Congratulations going out to our e-teamer Cindy Newey on the birth of her new baby Ella Jade Claire! Ella’s a Halloween baby, born on Oct 31st, and is officially the very first Roadrunner team baby (and potentially our youngest teamer?)! Everyone here would like to wish Ella, Cindy, and her family all the very best for the future.

London Astoria 5th November. Well, what can I say, three hours of sheer brutality with a pit to match. It was insane! From the start, as soon as Chimaira hit the stage everyone was ready for the last gig of the roadrage tour. I was standing on the balcony and had a view over the pit and of the entire stage. Chimaira played songs that included ‘Power Trip’, ‘Eyes of a Criminal’, ‘Severed’ and the highlight of the show for me, ‘Pure Hatred’. Mark really got the crowd siked for this with him singing the first part of the chorus and the crowd repeating it. The part where Mark took on the role of Moses and split the crowd in two was quite simply stunning with bodies getting smashed and probably bones broken in the charge that followed! Ill Nino were just as good and really got the pit hyped with circle pits at least 10 metres wide throughout! Songs that stood out for me were ‘God save us’, ‘How can I Live’, ‘Unreal’ and ‘Te Amo… I hate you’. The last track played, ‘Liar’ was one of the best out of all three bands as everyone was just ready to rock as the whole floor went mental with the band repaying the favour. Cristian Machado (singer) went to the front and sang right in front of the crowd at their level on the floor which was appreciated by the pit as people crowd surfed over to get close. Last but not least were Spineshank ending the show in style. Starting with ‘Violent Mood Swings’ was sick and you could tell that they were ready for the occasion. Other songs played were ‘New disease’, ‘Synthetic’, ‘Still Born’, ‘Dead Inside’, ‘Slavery’ and ‘Punctured lung’ amongst others. Jonny jumped off the drum kit twice and crowd surfed at the end as Mark Hunter (chimaira) joined Spineshank for their last song. He too went to the front to the fans which was a great personal touch. All in all it was an awesome night with three of the best bands in the metal scene today and all for the price of a tenner! BARGAIN! If you didn’t go this year, don’t lose out next time, as if it’s as good as this year it SHOULD NOT BE MISSED! It was a classic! The only bad thing about being on the balcony was that you couldn’t get the stuff the bands threw out after their set. e.g. picks, drum sticks and set lists etc. But saying that one drum stick thrown by Tommy flew out onto the balcony as he launched it across the room! Mike Burton Mike … thanks for writing… and everyone else, do watch out for our photos of Cardiff and London to come, plus tales of the almighty aftershow to end the tour in style.

Hello everybody! Just a friendly update from your boys from Dirty Americans. Finally finished up our record with 3 Doors Down producer Paul Ebersold a few months ago. Needless to say we’re extremely excited. We’ve released a five song EP called “Kiss ’em All Goodbye” containing 3 of our album tracks in the U.S. and the feedback has been phenomenal. We’re also keepin busy as hell spreading the word and playin’ as much as possible so we can get over to see our old friends in the UK. Played with good old Ted Nugent a few weeks back at the House of Blues in Chicago. Fuckin awesome. 1300 people yellin’ and screamin’ and drinkin’! Feels good to be back in the saddle. Myron and I will be doing press in Europe in Late January to promote the March 15 release of our album “Strange Generation”, and rest assured we’ll be back shortly following to blow out some eardrums…. Detroit style. Well, gotta run. Heading back to Chicago and Wisconsin today to play some more dates. Peace! Jeff

First off, the point of this update is to hip you to the fact that coming Nov 17 is the DVD release of Slipknot’s Welcome To Our Neighborhood. Contained within this piece that was not on the band’s original VHS release of this home video, is never-seen-before footage of the band culled from Clown’s personal Slipknot archives (put to the music of “Scissors”). AND, you are invited to check out said footage online at www.roadrun.com/welcome.

So, a new DevilDriver press release hit the wires today…and it goes just like this: ALBUM IS MOST ADDED ACROSS THE BOARD AT METAL RADIO BAND GENERATING LOTS OF BUZZ ON SUPERJOINT RITUAL TOUR New York, NY: DevilDriver, the new band from Coal Chamber’s Dez Fafara, is making quite an impact in the Heavy Metal scene. The album, which landed in stores on October 28, is generating a buzz at the Metal Radio format and the band is picking up fans rapidly as they tour with Superjoint Ritual and Morbid Angel. The self-titled debut garnered #1 Most Added across the board at the Metal Radio trade charts this week, including CMJ Loud Rock, CMJ Crucial Spins, and FMQB Metal Detector. It is an incredible start for an album that will obviously dominate the format for some time. The band is also kicking up a stir on tour with Superjoint Ritual and Morbid Angel, wowing and winning fans with each subsequent performance. One concert-goer, who happens to host and program a Metal Radio show in Wisconsin, offered this testimonial about the band’s live prowess: “DevilDriver was just amazing: real true metal horns in the air metal, circle pits, everything.” As for Dez Fafara’s history, he formerly fronted Coal Chamber, who recorded three albums for Roadrunner and became one of the most talked about bands on the scene. Their self-titled debut went GOLD in the US. After the band broke up, Fafara formed DevilDriver and has already received accolades from the international press. Of the album, Terrorizer magazine emphatically states, “The majority of songs are tight and to the point, the musicianship is faultless and this will stir a circle/mosh pit in even the most cynical metal fan’s heart.” Hey, for more words on the album, one A&R Rep here at Roadrunner – before the DevilDriver album was complete – handed a rough of the CD to another employee here, saying, “Listen to this…it will make you shit your pants.” It’s true.

Unfortunately, the recently planned Dundee date with Spineshank (supported by Chimaira) was cancelled at the last minute. Many of you were disappointed and wrote in to ask why. The band wanted to apologise and explain to the fans, and a message from them is below. Spineshank would like to apologize and explain the reasoning behind the cancellation of our recent Dundee show. The stage at the venue was just too small to fit all of our gear on. We tried every option (have the band play on the floor, which would have allowed less people in the venue, we tried to get rid of some drums, we even brought up the idea of losing a band member for the show)! If we would have gotten rid of the samplers and guitar effects, we could have done a stripped down show. This would mean that we wouldn’t be able to play songs that contain samples, such as Asthmatic, New Disease, Synthetic, and the Height Of Callousness. These are some of our best songs and I think people would feel cheated if we didn’t play them. We have always done everything in our power to not cancel on our UK fans. (We’ve played while we were sick, we’ve played with broken hands, and even did an entire tour without our guitar player!) We don’t fly to the other side of the world to cancel on our fans, and we hate when we have no other choice but to do so. Even though I know you’re all disappointed I hope that you understand that we did try everything to make the show happen and that we are truly sorry that we had to cancel. Sincerely, Spineshank

In honour of Halloween, both Machine Head (playing in Dublin, Ireland), and Killswitch Engage (playing in Massachusetts, USA) decided to get a little dressed up for the occasion. A summary follows: KSE: orange wig, purple wig, black capes, pointy hats, moustaches, white sheets, etc. MH: fluffy hat, devil horns, Peter Criss (Kiss) mask, black paint, red paint, afro wig, bling bling jewellry, PVC trousers, a tie, basketball top, red suit jacket, and the list goes on…. Check out the evidence…. MACHINE HEAD PHOTOS Do note, our competition winner Steve White can be seen hanging with the boys in some of the following photos, and so can many of you in the crowd. Steve’s report of the show to come…. KILLSWITCH ENGAGE PHOTOS Do note, photos taken by Jay from theundergroundscene.net In other MACHINE HEAD news, the Machine Head Halloween set consisted of the following: Imperium, Take My Scars, The Blood The Sweat The Tears, None But My Own, Left Unfinished, Ten Ton Hammer, Trephination, Burning Red, In The Presence Of My Enemies, Blood For Blood, Descend The Shades Of Night, Davidian, & Block. Take note, you never know when this might come in handy for a competition…..

OH MY GOD! I don’t think words can express how good this concert was! I have waited months and months to see Chimaira. I was at the Academy for 12pm to make sure I was as the very front, and I am glad I did, because during the day, I met shit loads of band members, including all of Spineshank, Jim, Matt and Andols of Chimaira and Laz and Dave of Ill Nino, so it was quite a successful wait! It seemed to take forever but then the queue finally started moving and before I knew it I was inside the Academy! I ran to the front straight away, and watched the crew set up. Mark was stood at the side of the stage, clearly anxious and eager to get on with the show. It seemed to take another eternity before Chimaira came out. What an amazing entrance! As soon as Implements of Destruction hit, my heart started pumping so damn fast. Each member came out one by one as the crowd went insane, and then finally, after all the members had made their arrival on stage, they burst straight into the fast, hard-hitting opener, Power Trip! It was so intense and so fucking brutal. I headbanged my way through each song, showing my appreciation for the GODS in front of me! And then, before I knew it, they had gone. That’s my only complaint, their set was WAY TOO SHORT! Anyway, after another 20 minutes or so, the almighty Ill Nino made their entrance, with an amazing drum performance. Ill Nino sure know how to put on a show! They played their way through all their classics from Revolution and some of the new stuff, and all was amazing. Cristian has an amazing voice, one of the best I have heard. He can switch from an insane, angry growl to a beautiful singing voice in a split second. Very amazing performer. One thing I liked especially was the chanting he did with the crowd! “Ill Nino, Chimaira, Spineshank, Manchester, Roadrage Tour!”… that was pretty cool! Next on stage were Spineshank. Not one of my favourite bands, but they really amazed me on stage! Mike is absolutley insane! Spineshank tore through each song EASILY. And Jonny is a definate crowd-pleaser, with his ‘punk-rock’ stage-dive! Just as Spineshank were ending their set, an amazing thing happened. My absolute GOD Mark Hunter returned to perform The Height Of Callousness with Spineshank, and that was probably the highlight of my night. And then… it was over. And it was upsetting because that was a fucking amazing show! At least I know Chimaira are back in February headlinging! After the gig, I went back round the back and bumped into another member of Ill Nino, but I forget his name o) THIS WAS THE BEST SHOW I HAVE EVER BEEN TO! IF EITHER ILL NINO, SPINESHANK OR CHIMAIRA COME TO TOWN, I SWEAR TO GOD, GO! Thanks going out to Matt Hartley, for writing in…

A few words from Chimaira’s Mark… currently on the Roadrage tour… Hello people! So it is great to be back in the UK now, the past couple shows have been off the hook. If I had to pick my favorite UK show so far I would say Manchester. The fans there were just out of hand to say the least. Yesterday we got to do our first in store meet and greet in Newcastle. We figured it would be a Spinal Tap moment (meaning no fans would show up for those of you who have been living in a cave and haven’t seen the movie) but we were shocked to walk around the corner and see a ton of kids. It was a real treat to meet some of our UK fans and we had a great time. A few hours later we did the show and it seemed like Newcastle really enjoyed what they were seeing and hearing as far as we were concerned. We played pretty well considering half the band is really sick at the moment. Today we did another in store and we survived another potential Spinal Tap moment. Now it is time to soundcheck then destroy Wolverhampton. From what I hear this will be the best show of the tour (coming from other bands that have rocked Wolverhampton). Onward and upward, looking forward to coming back in February to headline the UK…so ya if this is news to you, hehe, we are coming back for sure! Till then…

Did You Know? Paul Masvidal, ex-CYNIC (and DEATH), will be performing a couple of rare solo acoustic sets at the following intimate London venues: 9:30pm (**FEATURED ARTIST SLOT**) Monday 17 November – THE SPICE OF LIFE, Romilly Street, Soho, London W1D 5NA 10:20pm (**HEADLINING**) Tuesday 02 December – THE SOUND CAFE BAR, Leicester Street, Leicester Square, London W1 If you are around, do check a show out.