a l t . m u s i c . d i o

HEAVEN AND HELL, JUDAS PRIEST and MOTÖRHEAD are
strongly rumored to be teaming up for a North American
tour later in the year (as partially predicted by
BLABBERMOUTH.NET on January 17, 2008). It should be
noted, however, that this information has not yet been
corrobated by an official source and should be
considered a rumor only at this point.

HEAVEN AND HELL is currently writing material for a
full-length studio album, tentatively due late
2008/early 2009 via an as-yet-undisclosed record
label.

HEAVEN AND HELL played the final show of its U.S. tour
with ALICE COOPER and QUEENSRCHE on October 6, 2007
at the Verizon Wireless in Irvine, California. Before
the encore, Indie 103.1's Full Metal Jackie presented
the band with gold plaques on stage to honor U.S.
sales in excess of 25,000 copies of the group's "Live
at Radio City Music Hall" DVD. Vocalist Ronnie James
Dio thanked the fans for their support, then dedicated
the encore song ("Neon Knights") to veteran KNAC DJ
Tawn Mastrey, who died in early October of liver
failure brought on by hepatitis C.

JUDAS PRIEST's upcoming tour will include shows where
the group's entire upcoming "Nostradamus" album (based
on the legendary 16th century prophet Nostradamus)
will be performed as well as concerts featuring the
band's classic songs.

MOTÖRHEAD entered the studio in January to begin
recording the follow-up to 2006's "Kiss of Death". A
late spring/early summer release is expected.

"Kiss of Death" entered the national album charts in
the following countries: Germany: #4, Norway: #9,
Sweden: #13, Austria: #20, Switzerland: #26, U.K.:
#45, Denmark: #53. The CD was recorded at the
Paramount studios in Los Angeles with Cameron Webb,
who also worked with the group on 2004's "Inferno".
The album includes guest appearances by POISON
guitarist C.C. Deville and ALICE IN CHAINS bassist
Mike Inez.

Welcome aboard, AA.

It does sound like an awesome bill and would likely mean a road trip to Texas for me.

Hopefully they will announce some dates soon.

I had a friend who was a big Testament fan back in the day. I didn't really like them but now, compared to those days, it's slim pickins'. So I would like to see them as well.

squidhammer wrote:

---

I had a friend who was a big Testament fan back in the day. I didn't really like them but now, compared to those days, it's slim pickins'. So I would like to see them as well.

---

They have a following that likes their early stuff. The only record of theirs I have is called "The Ritual." This album seems to be not liked by their main fanbase as a sellout to commercialism. It was released after Metallica's Black album and tries to emulate it's approach. Although they don't copy Metallica soundwise, they just polished their previous less mainstream thrash style with slicker production and a ballad (gasp).

It features talented technical guitarist Alex Skolnick who left after this record and formed that Alex Skolnick jazz-metal trio.

I actually really like this record. Since I had not heard of their albums before it or after it, I didn't know what to expect. It is a good pop/thrash record, if you can imagine such a genre. If you liked Metallica's Black album then you should check out The Ritual.