Metallica have announced a North American run of tour dates with support along the way coming from The Sword, Down, Machine Head and Lamb Of God.

Members of the bands fan club will get access to tickets first before they go on sale to the general public. The band’s new record “Death Magnetic” will be released on September 12th and the first single from the album “The Day That Never Comes” will be released to radio later this month.

Full Tour Dates:

All October/November dates with Down and The Sword :

October 21 - Glendale, AZ Jobing Arena
October 23 - Albquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum
October 25 - Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
October 26 - Des Moines, IA Wells Fargo Arena
November 1 - Portland, OR Rose Quarter
November 3 - Salt Lake City, UT Energy Solutions Arena
November 4 - Denver, CO Pepsi Center
November 6 - Omaha, NE Qwest Center
November 8 - Moline, IL iWireless Center
November 9 - Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center
November 17 - St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
November 18 - Tulsa, OK BOK Center
November 20 - Houston, TX Toyota Center
November 22 - Little Rock, AR Alltel Arena
November 23 - New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena

All December dates with Lamb of God and The Sword:

December 1 - Seattle, WA Key Arena
December 2 - Vancouver, BC GM Place
December 4 - Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
December 7 - Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
December 12 - Ontario, CA Citizens Bank Arena
December 13 - Fresno, CA Save Mart Center
December 15 - San Diego, CA Cox Arena
December 17 - Los Angeles, CA The Forum
December 20 - Oakland, CA Oracle Arena

All January dates with Machine Head and The Sword:

January 12 - Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
January 13 - Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
January 15 - Washington, DC Verizon Center
January 17 - Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
January 18 - Boston, MA TD Banknorth Center
January 26 - Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
January 29 - Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum
January 31 - Newark, NJ Prudential Center

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Metallica has set September 12th, a Friday, as the release date for their new album “Death Magnetic”. This is unusual as traditional release days are Monday/Tuesday for albums.

The band’s last album “St. Anger” also saw a Friday release, reasons cited for this are that it prevents leaks. How true that is, im not so sure.

The band  has also filmed a video for the first single from their new record, entitled “The Day That Never Comes” with director Thomas Vinterberg.

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Metallica haven’t even revealed the artwork for their forthcoming album “Death Magnetic” but they have already announced a deluxe coffin-style package. What? You ask, well here’s the info…

“In addition to the album, the package will include a disc of demos, a behind-the-scenes DVD chronicling the making of “Death Magnetic,” a T-shirt, a flag, guitar picks and a poster.

Also featured is a Metallica credit card with a code redeemable for a download of a “special European show happening in September.” This edition is only available from the band’s Web site.”

This is a cool idea on the bands part, if not a little extraneous. Although it makes a lot of sense, as I’m sure a lot of you out there, are still sticking with Metallica and would like to get extra stuff from the band. It is also worth noting that the band is including guitar picks in the package, as I’m sure they know a lot of their fans are guitar players themselves.

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Over the weekend Metallica revealed, (via their website), their new album’s title: “Death Magnetic.” I’ll be honest, it sounds pretty cheesy. I don’t know how permanent the title is, but one would assume it is the final title as the album’s release is not too far away in September. Let’s hope the music is the return to the early albums, they’ve been promising.

Metallica also played a well-received headlining set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival this weekend. After the band was introduced by comedian Chris Rock, they proceeded to play the following songs…

01 “Creeping Death”
02 “For Whom The Bell Tolls”
03 “Ride The Lightning”
04 “Harvester Of Sorrow”
05 “The Unforgiven”
06 “…And Justice For All”
07 “No Remorse”
08 “The Memory Remains”
09 “Fade To Black”
10 “Master Of Puppets”
11 “Whiplash”
12 “Nothing Else Matters”
13 “Sad But True”
14 “One”
15 “Enter Sandman”
—-
16 “Last Caress”
17 “So What”
18 “Seek and Destroy”

Cool to see a lot of earlier material in there, no new songs played whatsoever though. A lot of guitarists will be excited as Kirk Hammett is doing early-Metallica-style solo’s on this new record (so says Kerrang! and Metal Hammer).

Find more information, photo’s and anecdotes over at Stereogum, who have excellent Bonnaroo coverage…

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There’s been an onslaught of Metallica news recently, mainly because the band are playing live for the first time in 5 years and are gearing up to release a new album in September of this year. So it’s no surprise that the release of this has been timed accordingly…

“Randall Amplifiers has announced the KH-15 Kirk Hammett Signature Practice Amplifier, a full-featured practice amp created through a year-long collaboration between Hammett and Randall engineers. With a fierce, solid tone and details that include control labels written in Kirk’s own handwriting, the Randall Kirk Hammett Signature Practice Amplifier is the perfect choice for musicians jamming on-the-go and recording in the studio.”

This is a little strange, seeing as though Kirk Hammett is usually associated with a monster sound. However, if this is the amp he actually uses backstage, etc…I could see a lot of Metallica and Hammett fans really wanting this. As far as practice amps go it looks like it has a ton of features…

“The Randall Kirk Hammett Signature Practice Amp features two channels — clean and a custom Kirk Hammett Signature Overdrive with boost for extra gain. Additional facilities include a 3-band equalizer, spring reverb, headphone out for silent jamming and a CD/tape input for playing along with a favorite tune or rehearsing.”

More info can be found here.