White Noise: Ozzfest Returneth, No Black Metal In Manhattan, Bodom Do Britney

Rise and shine, fellow metalheads. Welcome to White Noise, where today, we learn you can't always keep a good fest down, that New York City is experiencing a black metal dirth, and that Children of Bodom are giving Britney the brutal treatment. It's all the metal info you need to know.

+ By now, you've heard that, for the first time since the festival's 1996 inception, there will be no Ozzfest this summer. A few months back, Sharon Osbourne explained that it didn't make sense to put together an Ozzfest-magnitude festival in an ever-souring economy. But according to her husband, Ozzy Osbourne, another year will not pass without an Ozzfest.

In an interview featured on Revolver TV, which was conducted during the first annual Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards earlier this month, Osbourne promises his namesake fest will be back in a "major" way in 2010. Osbourne also disclosed that he's among the featured guests who'll be appearing on Velvet Revolver and ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash's upcoming solo record.

+ According to German metal outfit Rammstein's Web site, the band are three songs into their next LP. "Three uncompromising songs and three attacks upon 'common taste and morality,'" the post explains, "An album isn't an album until the last line has been sung and the final note has sounded. However, it's no big secret to tell you about our great enthusiasm. Just like many others, we can't wait." No word yet on when the effort will be ready for release.

+ In a recent interview with Brooklyn Vegan, Neurosis' Scott Kelly says the band is working on new material, but that they're in the earliest stages of the creative process. "We've got skeletons, but they've yet to take shape," he says, adding that the band will likely ask Steve Albini to return to the producer's chair for their next one. "We've got a lot of riffs laid out... sequences of riffs... but writing a Neurosis record takes a long time. We get these rough ideas and then kind of meditate on it for a while, see how it feels and take it to the next step and the next step. We're getting to a point where we are ready to give it our full attention, but there's a bunch of material laying there."

+ Is there no black metal scene in New York City? According to Adam Wisnieski of the New York Press, you're damn tootin' there is none. The paper reasons this is because "black metal is fundamentally anti-social. Not every style of music is looking for unity. They know the downside. Scenes breed conformity." Check out the rest of the paper's report, and let us know what you think... does the Big Apple have no black metal scene?

+ Children of Bodom will issue a covers album called 'Skeletons In The Closet' this fall. The band will be putting their own spin on Iron Maiden's "Aces High," Sepultura's "Mass Hypnosis," Slayer's "Silent Scream, and even Britney Spears' "Oops!... I Did It Again."

+ Goatwhore have christened their forthcoming fourth album 'Carving Out the Eyes of God.' The effort was recorded in Florida with producer Erik Rutan, and feature the songs "Razor Flesh Devoured," "Apocalyptic Havoc," and "Reckoning of the Soul Made Godless." "I will say that the new material is ripping metal and we still have that 'Goatwhore' sound, whatever that may mean for each individual that enjoys or hates what we do," says frontman Ben Falgoust. "Just look at it as another step in the evolution of this band."

+ In other album news, the mighty Nile will be teaming up with Rutan next month, to start work on their next studio set. The band hope to have the disc in stores this fall, and are planning European, North American, Australian, and South American tours for early 2010.