Rockers The Scorpions are proving hard to kill - four years after launching a three-year farewell tour, the German group is planning to release its 20th studio album to mark the band's 50th anniversary.

Guitarist Rudolph Schenker reveals many of the tracks on what will be the follow-up to 2012's Comeblack will be blasts from the past.

He says, "I think we have a total of 15 songs from the 70s and 80s that we want to release."

Bandmate Matthias Jabs tells ClassicRock, "We found tracks mainly from the Blackout and Love At First Sting days, which people consider our most creative and best time. They sound good but were never finished. They don't have lyrics or vocals, so we have to do everything new; but it sounds quite good so far."

The bandmates extended plans for their farewell tour because, as frontman Klaus Meine has explained, they had "too much fun" on the road to call it quits.