Berlin’s THE OCEAN have been confirmed the opening slot on the prestigious OPETH tour in November. The third band on the bill is CYNIC from the USA. .

Dates: 

As good a singer as Tim 'Ripper' Owens is, and despite the fantastic job he did fronting ICED EARTH - it was difficult to contain my excitement at the news that Matt Barlow was back as Jon Schaffer's frontman.

They say a leopard never changes it's spots. Well, when it comes to heavy metal MOTÖRHEAD are indeed the proverbial leopard. 'Motörizer', their 19th studio album, sounds like MOTÖRHEAD - and although blatantly simple, that's the only overall description required of the 11 tracks gracing this CD.

Orange County Punks ZEBRAHEAD return to the UK for a full headline tour in October, in support of new album Phoenix, released last week.

 
"Excited to be bringing the drunken party back the UK, where we will see which member of ZEBRAHEAD shits in his pants first. Don't eat the airplane food!" says bass player Ben.

CHILDREN OF BODOM, whose last UK outing was at the Download Festival at Castle Donington in June, are currently promoting their sixth and most successful studio album, 'Blooddrunk', plus new single/video ‘Smile Pretty For The Devil’ – the third single from the aforementioned ‘Blooddrunk’ release on Spinefarm Records UK.

Thrash metal is enjoying great popularity right now which is never a bad thing as far as I am concerned, a lot of the more recent metal bands will no doubt have been influenced by such acts as OVERKILL, KREATOR, METAL CHURCH and of course DESTRUCTION - and it just so happens that 1980`s German thrash legends DESTRUCTION have recorded a new 10 track studio album

Welcome to the fourth installment of the Bloodstock Open Air festival. The 2008 edition boasted a terrific main stage line-up across 3 days, with two further stages packed with young unsigned bands (including the delights of NECROSADISTIC GOAT TORTURE...?!?!) looking to win over the metal faithful.

Veteran German thrashers DESTRUCTION will follow up their triumphant Bloodstock appearance last week with a short number of UK headline dates in the winter.

The dates are as follows:

Dec. 12 - Leeds, England - Rio's
Dec. 13 - Dublin, Ireland - The Village
Dec. 14 - Dudley, UK - JB's
Dec. 16 - London, England - Underworld

MÖTLEY CRÜE frontman Vince Neil has scheduled 2 tour dates in the UK at the end of the year.  Vince and his solo band — which includes Jeff Blando (guitar) and Dana Strum (bass) of SLAUGHTER along with drummer Zoltan Chaney  - play the following UK dates:

UK thrash titans ONSLAUGHT and death metal legends BENEDICTION have been confirmed for the Damnation Festival 2008, set to take place Saturday, November 22 at Leeds University.

According the organizers, this year's festival has been expanded to a full three-stage, 3,500-capacity event.

BBC RADIO 1 TO BROADCAST 10 HOURS LIVE FROM CREAMFIELDS + BBC INTRODUCING LINE UP ANNOUNCED / JUDGE JULES ‘GOES UNDER’!

Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th August ‘08

Daresbury, Halton, Cheshire

www.creamfields.com

The Leeds Cockpit venue is certainly a very cosy and intimate place to see a band, and especially good to watch a band that has five alluring women. Tonight The Crüxshadows, a successful underground Dark Wave band from Florida attracted a die hard crowd (if not a little on the sparse side) which started to stir once the keyboard and violin players came out to set up their gear.

SATYRICON have announced 3 UK dates as part of their European tour. UK thrashers EVILE will support the Norwegian black metallers.

UK Dates:

Nov. 24 - Birmingham, UK - Barfly
Nov. 25 - Leeds, UK - Cockpit
Nov. 26 - London, UK - ULU

After huge demand, UK thrashers can now celebrate — the Thrashing Like A Maniac Tour is officially coming to the UK!

It’s not been too long since Billy Idol was last gracing British shores and sending the crowds into a frenzy of delight, but come 8:30 pm on wednesday night as guitar maestro Steve Stevens walked out you would have thought it was the first time in 20 years as the crowd went ballistic!