SLASH: the iconic, Grammy-winning rock guitarist and songwriter–is currently in a Los Angeles studio putting the finishing touches on his second solo album. The as-yet-untitled disc is due out in May on SLASH’s own label Dik Hayd International distributed through Roadrunner in Europe, Middle East and Africa and will follow his 2010 debut album Slash and his November 2011 first-ever live solo album, the two-CD/DVD set Made In Stoke 24/7/11. Notably, the SLASH album debuted on the Billboard Top 200 chart at #3 (#1 on the Rock chart, #1 on the Independent chart, and #1 on the Hard Music chart). Digitally, the album also became the #1 overall digital album and hit #1 on iTunes in 13 countries. Internationally, the disc achieved Top 5 chart positions in over a dozen major territories, hitting #1 in both Japan and New Zealand.

For the new album, SLASH—along with and his bandmates Myles Kennedy (vocals), Brent Fitz (drums) and Todd Kerns (bass)–have teamed with producer Eric Valentine, who also produced the SLASH disc. All the songs were written together by SLASH and Kennedy, and cameras have been rolling throughout the entire making of the album. Check out exclusive behind-the-scenes footage airing weekly beginning today by clicking this link, or alternatively, you can watch below:

SLASH also talks about the album and forthcoming tour (dates TBA) this Q&A:

Looking at all your Twitter updates, you sound really pumped about the new disc. This time around, you and Myles wrote all the songs and he sings lead on all the tracks. What inspired this scenario since your debut solo album featured multiple vocalists (including Myles on two songs)?

Well having Myles sing on the first record inspired me to take him on the road, then taking him on the road inspired me to have him sing on the whole record. So yeah the tour last year definitely inspired the decision for him to sing on the new record. He has a really broad range. He is just very musical as far as his melodic style is concerned and he’s also very lyrical and just a really powerful singer. There’s a lot of positives about the way he sings.

Perhaps you want to talk a bit here about your other bandmates and what they each bring to the sound?

There’s Brent who is probably one of the best drummers I’ve ever played with–he has a great way of playing very powerful rock n roll while still being able to keep it behind the beat and sexy. And then Todd has got to be one of the most overall talented musicians I’ve worked with, just a really great bass player. Todd’s very quick in the studio, a quick learner and creative as a writer; on top of that, he’s also a great singer.

Beyond you and Myles writing all the songs and Myles singing all the leads, in what other ways is the new album perhaps different from your debut solo album?

Myles and I basically collaborated on the new material. The main thing is we wrote these songs together which is a big difference from the last album where I wrote each song with all of the different collaborators. The whole creative nucleus is between Myles and me. On top of this, the whole rhythm section of Brent and Todd brings something to the table and changes the dynamic completely from the last record–it’s much more cohesive.

With your record company Dik Hayd Records, you remain an independent artist and work with major companies for distribution. Can you talk about how you as an artist benefit by this scenario in these interesting times for the music industry?

It puts me more in the driver’s seat of how I want to market the record, but even more importantly than that, I’m not giving half of everything that comes in on the album to the record company.

Eric Valentine returns as producer for the new disc. What do you feel he brings as a producer to these songs and the overall approach?

The first thing we always talk about with Eric is he’s an extremely gifted musician, but he is basically as talented an engineer, so it makes for a great combination as a producer. As a person he’s easy to work with–he’s very patient and he lives and breathes what he does. That’s a lot like how I am, we’re similar; I can call him at any moment and ask him a question or share an idea I have with him. He’s always in his element and it’s something that I can appreciate.

You toured the world seven times with the last album. What are your tour plans for the new album?

Right now we’re starting off with radio shows in the states and then we’ll do as much of Europe as possible. We’ll also tour in Asia and Australia, and try to hit South Africa this year as well as India and a couple other spots. Trying to just broaden our horizons a bit.

Keep up to date with all things SLASH by pointing your mouse in this direction.

Modern prog metal heroes PERIPHERY hit the UK with DREAM THEATER this week and the innovators of the djent explosion have answered some choice questions about their brilliant debut in a video interview over on Metal Hammer‘s website. Watch as Misha and Spencer talk about their debut albvum and be sure to pick up the Special Edition of the album, which was released today. The Special Edition includes instrumental versions of all the tracks from the album, including a bonus track called ‘Passengers‘. Check out the video on Metal Hammer by clicking here.

THEORY OF A DEADMAN have decided to offer YOUR band a huge opportunity – so huge, we almost fell off our seats when they told us! The band are looking for killer support bands to play to thousands of amazing fans on their forthcoming European tour. Yup, you heard right! The band are always on the hunt for great new talent, so at every stop of the tour, they would love to give local bands the chance to open up the show, which will ultimately give you the chance to expose your music to a new audience and get everyone up on their feet. In total, that means seventeen bands will win!

To enter, simply click here and fill in your details, including a link to one of your songs and a link to your band profile, and we’ll pick our favourites. Good luck!

Lithium Magazine spoke to LAMB OF GOD‘s sticksman Chris Adler the other day and they spoke about a variety of things including the new album ‘Resolution‘, the meaning behind the band’s lyrics, political views and Randy standing for US president (see here for more info). You can read an extract from the Lithium interview below:

Mike: Resolution certainly shows Lamb of God progressing as musicians. I feel like Wrath and Resolution rank amongst your best work, and not the other way around. You are putting out progressively better albums and resting so heavily on your laurels.

Chris: Well, thank you very much for that. There was definitely a concerted effort to be better musicians. Going into Resolution, that was very much in our minds. Not that we could just rest on our laurels, but that we really wanted to try and come up with an album that could break that barricade with our older fans. Even for me, the bands that I love; I love their first few albums and then they seem to trail off somewhere that I just don’t understand. And I think this may have a lot to do with the time in my life that I caught onto the band and maybe for the bands in question, the things they meant to do in their beginnings weren’t how they wanted to be in their later albums. There is evolution in everything, really.

For us, I wanted to try and create something meaningful. I pushed the guys and they pushed me throughout this recording to make something that a fan COULD say, “Oh yeah, I love that band. Their seventh album is the best one.” That’s a pretty daunting task considering what we have done before – six records that we are all very proud of as a band. There are very few things that we would go back and change about those older albums, so when you have something already that you really like, the question really becomes, “How do you improve on it?”

We were starting at a pretty high spot for this album. It was tough to do and it took us a little while to do. There were some hurdles for us all to jump on Resolution. Being friends, we were able to talk to each other like, “That’s a great riff, bro, but it sounds like something we would have done on this record or that record. How can we bring this forward into something that is even pushing you as a musician?” That was very much on our minds throughout Resolution.

Mike: Interesting. We talked by phone at the end of the touring cycle for Wrath, and I can remember you saying that you felt that if the material for the seventh album wasn’t shaping up to be something exciting, then you weren’t real interested in doing the album. You wanted it to be a challenge and a step forward even before you started to write it.

Chris: Absolutely. I didn’t want to be one of those bands that just did a maintenance album. I know we could have done that now and just made a placeholder album. We could have even just not done new records at all and just opted to tour until we are too old to do so anymore…we COULD do that, but I don’t want to be that kind of band or that kind of musician.

I want to be innovative. I don’t want to repeat myself. At the end of the day, when I’m talking to my kids or my family, and I am retired or whatever…even if we had to cut it short after Wrath or after Sacrament, I would want to know that our body of work didn’t get compromised by that notion; that we could do something less just to keep Lamb of God going.

Click here to read the full interview.

Point your mouse in this direction to pick up a copy of LAMB OF GOD’s new album ‘Resolution’.

PERIPHERY release the Special Edition of their self-titled debut album today and to celebrate the release Total Guitar have got a track-by-track guide from guitarist Misha Mansoor and vocalist Spencer Sotelo up on their website. Check out the video over on Total Guitar’s webiste by clicking here and watch Misha and Spencer explain the songwriting process behind ‘Insomnia’, ‘The Walk’, ‘Letter Experiment’ and ‘Jetpacks Was Yes!’. The second part will be up on Total Guitar tomorrow, which we will highlight again so you don’t miss it!

The Special Edition of ‘Periphery‘ features instrumentals of all the original tracks and a brand new bonus track, ‘Passengers‘. The band are also on tour in the UK this week, supporting DREAM THEATER on their Glasgow, Manchester and London dates. You can find the dates listed below:

8 February – Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow
9 February – Apollo Manchester, Manchester
10 February – Wembley Arena, London

Click here to buy tickets for the tour.

You can pick up a copy of the Special Edition of PERIPHERY’s debut album on iTunes by pointing your mouse in this direction.

Whilst at this year’s NAMM expo HALESTORM guitarist Joe Hottinger and Lzzy Hale played a 3-song acoustic set inside the Gibson showroom, which you can see by clicking this link. During the brief set, they debuted a song called ‘Here’s to Us’, which is from the upcoming album ‘The Strange Case of….‘.

Backstage Axxess caught up with the band at NAMM and you can watch a video interview with Gus Griesinger by clicking here.

Pre-order HALESTORM’s upcoming album ‘The Strange Case Of…’, out on 9 April 2012, by pointing your mouse in this direction.

As we reported a few weeks back, Orange Amplifiers unveiled a new signature amp named after one of the most highly visible axeman on the planet at this years NAMM expo. Gus Griesinger from Backstage Axxess spoke to SLIPKNOT / STONE SOUR guitarist Jim Root about how the idea came up for the new amp and the specifics of it. They also got an up-close and personal look at the amp inside a dark secret room before Jim met his fans to sign autographs at NAMM.

Not only did they talk about the amp but also the future plans for both SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR, the possibility of Jim taking on another musical project and his handyman skills when remodeling his home in Florida. Check out the video interview on Backstage Axxess by clicking here.

NICKELBACK have been filming a new video for a track from their latest album ‘Here And Now‘ called ‘Lullaby‘ recently and during the filming they kept fans up to date via their Twitter and Facebook page. You can see some pictures and tweets below:

“Our video shoot location and (possible) home to the World’s largest collection of styrofoam packing peanuts….”

Watch this space to find out where you can see NICKELBACK‘s new video for ‘Lullaby‘.

Pick up a copy of NICKELBACK’s album ‘Here And Now’ by pointing your mouse in this direction.

HALESTORM‘s EP ‘Hello, It’s Mz Hyde‘ was released yesterday and you can pick up a copy from iTunes by clicking this link.

‘Hello, It’s Mz. Hyde’ includes four tracks as follows:

1. Love Bites (So Do I)
2. Rock Show
3. Daughters Of Darkness
4. Here’s To Us

You can ‘try before you buy’ and listen to the EP below:

The complete album ‘The Strange Case Of…‘ will be released on the 9th of April and those who buy the EP from iTunes can later purchase the album at a discounted price, as part of their ‘Complete Your Album’ promotion. The album tracklist can be seen below:

1. Love Bites (So Do I)
2. Mz. Hyde
3. I Miss The Misery
4. Freak Like Me
5. Beautiful With You
6. In Your Room
7. Break In
8. Rock Show
9. Daughters Of Darkness
10. You Call Me A Bitch Like It’s A Bad Thing
11. American Boys
12. Here’s To Us

The band filmed some studio updates whilst recording the new album and you can see those clips below. One fetaures the guys dancing around singing their praises for tequila and the second is Lzzy interviewing her brother Arejay. Check them out!

HALESTORM are currently on a European tour supporting labelmates SHINEDOWN. The UK dates are on sale now and run as follows:

Wed 8th Feb – LONDON Roundhouse
Thu 9th Feb – NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Fri 10th Feb – NEWCASTLE O2 Academy
Sun 12th Feb – BRISTOL O2 Academy
Mon 13th Feb – LEEDS O2 Academy
Tue 14th Feb – MANCHESTER Academy 1
Thu 16th Feb – GLASGOW O2 Academy
Fri 17th Feb – BIRMINGHAM HMV Institute

You can pick up tickets on our Tour Page by clicking here.

Pre-order HALESTORM’s upcoming album ‘The Strange Case Of…’ by pointing your mouse in this direction.

In our previous news post we highlighted the ARTISTdirect.com‘s ‘Rockin’ Roundtable‘ series – as well as asking the selected members of the panel from KO퐌¿N, Hollywood Undead, Fear and the Nervous System, Valora, and Hyro Da Hero with actor Derek Mears [Friday the 13th, Predators, Pirates of the Caribbean] what music they would like to be remembered by, they also asked each member what their favourite movies are.

Click here to watch the video and see what movies the panel picked.

Click here to pick up a copy of KORN’s latest album ‘The Path Of Totality’.