DOWN‘s latest release ‘DOWN IV Part I – The Purple EP‘ is out TODAY and if you haven’t got yourself a copy yet, click the links below to get on it!

Play.com
iTunes
Amazon
HMV

If you’re still undecided, you can listen to the EP in FULL over on Billboard’s website by clicking here – and you can check out some extracts from interviews and reviews of the release below too:

“Too many bands sound too perfect now, too polished; it’s too fixed on Pro Tools, every fucking kick drum is perfectly put on the grid and everybody plays to a click track. We wanted to be raw and old school – we wanted it to sound like the original NOLA demos. With Down it’s always been about the energy and the vibe of what we’re doing, not about playing each note perfectly. We wanted it to feel like the listener is sitting in the jam room with us with a beer in one hand and a joint in the other, y’know, just having a good time. – Kirk speaking to The Quietus

Songs like “Levitation”, “Witchtripper” and “The Curse” have sense of immediate urgency about them. Their straightforward nature and rawness brings the first Down album to mind. Phil Anselmo’s anguished and rough vocal style does the rest. Despite the uncompromising attitude, the songs are surprisingly catchy, thanks to some well-placed memorable hooks. “Open Coffins” and “This Work Is Timeless” are to other great examples of that. – ThisIsNotAScene

The first of four EPs to be released during the next year, this six-track slab of new Down material was self-produced and recorded at the Pantera man’s New Orleans studio Nodferatu’s Lair. And for the sake of the locals let’s hope the soundproofing was industrial standard. Witchtripper is a terrifying blast of modern metal while Open Coffins screams classic doom. Throughout, the noise is unrelenting.

It feels good that Down is back. Good in a bad way. A very bad way. – Rush On Rock

The Purple EP, first and foremost, sounds like Down: sludgy and doomy, dripping sweat and tar, everything rendered on a grand scale, anchored by Anselmo’s trademark impudent bark. Windstein and Keenan have a fantastic chemistry on guitars. These two excellent musicians don’t sound like they are “duelling” or fighting for supremacy; it is much more like each has their grip on the opposite end of a massive saw blade, and together they muscle through each song, cutting it in half. – Heavy Metal About.com

The six-song Purple EP avoids any monotonous agro-level riffs often found in sludge or doom metal, instead crafting a new batch of NOLA-Zeppelin stoner rock starting Down’s quartet of EPs on the right path. – Premiere Guitar

As the last remaining original member of LYNYRD SKYNYRD, Gary Rossington knows all to well about the mortality of rock ‘n’ roll, as well as life itself – with the band’s new album title being a tip of the hat to the aforementioned subject matter. Gary spoke to Classic Rock Revisited about the new album, forming the band way back when and much more – see below for some extracts from the interview:

Do you ever pinch yourself and say, “How in the hell is Lynyrd Skynyrd still going in 2012?”

Gary: Everyday I wonder that. I thank God that we are so blessed and able to do this. We are still talking about the songs and we are still playing them for our fans. It really is a dream come true.

Back when we started the band, with Ronnie, Allen and I, our dream was to make it big in a band like the Rolling Stones. We wanted to write our own songs and be huge, and we did it. It got taken away so fast, and tragically, but the music lives on through all of it. We just love playing the music and being a part of it.

The song “Last of a Dyin’ Breed” has some of the best Skynyrd slide guitar I have ever heard.

Gary: Thank you. That song is really about Southern bands, as we really are the last of a dying breed. Music, nowadays, is all about solo singers, or Hip Hop, or having dancers on the stage. Pop music, like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga is what is mainstream.

Old bands like us, and other bands from the ‘70’s, are a dying breed, and we are fading away. All that is left are the Allmans, us, and a few different bands, here and there. It is just what it is.

When we were writing that song, we had about 100 different names for it. I just thought of that line, as a last resort, and it ended up really fitting the band and what we’re doing now.

People ask me all the time if musicians get tired of playing the same songs every night, like “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird.” Do you?

Gary: We don’t have to rehearse a lot anymore because we know the songs so well, so that helps, but there is a lot more to it than that.

We just love to look at the audience when we play those songs. It all comes back to us through them and their feelings and emotions. Song like “Simple Man” and “Free Bird” are great to play live and we see girls, and even guys, crying sometimes.

It reminds them of old times, when they were younger. We really are a soundtrack of their lives. A lot of emotion comes out and we have people write to us all the time and they tell us how much our music means to them.

In this lifetime, it has been really great to be able to touch people’s emotions. When you see that onstage, it is such a big kick. We also do it for the guys who are not here anymore. Everything matters and we take playing live seriously.

Do you get emotional yourself? Do you really feel the spirit of the guys when you play?

Gary: It has always been that way for me. I am sure Johnny feels it because he was related to Ronnie. Some of the newer guys were not around then and they don’t know how it was. I feel it really deeply. I know they would have wanted us to go on and do what we are doing. Our thing was all about playing the music and letting people know about this band that we started. We made it and I want everyone to still know about it, as it is really a great thing.

Click here to read the full interview.

The Roadrunner physical release of ‘Last of A Dyin’ Breed’ is out TODAY and you can pick up a copy by clicking here. In case you need convincing of it’s awesomeness, check out some reviews of the album below:

This isn’t surprising – how many classic bands have recorded their best material 30-plus years on from their heyday? But, from the opening slide-guitar sizzle of the title track onwards, 13th studio album Last Of A Dyin’ Breed is Lynyrd Skynyrd as you want them to be: swaggering, soulful, anthemic and definitively Southern. For a touring band of this vintage, a new album is often essentially fuel for live performances. While this offering fills that role perfectly, it’s also an excellent album that can hold its own against their classic work. – Record Collector

From the balls out traditional boogie of the title track (and lead single) to the laconic dustbowl slide blues of ‘Start Livin’ Life Again’, via the melancholic philosophy of ‘One Day At A Time’, the Delta-soaked stomp of ‘Mississippi Blood’, the winding retrospective smokiness of ‘Something To Live For’, the bittersweet driving melody of ‘Life’s Twisted’, the huge anthemic swamp groove of ‘Nothing Comes Easy’ and the powerhouse ‘Honey Hole’ this album is a true exemplar of a classic band at the height of their powers.

If we could give this 20/10 believe me we would, but we’ll have to settle for 10/10. – Planet Mosh

And the songs themselves stand up as a damn fine collection that ranges from the slide guitar boogie of the title track through the thumping hard rock of ‘Homegrown’, one of a couple of songs about those southern belles, and onto the southern fried ballad ‘Start Livin’ Life Again’, with all bases covered in between. ‘One Day at a Time’ struts along on a classic 70s Skynyrd vibe with Johnny Van Zant’s vocal hook of ‘Smell the roses, taste the wine’ proving particularly memorable, and the same can be said of the choruses for most of the songs here. Piano-led ballad ‘Ready to Fly’ – a heartfelt tribute to those who have been lost along the way – exemplifies the anthemic quality that permeates the album with a chorus ready-made for those arena gigs. – ThisIsNotAScene

Order Lynyrd Skynyrd’s upcoming album below:

CD – http://smarturl.it/LynyrdSkynyrd_CD
iTunes – http://smarturl.it/LynyrdSkynyrdLOADB

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA‘s live CD/DVD ‘Dead & Alive’ is out on the 15th of October. It was recorded during the band’s tour cycle for their latest record ‘Dead Throne’ and features such standouts as ‘Born to Lose’ and the title track from their latest album. Check out the tracklist below:

1. ‘Dead Throne’
2. ‘Untidaled’
3. ‘Escape’
4. ‘Sassafras’
5. ‘Born to Lose’
6. ‘Mammoth’
7. ‘Kansas’
8. ‘Hey John, What’s Your Name Again?’
9. ‘Outnumbered’
10. Assistant to the Regional Manager’
11. ‘Dez Moines’
12. ‘Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over’
13. ‘Chicago’
14. ‘Constance’
15. ‘Danger: Wildman’

Disc 2: DVD

Click here to pre-order your copy of ‘Dead & Alive’ from Play.com.

We spotted a few yearbook photos of some of our artists the other day which prompted us to have a scout about for a few more. We were successful in our scouring of the net and you can find a selection of yearbook pics below – see if you can guess who is who!

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8:

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10:

11:

ANSWERS:

1: Dave Mustaine
2: Corey Taylor
3: Slash
4: Zakk Wylde
5: Ronnie Van Zant
6: Allen Collins, Bob Burns & Gary Rossington
7: Paul Stanley
8: Jonathan Davis
9: Gene Simmons
10: Chad Kroeger
11: Chris Adler

TheRockRevival.com sat down with KILLSWITCH ENGAGE bassist Mike D’Antonio at Trespass America Festival 2012 to have a catch up on the tour, the band’s upcoming album, Jesse Leach‘s return and much more. Check out the video interview below:

Click here to keep up to date with all things KILLSWITCH ENGAGE.

BLACK STONE CHERRY’s John Fred Young is now an official Vater Drumstick Artist and before a recent show in New Hampshire he took some time out to talk to Vater about why he chose to change over to using their sticks, BSC’s history and more. Check out the video interview below:

Click here to pick up a copy of BLACK STONE CHERRY’s latest album ‘Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea’.

LYNYRD SKYNYRD‘s Rickey Medlocke originally joined the band back in the early 70′s, left for a while and then re-joined in 1996 and has been rocking out with the guys ever since. Rickey took out some time to chat with Media Mikes about the band’s latest album “Last of a Dyin’ Breed”.

What was the driving force inspiration behind “Last of a Dyin’ Breed”?

Rickey Medlocke: I feel like we are the last of a dyin’ breed. Along with our band and others like The Stones, AC/DC, ZZ Top, Aerosmith and The Allman Brothers, we all are the last of our kind. Even by the way we recorded this album was a great approach. After it was written, we setup in the studio live and recorded it. Just like the way you hear it is the way it went down. It has really been a great experience.

With each track omitting gold, which ones do you foresee becoming part of a must play list during touring?

Rickey Medlocke: As far as the new stuff, we are doing “One Day at a Time”, “Last of a Dyin’ Breed” and “Good Teacher”. We wrote “One Day at a Time” we Kid Rock’s guitar player and writer Marlon Young. I really like doing “Good Teacher” because it has this Hendrix-style Wah-Wah. I broke out my ole Cry Baby for that tune when we recorded the track. I really enjoyed doing that. I also think that “Homegrown” is a great track to play live also. It has that Drop C that I really like. And of course, I also love “Mississippi Blood”, it has got some really great elements in it. Jerry Douglas played a great lap steel lead in that. This album overall is just loaded with good songs.

Click here to read the full interview.

Order Lynyrd Skynyrd’s new album below:

CD – http://smarturl.it/LynyrdSkynyrd_CD
iTunes – http://smarturl.it/LynyrdSkynyrdLOADB

LYNYRD SKYNYRD released their Classic Rock fanpack last month and the physical Roadrunner release will be out this coming Monday the 17th of September. In anticipation of the release the band have revealed an awesome and typical Skynyrd video for the track ‘Last Of A Dyin’ Breed’. The video features bikes, booze and scantily clad ladies – can’t go wrong really, eh? Check out the video below:

Order Lynyrd Skynyrd’s upcoming album below:

CD – http://smarturl.it/LynyrdSkynyrd_CD
iTunes – http://smarturl.it/LynyrdSkynyrdLOADB

Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein from DOWN spoke to Guitar World recently about the band’s upcoming EP, ‘DOWN IV Part I – The Purple EP‘ and why those chose to release a series of EPs as opposed to a full album. Check out some extracts from the interview below:

How does the rest of the band factor into the riffs and melodies that you both come up with?

Keenan: Sometimes I try and write overly simple riffs or chord structures so that Kirk can have room to breathe and not be so structured by a technical riff. I think sometimes writing those riffs is a lot trickier than writing complicated, busy riffs, where you’re filling in all the negative spaces. So I tend to think like that, in terms of the “classic song structure; you’ve heard it before” kind of deal. Kirk will come up with things, and sometimes we’ll do variations on the same riff with Jimmy changing the drumbeat. That’s a pretty big Down trick too, where we hammer a riff into the ground and Jimmy does half time.

Windstein: I bring in riffs, but it’s very seldom that anyone’s riff is not tricked up a little bit by the other guy. Phil is in charge of arranging the songs. As far as me writing with Pepper, a lot of times I have a riff and he says, “Why don’t you do this,” or he has a riff and I do all the harmonies. The thing we have is weird; it works great, but we’re two completely different schools as far as guitar players and styles. We couldn’t be more different from one another, but when we work together, it’s magic. Certain things he does really well and certain things I do really well, but we understand one another and where we’re both coming from as players because we’ve played together so long. The very incarnation of this thing was 1991, so it’s been, like, 20 years.

We’ve done quite a bit of touring all over the world and quite a bit of writing, so it works out great. It’s like a symbiotic relationship in a way. It’s totally different, but we gel, we feed off of one another’s ideas, as do the other guys in the band. Everyone in the band plays guitar and writes riffs. In a lot of bands, one guy is the chief songwriter, but we get in there, throw around ideas, and if something clicks, we know it. Everybody puts their two cents in and we have what we think is a great final product.

For a metal band, you boys sure do have the funk!

Keenan: That comes from me! We have some pretty ham-fisted shit going on if we want to, and we’re not afraid to go backward and do that. That’s the fun thing. We’ll go back and beat an E chord to death all day long; I don’t give a shit. If a song is going a certain direction, I think a lot of bands try to control it to put their sound on it, whereas we just let the song go and take its course and try to push it as far as we can in the song’s direction. Another thing is that we’re from the South, so of course some of that slippery greasiness is part of our thing, it’s part of the New Orleans thing. That’s one of the main things about Down in terms of being a heavy band is that we’re more into the melodic.

Windstein: Oh, absolutely, and thank you! That’s very well put and I totally agree! To me, there’s one reason and that’s because we’re from New Orleans. We grew up on New Orleans music, which is funk and blues; it’s music you can shake your ass to. We play behind the beat a lot. In a band like Down, we would never dream of playing to a click track or anything like that. It’s all about being in the pocket. Jimmy is a great behind-the-beat drummer. That gives you funk. Funk is playing behind the beat. It’s got a groove. We can shift gears and go behind a groove. Live, it’s even slower than it is on record; we call it switching gears.

We like switching gears. It brings an element of funk and old school into it. We all credit that to the environment we grew up in, which was New Orleans, which was the music and booze and having a good time, and ever since we were kids you’d be at your grandma and grandpa’s crawfish boil on the weekend and you’d be hearing Dr. John and the Neville Brothers and the Meters and all these popular New Orleans bands. It’s instilled in you. We’re a product of the environment we grew up around. To me, New Orleans is the best music town in the world. The best drummers, the funkiest, badass drummers, are guys like Mean Willie Green, Russell Battiste and Stan Moore. They’re monster drummers. It’s New Orleans. There’s something in the water down there.

Down Gear Rundown:

KIRK WINDSTEIN
GUITARS: One ESP Eclipse; two custom, single-pickup, double-cutaway ESPs. AMPS: Two Orange Thunderverb 50 heads, four Orange 4X12 cabs with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.
EFFECTS: Maxon Tube Screamer, Boss Super Chorus, Dunlop “Slash” Wah pedal, MXR Phase 90, Boss TU-12 tuner.

PEPPER KEENAN
GUITARS: Two Gibson ES-335s and one Gibson Firebird for drop-tuning. All guitars totally stock.
AMPS: Two Orange Thunderverb 50 heads, four Orange 4X12 cabs with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.
EFFECTS: Tuner, rack-mounted wah, MXR Phase 90, Ibanez Square Button Tube Screamer and the Electro-Harmonix Pog and thick-ass bass picks.

Click here to read the full interview on Guitar World.

Click here to pre-order DOWN’s upcoming EP ‘DOWN IV Part I – The Purple EP’.

Following on from LAMB OF GOD‘s Randy Blythe being arrested in the Czech Republic, the band have slowly been finding their feet again and getting back into playing live. Billboard in the US spoke to the band’s drummer Chris Adler to get his view on the situation. Speaking about the band’s first live dates at Knotfest since Randy‘s return, Chris said:

“It was almost therapeutic to get back on stage. People were screaming the name of the band and, of course, screaming Randy’s name. So it was very cathartic to hear that and have that support and take the stage again. It felt great.”

He also spoke about the band’s stage show in response to the legal issues in the Czech Republic:

“It’s difficult for us to say in any way that this was something that was our fault and that we should change how we’re doing things, because we’re already trying to look out for those kinds of incidents”.

Click here to read the full interview on the Billboard website.

Click here to pick up a copy of LAMB OF GOD’s latest album ‘Resolution’.