English prog-rockers Muse debut their brand new video. It’ll make your eyeballs jizz.

Seeing Welcome to Ashley at The Empty Bottle is like stepping into a time machine and seeing The Fux at Fireside Bowl–which means it’s fucking awesome.

Drop your cocks and grab your socks – Assault besties Welcome To Ashley are playing the Empty Bottle on Friday!

Viciously excellent New Jersey band stops being polite and starts talking shit about Jared Leto. Also: the creative process, the band’s genesis, Alaska, and some pretty strange ceremonial songwriting.

Our resident musicologist gets something big and sharp up his ass about the Grammys.

The Action Blast is undoubtedly one of the coolest new bands in Chicago. They played their first show in December and formed shortly before that, but their sound is fully-formed and exceptionally confident. We were lucky enough to score an interview with the band’s guitarist, Kevin Singleton, and he explained who the band is, what they do, and why they’ll never compromise or water down the intensity of their rock attack.

It’s not too often you get surprised once in a night by a solid opening band, but this weeks lineup at the Beat Kitchen surprised me three times, with three rock solid openers. This marks the first time that’s happened since Family Values 2000.

Our resident musicologist Oswald Hobbes has donned his white lab coat and performed a series of experiments to create a comprehensive list of ultimate happy-making jams. Behold the glory!

Iconic Finnish rockers HIM have just released a new video for “Heartkiller,” the first single off their upcoming album Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice.

The initial bands have been revealed for the 2010 edition of the annual “Vans Warped Tour“, with more groups to be added in the coming months.

This is the story of how I came to love Rise Against.

From time to time I am delighted with an “epic as fuck” music video that reminds me of the good old days when… well, when bands actually made cool, hip videos with totally sweet dance moves. This video is precisely that, and now I’m punching myself in the face for not going to see Chromeo when the funk duo was in town this October. God damn Halloween parties.

Ever since the first time I saw Thrice live at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago when I was 16 I knew they’d be big. It’s been awhile since I connected as much with them (musically) on anything they’ve released, but I remain a loyal fan nonetheless.

Our resident radio scientist, Oswald Hobbes IV, presents the results of a decade’s worth of research in handy list form.

Based on the title and cover art alone, you might guess this is a new Slayer release. Unfortunately, you’d be wrong – Congregation Of The Damned (Opens in iTunes) is the fifth release from California’s Atreyu, and it’s another predictable-but-pleasing collection of shouty metalcore.
When we describe metal albums as “punishing,” that’s typically a compliment. But [...]

America loves a comeback story, and Creed’s is a doozy: after racking up huge sales, conquering the world, and becoming the critical community’s favorite punching bag, the band’s arrogance and stupidity finally caught up with them. After listening to their new album Full Circle (opens in iTunes) for six long hours, I have returned with a verdict…

In 2006, Wolfmother shook up the hard rock landscape with their self-titled debut, a collection of solid psychedelic rock songs notable mostly for their strict adherence to 1970’s metal values and lead-guitarist/singer Andrew Stockdale’s Ozzy-like vocal approach. After facing almost total implosion (two founding members left), Stockdale has regrouped, recruited a few new members, and recorded another platter of nimble stoner-rock.

The amount of enjoyment you get out of any Rammstein record depends on your ability to ignore certain factors that define their sound. First, there’s the whole foreign-language thing: the lyrammrics are almost exclusively in the band’s native German. Second, there’s the creepy cabaret element as a backdrop to all of their tunes. The band can pulverize with some truly explosive riffage, but, even at their most forceful, everything is accented with dance floor keyboards.

One of these Tuesday mornings I’m hoping that when I take a quick peak at the top songs in the “Rock” category on iTunes there will really be something is not only rock, but also good. I’m not one to complain and not do anything about it so I’ve taken it upon myself to hopefully bring you a few new songs that aren’t Daughtry, Creed, or John Mayer-esque in sound.

Out of Ashes is a refreshing switch from the uniformly downbeat output of Bennington’s other band, and one that figures prominently in Out Of Ashes overall success – every time a lowly angst-nugget like “Let Down” clogs the record’s flow, a stomper like “Condemned” is right around the corner to blast the proceedings back into high gear.