Unearth Books Additional Tour Dates

Unearth will be joined by Veil Of Maya and Armed For Apocalypse for a 10 date run before taking part in the upcoming Atticus Metal Tour II. More details here.

The Dillinger Escape Plan Announce More Dates

The Dillinger Escape Plan has announce more dates for their Spring tour with Darkest Hour, iwrestledabearonce, and Animals As Leaders.

Rob Zombie Auctioning Movie Props

Rob Zombie tweeted that he’s auctioning props from Halloween, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. Get in on the action here.

Glen Drover To Fill In On Testament Tour

Ex-Megadeth guitarist Glen Drover will be filling in for Alex Skolnick on Testament’s upcoming tour with Megadeth and Exodus.

Metal By Numbers 1/27 – Third Time’s A Charm For SFU

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.

There’s still not a ton of metal or metal-leaning music selling in the first few weeks of the new decade, but at least some new albums are debuting. The real winner this week is indie rock, with Vampire Weekend and Spoon both in the top six. The first rock band to appear is Kings of Leon, all the way down at 32, and unless you count Breaking Benjamin as metal (we don’t really), Them Crooked Vultures are the first band we’re keeping tabs on this week (even though they’re technically not a ‘metal’ band either). At least some new records are coming out that people are buying, like Six Feet Under, whose Graveyard Classics 3 is the top-selling metal debut of the week. Read more »

Charred Walls Of The Damned Streaming New Album Online

Charred Walls Of The Damned is streaming their new self-titled album in its entirety at AOL Music.

Bleeding Through Announce Release Date For New Album

Missing Metallica Fan’s Remains Tenatively ID’d

In what could be a sad ending to a story that’s been in the news for the last three months, Virginia police have tentatively identified the remains of Morgan Harrington, the 20 year-old college student that went missing at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, VA on October 17. Skeletal remains were found on remote a farm about 10 miles from the area. According to CNN, the farm’s owner found skeletal remains while driving his tractor. The area where he found the remains are about a mile and a half from a main roadway, and could only be reached by tractor or four wheel drive vehicle.  Virginia State Police said there were “significant items” that led police to believe that they were Harrington’s remains.

After getting separated from friends at the Metallica concert, Harrington somehow wound up outside the venue, and wasn’t let back in by security. People that saw her outside the arena said she appeared to be alone.  There was $150,000 reward for information on her disappearance, $50,000 of which was contributed by Metallica. Extensive searches were organized for her, and there was a benefit concert for her held on December 19 in Richmond. If it turns out that the remains are indeed Harrington’s, it’s a tragic ending to a disturbing story. The only possible positive thing to come of this is that if the remains are confirmed as Harrington’s, that might be enough new info for someone to come forward and for them to find her killer.

E1 Signs North American Deal With SPV

Last year, German metal label SPV declared insolvency, which is the German version of declaring bankruptcy. Sadly, as part of that, they shut down their American offices, leaving bands like Whitesnake, Monster Magnet, and Motorhead without a deal in the U.S. Thankfully, E1 Entertainment has just announced that they’ve signed a deal to acquire North American rights for SPV’s roster.

“The metal genre has become an important aspect of our business and continues to be a growing initiative spearheaded by Scott Givens, VP of Metal of E1 Music,” KOCH CEO Michael Koch commented.

“After a period of restructuring, SPV is back in the U.S. market with a strong catalogue of back titles and new releases,” SPV’s Andreas Rennmann added. “With E1 we’re happy to have a partner that offers a professional setup and has the same passion for music.”

So I guess this makes Scott Givens the VP and the Chancellor of Metal? This is a great pickup for any label. The back catalog alone is great, but new music from bands like Motorhead and Type O Negative should definitely get E1 a nice return on their investment. A spokesperson told Metal Insider there’s no word yet on when SPV releases will start coming out on E1.

AC/DC To Release ‘Iron Man 2′ Soundtrack, Essentially A Greatest Hits Compilation

Big summer blockbuster films using classic rock as a soundtrack isn’t anything new. It is still pretty cool though to hear that Marvel Studio’s Iron Man 2 will be using AC/DC’s music exclusively throughout the film.

However, here is where it gets a bit unusual: Columbia will be releasing an all-AC/DC official Iron Man 2 soundtrack to coincide with the film’s release. Which basically means they are putting out an AC/DC greatest hits album, which the Australian group has notoriously avoided (they’d rather you buy each and every one of their catalog albums instead).

There’s also an official video for the 30 year-old track “Shoot To Thrill,” comprised of footage from the band’s recent set in Argentina and clips from the film: