The colossal third album from metal titans TRIVIUM is done. Titled SHOGUN, it is Trivium’s most mature and complex offering to date. Due for release on September 29, Shogun is an epic 11-track masterpiece.

In 2005, critics and metal-heads worldwide took notice when Trivium crashed into the metal world with the release of their enormously successful Ascendancy album. The band landed magazine covers across the globe in under a year and picked up “Best New Band” accolades almost everywhere they played. Intent on not delivering a ‘part two’ with their follow-up record, 2006’s The Crusade took a slightly different direction, with cleaner singing and more varied influences, entering the mail UK album chart at number 7. It retained their stunning signature guitar work and led to some enviable touring opportunities with bands such as Metallica and Iron Maiden.

Trivium have changed it up yet again on Shogun, for the first time choosing not to record in their home state of Florida. Instead the band headed to Nashville, Tennessee to work with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters, Stone Sour). “Working with Nick is like being around out long lost fifth band member”, Matt Heafy, Trivium’s frontman enthuses. “He took what we did and put us through pre-production boot camp… he kicked our asses! When we first met him we had this instant connection and knew we had to work with him. What’s so great about the album sessions is that it all happened so organically and he really hammered at us to give our absolute best.” The result is a monolithic album that crystallizes the band’s sound and showcases Trivium’s finest elements.

Slayer’s Kerry King expressed excitement about co-headlining with the band this Autumn on Metal Hammer’s “Unholy Alliance: Chapter 3” UK tour. He commented to Total Guitar magazine, “I’ll be at the side of the stage watching them. Great players like that make us want to do better.”

SHOGUN will hit stores on SEPETEMBER 29TH. Trivium/Slayer tour from October 27. Full dates are as follows:

Mon 27th Oct – Manchester Arena
Tue 28th Oct – Birmingham NEC Arena
Thu 30th Oct – London Hammersmith Apollo
Fri 31st Oct – London Hammersmith Apollo
Sun 2nd Nov – Cardiff CIA
Mon 3rd Nov – Glasgow SECC

Springfield, Massachusetts natives STAIND are set to release their brand new record THE ILLUSION OF PROGRESS through Roadrunner Records in Europe on September 8.

THE ILLUSION OF PROGRESS marks Staind’s sixth album and is the follow-up to 2005’s certified platinum ‘Chapter V’. Staind’s last three studio albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Album Chart, earning their place as one of the most successful rock bands of the new millennium. Staind joins an elite shortlist of five other artists who have also accomplished this feat, including U2, Dave Matthews Band, System Of A Down, Van Halen and Disturbed.

In a special launch with MySpace, you can hear the new single ‘Believe’ online now at: www.myspace.com/staind. The band are set to shoot a video in Los Angeles this Wednesday, June 25, with director Chris Simms (Lamb of God, Jimmy Eat World).

THE ILLUSION OF PROGRESS was produced by Johnny K (Plain White T’s, Kill Hannah, Disturbed) and recorded in the home studio of Staind vocalist Aaron Lewis, with the original band line-up, including Mike Mushok (guitar), Jon Wysocki (drums, percussion) and Johnny April (bass, vocals). The band calls the new project the “most musical CD” they’ve recorded to date, and have been treating their fans to a series of intimate, behind-the-scenes “webisodes” posted on www.staind.com , documenting their recording process.

Comments Lewis: “We went into the studio with the mindset of making our heaviest record yet, but the record that came out has flavors of Pink Floyd and straight-up blues. We didn’t use the same rigs that we use onstage; we used all vintage guitars and amps, and I’m pretty psyched about it! The songs are pretty timeless in their texture.”

Staind will be touring the US this summer with 3 Doors Down, but will return to the UK in September supporting Nickelback. Tickets are on sale now for the following shows:

Fri 12 Sep – BELFAST Odyssey
Sat 13 Sep – DUBLIN RDS Simmonscourt
Mon 15 Sep – MANCHESTER MEN
Tue 16 Sep – SHEFFIELD Arena
Thu 18 Sep – BIRMINGHAM NEC
Fri 19 Sep – LONDON O2 Arena
Sun 21 Sep – LONDON Wembley Arena

In the past decade, Staind has sold more than 12 million records worldwide. They’ve had four #1 singles that span three different US radio formats, including two massive crossover singles ‘It’s Been Awhile’ and ‘Right Here’’. ‘It’s Been Awhile’ spent 16 weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart, making it the #1 most played rock record of 2002. Staind’s major label debut Dysfunction went double-platinum in 1999, and in the new millennium the band’s Break The Cycle was certified 5x platinum, followed by the platinum succession of 14 Shades Of Grey in 2003, and Chapter V in 2005. In 2002, Elektra Records released a gold-certified MTV Unplugged; and in 2006 released The Singles: 1996-2006, the band’s first-ever hits collection with a separate companion DVD Staind: The Videos.

AMANDA PALMER (who you may know as the front woman from THE DRESDEN DOLLS) recently played a show at Boston Symphony Hall with the prestigeous Boston Pops (the Boston symphony orchestra). It’s an honour and a privilage to be asked to play and Amanda, as you can see from the numerous YouTube clips that have popped up on the internet, was in her element, and put on a stunning show. Check out our favourite clip of the night, which is of the delecatble

If you are keen to hear a brand new SOULFLY track, then this is the site to be on! We have, for your downloading pleasure, a track taken from the upcoming brand-spanking-new album from Max et al, CONQUER.

Titled UNLEASH, the track is guaranteed to make your ears bleed in totally the right way. Heavy and unrelenting metal at its finest!

DOWNLOAD UNLEASH- CLICK HERE

If you like what you hear, you can pre-order the album, which hits stores JULY 21st HERE

The album will be available on CD and Digitally and will also be available simultaneaously as a CD/DVD package. The DVD will feature a full headline live performance recorded in Warsaw, Poland and the CD in this package will feature 3 bonus tracks also. Full tracklisting of the CD/DVD package is as follows:

CD:
Blood Fire War Hate
Unleash
Paranoia
Warmageddon
Enemy Ghost
Rough
Fall Of The Sycophants
Doom
For Those About To Rot
Touching The Void
Soulfly V1
Mypath (Bonus Track)
Sailing On (Bonus Track)
The Beatutiful People (Bonus Track)

DVD
(Live set recorded July 13, 2005, Stodola, Warszawa, Poland)
Prophecy
Downstroy
Seek ‘N’ Strike
No Hope = No Fear
Jumpadfuckup / Bring It
Living Sacrifice
Mars
Brasil
No
L.O.T.M./Reign In Blood
Porrada
Drums
Moses (Coyote from Eyesburn guests on vocals)
Frontlines
Back To The Primitive
Eye For An Eye

CAVALERA CONSPIRACY will be performing LIVE tonight (23/06) in Germany and at 8.15pm UK TIME you will be able to stream this live online!

The band will be showcasing tracks off their STUNNING debut INFLIKTED (in stores NOW), as well as playing some old Cavalera faves from their Sepultura glory days. It’s NOT to be missed!!!

Get your Cav Con fix below! (The time below refers to Central European Time- which is 1 hr ahead.)

Check out the first part of a series that features Trivium in studio in Nashville during the recording of their brand new album!

Go on down to their artist page, or follow this conveniently placed link:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/artist/Trivium

After rocking the place at the Isle Of White Festival on Saturday and their Sunday-stealing set at Download, Southern boys BLACK STONE CHERRY announce a headline UK tour for this December and a brand new album, ‘Folklore And Superstition’ recorded at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios, just 85 miles from their home town of Edmonton, Kentucky.

A new digital single, ‘Blind Man’ arrived at all digital platforms on Monday as a taster of what’s to come on their second album release, which is set for an 18th August release via Roadrunner Records.

After taking home the ‘Best New Band’ award at the Classic Rock ‘Roll Of Honour’ Awards in November, the band are set for a stellar 2008, which has already kicked off with them taking the guest slot on the Whitesnake/Def Leppard arena tour which is happening this very week. The four kids from a dry county have music in their blood. There’s not a ton to do in their small town, so their families have a rich musical tradition, handed down from grandparents, through their parents, to the boys in the band. Drummer John Fred’s father, Richard is a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Kentucky Headhunters, while bassist Jon’s great-uncle was a jazz drummer. Frontman/guitarist Chris received his first guitar from his grandfather, who built instruments by hand and learned his first chords from his dad. And it wasn’t just their family that encouraged them to play: whenever Chris got into trouble at school, he wound up in the principal’s office, jamming with the principal himself. With such impressive success so far, these four guys in their early 20s are destined for great things.

The headline tour dates line up as follows:

Fri 5th Dec – Manchester Academy
Sat 6th Dec – Newcastle Academy
Sun 7th Dec – Glasgow Barrowlands
Tue 9th Dec – Sheffield Octagon
Wed 10th Dec – Birmingham Academy
Thu 11th Dec – Bristol Academy
Sat 13th Dec – Oxford Academy
Sun 14th Dec – London Brixton Academy

Tickets are on sale now from box offices, all usual agents and online at www.livenation.co.uk, priced

SLIPKNOT, the Grammy Award winning hard rock machine from Des Moines, IA is back!

LAMB OF GOD have a BRAND NEW video for the track WALK WITH ME IN HELL, and you can see this exclusivly on MetalHammer.co.uk.

Check out the video HERE

The video showcases footage from their upcoming DVD of the same name, which is due to hit stores on the 30th June. The 2 disc set runs for over 5 hours and breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 contains the highly anticipated feature documentary Walk With Me In Hell and multiple live performance extras from across the globe on the Sacrament World Tour. The documentary chronicles every detail in the lives of Lamb of God as they completed recording and toured around the world nearly three times over in support of the highly praised 2006 album Sacrament.

Disc 2 includes an additional full-length Making of Sacrament feature plus LAMB OF GOD’s entire, uncut, brutal performance at the Download Festival 2007, where they performed in front of over 72,000 fans. Extras include deleted scenes, live performance videos for various tour stops, the official music video for Redneck, and a Making of Redneck documentary.

You can pre-order the DVD HERE

Earlier this week, WITHIN TEMPTATION dazzled tens of thousands of rock fans with an eye-popping Main Stage performance at the UK’s Download Festival. Renowned for their spectacular live shows, now fans everywhere will have the chance to watch one of the band’s most astounding dates yet. On September 22, Within Temptation will release a brand new double-DVD, titled ‘Black Symphony’.

Their most ambitious staging to date, Black Symphony was a unique concert at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena on February 7, 2008. Sold out months in advance, Within Temptation performed to 10,000 fans with the 60-piece Metropole Orchestra and a 20-voice classical choir, as well as on-stage stilt performers, costume changes, and an array of stunning pyrotechnic and lighting effects. The colossal production extended to Europe’s largest video screen (a massive 400 sqm), reaching across the entire width of the stage, and 14 full HD cameras. Special guests on the night included Keith Caputo (ex-Life Of Agony), Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering), and George Oosthoek (Orphanage).

Kerrang! magazine awarded the concert it’s highest 5K rating, saying “this really is the greatest show on earth”.

In addition to the Rotterdam concert, a plethora of bonus content and extensive behind the scenes footage will be included. Although full details will be made available at a later date, it is likely to feature the band’s 2007 year-end show at the Beursgebouw in Eindhoven, of which one highlight was an exclusive acoustic set. ‘Black Symphony’ will also be available as a double-CD.

Within Temptation are currently taking over the European festivals, with slots at The Electric Weekend (Spain), Pukkelpop (Belgium), Beatstad (Netherlands), and Rock En France (France) just a fraction of their plans. The band are looking forward to supporting the legendary Iron Maiden in Holland and London next month. For the first time ever, Within Temptation will also take to the stage in Israel, the Ukraine, and Greece this year, before closing 2008 with some exclusive seated shows in The Netherlands and Belgium.