Sting in the Tail is the seventeenth studio album by German hard rock band Scorpions.

Band members explained that the sound of the album would have been similar to that of the classic releases of the 80s, but with a modern twist.

The album features a duet on the song "The Good Die Young" with the Finnish symphonic metal singer Tarja Turunen, best known as the former lead vocalist of Nightwish.

A couple of weeks later, Klaus Meine officially confirmed that the band was working on new material in an interview for Deutsche Welle.

[5] The band prepared about 18 songs for the album and teamed up with Swedish producers Mikael Nord Andersson an Martin Hansen.

[7] James Kottak in the interview for Sleaze Roxx explained: "The first four songs that we wrote for this record were actually dark.

I love "The Good Die Young" but I'm glad the way things evolved took us away from where we were headed initially in the songwriting process.

[14][15] "The Good Die Young" is an anti-war song about soldiers in Afghanistan and all the people around the world who stand for freedom and peace.

Many people told us in Europe, especially France, 'We called our daughter Sly because of Still Loving You'"[18] The title for the album was announced on 22 November 2009 and the artwork was released on 8 January 2010.

It was premiered by the Greek online radio station Rockmachine.gr and a reduced radio broadcast quality version of the song was uploaded to YouTube by the domestic Scorpions' fan club Greek Sting Fan Club.

[26] On 21 June 2010, the band released the single from the album to the radio, with the title track "Sting in the Tail".

The day before the release Greek Fan Club held a listening session for the album at Hard Rock Cafe in Athens.

In the week of release in the US, iTunes gave customers the opportunity to preorder the album until 22 March with the special download of the exclusive bonus track called "Let's Rock!".

[29] From 20 April till 1 June 2010, the web magazine Classic Rock Revisited gave Scorpions' fans opportunity to win a copy of the album autographed by Meine, Schenker and Jabs by filling out the eForm for a random draw.

Sony Music Germany released a Premium Edition of the album, which consists of the CD and a bonus DVD.

Thom Jurek from AllMusic stated that "as a farewell, Sting in the Tail is an album the Scorpions and their fans can be proud of".

[33] Scott Alisoglu from Blabbermouth.net said that the album is a "very good representation of what makes the Scorpions a truly classic heavy metal band".

[34] Kevin Wierzbicki from antiMusic.com rated this album with three and a half stars commenting that "Sting in the Tail is pretty much a typical Scorpions effort filled with well-performed but ultimately forgettable rockers".