With a series of mandatory evacuations in place across several counties and States in Irene's path, all reasonable efforts were made by authorities to keep people safe. Property was a different issue entirely, as it can be replaced. But you might have a hard time convincing Sebastian Bach of that right now, as the rocker lost his New Jersey home to the storm.

Bach shared the news on Facebook late Sunday evening: "I am numb, in shock and devastated to report that my home of 21 years, my house featured on MTV 'Cribs', has been destroyed, condemned and deemed uninhabitable due to the extreme flooding courtesy of Hurricane Irene.

(Classic Rock) Megadeth are to make a major announcement at 2pm UK time on Wednesday, September 7. The nature of this announcement is currently a mystery, but the band are doing a countdown on their website. more

(Loudwire) Korn reportedly have scheduled a Nov. 15 release date for their next album, which has been titled 'The Path to Totality.' The disc, the band's 10th full-length studio effort, originally was due to drop Oct. 11. more

(FMQB) Portishead have announced a North American tour. The group does not have a new album to promote, and will focus setlists on tracks from 2008's Third, Dummy (1994) and Portishead (1997). more

(The 1st Five) After releasing a cryptic website to herald the coming of their new album The Black Mass This Is Hell's latest effort will finally see release on October 11th, 2011 via Rise Records. You can check out the track listing here

(MU) Sony Legacy has announced the release of a new, two disc Danzig compilation album on October 25th as part of the 'Essential' series more

(Loudwire) Slayer and drugs don't always mix, but when it comes to sex and rock 'n' roll, the thrash-metal masters have you covered � literally. In the grand tradition of Kiss and U2 prophylactics, Slayer have released their very own line of custom-branded condoms. more

(Classic Rock) Clive John, keyboard player with Welsh band Man, died on August 24. Regarded as a crucial part of Man's style and sound, John had fought a lengthy battle against emphysema. more

(Lambgoat) After being out of action for an extended period of time, Massachusetts metal band Killswitch Engage has reconvened and is preparing to commence work on their next album. more

F**ked Up and Wavves will co-headline a brief fall tour late next month. more

(MU) Gorgoroth has announced that the re-recorded edition of their 1996 album, 'Under The Sign Of Hell,' which is simply entitled, 'Under The Sign Of Hell 2011,' has had to have been delayed once again to financial problems. The record was initially scheduled to be released on August 29th but now faces an uncertain future more

(Loudwire) Throat issues were the root cause of Jane's Addiction being forced to bow out of the Reading Festival in the UK on Saturday, Aug. 27. Apparently, colorful and flamboyant frontman Perry Farrell had such a serious sore throat that he could barely make a sound. more

(BMN) Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson will join Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson and Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues on Saturday, December 10 for what is being billed as "Canterbury Rocks At Christmas" in the nave at the famed Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England in support of The Canterbury Gift, which raises money for renovation work on the cathedral. more

(MU) Pro-Pain will soon be releasing a CD/DVD collection titled '20 Years Of Hardcore,' and the band has now announced new tour dates in support of the release. Support on the European trek will come from Undivided, Soulline, and Morrigu. more

(Lambgoat) Every Time I Die, The Acacia Strain, and The Word Alive will team up for some Australian shows this fall. more

Speaking on the band's tradition of taking time out between record's Shadows points to the recent rumours of a split with metal heavyweights Disturbed as evidence their method works.

There's no word whether the Miami date is part of a North American tour, but the date does fall at the end of the band's South American/Mexican tour.

The classic Aerosmith catalog will be released at the iTunes Store beginning Tuesday, September 6th. Here is the official word with the details:

The classic Aerosmith catalog will be available to purchase and download on iTunes and other digital retailers as full albums or individual tracks. The band's catalog releases include: Aerosmith (1973) - Get Your Wings (1974) - Toys In The Attic (1975) - Rocks (1976) - Draw The Line (1977) - Live! Bootleg (1978) - Night In The Ruts (1979) - Aerosmith's Greatest Hits (1980) - Rock In A Hard Place (1982) - Classics Live (1986) - Classics Live II (1987)

The band recently revealed details of the album they recorded with art-rock icon Reed in May, following both parties' enjoyment of playing a live show together two years ago.

MTV hasn't been about rock music for many years, and if you spent any time watching the VMA's, you certainly weren't going to find any rock in the house � May's cameo was all the rock the night had to offer�save for the Foo Fighters picking up Best Rock Video honors from a channel that hardly plays any.

Left Field Media is releasing "Rush ABC 1974," the show marks Rush's first recorded performance in the US, as well as their first recorded performance with Neil Peart - who had only just joined the band a month prior to the show.

The New York hardcore metallers parted company with Seinfeld in June just before their scheduled appearance at the Download Festival with the frontman stating 'personal reasons.'

If Life Was Easy, by Roger Glover and the Guilty Party- produced by Glover and Peter Denenberg. Taken from snippets of ideas that the bassist had for years, the album is introspective, thought provoking and its 16 tracks are filled with experimental techniques both instrumentally, compositionally and vocally.

In addition to earning Richards a massive payday � he received a $7 million-plus advance for the tome � the book earned nearly universally positive reviews. Chief among these was effusive praise lavished on Life by rocker Liz Phair, in a lead review for the New York Times.

Jones joined Steve at the Reading Festival Saturday, the third UK festival show this summer where the two have performed together.

The duo kicks off the European leg of their 2011 tour with a show in Dublin. Dates in Europe continue through November 2, with a final show at Teatro Sistina in Rome.

Named both the Best New Band at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards and the Best British Newcomer at the Kerrang! Awards, Rise To Remain has high aspirations for the new album.

The band last toured in 2009, although the reunion was fraught with tension and some creative differences. Last year, Bob Weir suggested that drummers Hart and Bill Kreutzmann weren't as current, musically, as much as other members of the band.

Leppard will perform on the talent competition series on September 7; the show airs at 9:00 PM ET on NBC.

According to the announcement, the clip is a comedic, raunchy 70's slant on a handful of classic Hollywood films. From "Pump Friction" and "Forrest Hump" to "The Bang Over," the video is chock full of more puns that you can shake a stick at. Watch it here

The new album was conceived with Grammy-winning producer Jim Scott (Wilco, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dixie Chicks, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty) and features appearances by Wilco's Nels Cline, singer/actress Minnie Driver and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' keyboardist Benmont Tench.

The 37-date headline trek kicks off on November 3 in Milwaukee and will criss-cross the U.S. and Canada over a six-week period.

The records are being mastered by John Golden at Golden Mastering and the original flat analogs are being used for the new cuts.

(Glass Onyon) The power trio promises to deliver an evening full of depth-defying virtuosic performances guaranteed to thrill and inspire all that attend. "Henderson-Berlin-Clark are the Clapton-Bruce-Baker of fusion music!" says Jeff Berlin

"It's a shame that legendary Morbosidad couldn't make the bill, as always we're honoured to be playing with Canada's best black and death metal at this year's Skull F**king Metal Fest." commented Auroch guitarist Seb Montesi.

But the mania had proved too manic for the Fab Four in the months leading up to the gig. Deafening (and non-listening) audiences, pushy promoters and local bigwigs, angry record-burners (following Lennon's infamous "Bigger than Jesus" comment) and a near riot in the Philippines had convinced the boys � even the ever-enthusiastic showman McCartney � that enough was enough. The circus had to stop.

There were also the band's musical ambitions to take into account. Emboldened by their ever-growing songwriting talents and energized by advances in studio recording technology, they would no longer accept the three-songs-in-a-day-squeezed-somewhere-between-tour-legs approach to recording. They wanted time to build layers upon layers of musical constructs that, themselves, would be too complex to ever reproduce on stage. Case in point is the band's set list from the 1966 tour, which included not a single track from their most recent album, Revolver.

"For [expletive] sake, get over it. See what's going on in the world. Write about God, write about love, write about death, write about war, write about people."

I've always been a fan of traditional, down on your luck, country music songs. I guess "Vices" was my attempt to recreate that sort of vibe. I wrote this song in my old apartment, shortly after moving in. At this point in my life, I was living on my own for the first time in my life, which obviously provided me with a lot of extra alone time to be creative. By creative, I mean drunk and bored as hell. Honestly, I didn't WRITE Vices so much as I found it midway through a bottle of whiskey. Remember how I said I was trying to recreate the feel of an old, haggard country song? The Whiskey helped.

The song basically tells a story of a guy who's been done wrong by his woman, decides to give himself a break, a drink, and a couple extra days to collect himself. Slippery slopes for slippery folks... His long weekend turns into a full on bender, with no light at the end of the tunnel. Grim, of course, but I think it's pretty universal and relatable. Contrary to popular belief, the song is about no one in particular, just a sort of idea that stuck to the wall. A couple weeks later, I brought it to the band, which helped me (as always) shape it, tinker with it, and turn it into a proper song.

Moral of the story...booze helps you write songs.