We spotted a corker of a post on Facebook this morning courtesy of the gents in PERIPHERY. Members from the band including Taylor Larson on guitars, Will Donnelly on bass, Misha Mansoor AND Matt Helpern on drums and Spencer Sotelo on vocals. Click here to listen to the track on SoundCloud. It’s an awesome and most brutal cover we reckon – what do you guys think?

EMusic.com interviewed Chris Adler from LAMB OF GOD recently and as well as giving the new album ‘Resolution’ an awesome write up, they also decided to ask him about the rock and metal drummers that he admires. Check out his selection below, from legends whose innovations he borrowed, to peers who keep him on his toes even today:

John Bonham
You can tell the drums were just in his blood. But as a metal guy, the thing that turned me on was the stuff he did with one foot that most guys would need two feet to do.

Stewart Copeland
The very first song I ever sat down and tried to learn how to play drums and play the song was “Message in a Bottle.”

Dave Lombardo // Gar Samuelson
I think Gar was a little more jazzy, which I really liked, and I probably spent more time trying to emulate Gar than Dave, but both those guys were the guys who made me want to get faster.

Lars Ulrich
As opposed to it being, “Ah, it was an off night.” And Lars, in my opinion after talking to him, he’s gotten to the point where he’s not overanalyzing himself, he’s not critiquing every night’s performance, he’s not going to bed wishing he had hit one of the double bass runs harder or more specifically than he did. Every night’s a new chance to do it right, and that’s how he approaches it. And seeing that and getting that through my own head, I’ve definitely had much better performances since then.

Brann Dailor
I think his hands are just untouchable. The time he’s spent perfecting his rolls and that kind of stuff is undeniable. He’s a great guy and a great player.

Gene Hoglan
…I was such a fan of Stewart Copeland creating a voice in the music he was creating, I think Gene has done that in metal, and I was very, very curious as to how he had come up with that. And he told me straight away, it wasn’t a mystery. He said, “I learned how to play drums taking funk records and [speeding] all that stuff up and now I’m in a metal band.” So that really opened my eyes very quickly to making sure that I spend time listening to other kinds of music.

The above extracts don’t even touch on the great comments and stories about each drummer that Chris selected. Click here to read the full article.

You can pick up a copy of LAMB OF GOD‘s latest album ‘Resolution’ by pointing your mouse in this direction.

DOUG STANHOPE began his UK tour last week and it comes just in time for the release of his new DVD ‘Before Turning The Gun On Himself‘. Reviews have been popping up online recently and you can check out some of those reviews below:

Of course, his tenth DVD release Before Turning the Gun on Himself is no different. Fair game this time around are the parents of cult comic Mitch Hedberg, who started a charity golf tournament in his name to raise money for a rehab clinic, the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Step Programme and its “recognising a higher power” stipulation, celebrity rehab reality TV presenter Dr Drew, the effect of the recession on prostitution, and the reappropriation of the word ‘faggot’ (“If you are offended by any word in any language, it’s probably because your parents were unfit to raise a child.”)

Stanhope’s comedy is caustic and completely unapologetic, and for that reason it isn’t for everyone. But there is something rational beneath it all, an underlying view of the world that is undoubtedly cynical but often makes a great deal of sense. His frequent rants on the subject of overpopulation are particularly refreshing, since it is a topic that no-one seems brave enough to even mention.

Click here to read more on Now Then Magazine’s website.

Tearing down the fa

MACHINE HEAD‘s mighty axemen, Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel, took part in a fan Q&A for Guitar World recently and they spoke about everything from the latest album to guitar techniques and much more! See below for an extract from the article:

Q: Who is the weirdest musician you have ever met? — Jenna Swift

ROBB FLYNN: Dimebag Darrell was a weirdo, in the best way possible! When you were around him, you’d get sucked up into this tornado of lunacy that would take you down these ridiculous paths where you would usually have the best night of your life. He would be like, “We’re all gonna paint our beards pink!” And I’d be like, “What?” We toured with Pantera twice, and he was by far one of the greatest characters that I’ve ever met in my life.

Q: How did you get that super-high-gain guitar sound on Unto the Locust and keep the notes so clear? — Kevin Williams

FLYNN: I have a [Peavey] 5150 amp that I’ve used forever. I’ve had him for 14 years and call him “Bubba.” I literally have him in a high-security storage area. He comes out to record and then he goes right back in. He never goes on tour. Bubba hasn’t been modified at all. It’s just one of those magical heads that you come across in your life that stands head and shoulders above the rest. I use that and a Marshall. There is a lot less gain on it than you’d think, and that’s part of how we get the clarity and picking definition. A lot of it has to do with my right hand and just being cognizant of my playing. I play all the rhythms, so that really makes it tighter overall. And Phil will come in and do overdubs and leads.

Q: You often use natural harmonics to accent riffs, like on “Davidian” from Burn My Eyes and “This Is the End” from Unto the Locust. How did that technique find its way into your style? — Jon Richards

FLYNN: When I first started playing guitar, I was really influenced by bands like Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost and D.R.I. Those bands would sometimes do these stops in their songs, where they’d let their guitars feed back. At the time, I was learning how to play on a $45 guitar my dad had rented that came with a little 6-inch practice amp. I didn’t even know what feedback was.

At some point, I stumbled on hitting the harmonic and I thought that was feedback. So when the feedback part came along on a song like Celtic Frost’s “Morbid Tales,” I would just hit the harmonic. Over time I realized I had learned it wrong. But as I became a songwriter, I still thought it sounded cool, so I started bringing that into my style. At this point it has become the trademark sound of Machine Head. It’s just one of those magical accidents that happens as you’re learning, and you just roll with it.

Q: Robb, what piece of gear is the most crucial to your sound and why? — Carter Burke

FLYNN: The Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress [flanger], which is a big old hunking, 9-inch-wide pedal. It’s one of the stomp boxes that I use religiously on every album. I use that thing so much, I can’t even tell you. It’s one of the best pedals ever invented. Listen to the opening riff of “Imperium” [from 2003’s Through the Ashes of Empires]; that effect is on both the clean part and the heavy part.

You can basically hear it in any clean tone on any of our records, like at the beginning of “Aesthetics of Hate” [on 2007’s The Blackening]. The way that it flanges is unlike any other flange I’ve found. It’s got this watery, glassy tone to it that makes almost anything sound better. I’ve actually gotta be careful I don’t overuse it, because I like it so much.

Q: In your opinion, what is the greatest thrash-metal record of all time? — Johnny D

DEMMEL: Of course, there’s Slayer’s Reign in Blood. I was brought up on Slayer; they’re the first thrash band I ever saw live. Metallica’s Ride the Lightning is a great thrash album too. It’s probably my favorite Metallica record. And Exodus’ Bonded by Blood is right up there. So I’m gonna do a three-way tie — a three-headed crown of thrash! [laughs]

FLYNN: The greatest thrash-metal record to me would be Bonded by Blood. Growing up in the Bay Area, Exodus were the craziest of all the thrash bands, particularly on that album. Their singer, Paul Baloff, was fucking bat-shit crazy, like a fucking psychopath. When they played shows, he just had this incredible knack for winding up the crowd into a bloodthirsty frenzy. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it before or since. Exodus shows back then were the most crazy and violent shows that there were, period.

That record was the soundtrack to my life for years. The first solo that I ever learned how to play was Gary Holt’s lead on the song “Bonded by Blood.” That record just had such a huge impact on me. Everything about it impacted me: the riffs, the little bit of melody, the attitude. They should have been in the Big Four. They were there, for real, at the beginning.

Click here to read the full interview.

You can pick up a copy of MACHINE HEAD’s latest album ‘Unto The Locust’ by pointing your mouse in this direction.

STORM CORROSION announced the pre-sale of their upcoming self-titled album last week and in case you missed it, the following bundles are available:

COLLECTOR’S EDITION DOUBLE-LP SET
Double LP set of the self-titled album with exclusive artwork
180g black virgin vinyl in gatefold jacket
Digital download of high quality FLAC files of the album
24″ x 36″ fold-out poster of exclusive artwork

COLLECTOR’S EDITION DOUBLE-LP SET & SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY/CD BUNDLE
All the contents of the Collector’s Edition Double-LP Set (as listed above)
Receive a digital download of the album the day BEFORE release
5.1 audio mix of the album
Two exclusive demo tracks and five instrumentals
The full album on CD
Over 2.5 hours of music

You can now see the full album artwork and packaging for the album too – check it out below!

Head on over to STORM CORROSION’s webstore and pre-order your copy of the highly anticpated album by clicking here.

MACHINE HEAD’s Dave McClain recently sat down to work on a special drum parts feature for the song ‘I Am Hell’ with DRUM! Magazine. The feature is available now at DRUM! Magazine’s official website in the Lessons section – click here to check out Dave’s detailed notes on the song, transcription, drum set diagram and more.

Pick up a copy of MACHINE HEAD‘s latest album ‘Unto the Locust‘ by pointing your mouse in this direction.

Ever wonder where KO퐌¿N got the title for their new album ‘The Path Of Totality‘? Well, we have the 3rd KO퐌¿N webisode that we mentioned this morning and you can check it out below. Watch as Jonathan Davis explains where they found the name…

As you may have seen in the clip above, KO퐌¿N are touring the UK at the end of this month and you can check out the dates below:

25 March – O2 Academy Brixton, London
26 March – O2 Academy Birmingham
28 March – Academy Manchester
29 March – O2 Academy Glasgow
31 March – Olympia Theatre, Dublin
01 April – Mandela Hall, Belfast
03 April – O2 Academy Bristol

Buy tickets here: http://bit.ly/xRQjAn

You can pick up a copy of KO퐌¿N’s latest album ‘The Path Of Totality’ by pointing your mouse in this direction.