COLLECTIVE SOUL IN STUDIO WORKING ON NEW ALBUM

NEW YORK, NY- February 17, 2009 - Multi-Platinum rockers Collective Soul, who recently signed a worldwide deal with Loud & Proud Records/Roadrunner Records, have begun work on their 8th studio release, the first release for the label. The band has been hard at work in frontman Ed Roland’s lake house studio for the past few weeks, working on the follow up to 2007’s Afterwords. Renowned for their ability to write supremely crafted smash hits, the band is wasting no time in creating a new batch of tunes fit to replicate all of their past successes. The band are currently featured on the multi platinum selling soundtrack for Twilight. ‘Tremble For My Beloved’ from the album Dosage is also featured in the film.

Roland says, “We are only 2 weeks in to the recording of our new album and feel more like a band than ever. It’s reflected in the music, which we all think is our best material to date.”

No strangers to charitable initiatives, Collective Soul is confirmed to headline a special benefit concert for the Save Darfur Coalition, a global organization that represents 130 million people worldwide who have united together to help the victims of Darfur. The concert will take place on Friday, March 27th at the Tabernacle in Atlanta.

In discussing the benefit concert, Roland notes, “As the atrocities continue in Darfur, Collective Soul are honored to lend our voices, along with the youth of Atlanta, to something we feel very strongly about. We continue to educate not only ourselves but the community.”

Globally known for mega-hits such as “Shine,” “December” and “The World I Know,” Collective Soul hails from Atlanta, GA and has produced 7 #1 singles and sold over 10 million records. The band broke into mainstream popularity with their 1993 debut album Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid. The group’s self-titled second album arrived the following year and logged a 76-week run on the Billboard Top 200. 1999’s critically acclaimed Dosage saw Collective Soul further its run as rock radio superstars. The first single "Heavy" set a new high mark for 15-weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart. “Tremble For My Beloved” also appears on the gold-certified soundtrack for the hit film Twilight.

The new album is expected summer 2009.

Slipknot Still Angry Over Battle With Game for Number One: “This Was Our Time”

Slipknot, the Iowa-based nine-piece masked metal band entering its tenth year on the national stage, has just been announced as one of the headliners of Columbus, Ohio’s Rock on the Range Festival. The third annual fest — which also features Motley Crue, Alice in Chains and Korn — goes down May 17th and 18th. But right now, Slipknot are in the midst of their biggest American tour to date, including a massive gig at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The arena tour — with Coheed and Cambria and Trivium in tow — comes on the heels of last year’s All Hope is Gone, the band’s first Number One album, a victory that almost didn’t happen.

Initial reports from SoundScan put rapper the Game’s LAX in the top spot by a margin of 13 albums, but after a recount the positions were reversed, with Slipknot taking it by over 1,100 units. And it’s a near-slight that still drives the band nuts, even six months later.

“Any time we get something, it’s almost like we had to steal the fucking thing,” frontman Corey Taylor tells Rolling Stone. “We had to fight for that, in true Slipknot fashion. They didn’t want to just fucking respect us and wait until all the fucking numbers were in. They were like, ‘No, you didn’t have it — you got beat by 13 CDs.’ We’ve come so fucking close so many goddamn times, and this was our time.”

Percussionist and band mastermind Shawn “Clown” Crahan is still plenty hacked off that the band he created came so close to having its moment in the sun taken away. “This is no disrespect to the Game, we don’t know him, and it could have been anyone, but they’re upset that they lost?” he said. “You want to talk about upset, you want to talk about disrespect for sacrifice? Everyone has tried to keep our ideas, our dreams, our art, down, and there was no reason for that, because our art is love, too.”

For Taylor, taking the top spot is the ultimate middle finger to an industry he feels holds his band in disdain, and the victory and continued success is only made sweeter by the odds his band has overcome.

“I truly believe that every time we win, it just makes so many people angry,” he said. “Right out of the gate, we should not have been successful. We were a nine-piece metal band from Iowa wearing masks and doing this insane shit, but we were talented and we were lucky, and we went out and built this following. For us, this is a legacy.”

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE IN STUDIO UPDATE & PHOTOS!

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE IN STUDIO UPDATE & PHOTOS!
It has been a long time since I used 2" tape to record. As a matter of fact, I believe the last time was in 1996! But this is the way Producer, Brendan O'Brien operates .... OLD SKOOL. In January we all packed up and headed to Atlanta to record drums. The process went fairly smooth, drums were finished in a week and we were able to hang with our bros in Mastodon. Needless to say, many a drunken night was had and it was my distinct privilege to be thrown up on by my buddy Brent. A memory I will never, ever forget.

After much discussions, we decided to move everything back north for guitar and bass duties. At this point Zing Studios in Westfield, MA is like a second home to us. Fast forward a week later (after finishing some guitar rhythm tracks) and I step in for Bass recording. Fun stuff ... it felt like old times with Adam D at the helm of the Pro Tools rig. I finished up the last few bass fixes on Super Bowl Sunday at Adam D's home studio. Beers were flowing HEAVY for sure. Whew, what a relief to be done with my tracks. With the pressure off, it is now time for me to amerce myself in designing the layout for this record.

Currently, Howard is in Atlanta working with Brendon and Adam on vocals. It shouldn't be too much longer now.

Thanks for the support.
Miked

DREAM THEATER WORKING ON THEIR 10TH STUDIO ALBUM!

DREAM THEATER WORKING ON THEIR 10TH STUDIO ALBUM!
Prog Metal veterans Dream Theater are currently wrapping up work on their tenth studio album. The band commenced work on the as-yet untitled album –their second for Roadrunner Records, following up 2007's Systematic Chaos—in October of last year.

Drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci are once again producing the CD, while engineer Paul Northfield will mix the record. Roadrunner plans to release the album in early summer upon which the band will immediately embark on a world tour to support it.

news source

STATIC-X: New Single Available For Streaming

"Stingwray", the new single from the Los Angeles-based metal band STATIC-X, is available for streaming on the group's MySpace page (click on the "Stingwray" artwork in the player in order to launch audio). The track was inspired by frontman Wayne Static's wife, former adult film star Tera Wray, and the Corvette Stingray she drives.

"Stingwray" comes off STATIC-X's new album, "Cult of Static", which is scheduled for release on March 17 via Reprise Records. Elsehwere on the CD, the cybernetic stomp of "Hypure" and "You Am I" bludgeon, bruise and break with precise grooves, while the staccato riffs on "Terminal" crush through an unmistakable guitar tone. Guitarist Koichi Fukuda blazes through incendiary solos, while Tony Campos bolts down demonic bass lines and Nick Oshiro pounds out deadly rhythms. Wayne Static riffs pure violence and screams out his soul.

A song you may already be familiar with is "Lunatic" as it was included on the "Punisher: War Zone" movie soundtrack. Although "Lunatic" is relentless and raw, brandishing a ripping groove and an impenetrable barrier of guitars, the album cut was re-recorded to feature a solo by legendary MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine.

"I've been a huge MEGADETH fan for years," explains Static. "We've toured with them twice. Mustaine and I really hit it off on the road. His lead style is one of the most distinctive styles out there. There's something amazing about it. When you hear him solo, you know it's him."

"Cult of Static" track listing:

01. Lunatic (feat. Dave Mustaine)
02. Z28
03. Terminal
04. Hypure
05. Tera-Fied
06. Stingwray
07. You Am I
08. Isolaytore
09. Nocturnally
10. Skinned
11. Grind 2 Halt

STATIC-X spoke with Ryan Manno of Chicago's Q101.1 FM from the Staples Center in Los Angeles ahead of this year's Grammy Awards, which was held on February 8. Regarding the band's upcoming album, "Cult of Static", guitarist/vocalist Wayne Static stated, "[It is] just as heavy as our last record, 'Cannibal'. But there's a lot more depth to it... It's very epic for us. Normally our songs last about two-and-a-half minutes, and there's five- and six-minute songs on this record. You can really chill out to this and have a great time. There's parts that are really super heavy and shreddy, and there's parts that are moody and dark." Watch the chat below.

STATIC-X is tentatively scheduled to take part in this year's Snocore tour alongside SALIVA and other yet-to-be-announced acts.

news source

Paramore's Hayley Williams Has Food On The Brain

Frontwoman reveals a working title for one of the band's new songs: 'Sumo Sandwich.'

By James Montgomery

Paramore have a list of priorities — demoing their new record, rehearsing for their upcoming tour with No Doubt and, uh, finding something to eat.

In a blog post on the band's official site, frontwoman Hayley Williams writes about the progress of all three ... with a special focus on the status of Paramore's much-anticipated new album and her gustatory struggles.

"We decided not to go to our practice space today. Each of us are at our respective homes writing our own stuff to bring to practice tomorrow. Doubtful we'll all be successful," she wrote. "I'm still finishing lyrics to some of the music demos we've already recorded. Some perdy good shtuff here!

"I'm stuck here at home," she continued. "There's nothing to eat here but one pack of ramen. No, really."

Cue the Fueled By Ramen puns. Since the beginning of the year, Williams and Paramore have been working on the follow-up to Riot! in their home state of Tennessee. They've been keeping fans updated on their progress via photos on their site (and the occasional blog), which show them rehearsing new tunes.

In one post, Williams refers to one new song as carrying the working title "Sumo Sandwich" (she really does have food on the brain).

The stated plan is to record the new album in Nashville, though it's not known just who will produce it. A spokesperson for Fueled By Ramen/ Atlantic Records told MTV News that the band intend to have the new album in stores after they wrap their tour with No Doubt, which kicks off in May.

My Chemical Romance Album Won't Be A 'Kitchen Sink' Affair

I think it's going to get by on its musicianship and its own merits in the songs,' frontman Gerard Way says of less dramatic album.

By James Montgomery, with reporting by Matt Elias

There was a time, long before the multiplatinum records and the pancake makeup, before the Eisner Award-winning comics or the Dylan cover in the "Watchmen" film, when My Chemical Romance were just another band from New Jersey. They would like very much to get back to that time.

So that's goal number one with their new album — the follow-up to the massively successful, massively ambitious Welcome to the Black Parade — which they're currently writing in Los Angeles. They hope to get back to their roots — to make manic, fast-and-furious, spur-of-the-moment punk. And, above all, to keep it simple.

"When we had just finished Black Parade, I think doing that record made us feel like we could do everything. And so I think the way to top a record that already kind of does everything is to not do everything," MCR frontman Gerard Way smiled. "I don't think this is gonna be a 'kitchen sink' record. I think it's going to get by on its musicianship and its own merits in the songs.

"And every record ... I like to think they're snapshots of what your band is at that moment, and this is really going to be that. I think there's going to be lack of concept, I think it's simply a snapshot, I think it's going to be direct and very honest," he continued. "It's not going to be hiding behind a veil of fiction or uniforms and makeup anymore. ... From the stuff we've been playing so far, just feels very pure. That's the best way to describe it. People who were really big fans of our first record, they'll find things they're really going to love about the new material — and not because we sound like that first record at all, it's because there's a purity to it. There's less happening."

It's a tactic they first learned while recording their version of Dylan's "Desolation Row" for Zack Snyder's upcoming "Watchmen" film: Stop thinking and just get busy rocking.

"From working on 'Desolation Row' ... I think it was very natural. We just kind of did stuff and the song was there. There was no over-thinking," Way explained. "[But, having said that] we're not going to make a retro record at all. It will sound like a modern rock record, but I think we would like to try to redefine that, what that actually means. By saying it sounds like a modern rock record, it'll sound new — I don't think it'll sound like what's on the radio right now."

And to that point, though it may sound like MCR are trying hard to strip away the rather, uh, grandiose leanings of The Black Parade, they've still got the swagger of a band that's moved units and toured the globe. They've been surveying the musical landscape that's appeared in their absence, and they're not very pleased by what they see. Take, for example, the (working) title of one of their new songs: "New Hair, Same Sh--."

"It's about having new hair, but it's the same sh--. That's the concept," Way laughed. "I think the new album is going to be a response to the two years of touring on Parade. A reaction to what's happening right now — everything that we're not a part of — and a response to it."

news source