Another year has flown by, and it's already time for my annual Thanksgiving post. Things are not perfect in the world. The economy stinks, record sales are in the toilet, and there has been a lot of upheaval. Still, there are many positive things happening, and we all have many things to be thankful for.

On this Thanksgiving day in the U.S., we reflect on those things for which we are thankful. In addition to appreciating my family and friends, there are also many things in the realm of heavy metal that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful that pioneers of the genre are still around making music. We can appreciate the past of artists like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slayer and Motorhead while still enjoying their current stuff. I had the great privilege of seeing Metallica, Megadeth and Motorhead in concert this year, and in addition to old people like me, there was a strong contingent of young fans keeping the metal torch burning.

I'm also thankful for the wide variety of style and genres that make up heavy metal. Instead of just a couple of subgenres like a lot of styles of music have, metal has dozens, including thrash, death, black, power, gothic, progressive, doom and many more.

I'm thankful that even though the economy is struggling, metal keeps thriving. The quality of the music is good, and there are tons of great metal record labels bringing us that music. Even though you rarely hear metal on the radio (except satellite radio) or see it on TV, the live scene is still strong. Bands are still able to tour the world and bring their music directly to the masses (at lower ticket prices than many other genres), and metal fans are still showing up to support the scene.

I'm thankful for the incredible knowledge and passion of metal fans. There are few casual fans of heavy metal. Lovers of metal immerse themselves in the culture and history of their favorite bands and styles. The knowledge displayed by a lot of metalheads is simply amazing. Even though there can be a lot of bickering and sometimes less than civil behavior on some of the metal message boards, for the most part metal fans are happy to share their passion for the music with others.

I'm thankful for the technology that brings metal music and fans together. It used to be tape trading and writing letters, but thanks to the internet, communication is instantaneous and even unsigned bands can get their music heard via sites like Pure Volume and MySpace. Twitter really broke through this year, with seemingly everybody having a Twitter account (including About.com Heavy Metal. Follow us!).

I'm thankful for the great staff of writers on this site. They have so much knowledge, expertise and experience in the genre, and they've provided outstanding content to About.com Heavy Metal. Thanks Ray, Dan, Justin, MetalGeorge, Jay and everyone else who has written for the site this year.

But most of all, I'm thankful for you, the metal fan reading this. By supporting this site, you've allowed me to write about the incredible genre of music known as heavy metal. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, and keep it metal!

Megadeth and Slayer will join forces to co-headline "American Carnage." The tour will kick off on January 18 in Seattle, WA for a 26-date trek across North America that will include the six Canadian dates postponed earlier this month. It's the first time that Slayer and Megadeth will have toured the U.S. together since 1991's epic "Clash of the Titans" tour. To celebrate that, and in recognition of the tough economic times that many of their fans are having, Megadeth and Slayer have decided to roll back the price of a limited number of tickets at every U.S. show to the "1991 price" of $10.00.

In addition, Testament, who was also on the '91 "Clash of the Titans" bill, will be special guests on the entire tour, marking the first time that all three bands have shared a stage together in more than 18 years, and making this a "must see" metal event. Both Megadeth and Slayer will hit the road supporting new albums: Megadeth's 2009 album, Endgame and Slayer's World Painted Blood.

Slayer, Megadeth and Testament Tour Dates:
1/18/10 WaMu Theatre, Seattle, WA
1/19/10 Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
1/21/10 Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA
1/22/10 Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA
1/23/10 Dodge Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
1/25/10 Magness Arena, Denver, CO
1/26/10 Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, NM
1/27/10 El Paso Coliseum, El Paso, TX
1/29/10 Verizon Wireless, Houston, TX
1/31/10 Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN
2/1/10 Gwinnett Arena, Duluth, GA
2/2/10 Broadbent Arena, Louisville, KY
2/4/10 Roy Wilkins Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN
2/5/10 UIC Pavilion, Chicago, IL
2/6/10 Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI
2/9/10 Chevrolet Theatre, Wallingford, CT
2/11/10 Izod Center, East Rutherford, NJ
2/12/10 Glens Falls Civic Center, Glens Falls, NY
2/13/10 Susquehanna Center, Camden, NJ
2/14/10 Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA
2/16/10 Pavillon de la Jeunesse, Quebec City, QC
2/18/10 John Labatt Centre, London, ON
2/19/10 Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
2/20/10 Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
2/22/10 Moncton Coliseum, Moncton, NB
2/23/10 Metro Centre, Halifax, NS

Tour Dates For Other Heavy Metal Artists

Following the terrible tragedy of Denis "Piggy" D'Amour's passing, the remnants of Voivod were left with a grab bag of puzzle pieces by Piggy, which they assembled into two farewell salutes, Katorz and Infini. Almost unanimously it was assumed the band would never continue on from this point.

Flash forward three years after Piggy's death and nobody in their right minds could've foreseen the legendary Voivod back on a stage in their first-ever Japanese appearance. After a 17-year hiatus, original bassist Jean-Yves "Blacky" Theriault returned to the fold (despite helping his crew out with session work on The Outer Limits). Buzzworthy enough, as Blacky remains today the only bassist truly able to match Piggy note-for-note in linear progression.

The bigger newsbyte of course, is the addition of Martyr mastermind and guitarist Dan Mongrain to the band. Bearing more hair than Troy Polamalu and danged near the entire arsenal of his predecessor, Mongrain achieves what no one would assume possible: the full-on replication of Piggy's position in Voivod.

Read the complete Voivod - Tatsumaki: Voivod Live Japan 2008 DVD Review

(DVD cover courtesy MVD Visual)

Swedish melodic death metal pioneers Dark Tranquillity have released a live DVD Where Death Is Most Alive, which was filmed in Milan, Italy. They've also just finished their next studio CD, set for a February, 2010 release. DT vocalist Mikael Stanne fills us in on the DVD and all the extras, the next album, tour plans, and what he'd do if he was put in charge of the music business.

Chad Bowar: You've had a lineup change recently. What led to bassist Michael Niklasson's departure, and how did you decide on Daniel Antonsson as his replacement?
Mikael Stanne: After ten years in the band, Michael felt that he needed to go on to do different things, and we agreed. It was very much a natural thing where we basically grew apart and it came to an end. Daniel has been a friend of ours pretty much since we started doing gigs in Gothenburg and we´ve hung out over the years. We toured together when he played for Soilwork.

We had started considering replacements when Daniel called and told us he was not in Soilwork anymore, and if we still needed a bass player. We hesitated for half a second and then he was in. We have a history of adding old friends into the DT camp, so this was another case of that. And it has worked out amazingly well. He fits right in and we have all felt energized since he joined. We feel like a complete unit now more than ever.

What was the response to this year's Yesterworlds compilation release?
Since this release was mainly for the die-hard fans who already have all the other releases, it received great response from the fans. There is stuff on there that no one has heard before, as well as the best sounding versions of the old and rare material. It was interesting to go back and listen to these songs, and I feel I have a new found appreciation for the madness we were up to back then.

Read the complete Dark Tranquillity Interview

(photo courtesy Century Media Records)