think a lot of times we live in a time where people are thinking actions or creating ideas — doing something in their head but going right to their hands. And they're missing the essential part, the heart and the compassion, that's behind what you are doing. And (the title) came from a movie called 'Metropolis' (1927) by a director called Fritz Lang, and it's a silent movie. And it's actually the first thing you see in the movie. And the meaning behind it is just that: It's impossible to be human without having the heart dictate what you're doing and why you're doing certain things.

"So I believe this album has that passion and drive and love for music.

"So many things I've been hearing are just about trying to be perfect, with the digital age and trying to make everything sound perfect. Like on albums and things like that, it doesn't even sound real. It doesn't sound human anymore. So this is something going back to really trying not to be perfect. We're trying to pull out that love and desire and just grabbing that moment, placing it on an album and recording it, and not being worried about those other things."

"Through Oblivion", a brand new song from Swedish metallers IN FLAMES can be streamed using the SoundCloud widget below. The track, which will be available for 24 hours only, is taken from the band's eleventh album, "Siren Charms", in the U.S. on September 9 via Sony/RED. The CD was recorded at Hansa Tonstudios (DAVID BOWIE, DEPECHE MODE, U2) in Berlin, Germany. A single, "Rusted Nail", will precede the full-length effort on June 13. The cover artwork was created by Blake Armstrong of Space Boy Comics and can be seen below. On June 10, IN FLAMES lead singer, Anders Fridén spoke to Finland's HC Sanomat about "Siren Charms. You can watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether the recording process for the new IN FLAMES album was relatively "typical":

Anders: "I don't think we do any typical recording. Every album is slightly different, and this time was more different, because we sold the studio that we had in Gothenburg, so we had to go somewhere else. And the choice… what we picked was we went to Berlin and recorded at Hansa Tonstudios, which is a classic studio with a lot of history. I was there at the beginning of last year, and when I got home, I told the boys, 'This is the place where I wanna record the new album.' And they were all up for the idea.

"Last summer, the last show we did was Summer Breeze [festival in Germany]… We did another show in Stockholm, but the [last] official show we did was in Summer Breeze. And after that, we started writing pretty much immediately. We had a few weeks off, and then at the beginning of November, we entered the studio and recorded for six weeks. And it was hard, it was tough, because that was half the time that we had on the previous album. It was kind of intentional, because we wanted to see if the pressure could add something to the album. And we mixed the album in early January and here we are talking about it. I feel really good now that we have some distance and I'm super pleased with the result. It's a new step for IN FLAMES. People will find typical IN FLAMES, they will find something new. I think there's a little bit for everyone."

On whether IN FLAMES had a specific goal in mind for the new album:

Anders: "We don't have a master plan, to be honest. We just try to create the best possible album we can at the moment where we are in life at that point. So we never look at other bands or any genres and say, 'Oh, this is what we wanna do.' I mean, we went to Berlin for a reason, that studio, to see if we draw some energy from that studio. The pressure, especially from my end, it was… We had some ideas and structures and parts of songs, but the… The first two weeks, we put everything together, but I had nothing — I had no vocal melodies, no lyrics, no nothing. And I wanted to see if I could deliver under pressure and what that would do with me as a songwriter. So I had to draw inspiration from something, so I was watching a lot of documentaries about people in really bad situations, a lot of drug-related documentaries and so on. And from there, there's so much sadness and desperation, but there's hope as well, to get away from all the misery. There's love and there's hate, and I kind of used that. Then the title, 'Siren Charms', a siren is in Greek mythology; it's like a womanly creature who sings nice songs and lures sailors to the depths. And I used that kind of image to describe something in life that will charm you, and she has to symbolize the good and the evil part, so to speak. So it covers the whole album and all the theme of the album, if there's a theme. And all the different songs are around this topic. [They're] not very happy songs…. I think it has a sad tone or something. It was created under a lot of emotions and stress and inspiration as well, because of this time pressure, but it was supposed to be like that. I hated myself towards the end of the recording, because of this. I was, like, 'Why do you put yourself in this situation?' But at the end of the day, I'm happy I did and I got through to the other end."

On how "Rusted Nail" was chosen to be the first single from the new album:

Anders: "All the songs, for me, are great. And for the first time… 'Cause usually, I'm, like, 'OK, this is the single, this is the video, this is how everything should be and look and whatever.' And now, it was, 'I can't pick and choose. Record company, you decide.' And I guess they took 'Rusted Nail', because it shows where IN FLAMES are today, and it's a nice description of the album. It has a little bit of that and a little bit of this. To me, you could pick any song; I like them all."

On whether he considers "Siren Charms" to be a natural progression from 2011's "Sounds Of A Playground Fading":

Anders: "For me, yeah, sure. Every album is equally important. And if it wasn't for [1996's] 'The Jester Race', [2000's] 'Clayman' or 'Sounds Of A Playground Fading', there wouldn't be any 'Siren Charms'. So, for me, it's a natural progression. It's three years between this one and the last one, and this is where we are today. So, for me, it's totally natural. It might not be as natural for some other people, but that's their decision."

"Siren Charms" track listing:

01. In Plain View02. Everything’s Gone03. Paralyzed04. Through Oblivion05. With Eyes Wide Open06. Siren Charms07. When The World Explodes08. Rusted Nail09. Dead Eyes10. Monsters In The Ballroom11. Filtered Truth

IN FLAMES' "Deliver Us" single was certified platinum in Sweden for sales in excess of 40,000 copies. (Note: On-demand audio and/or video song streams are now counted towards the threshold required for gold and platinum certifications.)

"Sounds Of A Playground Fading" (Century Media) sold around 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart.

IN FLAMES' previous album, "A Sense of Purpose" (Koch) opened with 20,000 units to land at No. 28. This was slightly less than the opening tally of "Come Clarity" (Ferret), which shifted just under 24,000 copies in February 2006 to enter the chart at position No. 58.

"Sounds Of A Playground Fading" was the first IN FLAMES album to be recorded without founding guitarist Jesper Strömblad, who quit the band in February 2010 in order to continue receiving treatment for his alcohol addiction.

Jonny Morelli, drummer and founder member of Italian pagan metallers DRAUGR, was killed in a road accident in his hometown of Pescara last night. He was 30 years old.

Says DRAUGR's manager Patricia Thomas: "Jonny was not just a very talented musician who, in addition to his work with DRAUGR, which ended after ten years with the dissolution of the band in 2013, had, over the years, worked as a drummer both in the studio and on stage for many Italian bands, both metal and non-metal. He was also a tattoo artist and writer.

"Over the past year, Jonny, along with three other former members of DRAUGR, was working on a new musical project, due to launch in 2014, that would see him take care of vocals and lyrics, as well as the drums.

"My personal condolences go to Jonny's family, friends, and the musicians who have played with him over the years. And of course to all the fans who have followed his work as a musician, tattoo artist and writer."

DRAUGR's debut album, "Nocturnal Pagan Supremacy", was released on Christhunt Productions in 2006. Keyboards were added to the band in 2007, creating the much more epic feel which DRAUGR described as "Italic hordish metal." The sophomore album, "De Ferro Italico", appeared on To React Records in 2011.

The band's most recent lineup included Nemesis on vocals, Triumphator and Mors on guitars, Ursus Arctos on keyboards, Stolas on bass and Jonny on drums. DRAUGR's final performance took place at the Tipogragfia in Pescara, Italy, on December 22, 2013.

"Wacken 3D", a no-holds-barred exploration of the legendary Wacken Open Air, the biggest heavy metal festival of the world, will premiere in German cinemas on July 24. Director Nobert Heitker's feature documentary, shot in July and August of 2013, by producer and director of photography Tomas Erhart in stereoscopic, "true" 3D, gives audiences a chance to experience Wacken — the fans, the music, the unique atmosphere — in the most intimate way.

Wacken is a true one-off. Beyond description. Every year, for three days in August, a sleepy farming village in the middle of the Northern German countryside becomes the epicenter of the metal universe. Almost 75,000 metal heads from around the globe invade the Wacken Open Air to pay homage to the greatest bands of the international metal scene.

The first Wacken Open Air in 1990 attracted less than 800 attendees but since then it has grown every year. Now it is the biggest open air festival of its kind. Tickets are sold out within days — long before all of the participating bands are announced.

Much has been written and documented about the festival. But what exactly makes Wacken so special? What gives it its magic — its soul? It is hard to answer these questions in mere words or anecdotes. If you want to understand Wacken you have to experience it.

"Wacken 3D" allows audiences to do precisely that, taking them right into the thick of it. Norbert Heitker, Tomas Erhart and their team covered last year's complete Wacken Open Air around the clock, using 18 state-of-the-art 3D cameras. The film goes way beyond the POV of the normal festival attendees. It takes the audience backstage to meet the bands before they perform, watching the faces of thousands of excited fans, feeling the crowd-surfing up close. The cameras cover through the metal battles and the oompah music of the "Wacken Firefighters." And, of course, an intimate portrait of the festival fans — their stories, their outifits, their tents, and how they party.

Norbert Heitker has many years of experience under his belt, directing music films and commercials. He has won numerous awards and accolades, including two Echos for films with the bands RAMMSTEIN and DIE ÄRZTE.

"Wacken 3D" is produced by Tomas Erhart of Jumpseat 3D Plus Germany, who is also the director of photography, and Stefan Schubert of Wüste Film. The production is backed by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmförderung Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein, Filmförderungsanstalt and Deutscher Filmförderfonds.

"Wacken 3D" is being distributed by NFP marketing and distribution.

The Wacken Open Air 2013 festival was held from August 1 to August 3. The team shot the footage for the film from July 22 to August 5, 2013 (production period).

Wacken Open Air was the subject of the 2006 award-winning documentary "Full Metal Village" from Korean-born, Germany-based director Sung Hyung Cho, who looked at the sharp contrasts and strange connections between sleepy village life in Wacken and the annual long weekend of heavy metal madness.

Official Metallica.com footage of the band's June 1 performance in Oslo, Norway can be seen below. The 22-minute clip includes footage of the pre-show meet-and-greet, the band warming up in the tuning room and both "Fade To Black" and "For Whom The Bell Tolls" from the show.

The setlist for the concert was as follows:

01. Battery02. Master Of Puppets03. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)04. Ride The Lightning05. The Unforgiven06. Lords Of Summer07. ...And Justice For All08. Sad But True09. Fade To Black10. Orion11. One12. For Whom The Bell Tolls13. Blackened14. Nothing Else Matters15. Enter Sandman

Encore:

16. Whiskey In The Jar17. The Four Horsemen18. Seek & Destroy

As previously reported, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told "Metal Zone" host Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic": "I can tell you, all kidding aside, I'm pretty convinced that 90 percent of the record is actually written, it's just gotta be kind of assembled between all those riffs. It's just a matter of connecting this to this and sort of shaping it into a song. And so, I'm pretty psyched about that."

Ulrich added: "Like I said, I'm pretty convinced that most of the raw material actually exists. It's just a matter of connecting the dots. And we're not busy with all this other stuff that we're doing . . . I've said this before, we've applied for 28-hour days, but we haven't gotten word back yet, because the four extra hours that we would get out of that would certainly expedite the making of the next record . . . it would get it sooner. But we're still stuck with 24-hour days and something about six-hour minimum sleep requirements and kids that have to go to school and all the rest of it. So we try to use the rest of the time as wisely as we can in connecting these dots. And it does move forward, but maybe not as fast as we would like and certainly not as fast as a lot of our fans would like. It's certainly not 'cause we're avoiding it."

The group debuted a song, "Lords Of Summer", earlier this year.

Legendary extreme metal drummer Nicholas Barker (LOCK UP, BRUJERIA, DIMMU BORGIR, CRADLE OF FILTH) took part in a unique musical collaboration in Berwick upon Tweed earlier this month month.

Members of the Berwick RBL and Eyemouth RBLS pipe bands performed a selection of traditional piping songs, played along to Barker's inimitable extreme metal drum beats.

This performance took place in the Henry Travers Studio, The Maltings Theatre and Cinema on Friday, June 6.

This collaboration was part of a project, "Metal Militia", by artist S Mark Gubb, part of the Gymnasium Gallery programme for Berwick Visual Arts. In the Gymnasium Gallery, a sound and light installation brought together multiple heavy metal drum samples to create a powerful and immersive visual experience. The project drew on the events of March 1689, which led to the birth of The King's Own Scottish Borderers. On that day, in the space of two hours, a militia was raised to defend Edinburgh against the Jacobites. This was achieved by a man beating a drum to raise people's attention and, to this day, this regiment retains the unique right, by law, to raise a militia "by beat of drum."

The one-off live performance was filmed to be included at a later date in the Gymnasium Gallery as part of the "Metal Militia" exhibition.

The project logo was designed by Christophe "Lord Of The Logos" Szpajdel, the world's leading designer of black and death metal band logos. This was reproduced as a limited-edition t-shirt which was given, free, to the first 50 people through the doors at the performance.

SKID ROW — Johnny Solinger (vocals), Scotti Hill (guitar), Rachel Bolan (bass), Dave "Snake" Sabo (guitar) and Rob Hammersmith (drums) — will release its new seven-song EP, "Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two", on August 5 via Megaforce Records.

A track from the CD, "We Are The Damned", can be streamed using the audio player below.

After a hiatus that started in 1996, SKID ROW returned to the big stage — literally — opening for KISS in 2000. Exhilarated to tour with the heroes who rallied them in the first place, the band was reinvigorated by being underdogs who needed to come out fighting to prove themselves. "When we put the band back together, we needed to reintroduce SKID ROW as relevant without relying too much on past success," explains SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan. "We wrote songs and hit the road. We sunk our heart and soul into it, letting people know we weren't doing it for lack of something better to do." 2003's "Thickskin" and 2006's "Revolutions Per Minute" were battle plans for hundreds of live shows with new singer Johnny Solinger out front, every night being a hard fought battle to win new fans and convince the old ones. "United World Rebellion - Part 2" is SKID ROW coming out swinging. Rachel and Sabo tapped again into the potent songwriting collaboration that built the band. Sabo says they were eagerly up to the challenge. "We seem to be at our best when we're faced with adversity. It's us against the world again — and by us I mean the band and the fans who stick with us and carry the SKID ROW torch without fail." New plans came together in an Atlanta recording studio. But it's a different time, a different industry, so they decided to record a series of EPs. "The idea really appealed to me," says Bolan, "especially with the constantly changing musical climate. I like the idea of a steady flow of new music, as opposed to releasing a full-length album then riding it for the next two years." That guerrilla burst of recording a concise EP fostered a focused intensity that was liberating, says Snake. "The pressure seemed to be lifted. That immediately set me at ease and it became really exciting." Exciting and potent, prompting Solinger to exert the full range of his ability. "The third time in the studio as the voice of SKID ROW was the proverbial charm, and the proof is in the tracks. 'United World Rebellion - Part 2' is the most meaningful work I've done with the band. It's definitely the most I've been challenged, vocally."

"Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two" will also contain covers of QUEEN and AEROSMITH classics as bonus tracks. Asked why they chose these tracks to cover, SKID ROW said: "These songs fit seamlessly into the subject matter of 'United World Rebellion: Chapter Two'. They both have that 'get up and fight' attitude.

"These songs were from our youth that meant a lot, and as far as we know, no one has covered them, and more important, the songs are still exciting and fit perfectly with the attitude of all other songs on the album."

"Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two" EP track listing:

01. We Are The Damned 02. Give It The Gun 03. Catch Your Fall 04. Damnation Army 05. Zero Day

Bonus tracks:

06. Sheer Heart Attack (QUEEN cover)07. Rats In The Cellar (AEROSMITH cover)

A trailer for "Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two" can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Finland's Kaaos TV, SKID ROW guitarist Dave "The Snake" Sabo stated about "Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two": "I've said this in every interview that we've done about the new EP… I've said that it's the most fun that I've personally had making a SKID ROW record in our history of the band… for a number of reasons.

"We're afforded a freedom that not many artists get to enjoy. So we do everything on our own schedule. And the writing process was so stripped down and fun.

"[SKID ROW bassist] Rachel [Bolan] and I have been friends and started the band together 28 years ago, and so, after all that amount of time, 28 years later, to be able to sit in a room with this guy, and he with me, and actually have fun creating music, there's something special to be said about that. And so, that, combined with the fact that we just always seemed like we were on the same page throughout the whole process. [We had] a couple of little disagreements there, but nothing that was detrimental in any way; it was helpful. And every day, we would listen to the music and we'd have the same thoughts: 'It's close, but it's not there yet.' 'it's close, but it's not there.' 'OK, we're right there. We're at the door.' 'OK, it's done.' Everything was just right on the same page. That's the first time that's ever happened. And we just had a great experience the whole way through. Everybody really came to the table and loved the music and brought their 'A' game. I mean, we were in and done in a couple of weeks, which is amazing. And it wasn't like we were cutting corners or anything like that. Everyone just practiced the crap out of the music and the songs — we rehearsed really hard — and everyone loved the music so much that they made it their own, and thus, they performed that way. And it is. It's all of ours'. It's five guys."

Asked what the main differences are between last year's "United World Rebellion: Chapter One" EP and "Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two", Rachel said: "Well, there's not many differences except in the recording process. We recorded in a few different places with the first EP, where we recorded the whole thing in the same studio with the second. But we took the same approach to writing and recording. The writing for the first one, I'd say, we labored a little more, because we were trying to go back to our roots, and I know that's a cliché saying for bands to say, but it was true. And after 25 years, it's really hard — harder than you would think — to retrace your steps to where you were when you were that 22-year-old kid jamming in front of a mirror and playing your first big gigs or whatever. So we really had to find our roots and rediscover what got us off in the first place, the guys that wrote the first two records, and I think we succeeded in it. That was the biggest difference — I think it was a little harder to write the songs [for the first EP] — but I think what we came out with, the final product, was well worth it." SKID ROW's last EP, "United World Rebellion - Chapter One", was released in Europe on May 24, 2013 via Germany's UDR Music. The European version of the EP includes two bonus tracks, both of them cover tunes: "Fire Fire" (EZO) and "United" (JUDAS PRIEST).

"United World Rebellion - Chapter One" sold around 1,500 copies in the Unted States in its first week of release. The CD was made available in North America on April 16, 2013 via MRI.

"We Are The Damned" audio stream:


"Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two" EP trailer:

Fan-filmed video footage of FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's June 7 performance at the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden can be seen below.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM recently parted ways with guitarist Edward Carlson and bassist Jason Ward and replaced them with Steve Conley and Michael Spencer, respectively.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's current lineup is as follows:

Eric "A.K." Knutson - VocalsMichael Gilbert - GuitarKelly D. Smith - DrumsMichael Spencer - Bass Steve Conley - Guitar

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM released "No Place For Disgrace - 2014", a re-recording of the band's second album, "No Place For Disgrace", on February 14 in Europe and digitally on February 18 in North America via Metal Blade Records. The physical CD was made available in North America on March 4.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM recently returned to Metal Blade Records to release their new album, "Ugly Noise".

"Ugly Noise" is FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's eleventh full-length album, their first release on Metal Blade since 2001, and the follow-up to their 2010 album "The Cold". The record also heralds the return of original members Michael Gilbert on guitar and Kelly David Smith, who hadn't recorded with FLOTSAM AND JETSAM since "High" in 1997.

"Medicine Noose", the new video from New Orleans' disciples of hardcore, blues-based, post-amplified audio wreckage, EYEHATEGOD, can be seen below. The clip was directed by Josh Graham of Suspended In Light.

"Medicine Noose" is taken from EYEHATEGOD's new the self-titled offering studio recording, which was released last month via Housecore Records. The domestic version of the set comes in a CD digipack while the LP is a single slab of vinyl in a gatefold jacket. The first pressing is limited to 1600 copies and made available in the following colors: * Black (600 copies)* Purple (300 copies)* Clear (400 copies)* Purple and Grey (300 copies) "Eyehategod" track listing:

01. Agitation! Propaganda!02. Trying To Crack The Hard Dollar03. Parish Motel Sickness04. Quitter's Offensive05. Nobody Told Me06. Worthless Rescue07. Framed To The Wall08. Robitussin And Rejection09. Flags And Cities Bound10. Medicine Noose11. The Age Of Bootcamp

Comments EYEHATEGOD vocalist Mike IX Williams: "I have to say I don't believe we've lost nary a step in the creation of this album and we think these newer songs are a killer combination of classic EYEHATEGOD mixed along with our best production, mixing, engineering and songwriting in thirteen years. The main and total tragic break in the chain, was obviously last year's death of our great friend and drummer, Joey LaCaze. However, his original drum tracks made it onto the final master recordings and we're fucking psyched about that... As for working with Housecore, it was a no-brainer. We've always been a family, and will always remain a family." Adds Housecore founder Philip H. Anselmo (PANTERA, DOWN): "Being a part of the new EYEHATEGOD record is a dream come true. I've known, supported and loved the guys for almost as long as I've been playing music myself, and it is our pleasure here at the Housecore Records compound to have 'em aboard. And I gotta mention, having heard the new record, this is the EYEHATEGOD record every true fan has been waiting for.... Hail!" As a band that helped create a genre as well as equate a city with a sound, EYEHATEGOD has always remained humble anytime words like "legend" were thrown around to describe them. The thing with legends is that they grow stronger in time and over the years, word of mouth has been kind to the band. EYEHATEGOD is bigger now than they ever have been in their twenty-five plus years as a band. Pretty impressive seeing as they haven't released a full-length album in almost fifteen years. Most people who know the band have a story to tell or they heard a story about the guys. Whether it was them playing nothing but feedback to a bewildered WHITE ZOMBIE crowd during their opening stint for the arena metal band in the mid-Nineties, being banned from a certain venue for attacking a promoter with a barstool or cleaning out entire small towns of their drug supply, these stories spread throughout the metal community over the years, usually through a game of one-up-manship, establishing them as one of the most notorious bands around. Certainly not the first band to be surrounded by myth and lore, EYEHATEGOD's staying and growing power ultimately comes from the music. No one riffs like Jimmy Bower and Brian Patton. Drummer Joey LaCaze grooved and held it together with numerous bass players throughout the years, doing so impeccably with Gary Mader over the past decade. Singer Mike IX Williams has always been able to encapsulate the ruins of life through his lyrics and vocal delivery. All combined, the music is the most genuine, distressing cacophony of sound around. "BLACK SABBATH mixed with BLACK FLAG with a little bit of SKYNYRD and the element of blues thrown in there," Bower once said of the band's sound. In 2014 that style might sound somewhat commonplace. In 1988 it most definitely was not. The band's second album, 1993's "Take As Needed For Pain", is the pinnacle album that other bands of this genre to this day try to reach. Today, EYEHATEGOD sounds as fresh and innovative as ever. When the band released its first new track in over a decade, "New Orleans Is The New Vietnam", it was clear that nothing about the band had changed. They were touring more than ever and used that time and energy to work on an album's worth of songs. At the end of 2012 they were ready. The recording process for "Eyehategod" started with producer Billy Anderson back in the fold (he recorded 1996's "Dopesick"). The session saw both producer and band not quite on the same page and at the end, the album was unfinished. A few months later, the band reconvened at longtime friend Phil Anselmo's home studio with producer Stephen Berrigan (DOWN). Both Anselmo and Berrigan helped draw out the missing pieces to one of underground metal's most anticipated albums in years. An unexpected tragedy occurred shortly upon returning home from a recent five-week European tour in the fall of 2013: Joey LaCaze passed away due to respiratory failure. An outpouring of condolences and tributes spread online. Enough can't be said of the loss felt by the band, family and friends. Fortunately, LaCaze's drum tracks were captured by Anderson and appear on the album, creating the definitive tribute for the member of the band who encapsulated best just what EYEHATEGOD was all about; seriously not taking yourself too seriously. New Orleans native, Aaron Hill (MOUNTAIN OF WIZARD, MISSING MONUMENTS), took over for LaCaze without missing a beat, both figuratively and literally. EYEHATEGOD is:

Mike IX Williams - VocalsJimmy Bower - GuitarBrian Patton - GuitarGary Mader - BassAaron Hill - Drums

Current VOLBEAT guitarist Rob Caggiano rejoined his former bandmates in ANTHRAX on stage yesterday (Wednesday, June 11) at the Copenhell festival in Copenhagen, Denmark to perform a cover of the TRUST song "Antisocial". Fan-filmed video footage of his appearance can be seen below.

Caggiano announced his departure from ANTHRAX in January 2013 to focus on his other passion: producing records. The following month, it was revealed that he had joined VOLBEAT after serving as producer on VOLBEAT's latest album, "Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies", alongside longtime production partner Jacob Hansen, who produced and mixed the band's prior four albums. Caggiano's other producer credits include THE DAMNED THINGS, BLEEDING THROUGH and ANTHRAX, and he was a member of ANTHRAX for two tenures — from 2001 to 2005 and again from 2007 to 2013.

In a February 2013 interview with Metal Insider, Benante stated about Caggiano's exit from ANTHRAX: "It was a bit of a surprise to me. I was bummed. He said that he wanted to pursue more producing options, and that was his reason for leaving. He had other reasons, so I guess it was something that he'd been thinking about for a while. He wanted to get back to producing and getting off the road. And you're probably going to tell me, 'Well, you do know he joined another band [VOLBEAT], right?' That makes it a bit confusing. I know a lot of our fans were sad to see him go, but were like, 'If you want to go produce, we understand that.' But when you read that he went to go join another band, that makes it seem a bit sketchy."

ANTHRAX will release "Chile On Hell", a live-in-concert DVD that is due on September 16. The footage was filmed at the Teatro Caupolican in Santiago, Chile on May 10, 2013 and features ANTHRAX performing an extended set that featured songs from the band's entire catalogue.

SHADOWS FALL guitarist Jon Donais, who has been touring with ANTHRAX since Rob Caggiano's departure in January 2013, handled the lead-guitar parts at the Santiago show.

"Anthems", ANTHRAX's eight-track EP that pays tribute to the classic songs by some of the band's favorite acts from the 1970s, sold around 8,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 52 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was released in North America on March 19, 2013 (MRI/Megaforce), and on March 22, 2013 in Europe (Nuclear Blast).

ANTHRAX's latest full-length album, "Worship Music", sold 28,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at No. 12. The band's previous studio CD, 2003's "We've Come For You All", opened with just under 10,000 units to debut at No. 122.

"Worship The Digital Age", the new video from Knoxville, Tennessee death metallers WHITECHAPEL, can be seen below. The song is taken from the band's latest album, "Our Endless War", which was issued on April 29 via Metal Blade. The CD sold around 16,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 10 on The Billboard 200 chart. A ruthlessly honed effort that refuses to compromise on brutality, it is also by far the band's most streamlined, atmospheric, and emotionally powerful release, pushing every aspect of their sound to the next level.

Having progressed with every record, on "Whitechapel" the band took a stylistic leap forward, garnering a whole army of new fans and greater critical respect in the process. This determination is immediately apparent. Having started to "seriously" write in February of 2013, the album was a year in the making, the band letting the writing develop organically while putting everything under a microscope, working harder on perfecting every song than they ever had before.

Famed for their three-guitar lineup, the band has always packed a crushing sonic punch, but on "Our Endless War", they take greater advantage of this than previously. Frequently, the seven-stringers build dramatic, incredibly heavy walls of thrilling noise through interweaving their parts, making for a sonic richness that pulls listeners even further into the songs. As with all of WHITECHAPEL's releases, the heaviness does not just stem from the music but Phil Bozeman's lyrics, showing characteristic diversity across the record's ten tracks.

"Our Endless War" track listing:

01. Rise02. Our Endless War03. The Saw Is The Law04. Mono05. Let Me Burn06. Worship The Digital Age07. How Times Have Changed08. Psychopathy09. Blacked Out10. Diggs Road

Scottish folk/power metallers ALESTORM will release their new album, "Sunset On The Golden Age", on August 5 in North America (one day earlier internationally) via Napalm Records. The CD was recorded at Lasse Lammert's LSD Studio in Lübeck, Germany.

"Sunset On The Golden Age" will contain the following tracks:

* Walk The Plank* Drink* Magnetic North* 1741 (The Battle Of Cartagena)* Mead From Hell* Surf Squid Warfare* Quest For Ships* Wooden Leg!* Hangover* Sunset On The Golden Age

The video for the song "Drink" can be seen below.

"This is gonna blow all your expectations as to what an ALESTORM album is all about," commented ALESTORM's Christopher Bowes (vocals/keytar).

"Over the past couple of years we've been writing non-stop, and we've come up with a ton of badass material.

"Some of this stuff is catchiest pirate party anthems you've ever heard, with choruses that'll make you want to raise a pint of rum up high and sing your guts out. And for the fans of the epic stuff, we've got some songs that hit the 10-minute mark, with lyrical themes about historical events and crazy mythological madness. It's gonna rule!"

ALESTORM's "Shipwrecked" video was filmed in Belgrade, Serbia with director Ivan Colic, who has previously worked with EPICA, KAMELOT and KATAKLYSM. The song comes off the band's third album, "Back Through Time", which was released in June 2011 via Napalm Records.

"Back Through Time" was produced by Lasse Lammert at LSD Studio. The effort was made available as a jewelcase, mediabook, LP, and special-edition boxset "featuring bonus tracks and other mad shite!"

Fan-filmed video footage of IRON MAIDEN's June 11 performance at the Copenhell festival in Copenhagen, Denmark can be seen below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Moonchild 02. Can I Play With Madness 03. The Prisoner 04. 2 Minutes To Midnight 05. Revelations 06. The Trooper 07. The Number Of The Beast 08. Phantom Of The Opera 09. Run To The Hills 10. Wasted Years 11. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son 12. Wrathchild 13. Fear Of The Dark 14. Iron Maiden

Encore:

15. Aces High 16. The Evil That Men Do 17. Sanctuary

IRON MAIDEN's current "Maiden England" tour is based on the 1988 set list from the "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son" trek.

Said IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson: "We have tweaked the 'Maiden England' set list a bit to make it more representative of our whole '80s era and to give the fans something a bit different, especially as this will be the last of our three tours with an historical perspective."

IRON MAIDEN in August 2013 landed at position No. 1 on Billboard.com's "Hot Tours" list of top-grossing tours with $8.5 million in ticket sales from six performances on their summer tour of Europe. The shows were attended by a total of 121,280 fans, including a two-night, sold-out stand on August 3-4, 2013 at the O2 Arena in Lonon, England, where the band played to 27,000 fans. With totals added from last summer's Europe dates, overall ticket sales from the tour topped $42 million from 45 reported concerts.

Former KYUSS and current VISTA CHINO frontman John Garcia will release his self-titled solo album on August 1 via Napalm Records. The CD was recorded at Thunder Underground studios in Palm Springs, California with producers Harper Hug and Trevor Whatever.

"John Garcia" track listing:

01. My Mind02. Rolling Stoned03. Flower04. The Blvd05. 5000 Miles06. Confusion07. His Bullets Energy08. Argleben09. Saddleback10. All These Walls11. Her Bullets Energy

Audio samples of all the tracks that appear on "John Garcia" can be streamed below.

John Garcia's solo album features a guest appearance by guitarist Robby Krieger of THE DOORS.

Said Garcia: "To have Robby Krieger from THE DOORS play on my first-ever solo record was surreal. Not only was it surreal, but to be the first artist ever to record in his brand new studio, Horse Latitudes, in Los Angeles made it even more special. I am honored, and humbled by his professionalism and talent and will never forget that experience for the rest of my life... It truly made the song 'Her Bullets Energy' better, not to mention the entire record."

VISTA CHINO is the group comprised of two founding members of the legendary rock band KYUSS — Garcia and Brant Bjork — and guitarist Bruno Fevery.

VISTA CHINO's debut album, "Peace", was released on September 3, 2013 (one day earlier internationally) via Napalm Records. The cover artwork for the CD was created by the renowned California art collective The Date Farmers.

Swiss folk metallers ELUVEITIE will release their new album, "Origins", on August 5 via Nuclear Blast Records. The cover artwork for the CD was created by ELUVEITIE frontman Chrigel Glanzmann and can be seen below. The effort was once again recorded at New Sound Studio in Pfäffikon, a municipality in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland, with producer Tommy Vetterli (a.k.a. Tommy T. Baron; CORONER/ex-KREATOR guitarist).

"Origins" track listing:

01. Origins02. The Nameless03. From Darkness04. Celtos05. Virunus06. Nothing07. The Call Of The Mountains08. Sucellos09. Inception10. Vianna11. The Silver Sister12. King13. The Day Of Strife14. Ogmios15. Carry The Torch16. Eternity

The song "King" can be streamed using the SoundCloud widget below.

Says Chrigel: "'Origins' deals in depth with Celtic mythology, or, to be more precise, with aetiological tales from Gaul in particular. Hence we're facing strongly mythical as well as spiritual subjects on this album, topics which we have approached very scientifically and in cooperation with several scientists and diverse universities.

"Many aspects of Gaulish mythology and spirituality remain in the dark nonetheless, while others run through the theme like a golden thread — like this eminent, yet innominate god, for instance, of which the Gauls claimed to be direct descendants and which was compared to the Roman chtonic deity Dis Pater.

"Today we cannot say which Gaulish god this was exactly. But according to all we know, it's likely that we're dealing with Sucellos here. Throughout space and time he appears over and over again — from very old spiritual customs of ancient Gaulish tribes in today's northern Spain all the way to later statues in today's Switzerland, France and elsewhere.Perhaps he is this mysterious nameless one.

"The album cover of 'Origins' is designed after the hammer/club-shaped 'halo' of Sucellos, as seen on a statue, that was found in a shrine of a gallo-roman household in today's France. It was created under the scientific supervision of experts from the university of Zürich." ELUVEITIE recently announced the addition of violinist Nicole Ansperger to the group's ranks.

ELUVEITIE's last album, "Helvetios", sold 4,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 143 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD landed at position No. 3 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

According to Billboard.com, SOUNDGARDEN drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd have joined forces with Dimitri Coats of OFF! and Alain Johannes — formerly of ELEVEN, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE and THEM CROOKED VULTURES — in a brand new as-yet-unnamed side project.

"I think we've laid down the foundation for, like, ten songs," Coats tells Billboard.com. "I'm going to be singing. Alain's definitely singing a bit. We might invite a couple of guests at some point."

As to how the new band came together, Coats said that he exchanged messages with Cameron via Facebook. "I was like, 'Dude! I'm a huge fan!'" Coats recalled. "I told him, 'I consider myself to be a really excellent air drummer, and I have trouble air-drumming to some of your fills.' And he was like, 'Wow, that means a lot coming from you 'cause I'm a huge fan of yours.' We became instant friends… They invited me to Seattle and it was really incredible. There was just an instant chemistry and a really creative and open situation where everybody's passing around the guitar and throwing in ideas. I sort of felt like I was in the grunge BEATLES."

Coats described the project's musical direction as "really heavy and doomy, but it's really all across the board." He added: "It's a little bit more laid-back than I would've thought, but in a good way. There's some kind of heavy, bluesy moments and then there's some really beautiful stuff, too. It's a little bit like 'Superunknown', that kind of era of SOUNDGARDEN, mixed with Alain's kind of Stevie Wonder vibe. And they call me the secret weapon; I'm a little bit rough around the edges, but I have a lot of good ideas."

ROB ZOMBIE and ex-MARILYN MANSON guitarist John 5 (real name: John William Lowery) will digitally release a new solo single, "This Is My Rifle", on June 17. The track, which can be streamed using the SoundCLoud widget below, is taken from his his upcoming album, "Careful With That Axe", to be made available later in the year through 60 Cycle Hum.

With rapid-fire, machine-gun riffs, anthemic sweeps and John 5's blistering-fast six-string assaults, "This Is My Rifle" is the first single from John 5's new CD and features Rodger Carter on drums and Matt Bissonette on bass.

The "This Is My Rifle" artwork includes a photo by Ray Gutierrez of StrangeBeautifulArt, who previously took the pictures for John 5's "The Art Of Malice" album

In a recent interview with Loudwire, John 5 stated about the "Careful With That Axe" album: "It's just crazy, man. 'Careful With That Axe' and all the songtitles are related around axe murders and stuff, so it all comes around and makes sense."

Speaking to Metal Obsession, John 5 said about his forthcoming CD: "If people liked my earlier work, you're going to be really excited about it. It's really intense. It's, like, when you listen to it, it's, like, 'What just happened?', which is one of the songtitles. It's really exciting. I can't wait for people to hear it."

In a September 2013 interview with Artisan News, John 5 stated about his next effort: "I've got Elton John's bass player doing stuff. I mean, I have a bunch of guest stars on this one, so it's gonna be really good."

Regarding how his upcoming album will be different from his last effort, 2012's "God Told Me To", John 5 said: "The last one was half acoustic, half electric and I always like to change it up, so this one, I'm just gonna have a bunch of guest stars. So I'm gonna start asking my friends for favors and all this stuff. 'Hey, come on in. I watched your house and I let your dog out that one time, so come play on my record.' So I'm gonna start my long list of people to come and play. I think it's fun."

He continued: "These albums are a lot of fun. I just do 'em for the love of guitar and to inspire a couple of people on the way… I just really enjoy doing that. It's great. It was one of the smartest things I've ever done. Right when I left MANSON, I was, like, 'OK, so I guess I'll finally make my instrumental record.' And it did really well, and I'm on my sixth one. And I don't do them for money or anything — I just do them for the love of the guitar — and I think the audience really can see that. I'll do something like a Chet Atkins song and then some crazy death metal-type song. So it's a very wide range of music; there's no format and there's no rules."

The official video for the song "Until It's Gone" from LINKIN PARK can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's new album, "The Hunting Party", which is scheduled for release on June 17.

Aside from their 2004 EP "Collision Course", on which they collaborated with rapper Jay-Z, LINKIN PARK has never worked on studio recordings with other artists. According to The Pulse Of Radio, that's about to change on "The Hunting Party", which features guest appearances from RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's Tom Morello, HELMET's Page Hamilton and SYSTEM OF A DOWN's Daron Malakian in addition to rapper Rakim's guest spot on the single "Guilty All The Same".

Vocalist Chester Bennington told New Zealand's 3 News, "We've collaborated with people for the first time, which was inspiring . . . When we got Page in, Mike [Shinoda, co-vocalist and producer] had written this chorus and sang it, and his voice had this tone, and it was unlike anything I'd heard from him before. And I was like, 'Dude, this is crazy, this sounds like a HELMET song! It's cool!' And we were like, 'Dude, why don't we see if we can get like Page in here?' You know? And if that's why the song says it's feeling like it should be, then why don't we just go straight to the source."

"The Hunting Party" track listing:

01. Keys To The Kingdom 02. All For Nothing (feat. Page Hamilton) 03. Guilty All The Same (feat. Rakim)04. The Summoning 05. War 06. Wastelands 07. Until It's Gone 08. Rebellion (feat. Daron Malakian) 09. Mark The Graves 10. Drawbar (feat. Tom Morello) 11. Final Masquerade 12. A Line In The Sand

Shinoda told The Pulse Of Radio that the band will work hard to make sure the songs translate to the live show. "We try to approach how we perform our songs with integrity, and the stuff we write in the studio can be really layered," he said. "There can be a lot of stuff in there — lots of tracks of cool sounds and samples and keyboards and multiple guitars and all this. And sometimes it's a big challenge to bring that to the stage, but we end up just finding a way to make it all work."

LINKIN PARK will hit the road in support of "The Hunting Party" on this summer's "Carnivores Tour" with 30 SECONDS TO MARS and AFI. The trek kicks off on August 8 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Photo credit: Brandon Cox

Iconic hard rock band MOTÖRHEAD will reissue its 21st studio album, "Aftershock", via UDR/Motörhead Music on July 29 in North America under the title "Aftershock - Tour Edition". The CD was helmed by longtime producer Cameron Webb (MEGADETH, DISTURBED). The expanded edition will contain a bonus live CD — also recorded by Webb — consisting of live material comprised from the band's historic appearances in early 2014.

In further celebration of the reissue, UDR/Motörhead Music will release a video for the song "Lost Woman Blues", filmed live at The Warfield in San Francisco on April 18, 2014. The show was part of the band's warm-up mini tour for the upcoming European festivals. The song's performance, verve, swagger and attitude show MOTÖRHEAD have maintained their rich ripeness and added another layer of grit and polish. The video is set to premier on VH1 Classic on July 7.

"Aftershock – Tour Edition" track listing:

01. Heartbreaker02. Coup De Grace03. Lost Woman Blues04. End Of Time05. Do You Believe06. Death Machine07. Dust And Glass08. Going To Mexico09. Silence When You Speak To Me10. Crying Shame11. Queen Of The Damned12. Knife13. Keep Your Powder Dry14. Paralyzed

Bonus Live CD Track Listing

01. Damage Case02. Stay Clean03. I Know How To Die04. Metropolis05. Over The Top06. The Chase Is Better Than The Catch07. Rock It08. Lost Woman Blues09. Doctor Rock10. Just 'Cos You Got The Power11. Going To Brazil12. Killed By Death13. Ace Of Spades14. Overkill

"Aftershock" sold 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 22 on The Billboard 200 chart.

MOTÖRHEAD's previous CD, 2011's "The Wörld Is Yours", opened with 7,000 units to enter the chart at No. 94. The band's 2008 effort, "Motörizer", premiered with 6,400 copies to debut at No. 82, while 2006's "Kiss Of Death" registered a first-week tally of 3,500.

MOTÖRHEAD canceled a handful of shows on its European festival tour in August 2013 after the band's frontman, Lemmy, suffered a haematoma (where blood collects outside of a blood vessel). The news of Lemmy's latest medical issue followed reports that he was also fitted with a defibrillator because of heart problems. The band also postponed a European headlining tour which was scheduled to kick off in November 2013.

Asked how Lemmy is doing now, MOTÖRHEAD drummer Mikkey Dee told Finland's Kaaos TV in May: "It's much, much better. He's been good for awhile. He's working hard on his health. We just did three weeks in the U.S. He's up and about. It's more to get going again. It's for the whole band. We've never been off eight months. But Lemmy's much better, and he played great when we did this U.S. leg, so I really hope that he can stay healthy. And he looks good, so that's all I can say. And he's working very, very hard on it, too, so all the best."

Atlanta progressive metallers MASTODON will release their sixth album, "Once More 'Round The Sun", on June 24 via Reprise Records. The follow-up to 2011's "The Hunter" was recorded in Nashville with Grammy Award-winning producer Nick Raskulinecz, who is known for his work with RUSH, DEFTONES, FOO FIGHTERS and ALICE IN CHAINS.

The official video for the song "High Road" can be seen below.

Also available on June 24 will be a stunning deluxe 2LP vinyl edition of "Once More 'Round The Sun". This limited edition will include two discs pressed onto 180-gram black vinyl housed in a quadruple gatefold vinyl jacket featuring artwork by Skinner, plus a CD of the complete album. The package will include four exclusive lithographs derived from the album artwork.

Those who preorder the deluxe vinyl edition will be entitled to bonus digital content: An instant download of "High Road", plus another album track delivered digitally prior to street date, and a download of the entire album delivered digitally on street date.

"Once More 'Round The Sun" track listing:

01. Tread Lightly02. The Motherload03. High Road04. Once More 'Round The Sun05. Chimes At Midnight06. Asleep In The Deep07. Feast Your Eyes08. Aunt Lisa09. Ember City10. Halloween11. Diamond In The Witch House (feat. Scott Kelly of NEUROSIS)

A three-minute video video featuring renowned Oakland-based artist Skinner, whose work graces the cover of "Once More 'Round The Sun", can be seen below. The short film showcases a conversation between MASTODON drummer Brann Dailor and Skinner about the genesis of the ideas that would eventually become the cover art. Skinner talks about his longtime appreciation of MASTODON's music that would later inspire his creation of these lurid and iconic images.

MASTODON will film a video for the song "High Road" on Saturday, May 24 in the Los Angeles area.

Reunited '80s cult metal outfit SANCTUARY has completed work on its comeback album, "The Year The Sun Died", for a September 30 release (one day earlier internationally) via Century Media. Recorded in Seattle at Soundhouse Studios with producer Chris "Zeuss" Harris (SOULFLY, SHADOWS FALL, HATEBREED, MUNICIPAL WASTE), the CD will feature 11 tracks and a bonus track, a cover of THE DOORS classic "Waiting For The Sun".

Comments SANCTUARY singer Warrel Dane: "Now that hell has officially frozen over and the pigs have flown, I can proudly say 'The Year The Sun Died' is finished. The record that nobody thought would ever get here has come in kicking... and yes, there is screaming! "Working with Zeuss (a.k.a The Commander) was great. He really pushed us all to be better.

"This is a very modern-sounding record with roots still firmly planted in old-school six-string metal and I gotta give him creds for that."

In 2010, four of the founding SANCTUARY members — Warrel Dane, Jim Sheppard, Lenny Rutledge and Dave Budbill — came together for a few select reunion performances. At first, it was just going to be a handful of shows, but the response and chemistry on stage was so overwhelming that the guys changed their minds. Now, some 20 years after they left off, SANCTUARY has continued with its unique mix of U.S. power metal, hard rock and progressive elements.

To complete the lineup, Brad Hull (FORCED ENTRY) is filling in for former guitar player Sean Blosi. SANCTUARY released the classic albums "Refuge Denied" and "Into The Mirror Black" during its short existence between 1985 and 1992. Following the band's split, Dane and Sheppard formed NEVERMORE. In a 2012 interview with GetYourRockOut, Dane stated about SANCTUARY's new material: "We've got so much stuff written that it's hard to sort through, but we played two new songs [at the 2012 edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival]. We played the one ballad, it's called 'I Am Low', and we played another one called 'The World Is Wired'. Some of the other stuff is a little heavier, but those songs, I think, are… Sometimes the stuff that isn't as heavy is stronger, so that's why we picked those."

He added, "I don't think anybody is gonna be disappointed, because I am involved in the creative process and I know what's going on and I know where we're going and I know it's gonna be killer."

Regarding how SANCTUARY's reformation came about, Dane told Rock My Monkey TV, "[SANCTUARY guitarist Lenny Rutledge and I] always talked to each other, but never really been friends again. And when the whole thing came about, that we were actually friends again, that's when we started talking more about doing it. And it definitely wasn't because NEVERMORE was imploding... which it was, at that point . . . We all just started talking with each other again. That was kind of the groundwork for it. And then we started saying, 'Well, gosh, let's make music again.' And my god! Lenny is writing some stuff that is so friggin great! Obviously, he's been bottling this up for years, because he really hasn't been doing anything... Well, he's had bands here and there. But he's really writing some great stuff that's really inspiring me, and making me fall in love with music again, with the creative process... everything that revolves around that. Really inspiring me to write really evil lyrics."

On the topic of the sound of SANCTUARY's upcoming studio album, Dane said, "This record is not going to sound like the other two. It might sound very similar to the second one ('Into The Mirror Black'). It's definitely not going to sound like the first one, because we're all a little bit older and I can't come up with a c-clamp for a scrotum and a helium tank . . . It's not going to sound like the old ones... It's still gonna be that good, I think, and there's gonna be high-pitched screaming. I'm making sure of that. With NEVERMORE, high-pitched screaming was never really called for. You know, with SANCTUARY... of course it is."

SANCTUARY's current lineup:

Warrel Dane - VocalsLenny Rutledge - GuitarBrad Hull - GuitarsJim Sheppard - BassDave Budbill - Drums

Photo credit: Patrick Häberli

"The World Is Wired" (new song) 2012 performance:


"I Am Low" (new song) 2012 performance:

German power metallers GRAVE DIGGER will release their 1th studio album, "Return Of The Reaper", via Napalm Records on the following dates:

July 11: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, BeneluxJuly 16: Spain, Sweden, NorwayJuly 14: Rest of EuropeJuly 15: USA, Canada

The "Return Of The Reaper" cover artwork (see below) was created by Gyula Havancsák of Hjules Illustration And Design, who has been responsible for all GRAVE DIGGER artwork since 2004's "The Last Supper".

The CD was recorded at Principal Studios (KREATOR, IN EXTREMO, GRAVE DIGGER) in Senden, Germany.

GRAVE DIGGER vocalist Chris Boltendahl recently revealed that "Return Of The Reaper" will be stylistically reminiscent of GRAVE DIGGER's classic albums "Heavy Metal Breakdown" (1984), "Witch Hunter" (1985) and "The Reaper" (1993).

"Return Of The Reaper" track listing:

01. Return Of The Reaper02. Hell Funeral03. War God04. Tattooed Rider05. Resurrection Day06. Season Of The Witch07. Road Rage Killer08. Dia De Los Muertos09. Satan's Host10. Grave Desecrator11. Death Smiles At All Of Us12. Nothing To Believe

A six-minute clip featuring audio samples of all the tracks that will appear on "Return Of The Reaper" can be found below. Also available is a teaser for the official video for the song "Hell Funeral".

GRAVE DIGGER's last album, "Clash Of The Gods", was released on August 31 , 2012 in Europe and September 4, 2012 in North America via Napalm Records. A six-song mini-CD, "Home At Last", preceded the full-length effort on July 27, 2012 in Europe and August 7, 2012 in North America.

"The Clans Are Still Marching", the latest DVD from GRAVE DIGGER, entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 56 (German chart rules allow music DVDs to enter album charts).

PEARL JAM guitarist Mike McCready joined SOUNDGARDEN on stage last night (Tuesday, June 10) at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, The Netherlands to perform the song "Superunknown". You can now watch video footage of his appearance below.

SOUNDGARDEN and PEARL JAM share drummer Matt Cameron, who told The Pulse Of Radio back in 2012 that playing for both bands is not the most demanding thing he's ever done. "You know what? I've actually been a lot busier in my life," he said. "When I was in my 20s, I used to play in a bunch of different bands at once and it's just part of the job of being a drummer — sometimes you've got to do a little juggling. But I'm certainly happy to do it."

It was announced in March that SOUNDGARDEN had tapped veteran drummer Matt Chamberlain to fill in for Cameron on the band's 2014 tour dates, including SOUNDGARDEN's upcoming summer trek with NINE INCH NAILS. Cameron will sit out the shows shows due to his live commitments with his PEARL JAM. Chamberlain was briefly a member of PEARL JAM himself, joining the band for some touring in 1991 before the release of its debut album, "Ten". He can be seen in the video for "Alive".

Cameron announced last November that he would sit out SOUNDGARDEN's 2014 tour dates due to his PEARL JAM commitments as well as his desire to spend more time with his family at home.

SOUNDGARDEN's co-headlining summer trek with NINE INCH NAILS kicks off on July 19 in Las Vegas, finishing up on August 25 in Los Angeles.