Some good news for all you Terror fans over here in Europe. The band look set to confirm a European tour for February 2005 with no less than Agnostic Front. Watch this space for confirmation and dates as they are announced!

Killswitch Engage’s current obsession… “Howdy folks! Just another update for ya… we are currently in Idaho (day off before the show) and its been good to relax. The shows have been great, having an awesome time with 36 CF, 18V and FATA. Couldn’t ask for a better time. Now, let’s address the wave thats sweeping the US nation. THE HORRIBLE DOCTOR BONES. For those who have found the movie, purchased it, viewed it, made it a part of your lives….WE SALUTE YOU! For those who have made shirts, posters, signs, or just showed us your reciepts for future viewing of the greatest piece of film noir this side of the Mississippi, WE SALUTE YOU! For those who want to know the joy of THE HORRIBLE DOCTOR BONES…do what it takes. Make this masterpiece yours and show us the goods at the show. Until then, let the shout ring forth….URBAN PROTECTORS!!” [ed’s note: if you have no idea what they are talking about, you need to visit their site, all will be explained]

Machine Head’s Robert Flynn recently spoke to the guys over at Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles (site HERE)… “We’re doing this tour, then we’re doing an Australian and then a European tour. We’re probably doing more dates at the beginning of next year here in the states. What my game plan and our vision is, which we’re trying to implement here, is we want to do another video, for ‘Days Turn Blue To Gray’. We want to do a third video for ‘Descend The Shades Of Night’. We’re playing the Brixton Academy again in December, and we want to film that for a DVD. And we’re also talking about having more of like a fan-filmed version of this Burn My Eyes show, where we just give a bunch of fans in the audience cameras, and they film it, and we get their perspective and have that as a bonus attachment to the DVD, that we have. And the DVD that’s going to come out, it will be our first DVD. It’s going to be very Through The Ashes Of Empires-centric. It’s going to be focused around that visually and sound-wise. It’s going to be the live show. You know, have that, and have a lot of the standard fuckin’ rock ‘n’ roll shenanigans, fuckin’ stupid beer fuckin’ maniacs, beer bongs, and vodka mania (laughs).” In closing Robert offers a few comments on Through The Ashes Of Empires, which reunites Flynn with his Vio-lence bandmate Phil Demmel. “The whole writing process started out as a three-piece. We had basically, you know, found out that we were unsigned. Ahrue had decided to leave and pursue other things, and the three of us just kind of got together and started asking ourselves a lot of questions like, ‘Why are we doing this? What are you try to get out of this?’ And this was kind of an ongoing conversation we had for a month or two, and at the end of the day, it just kind of became that we really wanted to make music that was going to take the listener on a journey, and not necessarily be aware of songs structure, or having to be verse/chorus, verse/chorus, something/chorus. In a lot of ways, it just kind of freed up everything. We were open to try everything. We knew we wanted to refine what the Machine Head sound was and also try bring new things we had never done, and challenge ourselves as musicians, and try write something that wasn’t going on at the time that people might have been scared to try. So that was kind of the beginning of it. When Phil join the band, probably about four months prior to recording the record… then it became about riffing (laughs). At that point we saw how much more we could do. I mean, we always intended to have another guitar player, but there is just so much more he brought to the band. Him and I had already had a history, and a lot of that was based on trying to follow those classic guitar teams, the King/Hanneman, Downing/Tipton thing. We always tried to model ourselves like that. And that instantly came back in there were harmonies, runs, and riffs just started getting more complex, and we were in the headspace for it.”

Beginning next month, Hatebreed drummer Matt Byrne will be writing drum lessons and exercises for Drum! magazine, available in the USA. Byrne’s contributions will be available in the back of the magazine in the “Practice Pad” section.

Name? Marc G퀌_rtz Age? 26 Instrument? Guitar All time favourite record? Earth Crisis – Destroy The Machines Greatest experience on tour? Hellfest 2002. And to see Denis, drunk and with black make-up all over his face, staggering around the whole night, going to a gas station and wondering why everyone’s staring at him. Most horrible experience on tour? I had a kidney stone during a US tour… well, at least I didn’t have to carry anything and always had the most room in the bus… -) Most embarrassing moment on stage? On a show in Holland the stage ended right beside the monitor speakers. I fell off the stage, because you couldn’t see that in the dark! Do you have any sort of ritual before going on stage? Nothing, except warming up. With which band would you love to tour with? USA: Hatebreed. Europe: Hopefully we can arrange a tour with our friends of Heaven Shall Burn sometime. If I couldn’t be a musician, I would work as… … maybe an audio engineer and work in a studio?! Best advice you ever heard? To take guitar lessons, not to teach myself. With which famous person (alive or dead) would you love to spend some time and why? Helge Schneider, I wonder if he’s crazy in real life, too! What’s one thing you would like to achieve in life? I would like to play Ozzfest. Last Words: Eat more vegetables 🙂

Head straight to the MUSIC section and get your ears round a brand new free MP3 download of the finished version of ‘Deadly Sinners’ from 3 Inches of Blood. Taken off the forthcoming album, ‘Advance And Vanquish’ (out Oct 18) you can now also see the cover artwork on their ARTIST page.

The Darkness triumphed once again at the 2004 Kerrang! Awards… scooping two awards to add to the two already on the mantelpiece from last year. The act won the Best Live Band Award for the second year in a row … They also claimed the hotly contested Best British Band Award. Green Day were welcomed into the Kerrang! Hall of Fame, joining luminaries such as Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Queen and Iggy Pop. The Kerrang! Icon Award was presented for the very first time to the surviving founder members of the MC5. Other winners at this the 11th Annual Kerrang! Awards included Lostprophets, who had played at this year’s Kerrang! Day of Rock at the Virgin Megastore, Ash were celebrated with the Classic Songwriter Award, Best International Newcomers were Velvet Revolver … who despite the members having long and illustrious careers in rock are revitalised in the form of a brand new band whose debut album has received great critical acclaim. Metallica were voted the Best Band on the Planet, and were unfortunately unable to attend but sent a short film warning guests to stay away from the Absinthe and thanking people for voting for them even though they had been around for ‘100 years’. The Kerrang! Awards took place at The Brewery in Chiswell Street, EC1 … and ex-Stereophonic Stuart Cable presented the show and kept the audience of 500 musicians, music industry moguls, models and mutants firmly in check. Some job, considering we got through (deep breath) 100 bottles of champagne, 400 bottles of wine, 150 litres of vodka, 4,200 vodka sea breezes, 1,000 shots of Absinthe, 1,000 shots of Jagermeister and 14,200 bottles of beer (so they say)! Guest presenters included Good Charlotte, Lady Isabella Hervey, James Nesbit, and Goldie Lookin’ Chain and the party went on long into the night with Kerrang! DJ’s spinning tunes till the wee hours… The Awards in full: Best British Newcomer Yourcodenameis:milo Best International Newcomer Velvet Revolver Best Single Lostprophets – Last Train Home Best Album Muse – Absolution Best Video HIM – Funeral Of Hearts Best Live Band The Darkness Best Band On The Planet Metallica Spirit Of Rock Anthrax Hall Of Fame Green Day Kerrang! Icon MC5 Classic Songwriter Ash Sadly, no awards for our boys in Slipknot or Killswitch Engage from their 5 nominations this year. A good time was had by all attending however, even if no tables were set on fire this year…

Fear Factory have finished filming a video for the track “Bite the Hand That Bleeds”. The song will be also featured on the soundtrack to the upcoming horror film “Saw”. The James Wan-directed movie is about a serial killer whose latest potential victims í¢ä‰åäó Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell í¢ä‰åäó find they are chained to a wall and have no idea how they got there. The film also stars Danny Glover and Monica Potter.

Finally! We know you have been waiting, and we promised they were coming. And it was worth the wait! Nickelback’s Ryan Peake’s answers to your questions are now online in the ASK THE ARTIST section. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions!

We are pleased to finally be able to confirm that Hatebreed will be supporting the forthcoming crushing Slipknot & Slayer tour in October. Tickets are on sale now.