On October 11th, VOLBEAT embark on their arena tour in support of their fifth album, Outlaw Gentlemen And Shady Ladies. The quartet will be joined by a company of good friends and accomplices; ICED EARTH will be main support from October 11th in Milan until December 1st in Copenhagen.

Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer checks in with this update: "Band and crew have gathered and we have begun rehearsals for the Volbeat tour that kicks off this Friday in Milan. We are really excited to begin this new touring cycle even though it feels like the previous one only ended yesterday. It will certainly be killer to see you guys out there and hang with my brother Michael and the guys in Volbeat and their team.

On another note: we have been thinking of offering something special to our fans on this tour and here it is:

* A 12” 180g Vinyl EP

* Limited, hand-numbered edition (1000 units only)

* Blood red vinyl

* Heavy duty cardboard sleeve with matte print

Featuring the world premiere of the following songs:

'Plagues Of Babylon'

'If I Could See You'

'Peacemaker'

This is our own project and we are really excited about it. This will be for sale only at the Volbeat shows, first come, first serve!

Please see some impromptu pack shots and an image of the front and back cover art.See you down the road!"

Iced Earth's live itinerary can be found at this location.

Jon Schaffer recently issued the following update in regards to the band's upcoming studio album, Plagues Of Babylon:

"We are proud to present you with the new cover art for Plagues Of Babylon. This is a seriously heavy album with a seriously brutal album cover. I’m sure it will go down as a classic in the epic Iced Earth catalog."

The album art, created by Eliran Kantor, can be seen below:

Plagues Of Babylon tracklisting:

'Plagues Of Babylon'

'Democide'

'The Culling'

'Among The Living Dead'

'Resistance'

'The End?'

'If I Could See You'

'Cthulhu'

'Peacemaker'

'Parasite'

'Spirit Of The Times'

'Highwayman'

A previous message from Schaffer states: "We have completed recording, mixing, and mastering for the new album, Plagues Of Babylon. It’s been a long summer, but a very productive one. I am very proud of my band mates! Everyone kicked ass, and we made a really special record."