What up, metallions? How the hell have you been? Yeah, I know I've been away a long time, but I'm back. My band's tour was really good, so much thanks to all who came out.

I guess the big jam to talk about right now is that I spent some time in L.A. with the Slipknots, and the new album is coming along amazingly. I heard a couple of the new songs and they totally shred. I can't wait for the finished record.

Another good thing this week is that the original members who'd left Black Dahlia Murder have decided (smartly, I might add) to return to the band and forge ahead into the metal world. Being that they're one of my favorite new bands, this is amazing news. Hopefully they'll be out on the road soon.

The other killer news is that Fireball Ministry's video for "Flatline" is going to debut this Saturday on "Headbangers Ball," and the band is going to hit Europe soon with Blue Öyster Cult. I just toured with those guys and BÖC has their work cut out for them.

Oh yeah, one other thing: for you horror buffs, they just released the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" special edition on DVD and it's really good. Some cool extras and a great print of the film. Well, my friends, that's it for me. I'll see you at the shows.

Slayer fans can look forward to many rarities on the band's box set Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, which comes out November 25. Tracks include the band's first recorded offering, "Aggressive Perfector," collaborations with Ice-T ("Disorder") and Atari Teenage Riot "No Remorse (I Wanna Die)," demo versions of "South of Heaven," "Raining Blood" and "Piece by Piece," rehearsal tapes of "The Antichrist" and "Fight Till Death" and 11 live recordings made between 1983 and 2002. In addition, the package will include a DVD of live footage from the band's personal collections and the deluxe edition of the box will feature a 14-song 2002 concert from Anaheim, California. Oh, yeah, the set will also include about 30 tracks you probably already have in your collection. ... Long-running death metal staple Cannibal Corpse have chosen The Wretched Spawn as the title for their next album, due in February. Predictably colorful song titles include "Severed Head Stoning," "Frantic Disembowelment," "Nothing Left to Mutilate" and "Festering in the Crypt," according to a posting on the Metal Blade Records website. ... On November 8, Black Dahlia Murder will play Detroit at the Idle Kids Community Center, which seems like a perfect location for a Spinal Tap residency. A full tour will follow, beginning December 4 in Marietta, Georgia, and running through December 20 in Chicago. ...

P.O.D. were forced to nix a surprise concert in Siegen, Germany on Tuesday after the venue's ceiling threatened to collapse. The band were scheduled to play at the Siegerlandhalle for an audience of radio contest winners, but as soon as they started their afternoon soundcheck, parts of the ceiling became loose and crashed to the ground. While it would have been a feather in their halo to be able to say their concert leveled the venue, the show was called off for security reasons before it began. P.O.D. made up the show yesterday in a different venue. ... Two denizens of the dark, England's Cradle of Filth and Brooklyn's Type O Negative will begin their Blood For the Blood Gods Tour on November 13 in Latham, New York. Dates run through December 19 in Toronto. Moonspell will open all shows. Type O Negative is touring to support their last record, Life is Killing Me, which was released June 17. Cradle of Filth are still plugging their Damnation and a Day, which dropped March 25. On December 2 the band will release the DVD EP Mannequin, which features the Thomas Mignone-directed video "Mannequin," the "Babylon A.D." video directed by Wiz, a live performance video of "The Promise of Fever and the animated featurette "Serpent Tongue," which were both directed by Cradle guitarist Paul Allender. ...

Testament's Steve Smyth will fill the long-vacant second-guitar slot in Nevermore when the Seattle-based band hits the road with Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom and Hypocrisy on November 7. Nevermore has been a four piece since the 1999 departure of Tim Calvert and, like others before him, Smyth has reportedly been recruited for touring purposes only. ... Uprising Records label founder Sean Muttaqi and his Pressure bandmate Chuck Treece (who has played with McRad, Underdog and Bad Brains over the years) will fill in on bass and drums, respectively, for all of Canadian political rockers Rogue Nation's shows outside of their home country. ... Alabama metalcore band Haste has lined up several tours in support of their latest effort, The Mercury Lift. Next month they'll hit the road with hardcore heroes Stretch Arm Strong and With Honor, followed by a three-week jaunt with Hopesfall, the decidedly more indie-rock leaning Hey Mercedes and the newly reunited Zao. The band recently shot a video for the song "Stutter" with director Zach Merck (Shadows Fall, Blindside). ...

Integrity, perhaps the first group to draw equal inspiration from Slayer, the Cro-Mags and Samhain, will tour the U.S. next month and through December in support of their newly released "comeback" album To Die For. They'll be joined by On Broken Wings and The Agony Scene. ... Kid Gorgeous has decided to call it a day. The Buffalo, New York based metalcore band -- whose last full-length release was this year's This Feeling Gets Old -- will play their final show November 1 in their hometown. ... Remembering Never has entered the studio with producer Jeremy Staska (Poison the Well) to record Women and Children Die First, the follow-up to their 2002 debut album She Looks So Good in Red. The album is tentatively scheduled for a February 2004 release. ... Mastadon will have music featured in the forthcoming Tony Hawk video game, "T.H.U.G.," according to a posting on the band's Web site. The band hopes to begin recording their second full length early next year. ...

Blood and Time, which features Neurosis' Scott Kelly (guitars, vocals) and Noah Landis (keyboards, backing vocals) alongside Scott Kelly solo project veterans Anthony Nelson (bass) and Stephen Garrett (drums), will unleash their debut album At the Foot of the Garden through Neurot Recordings. The album is scheduled for a November 4 release. ... 100 Demons will enter Planet Z Studios next month with producer Zeuss (Hatebreed, Shadows Fall) to begin work on their first album since joining the roster of Deathwish Recordings, the label founded by Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon. ... Chief Spires and John Ehlers, former bassist/vocalist and guitarist, respectively, with ancient-Egypt-obsessed death metal band Nile, have resurfaced in a new outfit called Shaitan Mazar. The new band's four-song demo is available for download at their website, ShaitanMazar.com. ...

Orange County, California's Eighteen Visions has enlisted producer Mudrock (Godsmack, Powerman 5000, Chimaira) and begun pre-production work on the follow-up to their 2002 album, Vanity. In related news, Dave Peters, current vocalist and former guitarist for Eighteen Visions guitarist Keith Barney's other band Throwdown, has started a new project called Medic. Peters plays guitar in the group, whose new three-song demo is very much in the vein of A Perfect Circle and Tool. ... Norwegian black metallurgists Ancient have nearly finished their writing new album, the follow-up to 2001's Proxima Centauri. The new disc, which is still untitled, will feature 10 new tracks. Three were penned by keyboardist and guitarist Jesus Christ, and the others by guitarist and vocalist Aphazel, drummer Grom and bassist Dhilorz. Ancient will begin recording in January and will mix in early February. Look for the disc next spring. ... Polish experimental death metal band Decapitated will release their third album The Negatron in February. The disc was recorded at Hertz Studio in Poland with Slawek and Tojtek Wieslawski engineering. Tracks include, "The Fury," "Calling," "Long-Desired Dementia," and "The Empty Throne."

—compiled by [article id="1453177"]Iann Robinson [/article], Ryan J. Downey and Jon Wiederhorn