Metallica, Iron Maiden and The Flaming Lips have all signed up to contribute tracks to a new Deep Purple tribute album.
The record, which is titled Re-Machined: A Tribute to Machine Head, will see a selection of acts covering each of the tracks on Deep Purple's classic 1972 album Machine Head.
Also confirmed to appear are Black Label Society, guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana and rock supergroup Chickenfoot.
Metallica have revealed that they plan to enter the studio this autumn in order to record their new album.
The band's drummer Lars Ulrich said they will start working on the follow-up to Death Magnetic, which was released in 2008, in September.
Metallica have taken part in a publicity campaign to help the FBI to catch a man wanted in the death of a student who disappeared after one of the band's concerts.
The student, 20-year old Morgan Harrington, attended Virginia Tech college and disappeared after a Metallica concert in October 2009 in Charlottesville. Her skeletal remains were discovered about three months later in a remote hay field about 10 miles from the concert venue.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has spoken about the band's surprise at the overwhelmingly negative reaction they received to their collaboration album with Lou Reed, Lulu.
Speaking to Spin, Ulrich said that the band all knew the project would be "difficult to embrace", but that the bile the record received took them all by surprise.
Metallica's Lars Ulrich has revealed that Lou Reed found the criticism of their 'Lulu' collaboration "difficult" to take.
Veteran rocker Reed teamed up with the metal legends to release the album, which is based around German dramatist Frank Wedekind's 1913 play about the life of an abused dancer, in October last year. He later claimed that Metallica fans had threatened to shoot him because they had been so unhappy about the LP.
Metallica have announced that they will be putting on their own festival this summer and that Arctic Monkeys, The Gaslight Anthem and Best Coast are among the bands who they've booked to play the event.
