It’s time for Roadrunner newcomers GRAND MAGUS to give us their contribution to our 30th Anniversary series and below, front man JB gives us a quick run through his 30 years Q&A…

In 30 years you will be…
In Valhalla!

Best music moments of the last 30 years…
Fucking hell! Yngwie Malmsteen’s solo on “I’m a Viking”

Highlight of your career thus far
Really that we’ve stuck together as a band and been brave enough to follow our hearts and instincts all the way instead of being led by others AND seeing that it pays off.

Crappiest moment in music in the last 30 years
When poser bands dress up and try to act like they are “metal”, because it is suddenly “fashion”. You can’t become metal. You are or you’re not. Sorry.

Album from your generation that will be legendary in 30 years
GRAND MAGUS – HAMMER OF THE NORTH

Name a Roadrunner classic artist
KING DIAMOND

What makes them a classic?
In my book, MERCYFUL FATE and later KING with his own band were the first to combine truly occult topics with original, accomplished, catchy metal. Some of the best playing ever on those early KING DIAMOND records, ABIGAIL and THEM.

Grand Magus’ current album Hammer Of The North is in stores now. Pick it up on line at Play.com and iTunes.

Fancy another taster from the forthcoming debut album from TIMES OF GRACE? Well here you go! This is a snippet of the track ‘The End Of Eternity’ taken from The Hymn Of A Broken Man which hits UK stores on the 17th January!.

AIRBOURNE front man Joel O’Keefe will be sunning himself in summery Melbourne this December, but we won’t hold that against him as we snuggle up and check out what his highlights of the past 30 years of music have been in the latest of our 30th anniversary series!!

In 30 years you will be...
Standing Up For Rock’n’Roll.

Best music moments of the last 30 years…
Back In Black, Metallica, Born In The USA, Number Of The Beast, Guns n Roses, basically every good Rock’n’Roll band plus Dylan is still kickin!!

Highlight of your career thus far?
Not falling to my death from every lighting tower I’ve scaled and touring the world, meeting loads of great folk and playing Rock’n’Roll to real people.

Crappiest moment in music in the last 30 years
There was ups and there was downs but that’s life, so here’s to the next 30 years.

Album from your generation that will be legendary in 30 years
Metallica – Black Album

Name a Roadrunner classic artist
Slash, the guy is the real deal, he’s one of the most influential riff masters and lead break legends to ever plug in a Les Paul. He will rock forever.

Airbourne’s current album No Guts. No Glory is in stores now. Grab it at Play.com and iTunes.

Next up in our series, it’s TRIVUM front man Matt Heafy!! Check out what he had to offer up below!!

In 30 years you will be…
Hmmmmm… 30 years from now… I know I’ll still be involved in music; hell, in 30 years I won’t even be too old so I definitely have no excuse. Music, I feel is the only thing in life I really know how to do right; granted I don’t know theory or the history of music, but I know that I love it. Whether it’s creating, listening, analyzing, performing, and all that- music is always around me and always will be.

Best music moments of the last 30 years…
Countless fantastic moments in music have happened in the last 30 years: good, bad and ugly. But if this is a dedicated interview specifically geared towards the answers I would respond with, for me, the greatest thing that’s happened in at least my life-time is having music go from something I saw as a hobby to a full-blown lifestyle. Music has given me everything I have: a band, a job, a family; and I will always deeply respect it for all of that. So for me, it’s being in the band that I am in today.

Highlight of your career thus far…
All past events aside, I feel the highlight that stands out the most to me is where we are as a band in creating our new record. Right now, we have 15.5 songs written already; with vocals, solos, album title, art direction, art directors (who happen to be good friends), video ideas, merch ideas, staging ideas… we have a whole new world in the works for our band. It feels simultaneously like a new beginning, just as much as it feels like the first real time our band is actually coming into fruition of our own.

Crappiest moment in music in the last 30 years
The “crappiest” is a tricky thing. There are copious amounts of deaths, mistakes, bad music movements, bad people… the list would be too big if encompassing multiple moments. Honestly, the principle that music can even have crappy moments is the crappiest moment to me. Music is the escape from everything else; it shouldn’t be another bad thing about the world.

Album from your generation that will be legendary in 30 years
Our next album. Ha ha.

Roadrunner classic album or artist.
Slipknot – Slipknot. What makes it a classic? I’ve talked this CD up for ages, but this is another band that not only inspired me to start up playing music as a kid, but it’s a band that still drives me today by doing exactly what they want to do.

Watch out for a brand new album from Trivium in 2011!!!

Next up in our series is DEVILDRIVER main man Dez Fafara, who runs through his personal career highlights, which also touches on his career with Coal Chamber who released their first record with Roadrunner back in 1997…

In 30 years you will be…
Kicking back with my wife Anahstasia, enjoying my sunset years.

Best music moments of the last 30 years…
Touring with Sabbath and Pantera around the world was a definite highlight of a lifetime! Still nothing comes close.

Highlight of your career thus far…
Receiving a Gold record and giving it to my mom.

Crappiest moment in music in the last 30 years
The demise of Coal Chamber due to their drug abuse. Sucked to put down something you loved cause you couldn’t stand the people around you anymore or to slowly watch them kill themselves.

Album from your generation that will be legendary in 30 years
Pantera 100 Proof Live

Roadrunner classic artist.
Machine Head. What makes them a classic? The time they’ve put in and directions they’ve changed over the years.

Devildriver will release their 5th studio album ‘Beast‘ in February 2011.

When in London recently, we grabbed Frank Novinec from HATEBREED and had a natter about what the guys have been up to since we saw them last and also what the future holds for Hatebreed as we enter a new year, which includes some writing…

The last time you were in the UK was the Reading and Leeds Festivals, so how was that?
It was cool, it was cold I remember, but the shows were good for us. We’ve been here quite often this year, we did a UK tour supporting Machine Head earlier in the year, so this is our third time here just this year.

How does this headline run differ from playing those bigger venues in support of Machine Head?
Well, obviously when you’re supporting a band and the majority of the people there are likely there for [the headline band] but it gives us a chance to play in front of new people which is great for us this late in our career. Us coming back and doing the smaller venues is more what we’re about, it’s more personal and intimate for the kids to feel like their at one with the band. It’s not really a rock star thing where they’re down there and we’re up here, it’s more personable.

You’re known for being the kind of band who prefers to play 15 small shows rather than 4 big ones – even if you know you could sell them. Is that because you want that exchange between you and the fans of the energy, the music and the commitment?
Well, I prefer playing both – they both have their advantages. To play a big festival and win a huge crowd over by the end of the set is a great feeling, but the energy and electricity in a small room is unbeatable. Everybody has a good time. It’s funny because I’ve talked to a lot of people on this run who’ve been saying; ‘This was so much better than the show you played with Machine Head,’ and ‘It was so much more crazy.’ Y’know, they both have their advantages.

Obviously it must be tough being away from your friends and family, but what would you say is your favourite part of being out on the road?
It’s fun to get up on stage and play every night, that’s why we did the band in the first place. It’s good when you’ve been off the road for a while to see the guys, hang out with them and find out what they’ve been up to – things like that more than anything. At this point in our career, to just be able to go up there and play and have a good time, that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. That’s why we started the band, that’s why I picked up a guitar and started playing as a kid, to be able to perform and play to people every night – whether it’s a hundred people or 10,000 people.

So, tonight’s the last show you’re playing in the UK – where do you go from here?
We do the Stillborn festival, which is Jamey’s record label and goes down the East Coast in between Christmas and New Year’s, then it’s really open for next year. We’re going to be writing material for a new record – we plan to have a new record out next year – and I think we have some festivals lined up in Europe and Australia, and we might be trying to get on Download or something like that, since we didn’t do it this past year. I think we have one or two shows in the beginning of the year, but other than that we don’t really have anything concrete until the summertime and those festivals in Europe. I think it’s going to be time to really relax and write some material. We might not be busy as a band, but we’ll definitely be doing things. If we’re not on the road, we’ll be writing.

Are you looking forward to writing and getting some new tracks laid down?
I’m looking forward to some time off! (laughs) No, I am definitely, it’s been a while since the last record and we’ve got to make something fresh and make the people hungry for the band again. We’ve toured this record all over the world for so long now, it’s time to give them something new. It’ll be a good experience coming up with some new Hatebreed material for our new full-length.

When you look back over this album cycle, what would you say have been your highlights?
Well, we just got back from the South Pacific – we were in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, Korea and Taiwan – places we’d never been to before. We’ve been a band for at least 15 years, and we’ve been all over the world, but to be able to go some place we’ve never been before is always rare and exciting. That was a highlight of it, for sure. There were a lot of things we did – obviously we did Reading and we had a good spot on there, we were direct support for Kiss at Graspop festival which was a dream come true for me, they’ve been my favourite band from when I grew up to this day. [It’s been a highlight just] being able to continue to tour and do well and play festivals. We did Mayhem festival in the States – which is a very big summer festival comparable with Ozzfest – headlining the J

ROYAL REPUBLIC release their new album We Are The Royal on March 14th and you can now pre-order the album online!

Click the player below to get a taster of what you can expect from Royal Republic in the player below and pre-order HERE.

2010 is the 30th year of Roadrunner and so over the past week we have been chatting to some of our artists about what they have been their highlights of the past 30 years in music. Following on from yesterday’s chat with Killswitch Engage’s Mike D, today we have a chat with OPETH main-man Mikael Akerfeldt…

In 30 years you will be…
I’ll be 66 years old. Probably too old to be pumping out Bloodbath songs, but possibly still playing to equally old fans from the past and owning a record store. Massively successful of course!

Best music moment of the last 30 years.
Since 1980? Wow, there’s quite a few right? All Maiden, Priest, Accept, Scorpions, Yngwie records that were released in the 80’s. Perfect Strangers with Deep Purple….I mean, come the fuck on! Death Metal scene, Morbid Angel being the only band that really lasted for me. I can revisit their Vincent records and they’re still top class. Can’t say that about many of their peers at the time.

Highlight of your career thus far?
Has to be playing the Royal Albert Hall during the 20th Anniversary mini-tour. I mean, bands like us simply don’t get that chance, but we did and it was magical. It was a big step up the ladder for us. Separated us from the rest of the pack, he he!

Crappiest moment in music in the last 30 years.
Numerous! 2002-2003 were bad years for Opeth. Not in terms of success, but personal matters. Contemporary music is an odd phenomenon to me. It’s increasingly more difficult to find interesting stuff and on top of that, all the record stores are gone. The music scene is really flourishing but in secrecy so to speak. There are probably phenomenal bands out there that no one will hear ‘cause people stopped buying records. I don’t care what kids say, record sales are a platform you need to get out there, and unless you’re a fucking entrepreneur you’re fucked more or less.

Album from your generation that will be legendary in 30 years.
Opeth catalogue, perhaps it’s obvious!!?? Well if I have to pick records done during my time as a professional musician, it’s more difficult, ‘cause I’m stuck with my old vinyl. However, In The Nightside Eclipse with Emperor will live on, same with the De Mysteriis… by Mayhem. I don’t really like Mayhem’s music, but I can acknowledge it’s a classic and a super influential Black Metal record. There are albums I personally love but who failed to make that impact that the above mentioned records did. They were released unto the scene, and it was like “Boom”!

Roadrunner classic album.
Pestilence ‘Consuming Impulse’, all the King Diamond and Mercyful Fate records. The guitar records of the 80’s with fucking Joey Tafolla haha! I’d have to say Them by King Diamond. What a monster of an album! What makes them a classic? I wouldn’t be able to be friends with a metalhead who didn’t own and worship Them. I mean, it’s obligatory and unless you’re a fucking wimp you own that records and you know every lyric and every drumfill! haha!

Opeth are currently working on their tenth studio album due for release on Roadrunner Records in 2011. More on that in the New Year!!

On March 7th SLASH will release a CD/DVD special edition of his current self titled album and this is now available for pre-order over at Play.com.

The CD will feature the full album plus exclusive acoustic versions of “Back To Cali” (Slash), “Fall To Pieces” (original by Velvet Revolver) and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (originally GnR) all featuring Myles Kennedy on vocals. The DVD will see the following tracklisting:

1. Making Of The Album documentary
2. Back From Cali (live from the Roxy)
3. By The Sword (promo video)
4. Making Of By The Sword
5. Back From Cali (promo video)
6. Beautiful Dangerous (promo video)
7. Starlight (live from MTV Classic launch)
8. Mean Bone (live from MTV Classic launch)
9. Track by track interview with Slash

Click HERE to pre-order now!

Sonic Shocks sat down with HATEBREED drummer Matt Byrne to see how their recent UK headline tour was for them and see what they have been up to since the band were last here in support of label mates Machine Head. They also discuss how fans of the more traditional metal and hardcore camps react to a band who cross over the two genres, the music industry in general and much more.

Click on the player below to check out the interview…