So as you know, you can now download the brand new Slipknot song ‘Pulse Of The Maggots’ free from their official site, www.slipknot1.com. Here is just a few of your comments, which you emailed us with after hearing the new track. note: if your comment is here, email us again with your full name & address for a free Slipknot badge… and thanks for writing in! “HEY THERE!! THE NEW SLIPKNOT SONG TOTALLY RULES!!!!!!!!! I STAYED UP ALL NIGHT TO DOWNLOAD IT, BUT IT WOULDNT LET ME ON THE DAM SITE!! WHEN I FINALLY MANAGED TO DOWNLOAD IT ABOUT 7.A.M, I JUST HAD TO PLAY IT FULL BLAST AND WAKE UP THE PARENTS!!! IT WAS THAT DAM GOOD I STAYED UP ALL DAY WEDNESDAY LISTENING TO IT, IF THAT ONE SONG IS SO DAM GOOD, I CANT WAIT TO HEAR THE REST OF THE ALBUM, OH MAN… IM DROOLING!” “i just wanna comment on the new slipknot track. i think its absolutely awesome. yeah its different from the older material but it’s still cool. its also a change to hear jim and mick perform their solos, which they couldn’t do with the self titled album and iowa.the intro to pulse of the maggots got my adrenaline running by hearing the siren and as soon as the drums and guitars kicks in, it was hard to describe, i think i was in a world of my own, i really can’t wait to hear the rest of the tracks from subliminal vocals. its gunna be great.” “made sure i didnt listen to it until it was completely downloaded! when the siren kicks in at the start,. BANG! goosepimples all over my body and BANG! my hairs were standing on end, all because i knew the ‘KNOT had returned to us! kewl riffs, coreys singing owns, there back and i as a maggot is as happy as fuck!!!” “OH MY F*CKING GOD!!!!!!! this song rocks, i stayed up all night on the 30th/31st for it to come in on slipknots website to download pulse of the maggots, and i copied it on 2 a blank CD yes 1 CD for just 1 song lol n i put the CD in my stereo n put full bass on n almsot full volume n the plaster on my wall has actually come off, i got a webcam if u want me 2 prove it lol, i have not stopped playing it at all, its drivin the woman next door mad but F*CK it, PULSE OF THE MAGGOTS great song..” “OH MY GOD! After waiting for a glipse of the new material for what seems decades, I was far from let down. “Pulse Of The Maggots” truely shows how each member has been pushed to the limit. This track has been perfected to the finest detail with items such as the introduction of some truely intense guitar solos. Overall this track is truely a maggot’s treat. The track opening brings a cold shiver to your spin and then from there on out you just sit back and enjoy the ride. Without changing their style completely, Slipknot have cleverly taken the old spark and amplified it to bring what I truely believe is musical genius.” “Omg, I downloaded the new Slipknot song yesterday and actually blew my speakers apart. This song didnt deserve just 1 listen, thats probably why I’ve listened to the mp3 so much the system sticks when I click on it. Yet again Slipknot break the average and rip apart the seems of metal music. If ‘Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses’ follows in ‘Pulse of the Maggots’ steps then its gonna be off the shells like a lightening bolt. Jeez, two playings on Radio One, its like a new era of musical talent has opened up with Slipknot. Everytime they change their style ever-so-slightly it becomes even more intoxicating than before. My copy is gonna be pre-ordered as soon as I get my wages in (because I’m poor) and I hope to God it comes early. Road Runner, you are Gods for signing Slipknot. And Slipknot, you are Gods of metal. Another 10 albums please!” “OH MY GOD THAT SH*T SLAYS. I do apolagise for the bad language but it was necessary that track is so brilliant its unreal. i have downloaded the song off the site and oh my god i cant stop listinging to it! If the rest of the album is half as good as this track then the album is gonna rock. cant believe they played pulse of the maggots twice on the rock show but if any song has ever deserved it then this one did.”

Did we fool you today? How many of you believed our 3 spoofs?! Did you spot them? Yes, true to the tradition of April Fools Day, we decided to have a little fun… We do hereby announce that the following news stories posted today are somewhat fabricated: ‘Chimaira River’ ‘Tuesday 13’ ‘Welcome Guns N’ Roses’ Chimaira have NOT recorded a single with Justin Timberlake, Wednesday has NOT changed his name, and we have NOT signed Guns N’ Roses. HOWEVER! Both Joey & Dave do like Mr JT. Dave’s quote was uttered only this morning, caught online before bedtime. The rest, complete and utter tomfoolery (apart from Robin Finck’s statement). We are pleased to report we managed to fool an awful lot of you, including some media contacts, some other label staff, and even a large UK radio station…! We shall let the fooled remain nameless. Happy April Ghouls!

Roadrunner Records are pleased to announce the signing of the almighty Guns N’ Roses. World famous, and indeed a household name, Guns N’ Roses have sold millions of records across their many year career and we are extremely proud to have them as part of the Roadrunner family! The recent, widely reported, legal dispute with Universal has been resolved in an undisclosed out of court settlement. The first release under the new deal will be the very long awaited ‘Chinese Democracy’ – currently pencilled in for a Christmas 2004 release, allowing the band time to replace ex-member Buckethead, and finalise work in the studio. Several cover art concepts are already being discussed, and a new photo shoot is planned for early Summer. Office staff here are already dribbling in anticipation of hearing the new tunes. Official touring plans for the UK are not yet confirmed, but the headline slot of a much enlarged Roadrage 2005 tour is under discussion. In other Guns news, guitarist Robin Finck has posted the following message on his official web site: “Dear friends, I want to make this opportunity to comment on GNR’s recent withdrawal from the Rock-In-Lisbon festival. I was disappointed, as were the lot of us, to come to grips that we won’t be performing there as anticipated. My bags have been packed for some time awaiting such an event. I’m chomping at the bit to get out and really shake things up with GNR and look forward to the release of the new album and ultimately to tour and to tour. ‘Til then – love, Robin” Guns N’ Roses, welcome aboard. For now, stay tuned to their ARTIST page for more news! [Update: as April Fools is now over, the GNR Artist page has been removed from this site]

In true Murderdolls style, Wednesday 13 has chosen April 1 to announce a change in name. Henceforth, the Murderdolls vocalist will be referred to as Tuesday 13. Now before you laugh, here is his reasoning… “Do you know I am fucking bored of everyone calling me Wednesday. Honestly. And everyone thinks it’s so fucking funny to call me Sunday 16, Monday 14, etc etc hardy fucking ha. So I figured why the fuck not go with it. It worked for Prince.”

Have you been missing Chimaira? Fear not, for they return soon in June for a mighty tour with Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and God Forbid! And with a tour, comes new music! We are pleased to inform you we will be releasing a brand new Chimaira single to coincide with the tourdates. Chimaira’s new single is a cover of the infamous Justin Timberlake song ‘Cry Me A River’ – and the most surprising thing about that is that the song even features Justin himself on some of the lead vocals! Mark Hunter explains… “Well, everybody loves Justin don’t they? Even Joey (Slipknot) was telling me recently that he’s a fan and went to see him in concert! When we were on tour with Machine Head, I walked into their tour bus and found Dave shimmying around the bus dancing to it! We thought it’d be a really fun cover to do, and when Justin found out about it, he got in touch to tell us what a big fan he was and suggested we put it out together. We were totally blown away!” We were so stunned at the news that even Dave & Joey liked Justin (no doubt you are too), that we interrupted Joey on the new Jagermeister tour in the US (& caught Dave online) for a quick interrogation (because you would, wouldn’t you) and … Joey (Slipknot): “Justin’s the man… he’s totally got it going on! His album rules!” Dave (Machine Head): “I always knew Chimaira were huge N’Sync fans so it’s good to see them getting back to their roots and covering a Justin Timberlake song. I reckon they should do a video of Justin exposing Mark’s breasts just like he did with Janet Jackson!” We managed to get Mark Hunter to give up one of the promo shots from the forthcoming single artwork – tailored to include the new one-off vocalist, which you can see HERE.

A message from the mighty Machine Head’s Robert Flynn… a new diary entry over at MachineHead1.com. “Hails and salutations fuckers! The release of our new record, “Through The Ashes Of Empires” (from here on out referred to as “TTAOE”) is less than a month away! The new, exclusive track, “Seasons Wither” is mixed, mastered and sounding absolutely incredible thanks to the honorable sir Colin Richardson… the response to it has been fantastic, I think you guys are gonna love it. Having turned out as well as it did, we chose to “promote” the song from bonus track status, to instead, adding it into the official song sequence as track 8, after “Vim” (bumping the songs that followed back one track number). And even though it was written and recorded a full six months after the original TTAOE sessions, I gotta say, it flows seamlessly into the album, adding an extra touch of speed and aggression to the record, and as a result, raises the bar set by the rest of the album. The Weapons of Mass Destruction Tour is lining up nicely. The best band I’ve ever heard from Alaska, 36 Crazyfists, have been added to the alcohol-fueled mayhem, and we’re damn glad to have them on board! This tour is gonna be fun. This tour is gonna be big. Make sure you make it out! It’s Machine Head, so that alone should compel you to sell your soul for a ticket, but to get Arch Enemy, God Forbid and 36CF too?! It may be time to hit the street corners and shake a lil’ somethin’ if you’re short on the cash-ola… there is no excuse to miss this tour. There’s also a rumor going around that we may be filming one of these U.S. shows for an upcoming MH DVD. Nothing is official yet, and there may not be enough time to make it happen, but if it does, the city it might happen in begins with a D, and ends with a troit, and falls on a Saturday night. The Head will be co-hosting MTV2’s Headbanger’s Ball April 23rd. Might air the very next day (Saturday the 24th), not sure. Super stoked about it though. I haven’t gotten the chance to watch HBB (don’t have MTV2), but I’ve heard Jamey is an awesome host, and would expect no less from a guy as down to earth and charismatic as he is. Our deepest condolences go out to him and the band. Starting to get a little of the pre-release jitters… a wacky combination of overwhelming excitement, skepticism, and downright insecurity. It’s normal. Got a lot of things going right with this one, but we’ve also got a few things going wrong. The most obvious of the wrong things is that the record is coming out 6 months after it’s been available to buy on import, and download. But hell, we’re used to working twice as hard as some bands have to, and don’t mind having to work for the things we earn. We believe in this record, and we know you do too… after all, there’s no better feeling than knowing you achieved something the old fashioned way… by earning it. So with that, we’d like to toss a little nugget of appreciation at those of you who bought our last 4 records. And especially to the good people over in Europe and the UK that made TTAOE such an ongoing success internationally. That is what allowed TTAOE the chance to be released over here in the states. And as I’m sure you all know, we only get this platform if the beast gets fed. No one is releasing our album because they think it’s a good idea to write 8 minute epics about death, or write songs that call your biological parents “cocksucker” and “whore”. Frankly, the spot we’re in right now is a pretty tough one, no doubt, but we’re counting on all of you, and all of your friends, and all of your friends’ friends… and all of your friends’ friends’ friends… to go out the week of release and make a statement, to appreciate this record, and the fact that you want to hear more like it, by feeding the beast. Because, in all honesty, that is what will keep this band going. With the current state of the industry, especially here in the states, as well as our fairly odd situation, a misfire in sales at this point in time could spell our doom, and we want no part’a that shit, no siree. So, if you love this band as much as we love playing to all of you, feel free to do your part to help spread the word. We’ll be launching an e-card here shortly that will have full clips of all of the original ten songs from TTAOE, so be sure to e-mail it to all your friends, and all of your friends’ friends, put a link to it in your signatures on message boards, let anyone that you know that may miss out on this record for whatever reason know about it. We’ll also be posting printable flyers shortly, one promoting the record, another promoting the tour with an area left open for you to fill in your local venue, show date, etc. and make copies from, so you’ll be able to download those, print some out and drop ’em off at your local record stores, venues, pass ’em out at shows, etc., should you wish. Those of you here in the states will be surprised by how many people will respond with no knowledge whatsoever of TTAOE’s existence… “Whoa, Machine Head has a new record coming out?! Killer!!” We’ve gotta get this word out, people… fast, and hard. On a semi-related note, I’d like to formally thank all of the people who stop me in the street or after shows and tell me their stories of struggling / overcoming, and how our music has helped them through tough times. It has had a more profound effect on us than you could possibly imagine, and I / we thank you for sharing your experiences with us. It has meant and will continue to mean a lot to us moving forward. I’d also like to take a minute to thank the folks at Roadrunner Records US that are working their asses off making this happen, especially Jonas Nachsin, the president of RR US and Cees Wessels, for taking the risk and having the faith to let us share our vision with the world. Also, thanks to our A&R man Monte Conner, for being the unwavering, unflinching, #1 supporter there, and eagle eye / ear behind many a detail. And thanks to everyone else there who goes unheralded, but who has made the release of our music possible, and helped put it in actual record stores: Matt Polen, Doug Keogh, Maria Gonzales, Jamie Roberts, Benjy S., Amy S., Kathy Merrit, Chris Mitsuka, Dave Rath, Harlan and far too many others to mention. We also want to thank all of you who work in those record stores and online music stores selling our records, and to the clerks who help steer kids toward some good listening. Your efforts are truly and sincerely appreciated. I, personally would like to thank our webmaster, and occasional editor to my often inane ramblings, for performing the all-important “stupid” check, and helping cover up my glaring misuse of comma’s, apostrophe’s, and periods. The one and only, P to tha muthafuckin’ D, Mike P. Last but not least, we’d like to thank the die hard fans, friends and supporters of Machine Head–the Head Cases. The ones who influence, pester, and coerce their friends into spending their hard-earned dough on a band who wants to change the dour face of music for the better. Those fans, friends and supporters that are in the streets, and on the internet, spreading the gospel of MH with the most powerful method known to man… word of mouth. Hails and salutations indeed.” -Flynn In other ‘Head news, those of you over in good ol’ Cali are in for a treat. Join Machine Head as they host a FREE listening party at The Pound, San Francisco on Friday, April 16th. Go out and be one of the first to hear the new record, “Through The Ashes Of Empires” in its entirety, including the new, US exclusive track, “Seasons Wither”. Zero magazine will be sponsoring the event, 92 KSJO will be presenting the event, the Jagermiester girls will be in attendance shelling out shots, as well as “brown eye” drink specials, AND there will be a Machine Head Karaoke contest, where drunken participants can compete to win a Grand Prize of all 6 Machine Head CD’s and the entire line of new TTAOE Merchandise. 2nd and 3rd prizes will also be available. Don’t miss out! Machine Head coming back to the UK for Download…

Oh my god, new Slipknot is here. Have YOU downloaded it yet? Tens of thousands of maggots out there already have!! Download new song ‘Pulse Of The Maggots’ RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. The Radio 1 Rock Show played it for the very first time on air last night…. and not only YOU, but THEY loved it so much, they played it TWICE… in the SAME SHOW… for the first time in history EVER! Now that is some awesome shit. Email us what you think… some Slipknot badges going for the best emails we post up…

The Dirty Americans bring their unique blend of retro rock to the UK for a handful of live shows.. Fans of rock outfits like The Cult and Queens Of The Stone Age will be magnetically drawn to the Dirty Americans straight up vintage rock vibe. The new album ‘Strange Generation’ showcases the bands distinct Zeppelin influenced style. Laid down in Memphis, Tennessee the long play is packed full of sweaty, catchy, raw, unpolished and ..frankly, dirty rock tracks to impress any self-respecting, red-blooded rock fan. The grainy title track, ‘Strange Generation’, will form the bands debut single for the UK, slated for a June 7th release. It’s an ode to Cheap Trick as the song twists and writhes through escalating guitars and syrupy backing vocals. The fantastic video can already be seen clocking up requests and plays across music television.. check it out! Tickets now on sale at the following venues – expect the Detroit stoners to make a couple more stops around the UK.. all details to be announced! Nottingham Rock City, 8th June 퉌£7 (0115 941 2544) Manchester, Academy 3, 10th June 퉌£7.50 (0161 275 7530) Glasgow, Cathouse, 11th June 퉌£7 (0141 572 1120)

The brand new 36 Crazyfists video ‘At The End Of August’ is now added to Kerrang! TV. To request it, call 09056 525666 and ask for #190.

Soulfly and Fear Factory return with new albums… Soulfly’s stunning new album ‘Prophecy’ is finally OUT NOW and is available for around 퉌£11.99 (ltd digipack CD with 6 bonus tracks) & 퉌£10.99 (CD) from HMV, Virgin, MVC, Music Zone plus your local official ‘Roadrage’ store! Fear Factory’s new album ‘Archetype’ will also be available as a limited edition digipack CD with a bonus DVD. The DVD has been specially compiled by the band and includes behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the album, their Australian tour with Korn, live tracks plus the brutal ‘Cyberwaste’ video shot in Perth, Australia. ‘Archetype’ is released April 19th.