Our friends over at Classic Rock and MusicRadar have premiered the first in a series of clips featuring the guys from LYNYRD SKYNYRD in the studio. Watch as the guys talk you through the recording of the new album and the band’s history. Click the links below to watch the first clip:

Click here to watch part 1 on Classic Rock’s website.
Click here to watch part 1 on MusicRadar.

The Classic Rock fanpack and the digital version of the album is out on the 20th of August, with the Roadrunner physical release coming out a month later.

You can pre-order ‘Last Of A Dyin’ Breed‘ below:

iTunes: http://smarturl.it/LynyrdSkynyrdLOADB
Classic Rock Lynyrd Skynyrd Fanpack: http://smarturl.it/LynyrdSkynyrdFanpack

In May 2012 SLASH stormed the charts worldwide with the release of his second solo album, APOCALYPTIC LOVE. Registering a No 4 chart entry in the USA and No 2 in Canada, SLASH replicated this success in both Europe and Australasia with a further 13 Top 10 chart entries. Testament to a unique artist who has produced an incredible album.

APOCALYPTIC LOVE features SLASH and his bandmates Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators — Myles Kennedy (vocals), Brent Fitz (drums) and Todd Kerns (bass)– and is out now on SLASH’s own label DikHayd International in the US and through Roadrunner Records in Europe, Middle East, and Africa

In the UK, the album was also released in an exclusive Classic Rock Fan Pack form – providing a unique collectable package containing the studio album with bonus tracks alongside a specially created magazine with unseen behind-the-scenes content put together by Classic Rock magazine.

APOCALYPTIC LOVE followed his 2010 debut album SLASH (also released in Fan Pack format and which has now sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone) and his November2011 first-ever live solo album, the two-CD/DVD set Made In Stoke 24/7/11.

Following a sold out date at Hammersmith Apollo and a show stealing headline of the second stage at Download Festival in June 2012, Slash returns to the UK in October 2012 for a series of headline shows:

Sunday 7th October 2012 Edinburgh, Corn Exchange *
Monday 8th October Manchester, O2 Apollo
Tuesday 9th October Birmingham, NIA
Thursday 11th October Brixton, O2 Academy
Monday 15th October Newcastle, O2 Academy

Tickets go onsale at 9am GMT Friday 3rd August 2012 priced at

Jesse Leach from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE has created an awesome alter ego interviewing personality called ‘Salty Rizz’ and has been asking some funny questions of the bands on the Metal Hammer Trespass Tour. The clip is both bizarre and hilarious – and you can check it out for yourself below:

SLIPKNOT‘s Joey Jordison has a special feature in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, out now! Joey talks through everything from his career with SLIPKNOT to drumming for the Biggest Metal Band In The World and the loss of his best friend, Paul Gray.

Also in the latest issue: MACHINE HEAD‘s Robb Flynn faces off against Rise To Remain‘s Austin Dickinson in a special head-to-head interview.

Get your copy now by clicking here.

Pick up a copy of SLIPKNOT‘s new album ‘Antennas To Hell’ from the below retailers:

Special Edition:
Play.com
iTunes
Amazon

Standard Edition:
Play.com
iTunes
Amazon

Down are set to release their highly anticipated new offering, Down IV Part I – The Purple EP in September and if that wasn’t awesome enough news, the EP will be the first in a series of four EPs that the band are releasing. Check out the album cover for the first EP below and click here to find out how you can hear the track ‘Witchtripper‘ from the EP:

Watch this space for further updates!

SLIPKNOT announced the launch of the band’s first ever digital app across Mac iOS and Android platforms, simultaneous with the release of their latest release ‘Antennas To Hell‘ this last Monday. We posted a news story about the app earlier this week but we’ve been sent some further information, which we thought we’d share. See below for the official blurb, which goes on to explain the app further:

Appropriately entitled “Slipknot: Wear the Mask,” the app is as much about the fans as it is the band. The point is for fans to learn something about themselves through Slipknot’s unique perspective and lens. “Wear The Mask” has social, gameplay, and photography aspects, but it is not any one of those things exclusively.

Clown of Slipknot notes:

“Welcome to what we are. Welcome to what you are, and what we together have always been. Slipknot is not a band. We are a culture and you are our blood. We play for blood. Enjoy your new face. It has always been there with you. Strap it on and let’s infect the entire world together as one. It’s time to Wear The Mask. Stay (sic) and enjoy it.”

Typical band apps are often either an abbreviated website with tour dates and ticket links or a simple game that fans play once before growing bored. With “Wear The Mask” Slipknot and their partner agency, Saatchi & Saatchi – New York, they aimed to do more. Together they wanted to create an experience for fans that allowed them to completely immerse themselves in the culture of Slipknot. Saatchi & Saatchi NY’s Chief Creative Officer Con Williamson adds: “Slipknot’s Facebook presence alone is over 12 million fans, so we wanted to create a way to give each one of those people an individual experience with the band. “Wear the Mask” is an engaging, layered and multi faceted way to do that. Fans will discover an app that’s complicated, disturbing, challenging and fresh, and really true to their core. This will allow them to keep finding new ways to get even more lost in the awesome world of Slipknot.”

“Slipknot: Wear the Mask” can be downloaded at http://wearthemask.slipknot1.com.

Pick up a copy of SLIPKNOT‘s new album ‘Antennas To Hell’ from the below retailers:

Special Edition:
Play.com
iTunes
Amazon

Standard Edition:
Play.com
iTunes
Amazon

DOWN are set to release a six-song EP, now titled Down IV Part 1 The Purple EP in September and the first single ‘Witchtripper’ premiered exclusively on RollingStone.com yesterday. Click here to listen to the new track.

Anselmo told Rolling Stone that like the well-known Pantera songs ‘Fucking Hostile’ and ‘Psycho Holiday’, ‘Witchtripper’ was a song title that he had to be convinced of at first:

“Somebody would suggest to me, ‘Hey, man, that might make a killer song title’ and at the time I’m like, ‘You’re out of your fucking mind. There’s no way I’m gonna call a song ‘Witchtripper’! I was like, ‘OK, check this out, you dicks. ‘Witchtripper’ you want, ‘Witchtripper’ you will get. I laid it on them and sure enough, they were right – it worked, as usual. So there goes the genius of Phil Anselmo. Always doubting, and I’m the last one to get it.”

It’s been a while since DOWN have released any new material, the last being ‘Down III: Over The Under’ in 2007 and 2011 also saw a line up change for the band, with frontman Phil Anselmo’s Pantera cohort, Rex Brown stepping down from bass duties and former Crowbar man, Pat Bruders taking over. DrummerJimmy Bower states, “He brought a new life into the band, and a new style on bass, and it’s fuckin’ killer, man! It made total sense to get Pat.”

Read the full interview on RollingStone.com here.

DOWN are heading to the UK in October and you can find the dates below:

Fri 19th October – MANCHESTER Academy
Sat 20th October – BIRMINGHAM Institute
Sun 21st October – LONDON Roundhouse

Tickets are on sale now, priced

TRIVIUM have revealed a trailer for Download Festival 2012 on their website this morning. Follow the band from the bus to the stage as they prepare to play the UK’s Biggest Rock & Metal event. You can watch the whole thing now by clicking here and joining Triviumworld today!

Our brothers from a yankee mother at Roadrunner US caught up with SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor to look back at his career as the band’s singer and lyricist. See what they spoke about below:

How were the songs chosen for Antennas to Hell? Did everyone vote? Were there songs you wanted on there that didn’t make it?

It was kind of an easy jump, to be honest. We basically just looked at our set list [laughs]. At this point, we’re kind of the band that’s got the best of both worlds. We’ve got these ‘radio hits,’ and then we’ve got songs the fans have made hits, the anthems. It really took no time at all to get those together, and it’s a good problem to have. And trust me, this band shudders at the thought of calling something a ‘greatest hits’ or a ‘best of.’ To us, it was just a compilation to a, celebrate the fact that our fans have been with us since Day One, and b, to basically celebrate what we call the Paul years. To pay respect to that, to the years that we had Paul, and everything we built together. That’s why we went kind of above and beyond with the packaging, and putting the extra content in there, and just making sure that people didn’t just get another tired best-of. If Slipknot’s gonna do a compilation, we’re gonna do a Slipknot compilation.

You perform behind a mask, so do you write Slipknot lyrics as that character in some ways? Are lyrics for Slipknot qualitatively different from lyrics for Stone Sour?

That’s a good question. I don’t know, per se. First off, there’s no playing a character when you’re trying to tap into something as gnarly and unhinged as Slipknot. You’re tapping a valve that you have within you—you either feel these things, or you don’t. You’ve either lived through this pain, or you haven’t. There’s no way to make this stuff up. So for me, it’s basically letting that part of me off the leash a little bit. Cause I’ve got a very, very dark side to my history, my personality, my creativity, my infatuations, basically. And Slipknot allows me to let those go and indulge them, but then pull them back. Stone Sour, there’s a hint of that there, but with Stone Sour, it’s much more mellow. It’s a different kind of passion. There’s definitely a little more light in Stone Sour than with Slipknot, although they both have very positive messages at the end of the day. And that’s where it becomes important. So when I put the mask on for Slipknot, it’s actually revealing that side of me that I keep in check, that I keep a little closer to the chest, because if I just let that guy go, oh, God, it’s messy. It’d be really bad. So for me, it’s a very positive way of working out some serious issues. And over the years I’ve been able to let go of a lot of stuff and figure a lot of stuff out.

What would you say is the most personal song in the Slipknot catalog, for you?

Hm. Oh, man, there’s a lot. ‘Snuff’ is up there. ‘Snuff’ is one of those songs that’s so heavy in such a different way, that’s gonna resound with a lot of people for a very long time. ‘Eyeless’ is up there, just for the fact that I was dealing with pseudo-intellectual psychiatric meddling, basically—people trying to tell me that my issues were manufactured, or it was some kind of disorder that makes me feel the way I do, and it’s like, really? There’s a lot of deep shit going on in a lot of the music, especially in the first phase of our career; the self-titled and Iowa were really just scream therapy sessions for me. But then, once we got to Vol. 3, the lyrics and the content changed. It was more about trying to figure out what’s next than trying to let go of what had happened in the past. So I think each song represents a stepping stone, getting me to where I am today. Maybe on any given day, one of the songs could mean a completely different thing. But you kind of have to take it as a whole, you can’t pick it apart.

Now, you’re saying the early songs were therapy for you, but there’s eight other guys to contend with. Have you ever written a lyric that other bandmembers told you they couldn’t stand behind?

You know, the interesting thing is that the guys have always really had my back. They’ve really given me carte blanche to get whatever I need to off my chest. Clown and Joey go out of their way to let me know that they support whatever I’m saying, no matter what. It feels good to know that your bros have your back when it comes to that. I’ve had the guys in the band come up to me individually and tell me what their favorite lyrics are. So it’s a trust thing. They trust where I’m coming from with these lyrics. They trust that my heart’s in the right place and I’m really trying to help people instead of hurt people, and that just gives you so much confidence as a singer and a writer that you can explore so many different things. I’ve been really lucky.

Are there any songs that, when you sing them today, in 2012, you think, “Wow, I was really 25 years old when I wrote that?”

Not really, man. I’ve always been really—the great thing about the way I write is, I don’t put anything out there until it’s done done. There’s maybe a handful of lines here and there I wish I could have maybe explored a little further, and maybe I just kind of went with what was on the top of my head, but you’ve gotta stand behind it. And I can’t think of one song or one line or one chorus that I can’t say I support. I can listen to recordings and hear how young I sound, and I’m like, “Whoa, Jesus, what’s up, 12-year-old?” But for the most part, the lyrics have really—I think they’ve held up really well. I never want to feel dated when I’m writing something, so I really try to make it as timeless as possible.

At the same time, because of the personal nature of your lyrics, are there songs that when you sing them, take you back to the time and place that inspired them?

Oh, yeah. Every night, man. Every night is pain. You basically look down at the set list and you have to cue that up, you have to tap into that, and there’s nothing easy about it. It’s really hard sometimes. But at the same time, it’s important. It doesn’t lessen so much as it gets easier to handle. It’s one of those things where, the more together you feel in your mind, the more you can handle those memories. The thing I had to learn a few years ago is that at some point you have to stop being just a survivor and start living, or you’re not going to have anything. You’re not going to get any joy out of anything, because you’re just trying to get through it. And once I figured that out, it became a lot easier to deal with those memories, to let them out and share them. When I look into the audience, I see so many people who I think can relate to that, and more than likely in a much darker sense, because kids today have it so much worse than I did.

Yeah, plus there’s the idea that you sort of balance the pain you’re writing about with the whole “being in a rock band is awesome” thing.

Yeah [laughs]. And that’s my personality coming out. It can’t all be doom and gloom. It can’t all be about the bad shit. I mean, at the end of the day I’m the luckiest fucker on the planet. I’m in two huge bands, I get to make any kind of music I want, I get to play in front of thousands of my friends, I mean, what the hell do I have to bitch about? I may get stressed out and stretch myself thin because I’m working too hard, but really, I have no complaints, man. It’s still pretty crazy that we get to do this. You know? I mean, you wanna talk about betting on a dark horse with the longest odds—we made it, and I’ll never look that gift horse in the mouth.

I remember seeing you guys at Roseland in 1999, with Coal Chamber, Machine Head and Amen. And I said to a friend of mine, “This band is gonna own the world in a year.” Because I’d never seen anything like it.

Oh yeah, the crazy thing about that is, that was basically the last tour that we opened for anyone, because nobody else would take us out. We had three days off between Ozzfest ’99 and the Coal Chamber tour, and as soon as the Coal Chamber tour ended, we went home, and we were like, “Wait a minute—nobody else wants to take us out?” [laughs] So we basically had to learn how to book ourselves. We had to learn how to put all this stuff together. We had to learn how to do all this crap, and it was a great education. That’s how much it meant to us, the idea that no one’s going to control our destiny just because they fear what we have to provide.

We launched a competition last week for maggots to submit their photo memories, with a chance to win a special maggot memory photo book. Find out more about that competition by clicking this link and be sure to hashtag your Instagram posts with #SlipknotATH!

Pick up a copy of SLIPKNOT‘s new album ‘Antennas To Hell’ from the below retailers:

Special Edition:
Play.com
iTunes
Amazon

Standard Edition:
Play.com
iTunes
Amazon

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE are out ont he road as part of the Metal Hammer Trespass America tour and the other night they played a new song, titled ‘No End in Sight’. Our friends in the Roadrunner US office got Jesse on the phone to talk about the tour, writing lyrics for the band’s upcoming album and much more. Check out the interview below:

You premiered a new song Friday night – are you playing it every night now?

It depends. We’re just trying to switch it up a little bit. We want to add a little bit of excitement to the shows, get a little bit of buzz going so more people come out, just having fun with it, you know?

What’s your favorite song to sing on this tour?

Probably “This is Absolution,” now, just because it’s so thrashy in the beginning, it reminds me of Carcass. It’s a really energetic song, just gets the crowd going.

Do you ever find yourself mentally measuring the crowd response to Alive Or Just Breathing songs versus Howard Jones-era songs?

I don’t think consciously I do that, no, I’m just overall trying to have the crowd enjoy themselves, regardless of what style or what era of Killswitch it is. Admittedly, the Howard-era stuff, those choruses are so big, they’re so easy to sing along to, so that’s usually what gets the crowd going for sure.

How long are you playing?

45 minutes. About nine songs, give or take, depending what songs we’re doing.

Do you wish the set was longer, or is this a good way for you to get back on the horse, so to speak?

I can go either way. I can play longer or shorter. I find that 45 minutes is a sweet spot, though, because your energy level stays pretty high. Past that, when you’re running around the stage like a maniac, you tend to get more tired. But I’m good for about 45 minutes to an hour. That’s usually a really nice time for me, to keep my energy high.

For me, 45 minutes is about right as a spectator, too.

[laughs] Yeah, exactly. And then after a while, you’re like, “Yeah, all right…” You’ve gotta really love a band to stay there and watch it. I totally agree with you.

So what can you say about the next record at this point? I’ve got a couple of songs done, I’ve got a bunch to go, but I’ve got a lot of ideas. I listen to it every once in a while out here just to keep me familiar with it, so when I get home and attempt to finish the record, it’s still fairly fresh in my mind. Sonically, this is definitely – it’s got a more urgent feeling to it. It’s a lot faster, there’s definitely huge melody going on, but the songs are a lot shorter. Not one song really goes over the three and a half, four minute mark. I just anticipate lyrically and vocally it to be a very urgent record. We’re at a state in this world right now where someone needs to talk about what’s going on. There’s a lot of apathy in this world, there’s a lot of really screwed-up stuff in our government and the world’s governments, and the whole class vs. class thing, the protests that happened all around the United States – there’s a lot of unrest, and I think it kinda needs to be touched upon. And it’s up to the metal community to have a voice, and that’s what I’m aiming to do with this next record – make it very important. Make it matter.

Are you writing all the lyrics for the new album yourself?

Yes.

Given that you’ve been out of the band for 10 years – obviously they’ve welcomed you back, but is everybody on the same page regarding what the songs will be about? Are you running the lyrics past them as you go?

Oh, yeah, this band is a total democracy, which is great. Coming back into it, the guys basically said, “Do what you wanna do – we trust you,” but I like to show them my progress, so I send them demos, I’ll show them my lyrics and concepts for the songs. And so far, every single person’s been really excited about my ideas, and probably just the energy that I’m bringing to the project.

Do you write much on the road, or do you need down time?

Yeah, you kinda need down time. It’s tough out here. Being a creative person on tour’s tough, because you’re so used to a schedule, and it sounds funny, people who don’t do it wouldn’t really know, but it’s tiring. You don’t really have a lot of creative time when you’re out here. You’re trying to socialize with the other bands, doing your show, and to be creative you’ve gotta hide somewhere and get privacy, and that’s rare on tour. So I’ll go for long walks by myself outside of the show grounds and attempt to write, but it’s really tough out here. I’ve had a few days the past two weeks where I’ve had a little bit of creativity, but outside of that, the road isn’t really conducive to creative thought, for me.

How does writing for Killswitch differ from writing for Times of Grace, or even for your old band, Seemless?

I think for Times of Grace, that was just – that record happened at a particular time in my life where I couldn’t help but write those lyrics, ’cause that’s exactly what I was going through. I think with Killswitch now, I’m looking outward to the world, and I want people to be able to relate to it on a bigger level. Times of Grace was a very personal album for me and Adam [D.], and as far as Seemless goes, I mean, Seemless has been gone for years now. I’m definitely a different person than I was in the Seemless days. I think more importantly, with the Killswitch stuff going forward, I want it to be crucial, I want it to matter. I want people to be able to relate to it, you know?

I understand you’re friends with Matt from Trivium – have you guys been going out to eat much on this tour?

The one time he had a great place lined up and invited me, I didn’t have my per diem because I’d just bought a really expensive skateboard [laughs]. So I couldn’t afford to go out to eat with him, so I made a rain check. But we always geek out about food and beer and wine. He’s definitely one of my favorite people out here. It’s funny, man, touring life is strange. You get into your routines, you get pulled in your own directions, and I haven’t seen him as much as I’d like to. We definitely have plans – if nothing else, we’re gonna meet up in Chicago for a foodie man date. [laughs]

In Newark, when you guys play the Prudential Center on August 18, there’s a ton of really good Spanish and Portuguese restaurants around there. Right on. He’s on it, man, he knows. When we get to an area, he immediately knows what’s in the area, what’s good, and he’ll just give me the rundown. It’s great.

As you get older, is finding good food and stuff like that on the road more important than going to a strip club or some other rock ‘n’roll clich