Blabbermouth reports Dream Theatre drummer Mike Portnoy’s interview with Tama.com has been uploaded online. Mike talks about their forthcoming album ‘Systematic Chaos’ and much more, here is a sample of the chat:

TAMA: What is DREAM THEATER up to these days?

Mike: We've been in the recording studio since September '06. And we are, at this moment, completing work on the new album. We're actually mixing it right now, and we should be finished in about two weeks. So come mid-February, the album will be done, and it's gonna be out in June.

TAMA: How would you describe the direction of this album?

Mike: Heavy and technical, powerful and dynamic — all of the elements that people kind of expect out of a DREAM THEATER album. All of the styles and sounds are intact, but we wanted to make it a real sonic explosion. It's very dramatic and aggressive. I don't know — all of the above adjectives fit [laughs].

TAMA: You will be drumming for John Petrucci on the upcoming G3 tour with Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert. What sort of material will you guys be playing?

Mike: We just do stuff from John's solo album, which he put out a couple of years ago. That was stuff he wrote specifically for G3, so that's the stuff we always play on the G3 tours.

TAMA: You recently recorded a new instructional DVD. Can you tell us some more about that and what topics it will cover?

Mike: It comes out in a few weeks, I think March 1st is the street date. It's called “In Constant Motion“, and it's a mammoth DVD. It's the titanic of all instructional DVDs. It's a three-disc set, about seven hours long, and it basically just covers everything I've been doing ever since my last instructional DVD, “Liquid Drum Theater“. So it covers a lot of ground. The first disc concentrates on DREAM THEATER and music from the last three albums that we've made. The second disc is everything I've done outside of DREAM THEATER, so it ranges from TRANSATLANTIC, to Neal Morse's solo music, to OSI, to all four of my tribute bands — the tributes I did to THE BEATLES, THE WHO, LED ZEPPELIN, and RUSH, as well as guest appearances with John Arch and FATES WARNING and OVERKILL. So it really covers a tremendous amount of ground. And then the third disc has additional bonus live tracks with DREAM THEATER, as well as three different drum solos from throughout the years, one of which includes the duets I did with Jason Bittner, Charlie Benante, and Richard Christy. So there's just a tremendous amount of stuff on this whole set.

TAMA: Has your playing and/or approach to drumming changed at all from the early DREAM THEATER days to now?

Mike: Within DREAM THEATER, not that much. If you listen to our early demos from Berklee back in 1985 up till what I do now in DREAM THEATER, it's a definite style that has been maintained and continued through the years — except I think I've just grown better and more mature in executing it. But it's always been about progressive, odd time signatures, chops, and exciting, over-the-top playing, and that's been the style that I've always incorporated with DREAM THEATER, for 22 years now. However, outside of DREAM THEATER, especially over the past 6 or 7 years, I've been able to do so many different things, and I think those are the areas that have really defined me as a drummer. The fact that I've been able to play, like I already mentioned, the simplicity of some of Neal Morse's music, all the way to the kind of postmodern drumming that I've done with OSI — playing with drum loops and samples and things like that. And then the tributes I've done have all been a different style, from Keith Moon to John Bonham to Ringo Starr to Neil Peart. Those are four completely different styles that I've been able to become completely obsessed with and kind of morph myself into. So to answer your question how have I changed from the beginning till now, I think I've been able to try so many different things, because of the side projects, and that's really helped me be a better musician.

TAMA: What are some of your favorite DREAM THEATER songs to perform live?

Mike: They all become equally boring after a hundred times [laughs], but I tend to like the more challenging ones just because they keep me on my toes. So, songs like “The Dance of Eternity” and “Octavarium” — all kind of the instrumental or the long pieces. Those songs are the ones that are the most challenging, therefore, I enjoy those.

Read the entire interview at Tama.com.

Blabbermouth reports that Jared MacEachern and Jeremy London of Sanctity have given an interview with Metal Injection, a video-on-demand site. In the interview the guys talked about their upcoming album ‘Road To Bloodshed’, on the road experiences and they gave advice to other bands…

“Practice… practice… practice… practice, and never stop. We just played show after show after show. Get your name out there. Let people see you, let people hear you, and you never know. The right person may be at the right show. The year before we got signed we played like 194 shows, as an unsigned band, which is like four or five shows a week. It was ridiculous for a while. We played as much as we could. I think that's really the key. And playing shows… there's only so much stage work you can do while at practice, but really playing out is what gels the bands, you get used to the crowd responses. Twenty people to two thousand people. Twenty people is more intimidating that two thousand people because you really have to impress those 20 people, and we got used to that.”

To watch the entire interview, visit http://www.metalinjection.tv/.

With their album ‘Threads Of Life’ due for release on 2nd April, the Shadows Fall guys have given an interview with Kerrang! For their new podcast. You can download it here.

You can also sign up to hear ‘Redemption’ from the forthcoming album ‘Threads Of Life’ at this location.

Don’t forget you can view the album artwork at this location.

We like to think we are good to you guys here at Roadrunner… To celebrate the release of the forthcoming Machine Head Album 'The Blackening' we are giving away a free mp3 of 'Aesthetics Of Hate'.

Max Cavalera is planning to digitally release two previously unavailable songs. These were recorded in the period between Cavalera quitting Sepultura, and forming Soulfly.

One of the entrants for the 36 Crazyfists competition has posted their video for their ‘Midnight Swim’ has been posted on YouTube.

The forthcoming Within Temptation CD will have an ‘Opendisc’ function, this technology allows you to buy the CD and get bonus content!

Initial copies of the album will be available with a signed CD insert through selected Indie stores, keep checking for updates!

Blabbermouth reports Dave McClain drummer with Machine Head has given an interview with ‘In Utah This Week’:

On how he would label the band's music:

“There are so many labels that bands give themselves now. They have about three or four descriptions before they get to the 'metal' part. Like [blank] metal — I don't get it. We're a metal band, period!'

On the upcoming CD, “The Blackening“:

“This is a pretty epic album; we took a lot of time letting these songs take on a life of their own, whether it was adding more parts or making things just more complicated to play. We had a lot of fun writing this album, and I think people are gonna be blown away when they hear it!

“We're writing music for the part of us that is still that kid we were that was running to the front row at the IRON MAIDEN show. And also the musician part of us that wants to be challenged! It's killer to be able to be in that mind frame and not have to worry about if a certain song is too long or too heavy for a certain radio station.”

On whether he puts his utmost focus on musicianship, having a good time, expressing your feelings, or other during the recording process:

“I think all that is important, especially in this day and age of recording with ProTools. I think too many bands use technology like that to a disadvantage, making every little thing perfect and taking out any kind of human feel. We're not a band that records with a click track or puts the drum tracks through a program that makes everything perfect. We're pretty good at making our mistakes sound like we meant to do them.”

Read the entire interview at www.inthisweek.com.

Blabbermouth reports that the following Roadrunner artists are set to appear at Hellfest, taking place June 22-24 in Clisson, France.

Machine Head

Walls of Jericho

Satyricon issued the following update:

“We have so much news for you on the new album in writing and many stories to tell from our visits to Australia and Japan. We'll fill you in on that later. Finally the necesarry permits and paperwork have been sorted on Frost's [drums] behalf and we are now ready to come over to America again. Seems like it will be a small run of three weeks starting with a few days in South America for the first time before we come over the U.S. This will most likely take place between mid-April and second week of May. We'll keep you posted of course.”

’The Pentagram Burns’ video was filimed in August in Norway, and can be viewed at this location (Quicktime required) and photos can be viewed here!

SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH