Metal Hammer hit the streets yesterday, not only sporting three different covers (each featuring 3 different Slipknot members- see these HERE) but it also held the first review of Volume 3: (The Subliminal Verses) to hit the UK. And the verdict? Read on… “Could this be the final volume in the Slipknot saga? There are going to be maggots out there that HATE this record. They will regard it as a betrayal. Maybe they’ll burn copies in mass bonfires. Inevitable, of course. Had the ‘Knot just recycled ‘Slipknot’ and ‘Iowa’, they would still have pissed people off, though maybe different people. But this….acoustic guitars? Ballads? Fucking flower power music? Can you imagine Slipknot Unplugged? Yes you can after you’ve heard this. But you, reader, are not a (small c) conservative. You want music to be an adventure, you want the thrill of the ride, the unexpected twists and turns and the implosions and explosions that make today’s hard rock the most vital and alive expression of modern music. Slipknot’s third will deliver that thrill, as they always have done. You are either in for a surprise or a shock when you hear this for the first time and how I envy you, being able to hear this for the first time. Where Ross Robinson would bounce heads off the studio wall and scream until the veins stood out on his head to get results with the first two albums, Rick Rubin coaxes and experiments and builds slowly and meticulously and you can hear the difference from the outset. Where ‘Iowa’ opened with the rage drenched ‘(515)/’People=Shit’, ‘Prelude 3.0’ eschews the histrionics for a darker, heavier and spacier sound. It’s weird, like Tool at times, but as soon as we reach ‘The Blister Exists’, there’s no doubt that this is a Slipknot record. This is war music for wartime, a pulverising martial beat and explosions of noise like well aimed bunker busters. Along with the curiously retro rap-rock of ‘Three Nil’ and the amazing widescreen blast of ‘Pulse Of The Maggots’, this is Slipknot as we know and love them. But Hammer would defy anyone to hear ‘Circle’ or ‘Vermilion’ or ‘The Virus Of Life’ and guess that it was Slipknot. ‘Circle’ is a mad bit of psychedelic folk rock remiscent of Mark Lanegan or even Arthur Lee and Love ‘Vermilion’ sounds like John Barry (who composed all the best Bond themes) had he written a song for Iggy Pop ‘The Virus Of Life’ could easily have been an outtake from Massive Attack’s ‘Mezzanine’. ‘Vermilion Pt.2’ is completely acoustic with Corey singing close harmonies with the rest of the band, and a string section driving the whole thing to an emotional crescendo. Beautiful, but let’s face it, it’s not exactly ‘Scissors’. The first two albums were stark, black and white (mostly black) this is multicoloured, full of shade and subtlety, never a word that you’d immediately associate with Slipknot. Obviously the extra curricular projects of Corey, Joey and Shawn resonate throughout this album there are definite Stone Sour moments and To My Surprise moments. It takes balls of steel to fuck with a winning formula, and ‘Vol.3: (The Subliminal Verses)’ could easily be Slipknot’s 14-track suicide note, alienating loyal fans who just want more songs about serial killers that they can mosh along to. But it’s a great record, filled throughout with the shock of the new, and it makes all their contemporaries and imitators sound like the plodding donkeys they are. TOMMY UDO (8/10)” Volume 3: (The Subliminal Verses) is released on May 24th.

During a recent visit to the UK to pimp his Killswitch ass to the UK press, we caught up with vocalist Howard Jones and got the lowdown on their new album amongst other things… You are a big fan of Wesley Willis. Explain a little about who he was and how you came to discover him? There is no explaining Wesley, he must be experienced. Various friends turned me on to him, now I give him to you. Spread the joy! Wesley R.I.P What makes him / his music so great? Brilliance, humor, pure schizophrenia, í¢ä‰åŒ_ a cocktail that is best served in a Wesley glass. If you had to recommend one Wesley Willis song for a kid to download, which one would you pick, and why? Rock and Roll McDonalds í¢ä‰åäóì It is the place to rock. The Vultures Ate My Dead Ass Up í¢ä‰åäóì They sure did. Eazy E í¢ä‰åäóì He is an icon. I Whooped Batman’s Ass í¢ä‰åäóì Wesley is a true superhero. Whereas most band members will chill out on the bus listening to music on their headphones, you tend to take a lot of spoken word books on the road. How come? Have you always been such an avid reader? Yup, music gets boring. I will read and listen to a book at the same time í¢ä‰åäóì get into it. Do you think having done a lot of reading, it helps produce better quality lyrics? Not from me, I suck. We have a national book week here in the UK. What would be your top 5 reads? 1. Comic Books 2 í¢ä‰åäóì 5. Any book by James Patterson I understand that Rose Of Sharyn is quite a personal song to you. What is it about and what does it mean to you? Moving on to the next question… Tell us a little about the meaning behind the new songs on the album. A BID FAREWELL: It’s about bidding farewell TAKE THIS OATH: It’s about taking oaths WHEN DARKNESS FALLS: It’s about darkness falling INHALE: Accordions Rule! BREATHE LIFE: It’s about life, and breathing it THE END OF HEARTACHE: Yeah! DECLARATION: Shouting things! WORLD ABLAZE: Check out the world, it’s blazin’! AND EMBERS RISE: They do, at least in an updraft WASTED SACRIFICE: Don’t want to waste those, those being sacrifices HOPE IS: A four letter word How did you find working with Adam as a producer on the record? Well, he isn’t dead, so I guess it was alright. We laughed, we cried, we ate curry í¢ä‰åŒ_ Good times. Killswitch Engage’s new album ‘The End Of Heartache’ is OUT NOW!!! Check out the MUSIC SECTION for a taster!

‘Four solid years of being Slipknot every day í¢ä‰åäó onstage and off í¢ä‰åäó had pushed the nine members to the point where, beneath their horrifying masks and matching coveralls, their nerves, patience and relationships with each other resembled the stage floor at the end of one of their violent, chaotic gigs.’ Joe D’Angelo writes for MTV. And now, they are stronger than ever. In this, an exstensive MTV interview, Corey Taylor, Joey Jordison and Producer Rick Rubin talk about the journey running up to the new album, and the processes behind the awe inspiring end result… Says Rubin, “What I tried to stress from the beginning is that Slipknot is a bigger idea than a sound. They can’t be limited by what they think Slipknot is supposed to sound like. What draws people to Slipknot is how extreme it is. But extreme doesn’t have to always be extreme in the same way. Sometimes extreme can be fast sometimes extreme can be slow. Extreme could mean extreme musically.” Check out the full interview at MTV.COM

í¢ä‰åñWhen you’re living in the same place that you’re recording, you really get a chance to experiment and do things that you wouldn’t normally get to do in a studio. Usually when you’re in a studio you show up and you’re staying somewhere else. You’re at the studio from ‘X’ time to ‘X’ time. With us being at a studio 24 hours a day for 7 days a weekí¢ä‰åäóif it’s 4 in the morning and you’ve got an idea you can find some way to record it somehow. We even walked around the place with a recorder. There’s so much stuff that we’ve recorded there that isn’t necessarily going to be on the new album and some of it is going to be on the new albumí¢ä‰åäówhether it be something linking a couple songs together or something hidden in the back of a song. It was like a recording Disneyland there.í¢ä‰åŒ That was Jim in a recent interview. Read the full feature HERE Meanwhile, Chris and Paul recently gave interviews to Toazted.com whilst in Amsterdam, talking about the new album, Vol 3: (The Subliminal Verses), out May 24th, and Clown hitting triangles??!! You can listen to these HERE. Yes, you read that right…

SLIPKNOT Cover story & 8/10 album review – METAL HAMMER KILLSWITCH ENGAGE 4-page feature & 5/5 album review – BIG CHEESE 4/5 album review – Q 2-page feature – TERRORIZER 2-page feature & 8/10 album review – POWERPLAY 4/5 review – THE FLY DEVILDRIVER Feature interview – DEO2.COM FEAR FACTORY 9/10 album review – POWERPLAY SOULFLY 3-page feature – BURN 36 CRAZYFISTS 4/5 album review – BURN DIRTY AMERICANS 5/5 album review – BURN

Your PC wallpaper a bit tired? Needing a change? Well check out THE PIT where you can find brand new Killswitch Engage and Slipknot wallpapers! And do you remember that infamous sketch of Fred Durst on a cross? That was drawn by artist Dave Correia. Dave has contributed three of said Slipknot wallpapers- and very impressive they are too!! You can check out more of Dave’s work HERE

“Aw, man, the most fucked-up one that there ever was-and I kinda almost don’t like to say anything, because it was horribleí¢ä‰åäówe were playing in Hamburg, Germany and we had this idea. We’d never played the actual song “Iowa” off of Iowa, the title track, which is the last song on the record. We’d never played it live, so we were gonna do a half-hour version of it. So we got drunk and fucked-up before we did it because the song’s really mental and it’s really syrupy and shit. And then at the very end, though, we got cold feet and decided to do the whole set. But by that time Corey was so fucked-up he couldn’t remember the words to any of the songs. So it was just a horrible fuckin’ show. He was soooo drunk, dude. I mean we were all…I mean I stopped drinkin’ once I knew we were gonna be changing the set, so I was alright and everyone else was alright, but our singer was fuckin’ ripped. He had, like, no fuckin’ shoes on and between songs he’d say the stupidest shit ’cause he didn’t even know where he was. The thing that sucks the most is that we let them [the fans] down. It just really sucked because those kids had been waitin’ a long time to see us and they fuckin’ come to see us and we just completely blow. It wasn’t good. So when we go back to Hamburg this time around, we’re definitely gonna fuckin’ school it, pay ’em back, you know?” Read the full interview HERE

Dave has updated the Cradle Of Filth website with the seventh of his studio reports on the recording of their upcoming album ‘Nymphettamine’… Firstly, sorry for the late arrival of this seventh studio report. Lots been going on while we took a short break from Parkgate studios for Rob to go on tour with Anthrax. He’s now back behind the control desk and the studio is once again up and running. In the short gap we did a lot of pre-production of keyboards and sound effects which always make every Cradle album so distinct. We had a lot of fun over a few days giving the tracks little details and sounds which have been manipulated to our (dis)taste. These next few weeks will see the finishing touches to Vocals, Keyboards, Lead guitars, Sarah Deva’s Vocals and the choirs which will be recorded live. Following this is the album mix at the Chapel Studios, Lincolshire, with Colin Richardson. We were also rehearsing the live set list ready for up and coming shows in Greece (May 29th – Thessaloniki, 30th – Athens) and the summer festivals. Check the TOUR page for full details. As some of you might have noticed, we have added a new ‘Nymph’ section on the OFFICIAL COF SITE. With the release date and a complete overhaul of the website still ages away we wanted to try give some extra info on the new album right now, just to keep everybody interested. It’s also a cool exclusive way for the great people we have working around us a chance to promote themselves and thus owing us a beer or two in the pub later. A few weeks ago I did mention the hint of a compitition and I’m now getting together a great prize. It will consist of a few goodies from the ‘Babalon A.D.’ Video we shot way back last year. The winner will receive the first draft storyboard (like a short comic), a VHS video edit version before the completed one and the stripped badge that Dani wore on his suit in the actual video. More will be added as I find stuff. The question will be given out next time. We are also in the process of designing a new stage show and getting all the crew named and ready, which is a behind the scene’s job in itself that no one ever see’s. We are constantly ‘in-flux’ with the live set list and always wanting a major overhaul of the songs we do. We can play all the songs on the new album so we will see at least 5 new additions on any lengthy tour! It’s an open debate on the older tracks, any fan suggestions are welcome.

DevilDriver recently made two landmark appearences in the UK- their first ever supporting In Flames at the London Astoria, and their first ever headline show at the Underworld. We caught up with the guys to find out more about what makes them tick… Which bands first got you into metal? DEZ: Motorhead. Period. You have spoken about DevilDriver being a result of your need to ‘follow your passion [for] brutal, extreme music’. Which bands would you say are the biggest influences behind DevilDriver? DEZ: Jonny Cash Superjoint Ritual Motorhead Everything between Billy Holiday and Black Metal!!!!! For the musicians out there, give us a quick run through your kit. DEZ: ESP Gibson Fernandez Pearl Have you ever really dreamed you were dead and if so how did you meet your untimely demise? DEZ: Yes I did- wrote a song about it! How did I die? I believe it was a plane crash. Have you read ‘The Satanic Bible’ and if so, what do you think of LaVey’s philosophies? DEZ: LaVey is a great man. Who do you wish was dead? DEZ: There is one person, but I am not going to name them. Which is the most interesting place you have visited so far on this euro tour, and which had the most insane crowd? MILLER: London is really coolí¢ä‰åŒ_ BOECKLIN: Cologne had an insane fucking crowdí¢ä‰åŒ_ MILLER: yeah Cologne! Dave Mclaine (Machine Head) likes Justin Timberlake Mark Hunter (Chimaira) likes Prince and Joey Jordison (Slipknot) likes Fleetwood Mac. Which bands are you into that your fans would not expect? MILLER: Enya (ed- seriously?)Ah yeah. I wanna swim with dolphins! BOECKLIN: Michael Jackson (but only the Bad and Thriller albums) and Blue Man Group. (ed- who??!) They are men with blue faces and pipes! Check out the PHOTO GALLERY for shots of their Astoria set.

Dirty Americans have added a London date to their recently announced run of shows. They will now also play the London Underworld on the 9th of June. Those of you who caught their secret show at the Spice of Life can testify this isn’t one to miss! Check out the TOUR section for the full list of dates.