KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES headed down to the hallowed studios of the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge yesterday to chat to Fearne Cotton and belt out a rendition of their current single ‘Matters At All’ and a cover of Marina & The Diamonds’ ‘Hollywood’.

Being the true gentlemen we all know them to be, the guys presented Fearne with some Welsh cakes baked lovingly by Joel’s grandma. Smooth.

You can listen back to the show by clicking here (UK users only), but we’re sorry to say the cakes are all gone.

As you’ll know if you dropped by the site earlier this week, MURDERDOLLS are back – and we’ve just got hold of the guys’ first studio blog as they put together their brand new album.

Hello Ghoulscouts!!! It’s Joey and Wednesday here! Coming at ya from high up in the Hollywood Hills, tracking our new album ‘Women and Children Last’. We’ve just completed all the drum tracks but one, and then it’s off to guitar and bass. This album is gonna make your faces cave in, we promise. You will die, like actually stop living after you hear this…hahahaha. We are starting to get cabin fever up here because we have been tracking day and night and never leaving. We can’t wait till you sick fuckers out there can hear it. We’re coming for your daughter Chuck!!!! Till next time. Joey and Wednesday.

You can check out a bundle of photos from the recording sessions by clicking here.

In a follow-up to last week’s beer testing in Germany by the O’Keeffe brothers, our colleagues in the RR USA office decided that they would like to to put the guys through their paces when they were over there with them, and so off they went with the whole band on tow, to Brooklyn.

Check out the clip below to see how the band faired when put through their paces by some friendly Brookly barmen.

AIRBOURNE hit this weekend in support of their new album No Guts, No Glory which was released here just a couple of weeks ago.

The tour dates can be found HERE, along with buy online links, and the album is available now in all good record stores and also at this location.

NICKELBACK’S Mike Kroeger scored 2/10. LAMB OF GOD’S Willie Adler scored 4/10. What are we talking about? Know. Your. Shit! The Roadrunner UK series where we quiz band members with trivia about their OWN bands!

This time, it’s the turn of HATEBREED’S Jamey Jasta. Click on the player below below to see how he stood up against the others. Next up, we’ll bring you MACHINE HEAD’S Robb Flynn! Watch this space!

Catch up on ALL of the Roadrunner UK regular features on our FEATURES PAGE.

Hatebreed’s new self-titled album is in stores NOW. Pick it up online HERE.

In part 2 of our chat with LYNYRD SKYNYRD guitarist Rickey, we chat about how a band with such a legacy as Lynyrd’s moves away from that and forward, and how the current record God & Guns was put together with producer Bob Marlette.

If you missed part 1, you can check that out by clicking here. We will bring you part 3 on Tuesday (March 30th).

You can pick God & Guns up online by pointing your mouse HERE.

So here we bring you another of our Gear Nerd series, where we chat so our musicians about their instrument of choice and what fuels their passion, influences their sound and the instruments / kit they use.

This time around we are chatting to Matt Heafy from Floridian metallers TRIVIUM about his guitar playing career and here, in part one, we get an in-depth insight into the music that drives and influences him. Come back Monday (March 29th) to learn more about his playing style and kit.

Roadrunner UK: So first up, how old were you when you picked up a guitar?
Matt Heafy: When I literally first touched a guitar?

RR: When you picked it up and were like ‘this is what I wanna do’.

MH: When I picked it up to play I was 11. When I first touched a guitar and posed with a guitar in a picture I was probably just a couple of months old. [Contemplates] Maybe 6 months old? 7 months old?

RR: So music and guitars have been around you all your life?

MH: They’ve been around, but I think my parents just wanted me to discover it myself, they never told me ‘oh hey go listen to these bands’. So the first thing I got into was pop punk and radio rock. As all kids from Florida do, ‘cause that’s all there is in Florida, pop punk and radio rock. So I got into those kinds of bands at first, like ska, and my first show was ‘Real Big Fish’, second show was like ‘Blink 182’. I tried out for like a pop punk ska band, my try out song was ‘Dammit’ (by Blink 182) but I wasn’t good enough to play it so they didn’t let me in their band. They’re actually still a band, I’m still buddies with them so they always joke about how they kicked me out, but they never let me in. I got the ‘Black Album’ (Metallica’s self titled release) when I was 12 and then I kind of rediscovered guitar and realised what else you could do with guitar. I got very much into metal at 12 and started practicing, made it into Trivium at 12 so yeah I practiced at ton when I got into metal.

RR: So were you ‘self taught’ or did you have lessons?

MH: Self taught for quite a bit of it, did lessons on and off for maybe two or three years, but I do not know anything formal music on guitar. I do on saxophone though…but that doesn’t help me on guitar.

RR: So which came first, saxophone or guitar?

MH: Guitar…er…let me think [contemplates] you know what- it might’ve been saxophone. It was in sixth grade, so however old I was then, I must’ve been 10 or so, yeah saxophone was first.

RR: So your parents must have been quite supportive, did they buy you your first guitar?

MH: Yeah, well the Les Paul I’m using in the ‘Shattering the Skies Above’ video is the first Les Paul my Dad ever got me- he got me that when I was 13 or 14. They were very supportive; my parents have always been very supportive, my family’s always been very supportive. My Dad managed the band from when I was about 13 till about…guess about a year ago. They still are and always have been very supportive.

RR: So was that Les Paul the very first guitar you got?

MH: The first guitar I got was probably like a Fender Strat Pack but I consider the first real guitar I got was that Les Paul Custom.

RR: So who would you say has inspired you the most; who were you looking up to the most when you first started out

MH: If it weren’t for James Hetfield (Metallica) I literally wouldn’t be here, I mean know that there are a lot of other musicians in that band aswell, especially from the ‘Black Album’ era, but it was Hetfield who really brought me into metal; like to see their live shows and see what a commanding presence he was, and to see how good of a guitar player he is. So, he got me into everything, then I bridged out from there.

RR: What other music do you think have influenced your playing

MH: So many. The first big chunk I got into, when I got into real metal was like, obviously ‘Metallica’, ‘Pantera’, ‘Megadeth’, ‘Testament’, ‘Slayer’, ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Black Sabbath’, ‘Judas Priest’, like those were all the bands I got into first. Then I got really heavily into melodic death metal, bands like ‘In Flames’ and ‘Children of Bodom’, ‘Arch Enemy’, ‘Dark Tranquility’, the list goes on and on through like ‘Opeth’, (thinks) what else?…there’s like so many melodic death metal bands, pretty much all of them like ‘Dusk Fall’, ‘Mercenary’ even though they are a Danish band…just all over the Scandinavian area. Erm, got a little into death metal, never too much into death metal, the band that influenced my playing the most was ‘Krisiun’, which is this ridiculously heavy death metal band from Brazil but I got my tremelo picking from them, which is like really fast picking, I got that from that band. Um, got into black metal then after that through bands like ‘Emperor’ and ‘Dimmu Borgir’ and ‘Mort Grooning’ [???- Ed] a Swedish band, ‘Dark Funeral’ and ‘Anorexia Nervosa’ is this French black metal band- ‘New Obscurantis Order’ is one of my favourite black metal albums. I joined a black metal band when I was like 16 or so in Florida wearing corpse paint, spiked armor, all that shit. Um, they kicked me out ‘cause I was still in Trivium and I wouldn’t leave Trivium. And I joined ‘Capharnaum’, which is a technical death metal band at like 16, 17 with Jason Suecof.

So I went through all the extreme metal things, towards my senior year, I guess I must have been 17 or so, when I started getting into hardcore, that era’s hardcore, bands like ‘Poison the Well’ and ‘Hatebreed’. ‘Tear from the Red’ (by Poison the Well) was really influential on me & Hatebreed’s ‘Perseverance’. I got into stuff like ‘Underoath’s’ ‘They’re Only Chasing Safety’ and ‘Beloved’s’ ‘Failure On’. Oddly enough, after being into satanic black metal I got into a lot of Christian metalcore and hardcore bands, a lot of Christian emo bands and I was into, still am into, bands like ‘Further Seems Forever’ and ‘Dashboard Confessional’, little things I never really talked about but were actually really big subtle influences on my sound, incorporated with huge bands like ‘Death’ and ‘In Flames’ and ‘Killswitch (Engage’) that all rolled into one I guess and helped craft some of my style and some of the interesting things that happened on ‘Ascendency’ and ‘Ember…’. So I was in and out of those things for a little while, not as long as black metal or melodic death metal or anything.

RR: Anything outside of the metal genre that you think have influenced your playing style?

MH: I think for me it’s more like bands like ‘Further Seems Forever’ and ‘Dashboard…’ maybe even like ‘My Chemical Romance’…things that took the guitar…I mean if you look at ‘Further Seems Forever’ mostly, every single chorus had a different guitar melody than a rhythm guitar part, same thing like ‘…Maiden’, so still it’s things that came from metal and probably came from metal bands that maybe they liked?

I remember when we did ‘The Crusade’ I got very heavily into ‘Queen’ and that’s pretty much all I would listen to and a little bit of ‘Kelly Clarkson’ and some pop stuff and when we were doing ‘Shogun’ really just into ‘The Beatles’. Lately, I’ve been into the entire ‘Depeche Mode’ catalogue, pretty much exclusively ‘Depeche Mode’ and classical music. Classical music has been the best thing I’ve listened to, it’s helped my playing out so much- not in a Yngwie Malmsteen way, like shreddy ridiculous arpeggios and stuff, even though I could do some of those stuff, not as much as I used to, I leave that to guys like ‘Dragonforce’. You know dudes like Malmsteen took classical in a lead guitar playing sense where I’ve been taking classical in a song writing sense. I just listen to it, I don’t know it formally but when people hear our new stuff they’ll know that it’s been a subtle influence in there and even and even the ‘Shattering…’ chorus, the rhythm guitar part I’m playing is very classically involved using three not chords, three separate note chords versus the standard power chord, which be like the same note, octave and the fifth, so I know a little bit about music but not too much.

I’ve been getting into bands that are going really well with the graphic novels I’ve been reading, like ‘Depeche Mode’s’ ‘Sounds of the Universe’ goes incredibly with ‘V for Vendetta’ by Alan Moore. The new ‘Kings of Leon’ album actually goes well with ‘Preacher’, which is the greatest story ever, it’s the greatest thing across any medium I’ve ever read, seen , played, anything, ever, ‘Preacher’ by Garth Ennis. ‘Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Year Zero’ goes incredibly with ‘Sin City’ by Frank Miller and ‘Black Celebration’ by ‘Depeche Mode’ goes incredibly well with anything that involves Batman. So, graphic novels and just getting into anything, any kind of music is really helpful. The last couple of things I got was ‘Wavering Radiant’, the new ‘Isis’ album and ‘Panopticon’, so yeah everything from symphonic black metal to avantgarde, I also have this CD that’s all sort of Brazilian music which is really interesting, anything form jazz to flamenco music, yeah, all music is good music to me as long as it’s good, I just got the new ‘Pink’ album too, I just wanted to see what it was like because I just heard she just did 3 sold out months of Australia (???) Which is like as much as AC/DC.

With me, it’s all about the song and it’s all about bringing something to the table. I’ll like it if I like it. I don’t think I’ll ever like pop-country, I think pop-country is terrible. I do like some folk bands like ‘The Devil Makes Three’, this incredibly guitar trio band that has no drummer and ‘Olver’ [ ?- Ed] is one of my favourite bands, used to be a black metal band that recorded out in the forest then went to make this thing that was the soundtrack for this movie that never came out, then had this album that they read passage from William Blake in.

Trivium have just finished their UK headline tour and have returned home to begin working on their follow-up to current album SHOGUN. You can pick Shogun up online HERE. head back fro part 2 of this feature Monday March 26th.

Just in case you missed the recent Noisecreep premi

It’s part 7 of our introduction to metal newcomers MUTINY WITHIN and in this snippet, we learn more about vocalist Chris Clancy.

In this clip we learn about his influences, how he rates himself as a vocalist, and just a little more about what makes the guy tick. We also learn the story about how Chris, from the UK, ended up the lead singer in a band from New Jersey…

The bands debut album ‘MUTINY WITHIN‘ is available digitally now, with the CD hitting stores on the 26th April. You can pick up the digi album / pre-order the CD online HERE.

It’s that time of year again! Yes it’s the METAL HAMMER Golden God Awards! Voting has now opened over at the Metal Hammer site and there are a number of Roadrunner bands in the running! If you’re a fan of any of them, it would be great if you (and your chums!) could pop in a vote!

Head to THIS LOCATION to place your votes and below you can see a summary of the Roadrunner bands in the running for which categories. Thanks in advance for your support!

Best New Band:
TAKING DAWN
DOMMIN

Best Live Band:
KISS
MACHINE HEAD
AIRBOURNE

Best International Band:
MEGADETH
LAMB OF GOD
STONE SOUR

Best Drummer:
CHRIS ADLER (Lamb Of God)
DAVE MCCLAIN (Machine Head)
MIKE PORTNOY (Dream Theater)

Shredder:
JEFF KENDRICK (DevilDriver)
PEPPER KEENAN (Down)

Riff Lord:
DAVE MUSTAINE (Megadeth)
SLASH
ZAKK WYLDE (Black Label Society)

ROADRUNNER are happy to announce we have signed Periphery for Europe, Middle East, India, Africa, Japan, Australia, & New Zealand!

Hailing from Washington DC, Periphery are one of the freshest progressive metal acts on the scene today. With their signature blend of polymetric grooves and soaring melodies, the band continue to push the envelope of technical/progressive metal music. Since their inception in 2005, Periphery have been relentless in their effort to have their music heard. Driven in part by a particularly strong online presence, the band have gone on to notch up a multitude of touring alongside bands including DevilDriver, Lamb Of God, and Despised Icon. Periphery currently have upcoming US shows with Fear Factory, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Darkest Hour.

Periphery are Spencer Sotelo – Vocals, Misha Mansoor – Guitars, Alex Bois – Guitars, Jake Bowen – Guitars, Tom Murphy – Bass, and Matt Halpern – Drums.

The band’s self-titled debut album is set for release on 10 May, 2010.

Check the guys out over at Myspace.com/periphery. Follow them on Twitter HERE.