FEAR FACTORY will return to the stage in a few days as part of their ongoing Fear Campaign Tour. The short string of U.S. dates will kick off in Tempe, Arizona on December 29 and conclude nine days later in San Diego, California on January 8.

After reforming three years ago for live appearances, AT THE GATES have announced more shows in 2011. They will be doing a run of shows next year, with appearances at Metaltown Festival in Sweden and Tuska Open Air in Finland already confirmed.

The band commented:

“AT THE GATES will do a limited run of select shows in 2011. Simply put, we had the time of our lives during the 2008 reunion and have decided to do a couple more shows. Although we won’t be touring extensively, and we stick to the initial promise of not making any more music. Please check our homepage and MySpace for updates.”

After storming the world for nearly 40 years and taking their very special brand of heavy metal to all four corners of the planet, JUDAS PRIEST -one of the most influential heavy metal bands of all time, have announced this will be their final world tour!

However, the mighty PRIEST will certainly be going out strong as they rock the planet starting in 2011 on the massive Epitaph Tour – hitting all the major cities throughout the world they will be playing the songs that helped make the name JUDAS PRIEST synonymous with heavy metal.

JUDAS PRIEST will be starting their world tour in Europe – we have just confirmed the following festivals for 2011:

Texas-based, mythological occult metal band, ABSU will join IMMORTAL on their return to the US for six shows early next year.

Drummer/vocalist Proscriptor notes, “We feel extremely privileged to have been invited to participate on IMMORTAL’s All Shall Fall US tour in February 2011. Even though it is only a six-date tour, it’s a colossal one for ABSU to be performing with our former label mates of many years. We had the opportunity to share the stage with IMMORTAL over eight years ago and this will be a very good experience for us.”

These upcoming performances will mark the first time that ABSU will appear live as a trio. Proscriptor comments, “I am here to announce that guitarist Aethyris McKay has decided to quit ABSU and has recently relocated to Oslo , Norway to join PANTHEON I. Working with Aethyris for the past three years has been a prosperous experience and I have the utmost respect for him as my comrade and a superlative musician. He assisted me in resurrecting the band from its hiatus stage and I truly thank him for helping me recast the spell of “mythological occult metal.”

After completion of the tour dates, ABSU will enter the studio to begin recording their new album, titled Abzu. The recording will be the second of a three-part series. Proscriptor reveals, “this recording will feature our signature sound in maniacal fashion. Now, we’re appending dirtier elements of psychedelia and fusion characteristics. Lyrically, it will descend deeper into Enki’s lower world as well the Enochian Magic(k) System. I can tell you this album will definitely not be a “natural progression” from previous releases, but a feat of metaphysical conquest and murkiness.”

NEVERMORE’s headlining North American fall trek is set to kick off in the band’s hometown of Seattle tonight. This is the band’s first headlining Stateside tour in almost three years and features WARBRINGER, HATESPHERE and BLACKGUARD in the support slots.

This quintessential metal band was formed out of the ashes of Seattle, Washington, based thrash act SANCTUARY in 1991 by Warrel Dane (vocals) and Jim Sheppard (bass), with the addition of Jeff Loomis (guitar, who had played in the final line-up of SANCTUARY).

HALFORD will also perform at Seattle’s Showbox on November 10th and Denver’s Ogden Theatre on December 15th. Tickets available September 17th and 18th for Halford’s Seattle and Denver headline performances at Ticketmaster.com.

Rob Halford will be touring in support of his new studio release, Halford IV Made Of Metal, featuring fourteen (14) new Halford studio recordings debuting world-wide September 27, Oct 8 (UK & EU), September 28th (North America) and October 13, 2010 (Japan).

While most of WARBRINGER‘s fans had yet to be conceived, these metal masters were carving up cities with sheer volume, speed ,and intensity establishing the blue print for countless imitators to follow, and now some 20 years later, little has changed with each band showing the up and comers how it’s done with a night of shredding thrash. To celebrate the 20 year anniversaries of two of the more important thrash records of the 90’s (arguably two of the best in metal/thrash ever in my humble opinion) SLAYER and MEGADETH would be performing the classic Seasons in the Abyss and Rust in Peace albums in their entirety, much to the delight of the fans who caught the bands on the Clash of the Titans Tour back in the day, as well as those who missed that historic tour.

As the sun went down, a decent crowd slowly filled in to witness the arrival of TESTAMENT, who got the evening off to an explosive start with “More than Meets the Eye” from their latest, The Formation of Damnation. As an opener, the band was given a limited of time (unfortunately, The Legacy or The New Order would not be getting the same treatment as the headliners). But they made the most of it, mixing up classics, “Into the Pit” and “Sins of Omission,” with the near-death metal stylings of “Dog Faced Gods” and “D.N.R.” before closing out with the title track of Formation delivering a short, but killer set to get the get crowd started.

Dave Mustaine immediately arrived after a short changeover to launch in to the scorching “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due.” Seemingly effortless in their performance, the band delivered spot-on renditions of the entire album with drummer Shawn Drover and former JAG PANZER/NEVERMORE shredder Chris Broderick filling in admirably, almost as if they had played on the album all along. Dave Ellefson marked a welcome return with simple “Dawn Patrol,” which led into Drover‘s tom pounding of the rarely heard “Rust in Peace (Polaris).” The band could have left after that since they had just delivered a pyrotechnic display of technical speed metal that challenged any guitar virtuoso band in the world in terms of technicality, while still retaining that cutting thrash edge. Luckily for the crowd, MEGADETH offered up a mini encore featuring “Trust,” “Head Crusher (the sole new track from Endgame),” “A Tout Le Monde” before Ellefson unleashed that all too familiar bass line from “Peace Sells.” Normally after such a set, it would time to split, and what band would want to follow such a charged performance?

The band that inspired everyone from HATEBREED, WATAIN, PUBLIC ENEMY, as well as a countless glut of thrash, death, grind, black, and hardcore bands…the mighty SLAYER that’s who. Getting down to business, SLAYER delivered “World Painted Blood” and “Hate Worldwide” from their newest album, quickly clearing the new material out of the way so the fans could hear the coveted “old shit.” The blistering “War Ensemble” got the pit swirling with bodies and beer crashing in to one another with reckless abandon. I’ve always found it amusing how often any number of black metal, death metal, and hardcore bands desperately try to demand that fans “get a pit going” while SLAYER simply unleashes flurries of double bass, evil, sinister riffs and twisted bizarre guitar solos that their fans need no encouragement to cave each other skulls in. As a fan favorite, many of the Seasons in the Abyss tracks have never been performed numerous times, so it was great to catch the band whip out rarities such as “Expendable Youth,” the piercing “Hallowed Point,” and the plodding, possibly slowest song in their catalog “Skeletons of Society” – which while slow, rumbled through like a tank plowing through the crowd. The catchy, but little played “Temptation” also delivered, setting up the headripping “Born of Fire” and the ominous closing title track. For the encore we had “South of Heaven,” “Raining Blood” and a classic from the first album, “Aggressive Perfector,” before “Angel of Death” did what is does, which is crush everything in sight. Hands down one of the best shows of the year thus far, and felt more like an event as opposed to “some bands playing.” Witnessing veterans who helped create a genre nail it in their prime is always rewarding, so if you haven’t already, get tickets ASAP and witness three headliners deliver at the height of their powers before time runs out.