Chimaira: Edinburgh Review By: Steven Carrie “First off, It was my birthday today so, this gig was a bit of a treat before it even started, little did I know what was going to happen. Early into edinburgh for the singing session, album and poster signed, thank you please! Bassist asked to sign my man-boobs I had to say no, they are sacred.. I didnt know there was a comp for oddest thing signed, dammit I woulda won!!! I then went on to be interviewed by some dude with a camara who was filming almost every movement of the band. The signing, their taxi to the signing, the gig… Anyways, gig kicked off, really late, I suspect due to the incapability of The Venue staff to organise ANYTHING. First band, I didnt catch the name off, but were quite good. Full floor pit to thier last song which was fun. Every time I die were next on, my oh my was I impressed. They are shit hot. The singer even went on to crowdsurf and exclaim in triumphant mood “that was an official crowd surf”. Lights dim, chi-fucking-maira is heard echoing round the small, but acoustically sound, venue. They come on, awsome come on as well with a funky tune in the back! They went on the play almost every song from both albums,l well it felt like that! Loved every minute. The pit was super-dooper violent for a small venue. Chimaira rattled through an hour and a half worth of set, only pausing to let ricky, thier new drummer, stamp his mark on his drummer status. i.e. WORLD CLASS! This gig is right up there with machine head, Chimaira were just a class above. They are just awsome live. Brilliant crowd too, decent support. Only shame is that it started a bit l8 for my last train and had to wake my dad up to give me a lift home! Bought a tour hoody and fuck your power trip tee, ace. Chimaira said they’ll be back, so will I.” In other Edinburgh reports… Mik McDade contributes, “I can’t hear a bloody thing this morning. 3 words: CHI – FUCKIN – MAIRA!”

You may have already heard…but if not, consider this official word: It is with the upmost pleasure that we announce Machine Head have resigned a deal with Roadrunner Records US, meaning that RR US will be releasing their latest CD – Through The Ashes Of Empires – in the US. We previously had a deal with the band that was only for a European/Japanese/Australian release of the new CD. Currently, they are looking at an April 20th release of the CD. Oh, and here is something that doesn’t happen every day – bonus tracks included on initial US release. Usually we get the CDs with bonus tracks…but due to this unique situation, the US CD release of this will have bonus tracks. The band should be heading into the studio at some point in the coming couple of weeks to record two new tracks for this release (one original, one most likely being a cover). More details to come as plans become more solid.

As you know, we’ve been asking you to send in your show reviews of the Chimaira/ETID tour. Practically all of them have been great, with one exception. It seems that quite a few fans were unable to get into the show in Dublin due to ID issues, leading to several unhappy emails in our inbox. As we can understand how disappointing that must have been, we contacted the promoter for a statement. “The CHIMAIRA show on February 15th in Temple Bar Music Centre was an ‘Over 18’s’ show as clearly stated on the ticket. As the licensing laws have changed in Ireland, the security on the night were within their rights to stop anybody trying to gain admittance without proper identification stating they are Over 18. As promoters, we at MCD hire the venue and respect the venue’s decision relating to this matter. We are in the process of trying to revert to a system whereby it states on the ticket that anybody under 18 has to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Ultimately we want everybody to enjoy the show and we’ll do everything we can to make sure this can happen.”

More tales from the Chimaira tour from Chris Spicuzza… Feb 11th: Sheffield Fuck the cabs here. They left us outside waiting for more than an hour. That’s all I can bitch about today. We were lost puppies today without Luke or Sami from RR. Between them, those two have been to just about every show on this tour. They make sure our lazy asses get to the signings and do press. Basically the best babysitters you can have. The show was pretty good. There really isn’t much to say besides the fact that UK Chimaira fans fucking rule. Feb 12th: Leeds Today was pretty sucky. I ate McDonalds for lunch. Exciting eh? The show was pretty fun. The stage was extremely small and tight. The crowd was loud and chaotic the way we like it. I basically spent the day sitting on the bus doing jack shit. The South Park Season 3 DVD set has been keeping me entertained. Blah. Feb 13th: Colchester We played in a house. Feb 14th: Liverpool My day was spent taking cabs around the city with Rob and Andy (ETID). We cabbed it to a laundromat then to some Greek restaurant then back to the laundromat to finish our clothes. The show would have been better if the sound wasn’t so fucked up on stage. Mark screwed his knee up from jumping and preceded to hobble around the stage for the rest of the set. He’s ok now but it was definitely hurting him through out the night. After the gig we headed over to the Krazyhouse. It’s a 4 floor rock club in Liverpool. We were there basically to hang out and spin some tunes for everyone. There was some fat hillbilly with dreads pretending to be Mark. He signed quite a few autographs that night. About 3am we left the club and started to head back to the venue where our bus was parked. Just minding our own business we got stopped by about 30 drunken blockheads who decided to start a fight. Matt being the innocent one was jumped by about 6 of them. It became quite the scuffle and we got the hell out. Matt was pretty roughed up and needed medical attention. We decided not to cancel the Dublin gig and drop Matt off at the hospital. Feb 15th: Dublin After dropping Matt off I couldn’t sleep. We had to get on a ferry too so I stayed up. Finally my head hit a pillow at 11am. At 4pm we had to take cabs to the club because the bus wasn’t allowed to pull up there. It was a blast to sit around in the cold for an hour without a cab showing up. Eventually this party wagon thing rolled up and we talked the guy into taking us into town for 10p. Tonight’s show was definitely strange. This was the first time we took the stage without all the members. Mark played guitar on a few of the songs to thicken things up. It definitely didn’t sound as good without Matt but we did our best. The crowd was very supportive that we didn’t decide to cancel and it turned out to be an excellent night. Before Pure Hatred they decided to bust into a six minute blues jam. At that time I headed for the dressing room for a beer. After Pure Hatred we came back out and jammed our cover of Sex Type Thing. Sorry to the underage kids who were turned down at the door. Hopefully we can see you next time.

Due out March 15th, the new album ‘Strange Generation’ by the Dirty Americans is a full-on slab of rock n’ roll. While over here on a recent press trip to promote the album, we put a few questions to Myron, vocals for the band – and here is the first part of his answers. How many songs did you create for Strange Generation compared to how many actually made it onto the album? What’s happening to songs that didn’t make the final cut? “It’s impossible to say. So many songs were very small ideas that got molded and shaped over months. The songs that didn’t make probably won’t be released unless I marry Yoko Ono.” The Dirty Americans are quite different in sound to the Workhorse Movement. Why did you decide to change your music in this way, or did it just develop? “We lost a singer. We lost a drummer. We lost our minds. Now it feels good.” Do you think fans of the Workhorse Movement will still be into the sound of the Dirty Americans? “I can only hope that what they liked about the songs Jeff and I wrote for Workhorse will be found in the new stuff. A lot is still there.” The artwork for ‘Strange Generation’ is very visual & colourful. Who designed it? “Smay Visions in NY. We said think high… they did! Now we can do that black light poster I’ve always wanted.” more to come…

Name: Stephen E Micciche Occupation: Bassist, Every Time I Die Date Of Birth: 12/12/78 A tour memory: Breaking up a marriage. Ask me at a show if you want more details. One album that you think everyone should own: Any Neil Diamond’s greatest hits CD Which famous person (dead or alive) would you most like to spend time with and why them? Howard Stern, because he’s doing stuff that I’d do when I was 16, he refuses to grow up. It’s great. Best piece of advice you’ve been given: Be awesome, it’s not that hard. If I wasn’t making music I would be… On reality TV, or something that has to do with high school. Tell us one thing about yourself: If I see a talking animal, I’ll probably like it and laugh a lot. What’s one thing you hope to achieve that you haven’t yet: To be on MTV Cribs I am most proud of: My mom

Lifted straight off an email from Alex Hammond… “Nottingham, Basement, 09/02/04 Right, i cant remember the Chimaria list, cos i was too busy getting my ass kicked in the tiny, but awsome venue to make note of it, but im pretty sure that it was similar or pretty much exact to the few previous dates. So, we turn up in Nottingham just in time to grab a pint before the signing, and then after queuing up outside select-a-disc, the band casually wonder past, a few cameras in tow. This is the coolest thing i first noticed about this band, that there pretty casual and seem to not have crap rock star egos, whilst still keeping any respect intact. They were pretty cool guys signing our stuff, i didnt expect them to be overly nice or go out of their way to be nice, as they seem to have a pretty tight tour right now, and they do have to sign lots of shit, it must be pretty boring. After a few more pints, we cram into the basement. I’ve been to rock citys main stage a few times, but i’ve never seen a band in the basement, and when theres 250 people stuffed in there, the atmosphere is intense. Its such a personal setting, and to be honest, if this gig had been up-graded to the main stage it would have definatly lost somthing. As im a big fan of all three bands tonight, a got right into the front/pit from the start, and as much as i was brusied and knackered by the end, i wouldnt have rather been anywhere else. Every time i die were awsome in my opinion. I’ve been a fan for a while, love their sound, their attitude, and they fitted in great tonight, although i wasnt expecting them too. They played pretty hard, and they crowd reacted well, mixing stuff from their debut and latest, Hot Damn! Once stampin ground Kicked off with Dont Need A Reason To Hate, it was obvious where we were going. Their brutal hardcore-thrash mix was double in its intensity tonight, with Adam really encouraging the crowd to be part of the set, by jumpin in, demanding a circle pit, a wall of death, and getting the fans to scream the chorus of officier down, closing the set. This, personally was already the highlight of my night, as i got to sream a bit. This honestly was nearly as good as the Converge gig at the ULU, a few weeks back. After grabbing my breath, and some shit tasting water at the bar, i got back in the pit ready for chimaria to take to the stage. Using the final track from the Imposibility Of Reason as an opener, cutting it short after a few minutes or so, flying into Power Trip, which really gave way to the biggest pit, in the smallest venue, which was awesome. After a few track from TIOR, they flew into some older stuff and some b-sides, which was nice. The coolest thing i noticed about them playing the older songs, is how much more intense and heavy the made them sound. They lost all of the ‘Nu- Metal’ sound that these songs are hinted with on record, fitting in great with the much harder thrashy stuff. After a great circle pit, and a brutal wall of death, the band closed with Pure Hatred, leaving everyone in the room looking pretty wasted. I made the highlights pretty clear, and have very little to complain about, all bands played like they really meant it, but, without wanting to sound like a nob, i think the age restrictions were right. From what i gather, it was 14+, and this stuck out at times. Im not saying it should have been 18+, maybe 16+ at least, but i got some attitude of a few kids at times, that a a bit less experienced at gigs. Also, theres always a few people with a shitty attitude, that insit on pushing you outta the way and sticking elbows in your face, to get in front of you. Its always a really rude thing to use your size to do that to people that have been waiting ages, and at the last second have some fat guy pull em out of the way. Thats why i stuck to the pit for the most of the show, only moving up to grab Keith and Adam as the climbed into the crowd. Also, any band that lets Stampin Ground support them are nuts. Although Chimaira played well and hard, Stampin Ground really know how to play a show. I noticed, for Chimaira’s first few songs, that they sounded slighlty tame compared. It wasnt until they really got going did i really have the energy to get into it, and it really took off. Oh yeah, and as everyone has mentioned, the drum solo is awsome, you dont see that kinda stuff anymore. All in all, an awsome night. Cheers, if anyone else went, did ya like it, and im sorry if i offended any 14 year olds, or fat fuckers.”

“Having seen ETID before in Manchester, I wasn’t expecting them to be up to all that much in Liverpool, but I’m glad I got the chance to see them again. This time they were a fuck of alot louder, the vocals were alot clearer, and the whole band just seemed to play a generally tighter set. And they played that song that goes “I have a very expensive pen”, so I was happy =D It was Stampin’ Ground’s last date with Chimaira, and everyone just seemed to be really hyped for them. I wasn’t too impressed when they starting hating on emo, haha (although everyone else loved it!), but I suppose it was in the Anti-Valentines spirit, so I could put up with it! The pits though were just stupidly crazy…its true what they say – you’ve never seen a real fight until you’ve seen one in Liverpool, but it was more like half a dozen at any given time! At this point I was thinking they were fuckin’ quality, and Chimaira were gonna be upstaged… It was probably a close run thing, but by the end, I enjoyed Chimaira too damn much to even care about trying to compare them. Liverpool Academy seemed to go overboard on the smoke effects, as Chimaira took to the stage surrounded by clouds of smoke, and seemed to start every new track like that as well. They had their share of sound probs too, during the first few songs, but these were soon forgotten by the time they kicked into the old-school stuff. Let Go and Lumps were awesome, but Dead Inside got by far the best reception and stepped the atmosphere up about ten notches. By this point some of the crowd seemed to flip, which gave security something to do, thats for sure! Ricky stepped in, with a well timed drum solo during Severed though, and everyone kicked back and chilled to admire it. I’ve got a fuck of alot of appreciation for the guy after seeing that – my arms were fucking sore after tryina clap him for a minute odd, so gawd only knows what its like for him! After Severed finished my head was spinning no end, and even a day later, my memory’s still too distorted to be able to remember the rest of the set list. I remember the good ole Wall of Death during The Dehumanizing Process, which was pretty damn fun, and they did one of my fave tracks off TIOR aswell – Staring Through The Eyes of a Criminal. They didn’t do Army of Me though, like they did in Manchester…maybe they were running late or something. Heh, or maybe it was because Mark fucked up his leg and ended up pretty much hobbling round the stage for the last few tracks. Despite that, he still managed to totally energize the whole place for Pure Hatred, which was a killer note to end on. The crowd were still chanting away for Down Again, even when they were being kicked out, as well. All in all, it was a fucking peachy way to spend Valentine’s Day, and personally, I hope it encourages more bands of this nature to come through Liverpool, cause the crowds are crazy as anything.” x Sian x Thanks for writing in Sian – check your post.

We continue to post up YOUR reviews of the Chimaira/ETID tour, with this literary burst from Adrian… thanks for writing in! “It’s not often that you get to see three of the best bands in the metal scene in one gig, less often seeing them in a venue slightly larger than a shoebox. ETID valiantly attempted to get the crowd moving, who were unfortunatley somewhat indifferent to the fucking awesome set that was belted out. Not fazed however, Keith and Co. did their best to get the crowd moving, with a performance almost topping that of the London show a week earlier. They seemed very comfortable in such a tiny place – and even though most of the people at the show had probably never heard of them, they sure as fuck are fans now. Stamping Ground are no strangers to this town and absolutley wrecked the place. Not content with a shitty exit to their leg of the tour, they ignited circle pits and a wall of death unlike this tiny ass venue has ever seen. It was fucking incredible, and we certainly hope they get their asses back here very damn soon. Crowd fired up, smoke filling the air and the opening to implements of destruction over the speakers, people finally woke up and pushed their way to the front. Everyone knows the story from here on in – Power Trip, the best opening song of any set list ever thrown together – tore the place apart. Pint glasses flew through the air and the place went fucking mental – bleeding faces and hair flying everywhere. New Wave Of American Heavy Metal? Yes please. Rickys drum solo was fantastic, as expected, and the appreciation the crowd had for the masters of metal onstage was felt by all. The closing riff of ‘Pure Hatred’ sealed chimairas fame as the best band that has EVER played in this town. You guys had better fucking come back soon!!” Adrian Kassissia

Cradle Of Filth is currently over here working on the pre-pduction of their debut Roadrunner release. What exactly is going on? Bassist Dave Pybus checks in with the following: “We are now in the final stages of pre-production for our first full-length album with Roadrunner, due out this summer, 2004. Currently titled Nymphetamine (meaning: beast-like addiction to beautiful, classical women), it once again sees us pushing our own mentally deranged musical vision to the next ear-crushing level. “The line-up consists of the same 5 core members of the Damnation and a Day session (Dani, Paul Allender, Martin Powell, Adrian Erlandsson and myself) and the addition of James McIlroy as our second guitarist. As I write, we are demoing something like 15-16 tracks, albeit not all of which will appear on the finished album but will all be released in some shape or form over the next year. “Some of you might be a little surprised at the speed of which we are already able to begin recording of so much new material, but do not worry, the songs we have dug up for this new album are incredibly diverse and if not more intense than all of the CRADLE back catalogue. “Working on this record will be ANTHRAX guitarist Rob Caggiano (mixed Damnation and a Day), this time as producer, along with his engineer. Parkgate studios in Battle, England, is where we will be once again confined to over the next 2-and-a-half months or so to do the dirty work. It’s my second time at this studio and I’m looking forward to being there. “Note: There’s been some people on the CRADLE message board asking about song titles for the new album. Seems to be some confusion as to what working titles we use. I think it’s quite easy to spot the difference as the working titles we choose are very distinctive. Like: ‘The Bombing of Endor’, ‘Shitstabber’, ‘Emotions’, ‘Romance in Sweden’, ‘Brown Arse’, ‘Violent Buggery’… etc… need I go on? So, as for the titles on the official press release, compared with these working titles I’ve given here, there is a huge difference!!!”