TAKE A LOOK at Kerrang's review of Machine Head's The Blackening. This album is so good that reviews like this are coming from all over: magazines, radio stations, fans, you name it. Your chance to hear it in its entirety comes next Monday with the release of The Blackening nationwide.

We know you can't wait that long, so quench your curiosity (for the time being) by watching the MACHINE HEAD E-CARD.

The awesome Stone Sour have received rave reviews for the string of live shows in the U.K.

Check them out in Stone Sour’s press section! You can also check out live pictures of them at the London Astoria here!

http://www.stonesour.com

http://myspace.com/stonesour

Our good friends over at Metal Hammer have been chatting to the Trivium boys before they arrive in the UK for their tour.

MH: How has the tour been so far?
Paolo: “Fucking incredible! Not only have the shows been great, but we have really been able to experience the different cultures in each country. The best part about playing in New Zealand and Australia has been that we never had the chance to play here while we toured for Ascendancy, so it's the first time people are seeing us play these songs live.”

MH: What are you most looking forward to?
“I am looking forward to returning to the UK for the tour in April. Having Annihilator out with us is going to rule, I can't wait to see what songs they are going to be doing. Also, we are playing some new cities and venues we haven't been to yet.”

Just to whet your appetites, a whole host of live shots of the Trivium guys strutting their stuff have been posted up on Trivium's website – catch an eyeful on their Media page.

Trivium tour the UK throughout April – get your tickets before they sell out over here!

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine recently spoke to KNAC.COM's Gnarly Charlie about the inspiration for the band's new song “Sleepwalker” from the upcoming CD, “United Abominations”. “I was kind of getting bored with people taking snipes at me over the Internet,” Mustaine explained. “I just thought it was really cowardly. It wasn't anybody famous; it was just constant stuff, especially one particular news site, in general. And I just thought, 'You know what? It would be really funny if I could go to sleep and just do astral planing and do a little ass-whooping and then wake up and not be held accountable for anything.' (laughs) You know it's kind of sad, because there are disorders where people do, like the Ambien sleepwalk. For me, a lot of it too, was some of the crime stuff that they do, you know, like the old mob movies, 'The Godfather' and stuff like that… I love '24', and I just watched this one thing where I went through every single season because I didn't even discover the series until last year and I watched the first four years all in a row, almost nonstop, with time to sleep and stuff a little food in my face. But, there was one scene where they were up on Mulholland and I just flashed back about these photographers that would say, 'Yeah, you're a model. Hey, here's my card. Let's go take pictures out in the woods.' Duh! You remember that one? He took her out in the woods and he killed her. It's so commonplace — we can identify with these tragedies and stuff like that, but when you think about how gullible a person is and the wickedness that some people have in their hearts when they take advantage of these people, it's like…first off, how could somebody be that na

A guitar lesson from BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's Nick Catanese is now available in the “Guitar World – Guitar Star Lesson Series” on Comcast On Demand cable. Catanese can be seen playing his Washburn ET Idol demonstrating various guitar techniques.

According to Catanese, when it comes to playing guitar, technique is more important than speed, “You have to learn how to play from the heart first,” he says. “That is the main key. If you don't have no heart, it doesn't matter how fast you are. You need feel and heart to become a good guitar player.”

Catanese describes the latest BLACK LABEL SOCIETY CD, “Shot to Hell”, as “a mixture of both 'Mafia' and 'Book of Shadows' — great heavy stuff and wicked melodic songs with so much heart. Zakk [Wylde, BLS mainman] just blows my mind with his creativity. He is a song machine.”

Black Label Society play Wembley Arena in support of Ozzy Osbourne in June – grab tickets from here!

Modern Drummer magazine (web site) recently conducted an interview with SHADOWS FALL's Jason Bittner. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Modern Drummer: The new SHADOWS FALL album, “Threads of Life”, shows musical growth for the band, and your drumming is more fluid and in command than ever. What prompted the growth spurt on both counts?

Jason: I am very skeptical about my playing. I'm always wondering, “Is this good enough? Can I top that? Will the fans like it?” I'm constantly driving myself crazy with it. I was really confused with what I wanted to do with my drumming on this album.

“The Art of Balance” [2003] got me some exposure. On “The War Within” I was more comfortable and the guys were writing songs tailored to my drumming. I calculated my parts to where I had the fills memorized. I played everything but the kitchen sink on “Fallout from the War” — that became my drum album. I played my fastest double bass yet. So I wondered, “What am I going to do to make 'Threads' different?”

We wanted to bring in more melody and concentrate more on the songs. It wasn't me thinking about playing faster double bass to top the last album. The fastest song is 195 bpm, which isn't my fastest. But I think my drumming is more professional. Our producer, Nick Raskulinecz [FOO FIGHTERS, RUSH, VELVET REVOLVER], asked me to think more about the songs, not the drum parts. And that's how I improved; I took a step back and thought, “How are the drums going to sit in this song?”

Modern Drummer: You are as conversant with your hands as you are with your feet. Your “Double Bass Crash Course” (“MD Festival 2005” DVD) covers all the numbers, and it's logical. But how do you direct someone to turn that into something musical and not merely an exercise?

Jason: That comes with experience, applying it to your own situation. I'm giving you the tools, but you have to explore your own musical boundaries. Everything in the “Crash Course” is very simple, some basic exercises that are easy to figure out. It's just repetition. When I get into the syncopated grooves, the 16th notes, and the different footings, I'm not thinking of those in a musical way, but as a dexterity exercise.

I have to practice double bass constantly to keep my chops up. What threw me off was playing broken patterns and realizing I couldn't do them with only a right-foot lead. You have to mix the footings up. It's trial and error, and it's about developing other exercises to allow you to play double bass with more ease.

Read the rest of the interview with Jason in the May 2007 issue of Modern Drummer magazine.

SHADOWS FALL guitarists Matthew Bachand and Jonathan Donais have also been busy, recently going down to the Guitar World studios to answer fans' questions for the latest video installment of the “Dear Guitar Hero” feature. Watch it online at this location.

Shadows Fall new album, Threads Of Life is out on April 2nd

More photo madness abounds as we have some great snaps from Stone Sour's recent phenomenal gig at the London Astoria courtesy of Nik Jones – check 'em out here!

Check out the video for Stone Sour's brilliant new single

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The track comes off the group's second album, “Come What(ever) May”, which has sold more than half a million copies in the United States since its August 2006 release.

Get your free signed insert when you purchase Madina Lake's new album “From Us, Through Them To You” (out 26/03) from one of the following Roadrage Stores*

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Check out some awesome photos of DragonForce's Herman Li performing alongside a motley selection of Guitar Gods at the recent Ibanez Jem/RG 20th Anniversary birthday bash in Hollywood over in the Photo Gallery

The action-packed Special Edition of the new album Inhuman Rampage is available now!

Get ready guys, ‘A Tout Le Monde’ is being released as a digital single on April 23rd.