NICKELBACK WELCOME DRUMMER DANIEL ADAIR “We are thrilled to have Daniel in the band and excited about the creativity that is going on between the four of us in the studio,” says vocalist Chad Kroeger. Adair, a Vancouver, BC native, was most recently employed as the studio & touring drummer for 3 Doors Down. “I am so happy to be in such a great band with great guys from my hometown,” he enthused. “We’ve known each other for years and it just seems natural that we’re playing together now. I’m looking forward to an exciting future and the release of a fantastic album.” Daniel joins his new bandmates Chad Kroeger (lead vocals/guitar) Ryan Peake (guitar/vocals) Mike Kroeger (bass) as they head into the studio to begin recording the follow-up to the gold-certified album, “The Long Road”. Fans can expect to hear new music from Nickelback later this summer.

OPEN HAND’s stunning new album YOU AND ME has been receiving phenominal reviews… And here is another two brought to us by GIGWISE & NEW NOISE With multi-layered guitars, smooth vocals and captivating music this album is a veritable selection box of tasty treats. There is no coffee cream left when this album is done so whatever your musical poison, sit back and indulge. CLICK HERE to read the rest of the gigwise review. Ultimately and undeniably, Open Hand are ready for the big time. ‘You and Me’ often recalls Incubus casting off their nu-metal shackles and venturing into the major league of ‘career’ musicians, taking the Chili Peppers as their template, knowing full well that scenes come and go but widely appreciated ‘rawk’ is where the crowds are. CLICK HERE to read the rest of the new-noise review. REMEMBER: OPEN HAND – YOU AND ME – OUT NOW OPEN HAND are set to support My Chemical Romance on their sold-out UK dates this April. Full dates run as follows: Wed 6th April í¢ä‰åäóì WOLVERHAMPTON Wulfrun Hall Thu 7th April í¢ä‰åäóì GLASGOW Barrowlands Fri 8th April í¢ä‰åäóì MANCHESTER Academy Sat 9th April í¢ä‰åäóì LONDON Astoria

With just 92 days to go till DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL ’05 the lineup is starting to shape up. Naturally with DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL ’05 being the UK’s premier rock/metal festival, it has to include some of ROADRUNNERS awesome acts!!! (vain aren’t we) So far both SLIPKNOT & CHIMAIRA have been confirmed. But stay tuned for more updates. If you can’t make DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL ’05, but you still require your healthy metal intake, check out some of the upcoming tours. HATEBREED & CALIBAN (plus Crowbar) Wed 9th Mar í¢ä‰åäóì Manchester MDH Thu 10th Mar í¢ä‰åäóì Dublin Wheelan’s Fri 11th Mar í¢ä‰åäóì Cork Nancy Spain’s Sun 13th Mar í¢ä‰åäóì London Mean Fiddler Mon 14th Mar í¢ä‰åäóì Oxford Zodiac Tue 15th Mar í¢ä‰åäóì Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms 36 CRAZYFISTS & TWELVE TRIBES Sun 3rd Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Wolves Wulfrun Hall Mon 4th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Newcastle Northumbria Uni Tues 5th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Glasgow Garage Wed 6th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Nottingham Rock City Thu 7th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Manchester University Fri 8th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì London Astoria OPEN HAND (with My Chemical Romance) Wed 6th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Wolves Wulfrun Hall Thu 7th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Glasgow Barrowlands Fri 8th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Manchester Academy Sat 9th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì London Astoria WEDNESDAY 13 Mon 11th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Manchester Academy 3 Tue 12th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Brighton Concorde 2 Wed 13th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì London Islington Academy Thu 14th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Birmingham Academy Fri 15th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Glasgow Cathouse Sat 16th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Nottingham Rock City CRADLE OF FILTH Tues 12th Apr í¢ä‰åäóì Bristol Academy Wed 13th Apr – Portsmouth Pyramids Thu 14th Apr – Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall Fri 15th Apr – Manchester Academy Sat 16th Apr – London Forum ROADRAGE (Trivium, Still Remains, 3IOB) Sun 1st May í¢ä‰åäóì Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall Mon 2nd May í¢ä‰åäóì Liverpool University Tue 3rd May í¢ä‰åäóì Manchester Academy Wed 4th May í¢ä‰åäóì Glasgow Garage Thu 5th May í¢ä‰åäóì Cardiff Barfly Tue 10th May í¢ä‰åäóì Leeds Cockpit Wed 11th May í¢ä‰åäóì Nottingham Rock City Thu 12th May í¢ä‰åäóì Stoke Sugarmill Fri 13th May í¢ä‰åäóì Oxford Zodiac Sat 14th May í¢ä‰åäóì Brighton Concorde 2 Sun 15th May í¢ä‰åäóì Colchester Arts Centre Tue 17th May í¢ä‰åäóì Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms Wed 18th May í¢ä‰åäóì London Garage REMEMBER: To find out more about DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL ’05 CLICK HERE

Check out this great interview with Patrick from Caliban (+ occasional input from Marc, in Orange). The interview was conducted on Sunday 6th March by street teamer Dave Musson. Welcome back to the UK. You went down a storm on your recent tour with label buddies Machine Head. Was it hard to win over a set of notoriously partisan fans? No, I think it was pretty easy to catch all these people because I think our kind of music is very close, they’re the same, maybe, like Machine Head, you know, the style. We were on tour with In Flames and that was much harder to get those people, you know? Your name is taken from a character in a Shakespeare play. Are Shakespeare’s plays widely read amongst German metalcore bands? Is it? Oh, I don’t know. What made you chose Caliban in particular? I think we just wanted to have a neutral name, you know, not like Cannibal Corpse maybe or stuff. When you know Cannibal Corpse, you think, OK this is death metal, but Caliban is neutral. It’s just a name, so the people are not influenced by the name as to what type of music we play. Your move to Roadrunner has bought your music to a much wider audience than you had previously reached. How soon after the release of í¢ä‰åñThe Opposite From Withiní¢ä‰åŒ did you notice the increased interest in the band? I think, with the new album we got a lot more people, you know? Roadrunner is a much bigger label, so they have more opportunities to show the people the music and stuff. The press immediately placed you in with this í¢ä‰åñNew Wave of Metalí¢ä‰åŒ when your last album was released. Do you see yourselves as a part of that scene or do you still see yourselves as more of a hardcore band? I think Caliban has been doing the same music now for years. I have been in Caliban now for two years, but when I hear the older albums I think it’s quite the same music. So it’s just a natural progression? Yeah it is. – We don’t care what category you want to put it in, it just our music. Who is the most annoying member of the band to be on tour with? I don’t know, I think Marc! Haha! M í¢ä‰åäóì Fuck you! No, because he’s a very strong character and sometimes I think we come together because of it, but it’s in a positive way. (Tells Marc in German that he loves him really) What was it like working with Anders from In Flames on your last album? It was very good. Anders is a very cool guy, a very nice guy you know? He was very easy to work with. He’s very, very good and very perfect in everything. Apart from Scorpions and Rammstein, there isn’t exactly a load of German bands that achieve popularity in England. Has your nationality been a help or hindrance in making it in the business? I think that it’s maybe more difficult as a German band to get a good audience, or a lot of people in foreign countries. It’s much harder than for an English band to get to the US or to different countries. I don’t know about for us, but it worked! Is the German metalcore scene healthy enough to produce bands that can follow in your footsteps in terms of gaining success abroad? Yeah I think so, because we have a lot hardcore bands and metalcore bands in Germany and there are a lot of goods bands but they have to be heard, you know, so that the record labels can get them. I think we have a strong metal scene. Do you have any tips for the future? I like Datsoil (?) í¢ä‰åäóì it’s the band of our old bass player. M í¢ä‰åäóì Heaven Shall Burn Heaven Shall Burn of course, but they are on a bigger label, they are on Century Media. There are a lot of, I call them smaller bands, very good bands and I hope that they will get the chance to sign to a big label. Who would play with Caliban at your dream festival line-up? All the other guys played with Slayer in Japan, but I wasn’t in the band at that time so I want to play with Slayer, I want to meet them, and I want to play with Slipknot. What do you think has been the key in you going from a small, localised fan base to having your music heard and appreciated all over the world? I don’t know. We just make good music maybe? Haha! Maybe we just did something that a lot of people liked. Is your set list for this tour mainly made up of songs from í¢ä‰åñThe Opposite From Withiní¢ä‰åŒ? Yeah. Sum up Caliban in three words. Metal, core, brutal! Haha! REMEMBER: Caliban are currently on tour with Hatebreed CLICK HERE to view the dates To join the street team simply follow this link

Blasting-Zone.com recently conducted an in-depth interview with SOULFLY vocalist/guitarist Max Cavalera. Several excerpts follow: Blasting-Zone.com: What prompted you to start exclusively playing a four string guitar? Max Cavalera: “I don’t do leads, ya know? More than ten years ago, when those strings broke, a friend of mine said ‘Don’t replace them, you don’t use them anyway. You are just going to be spending money for nothing. Save the money and buy some beer.’ I was like ‘OK, cool,’ and I never put them back. Over the years, it’s become a trademark that I thought was kinda cool. It’s something that’s different about how I do things. The guys that make the guitars that I work with, they must think that I am crazy when their bosses tell them not to put the other two strings on because I don’t use them. I can only imagine… They are probably saying ‘What the fuck is wrong with this guy?’ (laughs). I am a completely rhythm player… all I do is riffs. Working with so many great guitar players, there is so much talent for playing the guitar, it convinces me further to keep the other strings off.” Blasting-Zone.com: In your opinion, how has playing with only four strings changed your overall sound? Max Cavalera: “I think it’s changed it in a sense that it’s made me a complete riff freak, ya know? Everything that I do when I am writing a song is riff-orientated, which is the foundation of my sound. I love (BLACK SABBATH guitarist) Tony Iommi…his style of playing…he does leads as well, of course, but his riffs, the solid rhythm section that he helps create, that is where I really base my style on, being as solid of a riff player as I can be. Instead of being a player who plays riffs and does a little bit of leads, I say ‘Fuck that!’ and just stay completely obsessed with riffs. On every album, I try to play better, more solid, kick-ass riffs as much as possible, ya know?” Blasting-Zone.com: At least you have a goal in mind… Max Cavalera: “Once you become obsessed with something like I am with riffs, you also become more critical. You realize that not every riff you write is going to make it onto the record. Some riffs that are actually pretty good, I’ll end up taking them off of the record because I don’t feel they are good enough, ya know? It gets everybody motivated…I’ve noticed that when I am in the studio with the SOULFLY guys, if I bring in a really cool riff, everyone will be like ‘Wow, that is a really kick-ass riff. Let’s start working on that right now.’ It’s a really big motivator to have some of the riffs be that strong right away…it motivates everybody, the drummer, the bass player…I think that is works for me…my music.” Read the entire article at this location.