Today's Top Stories

Metallica Are 'Quite Far Along' With New Album

The shows are in addition to the Beatles icon's three gigs in Germany this spring. Tickets for the North American dates go on sale at 10am local time on March 14.

This week, McCartney led the tributes to Beatles producer Sir George Martin, who died at the age of 90. McCartney said: "If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George.

Weird Al tells Rolling Stone: "We're doing a shorter set because the Bowl will not let you go over. I think 84 minutes is the cutoff. It's going to be a truncated set, but on the positive side, the show is with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

However, he will require ongoing treatment and his bandmates are asking fans to help via a GoFundMe campaign. They say: "Doc suffered cardiac arrest in early November last year. His condition quickly progressed to multiple organ failure, and he was on life support for almost two weeks. At the time, his doctors gave him a 5% chance of survival. But by the power of PMA, love and family, he was able to pull through and survive.

The camera finds frontman Jeremy McKinnon on a psychiatrist's couch seemingly attempting to explain his paranoia to the decrepit doctor. But purging his fears doesn't seem to pay off as his psychosis takes on the form of a monster that stalks him and the band through the course of the high-energy video.

"This song always reminds me of a sultry David Bowie song," guitarist Rick Nielsen tells Rolling Stone. "I liked it from the first time we attempted to do it. It's just a moody, interesting piece with some heavy guitars in the middle. The last line is 'Are you gonna be here when I wake up tomorrow,' and then Bowie passed away after we recorded it."

Due April 1, "Bang Zoom Crazy�Hello" is the band's 17th studio album and their first in five years. The project was produced by longtime associate Julian Raymond, who has co-written several Cheap Trick tunes through the years.

"When I Wake Up Tomorrow" follows the lead single, "No Direction Home", which was offered as a free download in December when Cheap Trick celebrated news of their induction into the 2016 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

The band will kick off a UK tour later this month, where they'll play dates in a number of so-called "smaller" towns. Frontman Matt Heafy said: "The UK was the first place to ever truly embrace Trivium and make us feel at home. I feel now - at this very moment in time - Trivium is a better live band than we have ever been.

Hyde had this to say about the album, "Those of you familiar with my work with The Futureheads may be expecting an album of new wave inspired, four-part harmony, guitar music. 'Malody' couldn't be further away from that. The album is based around my first instrument, the piano, and also features violin, cello, double bass, tenor and baritone sax, pedal steel and trumpet."

He's looking to raise $500,000 in the space of a month - and so far the film titled Who The F*@% Is Frank Zappa has hit $180,000 after just two days. Winter says: "Other docs have tried to tell Frank's story but we've got something no one's ever had - we've got thousands of hours of new stuff to look at.

Frontman Jamey Jasta describes the record as "no glitz, no glam, just pits, all slam." The follow-up to 2013's The Divinity of Purpose is produced by longtime collaborator Zeuss, who has also worked with Rob Zombie and Suicide Silence, and mixed by Lamb Of God and Megadeth engineer Josh Wilbur.

On the artwork created by Slayer collaborator Marcelo Vaso, Jasta adds: "I think Da Vinci said it best when he said painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

Tate tells Metal Wani: "You just have to keep yourself open to new ideas and not get bewildered at life. I think that's a thing that a lot of older people go through.

"You just get burnt out, tired of beating your head against the wall in some area of your life. That's when the bitterness can set in. And you definitely don't wanna end your days as a bitter person."

Bassist Chad Hanks said: "Tango Umbrella, sonically, feels like a combination of The War Of Art and The Feeding. It's a logical progression for us as we continue experimenting with different feels, sounds and vocal styles. It's heavy in every way possible, and I really think our fans are going to love it."

Patton previously said: "Kaada's compositions have always resonated deeply with me and his orchestral arrangements for this project are harmonically dense and delicious.

The follow-up to the Southampton blues rock three-piece's 2014's Himalayan is produced by Pixies collaborator Gil Norton and was recorded at Rockfield Studios.

Juliano has followed Sepultura for a number of years, through "a time of tension and triumph for the band, as they toured and recorded their albums Kairos and The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart."

Lacuna Coil singer Cristina Scabbia says of the album: "It's called Delirium and there's tons of reasons for it. It's been a crazy couple of years for different reasons, for personal reasons and for a lot of things that we will disclose, or we will tell later.

"It's heavier than the previous albums we did, which is kind of surprising. A lot of bands are going the other way around, getting softer and more accessible."

"We wrote the song Pale Blue Eyes after visiting the Salton Sea on our first trip through the United States, playing the stage of the infamous 'Range' at the Slab City Prom 2013," says frontman Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann. "Slab City or 'The Slabs' is a snowbird campsite in the Californian Sonora Desert 156 miles northeast of San Diego, where RV-people, outlaws and squatters from across North America formed a wild and lawless 'city' from debris around the famous and colorful Salvation Mountain built by Leonard Knight in the 1980s.

On the heels of their fall 2015 North American tour, the Back In The USSA tour will hit 19 cities starting in Santa Cruz, CA on April 8 and wrapping up in Boston, MA on May 4.

"These Kids Nowadays" is the first song we worked on together and recorded. Sort of like our "first born" it signaled the beginning of a very big family. We knew right then we had something special we had to hold on to and keep working on. It has one of the most recognizable melodies out of all of our songs, a great synth hook and lyrically it hits you hard right out the gate with "Someone's naked no one is listening".

I remember spending hours and hours at the old Swinghouse studios on Formosa going through material Lucas would demo for us and as soon as These Kids Nowadays came up I remember the whole band going oh yeah we can get down with this. Everyone started working on individual parts and little by little we put it together. We decided to have Lucas sing the verses, Eric the pre chorus and have both of them sing the choruses which started this beautiful "co-fronting" situation you rarely see with kids in rock bands these days. Pun intended. The great thing was that we discovered how well their voices blend together and kept that theme going through out the album. Pre-production ended with J.P Bowersock coming in the room and giving us performance notes for the studio. I remember one of the tips he gave with regards to the rhythm section was to switch the kick drum and my bass pattern in the last chorus from an eighth note pattern to sixteen. It was really subtle but elevated the overall punch and feeling of the song when it needed it the most. He also gave tips to Lucas and Eric on vocal delivery with regards to contrast from verse to pre-chorus.

We went to the Village Recording Studios in West L.A shortly after and it was really a matter of picking the best take out of a pool of very solid performances which J. P has down to a science. The band's ears can get really jaded after a while which is why a great producer like J.P is so important. We tracked all the rhythms section instrumentation live and then Eric went to town with his synth lines. Honestly it felt effortless. We had a great time and I said to myself if this is an indication of how this album will go down then we're all in for a great time. It was also the beginning of our relationship with Ghian Wright as our main head engineer. We couldn't be happier with the man. Although his base is at the Village we took him with us for most of the album as we roamed around different studios in L.A.

Hellfest published Anselmo's letter on their Facebook page. It reads: "My awful mistake has taken a toll on my reputation, and justly so. However, I must point out, you damned-well know me better than this drunken incident could ever describe. Hellfest is my heart.

"And my embarrassment is tremendous, because I only have love for people all over this skirmishing earth. So my brother, it f***ing rips my heart into further pieces to let you know, I don't think I should do any Euro festivals this year.

The pair of songs originally appeared on the group's eighth album, "Screaming For Vengeance." The project peaked at No. 17 on the US Billboard 200 on its way to platinum status for sales of more than 2 million copies in the States.

Due March 25, "Battle Cry" captures the band live at Germany's Wacken Festival last summer in front of an audience of 85,000 while on tour in support of 2014's "Redeemer Of Souls."

"More than ever, we take care of the production side of Priest," says frontman Rob Halford. "And we put out different sides of it at Wacken. We'd never used sidestage screens like that before, as they added a different dimension to Priest. The light show was just extraordinary, and the Blu-ray really gives you the chance to see us in quite a unique way."

The band will be launching the tour on March 21st at the The Juggernaut at Gallup, NM and will conclude the tour on May 7th at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, CA .

The hour-long concert features musical styles ranging from heavy metal to bluegrass, ending with a montage of iconic guitar riffs. Watch the concert footage here.

"After years of talking about doing a run together, I'm glad Memphis May Fire and us have finally made it happen," reveals We Came As Romans' vocalist Dave Stephens. "We've been close with the other bands on the tour since the beginning of our careers, and I have no doubt it will be nothing but an amazing time. Get your tickets quick cause this is a tour you won't want to miss!"

Memphis May Fire's Matty Mullins adds, "We've been talking about doing a tour like this with WCAR for ages. Finally, our schedules aligned and it's happening! With Miss May I and For Today also on the bill, this package is stacked! All great bands and all great friends of ours. I believe this will be one of 2016's most exciting tours. See ya there!"

The Week Off From Work Tour will kick off their upcoming east coast U.S. tour on March 26th in Rockaway, NJ - visiting a total of six cities before closing the tour in Philadelphia, PA on April 2nd.