Dunno ’bout you folks, but always up for a bargain over here! If you’re a fan of DOWN, there are some up for grabs! The band have announced a sale over at their official online merch store.

CLICK HERE to be taken to the store to check out the shizzle they have on offer.

You can also pick up Down’s current album OVER THE UNDER (Down III) online AT THIS LOCATION.

For more news and info on Down, HERE.

DEVILDRIVER are currently in the studio working on the follow-up to 2007’s THE LAST KIND WORDS. Drummer John Boecklin has updated the bands OFFICIAL MYSPACE blog about the way the album is shaping up…

This record is our most technical to date. It is certainly pushing the boundary of what one may call a DevilDriver record. It has the vocal deliverance that is very catchy and a little more along the lines of the Fury record, yet blows it away at the same time. Musically we are sounding more progressive at times, as well as more straight forward than ever at times…Can’t wait for people to get a listen…

Check out the full post HERE.

Check out previous DevilDriver tracks and videos on their ARTISTS PAGE

MADINA LAKE will release single NEVER TAKE US ALIVE on APRIL 20th and you can cehck it out right here, right now in the player below!

The track is taken from their upcoming new album ATTICS TO EDEN, the follow up to 2007’s ‘From them, Through Us, To You’. The album will be released a week later, on APRIL 27th.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE MADINA LAKE NEWS.

LAMB OF GOD released the first single from new album WRATH (in stores 23rd FEB) today (02/02). You can now pick up the track SET TO FAIL from all the usual digital outlets.

You can pre-order the full album, and (whilst stocks last) get a free sew on patch RIGHT HERE.

The band are about to hit the UK on the Defenders of the Faith tour. Full dates are as follows:

Sun 8th Feb – Belfast Mandella Hall (headline)
Mon 9th Feb – Dublin Academy (headline)
Wed 11th Feb – Bristol Academy
Thu 12th Feb – Birmingham Academy
Fri 13th Feb – Manchester Academy
Sat 14th Feb – London Brixton Academy
Sun 15th Feb – Glasgow Academy
Tue 17th Feb – Sheffield Corporation (headline)

MORE LAMB OF GOD NEWS HERE

With LAMB OF GOD‘s new album WRATH due out later this month (23rd FEBRUARY to be exact) more and more folks are checking in with the guys to get the lowdown on the album and the bands upcoming touring schedule.

KNAC.COM spoke to guitarist Mark Morton recently about the tour with Metallica, the upcoming tour plans and the album itself:

KNAC.COM: Since this is your fifth album, and the last two have done pretty well, do you have any aspirations for the new one to get you “to the next level,” as everyone likes to say?

Morton: (laughs) With us it ends with writing and recording the songs and being satisfied with them creatively. First of all, a band like us, we’re not a hit single band, we’re not a radio band, we don’t necessarily expect to top the charts or anything like that. Our last album had an amazing first week, #8 I believe on the Billboard chart, and was nominated for a Grammy and all these wonderful accolades, that was fantastic. But those things happening are out of our hands. So we don’t have any expectations there.
Furthermore, in this day and age, the record industry is in a free-fall, as is the economy in general (laughs), and it’s getting easier and easier for people to steal albums than buy them. So my expectations were that the five of use would write some killer songs and make a really, really exciting recording with them, and those expectations were reached, in fact they were surpassed. So from there I’m just excited to turn it loose on people and give the fans some new music and give the band an excuse to go around the world a couple times and play the songs in front of people.

KNAC.COM: Did you go into this album with any kind of game plan, or does spontaneity work better for you guys?

Morton: We went in knowing that we wanted to strip things down a bit on a production level. Our last album was very epic sounding, and that worked for that record, but as kind of a rebound to that we really wanted to strip it down and get it back to the raw roots and aggression. And that sort of led into the songwriting and we had a lot of fun writing this record, we decided this would be kind of a free-for-all, do whatever we want record, and it was very collaborative. There was really very little competition, or tug of war, some of those things that sometimes arise among the group when you’re writing a record that are a natural part of being a band. There’s always some of that, people have different visions of how songs should flow, it’s always hard to get five people on the same page all the time. With Sacrament there was a whole lot of that, and you see some of that on the DVD [Walk with Me in Hell].
This time we were all at a stage where we felt like we really should have fun writing a record, being at home for a year with our families, sleeping in our beds, working on our music, and just enjoying that moment, and I think we did. It’s a really rowdy bunch of songs, it’s the sound of us having fun.

KNAC.COM: It certainly doesn’t sound like you were looking to make any radical changes?

Morton: We chose what came the most natural. In the past few years there have been a few situations where we found ourselves a little stretched out, a little bit like wondering whether or not this certain approach or sound was the right fit. Sometimes we took risks that worked and sometimes we took risks that didn’t work as well, and this time we just wanted to do what felt that most natural. If that meant stripping it down, making it little more raw and getting more in your face, then that’s what it would be. It was the time to do what we wanted, not that we didn’t before, but more than ever before, and reconnect with the reason why we started doing this in the first place. And that’s what we did.

CHECK OUT THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.

LOG tour dates (complete with buy online links) HERE

CLICK TO READ MORE LAMB OF GOD NEWS.

Check out this killer interview with MACHINE HEAD bassist Adam Duce, filmed for French website NRV TV.

In the interview he chats about the bands roller coaster ride within the music industry and the media, and about touring with Slipknot.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE INTERVIEW.

The band will be back in the UK later this month on tour with Metallica. Full dates are as follows:
25 Feb: Nottingham, Trent FM Arena
26 Feb: Manchester Evening News Arena
28 Feb: Sheffield Arena
2 Mar: London, O2 Arena
3 Mar: Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena
25 Mar: Birmingham, LG Arena
26 Mar: Glasgow, SECC
28 Mar:London, 02 Arena

MORE MACHINE HEAD NEWS HERE.

Current album THE BLACKENING is out NOW, and is available as a 2CD / DVD tour edition. Check it out / pick it up online HERE.

THE AQUARIAN WEEKLY’S Cathy A. Campagna has posted an interview with Shawn Crahan of SLIPKNOT. There is a lot of great stuff here and some excellent questions. This is an interview Slipknot fans NEED to check out.

“Under the magnifying glass, any art form can be considered an essence, or even indelible fingerprint left behind by the soul of its creator. Upon speaking to M. Shwan Crahan or Clown of Slipknot you’ll find that the percussionist completely embodies that principle. He is unpredictable, unapologetic, cerebral, raw and maintains a fervent course. Those qualities are at the core of Slipknot’s fourth release, All Hope Is Gone.” -Aquarian

Check out the full interview HERE.

Check out more Slipknot news HERE

Current album ALL HOPE IS GONE can be picked up online HERE.

If you’re an XBox live player and a LAMB OF GOD FAN, here’s a date for your diary! John will be playing on XBox live on February 14th. Full deets are as follows:

: February 14th
TIME: 4:00 – 5:30 (GMT – Greenwich Mean Time)
LOCATION: London
GAME: Call Of Duty: World At War
GAMERTAG: LoG GwF (space between LoG and GwF)
URL: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/calendar/gamewithfame/2009/0214-lambofgod.htm?WText.camp=Community&WText.campSrc=RSS

New album Wrath is out on Feb 23rd. PRE-ORDER HERE.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE LAMB OF GOD NEWS.

After taking a short break following their long run of US dates, DRAGONFORCE have hit the road in mainland Europe.

Website METALEXPERIENCE.COM has posted up some pics from the bands show in Tilberg, Jan 28th. You can check them out at THIS LOCATION.

(Source: BLABBERMOUTH.NET)

DragonForce are touring in support of album ULTRA BEATDOWN, which is in store now. You can pick up a copy online HERE.

For more DragonForce news, head to their NEWS PAGE.

Check out the KILLER artwork for MADINA LAKE’S upcoming album ATTICS TO EDEN, which sees a release on APRIL 27.

There is quite an interesting story behind the artwork. Check out the latest issue of KERRANG (on shelves now, dated 31 Jan) to read the full lowdown from Nathan.

For more Madina Lake news, CLICK HERE.