Death-metal giants Behemoth will return to North America in 2010. This is their first tour on our side of the Atlantic since their massively successful summer trek on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Fest. Following Mayhem, Behemoth’s latest album, Evangelion, reached an impressive No. 56 on the Billboard Top 200 andNo. 61 on Canada’s Top 200, and it spent three weeks at No. 1 in the band's home country, Poland, before being certified gold there.

Behemoth’s return to North America will be presented by Revolver Magazine in association with Affliction, ESP Guitars, and with online media partners KillerTours.com and VampireFreaks.com. Supporting Behemoth on the Evangelia Amerika tour will be atmospheric death metallers Septic Flesh from Greece and black metallers Shining from Sweden.

Tickets will go on sale on November 20. But if you want the tickets eaery, visit Artist Arena here, on November 19 for a presale.

Behemoth tour dates are as follows:

01/07 - Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of the Living Arts
01/08 - W. Springfield, VA - Jaxx
01/09 - Raleigh, NC - Volume 11
01/10 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
01/11 - Tampa, FL - State Theatre
01/13 - Austin, TX - Emo’s
01/15 - Tucson, AZ - The Rock
01/16 - Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues
01/17 - San Francisco, CA - Slims
01/18 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater
01/19 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon
01/21 - Calgary, AB - The Republik
01/22 - Edmonton, AB - The Starlite Room
01/23 - Regina, SK - The Exchange
01/24 - Winnipeg, MB - West End Cultural Center
01/25 - St. Paul, MN - Station 4
01/26 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
01/27 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody's
01/28 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls
01/30 - New York, NY - Gramercy Theatre

ESP guitars and Live Nation are offering two amazing competitions on our site's contest page. First of all, one grand-prize winner will get a weekend for two, including flights and hotel, to see Metallica rock the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The victor will also receive VIP access to the concert and get to meet and greet the thrash icons. This dream weekend will take place on December 5 and the lucky winner will also be given $500 spending money, as well as a Kirk Hammett Signature Series ESP KH-2! The contest ends on November 14, so get your entry in now, by clicking here.

Willie Adler, from Metallica’s touring buddies, Lamb of God, is also giving Revolver readers the chance to win one of three ESP/LTD Willie Adler Signature Series guitars. This killer ax has a retail price of $1,469, but it can be yours for free, by entering here.

Horror-rock trio Rusty Eye have launched a new state-of-the-art viral video stream of new album, Possessor (Epoche), on their website, rustyeye.com. From the home page, fans are able to listen to the complete album, while watching each band member perform in split screens, via multiple camera angles. Designed by bassist-vocalist Mr. Rust, this is the latest innovation from the Hollywood-based group, who have previously worked with horror director Alejandro Ordez.

Originating in Mexico City in the mid-’90s, Rusty Eye relocated to Hollywood in 2004 following the addition of drummer Miss Randall. With guitarist Baron Murtland on-board, the band released their fourth studio album, Possessor, this summer. The record illustrates the band’s love of classic metal and old-school Italian horror, which comes together in their own brand of “shock-rock.” The album also features guest contributions from Caludio Simonetti (Goblin), Waldemar Sorychta (Grip Inc./Voodoocult), and Alex Mitchell (Circus of Power).

Candlelight Records confirmed February 9 as the American release date for Mechanize, the seventh studio album from Fear Factory, today. Mechanize features the highly anticipated reconciliation of vocalist Burton C. Bell with original guitarist Dino Cazares, along with bassist Byron Stroud and journeyman drummer Gene Hoglan (Dethklok, Strapping Young Lad, Death). The anticipated album also welcomes back keyboardist/producer Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly).

Mechanize is a full-fisted blast of passion and innovation that sounds like the missing link between's 1995's groundbreaking Demanufacture and 1998's more texturally nuanced Obsolete. Songs like "Industrial Discipline" and "Powershifter" are crushing and colossal, melding fast and precise rhythms with vocals that pinwheel from raw and scathing to hauntingly melodic while "Fear Campaign," which features harrowing spoken word passages, quickly segues into a showcase of punishing beats, rapid-fire riffs and ghostly keyboards. For the first time in years, the band's industrial roots glimmer through its street-lethal metal, thanks in part to Fulber, who worked on Fear Factory's popular industrial remix albums Fear is the Mindkiller and Remanufacture.

"I didn't want any of the soundscapes to sound natural," Bell says. "I wanted them to be really mechanical because I wanted that aspect of Fear Factory to really shine again. I feel it kind of got dulled over and that's the aspect that I really enjoyed a lot about Fear Factory. I was a huge fan of industrial music and still am. And you don't hear much of that anymore these days."

While Mechanize is instantly reminiscent of Fear Factory's most potent moments of discovery, it's hardly a stroll down the old assembly line. Through a combination of technological advancements and experience, Fear Factory have evolved like a computer virus, constantly reconfiguring itself to maximize its destructive impact. As work began on the album in early April, Bell, who resides in Pennsylvania, admitted he initially expected the years apart would leave him feeling awkward or uncomfortable. However, when Cazares picked him up at the airport his apprehensions melted like a block of ice on a hot electric motor. "After being with him a couple hours and talking to him everything was cool," Bell says." Three months later the duo had a fresh batch of new songs written and a more importantly a renewed confidence in their union.

"Our creative juices were really flowing the whole time," Cazares says about the entire creative process. "All of a sudden we'd look at the clock and go, 'Holy shit, it's already 2:30 or 3 a.m.' We just lost track of time because we were all bouncing ideas off each other really productively. We were adding touches right up until the final second to make the record as fresh as it could be."

In the early '90s, many years before Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall started combining strangled growls with catchy vocal melodies, and Static-X and Rammstein began blending pounding staccato riffs and jackhammer beats with electronic samples, Los Angeles future-thinkers Fear Factory were reinventing both death metal and industrial rock with an arsenal of sonic styles. The band, with Bell and Cazares at its core, landed a record deal based on a self-financed recording they made with producer Ross Robinson (Slayer). They immediately entered the studio to record their first proper album, Soul of a New Machine. Released in 1992, the album nearly transformed death metal overnight with its blend of throat-abrading screams and melodic vocals, and sci-fi lyrics about a machine that was invented to control and contain mankind.

"A lot of people didn't get it and really ridiculed us," Cazares recalls. "Because of the different vocals some people were like, 'Whoa, this is cool, this is different.' And then other people went, 'He's singing melodically? That shouldn't be on a fuckin' death metal record.' It took a while for more people to catch on to that style of singing, and now it's everywhere."

Fear Factory would release four critically acclaimed albums and two industrial-remix EPs, selling well over a million albums in the process. In early 2002, following a grueling tour with Machine Head, the band imploded due to personal differences and sheer over-exertion. A revamped group, moving forward without Cazares, would go on release two more records over the next few years.

As time passed, the chance of a reunion between Bell and Cazares seemed less likely. Then in April, 2008, a full six years after they had last spoken, Bell, who at that time was touring with Ministry, ran into Cazares while in Los Angeles and the two reopened the lines of communication. "It just didn't feel complete," says Bell. "I realized that Dino and I were a real integral part of Fear Factory and we needed each other to make it work. Without the both of us it just lost that intensity."

In the six years that have passed since the original Fear Factory splintered, lots of transformation has taken place. Bell has formed the gothic rock band Ascension of the Watchers, and Cazares has put out two Divine Heresy discs and toured extensively. Stroud and Hoglan have recorded and toured with Strapping Young Lad, Zimmer's Hole, and Dethklok. For Bell, the myriad of projects have only provided creative ideas and inspiration for Fear Factory. He notes, "In this day and age, you gotta keep busy. You can't just rely on one band; something we've all learned from time and years of experience. Not only is it good to support yourself, but it also keeps you going creatively."

"This is definitely a different chapter for us and I think it's the best thing we've ever done," Cazares adds. "Obviously, Burton and I have grown up and we've pretty much perfected what we do. More importantly we've discovered why we so were good together in the first place. Our combination just works. All the ingredients and the elements that we had in the past, combined with what we've learned since being apart feels like putting on a new glove that still feels as good as an old glove."

Metallica performed a special set at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th-anniversary concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden on Friday. Having been inducted earlier this year, they performed duets with other hall of famers who have contributed to the genesis of rock and metal, including Ozzy Osbourne, erstwhile Velvet Underground leader Lou Reed, and sometime Kinks frontman Ray Davies, and they only played three of their own songs. Check out the set list and videos below.

Throughout the performance, frontman James Hetfield announced each cover song with reverence for the original artist. About Bob Seger's "Turn the Page," he said, "This is one of the songs that I wish we would have 'wroted,'" fumbling on his words. When he introduced Ozzy for their performance of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," he said, "He's known as somewhat of a crazy guy and somewhat epitomizes a rock-and-roll singer in a heavy metal band." Remember, as lore has it, he and his bandmates were playing Sabbath songs at soundchecks in 1986 when they opened for the Ozzman, hoping he'd come jam with them. When Ozzy left the stage, drummer Lars Ulrich called him "one of the main reasons we're here." And for Davies, Hetfield said, "This one threw us for a loop, too. We got schooled on early riff rock by this man."

The performances with each artist were inspired. Guitarist Kirk Hammett played a guitar depicting the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula, and delivered some of the best solos of his career. Hetfield sang the backups on the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" (which, arguably, is one of the first metal songs ever) in a way that Reed hasn't in years. They seemed to connect with the audience, most of whom was there to see the night's other headliners, Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, and U2, which sporadically hoisted the horns, especially during the closing "Enter Sandman."

After the performance, Ozzy came back to the press room to do junket interviews. Since Metallica opened for him over 20 years ago, Revolver asked if he saw in them then what everybody else sees in them now. "They were always a very good band," Osbourne said. "I really like the guys individually and as a band; they're really good guys. I'm really honored that they asked me to sing with them. It was good fun." When asked about how Metallica are carrying on the lineage he created with Black Sabbath, Osbourne said, "I'm kind of honored to be able to hand to torch to a new generation. It's just an added bonus of a career, really." And thus, the tradition of metal carries on.

HBO a four-hour version of the two-night, 10 -hour event on November 29 at 8PM EST.

Metallica's Rock Hall setlist:

Videos:

Metallica with Ray Davies

Metallica with Lou Reed

Metallica with Ozzy Osbourne

Available now, Revolver’s tribute to the Hottest Chicks in Metal…ever!!! Featuring titillating pictures and scintillating interviews with your favorite female headbangers from the past three decades, plus it includes an exclusive double-sided poster of Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale and Landmine Marathon’s Grace Perry! Also in this packed issue, Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe gives a personal look at the experiences that shaped his life, Five Finger Death Punch tell us about their unlikely route to the top, Warbringer get in the van and show us what makes them Road Warriors, the story behind Suffocation’s classic Effigy of the Forgotten art work, and much, much more!!!

Slayer’s new album, World Painted Blood, is going to get a fitting visual accompaniment courtesy of a 20-minute horror short titled Playing With Dolls. The DVD, which features clips from every track on the disc, as well as one unreleased song, will be included in the deluxe edition of Word Painted Blood, due for release on November 3.

Playing With dolls is the creation of Mark Brooks, Slayer fan and director of Metalocalypse, featuring metal’s greatest animated combo DethKlok. Combining elements of both animation and still−photography, the film runs like a 12 episode video−graphic novel.

“It’s not live action and it’s not animated,” Brooks says. “It’s a weird hybrid of the two, and I haven’t seen a lot of things done this way.”

The short takes its themes from World Painted Blood, in particular the track from which the film takes its name. The story follows a merciless man with a heart cold from tragedy on a precise and poetic personal journey of gruesome murders.

“It’s a little weirder than your regular blood ’n’ guts type thing,” Brooks says, “which I think is a reflection of Slayer’s music.”


Check below for a trailer of Playing With Dolls.

Be sure to get your hands on Revolver’s Slayer special issue, Book of Slayer, available now at our online store.

Graphic artist Frank Kozik, who released important records by the likes of Melvins, Queens of the Stone Age, and Unsane via his Man’s Ruin record label through the early 2000s, has also produced eye-catching artwork for some his favorite rock and metal bands for nearly three decades. Now a major motorcycle company has given him and nine other rock-centric artists, including Derek Hess, Tara McPherson, and Lindsey Kuhn, the opportunity to indulge a passion related to music by designing vanity gas tanks for the new Harley-Davidson Iron 883.

“It’s all part of the myth of American culture of the individualism and energy and freedom, so [rock and motorcycles] are tied together,” Kozik says. “Certainly the heyday for motorsports in the United States was the ’60s; that’s kind of when American rock music exploded as well.”

Frank Kozik

The finished tanks will make their debut at the second Art of Rebellion exhibit, which will be held at La. Venue in New York City on October 17. Explaining the company’s reasoning behind the promotion, Harley representative Susanne Dawursk says, “As we were going through the process of, How do we want to launch this bike? We really gravitated towards the whole idea of, Well, this is an individual expression; this is sort of your version of your rebellion, so to speak.” She says the rest of the concept just fell in line.

The special Harley gas tanks are due to be auctioned off, with some of the proceeds going to the CUE Art Foundation, which provides opportunities for emerging visual artists. For those who are unable to bid on the star items, many of the artists will also be exhibiting some of the classic posters they’ve made over the years at the event.

“The beauty of this is that it appeals to so many different people in so many different ways.” Dawursk says. “It’s really a great representation of how all of these different themes, while maybe producing different products and relating in a different way, have incredible similarities.” For more information on the Harley-Davidson Iron 883, click here; for more information on the exhibit, click here. JASON LE MIERE

Dickie Peterson, the bassist and vocalist for heavy-metal godfathers Blue Cheer, died of an undisclosed cause in Germany at 5 A.M. today. He was 63. The bass-heavy riffs, unruly lead guitars, and thundering drums of his band's debut album, Vincebus Eruptum—which came out in January 1968—helped define what metal would sound like in the decades to come. Peterson described his music simply as "ultra-blues." He had been reportedly battling cancer for several months. Rest in peace.

By the end of Pearl Jam’s concert last night in Los Angeles, what had started out as a standard show for the band turned into a full-on grunge-era reunion show. To begin with, former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell joined Pearl Jam—whose current drummer, Matt Cameron, played in Soundgarden—on stage to perform “Hunger Strike,” a song by supergroup Temple of the Dog. That band was a tribute to former Mother Love Bone vocalist Andrew Wood, who died of a heroin overdose in 1990, and featured all of the musicians who performed together last night.

Were that not reunion enough, Cornell and Cameron’s fellow Soundgarden bandmates, guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Ben Shepherd, showed up to watch, making this the first time in 13 years that all four members have appeared together publically. The news is sure to spark rumors of a reunion, since Cornell has been solo again since Audioslave’s split. This was not the end of the grunge-era festivities, though, as fellow Seattleite and Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell joined Pearl Jam (sans Cornell at this point) for a rendition their hit “Alive.”

Watch fan-shot YouTube footage of “Hunger Strike” below.