Rock Sound editor Ben Patashnik has written an informed blog about why he feels cancelling Sonisphere Festival UK is such sad (or as he puts it, ‘crap’) news. It’s an inspired piece and Ben raises some credible issues:

For rock music as a whole, an event such as this being struck out will make the national news. And that shines a whole load of negative publicity on a subculture that’s not taken seriously by the mainstream at the best of times; after that whole ‘rock is dead’ bollocks that surfaced a few months ago, this just looks bad for all of us. There isn’t anyone involved with rock who doesn’t suffer from a festival of this magnitude being cancelled – fans, bands, booking agents, promoters, temporary staff, journalists, photographers, caterers, managers, crew… the number of people affected by this is in the tens of thousands. And no one gets into rock music for the cash, so this is just a bunch of guys and girls who have spent their lives working in AC/DC t-shirts who’ve lost out in a big time.

Click here to read the full thing on Rock Sound’s website.

SHINEDOWN released their brand new album ‘Amaryllis‘ on Monday and in case you missed our news posts about the reviews that have come in, click here to read how the album is going down (we’ll give you a clue: it’s going down a storm!).

In celebration of the release, the band have put together some playlists for us. The first playlist we have to premiere is Barry’s selection and you can check it out on Spotify by clicking here.

Barry selected two songs that aren’t on Spotify but we did manage to find them on YouTube – you can see both of those tracks below:

You can get your hands on the brand spanking new SHINEDOWN album ‘Amaryllis‘ by clicking the below links:

Play.com
iTunes
Amazon

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The Great Escape 2012 is well on the way to bursting point with a whopping 141 more artists added to the line-up taking this year’s edition to an unparalleled level of showmanship. With a line-up so varied that whatever your musical preference you will have a schedule full of the hottest breaking artists to see. KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES have been confirmed to play and you can check out the poster for the festival below:

Find out more about the festival by pointing your mouse in this direction.

Pick up a copy of KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES latest EP ‘Diamond Days’, which features live tracks from their latest album ‘In Gold Blood’, by clicking here.

In case you haven’t heard the sad news, this year’s Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth has been cancelled. The festival has released the following statement:

It is with very heavy hearts and much regret that we announce the cancellation of Sonisphere Knebworth 2012.

Putting the festival together in what is proving to be a very challenging year was more difficult than we anticipated and we have spent the last few months fighting hard to keep Sonisphere in the calendar. Unfortunately circumstances have dictated that we would be unable to run the festival to a standard that both the artists and that Sonisphere’s audience would rightly expect.

We want to express our deepest regrets to the artists and to thank all the staff, suppliers and contractors who worked so hard with us to try and pull off what has proven to be an impossible task and we know how much they share in our disappointment. We also want to send a huge thanks to the Sonisphere fans who stuck by us and we are so sorry that we can’t fulfil what we set out to do.

Ticket holders will automatically receive a full refund direct from their ticket agents.

Team Sonisphere.

Click here for more information.

DOUG STANHOPE’s new DVD ‘Before Turning The Gun On Himself‘ was recorded in Salt Lake City, UT at The Complex on July 19, 2011 and is released amidst a UK tour through March & April finishing with a sold out show on Saturday 21st April at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. The kind folks over at Buzzin Media have a competition running a competition to win a copy of Doug’s new DVD. See below for details.

Buzzin Media Free Comedy Competition:

Enter our free competition for a chance to win a copy of Doug Stanhope’s new DVD, Before Turning The Gun On Himself.

All you need to do is answer the following question:

What UK TV show has Doug Stanhope appeared?

a.

Georgia metallers MASTODON have confirmed two dates at The Academy Dublin on the 3rd and 4th of July 2012. Label mates GOJIRA are supporting them and the dates take place before the band’s Sonisphere appearance, where they will be playing their new album ‘The Hunter’ in full.

Click here to get find tickets for both the Irish shows and Sonisphere Festival.

This month’s Terrorizer Magazine is packed full of brutal features inclusing a HUGE feature on SOULFLY and their new album ‘Enslaved‘, as well as a killer tour report with Georgia metallers MASTODON.

It’s available in shops NOW or you can pick it up online by clicking here – and if you’re a fan of the digital age and own an iPad, get the Terrorizer Magazine app by pointing your mouse in this direction.

Check out the cover for the magazine below and be sure to pick up a copy!

Slipknot’s Sid Wilson seems to be on a roll when it comes to collaborating. We’ve just posted news about him teaming up with UK Grime artist Professor Green, which you can read by clicking here – and when NME questioned Sid about working with Green, he also confirmed that he is working on a new project with Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst.

Wilson told NME that he met up with Durst while on tour in Australia and has been recording with the singer in Florida at Young Money Cash Money studios. Asked if he and Durst were indeed working together, as internet rumours suggested, Wilson replied: “Yeah, I’ve been hanging around with Fred. We did the Australian tour together and we just clicked instantly. There was an instant connection when we got to talking. I went out to Florida to hang out with him and we went into the Cash Money, Young Money studios together to work on new music.”

He went on to loosely define the project with the Limp Bizkit frontman: “I’m going to do an EP with Fred Durst. I don’t want to say too much but it’s definitely part of this new, dirtier approach to music making I’m doing right now. It’s great to work with Fred, he understands the harder edge of the world that I’m into.”

You can read more on NME.com by clicking here.

Click here to pick up a copy of SLIPKNOT’s 10th Anniversary edition of Iowa.

SLIPKNOT DJ Sid Wilson has confirmed to NME that he is collaborating with Professor Green on a new track. We first mentioned this when we spotted Professor Green talking about it in a recent article – see here. Asked how he met Green and what they had planned, Sid replied:

“We’ve not been together in the studio at the same time or anything, but I’ve got a lot of ideas in the works for him. I ran into him into Australia over at the electronic festival. Me and Clown [Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan] went straight there after our tour and I ran into him. I told him I was a total fan and I played his stuff all the time in my truck. I just said let’s get down and work together. My family’s from England and I grew up on grime, jungle and drum’n’bass so it’ll be cool to work with someone who’s from that world.”

Then asked what he thought the music he and Green were planning to record would sound like, Wilson replied: “It’s going to have a DJ sound, but it’ll be dirtier and grimier, with more of a punk rock edge to it. There’ll be some guitars maybe, but you’ll definitely have to have your ugly face on when you hear it.”

Read the full article on NME by clicking here.

Click here to pick up a copy of SLIPKNOT’s 10th Anniversary edition of Iowa.

DOUG STANHOPE is currently on tour in the UK and on his way up to bonnie Scotland. His manager decided to film his tour bus for fans to get a peak into Doug’s touring world. In the clip below you can see Doug, Bingo, Henry Phillips, Adam Robinson-Witts, Johnny Dickie and Brian Hennigan all in the comfort of Doug’s awesome tour bus. Rock and roll!