The Italian branch of Roadrunner Records has posted a video interview with STONE SOUR drummer Roy Mayorga (also ex-SOULFLY) conducted in June 2007 at Italy's Heineken Jammin' Festival. Watch it at this location.

STONE SOUR just came off the road in the U.S., after concluding yet another successful tour leg in support of the band's gold-certified CD "Come What(ever) May", now also available in a special edition featuring six bonus tracks, four music videos, and a complete concert filmed in Moscow.

A new single from said album, the evocative "Zzyzx Rd.", will be worked at radio this fall, after which vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist James Root will turn their attentions to recording the next SLIPKNOT album, with a release date penciled in for late 2008.

Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand has issued the following update:

It’s been a great summer so far. Europe was beyond amazing, as it always is. The US tour has not disappointed either. We’re having a blast with our friends, Sydonia and Dirty Little Rabbits. If you’re coming to the sure, be sure to get there early and check them out. You won’t be sorry.

Also, we love the feedback we’ve been getting on the Special Edition and the Itunes Moscow concert. Keep it coming!

See you on the road…

Peace,
Josh

The Pulse of Radio (formerly Launch Radio Networks) reports: STONE SOUR has released a concert "album" online at the iTunes store. The digital recording, titled "Live in Moscow", is actually the complete audio track from a DVD filmed at the band's first-ever performance in the Russian capital last fall. The DVD was included as part of the June "special edition" re-release of the band's second album, "Come What(ever) May".

STONE SOUR singer Corey Taylor told The Pulse of Radio that the band did not get to visit much of Russia while it was there, although he did manage to see some historic sites in Moscow itself. "What was really cool is the hotel that we stayed at was right across the street from the Kremlin, and Red Square, St. Peter's Basilica," he said. "I mean, it was amazing, man. And I'm not a big touristy guy, but I had to get out and I had to see it. I mean, it's one of those cities, like New York, like London, where you can feel the history in the air, and that to me is huge."

STONE SOUR is currently on its own headlining U.S. tour, which stops on Tuesday night (August 21) in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire and winds down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on September 2.

"Come What(ever) May" has sold 609,000 copies since arriving last August.

Taylor and STONE SOUR guitarist Jim Root will reunite with their other band, SLIPKNOT, in October to begin writing the group's next album.

Stone Sour's new Itunes exclusive album, Live in Moscow has been officially released! It' features the full audio from the Live DVD that was included on the Come What(ever) May Special Edition. Head on over to Itunes and check it out!

Track Listing:
1. 30/30-150 [Live]
2. Orchids [Live]
3. Take A Number [Live]
4. Reborn [Live]
5. Your God [Live]
6. Inhale [Live]
7. Come What(ever) May [Live]
8. Bother [Live]
9. Through Glass [Live]
10. Blotter [Live]
11. Hell & Consequences [Live]
12. Get Inside [Live]

Dustin Schoof of The Express-Times recently conducted an interview with STONE SOUR guitarist Josh Rand. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On touring:

"I went through all of Europe seven times, got to go to Japan twice. For the next tour, we'll probably go to South America. It's pretty amazing to have it be your job and get paid to do it. I think a lot of people in the industry take it for granted."

On the success of the band's latest effort, "Come What(ever) May":

"It's surpassed the (first album). We've grown as a band that it has made our fan base bigger is even cooler. We've worked our butts off and it's kind of like being rewarded for staying true to what we do."

On STONE SOUR's breakthrough in 2002 when frontman Corey Taylor's acoustic ballad "Bother" appeared on the "Spider-Man" soundtrack and became an overnight hit:

"The band at the time was still putting (the first album) together and Corey got approached by (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist) Tom Morello's wife, who was putting the soundtrack together. Corey's a huge Spider-Man fan, and she called him up to see if he wanted to submit a track. He only had three days to do it, so he ran and did it by himself. We loved it and carried it over for our first album."

On whether the band was worried about alienating SLIPKNOT fans when it came to crafting STONE SOUR's more melodic hard-rock sound:

"Honestly, going into it, Corey thought there was going to be super backlash listen, whether it's hard rock, country, rap — at the end of the day, everybody likes certain things. Something about certain songs pulls them in. For us, that's what it was about. For him, it was a different way of expressing himself, something he couldn't do in SLIPKNOT. The three of us (Rand, Taylor and guitarist Jim Root) were friends before we could play anything. We've always written stuff and that's how it all came together. The band became an outlet for him and became way more than anybody thought it would."

As Blabbermouth.net first reported yesterday, ANTHRAX has abandoned plans to utilize the services of SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor on its next album due to scheduling conflicts with Taylor's other projects. ANTHRAX is said to be currently looking for a new singer to join the fold, although this has not yet been officially confirmed by the band or its management.

Talking on the latter's latest U.K. tour, Corey tells Metal Hammer magazine: "All I'm going to be able to do is help ANTHRAX with the album. I'd known all along that it would come down to how much time I had. Unfortunately but fortunately I've got a new album to do with SLIPKNOT. The SLIPKNOT guys got together for a brief meeting before I left home [in Iowa], and it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of laughing and goofing on each other. We all felt really stoked about starting up again. We've already started to put together a plan for the album and tour, everything starting to come together."

The flipside is that thoughts of doing anything meaningful with ANTHRAX are now impossible.

"Various people at the record company [Roadrunner] put their foot down about that," reveals Taylor. "So the way we've left it is that I will do a couple of songs with them, and not the whole album."

That must have been incredibly frustrating?

"Of course," Corey tells Metal Hammer. "I was so stoked that the ANTHRAX guys would consider doing anything with me. So the last thing I wanted to do was let them down. I have no idea of what they'll do now [that I'm unavailable], but the fact that they would still want to do something with me is very exciting. We'll have to see what happens."

Drummer Joey Jordison has already revealed that preparation for their fifth studio album begins in October.

"That's when the writing is due to start," clarifies Corey. "Recording will hopefully be in January, that's the plan at least."

Expect to hear the album in the spring, possibly preceded by live dates. Meanwhile, has the singer been stockpiling plenty of material?

"Oh, I've got an absolute ton of stuff, man," Corey tells Metal Hammer. "I got three notebooks of ideas from the past year and a half alone. It's so great, I think we're gonna do something really different with this album. Different, but brutal."

The Pulse of Radio (formerly Launch Radio Networks) reports: KORN is just a couple of weeks into the 2007 Family Values tour and singer Jonathan Davis cannot say enough good things about the band's newest additions, touring guitarist Clint Lowery from DARK NEW DAY and drummer Joey Jordison from SLIPKNOT. Both have been on the road with the group since earlier this summer and Davis is pleased with their work.

"Clint's an amazing guitar player," he said. "I always enjoyed his guitar work in SEVENDUST and I love his other band, DARK NEW DAY, and he's doing a great job for us. And then playing with Joey has just been awesome. He brings something completely different to the band, he's an amazing drummer and it's been fun playing with him. We're gonna really hate it when he has to split and go do SLIPKNOT (laughs). But we're having fun with him right now."

Jordison is scheduled to reconvene with SLIPKNOT later this year, while Lowery and DARK NEW DAY will begin recording their second album in September.

ANTHRAX has abandoned plans to utilize the services of SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor on its next album due to scheduling conflicts with Taylor's other projects. ANTHRAX is said to be currently looking for a new singer to join the fold, although this has not yet been officially confirmed by the band or its management.

ANTHRAX split with singer Joey Belladonna in January, less than two years after reuniting with him and other members of the band's "classic" lineup of the '80s and early '90s. Vocalist John Bush had been a member of the band before that, from 1992 to 2005.

Taylor confirmed that he was working with ANTHRAX on material for their next studio album in a June 2007 interview with Germany's Rock Hard magazine. Asked if he would become the group's vocalist, Taylor said, "It's been bandied about. I'm not saying anything right now because all it's been is just talked about...It kind of started as a joke. And then the more we talked about it, the more serious it got. I'm gonna at least help them out. It's kind of a dream come true — ANTHRAX is one of my favorite bands."

Taylor said in June that he and ANTHRAX were "taking baby steps," but that he had written lyrics for eight or nine songs. He also admitted that while he was interested in singing for ANTHRAX, "I'm in two huge bands right now. So it's like I barely get enough time to sleep, let alone do another band."

Taylor is currently on the road with STONE SOUR and is scheduled to regroup with SLIPKNOT later in the year. It is also unlikely that Taylor would be able to record with ANTHRAX since he is signed to Roadrunner Records (ANTHRAX is believed to still have a European record deal with Nuclear Blast).