San Francisco metal legends, TESTAMENT will kick off a short Australian tour in February 2007.

Confirmed Dates:

Feb. 08 - Sydney, AUS @ the Manning bar
Feb. 09 - Canberra, AUS @ the ANU bar
Feb. 10 - Brisbane, AUS @ the Waterloo Hotel
Feb. 11 - Melbourne, AUS @ the Hi Fi Bar

The 17 band/18 song tribute album is due out on December 12, 2006. Including art by Necrolord and a 20 page booklet giving information on all the contributing bands. There will be a 2CD Digipak, a 2CD Jewel case, and a 2LP set with a poster.

British black metal pioneers VENOM will be feature on this year's "Sweden Rock Festival" DVD.

Set for release on October 27, the DVD will contain live video footage of many of the bands who played at this year's festival, including the track "Black Metal" by VENOM.

Commented VENOM drummer Antony "Antton" Lant (brother of VENOM frontman Conrad "Cronos" Lant): "This was only our fifth show together with this lineup plus the first time VENOM had ever played Sweden. It was still bloody daylight when we hit the stage, but the legions all went wild. Headlining an important sell-out festival like Sweden Rock Festival was a real highlight for us. We look forward to another opportunity to return."

The release also comes with an audio CD of some of the other bands from the festival as an additional bonus.

VENOM earlier in the month cancelled its appearance at this year's Thrash Domination Fest 2006 (September 16-17) in Kanagawa, Japan after "Cronos was "taken ill" and was ordered by his doctor to rest.

VENOM recently completed a short North American tour, dubbed the "American 10 Commandments Tour", in support of its latest CD, "Metal Black". The album was released in North America on April 4 via Sanctuary Records. The CD was mixed at the Townhouse Studios in London and contains 14 new songs.

 Norway's black metal legends IMMORTAL disbanded in 2003 after 13 successful years as one of the pioneers of metal, with a legacy of seven full-length albums, including their latest milestone, 2002's "Sons of Northern Darkness", through Nuclear Blast Records.

After a solid break, the band has decided to enter the battlefield again, and what better way to do so than performing a few selected, exclusive concert appearances!

Come 2007, the world will see a new ferocious lineup of IMMORTAL, featuring Abbath and Horgh, and a new bass player in Apollyon from AURA NOIR.

After already confirming their headlining appearance at Germany's Wacken Open Air 2007, Photograve Management has announced the mighty IMMORTAL's return to U.S. shores for two exclusive shows. The dates are as follows:

Jul. 13 - New York City, NY – B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
Jul. 15 - Los Angeles, CA - The Avalon

Tickets go on sale October 13 2006 at 12:00 p.m. (noon).

IMMORTAL 2007 lineup:

Abbath – Vocals, Guitar
Horgh – Drums
Apollyon – Bass

Live footage of the new MEGADETH track "Washington is Next!" has been posted on the popular video sharing site You Tube.

The track will be officially released on MEGADETH's next album entitled "United Abominations" which is slated for an early 2007 release via Roadrunner Records.

The track "Heavy Metal Christmas (the twelve days of christmas) has been posted on the bands MySpace page. Also available are their renditions of "White Christmas" as well as "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause."

These tracks plus more will be available on the new CD "A Twisted Christmas"

"In what was pretty much the show of the year, legendary thrash band SACRIFICE reunited last night (the original line-up of Rob Urbinati, Joe Rico, Scott Watts, and Gus Pynn) for the first time in 17 years for a one-off show. An unforgettable experience to say the least and an experience that actually reflected with me that thrash metal was once good (especially in this day in age where garbage like new Slayer and Trivium etc. is considered…. “thrash”)…"

The site is down, we know, we’re working on it…… at least I am.

Jonas Snäckmark, ex Vile Scar vocalist became one of the top 12 finalists in the television show “Idol,”  the  Swedish version of the popular show ” American Idol.” After performing U2’s hit song “One.”
“I’m probably gonna have bottles thrown at me when I return home,”

His performance can be seen at this location.

In an interwiew with Metal Injection Strapping Young Lad drummer Gene Hoglan once again debunks the rumors of the bands latest effort “The New Black” being their last.

“I think a lot of what he was saying was kind of at the end of a big dower spell for him, so he was just like ‘Fuck it!’ But, before any of those interviews ever came out, we were just talking about what the next record is going to be and he didn’t really inform us, ‘Oh yea, by the way, I said I’m quitting.’ So we saw that and we were kind of like ‘Huh?’ But he needs a break for a little while, ya’ know?”

The whole interview is available at MetalInjection