Jesse Leach has fully settled into his new/old role in KILLSWITCH ENGAGE but he was keen to point out to The Phoenix recently that he thought the best way to show the guys that he wanted to be part of the band was to audition, just like everyone else. They also spoke about how Metal has changed over the years, bands Jesse is into and much more – you can check out an extract from that interview below:

…why did you audition? That seems odd that you would have had to.

That was my idea– that’s how I wanted to do it. There were a lot of reasons for it, but I’m trying to treat this with as much respect as I can. I mean, in reality, this has been a very successful band for the past nine years, and yeah, I had something to do with it when I helped start the band, but I didn’t do what they did, I didn’t do what Howard did. And I thought the best way to show these guys that I wanted to be part of this process was to audition. And it wasn’t just to prove it to the band, it was to prove it to myself. And when I go out there onstage, I’m gonna be singing a bunch of Howard’s songs. I have to– those were the songs this band on the map! So I had to put myself in a headspace that I might not have put myself in if I just walked into the gig. So it was a challenge, I challenged myself to sing these songs, and I truly started to fall in love with these songs. I have to admit, I’m not a huge metal guy, I love old metal I guess but I’ve never been a modern metal guy, it doesn’t excite me. I’m more of a punk/hardcore kid.

Re-visiting this band and this material, are you struck at all by how much things have changed, how much metal has changed in the nine years since you left Killswitch?

Metal has changed, but I’ve changed as well. And that’s what’s exciting about rejoining this band and doing the new record. I’ve always been a fan of the music that they call metalcore, this crossbreeding of hardcore and metal, but what passes for metalcore today I’m not a fan of. It’s been a by-numbers watered down thing. I mean, God Forbid, In Flames, Mastodon, these are metalcore bands that I love, so I’m speaking in general terms. But most new metalcore doesn’t grab me, it doesn’t have the conviction that I used to see, when people had something to say, had messages, went against the grain, fight for individuality no matter what society says, and the music as a whole has turned into something popular that is with the grain, that is part of society, and the revolution got dulled and doesn’t really do anything for me.

I mean, some of the riffs of good and the music is good, and I don’t want to sound like an elitist here, but to me it doesn’t hold the energy that it once did. But that being said, I’m part of it to, I’ve been doing music all along, and what’s most important to me is the message, the message and emotional conviction. And that’s why I’m so excited to work with Killswitch, especially the way they’ve been blending this soulful R&B feel with the whole metalcore thing. I mean, the stuff that Howard came up with, these awesome songs like “Rose of Sharon” or “Sorrow”, you can sense the conviction in his voice but it doesn’t come off like bleeding heart emo, he walked the line without getting sappy, and it was a challenge to get into that headspace and do those songs justice.

One thing that was kind of lame about the whole metalcore thing was that, initially, so many influences were instantly unacceptable or uncool, especially anything older. I mean, aside from maybe Soilent Green tossing in Skynyrd and ZZ Top riffs, it just wasn’t allowed. But Killswitch was never part of that orthodoxy, really.

Bands like Mastodon, or even Killswitch, they started incorporating rock, it wasn’t just metal or hardcore or technical metal, it was a return of rock. Riffs! And that’s what I love, I love love love that stuff, that’s what I listened to before hardcore. Like Van Halen, Adam is a huge Van Halen fan. It’s simplifying the metal aspect and leaving room, adding space in the music, and it’s great.

Play good music and don’t be afraid to push genre boundaries and just keep it exciting. To me, that was part of the excitement of why I even started playing music. How can what I do now hold the same excitement as the past? That’s the challenge.

Click here to read the full interview.

HardRockChick was at Revolver’s Golden God Awards a few weeks ago to conduct interviews with various hard rock and heavy metal musicians on the ‘black carpet’. Featured Roadrunner artists included members of MACHINE HEAD, HATEBREED, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, HALESTORM and KO퐌¿N. You can watch that footage below:

Fancy getting your hands on tickets to this year’s Metal Hammer Golden God Awards? Well you can now if you head over to our Facebook page – click here to find out how to enter.

MEGADETH, one of the most recognized and culturally significant names in metal over the last thirty years, have announced a very special one-off show at London’s Electric Ballroom on Tuesday 12th June. The show will follow the band’s return to the main stage on Sunday at this year’s Download Festival and tickets went on general sale Friday 20th April at 9am.

MEGADETH released their 13th studio album ‘Th1rt3en’ in October last year to colossal critical acclaim, and tracks ‘Sudden Death’ and ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ received Grammy nominations. ‘Th1rt3en’ also marks the recorded re-appearance of bassist Dave Ellefson, who was part of the band’s classic line-up from 1983 to 2002. In a move that delighted the band’s legion of diehard fans, Ellefson returned to the stage with Megadeth in early 2010 and has remained a fixture ever since. This is the first time Ellefson has played on a MEGADETH record since 2002’s ‘Rude Awakening’.

Speaking of this special one-off show, Dave Mustaine commented, ‘It will be great to play for some of our oldest and dearest Londoner friends, but more importantly, I would like to dedicate this show to the memory of my dear friend, Dr. Jim Marshall OBE.’

Tickets for this special show are priced at

Irish rockers ROYSEVEN‘s video for ‘We SHould Be Lovers’ premiered on NME.com the other day but something you may not know about the video is that it actually has a set of alternative endings. You can watch the video and decide how you feel at the end – you then pick the ending that you so wish. Click here to check it out and pick your fabourite ending…

You can see the version of the video that premiered on NME.com below:

MASTODON‘s Bill Kelliher spoke to The Skinny recently about the importance of Record Store Day and why they chose to cover Feist for their split 7″ with the Canadian singer songwriter. Check out an extract from that interview below:

Mastodon have played a number of in store appearances in the run up to today and you still take a lot of care over your physical album releases. What does Record Store Day mean to the band?

Record Store Day brings attention back to these local shops which, for a long time, were pretty much the only places for vinyl collectors and music fans to go and get their fix. Now we’ve got the Walmarts, Targets, the big corporations like Best Buy selling CDs, plus Amazon.com, iTunes and the whole online marketplace. Record Store Day, to me, is about remembering your roots.

It’s also an opportunity for us to do something special, like put out a covers record – something unique for this unique community of people. Vinyl disappeared for a while but collecting is making somewhat of a comeback. I think there’s a whole generation of kids who perhaps didn’t even know what vinyl was, and when it started making this resurgence they probably thought it was something new – like ‘oh, what’s this big plastic thing?’ It’s good to get people back in those stores and off that computer for a second.

Tell us about your split single with Feist, which comes out today. You both played Jools Holland late last year, was that when the idea came about?

That’s when we met, I really didn’t know anything about Feist until we did that show together but she really struck a chord with us. Honestly, I think it was more Troy [Sanders, bassist/vocalist] and Brent [Hinds, guitarist/vocalist] who were talking to Leslie. They were interested in doing some collaboration down the road, it just so happened that it came around sooner rather than later. It was like ‘oh, Record Store Day’s coming up, let’s do something.’

Troy kinda blurted out on some televised interview: ‘Oh yeah, we’re planning on doing a cover song – Feist’s gonna do one of ours, we’re gonna do one of hers.’ I didn’t even know that was happening. Our management called to ask: ‘What’s Troy talking about?’ I said ‘I have no idea – I guess we’re doing a Feist cover!’

Click here to read the full interview.

Click here to pick up a copy of MASTODON’s latest album, ‘The Hunter’.

Brann Dailor caught up with the Dallas Observer from the MASTODON tour bus before the band’s show The Palladium Ballroom recently and they spoke about MASTODON turning away from the concept albums of the past and how multi-band tours can be a ‘pain in the ass’. Check out an extract from that interview below:

Oftentimes, your music is described as sludge metal, but your newest effort,The Hunter, doesn’t fit that description. Do you agree?

Yes, there are all sorts of silly ways that people label bands. It’s often about each person’s musical vocabulary. Some people just throw labels out there so they can have something to write, so that they can try to explain what something sounds like. I don’t feel like the new album is that sludgy, but it might have a little of that in there. I try not to label it. I just play it. But I understand the need people have to label bands, to put it somewhere.

When The Hunter came out, it debuted at number ten on Billboard. Were you surprised?

Sure, I’m always surprised when somebody buys our records. You know what I mean? I was excited about it. Ten is a good number. It’s cool that people still buy records. Our fans are actually committed to buying the music. We are lucky in that regard. But we wanted to move away from making another concept record, so we tried to write the best collection of songs we could and just put them on one album. I guess fans like that idea.

Do you think by basing the album on the Melville novel, you guys are promoting literacy?

I guess. I never thought about it that way. From an artistic standpoint, we wanted to do a water- based record. The idea of basing it on Moby-Dick kind of jumped up and popped out at me.

Have you seen any of the film versions of Moby-Dick?

You can’t do a Moby-Dick movie. It just doesn’t work. There are too many side stories. Melville trails off a lot and gives the reader a lot of background and history in the book. This was extremely fascinating for me. The movies never do that. That’s where the movie versions fall short.

Why do metal bands love concept albums?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s folks like King Diamond and Iron Maiden. Those are two of my favorite bands. For me, it all started with those two and then I started getting into the progressive stuff, even Yes’ Close to the Edge.That style has always appealed to me, to my inner nerd.

Read the full interview by clicking here.

Click here to pick up a copy of MASTODON’s latest album, ‘The Hunter’.

SLASH‘s upcoming album ‘Apocalyptic Love‘ is out on the 18th of June, after the Classic Rock fanpack release and as well as being available both on CD and digitally, you can also pick up some super limited edition packages too. The Photo Book bundle includes 1 of only 1000 photo books available worldwide AND the first 500 orders they get an exclusive signed print! See below for the details:

APOCALYPTIC LOVE LIMITED EDITION PHOTO BOOK BUNDLE – Pre-Order 21.05.12

**Only 1000 photo books worldwide and for the first 500 orders they get an exclusive signed print!

The Limited Edition In-Studio Book features 48 pages, perfect bound as a sumptuous coffee table book and chock-full of in studio shots by Scott Uchida and album shots by Travis Shinn. The size is 12 x 12 and it is printed by Dreamworks on 60# rich archival paper. The cover is soft bound and closes with a string and clasp. The shots are mostly black and white, offering a glimpse that most fans never get the opportunity to see. í¢ä‰åŒÂLimited to 1000 worldwide. í¢ä‰åŒÂ

í¢ä‰åŒÂBundle also Includes:

Apocalyptic Love CD
Exclusive Apocalyptic Love T-Shirt
Instant download of “You’re a Lie”
The digital album delivered on 21.5.12

Click here to pre-order the above package for

FRONT Magazine caught up with DOUG STANHOPE the other day and instead of talking about the usual stuff, FRONT decided to talk to Doug about booze, being an expert ‘booze bag’ and all. It makes for a great read but if you need convincing, check out an extract below:

Hi Doug. You’re in a van at the moment. You must be pretty used to spending a lot of time in vans.

í¢ä‰åŒÂYeah, although it’s nicer than a lot of alternatives. It’s better than flying. You just shove all your shit in the back, with no airport security, no pat-downs and I don’t have to take my laptop out. There’s no crying babies, and I don’t have to wait for miserable hag to bring me a cocktail, I can make my own.

You kind of self identify as a drunk, so we thought it might be kind of fun if instead of doing a straight up normal interview, we could talk about booze for a while.

í¢ä‰åŒÂSure! I mean, I’m no connoisseur, I’m just a booze bag.

So you’re a whatever’s-around kind of drinker?í¢ä‰åŒÂ

Yeah – well, I’m not drinking cooking fluid or anything. I’m mainly a vodka guy, but on stage I pretty much stick to beer most of the time, though I’m starting to drink vodka on stage. It’s just that places have a tendency to try and impress you with how much they pour in, so it’s harder to figure out how much you’re actually drinking. I know exactly how much beer I can drink and still put on a good show.

What’s your earliest drinking memory?

I remember my first drunk, it was the night before Thanksgiving in 1980, so it would have been a Wednesday night in late November. My older brother had a girl round from next door, his age, and there were all the cool kids at school drinking and, uh, they indoctrinated me. They said I could hang out, so I got a bottle of white wine and I drank most of it, and I remember getting really fucked up, and I smoked a cigarette and that almost made me fall over, because cigarettes do that when you’re young, they make you feel genuinely high.

You ever get people burst into tears or anything, really letting themselves down?í¢ä‰åŒÂ

There’s a routine on my old DVD where I talk about how people always think I smoke pot, and try to give me it, but I don’t smoke pot. Then at a show a guy tried to give me drugs, and he walked right to the centre of the stage, trying to give me the heavy-handed handshake. I’m going, “I’m in the middle of the spotlight, on stage in a theatre, this is probably not the time” and this guy’s just handing me coke going, “Don’t worry, it’s not pot!”. He was just so blotto drunk y’know, he just kept saying, “It’s not pot!”.

Awesome.í¢ä‰åŒÂ

We got a kid in San Francisco who I saw from the stage who was clearly not gonna make it through the whole show. It was a standing event, so he was just wobbling from foot to foot just trying to stay standing up, and after the show, when the venue’s closing up he was one of the last guys there. They’re dragging him out, and he starts vomiting profusely, so the bouncers are trying to aim the vomit away from them. They set him down outside, and it’s really dark, in a kinda nowhere area, and this kid’s so fucked up that he can’t tell us where he lives. We’re trying to get him in a cab, cos we can’t leave him on the street, because he’s out of his mind. Then finally his phone rang, so I took it, and it’s his mother! It turned out to live 40 miles away, we had to get his brother to come and drive and pick him up. He lived, though.

Ace, so there’s a happy ending. Just think how bleak that story would have been if it ended with you saying, “And then he died in my arms”.í¢ä‰åŒÂ

Hahaha, I got a sheepish message from him afterwards going, “Evidently I was a little bit out of control last night, and I appreciate you getting me home”. But it really reeked of embarrassment.

Click here to read the full interview over on FRONT’s website.

Point your mouse in this direction to pick up a copy of DOUG STANHOPE’s latest DVD ‘Before Turning The Gun On Himself’.

We’ve been watching the one-hour documentary “Why You Do This” featuring interviews with members of LAMB OF GOD, GOJIRA, CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED and GOATWHORE, among others. The documentary premiered online in January of this year and we thought we’d share it, in case you hadn’t checked it out yet. You can find out more about the documentary and watch it in full, below:

“Why You Do This” is a personal story is told from the perspective of satellite engineer and vocalist Michael Dafferner, who is a member of an unknown “math-core” metal band called CAR BOMB. In 2007 Michael ventures out on his first U.S. tour and discovers that performing in an unknown band playing an unknown genre of music is not the ego boosting experience he was hoping for. The next year CAR BOMB is offered a tour with the goth-punk groups GORGEOUS FRANKENSTEIN and BELLA MORTE who offer the prospect of playing for large groups of people. Several thousands of dollars in debt and dozens of wasted vacation days later, the band finishes its disappointing tour. Finally, in 2009, CAR BOMB is offered a tour with the well-known and respected bands GOJIRA and THE CHARIOT. During this tour Michael learns what it would be like to live out his dream and the costs associated with making that dream come true.

For more information, including details on how to obtain a DVD copy of the documentary, visit www.whyyoudothis.com.

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE‘s old/new frontman Jesse Leach and guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz caught up with The Boston Herald recently and they spoke about Jesse rejoining the band. You can read an extract from that article below:

“We’re just excited to be making music again because it’s been so long,” Dutkiewicz said recently from his Western Massachusetts home. “I’ve been in a band with Jesse for the past two years, so it feels pretty normal and comfortable.”

“Things happen for a reason,” Leach said. “At the time, no one can understand why … but time has a way of healing wounds. That’s kind of what’s happened with us. … And we’re all different people than we were 10 years ago. They’re just really ready to do this again and have some fresh blood in. It’s exciting. And for me, touring with those guys and to be on that level that I’ve never been on is really cool. It’s almost like a family reunion. The timing couldn’t be better for me.”

Click here to read more.