first act self confirmed for Download

The first act has self confirmed its appearance at the heavy rock festival Download which returns for a seventh year, and takes place over the weekend of Friday 12th to Sunday 14th June 2009 at Donington Park, Castle Donington, Leicestershire.

Heaven and Hell, the band which comprises of members of the Dio-era Black Sabbath incarnation with Tony Iommi (guitar), Ronnie James Dio (vocals), Geezer Butler (bass) and Vinny Appice (drums), have had their tour dates for South America and Europe for late spring 2009 published (here). The dates include an appearance at this year's Download festival on Friday 12th June.

However, this is not the first time that Heaven & Hell have been linked with an appearance at Download. In late 2006 there was a rumour that they would play the festival in 2007 which turned out to be a misunderstanding.

The band have just completed recording their new studio album at Rockfield Studios in Wales, with a slated release date in April 2009. This is the first original music from the quartet, who reunited in late 2006 to write three new tracks for the CD 'Black Sabbath: The Dio Years', which was followed by a year long world tour.

The band spent most of 2008 writing, rehearsing, and recording the new material, punctuated with a brief tour of North America on the 'Metal Masters' tour with Judas Priest, Motorhead and Testament.

As previously reported, this year's Download festival will see changes made to the site layout due to site development at Donington Park for the future formula One racing events, with the overall site plan for this year becoming much more compact.

There are no acts confirmed yet for 2009, for the rumours of who might be playing, please click here.

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