After all the waiting and suspense (or lack thereof), the lineup and dates for the return of Ozzfest have been revealed. This year’s tour sees Ozzy Osbourne (surprise!) co-headlining with Motley Crue, marking the first time the two have toured together since 1984. Also on the main stage will be Halford, Devildriver and Nonpoint. The second stage will be headlined by Black Label Society and will feature Drowning Pool, Kingdom of Sorrow, Goatwhore, Skeletonwitch, Saviours and Kataklysm.

It looks like Bram’s hunch was right. The reaction across the metal community has been a resounding ‘meh.’ It’s more like Oldfest that Ozzfest. The tour will do well with the baby boomers that saw Ozzy when he was in Black Sabbath and Halford the first time he was in Priest. Aging strippers will come out for the Crue as well. And while the second stage lineup is pretty solid, most metal fans would rather see the five bands playing before BLS and Drowning Pool in a smaller setting where they’ll have more than 20 minutes to play.

And another thing – while this will see the landmark touring metal festival hitting more than one date since 2007, Ozzfest will only be hitting six cities this coming August, with four of them in the Northeast. That’s great for Metal Insider, but not for anyone in the south or pacific northwest, or pretty much anywhere other than the six cities it’s hitting.The 2010 Ozzfest dates are as follows:

Sat, Aug 14 – San Bernardino, CA – San Manuel Amphitheater
Tue, Aug 17 – Chicago, IL – First Midwest Bank Amp.
Thurs, Aug 19 – Pittsburgh, PA – First Niagara Pavilion
Sat , Aug 21 – Hartford, CT – Comcast Theater
Sun, Aug 22 – Camden, NJ – Susquehanna Bank Center
Tue, Aug 24 – Boston, MA – Comcast Center

To be honest, we can see the reasoning for making this announcement right before the weekend. The lineup isn’t awful, but definitely weak considering previous years and current competing tours. And while fewer dates are fine, we didn’t think the tour would be scaled down by so much. Let’s look at this year’s festival as a tentative first step towards re-establishing one of the ’90s most dominant festivals. As skeptical as we are about this, we hope and think it’ll do well enough for their to be a better lineup with more dates next year.