Coal Chamber Reunion Announced

"It is and always will be a very special part of my life, so these few shows are for those people and for us. If you're not from Australia, better get a ticket now to come see this event!" more on this story

Zakk Wylde Restrains Obsessed Fan

(TMZ) Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde obtained a long-term restraining order against an obsessed fan -- who allegedly left a creepy sacrificial offering outside Zakk's home.

Zakk was in court Friday in L.A. -- where he testified his 20-year-old neighbor John Radich knocked on his door one day, shirtless, wanting to talk.

Zakk says he sent the guy home -- but the next morning, he noticed Radich had left behind a "sacrifice" containing several bizarre objects, including a guitar covered in Sharpie marker and a boxcutter.

Zakk cited another instance -- claiming Radich also broke into his home studio recently, proclaiming, "I must assert my dominance!" more on this story

E Street Band Ponder Their Future

(Gibson) Steve Van Zandt, guitarist with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, has been talking about the recent death of bandmate Clarence Clemons and upcoming plans for the E-Street Band.

Van Zandt told Pollstar that the members would meet in a few weeks to discuss their future and that the band could never be the same with Clemons. However he did say that the band would probably continue since "that's what we do."

Sax legend Clarence Clemons died at the age of 69 after suffering a stroke at his home in Florida in June. more on this story

Joey Belladonna Was Anthrax's Second Choice?

(hennemusic) In a recent interview, Joey Belladonna was surprisingly frank, and realistic, about his current place in Anthrax and the revolving door of vocalists.

"I wasn't their first choice to come back into this thing," said Joey. "Put it this way: If John said he wanted to do it, they probably would have taken him. If they would have done the Big 4 with him and it would be successful? Who knows? Would they finish the record? Who knows? If they didn't have a fight with a guy they first had to finish the record (Nelson) and would have put it out, they would have done that. To me, you got what you got."

Acknowledging the often complicated relationship with the rest of the band, Joey said, "We are a unique package of musicians and there's no band out there that has a lineup that, if you're trying to recreate it, you're not going to have much luck. For Anthrax, it's hard for us to pull it off. This thing is a little more intricate." more on this story

Chickenfoot Road Test Tour

(hennemusic) Chickenfoot has announced The 2011 Road Test Tour - the first live performance dates in support of the band's forthcoming "Chickenfoot III," due September 27.

Chickenfoot will play five US concerts in support of the new project, kicking off November 1 in San Francisco, and taking them through Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago and New York – all during the first week of November. Venues and ticket on-sale information will be announced October 3rd.

The shows will give 'Foot fans the first live look at drummer Kenny Aronoff with the band, as he fills in for Chad Smith, currently doing his day job with The Red Hot Chili Peppers. more on this story

Chevelle Releasing New Album Soon

(Banana 101.5) Chevelle has announced that their next record will be in stores late this year, while their new single 'Face to the Floor' will impact radio in October.

Chevelle broke the news via Facebook: "Hey everybody. 'Face to the Floor' will officially be our first single, and it will be released Oct. 10th to radio. We are also releasing the record on Dec. 6th. and we are looking forward to finally playing some new music on tour. We are working on a video concept right now and we will hopefully have it finished in a few weeks. See you all soon, back on tour starting Sunday."

The tour they are referring to is their opening slot for Bush on the fall tour which also features Filter. Get a taste from the new album and read more here

Axl Rose Settles Battered Bentley Case

(TMZ) Axl Rose will fork over $53,000 to cover some serious Bentley damage -- but even though it seems like a lot ... the "Guns 'N Roses" singer actually got a nice discount.

Axl was sued by Bentley Financial Services last year -- which claimed Rose leased a $192K Bentley Flying Spur back in 2005, and proceeded to beat the crap out of it ... eventually returning it with damages and fees totaling $73,000.

But last week, Axl finally settled the case -- agreeing to cough up $53,000 to call it even. Which is a great deal -- because if you do your math, that's a 27% discount. more on this story

Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth and Leslie West Tour Postponed

The 3 Guitar Heroes Tour featuring Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth and Leslie West has apparently been partially postponed.

The tour's official site had this update on Friday: "It is with regret that we have to announce that some shows on the 3 Guitar Heroes tour have been postponed."

The tour section on the site is now completely blank and simply reads "Itinerary to be updated soon". more on this story

McCartney Flop?- Late KISS Drummer Eric Carr's Unfinished Business To Be Released- Lagwagon Revisited- The Flaming Lips Streaming 6 Hour Song- LA Guns Singer Quits- more

(Reuters) Paul McCartney's ballet debut writing an orchestral score and tale of love about an ocean dwelling princess received poor, early reviews on Friday that called his music agreeable but the story and staging bland. more

(The 1st Five) On November 22, 2011 Fat Wreck Chords will reissue Lagwagon's first five albums in remastered and expanded editions, including 2xLPs for the first time. The sets will also include almost every b-side and outtake the band was able to find in their archives more

(MU) Vocalist Brian Fair of Shadows Fall has issued the following brief update via Twitter about the band gearing up to enter the recording studio next month: 'Lots going on in Oct. @ShadowsFallBand will be in studio." more

(Classic Rock) The Flaming Lips are currently streaming a new song online – and it's six hours long. No, this isn't a wind up. It's called I Found A Star On The Ground more

(SRX) 'Unfinished Business', a 20th anniversary commemorative CD to KISS drummer Eric Carr, featuring unreleased music, live songs and more, will be released on November 8th. more

(Classic Rock) The Smashing Pumpkins have issued details on upcoming album Oceania. Although there's no release date as yet, the full track listing is here

(A.I.R.) Underoath have announced the release of a special, triple-CD set, Play Your Old Stuff, featuring all the songs from three of their most popular albums more

(BW&BK) Unearth are about to embark on a short headlining tour of Japan with openers Every Time I Die and Acacia Strain. more

(Lambgoat) Wolves in the Throne Room will tour Europe with support from Wolveserpent. more

(MU) Malevolent Creation bassist Jason Blachowicz (a/k/a Jay Black) has created a new old-school death metal project called Murder Suicide. more

(SRX) L.A. Guns' live album 'Acoustic Gypsy' is slated for release on September 27th, but already vocalist Jizzy Pearl has announced he will be leaving Tracii Guns' version of the band after two years. more

(PNO) With their 10th Anniversary tour set to kick off in October, Minus The Bear has announced plans for some reissues as they celebrate their diamond anniversary. The band's label, Suicide Squeeze Records will be repressing the currently out-of-print Highly Refined Pirates and This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic on vinyl and producing a limited number of cassettes. more

(BW&BK) Opeth's new album, Heritage, has landed at the #22 position on the Official UK Top 40 albums and #1 on the UK Top 40 Rock Albums. more

(NME) Kasabian's fourth album 'Velociraptor!' has gone straight in at No 1 on the Official UK Albums Chart. more

(Lambgoat) Following several weeks of pre-production, Job For A Cowboy has entered the studio to commence tracking their next full-length. more

(BW&BK) Thin Lizzy have announced three off-date headline shows due to take place during their North American support tour with Judas Priest through October and November. more

Ulrich Wild (Static-X, Zombie ,etc) is set to produce/mix/engineer the new NYC CD. "I think Ulrich is the Perfect Producer to Capture all the Intensity and Insanity of NYC and bring the Absolute Best Focus to the Guaranteed Sonic Madness of this New Disc" states NYC's Tommy Bolan. Watch him shred here to get an idea of what's to come.

Chris Cornell Plans Live Album From Acoustic Tour

(Banana 101.5) Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell will hit the road to continue where he left of with last spring's solo acoustic tour.

According to Blabbermouth , Cornell said in a recent interview that he plans to release a live album in November featuring 15 tracks from his solo outings.

Cornell frontman most recently contributed the acoustic based track 'The Keeper' to the 'Machine Gun Preacher' soundtrack. Check out a live performance here

W.A.S.P. Plan 30th Anniversary Tour

(Kayos) Twenty Nine years ago this month, on September 21st 1982, W.A.S.P. played their first show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

On September 21st 2012 W.A.S.P. will begin the "30 Years of Thunder" anniversary Tour starting in the United Kingdom and continue Worldwide!! This World Tour will be the biggest spectacle W.A.S.P. have ever created. The two hour show will consist of three parts. A one-hour set contains songs from the first four albums.

The second set will be a 25 minute shortened version of "The Crimson Idol" complete with the movie accompaniment. A third set will consist of material from the New Studio Album, older material and everything in between. more on this story

Anthrax and Testament Expand Fall Tour

Anthrax have announced three additional dates for their upcoming North American fall tour.

Anthrax will co-headline the 27-date trek with Testament with Death Angel openings all shows including the newly announced stops in Sayreville, NJ, Huntington, NY and Cleveland, OH.

Anthrax's new album, Worship Music, debuts at no 12 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart this week, making it the band's highest chart debut in 20 years. more on this story

R.E.M. To Look Back

(Gibson) Recently R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills announced that after 30-plus years of making music, they were going their separate ways.

That sad news was tempered by word that the band will release a career-spanning retrospective set on November 15.

As reported by Rolling Stone the set, titled Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011, will include several tracks recorded after the completion of R.E.M.'s final studio album, Collapse Into Now. Details are sketchy, but it is presumed that the release will be a multi-volume set, given the size of the band's catalog. more on this story

The Day Iron Maiden Found Their Voice

(Gibson) On this day in 1981, Bruce Dickinson joined Iron Maiden, (Dickinson had been the vocalist with Samson). Gibson takes a look back: Steve Harris had almost sorted it out. Six years after he formed Iron Maiden, whose name was inspired by a film adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask, Harris was still looking for that final piece to the puzzle. Having gone through three singers, twelve guitarists (of which, two remained), four drummers (of which, one remained) and a keyboard player, the bassist-songwriter-bandleader had almost dialed up the perfect combination. But he still needed a frontman.

When Iron Maiden signed to a major label in December 1979, it seemed like they were just about there. The line-up of Harris, guitarist Dave Murray, second guitarist Dennis Stratton, drummer Clive Burr and singer Paul Di'Anno was a pretty fearsome group. Stratton and Murray provided a complementing, give-and-take twin-guitar attack. Burr was a more-than-solid drummer. Harris was quickly developing into the best bassist in heavy metal. And Di'Anno…well, Di'Anno was something else.

Paul Di'Anno was not your prototypical singer. His voice was raspy and harsh, though he could fire off a top-shelf scream when necessary. But Rob Halford he was not. Di'Anno, though, brought a toughness to a band that was built for menace. In songs like "Phantom of the Opera" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue," you get the feeling you're hearing the story from the killer himself. The rest of the tale here

Napalm Death Re-ink With Century Media for New Album Release

Napalm Death finished recording their upcoming 14th studio album earlier this year at Parlour Studio in Kettering, UK with long-time producer Russ Russell and have just announced that they have re-inked a world wide deal with Century Media Records.

Napalm Death vocalist Mark 'Barney' Greenway says of the deal, "We're very happy to be re-signing to Century Media. In fact, I think it's the first time we've actually re-signed on a longer term deal with anybody since the days when we didn't strictly know that we could be digging ourselves a big hole with labels...It's important for NAPALM to stay with an independent, and Century proved to us with their overall enthusiasm and attention that this is where we needed to be. There's a perfect balance of getting the band out there in people's faces whilst still understanding the point that not everything is acceptable or 'ethical' promotion. It's more like working with friends who actually care, and who could argue with that?"

Jens Prüter (Head of A&R, Century Media Records) comments, "NAPALM DEATH is not only one of the most important and influential extreme metal bands, they are also a band that always raises their voice against social ills-- and even against record companies (remember 'Enemy Of Music Business'). Therefore I'm even more glad about NAPALM DEATH re-signing to Century Media for more great albums of intelligent and meaningful noise. And have you ever seen a weak NAPALM DEATH show? I haven't, and I have seen them MANY times and will never get tired to see them again and again. Thanks to Mitch, Danny, Shane and Barney for their resilience and resistance-- and a special thanks to Marc from MAD for fighting on their side." more on this story

Lowbuz's Mike Koenig Loses Cancer Battle

A reader sent us the sad news that Lowbuz guitarist Mike Koenig has died following a long bout with brain cancer.

Information about his passing was sparse at press time, but a Facebook posting credited to the New Jersey metal band had this to say about their late bandmate:

"R.I.P. Mike Koenig. For those of you that knew him, you were blessed. Those that didn't, it's a shame you never will. There wasn't a nicer, more generous person I've ever encountered. We'll miss you Mike."

Facebook link

Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa Giving Away New Song

(Gibson) Marking the release of their Don't Explain album, singer-songwriter Beth Hart and the guitarist Joe Bonamassa are making their version of Delaney & Bonnie's classic "Well, Well" available as a free MP3 download single.

All you have to do is sign up to http://jbxp.net and input your email address to receive the free download.

Produced by Kevin Shirley (John Hiatt, The Black Crowes, Joe Bonamassa, Black Country Communion), Don't Explain sees Hart's raw vocals and Bonamassa's blues guitar combining on a set of classic soul tracks from the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, Tom Waits, Etta James, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin. more on this story

Boots Electric Announces U.S. Dates

(GEE) Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse "The Devil" Hughes is taking his solo band Boots Electric on the road for some US dates including a stop at the Voodoo Music Festival in New Orleans, LA.

After creating three albums of dirty and danceable garage rock anthems, Honkey Kong is his first solo outing, out now on Dangerbird Records. Honkey Kong was produced by Tony Hoffer (Beck, Depeche Mode) and co-written with legendary keyboardist Money Mark, best known for his many collaborations with the Beastie Boys.

The album is not short on guest appearances; Brody Dalle of The Distillers, Killswitch Engage singer Howard Jones, Josh Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen and Juliette Lewis add fire to Boots' flair. more on this story

Sol Invictus The Killing Tide 20th Anniversary

(PP) Sol Invictus will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their album "The Killing Tide" with a limited edition extended version on October 7th, 2011.

This new edition will be enhanced by seven bonus tracks: in addition to an old DAT recording of "The World Turns" and a version of "Somewhere In Europe" that was originally released on the Shock 7", you will also find five live recordings from Sol Invictus' concert at Frankfurt's Sound Depot back in 1991.

The second Sol Invictus re-release this October is "The Blade" which was originally released back in 1997 and has been deleted for a long time. This work is considered as one of Sol Invictus' greatest albums by many fans, and apart from the original album, this new edition comes with four bonus tracks: "Time To Meet The King", which was first released on "In Europa" but originated in times of "The Blade"; an early mix of "Nothing Here & Remember And Forget"; an originally discarded version of "Only I Know"; plus an unreleased version of "In God We Trust." more on this story

Arsis Announce Touring Lineup

Arsis have announced who will be filling guitarist/vocalist Jim Malone's shoes on the "Frets of Fury Tour" this October. The band had this:

"Mike Parks will be performing vocals for the tour in October," commented the band. "He's the obvious choice as he has helped us out in the past when Malone lost his voice, and was actually the singer of the band that became Arsis. He is a long-time friend and an extremely strong singer, and we're happy to have him with us.

"We'd also like to introduce Brandon Ellis. This is something incredibly special. He is a young guy who plays with the kind of maturity that has become rare in the modern metal and shred scene. His presence will take the guitar chops in Arsis to a new high. Talk is cheap, so see for yourself. more on this story

Animals As Leaders Preview New Album

Animals As Leaders are giving fans a preview of their forthcoming album, "Weightless," which is set for release on November 8th in North America.

The band's label is currently streaming the album's lead track "Isolated Incidents" online.

The band have been performing the track live in recent months during their tours with Deftones and Between The Buried and Me, as well as their summer North American headlining tour, now you can hear the studio version here.

Atomic Tom Hit The Road With Switchfoot and Anberlin

Atomic Tom kicked off a tour with Switchfoot and Anberlin last night in their hometown of New York City.

Atomic Tom are touring in support of their new digital EP In Parallel and the 16-city trek across the U.S. will have them visiting markets such as Philadelphia, PA, San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX.

Lead vocalist Luke White states, "We're beyond excited to be sharing the stage with Switchfoot and Anberlin, two incredible bands with equally incredible, passionate fans. We're looking forward to sharing our music with them, as well as reuniting with Atomic Tom fans across the country." more on this story

The House Of Capricorn Streaming New Song Online

(ESP) The House Of Capricorn are giving fans a taste of their forthcoming album by streaming "Illumination In Omega" on their official Facebook page.

"Illumination In Omega" is the eighth track off their soon-to-be released sophomore full-length, In The Devil's Days, which is set to hit stores on October 13, 2011.

Commented vocalist Marko Pavlovic of the track: '''Illumination In Omega' is the near-catalyst of the trek into the abyss... an arms-open hymn, a prayer for illumination, and a plea for enlightenment at the foot of the Devil's throne." Check it out here

George Lynch Guests on Andrea Balestra's New Album

Instrumental guitarist Andrea Balestra has set an October 4th release date for his new album, Fine Arts Avenue.

The album is billed as a showcase of his ambitious mix of progressive rock and experimental/improvisational guitar tones.

The new CD includes special guest appearances by rock guitar hero George Lynch and blues all-star organist "Deacon" Jones. Andrea will celebrate the release of his new CD with a series of live shows at several venues in the Los Angeles area, to be announced shortly. more on this story

Hawthorne Heights, Story Of The Year, Finger Eleven and More Tribute Nirvana

September 24th marked the 20 year anniversary of the original release date of Nirvana's Nevermind which hit store shelves and changed music on the same date in 1991.

Reimagine Music is helping celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the album by releasing Come As You Are: A 20th Anniversary Tribute To Nirvana's Nevermind.

This special tribute album features contributions from some of today's best alternative and indie rock artists and will be available on October 25th. more on this story

. Rock Reads:Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time

A central theme of the book evolves around the woman as a consumer/fan of music. Shes quick to point out how women experience music in a different perspective and despite the male dominated music industry around fifty percent of all music purchases are made by women - Read the full Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time review

. Hot In The City: The Love Me Nots- Psychostick- The Necronauts

Everybody knows that summers in Arizona are hot, hot, hot, and this year Hot in the City came up with a bright idea to avoid the heat----simply stay inside with a cool beverage or two and listen to music. Then these new releases came along... still hot! - Read the full The Love Me Nots- Psychostick- The Necronauts review

Wait there is more!