Rockstar Energy Drinks has announced that, for the fourth year in a row, it will present the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, a touring metal festival that will make its way around the country this summer.

A post on the festival’s Facebook wall announced the headliners for the show’s main stage at each event will be Slipknot and Slayer. Additionally, the announcement lists “Special main stage guests to be announced March 5^th.” Ultimate-Guitar.com reports that the special guest is rumored to be metal legends Motorhead.

Additional performances on the main stage each day will come from As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada and Asking Alexandria, who will rotate sets to fill the fourth spot. The second stage of the festival has been upgraded this year, according to the post, and is now known as the Jagermeister Stage, and will be headlined by Anthrax. Support for Anthrax will also come from a rotation of As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada and Asking Alexandria, as well as from Whitechapel and High on Fire. The post notes that “bands may vary per market.”

This year’s tour will begin June 30 in San Bernardino, Calif. and will continue through August 5 in Hartford, Conn. In between, the tour will hit 24 cities, including Mountain View, Calif.; Boise, Idaho; Phoenix, Ariz.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Dallas; Tampa; Atlanta; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Cincinnati; Camden, N.J. and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The Rockstay Energy Mayhem Festival was created in 2008 by Kevin Lyman, who also created the Vans Warped Tour. In addition to the two stages, the festival typically features autograph booths, as well as video game booths and other vendors. The initial release offered no details on exactly what kind of vendors can be expected at the 2012 version of the tour.

After just wrapping up a co-headlining tour with Testament at the end of last month, Anthrax has announced a second leg of the tour that will take place during the first part of the new year. So far, 12 dates have been announced for what Anthrax’s website calls the “Thrashfest Extravaganza.” The first date will take place on January 22 at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, and the tour will run at least through February 8 in New York, though the website promises that more dates will be added soon.

Before the previous leg of this tour, Testament and Anthrax hadn’t toured together in more than a decade, and Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian said on the band’s website that he was extremely excited about playing with them again.

“The first leg of the tour with Testament and Death Angel was an amazing way to end a great year for Anthrax,” he said. “And it went above and beyond my expectations! Sold out shows, raging crowds and EPIC war dances! So we figured what better way to start 2012 than to continue this thrash-fest into the new year!!! Thank you all for giving us this privilege to come and play for you. See you soon!”

Death Angel will once again provide support for the second leg of the tour.

Anthrax released its tenth album, Worship Music, in September, which is the group’s first album since 2003’s We’ve Come for You All. It is also the first to feature singer Joey Belladonna on vocals since 1990’s Persistence of Time. The album was initially recorded with singer Dan Nelson and set for release in 2009, but Dan Nelson left the band before the release and the album was delayed. Belladonna re-recorded vocals for some songs, and new songs were also written before the eventual release. The album debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200 albums charts,  with 28,000 copies of the album sold in its week of release.

Metallica, after performing their first show in the U.S. last week in Indio, California as one of the Big Four, suggested there might be additional U.S. dates in the works for metal’s four titans. They have kept their promise. In September, Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer will be performing in New York City.

The news was announced on Metallica’s website with a post titled “One Show Out West Was Not Enough.” On September 14, the show will take place at Yankee Stadium. The band said, we can’t wait for that night to come to play our second U.S. show in the Bronx.

On May 6, tickets will be going on sale. Yankee season ticket holders and Met Club members will be able to purchase tickets on Wednesday during a pre-sale.

Last week, the 2011 official lineup for Coachella Festival was announced, signaling that despite snow continuing to fall on a majority of the country, that the summer concert season actually is much closer that we all think. Just one week later, Coachella’s lineup has been upstaged already by another concert which will take place a week later in the same exact venue. On April 23 Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica will play together in Indio, CA at Empire Polo Club for a one day, unprecedented metal event. Although the “Big Four” did play several shows in Europe, this will be their only U.S. show. The day promises to be a huge one for anyone who has ever listed to classical metal riffs while banging their head.

What’s interesting is that it’s been quite some time since any of these bands has put out some new music. Since releasing “Death Magnetic, their ninth album in 2008, Metallica has been relatively quiet, although they have toured sporadically since the release of the album. In 2009 Slayer released “World Painted Blood,” their 10th album. The last time we heard from Megadeath was in 2009 when they released “Endgame.” Recently singer Joey Belladonna and Anthrax reunited. The band will release an album in 2011. Anyone looking for the six-string stylings from guitarist Scott Ian should check out last year’s album with Damned Things. It seems the concert from the Big 4 will consists of plenty of experiments and new material from all four of the bands. It promises to be this year’s largest metal event.