MANOWAR will headline the opening night (Thursday, June 21st) of Italy's Gods Of Metal festival, taking place June 21st - 24th at Arena Fiera in Milano.

Other festival headliners include GUNS N' ROSES (Friday), MÖTLEY CRÜE (Saturday) and BLACK SABBATH (Sunday), with UNISONIC, HOLYHELL, WITHIN TEMPTATION, SEBASTIAN BACH, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, BLACK STONE CHERRY, UGLY KID JOE, OPETH, LAMB OF GOD, TRIVIUM, DEVILDRIVER, and AUGUST BURNS RED also schedule to perform over the course of the festival.

This will be the fulfillment of Manowar's promise made 10 years ago to return to Italy in triumph.

"The Italian fans have won; their belief, shown by their non acceptance of false metal is the reason we will finally return", said Joey DeMaio after the announcement. "There was no compromise on our part and on the part of our loyal fans and there never will be.

There was a war between promoters as to who would bring Manowar back to Italy to give the fans what they want and Gods Of Metal won."
"Manowar have a strong and loyal following in Italy and all over the world. This will be Manowar's fourth headlining appearance at Gods Of Metal; no other band has ever done that! 2012 is the celebration of 15 years of Gods Of Metal and the festival is like a home to Manowar and we are once again proud to bring the band back to Italy", said Andrea Pieroni, promoter.

"We played our last festival in Italy in 2002 and we promised we would not return until we could give our fans what they deserve and this year that promise will be fulfilled. We vow to crack the earth with power and might," said DeMaio. "This will be a show which no true metal warrior will want to miss. We are calling all Manowarriors not only from Italy, but from all over the world to join us for earth-shattering, face-melting metal."

"The voices of the Italian fans cannot be silenced, their voices have finally been heard. Other countries will take heed and your voices will be the reason Manowar will appear in your country next!", explained DeMaio.

More on Gods Of Metal at this location.

Check out a video message from Manowar's Joey DeMaio below: