During Saturday's Ozzfest performance in Dallas, Metallica performed the new song "Cyanide," (which can view below). The track is from the group's upcoming album Death Magnetic; the disc's first single and video, "The Day That Never Comes," will be out later this month.

Perhaps even more exciting for old-school metal fans in the crowd was Metallica's Mercyful Fate medley performed with the band's singer King Diamond (which can also be seen by clicking "more"). The ten-plus minute segment included healthy chunks of "Satan's Fall" "The Curse of the Pharaohs," "A Corpse Without a Soul," "Into the Coven," and "Evil." Read more...

Various members of heavy metal's elite will perform an all-star tribute to the late Dimebag Darrell August 9 in Dallas Texas at Ozzfest 2008 at Pizza Hut Park. Participants will include Dime's brother and longtime bandmate Vinnie Paul, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, Slayer guitarist Kerry King, Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell and bassist Mike Inez, King Diamond, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante, Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta, Hellyeah and Mudvayne singer Chad Gray and Hellyeah and ex-Damageplan bassist Bob Zilla. Read more...

The folks at Century Media announced last week that Behemoth will join Ozzfest this summer opening for Second Stage Headliners Hatebreed.
Check out their video for "Conquer All":

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.

Ozzfest organizers have just announced all 25 dates for their first-ever free festival. The tour will launch on July 12 in Seattle and run through August 30 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Once again, Ozzy will headline the event, which would be reason enough to show up even if the tickets cost the usual $2,500. However, since the tour is now free and funded entirely by event sponsors like Monster Energy Drink and Jagemeister — which will endorse the second stage — bands will no longer be paid for performing.

And capitalism being what it is, that means no other marquee acts will play the entire festival. "We know major headling acts [won't] tour all summer for nothing," Sharon Osbourne said in a statement. "But we're confident we can turn some of the genre's biggest bands on to what we're doing and have them come out to play a date or two."

No artists have been announced, but Osbourne said she already had "bands committed," and further emphasized the unprecedented nature and fee-good spirit of this year's event. "It's the first time that actually a summer festival tour has gone out free," she said. "There's been millions of free one-off shows, but this is gonna be a 25-city tour. And we're having our second stage, as usual, and everything goes as normal, except it's free."

Sadly, the bottled water, gyros, pizza, burritos and Tylenol will not be free.

The lineup for this summer's Ozzfest, according to a press release:

7/12 - Seattle, WA
7/14 - George, WA
7/17 - Sacramento, CA
7/19 - Mountain View, CA
7/21 - Devore, CA
7/24 - Phoenix, AZ
7/26 - Albuquerque, NM
7/28 - Denver, CO
7/30 - Kansas City, MO
8/2 - San Antonio, TX
8/4 - Dallas, TX
8/6 - St. Louis, MO
8/8 - Columbus, OH
8/10 - Tinley Park, IL
8/12 - East Troy, WI
8/14 - Indianapolis, IN
8/16 - Holmdel, NJ
8/18 - Hartford, CT
8/20 - Boston, MA
8/22 - Philadelphia, PA
8/24 - Pittsburgh, PA
8/26 - Detroit, MI
8/28 - Charlotte, NC
8/30 - West Palm Beach, FL

And now, here's something you won't see at Ozzfest — a six year old playing "Crazy Train."