Words by Simon Milburn

Mr. Bungle saxophonist Bär McKinnon now calls Australia home. I bet there's a few out there that didn't know that. Also perhaps unknown is McKinnon's recently released self titled effort from his new project dubbed Umlaut. It's Bungle-esque without being Bungle and some may be excited by his collaboration with Bungle vocalist Mike Patton on one track as well. I caught up with McKinnon to chat about Umlaut, his need for creativity, working with Patton, Mr. Bungle and what lies ahead in his future.

Australian audiences will be privileged to witness one of progressive metal’s longest standing and successful bands when Queensrÿche return to our shores in August 2009. It’s only the second time in their 28 year career that they visit Australia, as part of a world tour promoting new album American Soldier. The tour, named Extended Suites: Rage For Order/American Soldier/Empire, promises exactly that: shows featuring a broad selection of tracks from these classic, and current, Queensrÿche albums.

Formed in Washington in 1982, Queensryche began their ascendancy towards critical and chart success a few years later, with 1986’s Rage for Order. They went on to sell over 20 million albums worldwide, spurred on by 1988’s ambitious project, Operation Mindcrime and 1990’s 2 million seller, The Empire, (featuring hit single Silent Lucidity). In 2004, the band released Operation: Mindcrime II, the long-awaited sequel to their 1988 conceptual smash.

American Soldier has been labeled a concept album, the result of vocalist Geoff Tate’s two year, one-on-one interviews with various military veterans. The stories that surfaced from these conversations formed the basis of this war-themed ‘project’. American Soldier was produced by Jason Slater (Operation: Mindcrime II) and was released in March 2009.

Still performing with its original line-up - guitarist Michael Wilton, vocalist Geoff Tate, bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield, with the exception of guitarist Chris DeGarmo who left the band in 1998 – Queensryche’s years of solid touring has made them a force on the live scene. And judging by the thousands of fans who witnessed their sell-out east coast shows here in 2006, one can only expect demand of a similar magnitude this time around for this musically accomplished act!

ARCH ENEMY return to Australia for a phenomenal headlining tour to demonstrate to metal heads here what they do best...delivering pure sonic force and ripping us apart with their stunning brand of metal!

These melodic extreme metal genre-leaders have become a synonym for success, hard work and pure f**king metal! The stunning chart entries of their last two albums “Doomsday Machine” (2005) and “Rise Of The Tyrant” (2007, charted in over a dozen countries!) have allowed the band to celebrate another peak of their already stellar career. Now, ARCH ENEMY proudly showcase their current strength and musical brilliance by releasing a breathtaking live document of their “Rise Of The Tyrant” touring cycle. Witness it first hand, the sheer brilliance of these melodic metal titans!

Arch Enemy guitarist/songwriter Michael Amott comments: "We're totally looking forward returning to Australia, you know we've missed the fans and the great weather! Although the tours in '06 (w/ Megadeth) and '07 (w/ Machine Head) were amazing in many ways, we haven't played a full headline tour in Australia since our first visit back in 2005. So this is long over due and we are more than ready to attack your shores once again! We can't wait to give you the full 'Arch Enemy Heavy Metal Mayhem' experience! And we already know you - the fans, will bring it...Aussie style! See you all in November!"

In direct support will be New York death metal legends SUFFOCATION. Their fusion of technicality, groove and sheer unrelenting brutality has been imitated but never quite duplicated. And now, with the release of SUFFOCATION’s Nuclear Blast debut “Blood Oath”, their legacy of unrelenting and unique heaviness continues for perhaps the genres greatest band!

WINDS OF PLAGUE prepare to unleash their wrath across the Australia with their sophomore release. The stunning slab of brutality entitled “Decimate The Weak” does exactly that with its razor sharp riffs and sheer intensity backed with a monsoon of angst and inner demons that is just waiting to be expelled on stage.

What more can be said, in this Year Of The Corpse 2009, that hasn’t already been whispered, grunted or screamed about the almighty Cannibal? They’ve smashed—nay, hammer smashed—every boundary set before them, defied every censor set upon them, and besmirched every country that would have them. After two decades of unending death metal torment, the band’s calling cards are many: the depraved lyrics, the blinding technical prowess, the dominating stage presence, the legions of dedicated fans, the million and a half albums sold. Cannibal Corpse are slashing their way back to Australia and New Zealand to skewer us as all from ear to ear in support of their new album "Evisceration Plague"!

No bells, no whistles...just straight-ahead bludgeoning metal. Playing a vintage style of thrash and groove, Five Finger Death Punch have been pummelling audiences since their inception in 2005. Garnering their name from the Kill Bill movies, Five Finger Death Punch released their debut album ‘Way Of The Fist’ in 2007 bringing to life a brawling, burly metal monstrosity that flattens the listener more like a piece of heavy industrial machinery than a fist. Listening to ‘The Way of the Fist’ ”is the musical equivalent of going 10 rounds in a heavyweight fight. The record should come with a spit bucket and a cutman to patch up the listener between songs.” – Live Metal.net

A number of bands (Shadows Fall and Trivium foremost among them) have harkened back to metal’s glory days on their latest albums trying to resurrect the sounds of Slayer, Iron Maiden and early Metallica. “None has done it as brilliantly as Five Finger Death Punch.” – Blistering Magazine

This August see why Metal Edge calls Five Finger Death Punch “the sound of violent exhilaration, giving contemporary metal a belligerent shove in an exciting direction.”