The very latest Machine Head update from the man himself…… What up Fuckers?!?!?!?! Motherfuck, motherfuck, Noich, Noich, Noich….. Smoking weed, doing coke, smoking blunts, who smokes the blunts, we smokes the blunts, who drinks the Brown Eyes, we drinks the Brown Eyes…. And I drank A LOT of Brown Eyes the other night. Whe-he-he-hew. Cuh-lord have mercy. Went to the Kerrang Awards, and had fuckin blast. The host / and editor Ashley Bird was fuckin’ hysterical. Every Rock, Metal, Punk, and Emo-core band you’ve ever / never heard of was there. Hung out with Cristian and Laz from Ill Nino all night. Acey from the Murderdolls. Met, and got d-ru-huh-huh-unk with a really good emo-core (?) band called Funeral For a Friend, who won Best British Newcomer and are super cool guys. Met the singer for Killing Joke. The singer for The Used (who I don’t really like, but was a really nice guy). Kicked it with Shavo from System for days, Nick from Dimmu. As well as hung with all my record company people who were cool enough to get me the hottest ticket in town at the last minute. The Kerrang awards were a charming mix of rock-n-rollerz, and incredibly snobby, British music biz-ers who would start off conversations like… “Hey Robb nice to meet you, it’s a shame your band never made it…” No class man. No class. Hung out with Lars from Metallica (who were there to pick up a Kerrang Hall of Fame award). And I gotta say, he was a cool fuckin’ dude. Never really hung out with him before other than, “Hi… bye… thanx for Donington”. But the guy definitely gets a bad rap man. VERY down to earth, funny. He took, and still takes, an unbelievable amount of shit for the whole Napster thing. He was the figurehead. Everyone basically blamed “him” for it, even though the “band” made the decision. Yet he still gets out there, and does his thing. Regardless of where you, or I stand on that issue, “he” took a stand for something “his band” believed in, took a firestorm of shit for it, and still keeps going. I think it would be tough to even show your face after all that. It must have been. Think about it. Could you do the same? Put yourself in his shoes. Would you want to go on as the Metallica mouthpiece after that? Could you take a stand for something you believed in, (whatever it is), and take THAT much shit, and still do what you do? I don’t know if I could. I think I could, but I’m sure it’d be pretty fuckin’ brutal. Don’t really know where I’m going with this, just some random thoughts I had after meeting him. As you may have noticed, I’m still in England. Still wrapping up a couple of songs. We went a little over time on the mixing *cough*, in no small part because of me *cough, cough*, and Colin *cough, cough, cough*. Not to worry my Metal Maniacs, the metal is flowing like molten hot lava. We wrap up in a few days, and Master on the 31st of August. For sure! WOO-HOO!!! An 8 song advance went out to journalists the other day, so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before…*ahem*. Now I ain’t saying that every journalist is gonna do that, but you know… The folks at our record company had a good idea, though – they suggested putting different mixes for different versions of each CD that’s sent out, which we did. There are guitar up mixes, guitar down mixes, alternate vocal mixes, even no swearing versions floating around out there, that way, if it gets out, it’ll make it easier to trace who leaked it. So, we’ll see. The feedback to TTAOE has been really positive so far. Did a playback session for the press, and everyone was really stoked, calling it a comeback and shit. Did another playback for press, RR street team-ers, and contest winners at a rad Metal club in London called The Intrepid Fox. People were pretty much freaking, really good reaction. Hollerin’ that it sounds like (as we say in MH) the B-word. I chock that up to the free drinks at the open bar… you know… the more you drink, the less we stink. LOL The coolest comment I heard, was from a kid who, when talking about the melodic stuff on the record said, “I never doubted that you we’re capable of making a record like this, I just never thought you would”. Thanx!… er… Actually I thought it was a great, incredibly honest comment, and it meant a lot. Start the press tour next Monday. Shooting a video for “Imperium” when I return mid-Sept. Brand new MP3’s coming to the site soon. Week 2 of the video diary comin’. More Euro tour dates comin’, plus Support bands to be announced… keepin’ our fingers crossed. Album cover to be up very soon. New photos. New merch in production. Track listing is finalized: 01. Imperium 02. Bite The Bullet 03. Left Unfinished 04. Elegy 05. In The Presence Of My Enemies 06. Days Turn Blue To Gray 07. Vim 08. All Fall Down 09. Wipe The Tears 10. Descend The Shades Of Night Bonus version of TTAOE that will include a bunch o’ shit that only “hardcore” MH fans will appreciate. In other words… don’t buy it if you’re not!! It will also include 5 unreleased demo versions of the TTAOE songs. Full lyrics included with CD, as well as song titles “on” the CD, as per your request, MH1erz. EEEEEEeeeeeeeee. Motherfuck, motherfuck, Noich, Noich, Noich….. Smoking weed, doing coke, smoking blunts, who smokes the blunts, we smokes the blunts, who drinks the Brown Eyes, we drinks the Brown Eyes…. Over and out. -Flynn

With the Roadrage tour kicking off in less than 6 weeks, we’ve just launched a new microsite. Check it out at http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/roadrage! Enter to our competition win gig tickets, meet & greets with Spineshank, Ill Nino, & Chimaira, t-shirts, posters, CDs, DVDs, shotglasses and more.

The ‘Underworld’ soundtrack is avilable from Monday Sept 1st on CD only for around 퉌£11.99 from the following stores: HMV – 퉌£2 off with your ‘Download 2003’ discount card. VIRGIN. MVC SANITY MUSIC ZONE Plus your local official ‘Roadrage’ store. Check here for your nearest local store.

So, amongst your web travels, we have another doubleDrive piece from down under to share with you – check out THIS LINK. What you have here, is an interview with frontman Donnie Hamby done during their travels in Australia. Enjoy. More updates of the doubleDrive front coming shortly. ps – check out the one pic of the drummer at the above mentioned link, you’ll see why this story is titled ‘JUST LIKE COOP’.

Chimaira are pleased to confirm 2 instore signing sessions during the forthcoming Roadrage tour. You can meet the band at: Sunday November 2nd @ 2pm Steel Wheels 15-17 Vine Lane Newcastle NE1 7PW Tel: 0191 230 4886 Monday November 3rd @ 1pm Highway 61 40 Queen St Wolverhampton WV1 3JW Tel: 01902 576161

If you picked up a copy of Roadrunner’s low-price ‘Roadrage’ DVD compilation last year then you’re going to love us even more this year. As well as expanding the DVD to a massive 22 tracks, you can also get it absolutely FREE by buying 3 Roadrunner CD’s for 퉌£20 from a range of over 35 titles that include the latest releases from Spineshank, Chimaira, Murderdolls & Stone Sour. Alternatively, you can pick up the DVD or a CD separately for only 퉌£7.99. The offer, once again, is only available at Virgin & V.Shops and starts Sept 1st.

The mighty MACHINE HEAD are set to tour the UK in December, in support of their forthcoming album, ‘Through The Ashes of Empires’, which is set for a 13th October release. Robb Flynn, Adam Duce, Dave McClain and new guitarist Phil Demmel (Robb’s former co-hort in Bay Area thrashers, Violence) are set to play the following shows: 27th November -LONDON Astoria 28th November – LONDON Astoria 29th November – PORTSMOUTH Pyramid Centre 1st December – BRISTOL Academy 2nd December – NOTTINGHAM Rock City 3rd December – BIRMINGHAM Academy 4th December – MANCHESTER Academy 5th December – GLASGOW Barrowlands Tickets are on sale now from box offices and all usual agents, priced 퉌£14 and 퉌£16 in London. You can also buy tickets from www.cclive.co.uk. MACHINE HEAD’s fifth studio album harks back to their old school roots and is sure to please fans of their earlier material. The new album will be available as a special limited double CD edition with a slipcase. However, this version of the CD will only be available on store’s initial orders of the album… so once their stock is gone, that’s it, no more double CD slipcase version. The 2nd CD will contain 5 demos (that were done for this record), the live video for ‘The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears’, the new video for ‘Imperium’ and footage that was filmed during the recording of ‘Through The Ashes Of Empires’.

Last night at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, the 2003 Kerrang! Awards took place. On the Roadrunner front, the Awards were attended by Cristian & Laz from Ill Nino, Robert Flynn from Machine Head, and Acey from the Murderdolls… the Murderdolls with 2 nominations for Best Live Act and Best Video for White Wedding. And the winners are… Best International Newcomer Evanescence Best British Newcomer Funeral For A Friend Best Album The Darkness – Permission To Land Best British Act Feeder Best International Act Linkin Park Hall Of Fame Metallica Best Single Good Charlotte – Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous Best Video Electric Six – Gay Bar Event Of The Year Download Festival (note: Acey joined selected others onstage to accept this award, as the Murderdolls played the festival) Classic Songwriter Red Hot Chili Peppers Spirit Of Independence Turbonegro Best Live Act The Darkness Spirit Of Rock Jackass With the Awards ceremony done, all gathered at Rouge for the Kerrang! Awards after-party – with the beers a-flowing, a merry time was had by all… Cristian & Laz running round snapping shots of themselves with System Of A Down, Lars Ulrich, & Linkin Park amongst others… Robert even indulging in a spot of impromptu The Darkness kareoke (we believe in a thing called love too)… Acey, cool as ever, taking all the shenanigans in his stride. Watch this space for their collective photos and memories of the event. We make no apologies if said memories are somewhat confused and hazy… the Roadrunner presence was still going strong after 4am this morning….

Once upon a time back on July 10th on Elm Street, Ill Nino’s latest video was shot. Well, it is here for you all to see. “How Can I Live” video now in our VIDEO section.

Sometimes the best words to describe something are no words at all. To My Surprise, the surprising new band comprised of Shawn Crahan, Brandon Darner, and Stevan Robinson, is ‘something’ that fits into that exact category. In fact, the band’s name – To My Surprise – says it all. To describe it is to hear it…else you will never understand… I always said no one understands. no one does I have changed. therefore you will change with me Enjoy! Shawn P.S. : The Clown made me do it. debut album (produced by Rick Rubin) in stores October, 2003