As many of you already know, MERCYFUL FATE’s “Evil” is featured as a playable track on Guitar Hero: Metallica. MERCYFUL FATE re-recorded these two tracks specifically for the game because the original masters no longer exist. Now, the band is making both available to fans to purchase on iTunes. These versions were recorded at Earplug Studio in Copenhagen and Nomad Recording Studio in Dallas, Texas. They were both mastered by Andy LaRocque at his Sonic Train Studio in Sweden.

King Diamond comments:

“It was a lot of fun to get a chance to re-record “Evil” and “Curse of the Pharaohs” from our 1983 “Melissa” album. It was cool to go into the studio and try to figure out all the various harmony vocals and see if I could still do them. The other guys had a lot of fun with this project too, and the whole thing turned out much better than we could have hoped for. Everyone nailed their performances and Hank’s solos were even slightly improved. Everything is right where it should be and with a much better sound! The “feel” was there and all of the guys – Hank, Denner, Timi and Bjarne are all naturals. The versions that will be up on iTunes were mastered by Andy LaRocque and even with a 2009 sound, there’s no doubt that these songs were recorded by Mercyful Fate!”

Evil and Curse Of The Pharaohs will be available for fans to purchase digitally on July 14.

Ironclad Recordings, founded by UNEARTH vocalist Trevor Phipps, is pleased to announce the signing of Chico California’s ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE; a band featuring the talents of former members of Will Haven, The Abominable Iron Sloth, and Ghostride.

Ironclad Recordings is set to release ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE’s debut full-length studio album Defeat in the US and Canada on September 15 with SOAR releasing this behemoth of an album in Europe. Defeat was recorded during two different sessions in late 2008 at the Pus Cavern in Sacramento, CA and Heirloom Studios in Chico, CA, with Matt Pedri engineering.

Mixing and mastering for Defeat was handled by Eric Stenman (Saves The Day, Will Haven, Senses Fail, Far, Forever The Sickest Kids, Dashboard Confessional, Thrice) with cover art being tackled by renowned artist Matt Loomis, who has done cover art for Abominable Iron Sloth and the Makai in addition to merch designs for Mastodon and The Red Chord.

They even have a MySpace.

With JOB FOR A COWBOY (JFAC) having completed work on its hotly-anticipated sophomore album, entitled Ruination, out July 7 via Metal Blade Records, music fans can check out Ruination for themselves in advance of the record’s release as the album is available for online streaming its entirety today at this location.

Additionally, Ruination’s cover art and full color booklet have also been made available for viewing at this location.  The striking, quasi-conceptual motif was designed by Brent Elliott White and takes its inspiration from JOB FOR A COWBOY front man Jonny Davy’s album lyrics and concepts.  Topics addressed by the album’s schema revolve around modern day worldwide dilemmas and controversial issues including “Propaganda in the main stream media and television, humanitarian rights of Northern Korea, the modern genocidal government of Nubia, the use of torture in American military tactics, overruling by world governments and Police states / Martial law”.

Ghetto-tech metallers TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA have begun pre-production for their next album. An album title and a prospective release date are yet to be determined. That is all.

In honor of our magnificent April Fools Day page, we bring you U2’s live version of their newest single “Get Your Boots On”:

New Orleans, LA’s sons of American no-frills black metal meets death and roll, GOATWHORE, have just broke the Billboard Top 200 chart with their latest release Carving Out the Eyes of God, coming in at #190. In addition to hitting the Top 200 Chart, Carving Out the Eyes of God also debuted on the Billboard Hard Music chart at #33, the Billboard Top New Artist (Heatseekers) Albums chart at #16, and the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart at #34. GOATWHORE also carved out a spot for themselves on Canada’s charts coming in at #48 on Independent chart and #79 on Hard chart.

• Billboard Top 200 Debut @ #190
• Billboard Hard Music Debut @ #33
• Billboard Top New Artist (Heatseekers) Albums Debut @ #16
• Billboard Top Independent Albums Debut @ #34

Andrew W.K. won our hearts in 2002 with ‘Party Hard’ and his altogether awesome attitude towards life. So, it put a big smile on our faces when we saw he has his own Cartoon Network show — though it’s not a cartoon — titled ‘Destroy Build Destroy,’ where he guides teams of teens as they, you guessed it, destroy stuff and then build something with the wreckage.

Check out his little interview with PopEater below:

Black Market Activities act DANCE CLUB MASSACRE are kicking it old school. The band has just gone about posting songs from its 2005 demo on their MySpace music player. Listen at will.

Big ol’ BUCKCHERRY are to perform their new single “Talk”, and the official NASCAR tune “Highway Star”, on TNT this July 4. Full live streaming, plus two bonus songs, can be found over at www.nascar.com/racebuddy.

Metal Insider is giving away a nifty compliation book which compiles 25 of the stories behind metal’s most popular songs. Titled Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces, you can enter here to win.

If that isn’t your bag, read forth about SHADOW FALL’s mighty burger conquest.