In addition to the big stories we covered today, Wire-to-Wire provides you with some of the other key rock and metal news items from Jan. 2, 2018:

- Get ready for new Breaking Benjamin music coming soon. The band just issued a 30-second preview of the new song "Red Cold River" that will be released in full on Jan. 5. Take a listen here. The song is expected to be the lead single from the group's forthcoming disc, Ember.

- Sodom welcomed back three of their former guitarists during their 35th anniversary show in Bochum, Germany. Watch Josef "Grave Violator" Dominik return on "Blasphemer" here, Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik on "Christ Passion" here and Andy Brings on "Wachturm" here. Grave Violator also played on "Burst Command Til War" and "Outbreak of Evil," with Blackfire turning up on "Nuclear Winter" and "Agent Orange" and Brings rocking out to "Sodomized" and "Die Stumme Ursel."

- Toadies received a nice nod of recognition over the holidays as the city of Fort Worth, Texas declared Dec. 30 "Toadies Day." The band received a document "in appreciation for their contributions to Ft. Worth's local music culture" ahead of the band's show at Billy Bob's. The band recorded the show for a live album, even giving fans a chance to have their say with a "testimonial booth" at the gig.

- Unless you're a country fan or were near Nashville on New Year's Eve, you likely missed Keith Urban's awesome medley saluting some of those that we lost in 2017. However, footage from the show did catch the eye of Vicky Cornell, Chris Cornell's widow, who praised the singer for including a bit of "Black Hole Sun." Watch that here and see Vicky's words of praise. Urban also saluted Gregg Allman, Tom Petty, Chuck Berry, Troy Gentry, Malcolm Young, Glen Campbell and Don Williams during his performance. See the full performance at Taste of Country.

- There's reason to be excited for 2018 if you're a Soulfly fan. The band dropped a stealth new clip ahead of New Year's Eve showcasing the "first droplet of new music" for their next album.

- Rob Dukes has unleashed another new song, with the somber and moody "My Whole Life" from his Dukes EP arriving over the holidays. Take a listen here.

- You better get to the dance floor! Scum of the Earth are back with a brand new video for their new song "Dance Motherfucker." Leader Riggs says, "I was thinking about all the years spent recording new material ( spending several months writing and recording ) to go on tour and only play three songs off the new album, because everyone wants to hear the songs they are more familiar with. This makes more sense to us and we can constantly be out playing new material that people have heard. Releasing it ourselves and talking to the fans at the shows, we can adjust as needed." Watch the clip here and look for more new music coming soon.

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