As of March 1st, MTV Japan has put the Dirty Americans video for ‘Strange Generation’ on Medium Rotation! Not only that, ‘Strange Generation’ is hitting the Japanese radio airwaves too – it has been placed on March Powerplay on FM Iwate, FM Ishikawa, FM Fukuoka and FM San-in.

A bit over a month ago, at West Coast World Wide in Sacto (that’s Sacramento, California), the first-ever Red Tape video was shot. What about it? It turned out fuckin’ great, and it is now online for you to see. Check out a quicktime download of this awesome piece in our VIDEO section. Red Tape Radioactivist in stores now…

The Box have added the video for Nickelback’s forthcoming single ‘Feelin’ Way Too Damn Good’ (out March 15th) to their list of vids for selection! Simply tune into Sky channel 449, dial 09056 525 111 and request track number 528. Go on, get yourself a dose of Chad and crew!

Machine Head have been keeping themselves well and truly busy, recording a bonus track for the US release of ‘Through the Ashes Of Emmpires’ and securing a run of dates. Robb posted the following update on MACHINE HEAD 1 last night… “Wooí¢ä‰åäóìhoo! Still recovering from Fat Tuesday, Yow! Drink of the night, Grey Goose Vodka Lemon Drops. Fuck í¢ä‰åäóì in í¢ä‰åäóì A! Kind of a fruity drink (in the metrosexual sense), but they’re a manly color, so, you know… that’s how manly men can pull it off *cough*. Last night was the final night of tracking for our í¢ä‰åñnew songí¢ä‰åŒ, so we had a little post-recording / Fat Tuesday celebration. We were back at Sharkbite studios with Mark Keaton in the engineer’s seat, and yours truly back in the producer’s seat. We busted it out in 4 days, Dave nailed his drum tracks on the first take, even though we did a few takes… the man is a monster. Phil played a BAD ASS lead, and The Duce-ster sang some of the most crystal-clear vocals ever! Still working on a title *ahem*, but the new tune is rockin’. Probably the fastest song on the record, with a full-on U2 breakdown in the middle… sounds crazy… but it works. Colin Richardson begins mixing Friday. We had contemplated adding a cover song to the U.S. release, and I believe our new U.S. record company, Roadrunner Records, announced that we were including a cover. But… originally it was believed that our U.S. release would be 2 versions – a 2-disc limited edition with demo tracks, the making of, cover song, etc… and then a normal version. After we concluded that that idea wasn’t logistically feasible, we decided to just include the new song, as we didn’t feel it would be appropriate to add a cover song to TTAOE for the rest of eternity. We thought it better to record the cover for a future release sometime down the road. What song was it? Rush’s í¢ä‰åñWitch Huntí¢ä‰åŒ… a seriously bad-ass song. And yes, you read right, we’re BACK on Roadrunner. Crazy, huh?! It’s a crazy business, Rock n’ Roll. Trust us, it was the right decision. I think that’s like… history or something… not sure if that’s even happened with a band before. Honestly though, we’re super stoked, and proud to be working with them again. Would they have come back to us if we hadn’t written the record we did, or the record didn’t take off over in Europe like it did? Of course not. Do we care? No. Every band has to prove themselves to a label. We did. We’ve smoothed out our issues, worked out differences, and they are chompin’ at the bit to get this record out. In all the years that MH and RR have worked together I’ve never experienced them being this excited and this hungry to put a Machine Head album out. Ever! They are fully 100% behind the band, nay, 1000% percent behind the band. Record’s comin’ out [in the US- Ed] April 20th. 420, kid!!! Machine Fuckin’ Head are going out on the road in the U.S. around April 27th, and we are STOKED about the package we lined up with the help of our ass kickin’ booking agent Scott Sokol. The “Weapons Of Mass Destruction” tour featuring Machine Head, Arch Enemy, and God Forbid will be hitting most major U.S. cities in April and May, with a more extensive U.S. headline run happening in September. Both AE and GF dole out heaping helpings of lean, low-carb, cutting-edge Metal, and offer something fresh to the world of music. Arch Enemy’s “Anthems of Rebellion” was practically the only CD we listened to on the TTAOE Europe tour, and God Forbid’s “Gone Forever” is the ONLY thing in my CD player. It’s fuckin’ inspiring to have these bands out with us. Buy their records, dammit! New England Metal Fest is confirmed for Fri. April 30th, more dates coming soon. And get your livers ready, fuckers, cause the Vodka Kings are comin’ back… And we ain’t fuckin’ around!” Machine Head will be hitting UK shores later this year for the Download Festival- Glasgow Green 2nd/3rd June and Donnington 5th/6th June.

Tune in to Gonzo tomorrow (27/02) to catch Hatebreed’s ‘This Is Now’ video! There will also be the chance to win one of three copies of the Headbangers Ball compilation CD which features the likes of Hatebreed, Chimaira, DevilDriver and previously un-released tracks from Killswitch Engage and 36 Crazyfists! You can catch Gonzo on MTV2, Sky channel 442 between 6pm and 7pm.

Dave has begun a series of studio updates on the recording of their upcoming release ‘Nymphettamine’ on the official COF website (which you can access HERE). Here’s the first… “This is the first week of the NYMPHETAMINE session at Parkgate studios. Already things are starting to take shape and the basic tracking is being done for 8 songs. There will be more as we go on. This is just drums, bass and 2 guitar tracks with guide vocals. No keys yet and overdubbs are being done all the time. It’s the first time I’ve recorded live since my old band (Dreambreed) back in the mid 90’s. It’s an idea producer Rob Caggiano wanted to try after hearing the songs in the pre-production stage a few weeks ago. It’s more about capturing atmosphere and feel than quontized computer accuracy. The overall feel is great. We can play at least 80% of this new material live already and it’s got an amazing feel to it when we play together. Compared to Damnation, I think we could only play like 2 or 3 songs when we entered the studio. Personally, I’ve got the best bass sound I’ve ever had. Using a new Ampeg SVT 5 pro head and classic 8 by 10″ speaker cab with a Sans amp D.I. driver. We got a few tricks using a sub woofer to give it that extra balls. Two very experienced studio engineers Dan Turner (who was with us on the Damnation session and just did the last Anathema record, Therapy?, Napalm Death) and Steve Carter from Seattle, USA (Himsa, Hell Promise) are setting everything up and controlling the desk. It’s a lot of fun right now and we are getting to play as a band more than usual, giving this record a very distinctive feel. The studio generally is more relaxed due to the hand guns being banned (and far less painful!) and is now leading to more cunning trickery and mischeif. We are also working hard on getting all the artwork together and talking about video concepts. Getting together a great compitition prize which I guess we will run soon.”

We can officially confirm that the mighty Machine Head will be playing the main stage at this years Download Festival at Donnigton, joining label mates Slipknot. They will also be playing the Scottish Download at Glasgow Green. “We’re fuckin’ hella stoked to playing the Downloads this year.” says Robb Flynn. “Back at Donington, in Scotland for the first time, with a helluva a line up! This is gonna rule! UK ‘Head cases’, come on down you crazy fuckers and drink beer with Machine Head. YEAH!!” And who can resist an invition like that?!! Tickets on sale now.

Before the month ends, 3 Inches Of Blood will be taking their show to the road – thus far, 19 dates over the next month. Touring starts Feb 29th in Seattle- a show with the mighty Mastodon and now-label-mates Red Tape. Small world, eh? Couple of shows later, 3 Inches Of Blood will be playing the Sun ‘n’ Steel Fest in Pinellas Park, in sunny Florida with none other than Deicide and Obituary, among others. The world just got smaller! Couple show further down the road, 3 Inches will be playing March Metal Meltdown VI in Irvington, where Madball and even Catastrophic (holding Obituary founder Trevor Peres in its ranks), among others, will be playing. What next, Obituary to record a new CD? Ya know, the truth ain’t far from reality… The meat of 3 Inches’ upcoming road travels will be with Entombed (RR has put out an Entombed CD) and The Black Dahlia Murder.

After being stopped at the border and exiled from their bus for an hour whilst it was searched by dogs, DevilDriver are safe and sound in Montreal. In fact, they even had time to take in a show- Life Of Agony at the Opera House. “It was great. They never sounded so tight”, tells drummer John Boecklin. Speaking of which, DevilDriver play the Opera House tonight. True. By week’s end, DevilDriver will be playing in New York City, this coming Friday (27/02), to be exact. To a sold out Irving Plaza in Union Square, to be more precise. And on said night, MTV2’s Headbangers Ball will be taping the band for the show the next night on Saturday.

What’s up UK! Its been a while since we checked in with you guys, but we’ve been very busy. We just finished a 4 week tour with Mushroomhead , Dope and Twisted Method, which was amazing.. good times good people and loud music!!!! Right now we are currently headlining for a few weeks with Slitheryn and Dog Fashon Disco for support. In a few weeks we will be heading out with Ill Ni퀌±o and Flaw for a full US tour, and right after that we will be doin’ some dates with the Jagermeister tour with Slipknot , Fear Factory and Chimaira!!!!! Can you say holy shit?!!! Anyway, we are in the works for some plans to get over to you soon!! Maybe… sometime around May/June. We are really excited to get to come play over there. We hear Europe is where heavy music lives! Till then drink beer, drink coffee or just ‘Self Medicate’ yourself anyway you want! And have fun! Peace Hector and Jordan 40 Below Summer