Christmas came a bit early around these parts, with the recent arrival of AC/DC's "Live At Donington" DVD. Recorded live during the band's August 1991 set at the legendary English venue, the DVD captures a ton of the band's classic anthems (no "Sin City," but we're not going to get greedy) and adds audio commentary from Angus and Malcolm Young. Hopefully the holiday season will deliver plenty of gems like this. Until then, we have a fistful of metal news to stuff in your stocking:

On Saturday (December 7), four contest winners were blindfolded and whisked to the Houdini Mansion outside Los Angeles where Slipknot are wrapping up work on their new album. The fans got to sample a handful of new tracks; the rest of the world will have to wait until the spring. ... After several years away from the band, original Cryptopsy singer Lord Worm has returned. The band is hard at work writing material for its fifth album, which will be recorded in March. ... Haste the Day's Burning Bridges, the Indianapolis Metalcore band's first release on Solid State, hits stores March 23. ...

The new full-length studio album from black metal architects Mayhem, Chimera, is due in March. ... Mastodon have completed a video for the track "March of the Fire Ants" and plan to begin recording the follow-up to last year's Remission in January with producer Matt Bayles (Botch, Burnt by the Sun). ... Crisis are finishing up their new album, Like Sheeps Led to the Slaughter, with producer Billy Anderson (Neurosis). The disc is due in the spring on The End Records. ... Viking-obsessed black metal band Enslaved's Below the Lights has been nominated in the Norwegian Music Awards' Best Album category. ...

Three members of Orange County's Throwdown have formed side projects: the Lost, a band in the vein of HIM and Mötley Crüe, features bassist Dom Macaluso and guitarist Tommy Love, while the a Perfect Circle-inspired Medic includes singer Dave Peters on guitar. Following an appearance at a Syracuse, New York, Hardcore Festival on New Year's Day, Throwdown will embark on tours of Japan and the U.K. ... Texas' Embodyment have called it a day. The group leaves behind three albums on Tooth & Nail/Solid State and last year's Songs for the Living, released on XSRecords. ...

Solid State Records is releasing a best-of collection from Zao, who split from the label for Ferret Records this year. Due December 23, Legendary will contain 14 songs from six of the band's seven releases on Solid State as well as a three-song demo recorded when singer Corey Darst was fronting the band. ... Meanwhile, in the wake of their singer's split to join Zao, the remaining members of Society's Finest have formed the Kinetic Sense and are looking for a singer in the Dallas area. ...

Grotesque Swedish death metal band Deathwitch will release their latest slaughterfest, Violence, Blasphemy, Sodomy, on February 24. Track titles include "Blood Sucking F---," "Abhorrent Sadistic Tormentor" and "Coffin Fornicator." ... Disfear, another group of Swedish metal merchants, have hired Entombed guitarist Uffe Cederlund as the band's second guitarist. Cederlund will perform double duty on the Entombed, Disfear and Raised Fist European tour, which began December 3. ... Bleeding Through frontman Brandan Schieppati and guitarist Brian Leppke have formed a new project with members of the defunct Sante Sangre called Unholy. The band will record a demo in January following Bleeding Through's current round of touring commitments. ...

Ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore recently recorded the soundtrack for a Turkish horror spoof called "Okul" ("The School"). After finding out that Moore was on hiatus in Istanbul, Turkey, the film's director and producers tracked him down, and Moore delayed the recording of his third Chroma Key album to work on the project. "Okul" will be released in Turkey on January 9, but there are no plans for a U.S. showing. ...

-- compiled by Ryan J. Downey, Robert Mancini and Jon Wiederhorn