Fear Factory are writing a new song for the game ‘Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown’. The guys will also be revamping the theme. The game sees the player lead Team Rainbow, a counter-terrorist unit, as they battle against bioterrorists.

CALIBAN. CHIMAIRA. LACUNA COIL. IN FLAMES. London Hammersmith Apollo. Monday December 27th. Watch out for goodies being thrown out into the crowd between the Caliban & Chimaira sets from us. See you down the front.

Over at ShoutWeb they’ve been polling artist’s favourite albums of 2004. Here’s the choices from some of our guys, but you can check out the whole lot HERE. Do take a look, nice to see lots of our guys appearing in other band’s Top 10 releases. DAVE PYBUS (CRADLE OF FILTH) 01. Genocide Superstars Hail The New Storm 02. Hanzel Und Gretyl Scheiss Messiah 03. Zeke ‘Til The Living End 04. The Passion Of The Christ Soundtrack 05. Ghoulunatics Speakerboxx/The Love Below 06. Nekromantix Dead Girls Don’t Cry 07. The Haunted rEVOLVEr 08. Bad Religion The Empire Strikes First 09. Killswitch Engage The End Of Heartache 10. Mastodon Leviathan MIKE NOVAK (EVERY TIME I DIE) 01. Helmet Size Matters 02. Lamb Of God Ashes Of The Wake 03. My Chemical Romance Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge 04. Eighteen Visions Obsession 05. Killswitch Engage The End Of Heartache 06. Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine 07. Clutch Blast Tyrant 08. Converge You Fail Me 09. Slipknot Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) 10. Head Automatica Decadence BOBBY BURNS (SOULFLY) 01. Social Distortion Sex, Love And Rock N’ Roll 02. The Killers Hot Fuss 03. Every Time I Die Hot Damn 04. The Used In Love And Death 05. My Chemical Romance Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge 06. Helmet Size Matters 07. Battles EP 08. Soulfly Prophecy 09. Hiding Place Fear And Loathing 10. Skindred Babylon MIKE D’ANTONIO (KILLSWITCH ENGAGE) 01. The Cure The Cure 02. All That Remains This Darkened Heart 03. 36 Crazyfists A Snowcapped Romance 04. Eighteen Visions Obsession 05. Shadows Fall The War Within 06. In Flames Soundtrack To Your Escape 07. God Forbid Better Days 08. Unearth The Oncoming Storm 09. Martyr AD On Earth As It Is In Hell 10. Lamb Of God Ashes Of The Wake ACEY SLADE (MURDERDOLLS) 01. Amen Death Before Music 02. The Horror Pops Hell Yea 03. The Wildhearts Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed 04. Eighteen Visions Obsession 05. The Bronx The Bronx 06. Lars Fredrickson & The Bastards Viking 07. Anti-Flag Terror State 08. Cheap Trick The Essential 09. Slipknot Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) 10. Trash Light Vision MyFU2U CARL SEVERSON (HEAD OF FERRET RECORDS) 01. Zao Funeral of God 02. Converge You Fail Me 03. Muse Absolution 04. Scarlet Cult Classic 05. My Chemical Romance Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge 06. DJ Dangermouse Grey Album 07. Demon Hunter Summer of Darkness 08. Lamb Of God Ashes Of The Wake 09. Phantom Planet Phantom Planet 10. Head Automatica Decadence By the way, ShoutWeb voted KsE’s The End Of Heartache #5 in their poll. This is the second time Killswitch Engage has appeared on Shoutweb’s Top 10 Artist Picks for Record of the Year, the most by any artist. In 2002, they pulled out a #4 spot with Alive or Just Breathing?!

“First we want to thank you for all of your support during the last year, 2004 was a really good year for us and we look forward to better things to come in 2005. Without your support none of this would be possible – here’s hoping you have a safe, happy and very Metal Holiday season – Peace. New York, The “Troc”, The Palladium & The NorVa Updates What a great week it has been – we had a lot of fun partying and meet a lot of great people while in New York for a few days. Thanks to everyone at Roadrunner, The Syndicate, Face The Music Touring, Revolver Magazine, The Music Choice Channel and Guitar One for taking good care of us and making sure we had a great time while in the city. We also want to thank the Dark Angel (Justin) for keeping an eye on things and making sure everything was well organized and taken care of. We then hit it in Philly, Wooster, and man, what can we say about the NorVa – just incredible – we’ve really had a great time so far – for those of you we have meet at the shows and for all of you that tore it up supporting us – Thank You – it’s been a blast, glad you liked our cover of “Cemetery Gates”, looked like you had almost as much fun as we had playing it. Looking forward to tearing it up at the Jaxx. Next update with pictures from the tour will be after Christmas – until then have a safe and very Metal XXX-mas.” m/-_-m/ Corey, Travis, Paolo & Matt

The new Soulfly DVD ‘The Song Remains Insane’ is set for release on February 28, 2005. View the cover artwork HERE.

If you haven’t already picked up the latest Roadrage DVD from Virgin, you’ll now be able to find it at HMV, MVC, Music Zone and all official ‘Roadrage’ stores from Jan 31st. And… the price is still only 퉌£7.99. Bargain!

A couple weeks ago (10-12-04) Max and Gloria’s 8 month old grandson Moses unexpectedly and unfortunately passed away…On their behalf, we’d like to forward along the following message from the Cavalera family: In honor of our little darling Moses, our family is going to adopt an orphanage in Belgrade (city in Serbia where Moses was born). If you are able to, we would appreciate used clothing and/or used toys. Please send donations to the address below and we will forward them to the orphanage: Oasis Management 3010 East Bloomfield Rd Phoenix, Arizona 85032 From the bottom of our hearts we would like to thank everyone who sent their condolences and who have prayed and continue to pray for Moses and our family. – Family Cavalera and Stojanovic

We asked Mark Hunter of Chimaira, how he will be spending New Year’s Eve… “Well my better half will be working that night, so I will be hard at work working on vocals and lyrics for the new record. Then I might go to a party or something. Last year’s New Year’s was pretty fun. My girl and I spent it drinking Absinthe and were passed out by 8:00pm. I had brought some home from our UK trip and it was her first time drinking it. We were trying to cook a nice dinner, we ruined it and then next thing you know we passed out and woke up the next day in a pool of sweat…very dangerous drink. Since then I collect Absinthe bottles and drink Jager!” Chimaira play at the Hammersmith Apollo on Dec 27th with In Flames, Lacuna Coil, Caliban, and one band TBC. Sounds like a helluva Christmas party to us! Tickets are on sale now.

Please note the Bleeding Through show in Leeds next Feb 12 has been cancelled. The band will instead be playing at The Mill in Preston on Feb 12.

Festive video messages from 36 Crazyfists, Wednesday 13 and Throwdown have just been posted on the VIDEO page. All are downloadble mpg files.