Universal Music announced today that footage of The Big Four playing live at this year’s Sonisphere festival would see a DVD and Blu-ray release on October 11. Information about the DVD is trickling out rather slowly at this point but we do know that the date for the US release will be announced by Universal tomorrow.

We also know that Japan will see a special deluxe-edition release of the DVD/Blu-ray featuring two (2) DVD’s, four (4) Cd’s, a poster of each of the bands and a guitar pick all bundled up in a nice “collectors” box. In case you were wondering, this footage is from the live event that was broadcast to hundreds of cinemas and seen by over 100,000 people back in June. 

For more information visit the Universal Music store.

Those of you with real jobs or obligations who weren't able to stay up last night and watch Slayer perform on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, can check out the video above and see just what you missed.

I might be out of the loop here a little bit, but I had no idea Slayer pulled the kind of weight necessary to play late show on a major, off-cable network. Good for them at any rate, and good for Jimmy Fallon (or his producers) who could have probably brought on Britney Spears or whatever but opted for a metal band. 

Slayer performed Hate Worldwide off their latest album World Painted Blood. 

As rumored, Megadeth and Anthrax will be joining Slayer on the second leg of their American Carnage Tour. The fun begins September 24 at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Dallas, Texas and will conclude 20 dates later in Hollywood California. During the stretch, Slayer will be playing their album Seasons In The Abyss in its entirety while Megadeth does the same with their classic album Rust In Peace.  For our local readers out there, rest assured the tour makes a stop in Utah at the newly named Maverick center on October 19. Check out all the dates after the jump.  

 

Last night the forces of metal banned together, stars aligned, Thor swung his mighty hammer to the sky and dropped it square in the middle of Sofia, Bulgaria where Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax joined Metallica on stage for a special performance of their classic hit Am I Evil?   If that is not enough to make you wish you had sold your first born, packed your bags and flew your ass to Bulgaria, you might want to check your pulse.  

The special performance was broadcast all over the world as part of the Big 4 concert experience in theaters, which hit over 450 markets across the world.   If you missed the concert you might still be in luck as they have announced that encore showings will take place in select markets across the US tomorrow.  Punch in your zip code and have a look if a theater near you is playing the concert. 

After the jump you can check out another video of the once in a lifetime event shot from another angle as well as Metallica’s set list for the night. 

Yesterday we reported that for the first time "The Big Four" would be playing in Warsaw, Poland on July 16 (yesterday).  Yesterday is now over and for today we have the track list that they played at the Sonisphere.  Enjoy!

Anthrax Caught in a Mosh Got the Time (Joe Jackson cover) Indians Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath cover) Antisocial (Trust cover) Madhouse Only Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) I Am The Law	Slayer World Painted Blood Jihad War Ensemble Hate Worldwide Angel of Death Dead Skin Mask Disciple South of Heaven Raining Blood
Metallica Creeping Death For Whom The Bell Tolls Fuel The Four Horsemen Fade To Black That Was Just Your Life Cyanide Sad But True Welcome Home (Sanitarium) All Nightmare Long One Master Of Puppets Blackened Nothing Else Matters Enter Sandman Stone Cold Crazy (Queen cover) Hit The Lights Seek & Destroy	Megadeth Holy Wars… The Punishment Due Hangar 18 Take No Prisoners Five Magics Poison Was the Cure Lucretia Tornado of Souls Rust in Peace… Polaris Headcrusher Sweating Bullets Symphony Of Destruction Peace Sells

Tonight, Metallica, Slayer (I’m still upset with you for your video hi jinx) , Megadeth and Anthrax will take the stage together for the first time ever in Warsaw, Poland for the Sonisphere festival. This concert is sure to be absolutely massive with talks of this event happening for well over 20 years. If you are not in Poland right now, and obviously most of you aren't, there is still hope. I know I have been beating this thing into the ground since the first rumor surfaced but dammit I need to see this come to fruition and according to Scott Ian, I just might.

The Anthrax guitarist commented that he and the other members of his band, Megadeth and Slayer, all wished to play together more shows and play them across the world, but the ultimate decision was in the hands of Metallica. He kept calling Kirk Hammett and after many times denying rumors he finally said “Yes, it's going to happen, but don't say anything.” Ian continues and says “I think it's going to be the same with other territories. We're already hearing rumors about other places in the world. And I think eventually it will be a worldwide adventure." 

Thank you gods of metal! What I am hearing is, barring any unforeseen hiccups, we will hear and know more with the Big 4 finally (hopefully!) leading up to some North American dates. Keep your finger crossed kids!!!

The photo above is of all the members of all four bands save Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman, hanging out together, possibly taken yesterday in Poland.

Just watch, then we’ll discuss:

Pretty terrible, right?  The animation is just not up to par, the shots of the band puppet style boarder on “this must be a joke” bad, and as one blabbermouth commenter described “the whole thing looked like an underfunded episode of Metalocalypse”. That’s a pretty spot-on observation and I’ll go ahead and take it one step further and say regardless of if Slayer knows or not, regardless of if you think they have gone soft or not, they deserve better. Or at least owe the fans a bit more effort. It’s freakin’ Slayer, who has been able after almost 30 years to manage to keep us entertained until just a few hours ago when this video dropped. 

If video killed the radio star, who killed the video? I haven't seen a worthwhile metal music video in longer than I care to remember and it’s a sad day when I will admit that in the same week the likes of Lady(makes me)Gag-a releases a more interesting and visually stimulating video than Slayer (see the video I speak of after the jump). 

In my email this morning there was an announcement that the Big Four of Thrash would be streaming, via satellite, their concert in Bulgaria to over 450 theaters across the U.S. and a total of 800 different theaters across the world. While I hope this isn’t the only incarnation of the four bands playing in the States, at this point I’ll take what I can get. The footage will come from the June 22nd date of the seven-show Sonisphere Festival and will air the same day in theaters across the U.S. Tickets for this historic eve go on sale TODAY, so if you’re interested, go here for show times and tickets in your area.

For those of you reading in our native Utah, it looks like a total of seven theaters are taking part in the event. Those of you in other parts of the world, check the link above for dates and show times, areas such as Australia, South Africa and parts of Europe will be staggered. Be excited! Very excited!

I hope so. According to Noisecreep, Slayer’s Kerry King also hopes so. The Big Four (all American bands by the way), have taken the first ever incarnation of the biggest names in thrash metal to Europe first, leaving many US fans (myself included) feeling a bit left out. Without so much as a hint of the tour making its way across the pond, most fans are seething at this point, but King has stated that if the offer comes up, the band has an open spot in the summer of 2011 and he “hope[s] the American Carnage tour is a precursor to the Big Four coming to the States”. King continues; “that tour should be everywhere: here, Australia, Japan. Any place that wants it should have it and it should happen”.

Despite the arm and leg I probably will need to have removed to afford the ticket price of such an event, I couldn’t agree with the man more. Shoot, throw in some Testament or Exodus and assuming I had one, I would gladly trade in my first born for a GA ticket. If (big IF), there are anymore developments as to this proposed tour, you can be assured that we will report on them asap – so keep coming back and leave your ticket price predictions in the comment section.