Despite Slipknot and KsE losing out to MotorHead for best metal performance at the Grammys all is not lost as we show you these somewhat refined pictures of Slipknot and Killswith Engage SLIPKNOT KSE Here’s what MTV.com reported: “Slipknot walked the carpet wearing their signature masks, and gave the cameras a very metal greeting – the finger. This being a special occasion, the bandmembers donned black suits, and one upped his style a notch by carrying a pimp cane. Jadakiss, standing with his crew near the masked men, asked, “Who are these n—as?” One of Jada’s people clued him in, and the rapper responded, “Oh, they gonna win the most tonight.”

We would like to thank Jade for this excellent interview with Derek ‘Deebo’ Youngsma of Bleeding Through. 1. How’s the UK/European tour going so far? It’s actually been going quite better than expected. We had a few shows in Germany and Holland, then we went to France before we came to the UK. All were surprisingly good. Of course the UK is amazing, we sold out our show in London and the crowd just went absolutely nuts when we played. We had a really good response. It’s our first time headlining shows here, so we didn’t quite know what to expect, but it’s going really really well. We’re just excited about it. 2. And how does UK/European shows differ from US shows? Not a whole lot of differences. Besides being somewhat of a new band here and not speaking the language when in France or Germany. France was weird, not a lot of English spoken there at all. They (the European tours) remind us of our early US tours, when we were a new band. It’s first time people are seeing us, but its cool. 3. I’ve noticed since your support slot on the Sick of it All tour back in early 2004, Bleeding Through’s popularity in the UK (and the rest of the world) has exploded! What are your opinions on this? It’s really cool. Something we’ve always wanted to do is go other places and play, we’ve been touring US non-stop for four years. Europe was something we didn’t know a lot about, but always wanted to do. The SOIA tour helped us out a lot. We got to meet the people who were involved with the shows and helping us out. That tour was 1000 people per night. 4. Between the Headbanger’s Ball tour and this current European/UK tour, what have Bleeding Through been up to? We’ve been writing new stuff. We’re in the process of doing the next record. We’re half way through with writing, we’re going to go home from this and finish and hopefully be in the studio April/May. If all goes to schedule, the new record should be out in September. 5. I’ve got to askí¢ä‰åŒ_How were the Danzig/Misfits shows you did in December? It was really nostalgic. The Misfits are such a big deal to us, nothing we would ever think. I never thought I’d see The Misfits play! And As I Lay Dying were also playing those shows and they are great friends of us. 6. Will Bleeding Through fans be surprised with the new album? Not necessarily. Hopefully be pleasantly surprised. We’ve got new ideas, but the same old formula í¢ä‰åäóì like really fast and heavy stuff, the lyrics are about the same stuff and we’ve all just honed our sound to how we wanted. We’re really happy with the writing and stuff fis easier for us. We’re getting things done and sounds the way we want it too. There are some new stuff, Marta is doing a lot more keyboard work than Molly did and we’re also doing some other stuff vocally. Maybe some more melodic type stuff fmixed in with the music. For the most part it is still Bleeding Through, just better! 7. How did this new title come about and what does it mean? I’m not sure (about ‘Merciless’í¢ä‰åŒ_might have to talk to Brandan. We talked about it being called ‘The Truth’ because he (Brandan) wants to lay everything out with the lyrics and tell everyone how it is and basically just say stuff that most people are afraid to say about relationships. ‘Merciless’í¢ä‰åŒ_I don’t know where that came from. (Brandan later confirmed onstage that the new album will be titled, ‘The Truth’ and wants everyone to go buy it!) 8. You recently released a limited edition ‘This is Love’, why did you decide to do this? For people who are big fans to have something in between, we realise it’s going to be a long time before this release and the new album. We always want to have something coming out and something for our fans, so they’re not waiting for a year for something come out. We had the live DVD come out. And the Roadrunner release which has some bonus tracks. We always want to have something coming out. 9. It is a known fact that Bleeding Through likes to go bowling! í¢ä‰åŒ_Have you guys been bowling in the UK yet?! We haven’t been bowling anywhere in the UK or Europe yet! There is a place in our hometown, which is a 24-hour bowling alley. And someone knows the lady that works there, so after practice, late at night, we go. I’m not very good, but Brandan, Marta, Ryan and Johnson bowl all the time, they are really good. 10. Well-known for promoting ‘Straight-edge’, have you met many sXe kids in UK/Europe? Oh yeah! Quite a few, a little more on this tour. SOIA tour had a lot of normal kids coming to the shows. But when we come alone, the older sXe kids go to our shows because we’re sXe. Quite a few in Europe. But there are a lot of smokers! The shows in France and Germany are so full of smoke. It’s illegal to California to smoke indoors. The air is clean there. 11. What music are you currently listening to? I listen to a billion things. Sixteen Horsepowerí¢ä‰åŒ_its really cool, sort of country music and Sigur Ros influence. The new Haunted album is amazingí¢ä‰åŒ_Arch Enemy, COFí¢ä‰åŒ_Himsaí¢ä‰åŒ_I am very much looking forward to their new record. I like Mastodoní¢ä‰åŒ_they are incredible liveí¢ä‰åŒ_something to see. I listen to a lot of mellow stuff, and punk rock (Nofx, Propaghandi) and hardcore (Agnostic Front) And influence from my parents (Led Zep) I love that stuff. Sometimes metal is a little bit hard to listen to ití¢ä‰åŒ_got to be in the mood. Everybody in the band listens to everything. 12. You’ve toured endlessly for the past couple years! Any bands who you haven’t yet had the opportunity to share the stage with and would love to? A lot of great bandsí¢ä‰åŒ_we’ll tour with any band. We have this idea of touring with Tiger Armyí¢ä‰åŒ_different type of tour, would be cool. Also A Life Once Lost (new Ferret Records signings). 13. Any interesting stories from this current tour to share? This tour has been pretty straightí¢ä‰åŒ_I’m probably setting us up for something to happen. We had a really long flight and we’re really tired and stuff. We flew in to Paris and then to Amsterdamí¢ä‰åŒ_no sleep, played the first show and did not remember what was going on. We get so jet lagí¢ä‰åŒ_straight of the plane to the van and to the show. 14. Any last shout outs? We’ll see you soon. We thank you for the great shows. We’ll be back in June. For festivals and loads of shows in the UK. The UK is awesome! We would like to thank streetteamer Jade Chau for the excellent interview. If you want to be a teamer like Jade CLICK HERE you might even see a beautiful picture of Jade as she is our TEAMER OF THE MONTH

Room thirteen give Open Hand – You and Me a modest 13/13. The review starts with… Stunningly radiant artwork: the promise of an album made up of contradictions. Duets, Ballads and full out metal in the vein of Sabbath are all to be found within. Is it possible for a band to meander this much without losing track of their aim? It would seem, if you’re Open Hand it’s achievable. CLICK HERE to read the rest OPEN HAND-YOU AND ME-OUT NOW

Check out this Open Hand review from this months KERRANG! SCORCHED EARTH SAND-BLASTED DESERT-ROCK MAJESTY FROM HOLLYWOOD THIS TIME last year, it was all over for Open Hand. 2003’s tour with Poison The Well was supposed to break them, but instead left the post-hardcore hopefuls penniless and brought down. One by one, members deserted until only guitarist/vocalist Justin Isham was left. No band, no material, no chance. Not entirely. Isham set about rebuilding from the ground up, and happily, Version 2.0 features more than just an entirely new line-up around Isham it also features a completely new direction. And here í¢ä‰åäóì the title is a grim nod to Isham and singer/drummer Paxton Pryor’s last-ditch attempt to record the album alone í¢ä‰åäóì is ‘You And Me’. And that’s where you drop your bacon sarnie and listen. Because if few people thought this album would ever happen, nobody at all predicted it would sound like this. The stressed emoisms are out. The dominant theme here is open space: this is big sky music. This time round, the songs don’t race to get home, instead slowing down into great, moonstruck stoner rock that floats malevolently between QOTSA’s satanic boogie and the Black Crowes’ slow-burning harmonics. And as with those bands, the key is the musicianship. Just listen to ‘Her Song’, whose seductive, hypnotic guitars waft skywards like incense smoke, or opener ‘Pure Concentrated Evil’, blowing like a distant sandstorm across its ominous basslineí¢ä‰åŒ_ and where the old Open Hand would have hit the uptight punk accelerator for the first single ‘Tough Girl’ and companion piece ‘Tough Guy’, this reincarnation weave their way through the songs, oozing lysergic telepathy, parched harmonies and snake-eyed cool. It’s perfect for summer. You And Me’ may or may not set charts on fire. But it should aid the incineration of at least a few ounces of fine Mexican import. Listen. You’ll know what we mean. KKKK

Dave and Dom from THROWDOWN talk about the hardcore scene, new recordings and gambling with Corey Slipknot. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REVIEW

The Rock review caught up with Machine Head’s Phil Demmel at the Bristol stop on their December ’04 UK tour, to talk about the show, DVD and Donington. CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW Dave McClain discusses the new DVD, the Glasgow fans, drumming techniques and circle pits with rockmidgets. CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTEREVIEW

Wednesday 13 are doing a set of instores to promote their awesome new album “Transylvania 90210:Songs Of Death, Dying, And The Dead”. OUT ON APRIL 11. The instore shall commence at 4pm. If you can’t make it in the day, why not get tickets to one of their UK gig dates, from 11th – 16th? INSTORES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Mon 11 April – HMV Manchester, 90 Market St, Manchester, M1 1PD. Tues 12 April – HMV Brighton, 48 Churchill Square Shopping Centre, Brighton, BN1 2TE. Thurs 14 April – HMV Birmingham, 38 High St , Birmingham, B4 7SL. Fri 15 April – HMV Glasgow, Lewis’ Building, Argyle St , Glasgow, G2 8AD. Don’t forget Wednesday 13 UK TOUR 11-16 APRIL

HOPESFALL (with Tsunami Bomb) With almost two years of non stop touring with groups such as The Ataris, Coheed & Cambria, Killswitch Engage, Snapcase and The Juliana Theory under their belt Hopesfall are a must see for anyone with eyes ) Sat 14th May – London Mean Fiddler Sun 15th May – Bristol Fleece 7 Firkin Mon 16th May – Nottingham Rock City Tue 17th May – Birmingham Academy Wed 18th May – Glasgow Cathouse Thu 19th May – Newcastle Globe Fri 20th May – Leeds Josephs Well Sat 21st May – Manchester Hop & Grape Sun 22nd May – Leicester Princess Charlotte Mon 23rd May – Oxford Zodiac Tue 24th May – Brighton Concorde 2 Wed 25th May – Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Street Teamer Aaron gives us his Critic of Bleeding Through‘s latest gig in preston. First band of the night were For My Anger with hardcore guitars and deep screaming vocals with the two singers harmonising in parts of songs. Next up were Elias Last Day a local preston band which got a great crowd reaction with the pit opening up and more people joining in it was a great set as they played a couple songs and some new songs they went off stage with a great crowd reaction and i hope they get the chance to play at the mill again to show how good they are. Cult Of Luna were up next with a awesome set all round playing a couple of songs the crowd weren’t really getting into it which i thought was a shame because these guys were awesome. I thought to myself that the reason there not liking it was because its not the type of music to mosh to its music you stand and listen to. As they went off stage people started to move to the front to watch Bleeding Through. As the starting of ‘ this was a fucking bomb for a few seconds this place was armageddon there was a fire fight ‘ the the pit just went crazy as i ran in losing my shoe people were going crazy.Standing at the front with an awesome view Brandan kept standing at the front barrier for people to sing into the microphone.At one point he threw the microphone into the crowd as people started grabbing it like mad people i grabbed it and roared the lyrics into it then Brandan got it back and carried on but then he had undone the clip holding the microphone to the lead as it fell onto the floor which was quite funny. Playing most songs off the This is love this is murderous like Love lost in a hail of gunfire , Sweet vampirous, number seven with a bullet , on wings of lead , this is love this is murderous , murder by numbers and revenge i seek. Which got the crowd really going and getting the pit to go mental with people running everywhere and just people going generally crazy. Also playing some new songs as brandan said ‘ if you guys love this new stuff you’ll love the new album ‘. As the guys went off the crowd started shouting ‘ one more song, one more song, one more song ‘ with that the guys and gal came back on and did one encore song with brandan standing on the barrier thanlking us and saying that they will be back sometime soon. With that an awesome night was over with Brandan and Marta coming to the barrier hugging and kissing fans on the cheek you could tell that the band really were thankful for all the support they got from the guys and gals in the crowd. After that people just dispersed to go home as me and a fellow street team member stood near the barrier we could see the band putting there own equipment away. So as i held out my album cover the guys were more than happy to come over the barrier and sign album covers and take photos with there fans as i stood there with three of the band members near me i thought these guys deserve to be heard in the metal world because they love their fans and also love to talk to them and play kick ass metalcore music. If you want to be a teamer like Aaron CLICK HERE

Check out this interview with Soulfly Frontman Max Cavalera, brought to us by music mania magazine. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE SOULFLY’s live DVD “The Songs Remains Insane” OUT 28/02/05