Longstanding Tampa, Florida power-metallers Iced Earth are going to be hitting the road this fall for a North American tour with Canadian progressive-metallers Into Eternity and Oakland's Saviours. The trek will kick off on September 21 in Detroit, Michigan and wind down over a month later on 10/24 in Los Angeles, California. Along the way, Iced Earth will make a headlining performance at ProgPower USA IX in Atlanta, Georgia.

In case your day doesn't suck yet, here is some news that will make it so. Wintersun, who made tidal waves in the metal scene back in 2004 with the release of their self-titled full-length, have posted an update on their Web site. Apparently, the complexity of the music they are attempting to create is too much for a normal 32-bit PC to handle. The album, which will be called "Time," was supposed to be released in 2007, but was pushed back to 2008 due to technical issues. Now it is unclear as to if the album will be out this year... or even at all. Crap. Drummer Kai Hahto had the following to say:

Swedish power-metallers HammerFall have never been particularly shy about their private lives. The band has chronicled most of its 15-year career on DVD: 1999's "The First Crusade" and 2002's "The Templar/Renegade Crusades" covered everything up to 2002, providing hours of entertaining live and behind-the-scenes footage. On June 27, the band will release the next chapter in its history. Check out the trailer, then come in and read all about the new DVD:

Nerds like metal ... and that's a good thing! Because really, what couldn't be improved by a liberal use of face paint, sword-and-sorcery motifs and hurdy gurdys? The Paganfest tour is proving once and for all that unusual facets of European culture are really popular in the U.S. - and way cooler than anything we have anyway. As Turisas frontman Warlord Nygard pointed out at the fest's SoCal stop on Thursday night, "We expected to have 50 people at every show, and look at all you crazy people!" I was lucky enough to be there to catch all the action. Here are my thoughts on the eye-opening experience ...