Over the weekend of October 25 and 26, 2014, my 11-year-old son Jesse and I embarked on a heavy metal pilgrimage. San Bernadino, CA is 60 miles away from our home in Burbank and is home to the San Manuel Amphitheater. It was there that Slipknot was holding Knotfest, a three-day heavy metal summit featuring 60-plus bands on five stages over the course of three days.

This occasion was custom-made for some quality father/son bonding time and an early celebration of Jesse’s 12th birthday (which was on October 30th — Happy Birthday, Jesse!).

The festival actually commenced on Friday night with a special pre-event concert for the folks who purchased camping passes for the weekend and it featured performances from the likes of Suicide Silence, Chelsea Grin, and The Black Dahlia Murder. Since we aren’t really the camping type, we unfortunately missed that night.

Maggots rejoice: Slipknot has just announced that they will be bringing their massive Knotfest back to America. The 3-day event will take place at San Manuel Amphitheater (formerly known as Glen Helen Pavilion) in San Bernadino, CA this year on October 24, 25 and 26.

In addition to Slipknot headlining both Saturday and Sunday nights, the festival will feature over 60 bands including a “who’s who” of metal. Some of the acts scheduled to appear include: Danzig, Anthrax, Five Finger Death Punch, Volbeat, Killswitch Engage, Testament, Black Label Society, and many more. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, July 11, 2014 with pre-sale being offered from 8-10am on Monday, July 7, 2014.

Season’s Greetings everyone!

To get you further into the festive mood (one day to go!) have a listen to Black Label Society‘s version of the traditional English Christmas carol, “The First Noel.”

It’s not the usual BLS heavy metal fare, it is a beautiful acoustic rendition from their covers album The Song Remains Not The Same. As usual Zakk Wylde‘s guitar playing is excellent.

We first reported back in February that iconic actor William Shatner was hard at work on his next album titled Seeking Major Tom (read about it HERE).

The album will be a conceptual recording in the form of a collection of 18 covers of classic rock anthems. Recently the Shat released a video of him laying down the final vocals for his cover of the classic Black Sabbath tune “Iron Man” and you can watch that video here below.

Spock may not think the merging of Shatner and Metal to be a logical one — but at this point in 2011, William Shatner is becoming more metal than ever. And even at his age of 80, there seems to be no stopping the once Captain of the USS Enterprise, for this year he will be releasing a metal album, as we reported on several weeks ago. To acknowledge his efforts not only towards his current album project, entitled Seeking Major Tom, but also for his entire epic career, William Shatner will next month be awarded the Honorary Headbanger Award at the annual Revolver Awards.

The Revolver Golden Gods is an awards ceremony to recognize all metal, held every year. The Honorary Headbanger Award is handed out to someone who is not necessarily seen as being in the metal community, but embodies the spirit of metal. With his upcoming album featuring collaborative efforts with numerous metal artists, and his long career in Star Trek and acting in other roles over the years, Shatner is an artist of determination who continually breaks down the doors of what people think he should do (or if people just think it to be… odd).