When Metallica bassist Cliff Burton died in a bus crash in 1986 Hogan decided he'd like to fill the gap, and made contact with Lars Ulrich and co.

Hogan tells the Chicago Tribune: "When Metallica was looking for a bass player I called � and never heard a word back. I would have quit wrestling in a heartbeat to be the bass player for Metallica."

Norma Jean will play their breakthrough album Bless The Martyr and Kiss the Child in its entirety on select dates. This is the band's first headlining trek since the Fall of last year and boasts an impressive lineup - Horse The Band, The Chariot and Arsonists Get All The Girls - with a few surprises from the powerful live band. In January Norma Jean will head into the studio to record a new album for a 2010 summer release.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is recovering after undergoing stem-cell treatment on his injured right hand. He says, "It's coming on alright actually. I've already had the stem-cell treatment, so I've just got to wait now. It's been six weeks but it's feeling great." more

Switchfoot have released a video for their rockin' new single "Mess Of Me". You can check it out here

MySpace Music premieres the brand new video from Muse for "Undisclosed Desire." From the band's fifth album, The Resistance, the exclusive debut of the video can be found here

AFI have confirmed more dates in the coming months which include shows in Canada, US and Australia. Grab the dates here

In October a solo album from Nick Oliveri titled Death Acoustic was released worldwide, now Nick is hitting the road in support of the effort. more

Hypocrisy's U.S. tour has been delayed due to visa issues. more

Thirty Seconds To Mars will debut the title track off their upcoming album This Is War in a surprising place: the new video game Dragon Age: Origins. more

Gwen Stacy will perform a handful of headlining dates in December with support from Amarna Reign dates

Saving Abel plan to release their next record in the first half 2010. Drummer Blake Dixon tells Billboard, "Basically right now we've got the album pretty much finished, and I think if we put it out right now people would love it. But we want to make sure we're completely ecstatic with it." more

Bane has announced another new EP. Coming on the heels of their Boston 6:58pm from earlier this month, the hardcore veterans will be releasing six more new songs. The band recorded with Jay Maas at Getaway Studios in June 2009 and six new songs named after American soap operas. more

The documentary Punk's Not Dead will be screened on FUSE on Monday, November 9th at 8pm, and will continue throughout the month. more

The star studded event was attended by such legends as Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Pete Townshend of The Who, Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, Brian May of Queen, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Jeff Beck, Paul Rodgers of Bad Company, Iggy Pop, Slash of Guns N' Roses, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Joey Tempest of Europe, Ginger Baker of Cream, Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, Carl Palmer of ELP and members of Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Anvil, Marillion, ZZ Top, Uriah Heep and Mott the Hoople.

"The music world - or at least the business of it - is very different now, even since 2006, when we began work on Snakes & Arrows," he continues. "The importance of 'the album' is not what it was, and there is currently a reversion to a musical climate rather like the 1950s, when only 'the song' matters," he wrote. "Radio, downloads and 'shuffle' settings are inimical to collected works. Because of that reality, record company advances that used to pay for album projects are a thing of the past, so if that was what we wanted to do, we'd be on our own...

The group will throw an official release party on Monday, November 9 at the World Caf� in Philadelphia (3025 Walnut Street, 8:00pm). For the event, The Starting Line will screen portions of the DVD and fans can expect live performances from the band's latest projects including Person L (Kenny Vasoli), Cheap Seats (Tom Gyskiewicz) and The Traded Series (Mike Golla).

Lead vocalist and founding member Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth had this to say: "Good to be with a label that understands what Overkill is about and what metal is about in 2010; exciting!"

The deluxe package includes limited edition swag from the band: t-shirt, trading cards, collector stickers and two bonus tracks (West and Wrong) and is on sale for $19.99 (the standard album is also on sale for $7.99). Fans can check out live in-stores at Best Buy stores in Houston (11/5) and Dallas (11/6) and also have the opportunity to chat live with the band online at AbsolutePunk.net tomorrow, November 4 at 8pm EST.

We all agreed unanimously on this for the first single. It means a lot to all of us because we all picked up and left our hometowns, dropped out of college and left everything to pursue our country music dreams. This song is about reaching that breaking point where you actually decide to leave behind a negative part of your life, whether it be an unhealthy relationship or a job or a hometown and pursue something different, something new and positive. It's about that point where you stop talking about it and you actually do it. That's what we all did. If we hadn't all been runaways, we wouldn't be here right now. Life is too short to not enjoy the journey.