News has broken that Sonisphere, one of the premiere European heavy metal festivals, has been cancelled this year. Massive bummer.

News first leaked via headliner Queen‘s official website, which although it was taken down later, was later confirmed by the official regional websites.

The multi-national festival, which takes place in the UK, Spain, Poland, Finland, Switzerland and France, draws in some fantastic acts, including the ones on the UK’s poster above, but also was to see Metallica, Slayer and Faith No More.

Citing a ‘challenging year’, which no doubt includes the problems of the current economic climate, the organisers expressed their heartfelt apologies, disappointment, and the assurance that all pre-sold tickets would be refunded in full.

Hopefully some of the acts will be picked up by other festivals, to lessen the blow for music fans, but this is a huge blow, and all of us here at Metal Scene News hope they come back stronger next year.

I don’t know if I should thank Axl Rosenberg of MetalSucks or be mad at him for exposing me to the trailer for The Devil’s Carnival, a new movie from the director of a bunch of Saw sequels. The movie finds metal luminaries like Clown from Slipknot and Five Finger Death Punch frontman Ivan Temperamental as part of this…um…devil’s carnival, I guess? The whole time I watched this trailer, I just couldn’t believe somebody would fund this drek. If you do happen to be interested in this cinematic masterpiece, get more info here.

Dave has done it again! Ok, maybe I’m stretching this one a bit too far, but it’s still pretty amusing. We’ve been keeping up with all of Mustaine’s insane ranting as of late, whether it be his support for Santorum, being anti-gay marriage, telling African women to place a plug in it or this new revelation that he knows Obama wasn’t born in America. A few weeks back, I was hanging out with my buddy Axl Rosenberg of MetalSucks and we were speculating on whom Mustaine would offend next. Axl place his money on the Jews and wouldn’t you know it, here is Dave talking shit on Jews, namely one Jew in specific, Marty Friedman…

In the latest issue of Decibel Magazine, they induct Megadeth’s fantastic opus Rust In Peace into the Decibel Hall of Fame and interview all the people who played on the record. When discussing adding guitar virtuoso Marty Friedman, he had one major criticism:

I remember talking to my manager and saying “This is the guy. But his name’s Friedman. That ain’t very metal. Can we get him to change his last name? A stage name?” My manager said “Well, he’s already an established guitar player.” Well, I went back in the room and told him he got the gig, but he had to get his hair fixed and get some new clothes so he didn’t look like a bum.

Somehow Dave powered through and the band released their most successful album to date! The added bonus is Mustaine is technically Jewish, since his mother was a Jew, although he was raised as a Jehovah’s witness.