This Spring, Marvel Entertainment takes Austin, Texas by storm in its inaugural appearance at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival with the Marvel: Digital House of Ideas panel at SXSW ScreenBurn! In this historic event on Sunday, March 11 at 1pm on the IGN stage at the Palmer Events Center, Axel Alonso (Marvel Comics Editor in Chief), Jeph Loeb (Head of Marvel Television) and Peter Phillips (SVP & GM, Marvel Digital Media Group) unveil Marvel’s bold new multimedia plans that includes the premiere of Marvel’s revolutionary new ways to read comics.  

Its official, everyone can’t stop talking about Miles Morales – the all-new Ultimate Comics Spider-Man AND USA Today’s best new character of 2011! From the history making creative team of Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli & Justin Ponsor, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man was met with overwhelming critical acclaim and this February – you can experience Miles Morales’ break-out story in the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1 Premiere Hardcover!  

For six seasons, he played the traitorous Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica. This Friday, James Callis brings his acting talents to the international hit series MERLIN, playing the equally unscrupulous Julius Borden.  

Readers wanting to catch up on MUDMAN, Paul Grist’s unique take on the superhero, will now get their chance. The first two issues of a story Grist describes as “all about growing up and finding your way in the world, and how the decisions that you make can affect others” sold out.  

The inaugural Decibel Magazine Tour, announced late last week, will feature the long-awaited stateside return of Polish blackened death metal overlords Behemoth, as well as support from Swedish black metal provocateurs Watain, Dutch prog mystics The Devil’s Blood and Swedish old-school occultists In Solitude. And now, the dates are in!  

  Serbian black/death metal act BANE have announced their third European Tour entitled “Keepers Of The Black Flame,” which is set to blast off in March 2012. This tour will mark the first time the band will perform material from their upcoming album The Acausal Fire, which is due later this year. BANE will round out their set with tracks from the previous two releases; Chaos, Emptiness & Darkness and Misanthropia. A preview of The Acasual Fire, including song samples and artwork, below…  

To create the video for their new single “Dry Bone Valley,” Atlanta rock icons Mastodon have teamed up with noted fine artist Tim Biskup, a long-time friend who has amassed a cadre of loyal fans and collectors of his painting and sculpture, which boast complex color and design theories and a decidedly populist aesthetic. This collaboration with Mastodon marks Biskup’s first foray into film/video work in nearly six years.  

Veteran Chicago Rock n’ Roll band Bible of the Devil have announced the completion of their sixth full-length album and third for Rome, Italy, based label Cruz Del Sur Music and have set May 8th, 2012 as the album’s release date.  

So, Mayhemfest has anounced this years line-up and it’s a doozie! Slipknot, Slayer and Anthrax are all featured on the mainstage. With Anthrax and Slayer coming off this years Big 4 Show, both bands have been playing Road Warrior, being on tour and all. Funny, we interviewed The Devil Wears Prada a couple of weeks ago, and they did make a mention of the band working on a tour they couldn’t elaborate on…now we know what it was. Check out the rest of the bands below.  

Long-defunct Swedish death metal legion ALTAR are set to unleash the most complete collection of recorded material from their six-year existence (1989 – 1995). Entitled Dark Domains, the compilation features 17 tracks, remastered by legendary multi-instrumentalist Dan Swanö at Unisound Studio, Sweden, as well as exclusive cover art and layout by Kontamination Design in Poland, and rare, never-before-seen photos hand-picked by the band. The Dark Domains comp is dedicated in loving memory to the late Mieszko Talarczyk (Nasum /ex-ALTAR)  

The world’s unofficial party ambassadors, Dr. Acula, have released a music video for the song “Party 2.0.”  

By popular demand, Prosthetic Records will soon release The Collective, the critically acclaimed 2011 album by Houston progressive instrumentalists SCALE THE SUMMIT, on vinyl. The LP — limited to 500 copies on high-quality 180-gram wax, and available now for pre-order at the Prosthetic Store – will feature enhanced cover art, pictured above. Additionally, it will contain the bonus track “Redwoods,” a song recorded during The Collective sessions that to date has only been available on the Japanese version of the album.