Altsounds.com have published their recent chat with COHEED AND CAMBRIA front-man Claudio Sanchez over on the site. In it, he talks about the band’s current album Year Of The Black Ranbow which was released in April of this year and how he feels it differs from their previous offerings.

“I think it’s a little bit more mature,” he states, “and the themes within the lyrics are a little bit easier for people to understand, they’ve always been quite cryptic and concept-heavy. I think the approach was different, and the production team we used had a huge hand in helping mould the statement we wanted to make.”

With the previous offering’s being based on Sanchez’s comic series The Amory Wars, and YOTBR being the prequel to this series, Altsounds ponders the idea that this could be the end of the concept. “It can be, that’s what I like to think.” Claudio responds, “If it is the end, it’s the perfect way to round it all off. We have our beginning and we have our end – it frames itself very well, in my opinion. But there are ways to expand on that mythology if we choose to, I’ve definitely come up with a few ideas to continue the storyline, whether it be with the musical accompaniment or not. So there are ways to allow it to grow, even though it feels like it has come to its conclusion.”

Point your mouse in this direction to read the interview in full, where Claudio goes on to talk about the sacrifices that have gone into making the band successful and also his desire for a truck full of nachos…

Year Of The Black Rainbow can be picked up online now at Play.com and iTunes.

Today sees the world premiere of STONE SOUR’S latest video from their smashing new album Audio Secrecy over at AOL Music.

Click on the player below to see vocalist Corey Taylor introduce the video for ‘Hesitate’ and head HERE to check the video out NOW!

Audio Secrecy is available in stores now, or head to Play.com and iTunes!

Friday 7th January, sees MTV broadcast SLIPKNOT live in concert as part of the channels flagship ‘MTV World Stage’ series. The show will feature the Iowan outfit’s crushing headline performance Download 2009- the last major performance with the band’s bassist and founding member Paul Gray who tragically passed away in May this year.

Filmed on June 13th 2009, the band performed in front of a packed Donington to over 80,000 fans. Slipknot is in its most natural state on stage and there were 30 cameras on hand to capture every single angle as the nine piece motored through their catalogue and their fans lapped up the show.

The show will be broadcast across the world (ex North America) on the MTV network in over 160 countries! UK viewers can see the show on MTV UK (Sky channel 350 and Virgin Media channel 311) at 11pm, broadcast in high definition. Check your local MTV website for time of broadcast.

The performance is also available as part of the band’s recent DVD release (sic)nesses which also includes an on the raod documentary. (sic)nesses is in stores now- pick it up online here.

TIMES OF GRACE are continuing their launch of teaser clips from their forthcoming album with today’s posting of a segment of another track- ‘Until The End Of Days’. Click on the player below to listen now!

The album, ‘The Hymn Of A Broken Man‘ will be released in the UK on January 17th. The digital pre-order for the album has just launched at iTunes- point your mouse in this direction. Pre-order the CD over at .

Those awesome chaps ROYAL REPUBLIC have posted a Merry Christmas message over at their Official YouTube. Click on the player below to see the awesome message from Adam, Jonas, Per and Hannes.

Las week we revealed the artwork and tracklisting for the forthcoming DEVILDRIVER album Beast and this week we can reveal that this album will also be available as a CD/DVD Special Edition, complete with it’s own awesome artwork, 3 bonus tracks and a DVD jam packed full of DevilDriver goodness!!

The full tracklisting can be revealed as follows:

01. Dead To Rights
02. Bring The Fight (To The Floor)
03. Hardened
04. Shitlist
05. Talons Out (Teeth Sharpened)
06. You Make Me Sick
07. Coldblooded
08. Blur
09. The Blame Game
10. Black Soul Choir
11. Crowns Of Creation
12. Lend Myself To The Night
13. Lost
14. Fortune Favors The Brave
15. Grinfucked (Live)

The bonus DVD will include a stunning documentary- You May Know Us From The Stage- a full-length film chronicling DevilDriver’s history from day one, which includes behind-the-scenes footage, live performances, interviews and more. Also included on the DVD will be the videos for Not All Who Wander Are Lost, Clouds Over California, Pray For Villains, Fate Stepped In and Another Night In London.

Details of the pre-order for this metallic treat coming soon…

As reported last week, Kentucky’s finest BLACK STONE CHERRY have been spending some quality time in the studio in recent weeks putting together the follow-up to their 2008 offering Folklore & Superstition.

Last night, the band posted a clip from the studio on their Official YouTube– an introductory piece to their album sessions, teasing us with more to come. You can check out the update in the player below, and watch this space for more about the new album, pencilled for a 2011 release…

Back at the start of November, DEVILDRIVER and 36 CRAZYFISTS hit the road together here in the UK and put on some blistering shows. Whilst the bands were in Wolverhampton, Altsounds caught up with the guys to chat about touring together and their latest releases.

“Oh man, it’s awesome!” 36 Crazyfists guitarist Steve Holt commented when asked about being on the road with his labelmates, “We’ve done a couple of tours with them in the past so we knew it was gonna go well. When you’re on one of these kind of tours where you know everybody, all the crew guys and the band and everything, it really makes a difference, so we’re definitely looking forward to the rest of this one. These guys are just amazing live too, so it’s a really awesome setup.”

Moving on to the bands recently released 4th studio album Collisions And Castaways, Holt confesses the record isn’t exactly what the band had planned, “Y’know, I think it’s been a very natural progression for us – we set out to make a much less ‘metal’ and much more ‘rock’ kind of record – and for whatever reason, it didn’t really turn into that. It’s more of a bit mishmash of everything, it’s got some very cool rocky songs, and some real great metal too…We tried to focus much more on the songs, so that they’re much more identifiable. Sometimes you hear records nowadays where the tracks just run into each other, and you end up like “I don’t know what song this is any more”. We didn’t want that, we focused on making each song stand out on its own and making them shine individually. We wanna make sure people know each song by their name.”

Turning their attention to DevilDriver’s Jeff Kendrick, Altsounds take the opportunity to grill the guitarist about their forthcoming album Beast. “Well I think the songwriting is the best we’ve ever done,” he states, “I think the musicianship is the best. I think it’s the best vocally, it has the best production too. I think it’s got simply the best everything…In terms of it being straight up heavy? It’s the heaviest and most brutal record by far. It’s fucking heavy man! It’s not contrived, it’s not fake, it’s not created for any other reason than it’s what comes from our hearts. I think people identify with that.”

Read the full interviews with Steve and Jeff over at Altsounds now. Click here for Jeff’s interview and head to this location for Steve’s.

36 Crazyfists’ ‘Collisions And Castaways’ is in stores now. Grab it at Play.com and iTunes.

DevilDriver’s new offering ‘Beast’ hits UK stores on February 21st. Pre-order details coming very soon.

It’s time for our latest contributon to the 30 years Of Roadrunner series and who better than 25th Anniversary Roadrunner United Team Captain, Slipknot drummer and Murderdolls guitarist and all-round general legend Joey Jordison?!

In 30 years you will be…
Hopefully alive and making music!

Best music moments in last 30 years.
The first wave of Norwegian black metal

Your career highlight?
Headlining Download.

Crappiest moment in music in the past 30 years?
The invention of auto-tune/vocoder thing.

Album from your generation years that will be legendary in 30 years.
KISS Alive.

Roadrunner classic album?
Slipknot – Slipknot

Murderdolls have just released their second studio album Women and Children Last. Pick it up online at iTunes and Play.com. Joey will return to the UK on tour this comine February, taking up guitars with Murderdolls followed by a stink on Drums with Rob Zombie. He’ll also return in July to play Sonisphere with Slipknot.

When the band were in London last month for their shows with Arch Enemy, GRAND MAGUS front-man JB caught up with Metal Hammer to fill them in on his top 5 albums of 2010.

If you head on over to the mags website now, you will be able to see the exclusive vid clip there and see what the enigmatic front-man’s top picks of the year were. Click HERE to find the vid!

This year saw the band release their first Roadrunner album Hammer Of The North. You can pick it up online at Play.com and iTunes.