There's a fistful of happenings in the sordid world of Marilyn Manson. First, the new song "If I Was Your Vampire" is available for streaming on Manson's MySpace. The track is slow and bleak, with a verse that sounds like a cross between The Mission UK and Bauhaus and a chorus that chugs along like something from one of Trent Reznor's fouler moods.

The song will appear on Manson's upcoming album, Eat Me, Drink Me, which comes out June 5 (see cover art above). According to a post on Manson's official Web site the disc will also feature "Putting Holes in Happiness," "The Red Carpet Grave" and "They Said That Hell's Not Hot." Blabbermouth.net reports that the first single from the disc, "Heart Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)," will be sent to radio this week, and that it will be accompanied by a 3D video.

In more lurid Manson news, Hollyscoop.com has posted a photo of the songwriter and his new 19-year-old girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood. "She's 19 and certainly that's very young, but that's not a problem for me," Manson told French newspaper, Le Parisien. "She likes the same things as me. She understands I like to get up when night falls and go to sleep at dawn."

Okay, but that means when Manson was her age, she was a newborn and that's a little scarier than Manson's music.

So much for the metal morality squad. Here's "Rock is Dead":

We can't even fathom how much this guy must have drank before staggering into a tattoo shop and asking for oversized leg tats of Ratt, Motley Crue, Cinderella and Poison. But if we had such bad taste in music we totally wouldn't share it with the world, let alone post a picture of ourselves on flickr.com. Obviously, that major work cost some serious bucks and even more serious pain. We're fine with the pain inflicted on the dude -- consider it punishment to fit the crime -- but as for the money he spent, it breaks our heart that it didn't go to a worthy cause like The Society for the Research and Embetterment of Double Jointed Canines.

Maybe the list of hair bands is a cheeky reference to the overgrowth of hair on his limbs. If he ever wants that junk removed (the tats, not the hair), he's gonna have to shave his entire leg and endure many hours of painful removal techniques, possibly including skin grafts. We suggest complete leg amputation. That way he won't be able to get hammered and do it again.

Six Feet Under Commandment (Metal Blade) On their ninth studio release, this Tampa, Florida death metal outfit has returned to its roots. Gone are the rhythmic diversions of 2003's Bringer of Blood and 2005's 13, replaced by a more straightforward style of bludgeoning. Track titles like "The Edge of the Hatchet" and "Zombie Executioner" are indicative of the kind of groove-flecked slaughterfest within these 10 new tracks, two of which, "Resurection of the Rotten" and "Doomsday" can be heard the band's MySpace site. A video for the track "Ghosts of the Undead" is included on the CD.

Fightstar Grand Unification (Trustkill) This British critic's darling plays progressive metalcore that blends the melodic ferocity of early Funeral For a Friend with the evocative strains of Radiohead and the over-emoting of Deftones. There's even a cover of Deftones' "My Own Summer" on Fightstar's MySpace, which is just as good as anything on their record.

There's not much else new that'll rock the rust off your fender, but keep an eye out next week for offerings by Dark Tranquillity, Marillion, Vanna and Porcupine Tree.

Godsmack singer Sully Erna could be facing some major emotional and financial headaches following a car accident he was in on April 11 in Methuen, Massachusetts that left a 25 year old woman in critical condition.

Lindsay Taylor of Chelmsford, Massachusetts was riding in the back seat of a Toyota Camry that was was near the ramp of Route 213 at 7 p.m. when Erna's Hummer H3 smashed into the Camry, which then rear-ended a Honda Odyssey, state police told the North Andover, Massachusetts' EagleTribune.com.

Taylor was taken to Lawrence General Hospital, then airlifted to Boston's Beth Israel's Deaconess Medical Center in critical condition, reported the Eagle Tribune. She was still in the hospital's intensive care unit as of this morning. Firefighters in Methuen had to use power tools to free Taylor and the driver of the Camry. Taylor was the only one injured in the collision.

We're crossing our fingers for Taylor's full recovery, and, we're sure Erna is also. This goes out to both of 'em: Godsmack's "Speak":

For our money -- all $22.50 of it -- the best metal parody wasn't Warrant, it was Spinal Tap, the band conceived for the 1984 mockumentary "This is Spinal Tap."

While the film was a spoof of metal bands and metal culture, it was more accurate than most movies about the music industry, and instead of deriding metal, it embraced the genre warmly while at the same time prodding it in the nuts.

The movie was directed by Rob Reiner, who co-wrote the script along with Michael McKean, who played the role of singer David St. Hubbins; Christopher Guest, who played guitarist Nigel Tufnel; and Harry Shearer, who played bassist Derek Smalls.

For a band that wasn't a band, Spinal Tap plenty of mileage out of the adventure and evoked loads of laughs in the process. The band released two albums, 1984's This is Spinal Tap and 1992's Break Like the Wind, both of which had some pretty catchy tunes. The group also pulled off numerous live shows with equal amounts of wit and skill -- well maybe a bit more wit than skill, but they definitely proved they could play their instruments.

To plug the release of Break Like the Wind, Spinal Tap showed up at the 1991 MTV Music Video Awards, where they were interviewed in character:

A Life Once Lost didn't title their upcoming album Iron Gag for nothing. Like the torture device for which it's named, the record is cold, harsh and will leave a metallic taste in your mouth that just might make you, well, gag. And, for the first time, singer Bob Meadows pulls no punches lyrically, taking direct aim at the targets of his contempt.

"There's just a lot of things I've wanted to say to a lot of people on this record," Meadows told MTVnews.com's Metal File. "It was just inspired by a lot of things I've wanted to say but haven't because I had to watch myself. There are so many ugly things going on in the music scene and life, and I was just like, 'F--- it, if I say something that's going to piss someone off, then it wasn't meant to be anyway. Let me just get this all off my chest.' So, this album's just really pissed, and it's just very vicious."

Throughout Iron Gag, Meadows lashes out against womanizers, racists, addicts and anyone who isn't living up their full potential. And, when the band members sat down to write the record, they made sure nothing slipped in that didn't meet their standard of excellence.

"The songs are just way more fierce [than anything on 2005's Hunter," Meadows says. "There's just an element about it that Hunter didn't have, and I think maybe that was just us doing it ourselves. It was us learning from [Hunter producer and Anthrax guitarist] Rob Caggiano how to actually approach the songs and my working with [Lamb of God's] Randy Blythe on the vocal production, which taught me how to approach the songs well. And with all of that working together, we've definitely put out a record that's going to move a lot of heads — make people turn around and be like, 'Holy sh--.' It's a monster of a release."

For the rest of this week's metal news check out the rest of this week's Metal File on MTVnews.com. Now rock with the brutal "Vulture" from the supposedly "less fierce" Hunter. Wonder what A Life Once Lost's idea of mellow is?

When metal bands record cover tunes, they usually choose songs not far removed from their own style of playing. That can be cool, but we'd much rather hear a group turning a top 40 track into a death metal stormer.

We got our wish in 1988 when something possessed Flotsam & Jetsam to do a rippin' thrash metal rendition of Elton John's piano-pumping "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," which pisses all over Nickelback's newer version of the same tune.

The cover wound up on the the album No Place For Disgrace, which, in our opinion is the band's best album next to their 1986 debut Doomsday For the Deceiver (which featured Jason Newsted before he quit to join Metallica).

On No Place, Flotsam completely appropriated "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting for their own wicked purposes, adding pummeling drums, buzzsaw guitars and shrill, screaming vocals. They even changed the line, "It's seven o'clock and I wanna rock" to "It's seven o'clock and I wanna mosh." It's part parody, part genius.

But don't take our word for it, check out the video:

After playing Sounds of the Underground for two years in a row in a mid-afternoon slot, the scumdogs of the universe, GWAR, will return this year to slaughter the masses at the end of the day. That's right, GWAR will headline the festival.Three other bands will rotate in the co-headline slot: Chimaira, Every Time I Die and a group not yet announced. Since GWAR were in Antarctica chewing the bones off their fresh kill at press time, here's what Chimaira singer Mark Hunter had to say about SOTU. "We played the first year of Sounds of the Underground and we had a blast," he said. "This year we are going to up the production level and bring something special to our fans. Then we will get wasted every night with ETID and GWAR. See you this summer."

Other bands on the bill include, Darkest Hour, Amon Amarth, The Acacia Strain, Goatwhore, The Devil Wears Prada, This is Hell, Necro, 2 Cents, Heavy Heavy Low Low and The Number Twelve Looks Like You. Additional special guests will join the tour on select dates. Sounds of the Underground will Launch July 6 in Dallas and run through August 8 in Denver. Tickets will be available for presale starting April 25 at the festival's Web site and will go onsale everywhere May 11.

All dates for Sounds of the Underground 2007:

Fri/Jul-06 DALLAS, TX
Sat/Jul-07 CORPUS CHRISTI, TX
Sun/Jul-08 HOUSTON, TX
Tue/Jul-10 ORLANDO,FL
Wed/Jul-11 MYRTLE BEACH, SC
Fri/Jul-13 WORCESTER, MA
Sat/Jul-14 SAYREVILLE,NJ
Sun/Jul-15 PHILADELPHIA, PA
Mon/Jul-16 WINSTON-SALEM, NC
Wed/Jul-18 TORONTO, ON
Thu/Jul-19 DETROIT, MI
Fri/Jul-20 MILWUAKEE, WI
Sat/Jul-21 CLEVELAND,OH
Sun/Jul-22 COLUMBUS, OH
Mon/Jul-23 CHICAGO,IL
Tue/Jul-24 MINNEAPOLIS, MN MYTH
Fri/Jul-27 CALGARY, AB
Sat/Jul-28 EDMONTON, AB
Mon/Jul-30 PORTLAND, OR
Wed/Aug-01 SALT LAKE CITY, UT
Fri/Aug-03 SAN JOSE, CA
Sat/Aug-04 IRVINE, CA
Sun/Aug-05 MESA, AZ
Mon/Aug-06 LAS VEGAS, NV
Wed/Aug-08 DENVER,CO

Now, sink your teeth into GWAR's "School's Out":

Hearing Ronnie James Dio crooning, "Die young, Die Young, Die Young, Die Young, Die Young!" on "Die Young" is kind of like listening the Who's Roger Daltrey sing, "Hope I die before I get old" in "My Generation." It's far too late for Dio or any his Heaven & Hell bandmates to die young, but that doesn't mean they can't still rock like teens on a sugar high.

This week, Headbangers ball will air the video premiere of "Die Young," which Black Sabbath wrote in 1979 for Heaven and Hell, their first album with Ronnie James Dio at the helm.

Of course, Dio, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward were a whole lot younger back then, and, had they been unlucky during one of their many hedonistic binges, they could quite easily have died young. Those times are long gone now, of course, but writer Garry Sharpe-Young has chronicled them thoroughly in his book "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: The Battle For Black Sabbath," which came out in paperback last July. Recently, Rockdetector.com posted lengthy excerpts from four chapters of the book.

When you're done reading, check out Dio with Sabbath on "T.V. Crimes":

The correct answer to yesterday's indecipherable album of the day is: b) Setherial.

The Swedish black metal band was formed in 1994 by guitarists Alastor Mysteriis and Devothan (Gotta love those black metal names). Later that year, they recorded their first demo "A Hail to the Faceless Angels, and followed with the 1995 EP För Dem Mitt Blod and 1996's Arte De Occulta.

Setherial's full-length debut, Nord, also came out in 1996, but by the time they recorded their sophomore effort, 1998's Lords of the Nightrealm, they had undergone their first of several lineup shifts. Devothan moved on and was replaced by Choronzon and new drummer Moloch entered the picture.

Since then, Mysteriis has moved over to drums and Setherial have released three addition albums, the most recent being Death Triumphant, which came out last year. The band's current lineup is: Infaustus (vocals), Choronzon (guitar), Kraath (guitar), Daniel Lindgren (bass) and Mysteriis (a.k.a. HÃ¥kan Sjödin) (drums).

Four songs from the band's blasphemous catalog can be heard on their Myspace page.