For those of you who aren't sure what the hell Trivium frontman Matt Heafy is talking about in the band's new single "Throes of Perdition," "hell" is the operative word. Throes of perdition literally means "struggle of eternal damnation," which is something of which Trivium seem to have been spared. Read more...

Slayer look forward to another bloodbath with Manson

While Ozzfest hasn't popped back out from the crypt in which it has been hiding, two major spring and summer festivals have announced the first set of acts on their lineups, and both bear striking resemblance to Ozzfests of old.

Music As a Weapon IV will be headlined by Disturbed and will also feature Killswitch Engage on the main stage and Chimaira and Lacuna Coil on the second stage. And Like past Ozzfests, the event will feature tattoo artists, extreme sports and videogames. Read more...

Say you've got dreams of heavy metal stardom but you're stuck in Singapore, floating in limbo like Scarlett Johansson's character Charlotte from the Sofia Coppola film "Lost in Translation." Okay, she was in Japan, but you get the idea. You wanna break through and be heard by millions, but there seems to be no way to burst out of the local, insular scene -- or is there?

Michael Kalember, a multi-instrumentalist and metal head with a degree from the Berklee School of Music, moved to Singapore in 1991 with a woman who's now his ex-wife, and has jammed with numerous musicians, taught music and written jingles for TV and radio commercials. And now, thanks to pop star Rihanna and the power of the Internet, hundreds of thousands of people -- if not more -- are hearing him play. Read more...

The new Iron Maiden documentary "Iron Maiden: Flight 666" will surely be available on DVD later this year, but if you wanna be one of the first to see it, you'll have to head over to your local cinema when it debuts on April 21. Read more...

Tech-death metal wunderkinds, The Faceless, are the latest act to be banned by the Anaheim House of Blues, a Disney-owned venue that in the past has also rejected Machine Head and Belphegor. Why The Faceless didn't meet the approval of Mickey and Minnie for the February 1 show is unknown -- especially since the other bands on the bill, Meshuggah and Cynic, both made the cut. Maybe it had something to do with discovery that if you descramble the letters in the song titles of their second album, Planetary Duality, it spells "Pluto pimps Daisy Duck for cheap wine and Goofy has anal wards and scabies."

In any case, The Faceless will take the night off, then rejoin the tour on February 2 at the San Diego House of Blues. Dates are scheduled through February 20 in Towson, Maryland. The Faceless' second album, Planetary Duality, features an impressive range of progressive arrangements, caustic vocals and speed-of-light guitar work, and was one of the highlights of last year. The disc was produced by axeman Michael Keene, who recently made an appearance at the National Association of Music Mercants (NAMM( convention in Anaheim). Click "more" to watch Keene shred like Satriani on crack. Read more...

Nothing spells doom like English misery junkies My Dying Bride. The gothic gloom metal band are currently working on their tenth studio album For Lies I Sire, and from what we've heard, the morose melodies, spare guitar chords, weeping violin and baleful vocals suggest a return to the suicidal despair of 1996's Angel and the Dark River.

For Lies I Sire will be the band's first album to feature bassist Lena Abé and session drummer Dan Mullins, who replaced Adrian Jackson and John Bennett respectively.

The track list of the new record features: "Fall With Me," "My Body, A Funeral," "The Lies I Sire," "Bring Me Victory," "Echoes From a Hollow Soul," "ShadowHaunt," "Santuario Di Sangue," "A Chapter in Loathing," and "Death Triumphant." Last night, Norway radio show Tinitus aired over two-and-a-half minutes of "My Body, A Funeral" on the show Tinitus. Click "more" listen. Read more...

Preachers may hate him, but we always knew Dee Snider was a Holey Dude

In 1998, Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider injected "Captain Howdy," a character from their 1984 three-part song "Horror-Teria," into a horror movie called "Strangeland," which received mixed reviews, but has since turned into a bit of a cult item. Snider starred in and wrote the movie, which is about a pierced, sadistic, Internet chat room predator who lures teenagers into his house and tortures them with unusual body piercings.

At the time, Internet-based horror stories weren't so ubiquitous, so the plot was pretty compelling, even if the execution was far from perfect. “I came up with the idea of Internet crime before anybody had ever committed Internet crime,” Snider gloats. “And if I am the father of torture films, I’ve got to come back like a sledgehammer to reclaim my crown!”

To that effect, Snider has decided to resurrect Captain Howdy in "Strangeland: Disciple," which goes into production later this year. And while the movie may, indeed, revolutionalize the genre, it'll take a lot of creativity and originality. Today, with the coming and going of flix like "Pulse," "the Card Player," "Untraceable," "fear dot com," ".com For Murder" and "Stay Alive," Internet stalker movies are as common porn Web sites. Read more...

Cattle Decapitation have never minced words when it comes to their disdain for minced meat -- or any other kind of meat for that matter. So, why would a restaurant in their hometown of San Diego name a burger after the grindcore veterans? Simple, there's no meat in the burger.

The Cattle Decapitation burger at Hamilton's Pub and Cafe is an all-vegan patty made from black beans, garlic, corn, potatoes and a secret mix of spices. The burger comes with homemade pub chips and a side of vegan sweet coconut curry sauce.

The burger is now available on the menu for $7.50. On January 20 Cattle Decapitation's new album The Harvest Floor will be on the menu of most decent record stores and online outlets. Click "more" to find out how you can hear it streaming in full. Read more...

In the corner on our right, weighing in at 205 pounds, the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell. And in the corner on our left, covered in tattoos and weighing in at a cumulative 450 or so pounds, the challengers, Atreyu.

Of course, even though the testosterone was flowing like a river, the dudes were all just sparring and no one was hospitalized. But if this were an actual fight, it would take all the members of Atreyu armed with clubs and all the dudes in Avenged Sevenfold wielding knives to take out Liddell.

The reason Atreyu singer Alex Varkatzas and guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel were in the ring with the UFC fighter was they were the subjects for the cover story for Revolver's upcoming "Ultimate Fighting Issue," which hits newsstands January 20. In addition to a blow-by-blow account of the training session, the issue features Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter, Dragonforce guitarist Herman Li and Senses Fail frontman Buddy Nielsen talking about their own experiences training in mixed martial arts. There's also a story called "When Rockers Attack," which chronicles the fist-flinging exploits of some of the biggest, and baddest dudes in rock and metal.

Click "more" to watch video of Atreyu going head to head against Liddell. Read more...

Lumbering doom metal band Big Business has finished Mind The Drift, its third full-length album for Hydra Head Records, HeadbangersBlog.com has learned. The disc was produced by Phil Ek (Earth, The Shins) and is the band's first to feature guitarist and third member Toshi Kasai. Much of the album was tracked in June and July 2008 at AVAST! 2 studios in Seattle. Vocals and overdubs were recorded last November in Burbank, California.

Apparently, Ek was a little nervous to be in California because, according to the band, the producer kept a loaded sawed-off shotgun in the control room. Then again, maybe he keeps a submachine gun at home under his bed. We'd like to think such paranoia helped fuel the galvanic riffs and bombastic drumming on the album, but we'd probably be stretching a bit. Still, we have no doubts that the team was a winning combination so lock and load, Phil. Click "more" to hear the album track "Gold and Final." Read more...