some current notes of interest from the studio this week: 36 Crazyfists They start pre-production of their second Roadrunner release on May 1st up in Portland, Oregon with producer James Wisner. The recording of this beast will take place in Florida come mid-May. Where in Florida? Nobody really knows just yet…rumour has it somewhere near Tampa Bay. Chimaira Ahhh, Did You Know? The UK & Japanese version of The Impossibility Of Reason will be same as the U.S. release, but will contain one most honourable bonus track, “Army Of Me.” All releases will be simultaneous (May 12th or 13th, pending on where you live). Coal Chamber Track listing for the upcoming b-sides album Giving The Devil His Due is almost complete, may have fully confirmed listing as soon as this week. In fact, Dez is scheduled to hit the studio to record vocals for an unfinished track from the Chamber Music sessions later this week. Deathride Speaking of Dez, he and the rest of new project Deathride are still out in L.A. sharing one hotel room whilst recording their debut effort. Ross Hogarth (Coal Chamber Dark Days) is producing, and last week was spent on guitars. Vocals should happen this week. Dirty Americans “Dude, this band fuckin’ kicks ass,” tells the man behind The Production Gospel According To Dave, listening to the D-Am rough mixes at his desk whilst enlightening us with this update. In fact, rough mixes of the full album are in and currently making the rounds for approvals. “They fuckin’ rock…” doubleDrive Their debut album hit the streets on Monday… Did you know there is a Japanese version of this release – same as the U.K. version ceptin’ it contains two most honorable bonus tracks, “Fed Up” and “Big Shove 2″…”Big Shove 2” being one second longer than original version (among other changes). Ether Seeds Debut album scheduled to hit streets on June 16th. Ahhh, will be Japanese version of this too. Once again, same as U.K. version but with two most honourable bonus tracks, “Remedy” and “Stalker’s Love Song.” goneblind Debut full length is basically complete. It’s all mixed, and should be mastered later this week in NYC with George Marino. Title of the album, Channels Of Communication. Ill Nino Currently in a studio in Hoboken, New Jersey with producer Bob Marlette. Drum tracks are done. Recording officially started on April 15th, and could quite well be complete prior to the US Memorial Day weekend. Nickelback They are officially in the studio, and that’s a fact. 4 to 5 songs fully complete, some mixing to start this week. Band is producing the new album, Randy Staub is mixing. Red Tape The boys outta Sacto, Cali started recording their newest propaganda last week out at NRG studios in L.A. Yes, they are officially recording. And they should be officially finished recording by the end of May. Spineshank Album has been mastered. Album is complete. In fact, advance copies of the CD – Self Destructive Pattern – should be in come early May (July 14 release date). The very first CD-R of the new album hit this office only yesterday… all walking past this office yesterday were met with the new sounds of Spineshank belting out the stereo. Type O Negative Their upcoming Life Is Killing Me album was being mastered April 28. There will be a special limited double CD UK edition of this album… more info to come.

Tomorrow night, the Radio 1 Rock Show will re-broadcast the Live BBC Maida Vale session that the Murderdolls recorded back in November last year. Listen in for the following songs: ‘She Was A Teenage Zombie’ ‘Die My Bride’ ‘I Take Drugs’ and ‘Dead In Hollywood’! Next week on the Rock Show you’ll have the chance to hear the forthcoming new Murderdolls single ‘White Wedding’ in a world exclusive play! Did you know? ‘White Wedding’ is a cover of the 1980’s Billy Idol song! The tracklisting for the single will be as follows: 01. White Wedding 02. I Love to Say Fuck 03. I Take Drugs And it will include the video to ‘White Wedding’ as an enhancement! Look for ‘White Wedding’ in stores this summer. More to come…

Did you think you’d seen all the live shots of Killswitch Engage we had from the recent tour? You are incorrect… we’ve just added up a few more HERE. Check out guitar gods Adam & Joel, a bellowing Howard, Mike throwing the horns, and Tom beating the hell outta the drums!

Chimaira’s awesome new album, ‘The Impossibility Of Reason’, is released on 12th May and we’ve teamed up with Metal Hammer to give you the chance to hear the entire record waaay in advance of it going on sale! Sign up for your free virtual ticket to the ‘The Impossibility Of Reason’ listening party at: http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/chimaira/. And don’t forget, you can get yourself a bundle of free Chimaira stickers right now in our FREE SHIT section too! Crank it up.

Five Friday Facts For doubleDrive… 1. New album ‘Blue In The Face’ is out on Monday. 2. You can hear new song ‘Imprint’ HERE in our music section. 3. Kerrang! sez: “…a fine debut from a band with a bright future ahead of them – KKKK” 4. ‘Blue In The Face’ was produced & mixed by the man behind Guns ‘n’ Roses ‘Appetite For Destruction’, Michael Barbiero. 5. doubleDrive’s Peavey rep is ex-Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson.

If you’re looking for tickets to see Spineshank & Chimaira in the UK during June, you can buy your tickets online HERE. See you down the front!

As you all know, it has been a long time coming for what will be hitting the streets come June 16th…of course, we are speaking of Type O Negative’s Life If Killing Me release. Worth the wait? Of course, we will say yes…YES (and truthfully, it is worth the wait…). But, don’t take our opinion on it…we’re the fuckin’ scumbag, money grubbing, band-changin’, radio-hit-makin’, CD overcharging, not-enough-band supportin’, record label whores. We wanna screw YOU…the whole lot of ya. (of course, we say the above in the nicest possible way…and in jest, of course) Ah, back to our point…yes, don’t take our word for it. Go to an outside source, hear some of the album for yourself. The cats at HitThePit have officially posted their review of the upcoming Type O Negative album, quite possibly the first review up online on this album (and if you haven’t figured it out, click that HitThePit link above to check it out)…oh, and as for hearing some of the new album for yourself, that too is just a click away. Type O Negative themselves have already posted the track “The Dream Is Dead” on their website – if you’re gonna get it somewhere, get it directly from the source (that way you know the MP3 file is pure, uncut, and virus free). Oh, and the link for that is THIS ONE RIGHT HERE. Enjoy.

Remember last week when we told of the doubleDrive appearance on US radio station WAAF? Sure ya do…it was the update that mentioned Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., plus two hours of Chimaira on WAAF with Mistress Carrie. Well, doubleDrive played three songs acoustically in the studio that day, and all three have been posted online. Check out THIS LINK at WAAF’s site to hear “Big Shove,” “Imprint,” and “Freightrain.” Enjoy. oh, and if you hunt around a bit further on the WAAF site, you’ll find an audio link to some of the interview footage wherein a bit of the ‘ryche is sung (click here)

Sky officially launched their three new music channels last week on April 17th. Flaunt, Scuzz and The Amp broadcast on channels 469, 471 and 473. Sky’s head of music, Lester Mordue, who has been tight lipped on the channels, implied the formats would be akin to EMAP’s jukebox channel but with more remote control interactivity. He told reporters: “These channels will push the boundaries of music TV by allowing viewers to vote with their remote control for the next video to be played.” Check them out… currently running on Scuzz you can also watch an exclusive acoustic performance of Corey Taylor performing ‘Bother’.

Here’s the low down, direct from Metal Hammer… The Metal Hammer Awards Are Go! It’s been a long time coming but the Metal Hammer Awards, ‘Golden Gods’, are go! And this year’s event on June 3rd at the London Forum is shaping up to be an awesome night out! So what’s the diference between this and other rock awards ceremonies? The Hammer awards aren’t about lazy industry backslapping – this is a goddamn gig and what’s more YOU get to go – AND you get to vote in who gets what as well! This year those ghouls from the grave The Murderdolls will close the event but there will also be shortened live apppearances from three other top secret artists, plus a huge array of rock ‘n’ roll distractions and famous band types all strolling around within arms reach. For more info on the awards and how to vote, log on to the Golden Gods’ microsite at: www.MetalHammer.co.uk