The second album by Clutch side project The Bakerton Group, El Rojo!, will be released on February 17, the band announced to HeadbangersBlog.com. The outfit, which also features Opeth keyboardist Per Wiberg, plays psychedelic, jazz-influenced instrumentals with heavy grooves. Read more...

Following the Dr. Pepper/Guns N' Roses promotion fiasco, the band's lawyers were all afizz, threatening Dr. Pepper for failing to make good on its promise to provide a free bottle of Dr. Pepper to everyone in America if Guns N' Roses delivered Chinese Democracy in 2008.

Dr. Pepper had promised that if the album actually came out, all fans needed to do was log onto the soda company's Web site and input their address to receive a coupon in the mail for their free bottle. But when the album came out, the band's web site was so jammed it crashed and few GNR fans were able to claim their prize. Read more...

Ex-Black Dahlia Murder guitarist John Kempainen, photo by Jon Wiederhorn

Touring in a rock band just ain't what it used to be. With zoning restrictions at play and real estate prices through the roof, it's getting harder to get gigs at decent places, show attendance and merch sales have dropped with the nosediving economy, the dawn of filesharing has rendered album royalties nonexistent, and now many labels want a cut of touring and merch profits, meaning bands have to tour all year long just to pay the rent at apartments and homes they're hardy at. No wonder a growing number of musicians are throwing in the towel.

On November 29, The Black Dahlia Murder lost guitarist John Kempainen, who had been with the group since 2002 and appeared on the band's debut full-length, 2003's Unhallowed. Apparently, Kempainen quit on the eve of a tour launch with Misery Index and Soilent Green and the band has carried on as a four-piece. According to the band's label, Kempainen was tired of being on tour for ten months out of the year and wanted to spend more time with his friends and family. Read more...

Maybe in order to prevent Gene Simmons from suing them, the makers of the cartoon series "Detroit Metal City" had to offer him a role in their blockbuster (at least in Japan) film. And while Simmons isn't nearly as good in Toshio Lee's "Detroit Metal City" in the role of Jack II Dark as he was as Dr. Charles Luther in 1984's "Runaway," the rest of the cast and the bizarro story make this import film an entertaining mindf--k -- a searing amalgam of Slipknot live, "Metalocalypse" and "Lost in Translation." The film revolves around a young musician, Soichi Negishi, who moves to Tokyo to become a cheesy pop star, but becomes embroiled in the turbulent world of death metal when he becomes the frontman of the the group Detroit Metal City.

The more he tries to escape DMC, the more popular they grow. With a blaring heavy metal soundtrack that's not half bad, the story becomes an internal battle between decadence, depravity and mega-cash vs. morality, ethics and sunny optimism. The movie was spun off the popular Japanese cartoon, which in turn was inspired by a comic book (manga) by Kiminori Wakasugi. click "more" to read the manga and watch the first episode of the cartoon. Read more...

The WTF story of the day goes to mask-wearing metal terrorists Slipknot and Dragonfly-riding prog-rockers Coheed and Cambria, which will tour together in the new year. And if we're interpreting the symbols correctly, this is certainly one of the seven signs of the apocalypse. Trivium will open the show and, perhaps, assume the role of lukewarm water between the fire and ice iconoclasts. Read more...

Richard Hoak, who has played drums for Brutal Truth on every record since their second disc, 1994's Need to Control, has contributed music for a new short film called "A Short But Interesting Message From God" -- and it's the last thing Brutal Truth fans would expect. There's are no buzzsaw guitars or throat-slashed vocals. Hell, there's not even a beat.

Instead, Hoak, who goes by the name Peacemaker, has assembled an ambient collage of reverberating tones, somewhat reminiscent of the disturbing soundcapes in David Lynch's "Eraserhead," and layered these "transformational noises" atop footage by Ed Ballinger of Punkmonkey Pictures. In addition to working with Peacemaker, Ballinger's Punkmonkey has shot videos for Hoak's other band Total F--king Destruction, Withered, Mouth of the Architect and others.

Click "more" to watch "A Short But Interesting Message From God" and other Punkmonkey/Peacemaker collaborations. Read more...

The unholy German triumvirate of Kreator, Destruction and Sodom helped bridge thrash metal between the U.S. and the rest of the world in the mid '80s and also injected the music with a new level of savagery. Obviously Slayer, Exodus and (early) Metallica were extremely heavy, but their German counterparts were even more raw and unhinged -- less musically accomplished, but decidedly more evil sounding.

While all three bands have been through various lineup shifts since their inception, they continue to tour and record. In fact, Destruction released a new album, D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. on August 22 and Kreator's new disc, Hordes of Chaos, drops on January 13. But where's Sodom? Read more...

Facecage frontman Denny Harvey has announced the return of Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor's New Years Eve cover band Dumfux, which has been scheduled at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines for "another drunken night of revelry and soiled underwear." Read more...

photo by kruk.hier, courtesy of www.flickr.com

It would be pretty frickin' cool to hear a song that goes, "Hi-ho, hi-ho/ it's off to work we go/Cuz if you like to gamble/I tell you I'm your man." Of course, that'll never happen, but recently there was a strange pop culture collision, an unlikely meeting of the minds if you will, and Lemmy got some of his chocolate in Walt Disney's peanut butter.

And now, on November 21, Motörhead's song "Dog-Face Boy" will appear in the Walt Disney film "Bolt," which stars John Travolta and Miley Cyrus. The track, which appeared on Motorhead's 1995 album Sacrifice, plays during a scene in a mailroom blasting over the headphones of a young worker who accidentally wraps the American white Shepherd, Bolt, in a box that gets shipped off to New York City.

"It's never too early to get the kids started on our music," says Lemmy. Read more...

Doctors in England still aren't sure exactly what Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher is suffering from, but he's feeling better and plans to rejoin the band in time for its headline tour of Europe, which launches November 30 in Utrecht, Holland and runs through December 6 in Somerset, England at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival.

Kelliher felt ill on the plane over to the UK on November 3, and when it landed he was immediately admitted to a hospital for tests. We'll have more on this story in the day's ahead.

Click "more" for an update on Deftones bassist Chi Cheng. Read more...