Legend are wrapping up work in the studio on their new album for Rise Records. For now, the group have posted the following studio update:

Sepultura have posted the third webisode online from the ongoing recording sessions for their new album below. The effort is expected to surface in the spring/summer through Nuclear Blast.

Another batch of dates have been announced for the “Music As A Weapon V Tour“, which sees Disturbed and Korn share the headlining duties while Sevendust, In This Moment and Stillwell open up the bill. The latest dates to be revealed include:

03/21 LaCrosse, WI – LaCrosse Center Arena
03/28 Battle Creek, MI – Kellogg Arena
03/30 Ottawa, ON – Scotiabank Arena
03/31 Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
04/02 Quebec City, QC – Colisee Pepsi Arena
04/04 Saint John , NB – Harbour Station
04/05 Halifax, NS – Halifax Metro Centre

Primus frontman/bassist Les Claypool has checked in with a lengthy update on new custom instruments, the bands forthcoming album and more. On the recording front, the groups new album is ‘nearly done’ and is expected to see a release later this year.

Fan-filmed live footage of a new song from it by the name of “Last Salmon Man” can be found below, along with the update.

“Hello there folks. First off I just want to say how fantastic it is seeing the support that has been put forth for my brother and his family. Little Matthew is plugging away and though he has got a long way to go, it appears he is a tough little fellow with a lot of heart. Keep your eyes peeled for a special show in his honor and for his benefit in the Santa Cruz area in the near future.

Since the New Year’s Shows there has been a lot of speculation about my new four string bass that I was sporting. What I played at those shows was a semi-finished prototype bass that I designed and had built by my old pal Dan Maloney. I’ve known Dan since high school and in fact it was he that drove all of us to my first concert: Rush, Hemispheres Tour, Cow Palace. I slammed three beers and threw up in the parking lot. Those were the days. Dan is also known in our camp as the guy that built my banjo bass or “The Banji”.

The design is something I’ve been working on for quite some time. Having had the opportunity to play many exceptional instruments over the years I’ve been able to incorporate elements of some of my favorites. Besides my own design fanciness, it is part Fender Jazz Bass, Precision, Rickenbacker 4001, Carl Thompson, Jaguar E-Type (yes, the car) and a bit of Dr. Suess. I’ve been playing it everyday in the studio and I must say it is the smoothest bass to play and it has a very punchy sound. I’ve never had such an easy time getting bass tones in the studio before.

At this point I am refining the shape and, much to Dan’s chagrin, I’ve been carving away at it with my fancy new Japanese files and rasps to get it to conform to the body in the most comfortable way. I am a picky bastard and for me to put my Carl Thompson aside, this has got to be an exceptional instrument. Some may wonder why I didn’t have Carl make the instrument and the answer is that Carl is a unique artist and his designs stand on their own. Carl’s instruments are beautiful because they are all unique unto themselves. He is the Picasso of bass design and in my opinion, the best bass luthier on the planet.

Ideally some of these instruments I’m developing will be available at some point but I want to work with and refine the bass for a while before we start selling them. These will be quality instruments and quality takes time, care and fancy materials (mine has diamonds in the neck). If interested, keep your eyes peeled for further developments.

The Primus record is nearly done. For those of you that enjoyed the new song, “Last Salmon Man“, that we played New Year’s, you’ll love the record because every song basically sounds exactly the same as that one. In fact, we just kept recording the same song over and over and I would just change a few of the lyrics around. I hear that’s the way Pink Floyd used to do it and those guys are no slouches.

(My manager got bent out of shape for me writing that last bit about the record and he wanted me to change it so, here is what I’m changing it to…)

The Primus record is nearly done. Every song is pretty much a variation of “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult. Everyone should buy two copies.

Anyhow, I’ll see you all in Australia.

Les (the guy that plays bass)”

In addition to the update the band have announced the following European/UK dates for the summer:

06/18 Amsterdam, NET – Paradiso
06/22 Paris, FRA – La Cigale
06/24 Vitoria, SPA – Azkena Rock Festival
06/26 Pavia, ITA – Castello Sforzesco
06/27 Rome, ITA – Pala Atlantico
06/29 Vienna, AUT – Arena
07/05 Berlin, GER – Columbia Club
07/09 Kongsberg, NOR – Kongsberg Jazz Festival
07/10 Copenhagen, DEN – Vega
07/12 Manchester, UK – Academy
07/13 London, UK – Brixton O2 Academy

Serpents (Rose Funeral, ex-Oceano) have begun streaming their entire self-titled EP online through their Facebook. In the meantime, the band have begun moving forward with the writing process for their full-length debut.

Bury Your Dead have released the first video update from the sessions for their new album, which currently carries the working title of “Mosh & Roll“. You can check it out below, while the album is set to arrive this summer through Mediaskare.

A trailer for Mastodon‘s upcoming live DVD/CD outing “Live At The Aragon” has made its way online and can be found below. Due out on March 15th through Reprise, the set captures a live performance the band played on October 19th, 2009 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, IL, which featured a full performance of their “Crack The Skye” album along with other fan favorites.

Also included is a 58 minute ‘tour film’ that was projected on the screen behind the band during their performance. A limited edition version of the set is being prepared for a release and will include:

“Live At The Aragon” DVD/CD
Custom Mastodon logo guitar pick tin with 6 individual Mastodon guitar picks.
Reproduction Mastodon all access tour laminate with lanyard.

The track listing for “Live At The Aragon” runs as follows:

01 – “Oblivion”
02 – “Divinations”
03 – “Quintessence”
04 – “The Czar”
05 – “Ghost Of Karelia”
06 – “Crack The Skye”
07 – “The Last Baron”
08 – “Circle of Cysquatch”
09 – “Aqua Dementia”
10 – “Where Strides The Behemoth”
11 – “Mother Puncher”
12 – “The Bit” (Melvins cover)

Lower Than Atlantis have inked a deal with Sumerian Records. The band will release their debut effort “Far Q” through the label alongside their upcoming new album “World Record” as a double disc set on April 19th in North America. Speaking on the signing, group frontman Mike Duce offered the following:

“We’re extremely excited to be working with Sumerian Records. We met the team briefly at some rubbish club we were playing in London and we all seem to be on the same page. It’s every bands dream to have an album released (and to tour) in America and for this band, the dream’s come true twice because both our album’s are hitting U.S. shores at once.

We can’t wait to show some American’s what this band’s all about and to just have a good time fucking around, meeting new people and getting pissed out of our heads on Budweiser! We also have the Sumerian guys to thank for making it possible for us broke fuckers to tour the states and even luckier for our first tour being the ‘Reckless And Relentless‘ tour. We’re kind of the odd band out on the bill being a more punky/rock British band as opposed to our heavier U.S. touring buds, but I guess this is just a chance for us to win over some new fans.

We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again. Lock up your daughters, wives, sisters, aunts, etc. See you all soon.”

Last Chance To Reason have set an April 12th release date through Prosthetic for their new album “Level 2“. The group tracked the outing with producer Jamie King (Between The Buried And Me, Alesana) and currently have the following shows scheduled:

With Within The Ruins, Suffokate, The Contortionist:

02/17 Ottawa ON – Alexander CC
02/18 Kingston ON – Next Hall Church
02/19 Guelph ON – Club Vinyl
02/20 Toronto ON – The Rock Pile
02/21 London, ON – London Music Hall
02/22 Windsor ON – The Blind Dog
02/23 Barrie ON – The Mansion
02/24 Brantford ON – Club NV
02/25 Sudbury ON – Jubilee
02/26 Thunder Bay ON – Croc’s
02/27 Winnipeg, MB – The Zoo
03/01 Saskatoon SK – Walkers
03/02 Edmonton AB – Avenue Theater
03/03 Lethbridge, AB – The Royal Canadian Legion

With Atheist:

03/07 Toronto, ON – Wreck Room

With Atheist, A Life Once Lost, Revocation:

03/08 Montreal, QC – Petit Campus
03/09 New York City, NY – Santos Party House
03/10 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
03/12 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade

04/16 Worcester, MA – The Palladium (“New England Metal And Hardcore Festival“)

As I Lay Dying have made some behind the scenes footage from the video shoot for their track “Anodyne Sea” available for viewing over at Noisecreep. You can also check it out below:

Chimaira continue to move forward with the writing process for their new album. The band have been holed up at Spider Studios as of late demoing new material with plans to officially begin recording the effort in the next few months. A release through E1 Music later this year is expected.

Crowbar‘s latest effort “Sever The Wicked Hand” has been made available online in streaming audio form over at Aol.com. The album is scheduled for a release tomorrow, February 08th, through E1 Music.

Fan-filmed footage of Dirge Within performing their new song “Absolution” live in Libertyville, IL has surfaced online and can be found below. The track will appear on the bands new album which they have been hard at work on as of late.

Jesuit‘s forthcoming”Discography” effort has been slated for an April 12th release date on vinyl and CD through Magic Bullet Records. The collection chronicles the back catalogue of the band, whose members went on to Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan. All of the included material has been restored and given a new mixing job by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou and a new mastering job by Bob Lipton.

The track listing for the set can be found below, while audio of the remixed/remastered version of “Car Crash Lullaby” can be found over at Magicbulletrecords.com.

01 – “Car Crash Lullaby”
02 – “Your Sharp Teeth”
03 – “Cop Glasses”
04 – “Hole in the Sky”
05 – “Servitude”
06 – “The Malady”
07 – “Suicide King”
08 – “Tranzor Z”
09 – “The Smooth Talking Son of a Bitch”
10 – “Trigger”
11 – “Canonize”
12 – “Expatriate“

DevilDriver have once again temporarily enlisted the services of drummer Kevin Talley (Daath, ex-Chimaira), this time as a result of drummer John Boecklin falling ill. Band frontman Dez Fafara recently confirmed the news via Twitter; while fan-filmed footage of Talley performing with the band last night in Chicago, IL can be found below.

The group previously enlisted the services of Talley back in 2008. DevilDriver‘s new album “Beast” will arrive in stores through Roadrunner on February 22nd.