Travis Smith of Trivium has given an interview with Modern Drummer Magazine, a piece of which is shown below: Modern Drummer: On the subject of your double kick technique, how did you get your start, and how did it progress through the years? Travis: I got my first double kick pedal when I was fourteen, and I was horrible at it. I was taking lessons at the time, and my teacher, Joey Everline, gave me pointers on different technique styles. When I first started, I was like full-blown, go for it. I didn’t really have technique. But over time, I started to develop my own technique, which involved playing heel up. And that worked for a while. But eventually, I couldn’t get as fast as I wanted by playing heel-up, for the fact of the matter that you’re moving too much of your leg when you’re playing that way. It wasn’t consistent, and I would tire a lot quicker. About two years ago, I started working on this other technique where you’re playing almost flat-footed, heel-down, and you’re letting the pedals do the work instead of your whole leg. I started to develop that technique on the pads, and then I translated it to the kit. I’m very happy with the outcome. I’m a lot more relaxed now, I play a lot faster, and I’m able to maintain consistency much more so than playing heel-up. Modern Drummer: How long did it take you to get that technique together? Travis: It’s something that took a while, and then it just kind of came one day. I remember we were playing somewhere in England and I came to this part of a song that would sometimes give me trouble, especially if I was having a bad day. And it was one of those shows where I was like, “Man, I don’t think I’m playing well.” When that part came up, I was thinking, “Ah, great, I’m going to blow this.” And then, I guess, from just practicing that heel-down technique for so long, my body naturally took over, and, bam, I just flew through the part. I was like, “Damn, man, it’s really paying off! My body is just starting to naturally take over instead of me having to think about it.” I don’t like to think about a part when I play. I just want my body to naturally do it. I’ve learned from the past that when I start to think about what I’m going to do, that’s normally when I mess up. It just started happening and I was really happy with the outcome. Modern Drummer: What kind of practice routine do you have? Travis: I still practice every day, before we go on. I always practice my double bass technique. And I always practice my hand technique. I always try to improve. Normally before a show, I’ll spend about a half hour to forty-five minutes on pads. And I’ll do about fifteen minutes of stretching before that. So it’s almost an hour-long process before I go up on stage. With my hands, I’ll do a bunch of big, open 8ths to stretch out and get warmed up. Then I’ll do a lot of doubles, and then doubles with accents. It settles my mind and gets me relaxed. And then, after that, I’ll go into triplet exercises, which are a lot like the double exercises I do, except it’s all with triplets. After a couple of rotations of that, I’ll start free-styling my hands í¢ä‰åäó throwing in different rudiments, different flams, doubles, and triplets, just to keep my mind free and relaxed. Then I’ll go back and run through the whole routine again, but I add in my feet as well. I also work on odd combinations, like right hand, right foot, left hand, left foot, left foot, right hand, right foot, left hand. Then I’ll work into 16ths with some triplets thrown in the middle, and then 16ths with some 32nd notes thrown in. After I go through all of that, I try to calm down my feet. I just sit there, maybe do another set of stretching. Then I’ll just play continuous 16ths with my feet to get into the zone.í¢ä‰åŒ For more information on Modern Drummer click here. SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH

The awesome Trivium have pictures of their Stockholm dates. CLICK HERE TO VIEW. See them in action at these dates, again supporting Iron Maiden: 11/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì Cardiff CIA 12/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì Birmingham NEC 14/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì Manchester Arena 15/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì Glasgow SECC 17/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì Newcastle Arena 18/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì Sheffield Arena 20/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì Dublin, The Point 22/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì London Earls Court 23/12/06 í¢ä‰åäóì London Earls Court

A posting on Megadeth‘s website by guitarist Glen Drover has given a little taster into the recording of their next studio album ‘United Abominations‘ “As I write this letter to you, Dave [Mustaine] is recording some of the vocals for the new album and he is sounding great! We are all having a great time here finishing up the tracks for this album here in California and the weather is awesome! As for myself, I have done a few solo pieces, which I am very happy with. Lots of crazy solos on this album, people!” To hear this taster click here SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH

Throwdown have revealed when they will be entering the studio to record their next album. í¢ä‰åñWe’re actually still writing this thing and are having a great time doing so. We’ve got around 26 ‘songs’ that are in various forms and stages from ‘all fuckin done’ to ‘well, I’ve got this one riff that’s pretty sweet.’ . . We’ll be heading into the studio to record the aforementioned sometime in late January/early February with the almighty Mudrock. His friends call him ‘Mud’ but let’s be honest…a dude with a name like that doesn’t have a ton of friends. We, however, love the guy and are excited to ‘cut a record’ as they say (I dunno if ‘they’ really say that anymore or who ‘they’ even are really). We’re pretty sure he’s excited too so we don’t have to worry about him playing Nintendo in the middle of tracking or anything like that.” SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH

Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel of Killswitch Engage have given an interview with KRZR, to listen to this engaging 3 minutes click here

Room Thirteen reviewed an Opeth show in Manchester, here is a little excerpt: ‘Every time I see Opeth in Manchester they are in a bigger venue than the time beforeí¢ä‰åŒ_..maybe next time it’ll be the Apollo Theatreí¢ä‰åŒ_It was great and now they are signed to Roadrunner I hope they can become even bigger and play truly huge venues, they deserve it.’ To view the full review click here

Dragonforce – Operation Ground and Pound is on Kerrang! TV, selection number 666í¢ä‰åŒ_ check it out!

The awesome new album ‘As Daylight Dies‘ by Killswitch Engage, has a 9/10 review at drownedinsound.com. Here’s a snippet to wet your appetite, “For those who are of the opinion that only the best matter and the rest should either get better or quit the game, you can add one more band to your list. With As Daylight Dies, Killswitch Engage have cemented their position as the reason for metalcore ever existing” To view the full review CLICK HERE

Slipknot frontman in a candid interview with Playmusic, about their new DVD release ‘ Voliminal: Inside the nine ‘. This may be the only thing to subside your hunger as the DVD is not out until the 4th Dec. Check out http://www.playmusic.tv!

All the tasty Slipknot trailers for their new DVD – Voliminal: Inside the 9 are now online. Click here to view! Also in Slipknot news, Scuzz love Slipknot so much that they are repeating their Slipknot special on 2/12/06. So you can now watch this awesome special on: 25/11/06 @ 9pm 29/11/06 @ 9pm 02/12/06 @ 9pm Look out for the huge competition running from tomorrow all through next week!