The 2009 Montréal Metal Gathering is scheduled for November 7th at Cafe Chaos in Montreal, QC.

F5/ex-MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson has issued the following update:

"I'll be making an autograph signing appearance at the Metal Gathering in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) on Saturday November 7, 2009."

Also schedule to appear at the event is BW&BK; Editor In Chief Martin Popoff, as well as the bands SOME OF THE FEW and POTION 13.

Further event details can be found at this location.

Another message from Ellefson reads:

"I just arrived back in the USA from the TIM RIPPER OWENS tour of Europe. Ripper and I have worked on a lot of things lately, including our band HAIL!, his solo album Play My Game, and laying down tracks on that Dimebag tribute song 'Leave It Alone' a few years back. It was fun work pulling together a really strong band to support Ripper as he rolled out his new album. Chris Caffery’s a great player, BEYOND FEAR’s guitarist John Comprix shreds and drummer Simon Wright is as rock solid as they come.

This trip put us on six shows with HEAVEN AND HELL, one headlining gig and two festivals. Tony, Geezer, Vinnie and Ronnie are just plain awesome! Watching them reminds me why I started playing bass in the first place. The last time I did a show with them was in 1992 at a festival called Regio Emilio in Italy. It was on the Countdown To Extinction tour for me, and they were still going under BLACK SABBATH, supporting their Dehumanizer album. Also on that bill that day was up-and-comer PANTERA, which is ironic because Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown and I got a few minutes to get caught up between our sets at the Download Festival in England last week, too.

I first met Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice and Ripper’s guitarist Chris Caffery in 1987 when we all toured together on the DIO Dream Evil tour. Chris was in SAVATAGE at the time and it was the So Far, So Good... So What tour for me.

The cool thing about the festival circuit in Europe is that everyone is there... fans and bands alike. Bands from all around the world congregate to perform, hang or simply drink each other’s beer and tell tales from the road... which creates a sort of metal family reunion all summer long. At Download there was a lot of attraction to ANVIL, who headlined one of the stages. It was good to meet up with Lips again, as I met him briefly at the Bang Your Head Festival in Germany back in 2001 after his long absence from the scene. He was on every magazine cover when I was getting rolling back in 1983. It’s funny how he’s now a household name due to their movie! I also got to give kudos to the lovely Cristina Scabbia from LACUNA COIL for her powerhouse performance on the 'A Tout Le Monde' remake. She was a fine choice for a duet on that song, if I may say so myself. They had a great slot on the bill just before MÖTLEY CRÜE that day.

We also played the Sweden Rock Festival doing a full headlining set. Everyone from DREAM THEATER to HELSTAR where there and Ripper, John Comprix and I took time out of the day's press schedule to go check out one Bay Area icon's FORBIDDEN. We all met up later, along with Hank Shermann from MERCYFUL FATE. That was a great hang amongst metal dudes for sure! Mercyful Fate were one of the most highly respected European metal bands during the rise of the early thrash movement back in the early 80s and Hank wrote some of the most inventive and haunting riffs back in those days, too.

We’ll be adding more new photos the gallery here at myspace.com/davidellefson1 in the coming days."