In 2006, Kerrang! celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Metallica’s Master of Puppets by releasing Remastered, a re-recording of the entire album with each song performed by a different band (Machine Head did “Battery,” Trivium did the title track, Mastodon did “Orion,” etc.). I don’t actually remember that release very well, but the only track that remains in my in iTunes library is Chimaira’s cover of “Disposable Heroes,” so, uh, yeah, I guess I didn’t like it very much.

ANYWAY, I mention it because now apparently Metal Hammer is doing more or less the same thing in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of The Black Album, which made many of us feel ready for the retirement home earlier this month. I have no idea if this will be more or less cool than the Remastered thinger; frankly, a lot of the bands on the comp are ones with whom I am not currently familiar (Motorjesus?) or don’t like (Neaera). But Metal Hammer has released samples of three of the tracks, so you want to start passing judgment early.

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Only five releases today, which is fine, because it’s my birthday and my college started classes back up yesterday. We still have a bunch of stuff coming out this fall to get excited about, but this week is highlighted by releases from Leprous and Atriarch, as well as ICS Vortex’s first solo album. To the reviewing!

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So last week vocalist Snowy Shaw announced that he was quitting Therion, and then a rumor started that he was joining Dimmu Borgir as a replacement for ICS Vortex. And then yesterday Therion released their own statement regarding Shaw’s departure, and, well, honestly, I didn’t even bother reading it. Why? Because a) I’m not a Therion fan, b) I can’t take a dude who calls himself “Snowy” seriously, c) Snowy had already said he was leaving the band so whatever, and d) I’m an irresponsible elitist snob. For if I had read the press release, I might have seen what SMN did — that it all but confirms Shaw’s new gig as a Dimmu Borgirian. From the statement:

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If you’re the kind of guy who gets excited when girls in thongs are somehow unaware that top half of their ass is hanging out (and by “unaware,” I mean “Jesus H. Christ, fathers, hug your daughters more because they’re all growing up to be whores and that’s totally okay with sleaze bags like me but let’s be real here you probably don’t want your daughter bringing home a sleaze bag like me”), then you will probably be excited by the news that Dimmu Borgir are unveiling the album art for their latest, still to-be-titled offering in four pieces, the first of which you can see here.

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Well, it was only a matter of time. The remaining members of Dimmu Borgir have lashed back at recently fired bassist/vocalist Vortex and keyboardist Mustis in a statement that, tonally at least, is actually very calm and even-handed (almost disappointingly so – at least from a humor standpoint). But it does make some pretty wild accusations about the behavior of at least one of these former band members.

Our friends at Metal Insider picked out these highlights, thus saving us the trouble:

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Recently sacked Dimmu Borgir bassist/clean vocalist Vortex has weighed in on the split between the band, himself, and keyboardist Mustis. And I’m sure it will shock none of you to learn that he’s siding with Mustis.

SMN News reports that Mr. Vortex (real name: Ian Carter Simen Tourbillion) has posted the following message on his MySpace pagee:

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So I’m sure you’re all aware of this major lineup change for Dimmu Borgir. I’ve been a fan of that band since ’98, and I’ve liked every single one of their records except For All Tid. My favorite lineup of theirs was the Puritanical and Deathcult lineup. For me as a fan, the music those dudes made together is what really sealed the deal for me with that band. I still enjoyed some later stuff, but for me those two records are where it’s at.

I’m sure they’ll find some amazing people and continue to put out great records, but the band that I became a fan of is now altered. And that got me thinking. How many times has this happened, and when does it really matter?

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So in case ya didn’t hear, Dimmu Borgir fired their bassist/clean vocalist, ICS Vortex, and their keyboard player, Mustis, over the weekend. Well, I guess technically the band “parted ways” with those members, but by all accounts, it wasn’t a break-up reached by mutual decision.

To wit: Mustis briefly changed his MySpace status to “betrayed” before revealing this little nugget of information:

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