Looking for ways to teach your child the alphabet? Well, allow me to direct your attention to this very awesome poster titled “The ABC’s of Heavy Metal,” which makes the alphabet out of various heavy metal band logos.

Check out the poster image here at right (click for larger full view).

This 18″ x24″ art print, by Aye Jay, comes in a hand-numbered edition of 80 and is available here for $25. The two-color image is printed on metallic silver currency paper.

There’s also a version that’s the same size that’s printed on a sheet of metal stainless steel for a super limited edition of 10. That’s so metal!!! Another variant is the Glam Metal edition, which looks real cool, but “glam” doesn’t apply to the bands represented on this print. The glam metal edition is on black paper with metallic gold ink and “a righteous split fountain” and is limited to 20.

It took me all of 60 seconds to figure out which band logos 21 of the 26 letters came from. It wasn’t too difficult considering I’d spent a good portion of my teen years drawing these same band logos all over my school notebooks, folders, and binders.

Can you guess which bands are represented in this poster?

I’ve put my choices here below, with an asterisk next to the ones I didn’t know right away.

The FREE MP3 song download of the day over at Amazon is Dio‘s Stand Up And Shout (Live).

Click the link to the song, then click on the “Get MP3” button on the top right corner of the product page and it will download the song for NO charge.

The free download is only for today until midnight PST, so grab it right now!

The song comes from Dio’s Holy Diver Live and the MP3 version of the entire double-live album is also on sale right now for only $7.99.

[UPDATE 7/9/2010: The deal for “Stand Up and Shout” is over, but today there’s a new FREE mp3 the album, the song “Holy Diver (Live)” — so grab that right now!]

The creation of this image was suggested to me by a friend via Twitter, and I immediately thought ‘Horns’ and got to work making it happen.

I created ‘Horns’ to honor of one of the most inspiring people in my life and the lives of many of my friends, the Godfather of Heavy Metal — Ronnie James Dio, who passed away yesterday.

Dio’s bold music scored such a large part of the backdrop of my youth that I can rarely think of good times without thinking of him (Look Out!!).

I was lucky enough to have seen him perform in concert more times than I can rightfully put a number to and I gotta tell ya, every single time I saw him he made that concert seem like the ‘best’ performance of his career.

My friend Greg said it best: ‘Black Sabbath with Ozzy may have created Metal – but it was RONNIE JAMES DIO that made metal a REALITY’

Rock in Peace, RJD!!

\m/ \m/ Hold those horns high!!

Singer and heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio died on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 7:45 AM after battling stomach cancer, according to an online post by his wife Wendy Dio. He was 67.

Rumors spread over this internet this weekend that Dio had died yesterday, but the truth was that he was in the hospital and not doing well. [Read Ronnie James Dio’s Wife Responds To Rumors: “˜Ronnie has NOT passed away!’]

After quelling the rumors yesterday about the singer’s death, his wife updated Dio’s official site this morning with the news of his passing today.

In the history of rock music, band members have come and gone, but nothing is more controversial or dangerous then installing a new lead singer in an established rock outfit. Does it help or hinder to replace your frontman or is it just plain blasphemy to even consider this practice?

This November, prog-rock band Yes will be embarking on a 40th anniversary tour without their lead singer Jon Anderson, who was forced to bow out because of illness. In Anderson’s stead on Yes’s “In the Present” tour will be Benoit David, who sings in a few Yes tribute bands out of Montreal, Canada.

Depending on fan reaction, this former tribute singer is either headed for superstardom or is very doomed.

Here’s a look at 10 rock bands that have replaced their lead singer and the subsequent outcome of their decisions.