Roadrunner United was a project headed up by Roadrunner Records in 2005 to celebrate the label's 25th anniversary. The project released an album called The All-Star Sessions and featured 18 tracks overseen by four "team captains" – Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, Trivium frontman Matt Heafy, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares, and Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn – with performances from musicians like Glen Benton of Deicide, King Diamond, Dani Filth of Cradle Of Filth, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, and Peter Steele of Type O Negative among a ton of others.
Now both the All-Star Sessions album and the ensuing concert performance held at the Nokia Theatre in New York, NY on December 15, 2005 will be re-released on March 10, 2023. Pre-orders are available here and you can check out the newly-remastered HD video version of "The End" below.
"The Roadrunner United album was something I still have a hard time believing that it happened," said Heafy. "A 19-year-old me being enlisted to be able to write anything I wanted… while picking a dream lineup of my favorite musicians every single every song? I am still honored and grateful to have been allowed this amazing experience. All I can say is… I want to do Part II."
"I had a couple of riffs left over from [2004 Machine Head album] Through the Ashes of Empires that I hadn't ended up using, so brought them into play first-off for Roadrunner United," added Flynn. "The song that really kicked it off for me was 'The Dagger.' I was like, 'Man, this is a f–king banger. I don't know if I even want to give this away!' I actually told the label, 'If you can lock in Howard [Jones] from Killswitch Engage to do the vocals, you can have it. Otherwise, I'm keeping it for Machine Head!'
"We had so much fun when Howard flew in to record that song at my studio. He only had about three sentences of lyrics prepared, so we spent hours talking over what the song could be about, and then he freestyled a bunch. I remember him getting up, walking into the vocal booth, and just belting out this f–king insane scream, this screech! It became the sound that opens the whole record."
