In case you weren’t paying attention, last year Mastodon unveiled Crack the Skye, an album so cohesive that they’ve been playing it in its entirety for their last few tours. Now a lot of the secondary markets that didn’t get to see them perform it live will get a chance to, and they’ve lined up some pretty stellar openers as well. Starting on April 16, Mastodon will be joined by Between the Buried and Me, Baroness, and Valient Thorr for a month-long tour. Dates will be listed below.

Also, while the lineup for the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival has yet to be announced, the tour’s 4/23 stop at the Palladium in Worcester means that the Fest has its Friday night headliners lined up.

In other news, if you’ve been holding off on picking up Mastodon vinyl, April is your chance to make up for it. They’ll be offering a new limited tour-only color vinyl of Crack the Skye, and on National Record Store Day (April 17 this year), they’ll be reissuing vinyl editions of Blood Mountain in both standard and deluxe editions. The deluxe will be pressed on double 45 RPM discs on 180 gram vinyl in a gatefold sleeve featuring new custom art from Paul Romano. Dates after the jump.

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When it was announced that Them Crooked Vultures were going to be the musical guests on this past weekend’s Saturday Night Live, I instantly was hoping to see the supergroup make an appearance in a skit. While only one member joined the cast in action, I still got my wish. Dave Grohl joined host Ashton Kutcher and cast member Fred Armisen in a sketch where the father of the bride reunites with his old band mates for a performance at the wedding. Lets just say that the wedding guests are in for a Suicidal Tendencies-esque surprise.

Hit the jump to see Them Crooked Vultures performing “Mind Eraser, No Chaser” and “New Fang” on the show.

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The old saying for in favor of having lots of  merch designs is “you can’t download a t-shirt.” Well, you still can’t, but coming soon to a store near you is the ‘Music Tee,’ in which you buy a T-shirt that comes with a hangtag with a link redeemable for downloads. According to Digital Music News, Warner Bros.  and Interscope have signed on to license the Music Tee idea, which was created via a joint venture with PR firm Girlie Action and the LA-based label Invisible DJ. What’s more is that the shirts will be counted by Nielsen SoundScan, so they’ll count towards sales.

While many of the shirts available so far are for indie and alternative bands (Third Eye Blind, Mutemath), Girlie Action and Invisible DJ have unveiled a ‘vintage collection’ of shirts, with three relatively niche bands: Bad Religion, Bad Brains, and Exciter. Exciter? Whoa. We didn’t even know Heavy Metal Maniac was still in print! The shirts generally have album artwork on the front and a track listing on the back. The Music Tee is a little steep at $45, but the right combination of album and artwork could make it a worthy purchase. And hey, it might even turn some fashionistas on to music they haven’t heard before. I mean, how many times have you seen someone like Lindsay Lohan ironically wearing a Motorhead shirt? And how many Motorhead songs do you think she knows? Exactly. You can pre-order the three coolest shirts here.

Private equity group Terra Firma might have thought they had a sure thing on their hands when they bought EMI Music (which includes Virgin and Capitol) in 2007. And while parts of EMI, the world’s fourth-largest label, are doing ok now, the future looks a little shaky. The Wall Street Journal reports that Terra Firma is considering asking investors for $160 million to stay afloat. London’s Financial Times states that the recorded music business won’t be able to pay the loans it owes Citigroup.

And while Terra Firma needs that money to keep EMI in business, the Times states that EMI’s operating performance has improved. They made a lot of cost cutting moves in the last year or so. Their music publishing business is doing well; a reissue of the Beatles’ catalog and the success of current bands, such as Alice In Chains, hasn’t hurt either. And four of the top ten albums this week are EMI bands, including something called Lady Antebellum that sold almost 500,000 copies this week. The music industry is definitely changing, and the days of super rich corporate executives lighting Cuban cigars with $100 bills is long over. But there’s got to be a compromise between that and losing great labels like Capitol and Virgin.

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

While mainstream pop, hip-hop and country still seems to be the only thing selling on a large scale this year, there’s definitely some more metal sneaking into the lower reaches of the chart. Rob Zombie should give the chart some much needed metal firepower in the front 50 next week, but Alesana and Living Sacrifice are the biggest new bands this week.

Notable Debuts:

Alesana, Emptiness (Fearless) #65, 8,700 sold
This screamo-ish band has four vocalists. Y’know, just in case something’s wrong with the first three…

Living Sacrifice, The Infinite Order (Tooth & Nail)  #190, 2,600 sold
The metalcore band’s first studio album in eight years has a pretty solid first week.

Fozzy, Chasing the Grail (Riot Entertainment) 2,200 sold
When he isn’t busy getting into play fights,  Chris Jericho is singing a bunch.

Taking Dawn, Time to Burn (Roadrunner) 1,200 sold
This ’80s-loving  Vegas band have a nice first week, and should get a second shot when they eventually cross over to active rock radio.

Ihsahn, After (Candlelight) 900 sold
And it’s the highest-debuting Norwegian metal band this week – not to mention way scarier than anyone that debuted above.

Mnemic, Sons of the System (Nuclear Blast) 600 sold
These guys have to be way bummed that Fear Factory have an album coming out.

Dream Evil, In the Night (Century Media) 500
Of course you dream evil in the night. If not, it’s daydream evil. Come on, guys…

Cave-In, Planets of Old EP (Hydra Head) 450 sold
The CD release of the last year’s vinyl EP also has a live DVD on it. So buy it, jerks.

Dark Funeral, Angelus Exuro Pro Eternus (Regain) 400 sold
The fifth album from the Swedish black metal band is off to a modest start.  (more…)