Metal Hammer spoke exclusively with Scott Ian today about Dan Nelson’s departure from Anthrax, working with John Bush again, and the future of Anthrax in general.  The controversial back and forth about Dan Nelson’s firing, I mean quitting, oops, I mean illness is actually getting quite old.

In my opinion, while talented, Dan Nelson wasn’t with Anthrax long enough for the story of his leaving to warrant more than 3 days or so of front page metal news. So unless John Bush decides to permanently rejoin the band, I’ll probably leave this story with Scott Ian’s words.

Says Ian:

“We stand by every word in our official statement. Because all we’ve done is make public exactly what Dan told us. He certainly was not fired – he quit the band, and we accepted his resignation. As for those comments about being fit to go on the road, and that we pulled the tour for other reasons…since Charlie (Benante, drums) join us in 1983, we’ve only ever cancelled one gig. That was in Düsseldorf in 1987, when Charlie was running a really high fever, and we had to send him to London for treatment. When we didn’t make it onto the plane to go to Sweden recently, to start our European run of dates, it went against every molecule in my body, and the same goes for the rest of the band.

“As a band, we learnt a long time ago that in these situations, it’s always best to tell the truth, If you lie, then it comes back to bite you in the ass. That’s why we were careful at every step to put things exactly the way Dan had told them to us. Why has he changed his story now? I can only assume it’s to save his own skin, and to avoid being seen as the bad guy. I can’t say that I blame him. But we have absolutely been completely truthful.”

Read the entire story at Metal Hammer, and tell me what you think… fired? Quit? Does it even matter why it happened?

[image: Newscom]

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Metal Hammer Magazine is hosting a contest at Future competitions. where you could win a cool blood splattered Slayer Crash Helmet. As you probably know, Slayer is headline the Unholy Alliance tour with Mastodon, Trivium and Amon Amarth. If you live in Europe and you have the means, this is a concert not worth missing. Having seen all the bands live in the past, with the exception of Amon Amarth, I must say that it’s a must-see concert. Head on over and enter for your chance to win the Slayer Crash Helmet by answering a Slayer trivia question. How cool would you look riding around town on your Huffy with that strapped to your skull! Contest ends 1/28/2009.

Enter to win the Slayer Crash Helmet Here

Find tickets for The unholy Alliance Tour Here

Image Source: Futurecompetitions.com Screenshot

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http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/metal_hammer_tv/tv2/player?clipId=479

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Testament

But anyway, that’s cool and good for them because The Formation Of Damnation is a great album. Now if you wonder how they won just take a look at the bands they were up against. Bullet For My Valentine, Children Of Bodom, Down and Atreyu. The only band that in my opinion had a chance is Children Of Bodom, with the release of Blooddrunk.

Image Source: Newscom.com

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This is it! A fantastic opportunity to win a pair of tickets to the hardest rocking awards show of the year!!
Spinefarm Records UK is offering 150 pairs of tickets to see Children Of Bodom perform in all their heavy metal glory at this year’s Golden Gods Awards, to be held June 16th 2008 at London’s O2.

What’s more, some especially lucky folk will also be selected to receive Spinefarm goody bags including all sorts of special Spinefarm bits and pieces!
All you have to do to get your hands on these little beauties is fill in the form below, and hope that the reaper selects YOU when he dips his scythe in our electronic post bag! Winners will be notified by email around 2 weeks before the date of the event, so you’ll have plenty of time to prep your neck muscles for what promises to be the most headbanging show of the year!

So what are you waiting for?! Click on the Banner.

Image Source: Children Of Bodom Myspace

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Metal Hammer: Do you think that had Darrell not been murdered that he and Vinnie might have eventually made their peace with Phil, and PANTERA might have gotten back together?

Rita: I know Darrell had thoughts about it. He was having problems with Patrick [Lachman, DAMAGEPLAN singer], who turned out totally not to be the person we thought he was. He started trying to give ultimatums about not singing PANTERA songs and Darrell goes, “Let me tell you something: this is who I am. Whether I’m called that or not, that’s my heart and soul, and yes, you will sing them. You knew it when you joined this band.”

Metal Hammer: And things with Rex [Brown, former PANTERA bassist]?

Rita: Darrell talked to Rex on [Dimebag's 38th] birthday — August 20, 2004 — and he told Rex straight-up, “Dude, I’m not going to go out and have a steak with you today. Maybe I will in the future. The reason I’m talking to you right now is because we have a history. You lived on my couch, my mother was your mother, you were my brother. But you are just as much to blame for this whole thing, and quit blaming it all on Phil. You need to answer for yourself.” And Rex kept saying, “Well, Phil was gonna do it anyway,” and Darrell says, “I don’t care — answer for yourself. Because you know what, motherfucker? You got a free ride through this PANTERA thing. So don’t tell me it’s all Phil’s fault — you were along for the full-meal deal!” That’s why there’s a credit on “DimeVision” [the "DimeVision - Vol 1: That's The Fun I Have" 2006 DVD tribute to Dimebag compiled largely by Rita Haney] that says, “Rex Rocker — Full Meal Deal.“

Metal Hammer: Did the pair of you turn to each other for support when Phil Anselmo [PANTERA singer] started encountering his various problems whilst in PANTERA?

Vinnie: Oh, yeah, we spoke to each other about it all the time. We’d made several attempts to reach out to Phil. In the end, we felt it had gone too far and we really needed to do something. I remember, Dime had made some demos, and Jerry Cantrell [ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist] was over. We were just hanging out, pretty depressed. Dime took Jerry out in the car and played him the demos — which later became DAMAGEPLAN — and Jerry said, “You need to move on and do your own thing.” Dime came back into the house and said, “Fuck this shit, we’re not waiting around anymore. Let’s just start our own band and do our own thing.” And that’s how DAMAGEPLAN came about.

Metal Hammer: This is obviously a very sensitive area, and I hope you don’t mind me asking the question, and you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but what memories do you have of that tragic night?

Vinnie: Ah, man, the last thing that really matters to me is the last thing we said to each other before we went on stage. We were warming up on the side of the stage like we always did and we were both really excited — we only had two shows left and we were gonna be going home for Christmas and to begin work on the second [DAMAGEPLAN] record. Our code word to let it all hang out and have a good time was “Van Halen,” man. And that’s the last two words we ever said to each other. I said “Van Halen” and he said “Van Halen” and we high-fived each other and went on the deck to do our thing… and a minute and a half later I’ll never see him again.

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You can read an article on Manowar and the recording at Metalhammer.co.uk and download the MP3 of Manowar’s Silent Night there as well. Or to download it from here, either click on the link listen via Quick Time player or right click and “save link as” to download to you hard drive.

It’s good to see these guys wearing clothes again.

Manowar-Silent Night

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Now playing: Shadows Fall – Somber Angel
via FoxyTunes

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Download festival at Castle Donington, was named top festival at the fourth annual Billboard Touring Awards, held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. Live Nation received the top promoter nod.

US’s Blabbermouth said: “The Download festival is a three-day rock/metal/punk festival held annually at the spiritual home of rock music in England — Donington Park, which hosted the Monsters of Rock festivals between 1980 and 1996, and 2002’s Ozzfest. It takes place in early summer, and is owned and managed by Live Nation.”

This year’s Download festival — which was headlined by IRON MAIDEN, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and LINKIN PARK — was reportedly attended by 80,000 people.

Source Metalhammer.co.uk

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“The time has come to pay tribute to one of the greatest heavy metal guitarists of all time and a genuine legend — a man who changed the face of metal, who was instrumental in making PANTERA one of the most important and influential groups of the last 20 years, and whose life touched millions and inspired a generation of metalheads. Metal Hammer is hard at work on an extensive, once-in-a-lifetime tribute to the man, his work and his monumental legacy, and we want you to be a part of it. To take part in this historic tribute we need you to send in pictures of yourself. They can be digital, and can even be taken on your mobile phone. Join us in honouring metal’s greatest guitar hero and help us raise a ‘Black Tooth Grin’ to his memory. Simply email your picture to dimetribute@futurenet.co.uk.”

So put on your leather vests, cut off cammy shorts and raggedy chucks and submit a picture to Metalhammer’s dime tribute!

Source: Blabbermouth.net

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