Slipknot, Slayer Offer VIP Packages, Beasties Rock Sales Charts — Angel’s Rock Report

The promoters behind the Mayhem Festival tour are auctioning off special VIP packages for two charities. The 26 packages -- one for each show -- will go up for bids on eBay on May 17th. The highest bidder will get to watch his or her favorite band perform from seats on stage, and will win backstage access and a drumhead autographed by all of the bands. Proceeds will benefit Metal of Honor and Living the Dream Foundation.

The Mayhem Festival, with Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax, Asking Alexandria and more, will kick off on June 30th in San Bernardino, California.

Sales of Beastie Boys albums have skyrocketed after last Friday's passing of Adam Yauch. Seven of the trio's albums reappeared on the Billboard 200 album chart, led by 1986's License to Ill at number-18. 55,000 copies of albums in the Beastie catalog were sold last week -- up 1235 percent from 4000 copies the previous week.

The band's catalog is expected to jump even further up on next week's chart, since only two full sales days were counted in last week's sales.

After delaying recording sessions because of Jerry Cantrell's shoulder surgery, Alice in Chains will return start work next week on their follow-up to 2009's Black Gives Way to Blue. Cantrell tells Rolling Stone, "It's time to get to work, and the material is really interesting, the body of work that we've done. It'll be as different as any one of our records is to any other, and it'll also be just as recognizable. It's an Alice record, for sure."