Kosmos
Photo: The End Records

Fans of Canadian experimental-metal band Voivod are known for their open-mindedness, so drummer Michel "Away" Langevin is hoping they'll embrace his new band Kosmos — even though the group's music is more meta than metal.

Inspired by '70s Krautrock bands like Neu!, Faust and Can, and more obscure bands including Birth Control and Omega, Kosmos combine the majesty and complexity of heavy prog rock with the effect-laden otherworldliness of space/psych rock.

"With a name like Kosmos, I hope people are expecting something pretty experimental," Langevin said. "[Late Voivod guitarist Denis] 'Piggy' [D'Amour] and I had been listening to this kind of music since the mid-'70s. I've always enjoyed these bands that create strange progressive music mixed with avant-garde stuff, so I figured, 'Well, why not put together a band like that?' "

Langevin formed Kosmos in early 2006 with Paradise guitarist Jetphil, Groovy Aardvark and Grim Skunk bassist Vincent Peake and keyboardist/programmer Alex Crow. The band also recruited admired underground Montreal musicians to guest on its self-titled debut: Xavier Caféïne, the singer for punk band Caféïne, provided vocals to a cover of Gong's "Much Too Old"; and Lucien Francoeur of the '70s experimental band Aut'Chose did spoken word on "Amerique Innavouable."

"Piggy and I actually helped re-form Aut'Chose with the original guitar player and singer for a one-show, one-album kind of thing," Langevin said. "And we played a few shows with them in 2005. It was actually the last show Piggy played before he took ill."

Kosmos, which comes out September 4, is a mostly instrumental collection of songs that sound like a bizarre hybrid of Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Amon Düül and horror-film-soundtrack band Goblin. But while songs like "Krautrock," "Psycho" and "Grand Grizou" are filled with expansive jams, mind-bending rhythms, clattering electronics and dueling guitar and keyboard solos, they're structured with both entrancing groove and compelling diversity.

"We worked hard on it, but it was fun," Langevin said. "We did it bit by bit over a period of nine months. After it was finished, we sent it to the End Records, [which signed Voivod,] but it's so experimental, we didn't think anyone would be interested. And then they got back to us and ended up singing us for three albums. So now we are writing new material. It's specifically a very fun project that turned more serious than we expected."

After the album is out, Kosmos may do some touring, but as for Lanvegin, he's focused once again on Voivod. He recently finished remastering the band's 1986 album, Rrröööaaarrr!, and editing a bonus DVD that will accompany the re-release of the LP in the fall. The package will be filled with live and demo recordings that were sold in the '80s via the band's Iron Gang fan club; fan-recorded footage, including the group's first U.S. show, an opening gig for Venom; rare archival photos; and cassette recordings dating back to 1980. "I found an early tape of Piggy doing an avant-garde collage of sounds that's very good, so that will be a bonus on Rrröööaaarrr! as well."

The Rrröööaaarrr! reissue will be followed early next year by reissues of 1987's Killing Technology and 1988's Dimension Hatröss, which will be similarly equipped with bonus DVDs. After the first batch of reissues come out, Langevin plans to work on reissues of 1991's Angel Rat and 1993's The Outer Limits. He's negotiating to put out 1989's Nothingface as well but is running into some red tape.

"We had a deal back then where it was distributed by MCA in America and Noise in Europe," Langevin said. "And right now that's causing some logistical issues that we need to settle before I can start thinking about that."

Langevin also plans to begin work on a box set of Voivod's '90s catalog, much of which featured Eric Forrest on vocals. As if that's not enough Voivod to shake a psychedelic stick at, next year Langevin will assemble two proper Voivod DVDs, "D-V-O-D-2" and "D-V-O-D-3," to follow up 2005's "D-V-O-D-1." These discs will feature the professionally filmed material lacking from the album-reissue bonus DVDs.

"There's a lot of good material that I'm putting together," Langevin said. " 'D-V-O-D-1' took me a while to do because I had to track down all the footage, which was shot on videotape in the '80s. But 'D-V-O-D-2' will feature stuff from the '90s, and that's in a very good format, and 'D-V-O-D-3' will feature the lineup with [bassist] Jason [Newsted], and all that footage is on digital, so those should be much easier to do."

And lest anyone forget, Voivod still have an album of new material to record, using the last batch of recordings Piggy made before he died. Originally, Voivod planned to track the 13-song swan song this summer, but Newsted's shoulder injury — which he sustained in October 2006 trying to catch a falling bass amplifier head — is delaying it until around September.

"We have to wait until Jason is healed 100 percent from the surgery he had on his shoulder," Langevin said. "I know that he's jamming right now, but he can't really play professionally until it's all healed. But when he's better, we want to get together in one studio — instead of three different studios in three different periods of time, like we did for [2006's] Katorz. Last time everything happened in difficult conditions. This time we want to make things easier for ourselves and take more time to make a really special record."

The rest of the week's metal news:

With President Bush's term winding up, it would seem Ministry's Al Jourgensen would either have to find someone else to pick on or cash in his chips and call 'er a day. Well, Al's chosen the latter — he'll issue Ministry's "last-ever" LP, The Last Sucker, September 18. "I [kind of] like the synchronicity of Dubya and Ministry riding off into the sunset hand in hand," Jourgensen joked in a press release. Look for the effort to feature 11 tracks, including "The Di-- Song," "No Glory" and "Die in a Crash." ... Job for a Cowboy, Despised Icon, A Life Once Lost and the Faceless will hit the road together in August for a string of U.S. dates. So far, the bands have booked a total of 10 gigs. Dates are scheduled from August 13 in Troy, New York, through August 28 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with more gigs to be announced in the coming weeks. ... In related news, A Life Once Lost have completed work on their next LP, Iron Gag. The disc lands in stores September 1, and will include "Firewater Joyride," "All Teeth" and "Others Die." The ALOL recently shot a clip for "Firewater Joyride," and they've posted several snaps from the shoot on their Web site. ...

Coalesce's 1999 effort There Is Nothing New Under the Sun, will be reissued August 7 with eight additional tracks. The original LP included seven songs — all of them Led Zeppelin covers. The version that hits stores next month will also include two new original songs, along with renditions of Black Sabbath's "Supernaut," Boy Sets Fire's "Vehicle" and Get Up Kids' "I'm Giving Up on This One." ... On Tuesday, Legacy of the Catacombs, a CD/DVD collection chronicling Nile's career, will land in stores. The set features a dozen tracks from the Ozzfest 2007 act, and the DVD features tons of studio footage, along with all the band's various videos. This offering comes in addition to Nile's new studio album, Ithyphallic, which is set for a July 20 release. ...

Arsis has been forced to drop off the Summer Slaughter Tour, which runs through Sunday in New York. According to a statement from the band, which had been touring in support of its latest release, United in Regret, "Everything was going great for us until we reached Sacramento, California. After that show, our van began to give us trouble — which surprised us, since the van had just been in for repairs twice before the tour even started and we were sure the problem had been fixed." In short, Arsis' van has been inoperable for two weeks, and they've gone broke paying for repairs and hotel stays. Hence, they'll be unable to rejoin the tour, which stops in Worcester, Massachusetts, Friday night (July 6). ... Pelican and Clouds will team up later this month for a run of shows that'll cut through the Midwest and up the West Coast. The first show is set for July 31 in Atlanta, and dates are scheduled through August 22 in Iowa City, Iowa. ...

Australian Christian death-metallers Mortification have postponed the U.S. leg of their forthcoming tour due to "time restraints in securing performance visas," the band explained on its Web site. "We hope to be back in the U.S. as soon as it becomes feasible," Mortification wrote. "All good things come to those that wait." The group will soon issue a concert set, Live Humanitarian, which will contain 16 songs and a DVD of goodies. ... Hardcore legends Christ on Parade are reuniting for a series of shows, beginning with a pair in Berkeley, California, July 27-28. The guys are also set to play San Francisco (August 2 and 18); Portland, Oregon (August 3); Tacoma, Washington (August 4); and Seattle (August 5). ... Floridian black-metal force Kult Ov Azazel have begun writing material for their next album, which has been titled Destroying the Sacred. Look for the LP to feature 10 tracks, including "Prelude to Holocaust," "Slaughter the Prophet" and "The Lucifer Principal."

• Voivod
• A Life Once Lost
• Ministry
• Nile

A Life Once Lost
Photo: Tim Harmon

During last summer's Ozzfest, a disturbing yet somewhat amusing tradition of sorts was birthed — one several second-stage acts ritualistically ended their days with.

After the shows, some bandmembers would plop themselves down in a long line of lawn chairs situated across the street from the parking lot of whatever venue they'd just collectively rattled. There, the musicians would sit and chug cans of lukewarm beer while brutally taunting the hundreds of kids — who'd just paid good money to roast the day away in the blistering sun and take in the metal — as they returned to their cars.

The bands dubbed it "Lurker's Row." Bob Meadows, frontman for Philadelphia metalcore extremists A Life Once Lost, witnessed these nightly roasts from time to time — but as a spectator, he said.

"It was kind of funny, but really, I was always like, 'Dang — I can't believe we're sitting here, just belittling all of these people who came out to a festival that we just played. This is how we're treating our friends and new guests — let's just torment them and make fun of them while they're leaving,' " he said. "Don't get me wrong — I will make fun of someone if I know them. But I think that kind of stuff is a little weird. I was made fun of in school a lot, so I try to stay away from making fun of people I don't know. I need positivity in my life."

"Lurker's Row" was just one of the ways the bands battled the boredom that comes with touring. Whether it returns in '07 remains to be seen; its revival rests solely with Hatebreed, the one act that'll be coming back for this summer's rendition.

While A Life Once Lost don't condone such tomfoolery, on their forthcoming LP — the head-crushing, incredibly abrasive, self-produced Iron Gag — Meadows does call out a few of the people who've pissed him off in recent years. But not by name, of course.

"There's just a lot of things I've wanted to say to a lot of people on this record," he explained. "Even within a song, there could be two or three people I'm talking about. It was just inspired by a lot of things I've wanted to say but haven't because I had to watch myself. There are so many ugly things going on in the music scene and life, and I was just like, 'F--- it, if I say something that's going to piss someone off, then it wasn't meant to be anyway. Let me just get this all off my chest.' So, this album's just really pissed, and it's just very vicious."

The songs on Iron Gag — like "Ill Will," "Firewater Joyride" and "Worship" — take jabs at womanizers, racists, addicts and those who Meadows believes aren't living up to their full potential. The singer said Iron Gag "sounds nothing like [2005's] Hunter," adding that, "the recording quality, to my ears, is just a million times better.

"The songs are just way more fierce," he continued. "There's just an element about it that Hunter didn't have, and I think maybe that was just us doing it ourselves. It was us learning from [Hunter producer and Anthrax guitarist] Rob Caggiano how to actually approach the songs and my working with [Lamb of God's] Randy Blythe on the vocal production, which taught me how to approach the songs well. And with all of that working together, we've definitely put out a record that's going to move a lot of heads — make people turn around and be like, 'Holy sh--.' It's a monster of a release."

The band spent four months — or more specifically, six hours a day, five days a week — working on Iron Gag, and Blythe's guidance helped Meadows turn in what he says is the best performance he was capable of.

"Randy came in, and I would say it was more like he helped me with certain accents on the words — certain ways of approaching my delivery," he said. "The lines and the phrasing, that was already done before we met up. To me, to come into the studio and to have him sitting in there and never hearing the songs before and being like, 'Dude, that's pretty sick. I never would have thought of that,' or, 'I like what you're doing there, but how about you bring that word up a little higher at the end, to give it that extra oomph.' "

The band also benefited from Blythe's past work with the producing likes of Machine and Devin Townsend. "You can just hear it coming out of him," Meadows said of the noticeable influence the producers have had on the Lamb of God frontman. "This guy's been wrapped up in it for years, and he really knows what he's talking about. I knew exactly how I wanted it to sound like, and how pissed I wanted it to be, but having someone like Randy come in only adds so much more intensity to it."

Look for Iron Gag to land in stores in August, Meadows said.

The rest of the week's metal news:

Necrophagist have a new drummer in Marco Minnemann. He replaces Hannes Grossmann, who left the band earlier this year. "The band is absolutely stoked to announce that Minnemann will be drumming on the new Necrophagist album, due in 2008," read a statement from the German technical death metallers. "We can't wait to work on arranging the new songs with such an incredibly talented, proficient and complete musician." ... Behemoth's forthcoming LP The Apostasy is in the bag. Recorded in the Polish band's hometown of Gdansk with frontman Nergal and longtime sound engineer Malta behind the boards, the disc is due in July. ... Swedish metal titans Soilwork continue to work on their next opus, which should surface later this year. Frontman Björn Strid is currently in Canada tracking vocals for the yet-untitled LP with producer Devin Townsend, who helmed 2002's Natural Born Chaos. The band does admit, though, that it's still got "a long way to go" before the album is completed. Look for the disc to include "Your Beloved Scapegoat," "Light Discovering Darkness" and "The Pittsburgh Syndrome." ...

Nile, who'll spend this summer playing Ozzfest's second stage, have entered the mixing phase for their forthcoming LP, Ithyphallic. "There are nine songs and one short acoustic piece," writes the band, "yet overall, a wide range of tempos, some doomy, exotic elements as well as some unbelievably fast and catchy metal." The record will boast "Language of the Shadows," "Even the Gods Must Die" and the brevity-challenged "Papyrii Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks From He Who Is in the Water." ... If you're craving something more extreme and violent than Sounds of the Underground or Ozzfest, you might wanna check out the Summer Slaughter tour. The gore-drenched traveling fest features Necrophagist, Decapitated, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, Beneath the Massacre, the Faceless, As Blood Runs Black, Arsis and Ion Dissonance. Dates run from June 1 in Clifton Park, New York, through July 8 in New York. Careful in the mosh pit: Spilled blood is way slippery. ... Thine Eyes Bleed, the Canadian thrash band featuring bassist Johnny Araya (brother of Slayer frontman Tom), are hard at work on their second full-length album. The band tracked the disc at Beach Road Studios in Goderich, Ontario, with producer Siegfried Meier and are getting ready to mix. "Things couldn't have been better this time around," singer Justin Wolfe said. "We were able to listen and create without the pressures of budget and time and it's really going to show." The yet-untitled album is scheduled for release this summer. ...

Austin, Texas, black-metal band Averse Sefira will remain on tour with 1349 through Monday in Albuquerque, New Mexico, then they'll return home to continue working on their next album. While the release of the disc is still many months away, the band has already hired Jos. A. Smith — best known for painting the goat on Bathory's 1984 self-titled debut — to create the cover art. Earlier this month, Averse Sefira reissued their long-out-of-print debut album, Battle Clarion. ... Riverside, California, hardcore-metal band Suicide Silence have just finished recording their debut album, which was produced by John Travis (Static-X, Zebrahead) and mixed by Tue Madsen (Witchery, Kataklysm). The yet-untitled disc will be released this summer. "Working with John Travis was definitely an amazing experience," singer Mitch Lucker said. "He had us track everything live in order in order to capture the intensity we were aiming for." The disc will feature guest vocals by new Through the Eyes of the Dead singer Nate Johnson. Suicide Silence are on tour with Stick to Your Guns through Wednesday in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Two days later they'll launch a tour with Bury Your Dead in Rochester, New York, with dates running through June 3 in Chicopee, Massachusetts. ...

Terror have been added to the Monsters of Mayhem II tour, which also features Hatebreed, God Forbid, Evergreen Terrace and the Acacia Strain. "Overall, this tour has a great lineup," Terror frontman Scott Vogel said. "For starters, we are very excited to be going out with Hatebreed again. They are influential and inspirational, and there is no other band we would rather tour with. And God Forbid is a band we always thought we should tour with, so we are glad to finally be going out with them." The tour launches May 18 in Rochester, New York, and runs through June 7 in Omaha, Nebraska. ... Lacuna Coil have posted the new video for "Within Me" on their MySpace page. The clip was shot in February in Italy. The band will remain on the road with the Jägermeister Music Tour, which also features Stone Sour and Shadows Fall, through May 4 in Des Moines. On May 7, Lacuna Coil will launch a headline tour in Louisville, Kentucky, with Within Temptation, In This Moment and Stolen Babies. Stolen Babies will support LC throughout, while the other bands will only play select shows — as will the Gathering and Kylesa. For the tour, Lacuna Coil are inviting fans to choose the set list — right here. Voting ends April 20. ...

Industrial-metal band Hardwire: The Industrial Hardcore Tech will write a song for an upcoming horror film tentatively titled "The 3rd Night on Winter Drive." Guitarist/singer Mike Marsh is currently scoring the film, which he also co-produced, co-wrote and acted in with costar Patti Tindall ("Machined"). "The film centers on a paranormal investigator who is hired to investigate a house where an upstanding religious family lived and was murdered," Marsh said. "It's like a cross between 'The Amityville Horror' and the television show 'Ghost Hunters.' " Postproduction is expected to be completed in May in time to submit the movie to film festivals. ... Testament singer Chuck Billy, ex-Exodus singer Steve "Zetro" Souza and Laaz Rockit's Willy Lange have re-formed their '80s Dublin, California, outfit Dublin Death Patrol. Over the past six months, the guys have been rearranging and restructuring old songs and working on new material. An album recorded with Vinnie Wojno is forthcoming. "This is what we have to give to the metal world," Souza said, "a kick-ass, straight-up, aggressive and in your f---ing face album of music by guys just from Dublin, California."

• A Life Once Lost
• Lamb of God
• Behemoth
• Soilwork
• The Acacia Strain

Manowar
Photo: Magic Circle Music

Many smack-talkers have called Manowar cartoonish, silly, pompous and out of touch, but there's a legion of diehards for whom that kind of criticism warrants a sharpened spear to the groin. These are the Manowarriors, the fans that have followed the band through 25 years of music trends, label and lineup shifts and an increasing emphasis on the European music market.

"I have fans in the U.S. come up to me all the time saying, 'OK, next time, I'm flying to wherever it is in Europe that you're playing,' " bassist and band spokesman Joey DeMaio said. " 'And if I can't get the time off, I'll just quit and get another job.' You're talking about some seriously devoted people that are kind of like family to us."

The Manowar elite isn't incredibly huge (if Nickelback had an army, it'd outnumber Manowar's 1,000 to one), but it's unbelievably loyal. So much so that in July 2005, 25,000 fans from across the globe flocked to Geiselwind, Germany, to attend the first Manowar convention, which featured appearances by ex-bandmembers, the crowning of the lovely Miss Manowar and a band concert with full orchestra. So, when Manowar's first album in five years, Gods of War, comes out April 3, you can bet these folks will flock to the stores and celebrate with gallons of mead and mountains of beef cooked rare. Kiss, eat your heart out.

"People are so loyal to us because they listen to our songs and say, 'Yeah, they're talking about me. That's my life. That's the way I feel,' " DeMaio explained.

Manowar fans seem to take pride in what others mock — mainly, that their favorite band constantly strives to top itself, creating the loudest, most intense and most bombastic songs each time it enters the studio. Gods of War is no exception. The disc, which features titles like "Hymn of the Immortal Warriors," "Loki God of Fire" and "Glory Majesty Unity," is filled with crashing power chords, thunderous beats and orchestral arrangements that enhance the might and majesty of the music.

"It will fry the hair on your balls," DeMaio said, without a hint of irony. "These days, there's a real lack of big, epic metal that is drenched with crushing guitars and choirs and orchestras. So it's nice to be one of the few bands that's actually doing that."

There's an inherent problem with metal bands that constantly try to be more extreme. There are ceilings on volume, speed and intensity, and when the barriers are pushed too far, the results tend to be either absurd or unintelligible. But according to DeMaio, the quandary lies in the musicians, not the formula.

"Most people that are out there playing in bands are not musicians, they're just people holding guitars," he said. "They're not playing the instrument, the instrument is playing them. But if you're truly a musician and you're able to look at music as a whole and understand it, you have a lot of doors open to you. There's a lot of different kinds of instrumentation, so you can always challenge yourself and give your audience a fresh taste of what you're doing."

Gods of War will be Manowar's first offering in a series of albums about mythological gods — in this case, Odin. "We've always been interested in Norse mythology and it's been a lifelong passion for our fans as well," DeMaio said. "The idea is that Odin was the god of war, and that lends itself to something big and dramatic."

Manowar worked on Gods of War last year at their studio compound in Valhalla (well, upstate New York, actually) and at the members' individual homes, and the process was fraught with frustration and rigid perfectionism.

"It's not easy for us, ever," DeMaio began. "There's too much [analyzing] of the material and equipment we use. You're talking about people who approach this as scientists, and we push man and machine to its limit. And that requires 100 percent commitment to each and every note played, and the quality of the performance and how it is reproduced and recorded."

It didn't help matters that Manowar's overwhelming volume tends to fry their equipment. "We have a saying that a speaker sounds best before it blows," DeMaio explained. "When you're living on the edge all the time and your whole mission is metal to the max, things get pushed to the limit."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Down will headline a gig March 9 at El Corazón in Seattle, the band has revealed. The Phil Anselmo-fronted sludge rockers will also perform March 30 in Worcester, Massachusetts; March 31 in New York; April 1 in Philadelphia; and April 2 in Washington, D.C. To top it all off, they'll serve as the openers, along with Megadeth, on Heaven and Hell's upcoming Canadian tour. ... Progressive-metallers Dream Theater have signed a deal with Roadrunner and will issue their next LP, Systematic Chaos, in June. ... Michigan metalcore collective Still Remains have begun tracking their next LP, The Serpent, with producer Steve Evetts (Saves the Day, He Is Legend). Expect the album to include 15 tracks, including "Anemia in Your Sheets," "The Wax Walls of an Empty Room" and "An Undesired Reunion." Frontman T.J. Miller said the album is "a lot darker and more honest," adding that the songs are "heavier and more melodic than anything we have ever written as a band." Look for the effort to drop this summer. ...

Floridian death-metallers Malevolent Creation have wrapped the recording of their forthcoming album Doomsday X. The LP is being eyed for an early summer release and will boast 11 songs in all, including "Strength in Numbers," "Buried in a Nameless Grave" and "Deliver My Enemy," which features a solo from Slipknot guitarist Mick Thompson. ... A Life Once Lost, those lovable metalcore hippies from the City of Brotherly Love, began tracking their next album on Thursday with engineer Eric Rachel (Atreyu, Dillinger Escape Plan). Look for the album, titled Iron Gag, to land in stores later this year. ... In related news, Norma Jean, the Chariot and the Handshake Murders will team with A Life Once Lost for a spring tour across the U.S. The trek kicks off March 17 in Homewood, Alabama, and dates run through April 14 in Charleston, South Carolina. ...

Avant-garde rockers Genghis Tron have inked a deal with Relapse. "We're incredibly excited to be joining the Relapse family," the band said in a statement. "The three of us have been huge fans of the label since the dawn of time and we can't wait to work with them on our future releases." The band has begun working on its first outing for the label, which Genghis claim is "sounding insane and awesome and entirely indescribable." ... The latest video from New Jersey metallers God Forbid — who're currently on the road with Goatwhore, Mnemic, Arsis and Byzantine as part of the Chains of Humanity Tour — will debut this weekend on MTV2's "Headbangers Ball." The clip, for the track "Chains of Humanity," focuses on the group's diehard fanbase, according to a press release. In other news, God Forbid will film their February 18 gig at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. The footage will be incorporated into the band's first DVD release, which has yet to be titled. ...

I Killed the Prom Queen have parted ways with singer Edward Butcher — a member of the fold for just over a year. "As some of you may have already heard, Ed ... has decided to leave the band," reads a statement from the Australian metalcore act. "His decision was entirely of his own accord and came as a bit of a shock to us, however, we must respect his decision to return home to the U.K." The band will announce Butcher's replacement in the coming weeks. ... Extreme-metal quintet Origin plan to begin writing material for their next album as soon as they've returned from their current European tour with Necrophagist and Misery Index. The jaunt wraps March 14 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Origin guitarist Paul Ryan said the band is "stoked about the material that we have now." He added: "As with all our CDs, we are trying to make the approach different than the last. We want to continue writing stuff that we find challenging as musicians as well as over-the-top in its approach." Expect the album to hit stores late this year. ...

More bands have been added to the lineup for the second annual California Metalfest, slated for March 31 and April 1 at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana, California. The bill includes Testament, Necrophagist, Flotsam and Jetsam, Animosity, As Blood Runs Black, Arsis, Decrepit Birth, Ion Dissonance, Light This City, the Funeral Pyre and Ankla, among others. ... Light This City are also joining forces with the Faceless and Antagonist for a tour that launches February 23 in Anaheim, California. The mostly West Coast run ends March 12 in Corpus Christi, Texas. ... Southern California experimental noise-mongers the Locust will hit the road next month with Cattle Decapitation and Daughters in tow. The tour commences March 23 in San Diego and will make stops in Seattle; Denver; Boston; New York; Philadelphia; Atlanta; and West Palm Beach, Florida. It wraps April 28 in Tempe, Arizona. The band's forthcoming album New Erections is set for a March 20 release.

• Manowar
• A Life Once Lost
• Origin
• Slipknot
• Cattle Decapitation

Ozzy Osbourne
Photo: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

Heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne's namesake festival's still seven weeks away from its June 29 launch in Auburn, Washington, but the 11th installment of the often-imitated mammoth known as the Ozzfest is already shaping up to be one highlighted by several firsts — most of which involve the Ozzman himself.

For instance, this summer's tour will be the first in the festival's history that Ozzy doesn't plan on closing out each night; he's committed to headlining just 10 of the tour's 24 stops, leaving System of a Down and Disturbed to handle the rest of the trek's dates (see "System Of A Down, Disturbed To Headline Ozzfest"). What's more, Osbourne revealed late Thursday night that, for the first time since Ozzfest launched in 1996, he'd be closing out not the fest's main stage, but it's much smaller — and generally much dingier — second stage.

Osbourne plans to headline the second stage during the festival's July 8 stop at San Bernardino, California's Hyundai Pavilion of Glen Helen. For each of the last ten years, Ozzy has headlined the main stage either as a solo artist or with Black Sabbath.

Over the course of the last decade, several lesser-known and up-and-coming metal acts have graced Ozzfest's second stage, which is often erected in a dusty field or parking lot adjacent to the amphitheater housing the main stage. It's become a much-coveted gig for the members of metal's newest class, and has helped catapult a handful of bands into the mainstream's consciousness — including System of a Down and Incubus (who graced the second stage in 1998), Disturbed (2000), Mudvayne (2001) and Chevelle (2002).

Ozzy announced late last summer, toward the end of Ozzfest 2005, that he wouldn't be returning for the 2006 installment (see "Ozzy Retires As Ozzfest Headliner: 'It's Time For Me To Move On' "). But between then and this March, Osbourne had a change of heart, revealing that he'd be popping up on 10 dates this year: the June 29 kickoff, July 1 (San Francisco), July 16 (Chicago), July 22 (East Troy, Wisconsin), July 29 (New York), August 1 (Boston), August 4 (Camden, New Jersey), August 6 (Bristow, Virginia) and the tour's August 13 finale in West Palm Beach, Florida, as well as July 8's second stage appearance.

Ozzy is scheduled to headline the main stage at his other nine Ozzfest performances. During each of Ozzy's solo sets, he will be accompanied by longtime guitarist Zakk Wylde, marking the duo's 20th anniversary together. Wylde's band, Black Label Society, is the second stage's proper headliner, along with Atreyu, Unearth, Norma Jean, and Bleeding Through.

Strapping Young Lad, A Life Once Lost, Full Blown Chaos, the Red Chord, and All That Remains are among the other acts booked for this season's second stage. Lacuna Coil and Hatebreed will be joining Disturbed and System on the main stage; later this month, Ozzfest's organizers are expected to announce a "major" mainstage act's addition to the bill.

"After 10 years of headlining Ozzfest's main stage, I think it's time for a change," Osbourne said, in a written statement. "I haven't had a chance to play this close to an audience in years, and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it."

• Ozzfest: A Look Back

• Ozzy Osbourne
• Strapping Young Lad
• A Life Once Lost
• Full Blown Chaos
• The Red Chord

Lamb of God (file)
Photo: Epic Records

Considering Lamb of God were one of the first honest-to-goodness underground metal acts in recent memory to get called up to the big leagues (Epic signed them a few years back), it's only right they headline the Sounds of the Underground tour's maiden run.

The Randy Blythe-fronted Virginia thrash-metal band — fresh from supporting Slipknot this spring — will close out each and every night of this summer's other huge metal festival, and bassist John Campbell said he can't wait to see GWAR's performances and unleash some material LOG have ignored for eight years. He's just not thrilled about the band's abstinence edict.

"All of our friends who are on before us, as soon as they get offstage, they punch the clock and they're done," he explained. "They can start partying and drinking. But we're going to have to maintain a level of sobriety until after our set. So that's going to be my cross to bear this summer."

To keep things fresh for longtime fans, Campbell said Lamb of God — whose "Killadelphia" DVD landed in stores on Tuesday — have fiddled a bit with their setlist for this summer's Underground gigs. For instance, they've scrapped "Bloodletting," a staple since they recorded it under the band's erstwhile moniker Burn the Priest, and replaced it with the song "Suffering Bastard."

"We've had to take some time while we've been home, to learn how to play that song," the bassist explained, "because it's been seven, eight years since we've played that song live."

The band's also got big post-Sounds of the Underground plans. Campbell and Blythe will both be getting married, and after that, they'll start working on the follow-up to 2004's Ashes of the Wake. "We're going to start writing this fall, and [we're] looking to deliver a record early in the year, to be out mid-year 2006," Campbell explained.

"Killadelphia," filmed over two sold-out nights at Philadelphia's Trocadero, features behind-the-scenes footage and captures "the who, what and how we rolled at the time," Campbell said. While he said LOG have no immediate plans to release the concert in CD form, he's sure "that's definitely the kind of thing the marketing geniuses at Epic are probably already typing away on their calculators about."

The rest of the week's metal news:

Mötley Crüe have been added to the bill for Toronto's Live 8 concert on July 2. The lineup also includes Jet, Simple Plan, Bryan Adams and the Tragically Hip. ... New Jersey melodic-hardcore mavens Nora have lost their bassist, Chris Byrnes, to Every Time I Die. But the departure's not about to slow the Carl Severson-led band down. It's already replaced Byrnes with ex-Burnt by the Sun vocalist, original Nora guitarist and political commentator Mike Olender (check out theamericanindependent.com). The band's been busy writing new material and will take the stage for the first date of the Sounds of the Underground tour Saturday in Lowell, Massachusetts. ... The premier metalcore band of our nation's capital, Darkest Hour, will release their fifth album, Undoing Ruin, on June 28. The disc is the follow-up to the band's 2003 offering, Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation, and was produced by Strapping Young Lad mastermind Devin Townsend. ...

Arizona metalcore collective The Bled will release the follow-up to 2003's Pass the Flask with Found in the Flood on August 23. The disc will feature 10 tracks, including "Hotel Coral Essex," "She Calls Home" and "I Don't Keep With Liars Anymore." ... Literary Los Angeles headbanger Otep will show how well-versed she is in the spoken word when she appears on HBO's "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry" series August 5. Her eponymous band's currently in the middle of its Mouth of Madness tour. The final date, June 30 in Los Angeles, will feature Jada Pinkett Smith's band, Wicked Wisdom. ... Life of Agony will be the featured guests on this weekend's edition of MTV2's "Headbangers Ball" on Saturday at 10 p.m. ... Sweden's In Flames have finished their new album, called Come Clarity. The effort, being eyed for a fall release, will boast 13 tracks, including "Pacing Death's Trail," "Crawl Through Knives" and "Your Bedtime Story Is Scaring Everyone." ...

San Diego death metallers Cattle Decapitation will be playing a spate of summer dates with Some Girls and the Locust, and will release their long-awaited split with Caninus next month through Wartorn Records. The disc will feature five new tracks, including a revised version of "The Decapitation of Cattle." ... Philadelphia metalcore extremists A Life Once Lost will release Hunter on June 28. The band shot a video in April with Darren Doane (Deftones, Thursday) for the track "Vulture," which, according to frontman Robert Meadows, features "a guy on an operating table and then all of a sudden, he's jumping out a window and he lands on a car and he's being chased by people. There's a fight scene with him beating up some dudes in water. It's like an action movie. It's total madness." ... Connecticut straight-edge hardcore bashers With Honor will release their second full-length album, This Is Our Revenge, on October 18. The group is working on the album with producer Brian McTernan; its last release was a 2005 split with Distance. ...

Raleigh, North Carolina, math metalcore band Between the Buried and Me will release their third album, Alaska, on September 6. The disc was tracked with Jamie King in Rural Hall, North Carolina, and is being mixed by Matthew Ellard. The band will tour extensively this summer with Sinai Beach, the Red Chord, the Acacia Strain and From a Second Story Window. ... Canadian bashers A Perfect Murder will release their new disc, Strength Through Vengeance, on July 26. Last weekend, John Phillipe Bernier directed the video for the first single, "Body and Blood." A Perfect Murder's last album was 2004's well-received Unbroken. ... Swedish sextet Sonic Syndicate (ex-Fallen Angels) will release their debut, Eden Fire, this fall. The album was recorded at StudioMega in Bollebygd, Sweden. ...

Orange County, California, metalcore outfit Scars of Tomorrow are getting ready to enter Litho Studios in Seattle with producer Matt Bayles to work on the follow-up to 2004's Rope Tied to the Trigger, which is scheduled for release in October. The group is currently on tour with Himsa, the Agony Scene and the Esoteric through June 30 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ... Ontario, Canada, screamo band Boys Night Out have added the new song "Medicating" to their Web site. The track will be featured on their third album, Trainwreck, which comes out July 26. Their last album, Make Yourself Sick, was released in September 2003. ... Norwegian black-metal luminaries Arcturus will release Sideshow Symphonies in September.

• Lamb of God
• A Life Once Lost
• Otep
• Cattle Decapitation

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