Ex-Pantera and Damageplan drummer, Vinnie Paul, will tour this summer for the first time since December 2004, when his brother, Dimebag Darrell, was killed onstage in Columbus, Ohio.

Paul will be playing with his new band, Hellyeah, on the Family Values tour, which also features headliners Korn, Evanescence, Atreyu, Flyleaf and Trivium. Other bands will be announced shortly.

The tour launches on July 20 in St. Louis -- three days after the upcoming Korn record is supposed to come out -- and hits 30 cities before ending in Washington, D.C. on a yet-unscheduled date.

Hellyeah's self-titled debut album comes out April 10. The band features Mudvayne singer Chad Gray, Mudvayne guitarist Greg Tribbett, Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell and Nothingface bassist Jerry Montano. The first video from the disc, "You Wouldn't Know," premieres on Headbangers Ball this week.

Now here's a blast from the past -- Pantera with "Walk."

While it's not particularly shocking compared to most Cannibal Corpse covers, in 1986 this image from German thrash band Kreator's second album was pretty graphic.

Created by Phil Lawrence, who also designed the band's Terrible Certainty album as well as Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales/Emperor's Return, the art for Pleasure to Kill sets a violent, vicious tone that perfectly matches the speed and brutality of the album. The horned demon, who bears resemblance to something from a Frank Frazetta painting (or a Jesse Helms nightmare), isn't just killing the weapon-wielding skeletons, he's dismembering them one after another and climbing atop the pile of shattered bones to continue the battle.

Even today, it doesn't get much more metal than that.

As for the album, Pleasure to Kill is the Reign in Blood of German thrash metal, and holds up against pretty much any modern death or black metal discs in terms of ferocity and aggression.

Now, here's a video for the far more commercial cut, "Chosen Few":

CHOSEN FEW /KREATOR

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Ozzfest has done it again.

For a while it looked like Ozzy Osbourne would be the only marquee act to tour with the first free Ozzfest, but today event organizers revealed that the bill will also feature Lamb of God, Hatebreed and Lordi, and more major acts will be announced soon, some of which will likely play select dates.

Lordi will open the main stage this year and Lamb of God will be on before Ozzy. Hatebreed will headline the second stage, which will also feature Nile, Mondo Generator, Ankla, Circus Diablo and The Showdown.

"When we left Ozzfest three years ago, that was a mantra that burned itself into our collective subconscious, one that we repeat to this day in an almost autistic manner," says Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe. "To know once the power, the glory, the sheer brutality of the parking lot circus stupidity that is Ozzfest is to be destined to repeat it. The fangs are out- our souls (and livers) needed three years to recover from the last run, but we are back and couldn't be more excited."

"For us, the idea of playing Ozzfest is still hard to believe," adds Lordi frontman, Mr. Lordi. "I'll believe it when we're there. It's going to be a great opportunity for us to show people in the U.S. what we can do."

For Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta, returning to Ozzfest is especially exciting because he feels more at home on the second stage than he does on the main one.

"We had a great time on the main stage last year but it was obvious that our fans wanted to see us in the setting that they know and love," he says. "Having co-headlined the second stage twice in the past -- once with Down in 2002 and again with Slipknot in 2004 -- it's a great achievement for us to now be able to close the show on the second stage and truly make Ozzfest history with our fifth appearance on the world's best tour."

Ozzfest launches July 12 in Seattle. The event was originally scheduled to start July 7 in Southern California, but the extension of Ozzy's European tour caused the run to be bumped five days.

To get passes for this year's free Ozzfest, fans will log onto www.ozzfest.com or www.livenation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured. Tickets will be available for download on June 12. Stay tuned to www.ozzfest.com and www.livenation.com in the coming weeks for more ticketing information.

To see the complete Ozzfest press release click here.

Tune in to MTV2's Headbangers Ball this Saturday to see exclusive acoustic performance footage of Zakk Wylde at Planet of Sounds Studio in Hartford Conneticut.
Until then, check out "In This River":

They'll be in Europe through April, but in May Deftones will return to North America for a headline tour that will run through the summer.

Dates have been announced through June 24 on the band's MySpace page, and the rest of the concerts will be posted shortly.

Dir en grey and The Fall of Troy will open.

Here are the shows confirmed so far:

5/11 -- Phoenix, AZ
5/12 -- Albuquerque, NM 5/13 -- Albuquerque, NM
5/17 -- Corpus Christi, TX
5/22 -- New Orleans, LA
5/23 -- New Orleans, LA
5/25 -- Atlanta, GA
6/6 -- Providence, RI
6/7 -- Worcester, MA
6/9 -- New York, NY
6/10 -- Albany, NY
6/11 -- Niagara Falls, NY
6/15 -- Chicago, IL
6/16 -- Milwaukee, WI
6/17 -- Minneapolis, MN
6/22 -- Denver, CO 6/23 -- Salt Lake City, UT
6/24 -- Salt Lake City, UT

If Black Sabbath and Corrosion of Conformity conceived a child it would be Fireball Ministry. Leaders of the "Sludge" Metal movement, their riffs are as groovy as a dirty pair of underwear.
Check out the video for "The Broken":

Thrash metal veterans Slayer are hatching plans for their second Unholy Alliance tour, which will launch this fall and will feature three of four other bands, say sources close to the tour. However, no other groups have been announced.

Last year's Unholy Alliance tour, one of the strongest metal bills of the year, featured Slayer, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Children of Bodom and Thine Eyes Bleed. A live CD and DVD of that outing is scheduled for release May 1, according to Amazon.com.

Until then, check out the band playing "Necrophiliac" during a February 15 soundtrack at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom. 666

And now, here's the video for "Eyes of the Insane."

According to the band's publicity at Prosthetic Records, All That Remains has been confirmed as direct support to Bullet For My Valentine Stateside in May. The band will return to Europe this Summer for their debut at Wacken: Open Air 2007 Germany.
Check out this quote from Kerrang:
"All That Remains have worked their balls off for years, touring the world playing second fiddle to a variety of like-minded bands and rustling up a decent following in the process. What they've also done is sharpen up their skills to the point where The Fall of Ideals bears all the hallmarks of a classic." KKKKK — Kerrang

Now watch "The Air That I Breathe":

Enigmatic Japanese black metal experimentalists, Sigh, will release their seventh album, Hangman's Hymn on June 12.

In a statement, frontman Mirai Kawashima says, "This is by far the best Sigh album we have done - from the production to the songwriting."

The album was recorded at Studio Moopies, and was co-produced by Sigh and Takamichi Osada. Like a stage play, the disc is divided up into three acts and includes the tracks "Me-Devil," "Dies Irae/The Master Malice," "Death With Dishonor" and "Salvation in Flame/Confutatis." An MP3 for "Death With Dishonor" can be found here.

"We're proud of the results," says Kawashima. We hope our fans embrace what we have done with our music this time around as their support has always been great for Sigh."The newest member of Sigh, saxophonist Mikannibal, who will make her live debut with the band during the Inferno Festival, which takes place From April 5 to 7 in Oslo, Norway.

"She's truly musically talented," Kawashima says ."She plays the saxophone really well and she's a real good singer too. Moreover, she's the craziest woman I've ever met."

Hangman's Hymn also features guest appearances by members of Sacrifice and Enforsaken, and former members of Giant Squid. Sigh plan to showcase material from the album during their mid-summer tour of North America.

"We are excited about coming over to play North America again," Kawashima says. "The timing of the tour is perfect. Hope to see you all on tour."

Tune in to "Headbangers Ball" this week to catch the debut of Terror's video for "Lost." The clip was filmed in Los Angeles last August by director Doug Spangenberg of High Roller Studios, which has also shot videos for Unearth and Lamb of God.

In other news, singer Scott Vogel and drummer Nick Jett recently hosted the third Hot Topic Podcast (click here to download).

During the show, they played their own songs, as well as tracks by Madball, Every Time I die and others, telling stories and narrating between tunes. Then, Vogel grabbed the mic and let fly.

Now, click here for a video for "Overcome."