Photo By Marc Brubaker

Slayer's Kerry King making Austin bleed at Fun Fun Fun Fest last November

​This morning, the lineup for this summer's mega-metal fest, the Rock Star Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, was released. It includes re-activated act Slipknot, warhorses Slayer, Anthrax on the Jagermeister side stage, and a third act to be named on March 5. This roadshow hits Houston on July 11 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.

Also included on Mayhem roster on selected dates will be High On Fire, Asking Alexandria, The Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying, and Whitechapel. This will easily be the metal show of the summer, barring any stirrings from Sabbath, who more than likely wouldn't hit Houston until the fall.

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Dave Grohl and Ratt team up

​When Dave Grohl released his Probot project in February 2004, it opened a whole new world of metal to a new legion of kids whose only exposure to the hard stuff may have been whatever was on MTV or VH1 Classic. Here was Grohl teaming up with crusty scumlords like Lemmy, Wino of St. Vitus, Tom G. Warrior from Celtic Frost, and Mr. King Diamond, at a time when he was fronting one of biggest mainstream rock bands in the land, the Foo Fighters.

Today we get word from the metal press that Grohl recently spent time in the studio with Ratt members vocalist Stephen Pearcy and lead guitarist Warren DeMartini to record something the Foo maker is cooking up.

Is this a hair metal answer to the acid bath and throbbing gristle that was Probot? We sure as hell hope so, because with the current hairspray renaissance afoot, along with acts like Motley Crue and Guns N' Roses still in the thick of touring, the glittery stuff is hot, and in the right and reverent hands, this could be fun as a barrel of groupies.

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​Today in Los Angeles, legendary, pioneering heavy metal group Black Sabbath convened in front of reporters at the Whiskey A Go Go to announce a 2012 reunion tour and album, set for a fall release. The event, hosted by Henry Rollins, was telegraphed by a countdown clock on the band's official site and a tweet or two from their Twitter account.

This past weekend at Fun Fun Fun Fest, Rollins was very excited about the event, himself being a longtime fan of the band and their imagery. We couldn't think of a better person to host a press conference announcing a Sabbath reunion. Or maybe Satan himself.

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​Last week, Slayer's 1986 album Reign In Blood turned 25 years old. We were so wrapped up in doing that dog-ass Pink Floyd facts blog - that we paid dearly for in the comments section - and getting ready for our high school reunion, that we forgot all about this anniversary. We apologize for letting down ourselves, all of you, and Tom Araya, Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King, and Dave Lombardo.

For that matter, Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar turned 15 last week too, old enough for a learner's permit. When it came out it was one of the worst things you could bring to your school. Now it's all but a quaint moment in time.

Over 10 songs and just under 30 minutes (28:56), Reign In Blood managed to shock, awe, brutalize, and scare the living shit out of mainstream metal audiences. In 2011, as the world of metal becomes ever vast and varied, the album now holds a special spot next to other influential metal albums like Kill 'Em All, Paranoid, and Venom's Black Metal.

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Cliff 'Em All

​Rocks Off just acquired a four-string electric bass guitar, in the hopes that we can find some time to learn to actually use it. Our younger brother had let it collect dust in his room at home while he did big-kid stuff like start a business and get a girlfriend. After spending hours listening to Metallica for the past two months, Rocks Off decided we wanted to try our hand at bass guitar for the fourth time in our life, because of the late Cliff Burton.

Today marks 25 years since the bus crash that killed Metallica's second bassist, the Misfits-loving Burton. Only 24 years old when the band's bus crashed and fell on him while they were on tour in Sweden, Burton was known for his menacing command of the bass, and his evil grin onstage that was off-set by his trademark bell-bottom jeans and ever-present Misfits tee and tattoo. His wispy moustache made him look older than he actually was.

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Rocks Off got this video in a press release just minutes ago, Rob Zombie's debut as director of Woolite commercials. Yes, Woolite. The detergent. The thing you use to make your clothes not stank and to look whiter. And we approve of the direction that the '90s shock-maven and '00s filmmaker is taking the art of detergent commercials.

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The Great Kat on Facebook

For those about to rock, The Great Kat - in one of her tamer photos - salutes you.

​Rocks Off has collected some very, very off-the-wall people over the years in search of musical enjoyment. We thought Cory Sinclair of The Manichean was until we interviewed Tyagaraja and realized he might actually be a Jedi. We always thrilled to hear the psychotic scienctific ravings of Dr. Milo T. Pinkerton III of Consortium of Genius, but he was ultimately topped by the hallucination-inducing rhetoric of Tubby Chubcakes. And now... we come to The Great Kat.

Kat is a Julliard-trained violinist who traded in the sedate world of classical performance to dress like a road warrior and play the guitar just shy of the speed needed to go back in time. She sent along her latest CD, Beethoven Shreds, and being both the resident classical-music expert on staff as well as the only one who has had a restraining order filed against him by Lita Ford - Ed. Note: He wishes - Rocks Off felt that it was well within our capabilities to kill seven minutes and several thousand brain cells by listening to it.

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​Anyone who knows this member of Rocks Off will know that he owns most every book written about Motely Crue, or written by a member of Motley Crue. Yes, next to Howard Zinns's A People's History of the United States and a well-worn copy of American Psycho, sits the collected literary works of Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil and Tommy Lee. We are still waiting for a Mick Mars book.

Motley pulls into Houston tomorrow night at the Toyota Center with Poison and the New York Dolls. Crue and Poison wouldn't have existed without the Dolls, who are now down to only two original members. Show up early to get a history lesson.

We've probably read The Dirt, their memoir written with Neil Strauss, at least four times, with the tales of hard-scrabble scumbag druggie life thrilling us and making us chuckle each time around. On their own though, the band, now in its 30th year of action, shows signs of heartbreak and pain.

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Photos by Groovehouse / Click here for a slideshow

​This year, Aftermath has seen all strains of metal: From Slipknot and Mastodon's metallic beatdowns at Verizon Wireless Theater, to The Sword's kindly menacing sludge jams at the inaugural Summerfest, to the force of power that is Motorhead at Warehouse Live, and all the way back to Walter's on Washington for a dose of homegrown black metal that he didn't realize he had been missing. It took us nearly a quarter of a century to turn into full-blown metalheads, and it's all of your faults.

So it came as an utter surprise to be sitting in front of a Christian '80s hair metal band and getting the same charge out of a bunch of crunching power chords and windmill-like hair acrobatics that he would out of a secular band. Last night Stryper at the House Of Blues somehow calmed our souls while thoroughly making our head ache from headbanging to lyrics about fighting the Devil.

We are actually used to lyrical fare about praising Old Pitch and wanting to cut Christians' heads off with ten-foot scythes, instead of banding together to take the Prince of Darkness down with scripture and faith. Leave it to a bunch of Bible-quoting oldsters in yellow and black spandex to make us see that it's not so much the words we love about metal -- it's the fellowship and the way the music pounds in our chests.

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Let this video serve as a reminder to everyone that possibly the world's coolest band hits Warehouse Live Friday night . Seriously, the Rolling Stones are bitchin' , the Beatles are timelessly stellar, and Metallica always gets us off, but Lemmy and company pretty much own us.

We aren't sure if the show is sold out yet, but if it isn't Houston, you guys are treading on thin ice with us. Anytime you see Motorhead could be the last time you see Motorhead because Lemmy at anytime could go down in a blaze of glory with Shyla Stylez on his lap and a nose full of snow pretty much any night of the week.

Rocks Off will be there for sure, but at what level of functionality remains to be seen.