Welcome to the year of Metallica. Due to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in April, the subject of the latest installment of "Guitar Hero" in March, and with a brilliant new CD "Death Magnetic" already racking up rave reviews and double platinum sales in the US alone, 2009 will be the year Metallica re-establishes their dominance in the world of metal. Consider this; only Aerosmith, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin have outsold Metallica in the hard rock field and all three have been in existence a significantly longer time. Metallica has now sold more records here at home than (in descending order) Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Queen, The Doors, Boston, Pearl Jam, Tom Petty, Ozzy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rush, Nirvana, ZZ Top, Motley Crue, The Police, Jimi Hendrix, among others. Wow!

The best part? They'll be here tomorrow and Tuesday night at the Allstate Arena. Don't forget I'll be doing my show live from both concerts, bringing you the sights, sounds and bombast that is a Metallica performance. See you there!

(See Metallica's video for their new song "All Nightmare Long" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1GsZPLqA6M)

Geoff Tate of Queensryche checked in with me this past Thursday night to update me about their forthcoming CD "American Soldier" and their upcoming tour. Geoff said the band would be performing extended sets of music from their "Rage For Order", "Empire" and "American Soldier" discs. All this week on my show, your chance to win tickets to see the return of Queensryche May 7th and 8th at the House Of Blues.