Get yourselves down to your local newsagents and pick up a copy of this week’s Kerrang! Magazine, which goes on sale today! The cover is dated 10/2/07 and it features the awesome Within Temptation.

For all you European and International fans who want to buy the issue, you can call +44 1858 438 866 (subscriptions & back issues dept) and request issue #1149 – or email subs@subscription.co.uk.

As previously reported a free MP3 of ‘The Howling’ is available from this location, the track is taken from Within Temptation’s forthcoming album ‘The Heart of Everything’.

You can check out the cover artwork for ‘The Heart of Everything’ here and is due for release on 12th March.

SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH

Matt Heafy from Trivium has spoken with KRZR’s Koyote, Blabbermouth reports. Matt talks about the current music scene, their show in Fresno and the origins of Trivium. You can download and listen to the interview, aired on 20th February here!

Blabbermouth also reports that the guys have filmed a video for their track ‘The Rising’ in the Los Angeles area with directors Artificial Army last month. The concept for the video is apparently, “a technological assault on the world told through the eyes and shadows of youth, nature, war, and disaster.”

You can view a live video of Trivium performing live ‘Ember to Inferno’ at this location.

Blabbermouth reports that Dave Mustaine, Megadeth frontman has revealed the first single from ‘United Abominations’ album will be a re-recorded rendering of ‘A Tout Le Monde’. The re-recorded track is a duet with Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia, the track is said to feature an extended solo and is more uptempo than the original 1994 ‘Youthanasia’ version.

Dave Mustaine said of the track:

: “[The original 'A Tout Le Monde'] video was banned, the single was shelved, and without [the fans'] loving support of a truly beautiful song it would have died. MTV banned it because they said it was a 'song about suicide,' as did many people, but why would the line 'I'd love to stay with you all' be in there? It would need to say something like 'I want to die,' right? And I had a manager at the time that was told, along with me, by MTV not to use director Wayne Isham because we had used him too much; odd request, but I heard them loud and clear. Of course, management didn't listen and tried to slip it into MTV under a pseudonym and MTV flipped. They are/were pissed at me for something I didn't do and I would be OK if it was something I did, but I told the manager, and David Ellefson [ex-MEGADETH bassist] can attest to this, NOT to use Wayne. Their solution was to ban the $300,000-plus video, and radio in America was following MTV very closely at the time — still do to an extent — and did not play the single. The song was left at the altar. I got sent a bill. Then after the [college] shooting in Montreal [in 2006], where someone tried tying this song into that horrific act, I knew it was time to follow something that had been haunting me from the start of that song: I could not allow myself to accept the failure of my music because of someone else. I will take the heat, I am well forged by now, so there is yesterday's news.

“But there was something else: I'd wanted to hear that song as a duet, since it truly was a song of love. But the person had to be perfect; had to be angelic. I decided, and I have sang 'A Tout Le Monde' again with Cristina Scabbia because she is that person. I had Lisa Marie Presley confirmed, as well as two other attempts, but Cristina was the obvious choice for our metal community. The song was sped up a little, like it was supposed to be on 'Youthanasia' before all the tempos were turned down. It has a 50% longer solo of original Glen Drover lead guitar blending into the original [Marty] Friedman solo, and launching off of that at the end of the solo taking it up a little bit more.

“So, now that leaves us with what to do with this song. Well, its intention was only to soothe my wounds, and it was meant to be a 'B-side' for Japan, but that didn’t happen, as you will no doubt read. The song was finished and turned in to the record company and the radio department and everyone, including people that have heard the song before, are saying, 'This is the single for America!' There was excitement and a buzz, and they ALL agreed on this, which is a feat in itself when you have some many creative people in one place at any given time.

“Imagine my surpise, and my sense of being vindicated, and then the shock and concern about you [the fans] not understanding (which apparently you don't), let alone the indifferent public, which is now the primary target, since you have already heard it and it was supposed to be a simple 'B-side,' and the haters who will undoubtedly hate. On one hand it worked, and on the other, I have to explain myself, which I don't like.

But it gets stranger.

“Now 'A Tout Le Monde' has a new life and people are reacting, but there is concern about, as I was told, 'the guy in Arkansas that calls the song 'A Toot Lay Monday.' I said, 'I say the pronounciation in the song,' but it was suggested to me, to help the public to discover this classic you all know and most love (and some don't want tampered with) to add a subtitle. “I said, 'huh?' The moments after that were inconsequential, and I just found myself agreeing because there were worse things I had to fix at the time, and I had to pick which thing I was going to give my attention to at 'crunch time.'

“So, in an effort to make things easier for the DJs, and remember this is just for radio, there has been a subtitle added to 'ATLM' ala 'A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)' for the album and the single has been called 'Set Me Free (A Tout Le Monde)' for radio by Roadrunner.

“You have gotten 'Sleepwalker', we posted 'Gears of War', and everyone seems to have heard 'Washington Is Next!', and I think we are doing pretty good.

“All I can say is, just trust me on this one. Again, it was meant to be a 'B-side' and with all of the professionals over at Roadrunner, I think they really may be right and they may have a real surprise for you.

“We shoot the video for this song on the 8th of this month [March] before I leave for Vancouver, and Cristina shoots her part on the 9th.

“Thank you to the guys in LACUNA COIL for supporting Cristina in doing this, and to you Ms. Scabbia, you were fantastic!”

Posted on King Diamond’s official website, Coven Worldwide, the webmaster Renzo van Soelen has posted the following update, Blabbermouth reports

“I just got off the phone with King. We talked about two hours and he gave me some very exclusive info about the forthcoming KING DIAMOND CD. King told me he had just finished recording the vocals which he had been doing for the last four weeks about six hours a day.

“In the next three weeks King and Andy [La Rocque, guitar] will be mixing and mastering the album (starting Monday, March 5).

“Is this better than 'The Puppet Master', I asked him. King started laughing and explained it as follows: 'We tried to get our driver's license for twenty years and now we finally got it. We passed the test! It's the best album ever, definitely — there is no doubt about that, for sure. Even the work mix sounds better than any album yet. The music and story are great. I am sure these are my best vocals yet. Andy said to me that he not played solos like this since 'The Eye'. Mike [Wead, guitar] told me he has never been so inspired to do solos as on this album. And, yes, Livia is on the album too!'

“King said to me: 'I guarantee you this is the best album yet — I am positive about it. It's more KING DIAMOND [than] there [has] ever been. It has the best KING DIAMOND top class through the whole album. The story is very dark, perhaps one of the darkest I have ever done.'

“King mentioned the intro to the album is a 'real' intro again, like where Midnight (from 'The Puppet Master') was more of a pre-song .

“Want to get a little taste of what you might expect from the lyrics? Here you go: 'Me and my black cat Magic, the beautiful house on Never Ending Hill, the little girl in the bloody dress and her dead little brother, the dark, the floating head woman, shapes of black and YOU.'

“The cover represents a little girl standing on a winding stairs in a white dress covered with blood (which actually is the blood from her little brother). I have seen the unfinished cover and I'll just know you're gonna love it! King also said that the front cover will look like a mirror.

“The album will probably be released late June/beginning of July. Nothing is certain yet but it looks that way.”

The album, which will be “Gimme Your Soul … Please“, will contain the following 13 tracks:

01. The Dead (King)
02. Never Ending Hill (Andy)
03. Is Anybody Here? (King)
04. Black of Night (Andy)
05. Mirror, Mirror (King)
06. The Cellar (Andy)
07. Pictures in Red (Andy)
08. Gimme Your Soul (King)
09. The Floating Head (Andy)
10. Cold as Ice (King)
11. Shapes of Black (King)
12. The Girl in The Bloody Dress (King)
13. Moving On (King)

King Diamond’s new album was apparently inspired by a painting ‘My Mother’s Eyes’, reported by Revolver magazine, King Diamond has bought the painting for the album cover. The painting which features an image of a battered blond girl with blood covering her white dress, holding out palms affixed with protruding eyeballs, the more it captivated and inspired him. “I can feel the energy of the front cover in all the songs we wrote, and it will definitely affect my lyrics,” he promised.

The music for the album was written between December 2005 and February 2006 and then recorded in his basement:

“It classes over anything I've ever done,” Diamond beamed. “The arrangements are more intricate, the production is better, and for the parts where there are violins, it sounds like we hired the Royal Philharmonic. As long as I don't fuck up the vocals, this should be our best record.”

KING DIAMOND current lineup:

King Diamond – Vocals
Andy La Rocque – Guitar
Mike Wead – Guitar
Hal Patino – Bass
Matt Thompson – Drums

Updating Megadeth’s official website, mainman Dave Mustaine has issued the following update: “The tracklisting for the new album ['United Abominations'] is going to be 11 songs for the States (including 'A Tout Le Monde'), for Japan it is 12 (including 'Out on the Tiles'). “It is very likely there will be bonus material from the future release 'The Making of United Abominations' (working title) included, which would be included on releases in these two territories, as well as special exclusive tracks for major dealers in the U.S. [This doesn't include drugs or arms dealers].

The track listing, as of today, is:

01. Sleepwalker
02. Washington Is Next!
03. Never Walk Alone
04. United Abominations
05. Gears Of War
06. Blessed Are The Dead
07. Play For Blood
08. A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free) (feat. Cristina Scabbia)
09. Amerikhastan
10. You're Dead
11. Burnt Ice
Japan Only
12. Out On The Tiles (LED ZEPPELIN cover)
(However this special track may appear in extraordinary circumstances)

The B-sides for special editions are:

13. Black Swan
14. The Bodies Left Behind
15. Special Live Track

“This is all for now. We are greenlighted to announce our next wave of tour dates tomorrow morning at 7:30ish EST. Be prepared to be very happy American Droogs! I can't wait!!!”

SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH

Final instalment of the Stone Sour interview with Rock Sound has been posted online, part one can be seen here and the second part is available here.

Machine Head is pumped up for the upcoming release of The Blackening. This new set of promotional photos was taken in February and features beautiful group photos of the band. The individual pictures of Robb, Dave, Adam, and Phil will give you a hint about what their new video for “Now I Lay Thee Down” will look like.

www.machinehead1.com

Blabbermouth reports Musica Metal, Italian heavy metal news blog, have uploaded two video clips taken at Stone Sour’s concert in Milan on Thursday March 1st.

The setlist was as follows:

01. 30/30-150
02. Come What(ever) May
03. Made of Scars
04. Reborn
05. Your God
06. Monolith
07. Sillyworld
08. Bother
09. Through Glass
10. Blotter
11. Tumult
12. Hell & Consequences
13. Get Inside

Check out the video footage at this location.

Also posted online are photos taken from Stone Sour’s show at the Live Music Hall in Cologne, Germany on 24th February, check them out here.

Within Temptation released today their digital single ‘What Have You Done Now’ but you can also download a free MP3 of ‘The Howling’ it’s like buy on get one free!

Download ‘The Howling’ here