German hard rock veterans SCORPIONS will release their final studio album, "Sting In The Tail", in North America on March 23 via Universal Music Enterprises. The CD was recorded at a studio in Hannover, Germany with Swedish producers Mikael "Nord" Andersson and Martin Hansen (the team behind THE RASMUS' "Dead Letters" CD).

The track listing for the CD is as follows:

01. Raised On Rock (3:57)
02. Sting In The Tail (3:12)
03. Slave Me (2:44)
04. The Good Die Young (feat. Tarja Turunen) (5:14)
05. No Limit (3:24)
06. Rock Zone (3:17)
07. Lorelei (4:31)
08. Turn You On (4:25)
09. Let's Rock (3:21)
10. SLY (5:15)
11. Spirit Of Rock (3:43)
12. The Best Is Yet To Come (4:34)

After the release of the album and a three-year mammoth tour, which will take the SCORPIONS across five continents, the band will end its career. The group broke the news on its web site last month.{jcomments on}
Guitarist Rudolf Schenker tells Billboard.com that the prospect of ending SCORPIONS is indeed "really sad, and I don't even want to think about it." But he explains that the band and its management ultimately feel it's the right move to end the band on a high note with its new album, "Sting in the Tail", rather than risk a slow decline.

"You can't think about SCORPIONS at 70, not moving on stage, playing 'Rock You Like a Hurricane' — but on stage it's not like a hurricane, it's a very small wind," he says. "There's no stinger, and that's not good. You're going back down hill, from big hall to small how, small how to club...Everything has it's end; the question is it a good end or bad end? In this case we want to do these things and make it a good end."

Regarding the SCORPIONS members' future plans, Schenker says that guitarist Matthias Jabs has a musical instruments store in Munich, while drummer James Kottak has his own band, KOTTAK. Rudolf himself intends to publish his book, "Rock You Live", in the U.S. and plans a collaboration with his brother a Michael Schenker — which may include SCORPIONS singer Klaus Meine on some songs.