When the DEVILDRIVER fellas were in the UK in October we were brave enough to head into the pit with a mobile phone during ‘Meet The Wretched’. Not only did we survive, the phone survived and we sent the footage over to the guys. This has now been posted on the bands website- click here to check out the footage.

Us Brits will get a chance to see the guys raise hell once more in the New Year when they play HammerFest II, which takes place March 11-13. Check out the tours page or the newest edition of Metal Hammer for full details…

Due to phenominal demand, a ruck of new dates have been added to the UK run of dates on the upcoming KISS tour of Europe.

In addition to those already announced, dates have now been added for Sheffield, Newcastle and Liverpool as well as an additional date for London, due to the show on May 13th selling out. The Glasgow show has now also sold out. Please note that as a result of the additional London show, the Birmingham date has now moved from the 11th May to the 5th. The full list of dates now runs as follows:

Sat 1st May Sheffield Arena
Sun 2nd May Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
Tues 4th May Liverpool Arena
Wed 5th May Birmingham LG Arena
Fri 7th May Dublin, O2 Arena
Sun 9th May Glasgow, SECC **SOLD OUT**
Mon 10th May Manchester MEN Arena
Wed 12th May London, Wembley Arena
Thu 13th May London, Wembley Arena **SOLD OUT**

Next week, in time honoured tradition, the staff here at Roadrunner UK will publish their top 10 albums of 2009.

In the run up, we thought we would give you a taster of what’s to come with some of the none Roadrunner albums that made it into our top tens. When they are published in full next week, you will be able to see how they racked up against some of our releases.

We start off with ‘Beggars’ by Thrice, which made it in to the top 10 of Head of Online PR and Street Promotion (and RR Webmaster) Sami Westwood [erm…me! Why the hell not?!]

I really am at a loss as to how to describe this to you. It’s pretty different from some of their other stuff. I just think it’s one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard. I adore it. It’s one of those albums you feel, right in the centre of your torso. It’s an experience; really atmospheric. Select tracks for me would be ‘The Weight’, ‘Doublespeak’ & ‘Talking Through Glass / We Walk Like Swing Sets’.

We’ll preview another RR office top 10 on Monday afternoon. Full top 10’s posted Wednesday 16th December…

As you will have seen from Wednesday’s news post, the METALOTTERY this week is another roll-over! That means that this weeks winner- who is plucked from random from the Roadrunner UK mailing list subscribers- will win the unclaimed prizes of a signed DOWN poster and a rare CD / DVD copy of THEORY OF A DEADMAN’S single ‘Hate My Life’ in addition to this weeks prize of a Rokk Clothing T-Shirt (that be the clothing line of ATREYU guitarist Dan Jacobs)!

The winner has until 5pm Wednesday 16th December to claim their prize before it rolls over into next weeks prize pot! If you are Peter Kearn then you should mail in to rrguest@roadrunnerrecords.co.uk from the email account linked to the mailing list, titling your mail METALOTTERY and including your full postal address.

So Peter Kearn– come on down!

If you are not signed up to the mailing list, you can do so over at ROADRUNNER UK HOMEPAGE and then you can not only get regular updates from us here but also get in on the METALOTTERY action!

Next up for a grillin’ from you lot in our Ask The Artist series is none other than TRIVIUM shredder and vocalist Matt Heafy!

If YOU have a burning question for Matt, then you should send it through to us here at Metal Towers and we will select the best ones to put to the man himself! You should mail rrguest@roadrunnerrecords.co.uk and title your email TRIVIUM ASK THE ARTIST. Please also include your FULL NAME in the email- if we pick your question, we like to pop your name in the feature when we post it up!

And whilst you lot get on with thinking up your questions for Matt, we will busy ourselves getting the answers from Satyr & Frost from SATYRICON, so watch this space for those coming soon.

If you missed the answers from DREAM THEATER’S Mike Portnoy, you can take a gander at those HERE.

**Dont forget that SATYRICON will be in London on the 20th December to play a show in London and TRIVIUM play a full tour in March 2010. Check full dates and ticket buy links HERE.

The surprise you can hear at the cleanliness of the KILLSWITCH ENGAGE tour bus in this snippet is absolutely genuine! It would seem that the guys have the nicest bus driver and tour manager in all the world!

Click on the player below as guitarist Adam D takes you on a tour of the bands much-cleaner-than-it-was-a-few-hours-before-the-tour, tour bus. If you went to catch the guys on the Rockstar Energy Drink Taste Of Chaos tour, this is the inside of the very bus you will have seen parked outside venues up and down the UK.

The guys were here in support of their current self titled album which is available online now.

We also interviewed the guys when they were here. If you missed that, you can catch that HERE.

It was on their recent visit to the UK that we met symphonic metallers DELAIN for the first time, and so we thought we would introduce their stunning vocalist Charly to you all in the latest of out Getting To Know You series.

What were you doing when I interrupted you to do this?
I was doing a soundcheck with Sonata Arctica, because I am doing a guest appearance with them. We’re on tour with them and they asked me!

Date of birth?
It’s 13th of May, 1987.

Where did you go to high school?
I went to high school in Zwollen, which is a little town in Holland. I went to a special high school that focuses on culture so there were a lot of art and music classes. I was in the school big band there, I joined my first high school bands there, and I met the girl who got me into songwriting there, so I’m very thankful for my time at that high school! I spent an extra year there because I was having so much fun!

When you were at high school, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be either a singer or a painter. I wanted to do something with art, I was confused at one point because I did a lot of drawing in classes, but I think singing has always been number one. I studied History of Art alongside my music, which was a nice way to learn about art, and that has also been an inspiration for my music. If you see a great painting, you can get great emotions from that for your music.

Tell us about the first band you ever played in.
Our first band was when I was 12 or 13, it was called The Mirage, which we found in an English dictionary because we wanted a cool-sounding name. We didn’t know it was pronounced ‘mirage’, so we pronounced it ‘mi-ridge’ for two years! We made silly rock songs and ballads and punk songs, with really great lyrics like ‘I love you / sky blue’. Hahaha! We had a lot of fun, we were real high school celebrities – at one point half the school was singing our songs, and we actually covered ourselves by playing a punk version of one of our ballads, that was fun.

Beverage of choice?
Hmmm, wine or coffee, wine or coffee, wine or coffee… I think coffee, I need coffee! If we drive past a Starbucks I have to stop.

What’s your favourite food?
I think probably a good paella.

Track of the moment?
Rabbit Heart by Florence and the Machine – I’m really addicted to it! They really got to me live. I saw their CD and I thought the cover was awesome, then I was at a festival and I saw they were playing so I thought I would see if I liked them first and she just blew me away. She has such an amazing, powerful voice. I think if there was a little bit more guitar in there, they’d be my favourite band ever, but I’ve listened to that album so many times since I got it, it’s awesome.

Album of the moment?
It would be Lungs by Florence and the Machine, but my all-time favourite is anything by Radiohead. Right now it’s Hail to the Thief, but any one will do!

Biggest pet peeve on the road?
I’m hesitating, I can’t choose between not being able to sleep, not being able to shower, or dirty toilets! Maybe the fact that you don’t get to choose your food. I really love food, when I’m at home I cook every single day.

Random fact about you?
I have two kittens. I was always a dog person, but now I have two kittens and they’re great. That’s not very metal is it? I don’t mind, they’re cute!

Movie of the moment?
I always liked Almost Famous. That’s probably why I wanted to be a musician! I still like Tommy a lot – The Who movie – and recently I liked Pan’s Labyrinth. I never liked fantasy movies but this one is awesome. If you don’t like fantasy movies, the next movie by that director (Guillermo del Toro) is called El Orfanato (The Orphanage), and that’s equally awesome – it chills you to your spine!

Delain will release album APRIL RAIN on January 25th. Check out tracks HERE and you can pre-order tha album at this location.

Miss the previous in the Getting To Know You Series? Click here for the last in series with Herman From DragonForce and work your way back…

DRAGONFORCE finsh up not only their UK run but the WHOLE of the Ultra Beatdown world tour tomorrow when they hit Liverpool tomorrow. We therefore thought it fitting to give you a sneaky peak behind the scenes with the guys!

Here’s some footage from our day on the road with the ‘Force in Glasgow last week!

You can pick up UKTRA BEATDOWN online NOW by pointing your mouse HERE.

Now THIS is a tune that was made for Friday night pub prep if ever there was one!

“We’re screamin’ like deamons, swinging from the ceiling
I got a fist full of fifties, tequila just hit me
Oh, we got no class, no taste, no shirt and sh*t faced
We got it lined up, shot down, firing back straight Crown!

Or is that just our typical night out on the town??!

Check out the video for NICKELBACK’S ‘Burn It It To The Ground’ in the player below, and mark the date January 3rd in your diary- that’s when you will be able to pick the track up as a digital single!

Oh and a little fact for you- this video was actually shot right here in the UK at the O2 Arena on the Dark Horse tour! Don’t forget the guys will play 2 further UK dates next year. You can check the dates and pick up tickets HERE.

Wendy Dio has posted an update on the Official Dio Website to let fans and well-wishers know how HEAVEN & HELL vocalist Ronnie James Dio is getting on after his recent diagnosis with stomach cancer, and we are happy to hear that Ronnie’s treatment has got off to a good start:

Well, it has been a very exhausting month – after all the neverending tests in Los Angeles, we flew to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and as soon as we arrived, we got a call from the MD Anderson Hospital that they had an appointment for us with the doctor we originally wanted, so we then flew to Houston to the clinic, and of course MORE tests, but Ronnie finished receiving his first chemo treatment on Wednesday, and all is going very well.

I would like to thank Tony Martell from the T.J. Martell Foundation, Dr. Stuart Aaronson from Mount Sinai, Lindsay Brown and Mike Carden from Eagle Records, and our very own Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, for all your help in getting us into MD Anderson, and also our friends Geezer and Gloria Butler, who flew to Houston to be with Ronnie while he had his chemo.

Ronnie and I are totally overwhelmed by the amount of well wishes that we have received from friends and fans – we are reading them all. Some make us laugh, some make us cry, but all of them are so filled with love that it gives us so much support and makes Ronnie even more determined to fight this battle and win. Thank you all for the positive energy and prayers.

–Wendy Dio