The final part of the Chimaira video series is in. Check out this intro from Mark Hunter from the band, and then head over to the VIDEO section to view… enjoy. So here we are at the end of our online documentary sessions. We start it off with Jim, who if you haven’t noticed, needs to stop smoking the grass. He ‘reefers’ to the new record as being our 2nd, when in all actuality it is our 3rd…oh well, potheads unite and embrace all that is Jim!!! We know what he means, but come on! You can’t forget about the EP!! We also learn the background surrounding Chris’ inspiration for the electronic aspect of the new record, and it winds down with me doing some vox and rambling like I am now about starting to write the record, what I think of the music yada yada yada…. We hope to put up some video clips from the road, but for now enjoy part 4, the final of the series and just say no to drugs. Songs you get to hear a bit of *Power Trip (bit where Jim is tracking bass) *Pictures In The Goldroom (Chris’ section) *Stigmurder (Where I am talking about thrashy riffs) *Pure Hatred (Mark Singing bit) *Cleansation **Demo (Closer of the session) mark hunter www.chimaira.com

Words from Spineshank’s Mike Sarkisyan on the new record ‘Self Destructive Pattern’… “The new album is more extreme in every respect. In the three years since out last album, we’ve become a different band. If everybody out there was as shocked as they were when that came out, they better put their fucking seatbelts on again!! As for the recording process, Santos, Spineshank’s singer, tells “It was by far the hardest thing anybody has ever done in their lives. It took 16 months to write and 5 months to record in six different studios.” Now it’s time for you to hear new Spineshank. The first MP3 is here. ‘Violent Mood Swings’ is up for download in our MUSIC section. What’s it like? Straight from Santos himself, “I think ‘Violent Mood Swings’ is probably one of the heaviest songs we’ve ever written.”

THERE WILL BE 2 ADDITIONAL TRACKS ON THE NEW JUNKIE XL ALBUM! Extra track #1: Reload (guest vocals Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode) Extra track #2: Perfect Blue Sky (guest vocals Robert Smith from The Cure)

Just a reminder for all you Fear Factory fans out there, Hatefiles is in stores now. And as quoted from the liner notes in this release, Monte Conner – head of A&R at Roadrunner and the man who brought FF to the RR family – tells the following of this piece: This album is strictly for you, the diehard Fear Factory fan. It contains everything you need to complete your FF collection, from unreleased songs to those that are simply rare, hard-to-find or deleted. It represents both sides of the band, from the high-tech, futuristic metal that made them famous to the adventurous remixes they often put out for those fans who were interested. Except for live material, Hatefiles has pretty much emptied the FF vaults. This is not some hodgepodge compilation that was quickly thrown together with no planning or regard for quality: the strength of the music will become instantly obvious as you work your way through the first few tracks. Detailed notes are provided on many songs, telling the story of how and why they came to be. For me, overseeing this compilation has been a true labor of love as I am still a huge FF fan. When I was a teenager growing up and worshiping bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Aerosmith, I would have sold my soul to get my hands on a fans-only album such as this one. Perhaps that is why I take such joy and pride in bringing this to all of you… and to myself. -Monte Conner

Wednesday 9th April. Killswitch Engage play London tonight, spending the day before hand doing interviews to promote their album. Tonight’s show is sold out, so if you don’t have a ticket, console yourself reading the below, all about KsE’s drummer Tom. Name: Tom Gomes Date Of Birth: February 5th, 1978 A Tour Memory: I got blood splattered on me when Brock from 36 Crazyfists headbutted some guy in the nose. Describe yourself in one sentence: I’m pretty relaxed. One album you think everyone should own: Either of the Fiona Apple albums. Which famous person would you invite over for dinner, and why them? Angelina Jolie because she has nice lips. Best piece of advice you’ve been given: Don’t eat food in the UK. If I wasn’t making music I would be: Living on an island. Tell us one thing about yourself: I only wear Carhartt pants.

Our light-hearted series of the men behind the music continues with Killswitch Engage… currently touring the UK. First up, Howard Jones, vocals. Name: Jones, Shark O’Reilly. Date Of Birth: I believe it was a Thursday. A Tour Memory: I signed a prosthetic leg… it was soft on the outside and quite firm underneath. Describe yourself in one sentence: I have a cat and I feed it. One album you think everyone should own: All of Faith No More, with special attention to ‘Angel Dust’. Which famous person would you invite over for dinner, and why them? Alfred Hitchcock… he was rather odd and had a voracious appetite. Best piece of advice you’ve been given: Don’t eat things you have dropped on the carpet. If I wasn’t making music I would be: Making lunch. Tell us one thing about yourself: I am NOT watching wrestling, or The Simpsons… I am sad.

“There are loads of kids down at the shows in old Killswitch shirts,” exclaims Mike, KsE bassist, happily earlier when we grabbed 10 minutes on the phone with him. “Anyway,” says Mike, where are you?! We’re in Bristol, and you’re not…” moving on.. “The shows are going great, really excellent. Everyone seems really appreciative, and Poison The Well are going down great too – we couldn’t ask for better guys to tour with. We had originally thought of bringing our friends 36 Crazyfists, but they are working on a new record right now, and we came over here with them last year on Roadrage, and Poison The Well are awesome too! It’s cool to be back, even without that ‘first-time magic’ of playing a new country. It’s nice not to be in the plain ol’ boring US, although we ARE looking forward to doing the US Ozzfest… it’s been so long since we toured there now, like a year or something! The only problem with the UK, is that everything closes so early!! Like 6 or 7pm and everywhere’s shut. I wanna go shopping and I can’t. Anyway, the tour is going cool. I’m trying to think what I can tell you that you can actually repeat on the website.. haha, no I’m being all good. The first night, in Leeds, some kid threw a bottle at our bus driver, and Howard was standing right there. Howard just went straight over and got this guy in a headlock and was all ‘dude, that’s not nice, that’s our bus driver’… I think that kids friends were all scared Howard was gonna beat him up or something, they were all ‘man don’t hurt him!’ Hehehe. All the shows kinda bleed into one another in the end ya know? But everyone should come down, we’ve been having fun throwing out loads of free stuff during the show. We’re sponsored by Jagermeister, so we’ve been giving out everything from free t-shirts, hats, reflectors, shots, to lanyards and stuff.” So, the tour is going great, and sounds like everyone is having fun, as it should be. What’s the latest word on the new album? “We have 3 songs done without vocals, and 2 more which are inches from being done. In fact, Adam said the other day he’d kinda finished another, so it’s coming. We’ve been practising some of the new stuff at soundcheck, playing it really helps work it out and fit it all together, you know, the intricacies of a song. We have a ton of riffs, it’s all about joining them up correctly… that’s the secret of a song. Joel said he wrote a little acoustic 2 to 2-and-a-half minute interlude thing the other day, so maybe that’ll be new song #6. We were actually thinking of locking ourselves in a house somewhere for 2 weeks or so, take an 8-track and a 4-track in with us, and just see what we come up with. Then it’s into the studio to demo or record stuff straight up!” Killswitch Engage play London tomorrow night, and the Kerrang! Weekender on Friday night.

Monday April 7, 2003. The day that Killswitch Engage played Birmingham, supported by Poison The Well & Beecher, at the Academy 2. Thanks to Paul Clarkin, street teamer, for the below words on the night! Oh what a fun night! The meet and greet went well… We went in and met the band who were just come back from grabbing a coffee from Starbucks. Howard was feeling a bit under the weather so was resting before the show but the rest kept us entertained. I mentioned HP sauce and Adam’s ears picked up! “Where where??” he said! we chatted about it for ages, aboput how great it is! Some “non-belivers” had the cheek to slag off HP and Adam was offended!! I told him I may get him a late birthday present during the show -) I went out after the meet, and handed flyers out while heading to Sainsburys. I got a sandwich, and a bottle of HP!!! During the KSE set, the band stopped to chat about how they loved England, Howard mentioned it was Adam’s birthday a few days ago and the crowd sang him happy birthday! Adam said how he was inlove with brown sauce…at which point I waved the bottle at him! He spotted it like a drunk spots a half discarded can of Special Brew! He said something along the lines of “This guy has brought me the best present…A bottle of brown sauce!” I threw it onstage and he promptly took a huge swig of it! This was in addition to coming onstage with a big furry thing attached to his top lip, making him look like Super Mario! The set was superb, my ears are still ringing! The pit was mental, quite violent at times. The support were brilliant, Poision the Well were great. Some of the guys came out after the show, and Adam thanked me again for the bottle of HP. No problem dude, enjoy it!”

Well, the upcoming Dirty Americans album has been recorded in full. As of present, the album is being mixed. So, for those of you who have been following the Dirty Americans story, you will fully understand each and every word written below. For those of you who are new to this band, read below and know that all is true. The following comes from the band’s A&R Rep here at Roadrunner, Mike Gitter: Be it known that the Dirty Americans record, now officially titled Strange Generation is a sterno-fueled blast of pure rock to the sternum. Got the rough mixes on constant play in my office and this record is a motherfucker. Knock any notion of The Workhorse Movement out of your skull. That’s ancient history. Forget the Kid Rock wannabe bullshit. This is pure shit-kicking music. Foghat. Grand Funk. KISS. Kyuss. The list rolls on… Basically, the boys from Detroit went down to Memphis to make a record with Mr. Paul Ebersold and entered a time-warp somewhere betwixt 1967 and 1974. Get it? Now KICK OUT THE JAMES MUTHAFUCKAS! Soooo many killer jams. The Blue Oyster Cult molesting “Burn You Down,” “Strange Generation,” a ditty called “Car Crash” that rips a page out of the Queens of the Stone Age meets Cheap Trick play-book…the desert rock opus, “Deadman.” The rock just never stops. And let’s talk about the playing. Jeff “Freedom” Piper: mega-guitar hero. Myron….what a fucking cool whiskey-soaked growl. Pete Bever keep the bass a pumpin’ and drummer Jeremiah is behind it all, whacking the shit out of the drums. You may know Ebersold from records like the first mega-selling 3 Doors Down but fukkit, this guy knows how to crank it the fuck up. The Dirty Americans Roadrunner debut is lean, mean and will probably eat your sister for dinner. Like Stan Lee says…. EXCELSIOR!

The latest from Spineshank camp, as told by drummer Tommy Decker: Hello biatches… I’ve got some good news, the record is finally done!!!! We finished mixing early last week and it sounds amazing. Jay Baumgardner ending up doing the final mixes, he co-produced Strictly Diesel with Amir Derakh, and he did an awesome job. This is our best sounding record yet. We are going to master it this week, and as soon as that is done “Violent Mood Swings” will be posted on the site. I’m sure this will convince everyone that we didn’t change our sound too much. This will be the 1st song on the record and it is heavy! I don’t have the final sequence yet but I do know that the album will feature 13 songs. These are the best 13 of 17 we recorded and about 35 that we wrote for this record. It was a long time but I’m glad that we took our time. This record has some of the best stuff we’ve ever done. We also have plans to film a video for “Smothered” and include it on the album, this song will be the 1st single. Not much else going on. We are rehearsing for a tour which will start around May 10 somewhere on the west coast of the USA. These “warm up” shows will be our 1st since Sept 10 2001!! So all of you better be there!!! That’s all for now TOMMY