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VOODOO FOR KIDSVOODOO FOR KIDSVOODOO FOR KIDSEXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH...

LUKE THELIN AND CO. TELL US ALL THEIR SECRETS

The Latest on Download

Mechanised patriot:Inside the machine

Nessah vendetta:This is revenge

Top 50 best albumsever created

Charybdis“we’re making history”

NEW bandsposter special

THE FOOS ARE BACK! EXCLUSIVEINTERVIEW!

PLUS - The Used - Stone Sour - Bullet for My Valentine - Falling in Reverse - Papa Roach - Three Days Grace - Avenged Sevenfold - Muse - 30 Seconds to Mars - Green Day - Lostalone

Contents FeaturesVoodoo for Kids 10New album, new sound, new everything: We give you an inside look on how the new albums is shaping up

Mechanised Patriot 18“My brother tried to kill me” and other as-sorted stories from the kings of crazy

Nessah vendetta 20Back with a vengeance: we talk to the ge-nius behind the best album of last decade

Charybdis 22The true Greek legends take on America. But what’s their battle plan? Read on to find out...

Top 50 albums ever 24We decide which album you should all buy - will your favourite band be there?

FOo Fighters 27They’re back! Rockfall has an exclusive look at how Dave’s managed to fit all of this in his busy schedule...

Hello readers!It’s time for another week in the wonderfully exciting world of Rock. Check out the next few pages for an in depth, six page look inside the new album from the new nicest guys in Rock, Voodoo for Kids. We’ve got a poster special this week. Trust me, we’ve found some of the best new bands in the country. And they all look lovely too. You wont be disappointed. Luke

This week in Rockfall...

36 SlipknotClown on dealing with death, drugs and

self destruction

40 Disturbed“We’re back for good this time” David

speaks about the band’s return

44 Skillet“This is the best album we’ve ever made” Have an inside look at the album they’ve

got in the works...

48 RedRed have always been a band with a mean-

ing. We chat about the stories behind the songs

56 Breaking BenjaminThey’re back and it looks like Ben’s con-

quered his fear of flying. We speak to him about touring England...

58 EvanescenceWe find out about the new album...

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20

27

04

NewsIan watkins 06 First statement since his arrest. What’s actually going on?

Muse 06Matt Bellamy broke his foot last week. We find out how...

My chemical romance 08Finally their new album is out. We talk to them about the recording of it...

Bring me the horizon 08Bring you a new album, along with a new short film.

Three days Grace 09Adam Leaves the band due to illness.

reviews fALLING IN REVERSE 59stone sour 60Biffy Clyro 60

PostersNew BAnd special 28

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Subscribe to rockfallAnd be in with a chance to win...

A pair of Skullcandy headphonesA pair of tickets to a Stone Sour gig

See pg 32 for more details...

NESSAH VENDETTA

Voodoo for kids

Foo fightersPG 2

“WE’RE A ROCK BAND, NOT ONE OF THEIR

CRAPPY POP ARTISTS”LAST year probably wasn’t Voodoo for Kids’ favourite year ever, given the predica-

ment that it left them in at the end of it. It was off to a great start. Straight out of music college, they went searching for someone to sign them with their unique blend of metal riffs and melodic vocals over heavy hitting drums. They were eventually, and rather hesitantly signed by none other than EMI, one of the most well known labels in the country. The band then went on to record and release their first album ever within the first few months of their signing, and it was some-thing of a masterpiece. However, it was arguably the biggest flop that year in terms of sales. “I didn’t really expect it to do so well to be completely honest.” Explains drummer Luke Thelin. “I know we were on an actual record label and all that but I still felt like the only people who had the slightest idea of who we are

were our friends and family from where we live. I really hoped it would do well but it just didn’t.”“I guess you can’t really blame us” says Chris Pearson, bassist for

the band. “I mean we had only just come out of college, which probably accounts for most of our naivety about it. We’re still young and we don’t really know that much about how the indus-try works, but it is also our label’s fault. If they’d done a better job then it probably would have paid off a lot better. I think the reason is that they don’t care about rock music. They just want stuff that sells, so I guess we weren’t really their main priority.”“It was so frustrating though because we worked so hard to find a label that actually gave a damn. EMI were sort of half going for it. They were saying that we had to put some of the stuff that all pop artists have in their songs, which was ri-diculous. It’s like smear-ing shit all over a piece of

artwork that you’re really proud of. So we pretty much just refused to do it. We’re a rock band, not one of their crappy pop artists. I remember Ciaran saying that at one point. I think that’s why they didn’t want to market it very much. They were probably just sat there saying to themselves ‘They won’t do what we want, so we won’t do what they want.’”“People have been say-ing for quite a

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THE NEWEST BAND ON THE BLOCK ARE BACK AT IT WITH A BRAND NEWALBUM. THEY HAVE A CHAT WITH US ABOUT GETTING SIGNED, GET-TING BACK UP AND GET-TING ON THE ROAD...

THE BEST KIND OF MAGIC

PG 10

“ROCK MUSIC ISN’T DEAD. IT’S ON IT’S WAY

BACK UP”

while that rock music is dead and they seemed to think that about us.” Chris tells us. “It’s not. It’s just sleeping. I honestly think it’s on it’s way back up. You’ve got peo-ple like Dave Grohl, and bands like Biffy Clyro and Papa Roach who’ve released some of the best work I’ve ever heard in the past few years, and now people like Soundgarden and Fall Out Boy are back. That’s gotta do some-thing for the revival of the genre, right?”I have to say that I agree whole-heartedly with you, Chris.

And so, Voodoo for Kids left their label almost as soon as they signed on.

“We just couldn’t take what they were trying to do to our band. It’s our band, not theirs.” Luke grum-

bles “The only good thing that came from that

was that having the ability

to make our

first al-

bum

sound as good as possible.”But the split from the label just resulted in problems for the band. By December, Ciaran had taken up alcoholism, knowing that the band that he started wasn’t go-ing anywhere, and Chris started showing up late to practices.“The band stopped being a band to me.” Chris points out. “It just turned into some job that I didn’t want to do.” They fell further and further apart. So far, in fact that Luke was almost certain that it was all over before it started. He soon started to stop going out, and just stay-ing at home. After several months of virtually no contact with each other, Ciaran decided to start the ball rolling again.“He called me up and just said ‘I

need your help to get the band back together.’ At first I wasn’t in-terested. I was perfectly happy just sitting at home, but after about a week, I called Ciaran and told him I’d give it a shot.”“Now the only problem was Chris, who needed a hell of a lot of per-suading to get him to even con-

sider it.” Ciaran says. “I wasn’t sure he would do it, but eventu-ally he said he would.”

At their first jam-ming session, they finally realised

what they had missed in the past half a year. The

problems they had went out of the window and they became a band once more. They then set about try-

ing to find someone to sign

VOODOO FOR KIDS

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LUKE GIVES US HIS BEST X FACTOR CONTESTANT POSE

them that wouldn’t try to destroy their sound. They found indie label Beggar’s Banquet, who have signed such artists as Biffy Clyro.“Were a lot happier than we were before. We get to do what we want, which seems to be turning out pretty well in terms of the songs we’ve done so far. On the first album, we all wrote about 6 songs each , of which we chose the best 12. I think it’s already a lot better with this record. We’ve still got that same sort of work ethic going on, but this time we’ve each writ-ten about 20 songs. I guess that’s because of the time we spent away from each other.” Luke tells us “That sounds horrible, but it’s true. I don’t think any of us stopped writing for the whole time we were apart. I guess there’s a lot of is-sues to deal with. We’ve also been listening to different things. I’ve been listening to a lot of Slipknot and Biffy Clyro recently, so some of my songs are a bit weird and dark lyrically, especially if your comparing the lyrics of the last record to this. I’m also really good friends with the guys in Charyb-dis so they’ve been teaching me about Greek Mythology and that’s probably gonna show through in some of the songs. Ciaran’s been listening to what he’s always lis-tened to - post punk and Chris has been listening to more electronic music, which is weird because that’s not really a typical combina-tion of musical tastes. I know we’re gonna get so much shit for the darkness of all of the lyrics. Peo-ple have called us “emo” before, but the thing is that’s what makes our lyrics so real. We were all in a very dark place for quite a while, so obviously our lyrics are going to reflect that. A lot of the lyrics I’ve written are reflecting on what I went through at school. I never really used to fit in. I was always

that one in the corner with noth-ing to say and who tried to keep to himself as much as possible. I got bullied quite a lot in school as well, so it helps that I’m able to let it all out in these songs. Luck-ily I had a few friends that helped me through the tough times, so another portion of the songs are about how great my friends were and are. I just want to provide hope to people who need it most. I thought of suicide quite a few times, but my friends were always there for me. It’s important that you have those people in your life but it’s just as important that you stay positive and don’t let it affect your personality, which I know is hard because I’ve been there, but it’s worth getting through it.”

Now we have an exciting announcement to make about Voodoo for Kids.

Actually, make that two... no, three pieces of big, exciting news about

the band. Firstly, the tour. VFK are setting off to tour the UK in sup-port of Falling in Reverse.“The exciting thing about that is that Falling in Reverse have never been allowed into the UK before. To be the first band that they call on to support them in a tour of the whole UK feels really freaking brilliant.”Luke whole-heartedly agrees. “Yeah. I mean it feels fantastic that they would even consider us. And now people might actually find out about us and listen to us. Touring as support is a really great way to get people to know about you. I remember the first time I went to a gig, it was Evanescence

with The Used and Lostalone. I’d heard of Lostalone before but nev-er really liked them, but when I saw them live I realised how good they are. I guess that’s what we’re all about too. In our live shows we basically just open a big box of energy. The other guys have a lot more of an opportunity to jump around the stage, and being stuck behind a kit means I’m restricted but I always put a load of effort into my playing and I usually end up the most tired by the end of the gig. Hopefully it pays off.”

And it certainly does. Voo-doo for Kids’ energetic playing style along with

their unique blend of everything from Gothic post punk to rock makes them one of the most excit-ing bands this year.“Yeah I guess we have quite a lot of different influences.” Says Ciaran. “I love the post punk and Gothic music, whereas Luke and Chris are a lot more into rock than anything else. Somehow we just managed to fit it all together in a way that we all like but it also sounds really cool.”“Yeah I mean everyone who’s heard what we do has been like ‘f*** man that’s amazing’” Reveals Chris, excitedly. “The great thing is that this new album is gonna be even better than that! We’ve worked so hard on it and we can’t wait for people to hear it!”So this is a turning point for your band?“No I wouldn’t say that. We’re still going in the same direction, we’ve just got further down that road than before. I think in the year since writing the last album, we’ve all developed significantly as songwriters, and I guess you could say we’ve matured quite a lot. Concept-wise, We don’t have one with this album. I like the idea of

“I USUALLY END UP THE MOST TIRED BY THE END

OF THE GIG”

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VOODOO FOR KIDS

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MEDUSA’S SNARE“This song really came about because I’d been reading quite a lot in our time off. I read something about Medusa and the title just stuck with me. I remember trying to think of how it would feel to turn to stone and the panic you would go through, especially if it was slow.”

ASPHODEL“I’ve had this song in the works for some time now. I came up with it when I first started writ-ing. I was going for a walk and I had this idea that ‘the dead walk beneath the skin of the faithless’. I think that’s quite similar to my idea of what As-phodel would be like. Lyrically, it’s sort of along the same lines as Hollywood Whore by Papa Roach.”

OLD SCARS“I think this is probably one of my favourite songs that I’ve ever written. It was something ridiculous like 4 in the morn-ing, and I couldn’t sleep, so I just tried to write and this just poured out all in one sitting. It’s about someone who hurts

you and then you think you’ve moved on but it’s still pretty raw.”

STONE COLD GRIP“This one was inspired by images. I was just drawing random things and I got this clear image of a hand grabbing another hand that was crum-bling away. That pretty much summed up how I was feeling about the band and how our friendship was falling apart.”

SCREAMING“This is about the massive sexualisation that pop music has gone through in recent years. As some people will know, I am strongly opposed to pop music in general, but I still feel an emotional attachment to it because I used to listen to it all the time. In the song, I’m sort of talking to pop music as if it’s a person.”

BREAKDOWN“This is about how some peo-ple put on a mask when their around others but then forget how to take the mask off. It’s quite a personal song, because I know a lot of people who can relate to this, me included.”

THE ALBUM OF THE YEAR?

The band are set to take over the world this year, but they’re gonna need a strong album backing

them. We find out how it’s all taking shape...

a concept, but only as a means of helping your creative juices flow. I know the last album was quite heavily oriented around a concept but we’re still finding our footing as artists, and I just don’t think having a concept would fit with the songs we’re writing.”Chris is quick to cut in. “That’s not to say that we’re never using a concept again. It just means there’s no concept to fit with it. Especially when we’ve already written so many songs.”

So is there any more informa-tion you can give us on the new album, guys?

“Well we’ve done most of the songs now.” Ciaran turns to the others “What else is there?”“There’s the artwork.” Luke goes on to explain. “We’re still in the early stages of figuring out how it should look, but we’ve asked this guy called Alex Pardee to do it. He’s an awesome artist and I’ve been a big fan of his work, ever since he did the cover art for In Love and Death by The Used, which is my favourite piece of art for a CD. He’s done stuff for a ton of bands like Linkin Park and In Flames as well. But as I said, we’re still throwing around ideas for the album title so until that’s done there’s no more definite informa-tion. I think it’s gonna be released sometime towards the beginning of Summer. It seems like it should be a summer record.”“But for now, we’ve got an EP coming out soon, check it out.

Voodoo for Kids’ EP, Fallen Stars is released on the 15th of March. Buy it in stores and online.

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VOODOO FOR KIDS

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THE BANDWho are they?

CIARAN DAVIS VOCALS/BASS

Favourite bands: Marylin Manson, Rob Zombie, Slipknot, and... Cyndi Lauper? “Haha yeah I like all kinds of music. If you put anything on, I’ll probably end up dancing to it.”

Favourite album: Marylin Manson - Born Villain “A lot of people don’t really like this album because they can’t handle it when an artist develops their sound a bit. I love it. I think it shows a lot of maturity as an artist.”

CHRIS PEARSON GUITAR

Favourite bands: Green Day, Foo Fighters, Muse, and Oasis “I can’t really explain my musical taste. It’s a bit all over the place. Not as much as Ciaran but what can I say? I like a lot of stuff.”

Favourite album: Muse - Black Holes and Revelations “I think Muse did a really good job on this one. The writing is outstanding and to be honest I can’t find a single thing wrong with it.”

LUKE THELIN DRUMS

Favourite bands: Biffy Clyro, Muse, Stone Sour, and Red “I like that sound where you just get blown away by the bass. And the orchestral stuff with weird time signatures.”

Favourite album: Biffy Clyro - Opposites “It’s just absolutely wonderful. I’m constantly listening to it. They’ve gone a lot more ‘produced’ on this album, but I think that really pays off.”