FEAR FACTORY will be headlining this year’s Mind Over Matter Open Air Festival on July 22 at Arena in Vienna, Austria. Also set to appear are TRISTANIA, SCHANDMAUL, MNEMIC and CRUSADE. In other news, FEAR FACTORY singer Burton C. Bell recently spoke to the East Coast Romper about the songwriting process for the follow-up to this year’s “Archetype”. “Actually at this time, we are writing on the road,” Bell said. “This past tour, this past Jager Tour, [guitarist] Christian and [drummer] Raymond actually started busting out riffs and Byron was getting like into the loop of how we work. This European Tour that we’re about to do, we just invested in a new G4 power plug and put logic into it, so we’ll be able to record while on the road. Asked if he thinks they are going to find it easier to write on the road, Burton said, “I think we’ll do fine, there’s so much down time on the road, ya know, after the show we’re still awake and we’re driving around, ya know, you can either sit there and write songs, sleep or read or whatever but writing songs seems easy, it’s a good communal thing, we all sit in the back lounge, we just sit there and listen to music and listen to each other write music and smoke out or whatever (laughing) It’s like friends hanging out.” blabbermouth.net

Machine Head are pleased to announce their return to the UK shores late Nov/early Dec for an 11-date pre-Christmas tour. Support is TBC. Full dates are as follows: 22nd Nov – Plymouth Pavillions 23rd Nov – Southampton Guildhall 24th Nov – Bristol Academy 26th Nov – Manchester Academy 27th Nov – Glasgow Barrowlands 29th Nov – Newcastle University 30th Nov – Leeds Metropolitan University 1st Dec – Nottingham Rock City 3rd Dec – Birmingham Academy 4th Dec – Cardiff University 5th Dec – London Brixton Academy

The cameras will be rolling in July. There are four upcoming Roadrunner videos set (or about to be set) to be taped in July (or very early August). As follows: 36 Crazyfists – On July 6th in NYC’s Chinatown, the 2nd video from 36 CF’s latest release – A Snow Capped Romance – will be shot. The track, “Bloodwork.” Video should be complete, approved, and in house come August 1st. Killswitch Engage – Supposedly at some point in the next 10 days, the 2nd video from KsE’s latest release – The End Of Heartache – will be shot. The track, “The End Of Heartache.” An August 1st in house is targeted. 3 Inches Of Blood – That is right…a 3 Inches Of Blood video is in the works. When/where it will be shot is still to be determined. In fact, the song has yet to be determined. But we do expect a finished video in house around mid-August. Cradle Of Filth – In either LA or the UK, at some point in most likely early August, Cradle Of Filth’s first video for Roadrunner Records will be shot. Song is tbd, but the video should be in house come late August.

Hatebreed has checked in from Europe. Here are a few updates for you. Hatebreed’s set time on Ozzfest will be at 3:10 everyday on the second stage right before Slipknot. Hatebreed will be signing at the Jager Booth after their performances all summer long! Hatebreed will be cutting their European tour short due to various issues that need to be resolved at home before the band leaves for Ozzfest. The shows from July 3rd – 7th have been canceled. The band would like to apologize to all the fans in Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Norway but promise to schedule make up shows soon. In other news, Hatebreed’s new video for “Live For This” is done and will begin airing in July.

If you missed the awesome Killswitch Engage/Chimaira show at the London Camden Barfly on Monday night, we can only hope it’s because you were instead at the London Astoria watching the mighty Fear Factory. If you weren’t there, here’s what you missed (and you can win this set list in FREE SHIT at the moment!): Slave Labor Cyberwaste Demanufacture Zero Signal Shock Edgecrusher Scumgrief Dog Day Act Of God Arise Above Pisschrist Archetype Resurrection School Martyr Replica Human Shields Timelessness We’ve posted up a handful of photos from the night HERE. Seeing as we were at Fear Factory earlier on Monday night, we unfortunately missed Chimaira at the Barfly.. and as we said yesterday, hence no photos from that set. However, we did make sure to take in the very last UK show of that killer American Heavy Metal Up Your Ass tour, and so trekked over to Oxford on Tuesday night. We thought the Barfly was hotter than hell. That was before we went to the tropical rainforest that is the Oxford Zodiac. Oxford front-row, we salute your stamina. And HERE, as promised, are the final live shots of Chimaira before they left the UK.

What do you get if you put a band which usually play places up to 8 times the size, into a venue which holds say, 250 people? An absolutely mental, sweat dripping off the ceiling, hotter than hell, stage-invaded, crushing night out is the answer. And that was the night of Monday, June 21st, at the Camden Barfly in London, featuring Chimaira & Killswitch Engage (with random appearances from members of God Forbid & Shadows Fall, also on the Heavy Metal Up Your Ass tour, despite it being an off-HMUYA day). Some spectacular crowd-surfing & speaker diving from Shadows Fall frontman Brian might we add. And half of you guys in attendance, taking over the stage, the mic, and generally any other space you could find. And unless you were actually on the stage for the special ‘Robotron’ set at the end of the night, you wouldn’t have seen a thing, such was the number of people crammed up there. Awesome shit. “That was the most rock ‘n’ roll moment of my life!!” grinned Adam D, after a random female fan leaped onstage to plant a smacker of a kiss on him before diving back into the crowd. “This is so much fun. Definitely the best show of the whole trip! We love playing shows like this.” says Howard, shaking his head in amusement after yet another fan dives onstage & grabs his mic to sing along mid-set. Check out a few photos of Killswitch Engage on the night HERE. no photos of Chimaira from this set, as yours truly was shooting Fear Factory down the road at the time, but more Chimaira photos from the Oxford show coming soon…

Ah, times are sad. 36 Crazyfists have returned home, and indeed the slew of RR UK tour dates are about done. However! The tours were awesome, and the 36 Crazyfists UK shows were no exception. And the band agree, Holt sending the following message from home… “The UK dates were simply put, off the hook! Thanks to all are fans and friends for making it such a memorable 10 day run. Download was the coolest thing we have been a part of, seeing alot of our favorite bands and meeting tons of cool people. Special thanks to our new friends in The Bled, Bullet For My Valentine and Funeral For A Friend, you all kick ass on a musical and personal level, we’ll see you all again soon! To the future…We are hittin the road starting July 7th in Chicago. We are going out with a cool ass line-up, all bands that we have played with previously, so it should be a tour to reckoned with! Candiria, simply the most underated band ever! Twelve Tribes who we had the privilege of playing with last tour, and Kittie the heaviest batch of broads to hit the Earth! It should be a Blast! We have other Tour news coming along shortly, I wish I could share it now but I can’t, so stay tuned! Also in the works, we are going to shoot a new video for our 2nd single off of ASCR ‘Bloodwork’. It is very possible that this could happen very soon, so news on this as we get it! That’s the haps for now…OUT!” -HOLT36CF-

Nickelback June 14th 2004 Manchester Carling Apollo “It’s a good thing that the members of Nickelback are in a rock band. Otherwise, they might have ended up being arsonists. The four-piece rock group from Canada wowed the crowd with fireballs, explosions, fireworks and 90 minutes of hard-hitting rock on their return to the Manchester Apollo Monday June 14th. The air was electric as the lights went down and over the roar of the crowd, the sound effects kicked in of a helicopter which echoed around the venue, then with a blast of the pyrotechnics the band appeared, using every inch of the stage Nickelback gave one hell of a show, pyrotechnics and all. Chad Kroeger holds a crowd well, and a decent amount of the gig involves him talking to everyone, Which began with him shouting into his mic í¢ä‰åñIts great to be back in the uk and we love playing here in Manchesterí¢ä‰åŒ.The band had already prommoted the latest albumí¢ä‰åŒThe Long Roadí¢ä‰åŒon their visit to the Manchester Apollo in December 2003,So the fans had a fantastic set,with extra tracks from í¢ä‰åñThe Stateí¢ä‰åŒ,í¢ä‰åŒand í¢ä‰åñSilver Side Up.í¢ä‰åŒ Opening up with í¢ä‰åñFlat On The Floorí¢ä‰åŒ from the í¢ä‰åñThe Long Roadí¢ä‰åŒ lead singer Chad Kroeger and company had most of the audience of mainly teens and Thirty somethings on their feet throughout. It was here that Chad Kroeger, drummer Ryan Vikedal, guitarist Ryan Peake and bassist Mike Kroeger turned things up. í¢ä‰åñWhere Do I Hideí¢ä‰åŒ,And favourite at every show they perform and to the delight of the fans in the front row especially,Where Chad Kroeger ran up and downstage with with a camcorder, taping the hordes for future DVD releases. The rest of Nickelback Including í¢ä‰åñTimmy í¢ä‰åñ accompanied Kroeger for the acoustic version of “Hero,”Chad’s solo contribution to the “Spider-Man” soundtrack.which had the crowds roar of approval. It was tough, however, to gear down from ballads following the cries of Peake’s Flying-V through thick smoke on “Woke Up This Morning,”Kroeger let the crowd take over the chorus which at some point sounded louder than the thousands of decibels that hung either side of the stage Not to be outdone, Peake and Mike Kroeger later stood on risers that put them high over the crowd. Another highlight was í¢ä‰åñFigured You Outí¢ä‰åŒ, Which has been under some good and bad reviews here in UK for the somewhat Provocative lyrics, nevertheless the crowd loved it Kroeger then ripped into a cover of Metallica, s í¢ä‰åñSad But Trueí¢ä‰åŒwhich whipped the crowd into a frenzy of thrashing arms and the famous index and fore finger salute, Nickelback did the track more than justice because, despite appearing on face value to be just another rock band, they really do cut it live. Following a brief beer break, í¢ä‰åñBeer o clock í¢ä‰åñas its known where Kroeger accompanied by Bass player Mike tossed plastic pint pots of beer into the audience, even reaching into the seated top tier of the venue, the group then tore into the homestretch with the punch of í¢ä‰åñToo Badí¢ä‰åŒ The highlight, aside from the beer, was í¢ä‰åñNever Againí¢ä‰åŒ. It began with the sounds of an argument echoing around the venue descending into violence before kicking into one of the best live tracks you’ll hear. And, of course, there were more fireworks and series of explosions. But there are few better ways to end a show than with an encore of í¢ä‰åñHow You Remind Meí¢ä‰åŒ, especially when 3,000 take the vocals for most of the song, This seems to be the í¢ä‰åñBohemian Rhapsodyí¢ä‰åŒ of their shows, The pyrotechnics here excelled, which ended on one huge mushroom cloud of flame and smoke. It was here the show drew a close with the band throwing Guitar picks and drumsticks into the crowd. Fans left the venue Hot, beer stained from í¢ä‰åñthe beer oclockí¢ä‰åŒ flush faced and with no voices hardly but deleriously happy. Nickelback left to retire to the tour buses for the long journey to Glasgow to play their next show I was fortunate enough to meet and chat with the band earlier in the day and they really are the nicest bunch of guys you could ever wish to meet, and I can’t recommend them highly enough. You feel part of the experience when they perform but far enough away to really appreciate just how good the band is. Pretentious rock stars take note – these guys know how to treat their fans, gladly signing autographs and posing for photos before and after the show. Perfect gentlemen, perfect music, perfect show.” 10/10 Joanne Shields

On Kerrang! TV this week… Slipknot ‘Duality’ #615 DAM ‘Strange Generation’ #735 36CF ‘At The End Of August’ #782 KSWE ‘Rose Of Sharyn’ #646 Chad Kroeger ‘Hero’ #500 Plus: Scuzz TV NEW ADDITION: Chimaira ‘Powertrip’

Twelve Tribes will head out for a US tour with Kittie, 36 Crazyfists and Candiria this July. Rather than ever let them see their families again we’ve also lined up a US tour with Soulfly to follow the Kittie tour. You’ll be able to catch Twelve Tribes out in the US with Soulfly and Ill Nino this September.