Metallica's self-titled album from 1991 (known as the black album) has surpassed Shania Twain's 1997 CD "Come On Over" to become the best-selling album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard on March 1, 1991. Metallica has sold 15,490,000 copies whereas Come On Over has sold 15,487,000.

Yahoo's chart watch says that " Metallica is the only fourth album to head Nielsen/SoundScan's "release to date" chart, which lists the albums that have sold the most copies in its history." more Interestingly, the RIAA website shows that the Twain album is 20 times platinum (20 million). The SoundScan numbers are based on actual sales where as the RIAA base their numbers on the number of albums that the record company has shipped. The latest numbers we have from SoundScan were from last year's recap where they show Metallica with sales of 15,319,000 and the Twain album with 15,473,000, so this looks legit to us!

Of course they are not performing under The Misfits name; instead it is Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein and Dr. Chud's new band Gorgeous Frankenstein who will be joined by their former Misfits bandmate Michale Graves. In a Myspace announcement they promised "a set of old classics."

For those living under a log for the past few months, Them Crooked Vultures is the teaming of Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. While their self-titled debut was only released last month, it has been out long enough to make a strong impression on our friends over at Antiquiet.com who named the effort the best album of the year. Check that out here.

If that wasn't enough good news, Grohl spoke with BBC news he told them he expects the new group to run alongside his work with Foo Fighters. He said: "You put the three of us together in a room something, is going to happen. I don't think we'll have any trouble making five, six, seven records if we want to. It's just a matter of when and where and how." He added: "I wouldn't want to stop doing it - it's a fun band to be in."

Linkin Park, who are working on the follow-up to 2007's Minutes To Midnight with producer Rick Rubin (Slayer, Gossip) are reportedly using keyboards and programmed drums more on the as-yet-untitled disc than they ever have before. more

O Pioneers!!! were involved in a van crash on the I-80 Tuesday. While several members of the band were sent to hospital for concussions the group's latest update confirmed "Bumps and bruises but we all walked away, and the only thing broken was our van." more
Former Arctic Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson has joined Reverend And The Makers. Although Nicholson, who left Arctic Monkeys in 2006, has played with Reverend And The Makers before, he has not officially been a full member until now. more

The latest installment in Johnny Cash's American recordings American VI: Ain't No Grave is scheduled for release on February 23rd, 2010 more

Crucified Barbara have announced they will perform at the Wacken Open Air Festival 2010. more

Vampire Weekend and Spandau Ballet have joined the line-up for the Isle Of Wight Festival. The New Yorkers will play the Saturday while the Brits will take the stage on the Sunday more

Porcupine Tree will play 2 special shows to close the Incident tour cycle, one in the UK and one in the US more

Nathan Marlowe and Cynthia Manzo filed papers asking the court to keep Simmons away from them, but the judge rejected the order.

Marlowe claims he was at The Grove shopping mall in L.A. on December 19 when he tried to film Simmons. He says he then asked Simmons about "his public persona about monogamy." Marlowe claims Simmons grabbed him by the throat, headbutted and choked him and said, "I will end you."

The season will consist of eight episodes that follow the real-life experiences of celebrity patients undergoing detoxification and treatment at the Pasadena Recovery Center.

Greetings enthusiasts, how is everybody doing this festive season? All's well over here in the City of Bangles. I'll be Staying in town for the holidays, but I'm doing a poker tourney in the Bahamas 1st week of January, which is a benefit for "The Foundation for AIDs Research," or AMFAR. It should be a cool trip & it's for an important cause.

The mastering session of my solo record is done. We did it at Sterling Sound with George Marino, who is hands down the most genius mastering engineer I've ever worked with. He is the perfect engineer to best bring out the dynamic nuances of the analog recording & I'm ecstatic with the results.