The Faceless, Within The Ruins, Rings Of Saturn and Abiotic have added the following June shows together to their respective schedules:

06/13 Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
06/16 Oklahoma City, OK – The Chameleon
06/17 Odessa, TX – Far West Event Center
06/19 Tucson, AZ – The Rock

Metallica‘s James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett played the U.S. National Anthem at the San Francisco Giants vs Los Angeles Dodgers game in San Francisco, CA last night, May 03rd. The performance took place as part of the games ‘Metallica Night‘ festivities. Band drummer Lars Ulrich also apparently threw the first pitch at the game. Below you can find footage of their duo’s performance:
click here for the video…

Crypts (ex-These Arms Are Snakes) will be opening for Palms (Deftones/ex-Isis) on the latter bands series of first-ever shows in July. Those stops include:

07/10 Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern
07/11 Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory
07/12 Hollywood, CA – The Troubadour
07/13 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s

Liferuiner have scheduled the following Canadian tour in support of the their new album, “Future Revisionists“, out June 04th. Being As An Ocean will join them on the trek with Prophets appearing from June 05th-09th.

05/30 Calgary, AB – The New Black
05/31 Edmonton, AB – The Studio
06/01 Saskatoon, SK – Mazzfest
06/02 Winnipeg, ON – Park Theatre
06/03 Thunder Bay, ON – Crocks
06/05 Ottawa, ON – Club Saw
06/06 Montreal, QC – Katacombs
06/07 London, ON – Eastern Star Temple
06/08 Oshawa, ON – The Groove Lounge
06/09 St. Catharines, ON – Scene Music Festival

Megadeth have scored the opening slot on Black Sabbath‘s October Latin American tour. Those stops include:

10/04 Santiago, CHL – Estadio Monumental
10/09 Porto Alegre, BRA – Fiergs
10/11 Sao Paulo, BRA – Pama Campo De Marte
10/13 Rio De Janeiro, BRA – Apoteose

Both bands have new albums out next month; with Megadeth‘s “Super Collider” due on June 04th, and Black Sabbath‘s “13” set for June 11th.

Slayer guitarist Kerry King held a ‘moment of noise’ for his fallen bandmate Jeff Hanneman at last night’s (May 02nd) ‘Golden Gods Awards‘ ceremony in Los Angeles, CA. Low-quality footage of his toast and salute can be seen below. Hanneman passed away yesterday as a result of liver failure at the age of 49.
click here for the footage…

Five Finger Death Punch premiered their new single “Lift Me Up” live at last night’s (May 02nd) ‘Golden Gods Awards‘ ceremony in Los Angeles, CA. The track features a guest spot from Rob Halford of Judas Priest, etc. fame, who also joined them onstage for the performance. Below you can find footage of that taken from the broadcast.

“Lift Me Up” is scheduled to hit radio on May 13th with a digital single to go on sale on May 14th. It will serve as the first single from the groups upcoming separately released double album. The first installment of that set has been given a July 23rd release date with the second half to follow in the fall.
click here for the footage…

Two unaffiliated East Coast music festivals with similar lineups have been announced for early August. Given the heavy percentage of similar faith-based bands on the rosters (they are both Christian music festivals); unconfirmed rumors have already begun to crop up that some of the groups will be a part of the bill for the as-yet unannounced 2013 ‘Scream The Prayer Tour“.

Up first is the ‘Alliance Festival‘, which is to be held August 03rd at the Heritage Park in Mcdonald, PA. Its lineup includes:

Main Stage:

12 Stones
Being As An Ocean
Conditions
Demon Hunter
The Devil Wears Prada
Fit For A King
The Great Commission
Hundredth
Jamie’s Elsewhere
Love And Death
Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster
Norma Jean
Still Remains
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
This Or The Apocalypse
The Word Alive

Second Stage:

Ace Augustine
AngeLight
Ark Of The Covenant
As We Are
Becoming The Archetype
Beyond The Shore
Burden My Surrender
Carousel Kings
Corpus Christi
Defending Cain
Inhale Exhale
In Search Of Reason
Life On Repeat
My Heart To Fear
One Year Later
One Nothing
Onward To Olympas
Shortly Thereafter
Those Who Fear

Meanwhile, the ‘Intensity Music Festival‘, will take place August 04th at the Triple A Pavilion in Arlington, VA. It will feature:
click here to read on…

A stream of Ark Of The Covenant‘s newly-released album “Self Harvest” can be heard below. The band released the album earlier this week on Facedown Records.
click here for the stream…

Having put out last years “Wasted Youth” on Artery Recordings/Razor & Tie, For The Fallen Dreams have returned to their previous label home of Rise Records. The following statement was released earlier today on the matter:

“Rise Records is proud to welcome For The Fallen Dreams back into the family. The band has re-enlisted original vocalist Chad Ruhlig to take over front man duties. Chad has been busy with his own band Legend, but he made the time to pursue both endeavors. FTFD’s debut album, Changes, has been a cult classic for years and fans can now rejoice about a new album and tours. The new material is akin to their debut album and will surely not disappoint. The new single “Substance” will be released next week, stay tuned.”

If you’re clamoring for some new Queens Of The Stone Age you may be in luck, the band have just launched a new teaser site at likeclockwork.tv. June 04th will mark the release of the bands guest-filled new album “…Like Clockwork” on Matador Records.

Brian “Head” Welch‘s return to Korn doesn’t mean the end of his other band, Love And Death. Welch will in fact be in the studio today  (May 03rd) with that outfit, tweeting:

“Hitting the studio today to write/record a NEW Love & Death song with the band. Stay tuned for details on that! Busy, busy, busy!!!”

Meanwhile, if yesterday’s announcement of his involvement with Korn‘s forthcoming studio album seemed too vague, he bluntly clarified his status himself, tweeting:

“I AM VERY PROUD to announce that I AM BACK IN KORN“

Cynic‘s next studio album will surface this fall according to a brief update tucked away in this post about a new signature guitar. Recording sessions for the album began in December of last year with Season Of Mist expected to be handling the release of it. Working song titles include: “Endlessly Bountiful“, “Moon Heart Sun Head“, and “True Hallucination Speak“.

Refrencing yesterday’s passing of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman and the ‘Golden Gods Awards‘ ceremony, Disturbed/Device frontman David Draiman shared the following post (via Twitter) earlier today (May 03rd):

“THERE IS NO ROOM FOR/EXCUSE FOR JEALOUSLY/CONTEMPT/HATRED BETWEEN THOSE WHO SHOULD BE SUPPORTIVE/CARING BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE WORLD OF HARD ROCK AND HEAVY METAL.

IN THE WAKE OF THE NEWS OF THE MIGHTY JEFF HANNEMAN‘S TRAGIC PASSING LAST NIGHT AT THE @Revolvermag #GoldenGods, THAT POINT BECAME CRYSTAL CLEAR TO EVERYONE.

HARDCORE, THRASH, CLASSIC, SYMPHONIC, DEATH, GRINDCORE, METALCORE, HARD ROCK AND ANY OTHER POSSIBLE GENRE/SUB-GENRE YOU COULD POSSIBLY CONCIEVE OF, STOOD UNITED IN THEIR GRIEF, AND STEADFAST IN THEIR SUPPORT OF THE @Slayer CAMP AND THE HANNEMAN FAMILY. WHEN ONE OF US FALLS, WE ARE ALL AFFECTED. WHEN A PILLAR AS MIGHTY AS JEFF HANNEMAN FALLS WE ARE ALL WEAKENED, AND NEED TO BE THERE FOR ONE ANOTHER TO CONSOLE, FONDLY REMEMBER AND FORTIFY/STRENGTHEN ONE ANOTHER, YET AGAIN.

WE HAVE ALWAYS COME TOGETHER AS A FAMILY IN SUCH TIMES OF SORROW AND NEED AND IF SOMETHING POSITIVE CAN BE TAKEN FROM ANY OF THIS, IT IS THAT WE LEARN FROM THAT SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND BROTHERHOOD THAT WAS SO PREVALENT AMONG EVERYONE THERE LAST NIGHT. ALL THE TASTEMAKER/ELITIST NONSENSE, ALL THE TRASH TALKING AND JEALOUSLY, TRULY HAS NO PLACE AMONG HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL’S ARTISTS OR IT’S FANS.
click here to read on…

Slayer‘s off-again/on-again drummer Dave Lombardo took to his Twitter this morning to comment on yesterday’s (May 02nd) passing of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman. He offered:

“I’m deeply saddened shocked and speechless. It’s difficult for me to write my feelings at this moment. My heart goes out to #KathyHanneman.”