Baroness have added three headlining off-dates to their forthcoming Australian run supporting Metallica and Lamb Of God. The solo stops run as follows:

October 17th Brisbane, AUS – The Zoo
November 12th Sydney, AUS – The Annandale
November 19th Melbourne, AUS – Gershwin Room

Metallica have recruited Fear Factory and The Sword to support them on the following Australasia/Japanese dates:

September 15th Melbourne, AUS – Rod Laver Arena
September 16th Melbourne, AUS – Rod Laver Arena
September 18th Sydney, AUS – Acer Arena
September 21st Christchurch, NZ – CBS Canterbury Arena
September 22nd Christchurch, NZ – CBS Canterbury Arena
September 25th Tokyo, JAP – Saitama Super Arena
September 26th Tokyo, JAP – Saitama Super Arena

Megadeth frontman/guitarist Dave Mustaine recently commented on his experiences touring with the “big four” (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax) overseas, here’s what he had to offer on the experience:

“So now that the Big Four dates have come and gone, I feel it is time to check-in, say, “Hello” and tell you what has been going on in my world.

First off, when we left San Marcos and Mustaine Music Studios aka ‘Vic’s Garage,’ we had no idea what to expect, other than the fact that we wanted to make a point; we wanted to make the other bands feel comfortable, we wanted the fans to all leave this momentous occasion feeling completely satiated, we wanted the guys in Metallica to know that we could be depended on to pull our share…

I don’t know if we delivered for everyone, but for the tens of thousands of people each night, and ultimately hundreds of thousands of fans over the entire run of the Big Four festivals (affectionately dubbed “Sonisphere”), it seemed to me that the fans were finally able to put aside the silly stuff that the press has kept on life support for so many, many years. We did several round-table interviews with a member from each camp of the Big Four, and one thing that was a constant and that we all agreed on was that the press was the responsible parties for keeping the feuds alive.

You heard it straight from our mouths; we are all at peace with one another, and we all are friends. End of story – or in other words, several shit magazines will now have to learn how to write real interviews, reviews, and features, instead of causing so much turmoil with us four, all in the spirit of selling their publications.”

Members of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax all joined forces on stage yesterday in Sofia, Bulgaria for a cover of Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?“. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be found below. Furthermore, all of the bands ‘big four’ overseas touring is being documented for a future DVD release.

Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot are among the various metal artists who will have playable tracks in the next installment of the “Guitar Hero” videogame franchise, “Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock“. The game will also feature a brand new Megadeth track dubbed “Sudden Death” which was written exclusively for the game. The official press release showcasing the first 35 tracks to be revealed for the game can be found below:

“This autumn, living room legends and their friends will join together and embark on an epic rock journey to save rock n’ roll with Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero ® : Warriors of Rock. The latest installment in the world’s most popular music game series, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will once again redefine music gaming with an all-new, story-driven Quest Mode, a completely redesigned rock-inspired guitar controller, the biggest on-disc selection of rock music ever in a Guitar Hero ® game and Quickplay+, which invites challenge-starved fanatics to test their rock skills in any of the on-disc or over 500 songs in the Guitar Hero Music Library.

Running on the powerful Guitar Hero engine that has been expanded and refined, coupled with the return of the critically acclaimed and fan favorite features like Party Play’s jump in/jump out gameplay, a host of Competitive modes and the ability to play any combination of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock offers the complete interactive and connected experience bringing friends and foes to the stage in the ultimate rock music adventure.

“Guitar Hero has set the standard for music based gaming and with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and the game’s all-new Quest Mode, robust and authentic set list, over-the-top challenges and rock-inspired new hardware, we are once again bringing the soul and energy of rock n’ roll to fans around the world,” said David Haddad, Chief Operating Officer, Guitar Hero.

In Quest Mode, using any combination of instruments, players will embark on a larger-than-life, epic rock journey from the stage of CBGBs, the infamous punk-rock club in New York City, to the molten lava fields of rock treachery as eight Guitar Hero characters transform into rock warriors that must join together to use their unique, game-changing powers to help the Demi-God of Rock take down “The Beast” and save rock n’ roll.

“The world is a boring place. Come with me, and enter a world populated of Demi-Gods and Beasts. Transform from an everyday person and become the savior of rock and roll,” said Gene Simmons of KISS. “It was an honor and privilege to narrate Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, even more so, to voice the Demi God. From the God of Thunder to the Demi-God, how cool is that…”

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock breathes new life into gamers’ current Guitar Hero music libraries providing literally hundreds of hours of replayability with the introduction of Quickplay+, which features 13 totally unique gameplay challenges for every on-disc track as well as most downloadable and importable songs from Guitar Hero ® World Tour forward. Gamers will complete challenges such as Band Streak, High Score and Power Challenge, which allows players to choose any two warrior powers they have unlocked to try and earn ridiculously high scores, to rank up and unlock more rewards and content than ever before. All-new Challenge Leaderboards have been created in order to capture the outrageous scores that are capable with Quickplay+.

Delivering the largest on-disc rock music set list to-date, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock features more than 90 tracks that include guitar shredding hits from bands such as Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Slipknot and larger than life anthems from Queen, Muse and KISS. Additionally, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth wrote and recorded “Sudden Death,” an original track for the game, which was inspired by Quest Mode’s storyline. Along with original songs, the set list also includes special re-records by famous artists and tracks from bands that are making their music video game debut. The first songs off of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s set list to be revealed are:

•AFI – “Dancing Through Sunday”
•Anthrax – “Indians”
•Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
•Black Sabbath – “Children Of The Grave”
•Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
•Children Of Bodom – “If You Want Peace… Prepare For War”
•The Cure – “Fascination Street”
•Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me (Live)”
•Dethklok – “Bloodlines”
•Dire Straits – “Money For Nothing”
•DragonForce – “Fury of the Storm”
•Drowning Pool – “Bodies”
•Fall Out Boy – “Dance, Dance”
•Foo Fighters – “No Way Back”
•Foreigner – “Feels Like The First Time”
•The Hives – “Tick Tick Boom”
•Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
•Jethro Tull – “Aqualung”
•KISS – “Love Gun”
•Linkin Park – “Bleed It Out”
•Megadeth – “Sudden Death”
•Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – “Paranoid (Live)”
•Muse – “Uprising”
•My Chemical Romance – “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
•Night Ranger – “ (You Can Still) Rock In America”
•Nine Inch Nails – “Wish”
•The Offspring – “Self Esteem”
•Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
•Rammstein – “Waidmanns Heil”
•The Rolling Stones – “Stray Cat Blues”
•Silversun Pickups – “There’s No Secrets This Year”
•Slayer – “Chemical Warfare”
•Slipknot – “Psychosocial”
•Stone Temple Pilots – “Interstate Love Song”
•ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man (Live)”

To maximise players’ shredability, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock delivers the next evolution in finger-fretting with an all-new, show-stopping guitar controller that was inspired and born from the game’s unique art style and specifically made for shredding.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360 ® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation ® 3 computer entertainment system and by Vicarious Visions for the Wii TM system from Nintendo. rating TBC. For more information about Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, please visit GuitarHero.com.”

The game is expected to see a fall release date while an initial reveal trailer can be found below:

Killwhitneydead. have made their cover of Inside Out’s “Sacrifice” available online for a limited time here. The band recorded the cover for Tribunal Records‘ upcoming 100th release, “Tribunal Records 100: We Gotcha Covered“, which will hit stores later this year.

The tentative track listing for the aforementioned album runs as follows:

Age Of Ruin – “Buried Dreams” (Carcass cover)
Aria – “Clocks” (Coldplay cover)
Asecretdeath – “Welcome To The Machine” (Pink Floyd cover)
Blatant Disarray – “Holy Wars” (Megadeth cover)
Bloodjinn – “Enter Sandman” (Metallica cover)
Canvas Solaris – Arc Lite” (Coroner cover)
Century – “A Kiss From A Rose” (Seal cover) Preview
The Chase Theory – “Accident Prone” (Jawbreaker cover)
The Feds – “Barracuda” (Heart cover)
From The Shallows – “Botchla” (Poison The Well cover)
He Is Legend – “Wounded” (Third Eye Blind cover)
Jonin – “Caffeine” (Faith No More cover)
Killwhitneydead. – “Sacrifice” (Inside Out cover)
Killwhitneydead./Jonin – “Vote With A Bullet” (Corrosion Of Conformity cover)
Line Of Fire – “I Will Remember” (Queensryche cover)
Sargant Fury – “Maniac” (Michael Sembello cover)
Sever The Fallen – “Paint It Black” (The Rolling Stones cover)
Slowmotion Apocalypse – “The Razor’s Edge” (AC/DC cover)
Swift – “Unbelievable” (EMF cover)
Vanisher – “The Perfect Drug” (Nine Inch Nails cover)

Metallica are reportedly planning a May 18th release date through Warner for a new 180 gram vinyl pressing of their 1996 outing, “Load“. Both a standard 2xLP and a Deluxe 4xLP edition of the outing are being prepped for a release.

Metallica have announced the opening acts for their upcoming spring European touring plans. Fear Factory and Gojira will join the band for their April leg of dates, while Volbeat will support them for their May touring, sans May 22nd.

The updated schedule for the trek now runs as follows:

With Fear Factory, Gojira:

April 13th Oslo, NOR – Telenor Arena
April 14th Oslo, NOR – Telenor Arena
April 17th Riga, LAT – Riga Arena
April 18th Tallinn, EST – Saku Suurhal
April 20th Vilnius, LIT – Siemens Arena
April 21st Vilnius, LIT – Siemens Arena
April 24th Moscow, RUS – SK Olimpiisky
April 25th Moscow, RUS – SK Olimpiisky

With Volbeat:

May 11th Belfast, IRE – Odyssey Arena
May 12th Belfast, IRE – Odyssey Arena
May 14th Budapest, HUN – Puskas Ferenc Stadium
May 16th Zagreb, CRO – Hippodrome
May 18th Lisbon, POR – Pavilhao Atlantico
May 19th Lisbon, POR – Pavilhao Atlantico

May 22nd Tel Aviv, ISR – Ramat Gan Stadium (feat. Orphaned Land)