The guys over at Metal Hammer have an ace exclusive clip featuring the man in the hat SLASH talking about how he brought the band together for the recording of his new album ‘Apocalyptic Love‘. Check out the clip below and click here to find out more on Metal Hammer‘s website…

Click the links below to pick up your copy of SLASH‘s ‘Apocalyptic Love‘ now!

Digital
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Physical
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As we here at Castle Roadrunner are only too aware, Metal bands fill stadiums and enjoy long careers but get little attention in the media. SLIPKNOT / STONE SOUR frontman COREY TAYLOR and Guardian critic Alexis Petridis discussed why in a piece on the Guardian’s website recently and you can see what Corey had to say on the matter below:

Alexis Petridis: How would you explain heavy metal’s appeal to someone who has never got it?

Corey Taylor: It’s the last real rebellious spirit in music. People can talk about punk all they want, but after new wave put that down, metal is the voice of the disenfranchised and that need to become unhinged. That’s why it appeals to so many people when they are younger, and carries over when those people, at 40, don’t want to grow up. I’m 38 and I listen to everything I listened to when I was 14. Are you a metal fan?

AP: No. It never grabbed me as a kid. Maybe I wasn’t angry enough. I’ve tried to listen to it as an adult – I tried to approach the Slayer album Reign in Blood as a piece of extreme music, I’ve tried to listen to Norwegian death metal as a piece of avant garde art and it just doesn’t do it for me.

CT: There is that stigma around metal – that’s it’s dumb, Neanderthal – which is such bullshit. Some of the smartest people I know are metal fans.

AP: I think metal fans know aspects of it are ridiculous – if you see Ronnie James Dio [the late Black Sabbath singer] fighting a dragon on stage, it’s not like you’re going: “This guy’s really fighting a dragon.” But there is the perception from the outside that it is dumb.

CT: I’m not saying there are sections that aren’t, but if you listen to some of the music, it’s very intricate, layered. You have to be at least sort of savvy to get into it.

AP: Metal has managed to retain that sense of being rebellious, while still selling millions of records. How has it managed to pull this off?

CT: The next generation are always trying to up the ante. Younger bands are trying to push it harder, trying to find that frenzy that hasn’t been done before. That’s why I love finding new bands. There’s one called Trash Talk – I go to their shows and I haven’t felt like that since I first saw Slipknot when I wasn’t even in the band. Black Sabbath begat Metallica begat Marilyn Manson begat us – there’s this need to raise the bar. I don’t see that in any other genre.

AP: If you’re a suburban teenager, I can see how the music appeals to you – it expresses how pissed off you are – but also it provides a kind of fraternity to which you can belong. You’re not going to be the loner kid if you’re into metal – you’ve got this global fraternity.

CT: There is a tribal spirit that comes with it. When I was growing up, I felt there was nobody like me but I found people who it didn’t matter to who I was, just the fact I was a metal fan. The weird thing about metal fans is we’re all so maladjusted in a lot of ways. We’re individualistic and opinionated and severe in our personalities – sometimes we really turn each other off. A little bit of a metal fan goes a long way [laughs].

AP: The lovely thing about metal fans is that they’re incredibly loyal. We live in a world where in any other genre – hip-hop, pop, alt-rock – things move very quickly. Artists have one or two albums, then they vanish. In metal, bands are allowed to develop. You get situations where a band can be headlining Wembley arena for the first time and they’re on their sixth album, which wouldn’t happen in any other genre. There’s also that way in which it didn’t matter to the fans if Ozzy had left Black Sabbath and they have a different singer. It’s the one genre I can think of where bands can undergo immense lineup changes that would kill a mainstream rock band stone-dead.

CT: We’re very accepting. Perfect example – we all knew Rob Halford [singer of Judas Priest] was gay for years. Then he comes out of the closet and people are like: “Of course.” It’s a genre that’s supposed to be homophobic – and in a lot of ways it is – but we’re very accepting. The stereotypes are ridiculous. Here’s a man who comes out and the band is bigger than ever.

CT: You talk about metal being an outlet for being unhinged. As you get older, is it harder to summon that up? Does it become more of an act? Slipknot is a band founded on anger and misanthropy. Do you still feel as angry, as misanthropic? You seem well adjusted to me.

CT: You can be adjusted and still be pissed off. I have a balanced way of hating everyone [laughs]. I remember what it’s like to be ripped apart when you’re a kid. I can remember growing up poor. I can remember growing up hungry. I can remember growing up really disliked. Now, it’s so much more brutal than it was when I was at school. There is still stuff I rage about.

AP: Do you think metal deserves more mainstream attention that it gets?

CT: I don’t know if it needs more attention but it needs more respect. The Rock’n’roll Hall of Fame is a joke – the fact that Madonna is in before Rush and Kiss. Those two bands have influenced so many groups and people other than in metal. I wouldn’t say that we give a shit about acceptance. I just want respect for the bands who laid the way.

Emine Saner: Alexis, you’re the chief music critic of a national paper and you don’t write about metal. Why not?

AP: I wouldn’t insult the artists involved. If I don’t understand the music, there’s no point me writing about it. I actually think it’s better for metal to exist outside of that world. If you’re getting respect from the Hall of Fame, if it was mainstream, wouldn’t that mean metal has nothing to kick against?

CT: The thing that really pisses me off is they only talk about metal in the fringe sense: “Metal is going to kill your children.” It would almost be better if they never talked about us at all.

AP: You talk about metal being rebellious and oppositional, but it seldom tends to be political. Why do you think that is?

CT: In the last 10 years we’ve been able to get across that line and become more political because our fans have. Looking back, Blackie Lawless was political in his writing; Ozzy did some political stuff on No Rest for the Wicked. There is a tradition but it wasn’t as overt as it has become. There is a bigger world out there now. There’s more going on than Satan and sex.

You can find the Guardian article by clicking this link…

Click here to pre-order SLIPKNOT’s upcoming release ‘Antennas To Hell’.

The Kerrang! Awards: Excess All Areas! issue came out yesterday and in case you missed what’s in the mag, they discuss who won, who hurled, what the hell COREY TAYLOR was wearing and more! As well as some ace Kerrang! Awards coverage, the mag also allows fans to see SLIPKNOT through the band’s eyes with Shawn ‘Clown Crahan’s new photobook. Click here to find out more about the issue.

You may have spotted us posting news about SLIPKNOT‘s upcoming release ‘Antennas To Hell‘ recently – well we have some exciting news for eager fans as you can now pre-order the album. BOSH! Click the below links to head over to Play.com and get your order in:

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Swedish rockers ROYAL REPUBLIC are gearing up to release their new album later in the year and in an exclusive video podcast that Rock Sound has posted on their website, the band reveal all on the project…click here to watch the video on Rock Sound’s website.

The band’s new single ‘Addictive‘ out now and you can pick it up here. Catch them in the UK this November at some of the following dates:

NOVEMBER

13 – BRISTOL Thekla
14 – WOLVERHAMPTON Slade Rooms
15 – MANCHESTER Academy III
17 – NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
18 – GLASGOW King Tut’s
19 – NEWCASTLE Academy II
20 – LEEDS Cockpit
22 – NORWICH Waterfront
23 – LONDON Garage
24 – BRIGHTON Haunt

Tickets for all dates are available by clicking here.

GOJIRA popped over to the UK not so long ago and whilst we had them in the office, we sat Joe down in front of a camera to ask him about the band’s new album, which is released on Monday 25th of June. We have split the track by track up into 3 parts with the first part being premiered today. You can watch part 1 below and watch this space for parts 2 and 3!

Click the links below to pre-order your copy of GOJIRA‘s ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’:

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Metal Hammer were roaming around Download Festival a few weekends ago interviewing various artists, including some of our Roadrunner bands. Merlin and Amit from Hammer spoke to SLIPKNOT / STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor (mostly about comics), MACHINE HEAD‘s Adam Duce, Corey from TRIVIUM, Jesse Leach from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, Randy and Chris from LAMB OF GOD, DEVILDRIVER‘s Dez and OPETH‘s Mikael Akerfeldt. Check out those awesome video interviews below:

A Drummer’s Perspective is a stunning collection of live action photos celebrating the world of drumming. The book brings together some of the finest unseen photographs of legendary drummers and is a unique collection of pictures taken by the author David Phillips, who has been given rare access on stage and behind the scenes to many of the biggest bands in the world.

The powerful images include almost 200 photos of some of the most amazing rock concerts and give a fascinating insight to drummers, their playing and their world. The book features over one hundred drumming legends from every type of genre and includes photos of: SLIPKNOT’s Joey Jordison, DREAM THEATER’s Mike Mangini, RUSH’s Neil Peart, KO퐌¿N’s Ray Luzier and much more!

Click here to find out more and to order your copy of the book.

Legendary rock band RUSH has made a remarkable U.S. chart debut with their 20th studio album ‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘. The renowned trio’s first new collection of original material in over five years and their first studio release via Anthem/Roadrunner Records has entered the Soundscan/Billboard 200 at #2 with sales in excess of 104,000 units, matching the highest chart debut of their illustrious 38-year career.

‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘ has also debuted at #1 in the band’s native Canada. In other international news, the album has already achieved the band’s highest chart debuts in over a decade from Japan – #2, Norway – #10, Germany, Holland – #11, and Switzerland – #21. In addition to the commercial success, ‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘ has also received a raft of critical acclaim, including Rolling Stone and USA Today who heralded the release as “an ambitious, sophisticated effort by a band that sounds surprisingly vital after 20 studio albums.” In the UK – where the album was also released as an exclusive non-chart eligible fan pack format which included a 132 page booklet covering the entire history of the band – ‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘ garnered a 5 out of 5 review in The Sun, Britain’s largest newspaper. Had the 40,000 fanpacks sold been chart eligible, the album would have debuted at #1 in the UK as well.

The recording of ‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘ began in April 2010 with Grammy Award winning producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Deftones) – who also collaborated with the band on their last studio album, 2007’s ‘SNAKES & ARROWS‘. RUSH co-produced both records. The first two songs, ‘Caravan’ and ‘BU2B’ were completed during that first session at Nashville’s Blackbird studios and performed nightly during the wildly successful Time Machine Tour, which ran from June 2010 to June 2011. Work on ‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘ resumed in the fall of 2011 at Revolution Recording in Toronto after the tour’s finale, with additional strings (arranged by David Campbell) recorded at Hollywood’s Ocean Way Studios earlier this year. Lyrically, ‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘ chronicles a young man’s quest across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy as he attempts to follow his dreams. The story features lost cities, pirates, anarchists, an exotic carnival, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life. The novelization of ‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘ is being written by science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson in collaboration with Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart.

With more than 40 million records sold worldwide and countless sold-out tours, RUSH – Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart – is not only one of the most inventive and compelling groups in rock history, but remains one of the most popular. The RIAA has certified RUSH for the third most consecutive gold/platinum studio albums by a rock band, topped only by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. RUSH’s vast catalog includes such classics as 1974’s self-titled debut, 1976’s ‘2112‘ 1981’s ‘MOVING PICTURES’ 1996’s ‘TEST FOR ECHO’ and 2002’s ‘VAPOR TRAILS’. RUSH released their 20th studio album, ‘CLOCKWORK ANGELS‘ on June 12. The highly anticipated collection marks their first studio recording since 2007’s ‘SNAKES & ARROWS‘ and debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, matching the highest chart debut of the band’s career (1993’s ‘COUNTERPARTS’ entered the charts at #2 as well). In addition to their commercial success, RUSH has also been recognized with a number of Juno Awards and multiple Grammy nominations, including one for the acclaimed documentary ‘Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage‘. Enjoying a recent pop culture renaissance, RUSH made a rare television appearance – their first in over 30 years – on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” and a memorable cameo in the film ‘I Love You, Man’. A career-chronicling Rolling Stone feature summed up the renowned rock trio’s continuing artistic vitality by observing, “It’s true that Rush doesn’t mean today what it did in ’76 or even ’96. It may mean more”.

Click here to pre-order your copy of the ‘Clockword Angels’, released via Roadrunner on the 9th of July.

You can pick up a copy of the album via iTunes NOW by clicking here. The Classic Rock fan packs are all sold out now.

RUSH‘s new album ‘Clockwork Angels‘ was released as part of a Classic Rock fan pack earlier this month, with the Roadrunner version being released on the 9th of July. In celebration of the release Alex Lifeson spoke to RollingStone.com about the new album, the upcoming tour and his feelings about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Check out an extract from that interview below:

What first inspired you guys to make a concept record?

Well, I suppose it really started with our producer Nick Raskulinecz, when we were working on Snakes and Arrows. He kept pushing us to make another concept record or a longer piece, something more elaborate, and we kind of laughed it off at the time, but I guess something sunk in. We sort of just gravitate to that. It was much easier once Neil [Peart] had a lyrical conception in mind. And certainly to write in those terms is actually pretty easy. It gives you a structure, and [Geddy Lee] and I fell into it fairly easily. One of the things I like about the record is that the songs stand up individually as well, not only as a connected concept piece.

How did Neil first explain the idea of the album’s story to you?

It came in dribs and drabs. As an overview, he explained it as a journey. The thing about working on it for a long period of time, he changed the storyline, and he reworked a lot lyrics and themes within the concept. His sources are varied, so he’s the one to talk to about that.

How does the process work from there?

We read through Neil’s lyrics, try to get a sense of where it’s going, and then Ged and I will usually start jamming and then see what lyrics will work with whatever piece that we’re working on. There’s a lot of back and forth between Neil and Ged. Ged has to feel comfortable with the lyrics, that they’re clear and understandable and that he’s comfortable singing them. That’s the thing with lyrics: sometimes the story gets in the way of the vocalization and that can be difficult, so there’s a lot of paring that goes on over time. They have a great working relationship. Ged might pull out one phrase from a set of lyrics that Neil has spent a great deal of time on and say, “This really speaks to me. Can we just rebuild it around this one phrase?” And it’s amazing how Neil has such an unbounded patience to do that sort of thing.

You guys have done a ton of concerts over the past 10 years, and they’ve all been very well received. That has to infuse you with a lot of energy.

A new energy and confidence, more than anything. We just feel really good about where we’re at. The show that we’re working on now, the production stage has been kind of crazy trying to get it ready in time for September, and then the rehearsals starting in July. It’s all a little much, but I know in a couple of weeks when we start to get into that schedule, we’ll start to groove and feel very good and there’s something about that confidence that comes – maybe with maturity, maybe because for the last 10 years we’ve been playing as much as we’ve been playing. We really feel like we put it together really well these days.

It’s got to be tough to make a setlist when you have so much history to draw from.

Yeah, it is. It’s very difficult. We want to play the new material. We sort of go back and forth. “Should we play the whole thing? Or should we play most of it, or some of it, and mix it up?” It’s always very difficult, and having come off a tour where we featured an album in its entirety, it makes the idea of featuring the whole of Clockwork Angels that much more appealing.

I think for the first leg of the tour, at the very least, we’ll do most of the record – not all of it, but we’ll do most of it. The material that’s coming up amongst the three of us in the e-mails that we’re sharing is the older material. There’s a lot of stuff in there that we haven’t played before, and we haven’t played in a long time so it’s got a freshness to it this time around. We’ll always have to play that handful of songs that we’ve had the most commercial success with, but mixing it up with some other material that we haven’t played in a long time is really great. It’s shaping up to be a pretty good set.

It’s been really great to see you guys popping up all over TV and movies these past few years. Why do you think that’s happened?

I don’t know. I think we still scratch our heads over this whole thing lately. I guess we’ve been around for so long, we have fans all over the place and they’re getting older and more influential. I guess you get movie directors and doctors and writers, and suddenly your name comes up in a film or documentary. So much has happened since that documentary came out, and the perception of the band on a much broader scale to a much wider audience really changed a lot. It’s brought in a whole new audience – a younger audience, a more diversified audience. More women come to our shows, which was always a little bit unusual.

Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn did a very great job with the documentary, and they told a story that maybe we didn’t realize existed. Because when you’re living, it’s just sort of your normal day-to-day stuff and it’s not really that big of a deal. But they managed to tell a story about friendship and brotherhood and perseverance and having dreams, and they mixed in a good dose of humor and made it a very fun film to watch.

I’ve heard word that Vapor Trails might get remixed at some point. Is that true?

Oh, yeah, that’s always something that we’re doing. We’ve already remixed a few songs. The idea was to do it as a tagalong with this record, maybe. That was one of the options that we talked about. But the schedule just keeps getting in the way of something like that. Because it’s not really a priority. We’d like to do it, I think, for all the right reasons. We’re not happy with the mastering. We felt that the production could’ve been a bit better, and we’d like to have another crack at it. But the longer we get away from it, the less appealing the idea is. Maybe it’s best to leave it as it is.

There’s something that’s very compelling about that record. It’s the least-produced record that we’ve ever done. But in a way that’s the right thing, for the moment. It was a very, very difficult time, and that record should sound and feel very different from anything else that we’ve done.

I imagine you’re tired of this subject, but I know a lot of people are furious that you guys aren’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How do you feel about it?

Honestly, we really, really don’t care about it. It’s someone’s thing, and they can do whatever they want with it. They can have whomever they like. It’s their thing.

It’s a little bit different here in Canada. We’ve received awards that mean an awful lot more to us than being in the Hall of Fame. We got the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award a couple weeks ago. That’s really the highest accolade you can get in this country for the performing arts, and it’s recognized nationally, and I felt so proud as a Canadian to be in this esteemed group of artists that have been there for the last 20 years.

But you guys would show up if you did make it, right?

I think we’d consider it at the time and just see where we’re at. I mean, you don’t want to be rude, and we’re Canadians, and we find it very difficult to be rude as much as we’d really like to. [Laughs] So we’d probably have to look at that one, if it ever came. I know there must be pressure from their end. We keep going on and getting more popular…

They’ve got to take in you guys, Yes, King Crimson, Joy Division, Peter Gabriel…

Yeah, look, there are a lot of other bands that should be in there before we should be in there. You just named a few of them … If the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame doesn’t want us in there, that’s fine. I don’t care. It really, really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. It’s probably better left the way it is. There’s more controversy for them and for us.

Click here to read the full interview on RollingStone.com.

You can pre-order the Roadrunner release of ‘Clockwork Angels’ from Play.com by pointing your mouse in this direction.

Rock Im Park Festival took place over the first weekend of June and Burning Music TV was there interviewing a raft of bands, including Roadrunner artists. Check out video interviews with LAMB OF GOD, MASTODON, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and DEVILDRIVER:

LAMB OF GOD:

MASTODON:

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE:

DEVILDRIVER: