Two of metal music's biggest names, and horror's top aficionados, met at indigO2 in London, England as Rob Zombie was presented with the "Golden God" by Alice Cooper at last night's (Monday, June 13) Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards ceremony. Appropriately in front of 1,500 metal devotees in zombie costume, Rob Zombie was honored for his career, which has spanned 26 years of the most raucous rock music and the most terror-inducing films. JUDAS PRIEST walked away with a long-overdue accolade in the form of the "Icon" award, celebrating their status as one the most influential acts in Britain's metal heritage.

Elsewhere in the awards, the much-hyped combination of METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX (a.k.a. the "Big Four") coming together this July for the first time ever in the U.K. at Sonisphere, was chosen by the fans as the "Event Of The Year", while the globe-conquering IRON MAIDEN collected yet another gong at this year's Metal Hammer Golden Gods in the form of "Best UK Band".

TWISTED SISTER, having performed earlier in the evening at the awards ceremony to rapturous applause, returned to the stage to be presented with the "Inspiration" award, while AVENGED SEVENFOLD did their native USA proud by scoring this year's "Best International Band". An award that recognizes artists who encapsulates all things metal, the "Spirit Of Hammer" was this year handed to DIAMOND HEAD, an act that can easily lay claim to having paved the way for the generations of metal acts that followed, and still follow them. With their 14th album and the first to feature the original lineup since 1982, KILLING JOKE's "Absolute Dissent" ripped through the competition to be honored as this year's "Best Album".

The axe-wielding members of the metal community saw their fret-board mastery celebrated in style last night, firstly Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein of heavy metal super group DOWN were awarded the title of "Riff Lords." Also making his mark was FIREWIND and OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Gus G., walking away with the "Dimebag Darrell Shredder" award. In a category that saw a number of the nominees facing tough times, BEHEMOTH's Nergal was the recipient of the "Metal As F*ck" award, a show of recognition of the vocalist's strength and courage in the face of adversity.

The full list of winners from the ninth annual Metal Hammer Golden Gods are as follows:

* Best New Band - THE DAMNED THINGS
* Metal As F*ck - Nergal (BEHEMOTH)
* Best Underground - PRIMORDIAL
* Dimebag Darrell Shredder(s) - Gus G. (FIREWIND, OZZY OSBOURNE)
* Breakthrough Artist - SABATON
* Best UK Band - IRON MAIDEN
* Best Live Band - SKINDRED
* Inspiration Award - TWISTED SISTER
* Best International Band - AVENGED SEVENFOLD
* Best Album - "Absolute Dissent" by KILLING JOKE
* Event of the Year - "Big 4" coming together for first time ever in the U.K.
* Riff Lord(s) - Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein (DOWN)
* Spirit of Hammer - DIAMOND HEAD
* Icons - JUDAS PRIEST
* Golden God - Rob Zombie

Metal Hammer publisher Chris Ingham commented: "The worlds of metal and horror have always gone hand in hand, tonight they met face to face and it was an awesome sight. This weekend has been an extravaganza of heavy metal and we are honored to still be the true voice of the metal community in the U.K. and to end the weekend in style. Seeing metal legends and metal's new blood equally celebrated and awarded for their huge successes this year is something Metal Hammer are proud to make happen."

According to SofiaEcho.com, the Bulgarian edition of the Sonisphere festival has been officially cancelled

"Due to reasons outside Balkan Entertainment's control and at the instruction of the license-holder for Sonisphere in Bulgaria, the Sonisphere Bulgaria 2011 festival, planned for June 21, 2011 at the National Hippodrome in Bankya, is cancelled," promoters Balkan Entertainment said in a statement.

On June 9 one of Sonisphere Bulgaria's two headliners, SLIPKNOT, said that the promoters cancelled the show, an allegation that Balkan Entertainment denied. SLIPKNOT then announced a special headline show at Columbiahalle in Berlin on the same date when Sonisphere Bulgaria was to be held, June 21.

Balkan Entertainment's Petar Petrov told Z-Rock radio station that the promoters were unpleasantly surprised by the news and that the company did not cancel SLIPKNOT's gig.

"Jade", the long-awaited new single from X JAPAN, one of the most influential rock bands in Japanese history, will be released in North America, Europe and Latin America on Tuesday, June 28 in all digital formats. "Jade" is the first track from the band's English debut album, currently in the final stages of recording. Click here to listen to a sample of "Jade".

A "Jade" full-length ringtone will be made available exclusively in Japan on June 28, and the single will be released there and in Southeast Asia two weeks later on July 13.

"This is a years-long dream of X JAPAN's, to release a record in the Americas and in Europe," said Yoshiki, X JAPAN's leader/producer/songwriter/drummer/pianist. "Music is very powerful, and we believe it can help us bridge the gap between east and west. We hope that 'Jade' will be the first step."

Written and produced by Yoshiki and mixed by Andy Wallace, "Jade" was recorded in both Japan and at Yoshiki's Los Angeles studio, the same facility where METALLICA recorded its classic "black" album before Yoshiki bought it and turned it into a private studio.

Quality fan-filmed video footage of STRYPER's June 13, 2011 performance at Tavastia in Helsinki, Finland can be viewed below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Sing-Along Song
02. Murder By Pride
03. Loud 'n' Clear
04. The Rock That Makes Me Roll
05. Reach Out
06. Calling On You
07. Free
08. More Than A Man
09. Breaking The Law (JUDAS PRIEST cover)
10. Heaven & Hell (BLACK SABBATH cover)
11. Surrender
12. All For One
13. The Way

Encore:

14. To Hell With The Devil
15. Soldiers Under Command

ARCH ENEMY's front-of-house engineer, Clem Bennett, has posted a new four-minute video clip featuring backstage and performance footage of the band's June 5, 2011 appearance at the Metalfest Open Air in Pilsen, Czech Republic. You can now watch it below.

"Khaos Legions", the ninth studio album from Swedish/German extreme metallers ARCH ENEMY, has registered the following first-week chart positions so far:

* Finland: #9
* Japan Oricon chart: #3 (international artists); #11 (international and domestic artists)
* Germany #15
* Sweden: #25
* Austria: #37
* Switzerland: #41
* Czech Republic: #43
* France: #58
* Denmark: #59
* The Netherlands: #75
* Belgium (Flanders): #81
* Belgium (Wallonia): #84
* United Kingdom: #105

Guitarist Troy McLawhorn has officially rejoined EVANESCENCE after leaving SEETHER in March. McLawhorn first joined EVANESCENCE in 2007, but departed a year later and got the job with SEETHER. He quit that group earlier this spring over what he said online was "personal friction" with one of the other members.

In a posting on his Facebook page, McLawhorn wrote, "I will be back with EVANESCENCE again for the new album and tour. I'm really happy to be back again and can't wait for everyone to hear the new music!"

EVANESCENCE frontwoman Amy Lee wrote on her Twitter profile, "YES!! I'm proud to announce that Troy McLawhorn is back in Ev! Album is sounding awesome! We love you Troy! Welcome back."

A photo of McLawhorn and Lawhorn in the studio during the recording sessions for the new EVANESCENCE album can be seen below.

The management of EVANESCENCE denied to BLABBERMOUTH.NET in April that McLawhorn had rejoined the band.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, the news that McLawhorn had rejoined EVANESCENCE came from SEETHER frontman Shaun Morgan, who wrote on Twitter, "Interesting news about our old guitarist. Can anyone guess? No, he's not coming back. He went to another band. Little anti-Shaun club. Any more guesses? . . . So, good fucking luck to Amy Lee and Troy."

It's not clear where Morgan heard that McLawhorn was rejoining EVANESCENCE. Morgan and EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee had a nasty break-up in late 2005 after dating for over two years, and bad blood remains.

McLawhorn said on Facebook that he left SEETHER over "a very personal invasion of trust" but has not elaborated further.

EVANESCENCE is recording its new CD with producer Nick Rasculinecz, who has worked on recent albums from ALICE IN CHAINS and DEFTONES. Lee told Spin.com that his involvement has made it "more of a rock record." In the same interview, she described the album — which is due on October 4 — as "fun," adding, "That's a totally new thing for us. When I listen to our old music I see that's where I was in my life at that time. This has been a long trip and parts have been hard. But it's about not taking everything so seriously this time."

Lee first attempted to record the album last year with producer Steve Lillywhite, and at the time said that it was going to be heavily inspired by electronic music. She explained why that project was abandoned, saying, "It wasn't coming together right. Steve wasn't the right fit. We were on this experimental trip, trying a bunch of new things, seeing what would fit. I did a lot of the writing without the band. And then when we tried to pull the two worlds together, it wasn't working."

She added that EVANESCENCE is a full band again, saying, "I've never felt so supported by my band members. We've really relied on each other. And everyone being a part of this album, from the ground up, is an entirely new approach for us. There's nobody that's just coming in to play guitar. Everybody's invested. We're more truly a band now than ever before."

PRIMEVIL — the new band featuring former VENOM members Jeff "Mantas" Dunn (guitar), Antony "Antton" Lant (drums; brother of VENOM frontman Conrad "Cronos" Lant) and Tony "The Demolition Man" Dolan (bass, vocals) — has changed its name to MPIRE OF EVIL.

Commented the group: "It was brought to our attention that a band who named themselves after our sixth VENOM album, 'Prime Evil', had decided to get back together after we had announced our intentions. We had already signed our deal with Scarlet and had appearances booked but we have decide to cancel those shows as our belief is that EVERY band should have a chance and we do not wish to exclude anyone so we have made this change. We apologize to the Venoms Legions and fans who chose our name but we hope you support this/our decision.., and so... welcome to the MPIRE OF EVIL!"

DISTURBED singer David Draiman says the band will take a break after completing its current tour, explaining, "We're touring the States then a short South American run, but that's it after that." The band hopes to start writing its sixth album during the break, with Draiman adding, "We've not done anything yet. I know [guitarist] Dan Donegan has some riffs but we need to get in the right headspace and we can't do that on the road."

According to AOL's Noisecreep, MASTODON guitarist Brent Hinds is working on an as-yet-unnamed new project with THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN guitarist Ben Weinman, formerMARS VOLTA drummer Thomas Pridgen and ex-JANE'S ADDICTION bassist Eric Avery.

"We tried to get together and do an album, but there's been no time," Hinds recently told Noisecreep. "We want to record crazy stuff and Ben is working on that, but it's been hard to get together."

Brent Hinds has just unleashed two very special projects: WEST END MOTEL and FIEND WITHOUT A FACE. They were released as a two-CD set via Rocket Science Inc. on June 7. Hinds said of the recordings: "I feel like a thousand umpa lumpas have been lifted from my back. I want to thank everyone that made this possible. In the time it took to put these two albums out, I wrote five more, so whoever likes this kind of stuff, there's a lot more where this came from."

MASTODON has set "The Hunter" as the title of its new album, which the band recently finished recording at Doppler Studios in Atlanta with producer Mike Elizondo. Drum tracks were previously completed in Los Angeles at the legendary Sound City Studios where NIRVANA's masterwork "Nevermind" was recorded. Songtitles set to appear on the album include "Blasteroids" and "All The Heavy Lifting".

Florida extreme metal veterans MORBID ANGEL played a headlining concert this past Sunday, June 12 at 013 in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Fan-filmed video footage of the entire show can be viewed below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Immortal Rites
02. Fall From Grace
03. Rapture
04. Pain Divine
05. Maze of Torment
06. Sworn to the Black
07. Existo Vulgoré
08. Nevermore
09. I Am Morbid
10. Angel of Disease
11. Lord of All Fevers and Plague
12. Chapel of Ghouls (with extended solo by Trey Azagthoth)

Encore:

13. Dawn of the Angry
14. Where the Slime Live
15. Blood on My Hands
16. Bil Ur-Sag
17. God of Emptiness
18. World of Shit (The Promised Land)

According to The Pulse Of Radio, KORN has decided to cancel the release of an EP it was due to release on Tuesday (June 14) and expand the project into a full album. The EP was an experimental recording on which the band was collaborating with a number of dub step producers/DJ, including Kill The Noise, Excision, Skillets and 12th Planet. It's not clear whether the entire new album will involve dub step, but singer Jonathan Davis told The Pulse Of Radio that the band was excited by the possibilities. "I thought it would be fun to experiment again and see what we come up with, and maybe come up with something like this that we're really, really excited about," he said. "We like to experiment and try things and we're not gonna put out something that we don't all like. So I think me and [Munky, guitar] and [Fieldy, bass] and Ray [Luzier, drums] are really, really excited about this."

There's no word on when the new KORN album, which will be the band's tenth, will arrive. It will follow up 2010's "Korn III - Remember Who You Are".

Bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu told NME.com about the new project, "We've collaborated with six or seven producers on the new record. I've done my parts and I think Jonathan has a couple of vocal takes still to do, but it's almost done. It's important to stay current and keep on top of what's going on."

Drummer Ray Lazier told Download that he thought the move toward dub step meant he might be replaced by a drum machine. He explained, "Normally it would drive me crazy because I think drum machines are soulless. But [Davis] said, 'No, we're going to experiment with triggers,' which I've never done before. So we actually triggered the sounds Skillets made with my kit -- I'm actually playing them live. I was excited by that."

German metal queen Doro Pesch joined British heavy metal legends SAXON on stage this past Friday, June 10 at the Sauna Open Air festival in Tampere, Finland to perform the song "Denim And Leather". Fan-filmed video footage of her appearance and the rest of SAXON's show can be viewed below.

SAXON's setlist was as follows:

01. Hammer Of The Gods
02. Heavy Metal Thunder
03. Never Surrender
04. Motorcycle Man
05. Back In '79
06. Atila The Hun
07. Demon Sweeney Todd
08. Call To Arms
09. Crusader
10. Afterburner
11. Denim And Leather (with Doro Pesch on last chorus only)
12. Princess Of The Night

Encore:

13. 747 (Strangers In The Night)

"The One", the new video from Hungarian extreme metallers EKTOMORF, can be seen below. The clip features a guest appearance by Canadian rocker Danko Jones.

"The One" comes off EKTOMORF's new album, "Redemption", which was released on December 17, 2010 via AFM Records. The CD was recorded at Antfarm studios in Århus, Denmark with producer Tue Madsen, who has previously worked with DARK TRANQUILLITY, THE HAUNTED and HEAVEN SHALL BURN, among others.

"Redemption" track listing:

01. Last Fight
02. Redemption
03. I'm In Hate
04. God Will Cut You Down
05. Stay Away
06. Never Should
07. Sea Of My Misery
08. The One (feat. Danko Jones)
09. Revolution
10. Cigany
11. Stigmatized
12. Anger
13. Kill Me Now (limited-edition digipak bonus)

American power metallers ICED EARTH have set "Dystopia" as the title of their new album, tentatively due before the end of the year via Century Media Records. The CD will mark the band's recording debut with singer Stu Block (INTO ETERNITY), who joined ICED EARTH in March following the departure of Matt Barlow. (Note: Barlow is performing with the band on all summer festival dates. Block will take over from there, starting with the European leg of ICED EARTH's world tour in November.)

Commented ICED EARTH guitarist/mainman Jon Schaffer: "We begin master tracking [the new album] in Florida in two weeks and will be traveling between Europe and the U.S. this summer to play festivals and finish the new album."

He added, "I can honestly say that I haven't had this many songs give me goose bumps since we recorded 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' way back in 1998, so this is also very exciting.

"As you can imagine, it's a very busy time for us. I think we're all having emotional ups and downs as we're coming to the end of an era with Matt's retirement, and we're also very excited about the future with Stu coming onboard, so it's a little bit of a roller coaster ride for us. However, we are having a killer time, and Matt is performing at his absolute best and going out with pure class and style, which is always the way he rolls."

According to The Independent, legendary rocker Alice Cooper will release his new album, "Welcome 2 My Nightmare", in the U.K. in September as a magazine with high production values and assorted merchandise (a format that is being dubbed "The Fan Pack") and as an iPad app with exclusive video interviews. The content of both products will be edited by Cooper himself. The album's official physical release will follow in mid-October, when Alice will perform a major show in London.

Chris Ingham, group publisher at niche publishing house Future, which is pioneering "The Fan Pack" format, tells The Independent, that the fan pack format has the potential to transform the relationship between the magazine industry and the music business. "Record companies have acknowledged that music magazines are amplifiers but they have also thought they were parasites," he says. "Moving forward, magazines will be seen much more as partners and something to rely on."

Melodic rockers TYKETTO have inked a worldwide deal with Frontiers Records for the release of a brand new album in the spring of 2012. The CD will mark the band's first full-length studio release since 1995's "Shine" and will feature contributions from all four original members — Danny Vaughn on vocals, Brooke St. James on guitar, Jimi Kennedy on bass and Michael Clayton on drums.

Commented TYKETTO: "These are some of the best ideas we have worked on in years. There's plenty of the classic 'Don't Come Easy' sound, mixed in with some new ideas and some great surprises".

While recording the new album, TYKETTO hits the road with some very special shows, where the band will exclusively debut songs from the upcoming CD.

Long-running Australian thrashers MORTAL SIN have set "Psychology Of Death" as the title of their new album. The follow-up to 2007's "An Absence of Faith" was mixed with producer/engineer Darren "jENK" Jenkins and marks the recording debut of guitarist Ryan Huthnance, who replaced Mick Sultana.

"Psychology Of Death" features the following tracks:

* Psychology Of Death
* Blood Of My Enemies
* Paralysed
* Burned Into Your Soul
* Deny
* Doomed To Annihilation
* Kingdom Of Pain
* Down In The Pit
* Hatred

"In The Worship Of My Death", a brand new song from Dutch black/death thrashers FLESHMADESIN, can be streamed on the band's official web site. The track comes off b>FLESHMADESIN's third album, "'Delirigion", which is described in a press release as the group's "most demonic and, above all, most honest and intriguing album to date. With the new [CD], FLESHMADESIN has taken [its] music out of the thrash and into the darkened wastelands of death and black metal. 'Delirigion' combines the sinners own somewhat unique approach of aggression and groove, which was already noticeable on their forerunners 'Dawn of the Stillborn' [2004] and 'The Aftermath of Amen' [2009], together with the sharpness and anarchistic transcendence of harsh blackened metal."

German power metallers PRIMAL FEAR have checked in with the following update:

"We will start the recordings for our new, yet-unnamed album in early July. We've received over 500 album title proposals from the fans and we thank you for this overwhelming feedback. The songwriting session was a blast and we've never recorded a better pre-production.

We've extended the recording contract with Frontiers Records for 2 more new studio albums - never change a winning team! Frontiers Records will release an official statement soon. We're preparing for the festivals in Wacken and Geiselwind and will take a break from the recordings for this two prestigious festivals. We're in negoatiations to play three shows in Poland in early September and working hard to realize these shows!"

The new, as yet untitled album from THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, one of the brightest rising stars in the metalcore world, has been completed and is set for a September 13 release (Ferret). This will be the band's first full-length album since 2009's With Roots Above And Branches Below; TDWP's most recent release, last summer's five-track conceptual Zombie EP, made its Billboard Top 200 chart debut at #10, the highest chart debut of the band's career.

Swedish progressive metallers OPETH made their live debut with keyboardist Joakim Svalberg (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, GLENN HUGHES) at the 10th annual Bonnaroo Music And Arts Festival on June 10, 2011 on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville.

When asked by the Artisan News Service how playing Bonnaroo was different to performing at European festivals, OPETH vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt said, "It's very similar to European festivals. It's strange that there's not more festivals in the United States like this, as far as I'm concerned. But yeah, it was lovely. Good hospitality."

OPETH's setlist was as follows:

01. The Grand Conjuration
02. Face Of Melinda
03. The Lotus Eater
04. In My Time Of Need
05. Master's Apprentices
06. The Drapery Falls
07. Hex Omega