We were intrigued when Slayer announced last week that they'd be touring this summer with Marilyn Manson. The two hit the road together in 2007 and, at the time, we remember insisting the Manson would be dropping off the tour before it ended. That never happened even though Manson went on after Slayer every night, a foolhardy move for even the heaviest, most charismatic band. Sure enough, lots of Slayer's fans hit the exits after the thrash veterans got offstage, but something interesting happened. Just when it seemed like Manson would be playing for a half empty house, the goth metal dudes and dudettes arrived in droves and, it seems, everyone got their money's worth. (Click "more" to hear our podcast interview with Slayer frontman Tom Araya). 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...

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Voodoo Fest in New Orleans, Louisiana, the festival organizers have posted a batch of professionally shot vintage videos on their Web site, some of which are very metal, indeed.

This year, the event will go down October 24, 25 and 26 and will feature a diverse range of acts, including Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots, Mars Volta, Butthole Surfers and loads of jazz, funk, blues, soul, emo, hip-hop and electronic acts.

Click "more" to watch killer clips of Down, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Godsmack, P.O.D. and others from past Voodoo festivals. Read more...

Ex-Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland played his first ever show with Marilyn Manson on August 15 at the ETP Festival in Seoul, Korea. The move raised all sorts of speculation about Borland's future involvement with the theatrical shock rocker. The way we look at it, anyone who can endure Fred Durst for all those years can put up with an eccentric like Manson, but instead of following the rumors, we went straight to Borland to find out what possessed him to take the stage with the former dartboard for the religious right, and what this means for his other bands Black Light Burns and Fear and the Nervous System.

HeadbangersBlog: Are you Manson's new full time guitarist?
Wes Borland: For the foreseeable future, I'm gonna try to work in my band Black Light Burns and in Marilyn Manson simultaneously. I'm still very much in love with my project and I'm almost finished with another album. But I've been going to see Marilyn Manson since their very early days in Florida when I was 18. Getting the opportunity to work with them was something I didn't want to pass up. I've known [bassist] Twiggy [Ramirez] for a long time as well, and it was kind of a neat opportunity to work with him. So for the foreseeable future, I'm going to try my best to function permanently in two bands and go back and forth. Read more...

Shock rock veteran Alice Cooper -- the man who long ago helped turn Rob into a Zombie and provided Manson imagary for a very young Marilyn -- broke a rib last week during a concert in Redmond, Oregon.

After collapsing, Cooper got up and finished the show and most fans figured the fall was part of the performance. While he played a few gigs in the days following the accident, his side continued to ache and when he finally saw a doctor he discovered he had suffered a broken rib and ligament damage. The doc told him it would take three weeks of inactivity and rest to fully recover... What the hell do doctors know?

While he's laying off golf for the moment, Cooper remains on the road. He plays St. Louis tonight and Milwaukee tomorrow. Click "more" to play his Along Came a Spider pinball game (which is safe for broken ribs), hear tracks from the record and read about Cooper's daring escape from a Los Angeles earthquake during a promotional film shoot. Read more...

Cartoon by Sebastian Kruger (no relation to Freddy)

The folks at Mondo Mini Shows, the entertainment company that brought us "Heavy Metal Guy" have struck the funny bone again with an metal-themed episode of "The God and Devil Show." The program features Marilyn Manson appearing on a talk show hosted by God and the Devil and as he staggers onto the stage with saggy breasts and no genitalia, Manson is clearly caught up in an identity crisis over whether he wants to cater to the powers of good or evil. Click "more" to find out how little difference there ultimately seems to be between the two. Read more...

1969 photo of Susan Atkins

Parole officials in Corona, California are considering releasing Manson Family member Susan Atkins from jail since she's dying from brain cancer. While this isn't exactly metal news, we figured metalheads would be intrigued since, let's face it, Manson is pretty f---in' metal. Lots of groups have written songs about the dude, headbanger director Jim Van Beeber shot a speculative movie based on him ("The Manson Family") and one skinny white kid from Florida named Marilyn (real name Brian Warner) even borrowed the mass murderer's last name for his shock rock/metal band. Read more...

Now, this ought to be interesting.

We've got nothing against Marilyn Manson, and we're actually big fans of his industrial metal album, 1996's Antichrist Superstar, and the 1998 David Bowie-flavored extravaganza, Mechanical Animals. However, we've never equated Manson's metallic goth rock with the cantankerous thrash metal clamor of the almighty Slayer. And, in the past we've actually seen dudes in Slayer attire beating the living crap out of pale, skinny kids in Marilyn Manson t-shirts. If such vicious bullying is still in fashion, Slayer's legions will have plenty of fresh kill to hunt this summer when the two artists co-headline a North American tour.

The pilgrimage will launch on July 25 somewhere on the East Coast and will last for around 25 shows before wrapping up in early September on the West Coast. The full itinerary will be announced soon.

While the tour has the potential to unite two strong but separate audiences, it could just as easily turn into an ugly hatefest of ravenous Slayer fans intolerant of pretty much anyone but their favorite band. In other words, if you buy tickets for any of the last half of dates, you've got betting odds that Manson will have dropped off the bill by then. But one thing's for sure. When the smoke clears, the irascible Slayer will still be on fire.

For now, check out Slayer's "War Ensemble":
Slayer - War Ensemble

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Ex-Blag Flag frontman, lauded poet and sometimes actor, Henry Rollins, will kick off the second season of his IFC TV program, "The Henry Rollins Show," on April 13. Before the broadcast, the channel will air the 90-minute special Rollins: Uncut From Israel, which was taped during his recent trip to the Holy Land, where he played two spoken-word concerts in Tel Aviv.

The show will feature both performance and documentary footage, including trips to The Wailing Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the West Bank Security Wall.

The lineup for the first new episode of "The Henry Rollins Show," has not yet been announced but celebrity interviews this season will include Marilyn Manson, William Shatner, Ben Stiller and John Waters. Once again, each episode will feature one celebrity guest and one musical act. Musicians booked so far include Mars Volta and The Stooges. Each artist will perform two songs at Rollins' Bombshelter Studio in Los Angeles. One will be features on the show and the second will be posted on IFC.com a week before the program in which the act appears.

Last year's musicians included Slayer, The New York Dolls, Dinosaur Jr and The Rollins Band. All performances by Slayer and The New York Dolls can be seen by clicking here and then by clicking "watch clip" on the "Rollins Show" page.

Now, here's The Rollins Band with "Liar."

For fans of Al Pacino and his "little friend," Coffin Case gear will release the Scarcase, a white coffin-shaped guitar case featuring Pacino's shadow profile image from the film Scarface. The inside is velvety white diamond, and, if your guitar already has a case, it's great for hiding chopped up body parts.

Scarcase will hit the market in June. For those who can't wait to join the coffin craze, Coffin Case has a fine selection of other coffin-shaped cases, coffin-shaped effect pedals and a bunch of clothes shaped like, well, t-shirts and hoodies.

Bands using Coffin crap include Slayer, Shadows Fall, Korn, 1349, System of a Down, Marilyn Manson, Motley Crue and Rob Zombie. Check out their website for their goods and loads of pictures of scantily dressed hot chicks. And on their MySpace page, there's a wild advertisement for the Blood Drive distortion pedal, which features ex-Marilyn Manson guitarist John5.