MusicRadar.com's Rich Chamberlain reports:

DOWN drummer Jimmy Bower is currently holed up in the studio with the heavy as hell metallers, but he found time to tell us all about what the band has in store. Head inside to see what we had to say.

"We just finished two or three weeks of writing, we've got seven songs and we're doing EPs. We've got seven and of those we'll pick about five," Jimmy told us.

He revealed that while he's been sworn to secrecy about the exact details of Down's foray into the studio, the material has enough spark to have urged him to get back into the rehearsal room.?

He said: "I've been practising a lot more lately, which I never used to do. I feel really confident about getting in the studio this time around and I'm really excited about what I'm going to play. I'm going to try and piece something together really cool."

Read more at this location.

Down have lined up the following US dates in September:

September

2 - The Rail Club - Fort Worth, TX
3 - The Rail Club #2 - Fort Worth, TX
5 - Sunshine Theatre - Albuquerque, NM
6 - The Summit Music Hall - Denver, CO
7 - The Depot - Salt Lake City, UT
9 - Regency Ballroom - San Francisco, CA
10 - City National Grove of Anaheim - Anaheim, CA
11 - Venue of Scottsdale - Scottsdale, AZ
14 - Diamond Ballroom - Oklahoma City, OK
16 - Austin's Fuel Room - Libertyville, IL
17 - Pop's - Sauget, IL
19 - Expo Five - Louisville, KY
20 - The Orbit Room - Grand Rapids, MI
21 - The Machine Shop - Flint, MI
23 - Maquerade - Atlanta, GA

Down recently confirmed the following shows for South America:

November

11 - El Teatro - Buenos Aires, Argentina
12 - Maquinaria Festival - Santiago, Chile
14 - Starts With Yo Music & Arts Festival - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Go to the band's official website here for ticket information.

Radio Metal caught up with Down's Kirk Windstein back in June at Hellfest, and he told them that the band is planning to release four different EPs.

Says Kirk:“We’re going to do four EPs, and they’ll all be different. We have many elements to our sound, so each one will have its own characteristics. Like, for example, this one we’re writing right now and are about to start recording will be really hard, with heavy Down stuff. Then we’ll have a mellow one, then a doom one - you know, slower and doomy stuff. A little bit of everything.”

As to why the band chose to release four EPs instead of a full album, Kirk explains: “The record industry sucks so bad. Nobody buys anything. We’re trying to do something different, making it cheaper to buy. People want stuff for free! So six songs, its cheaper to buy. Same thing for downloading: it will be cheaper to download. Nobody wants to go to the record store and buy stuff anymore. So we're just trying to mix it up and do something different. It will be released on physical EP and digitally as well.”

Read the full story at this location.

As previously reported, bassist Rex Brown has left Down to concentrate on his new project, KILL DEVIL HILL, also featuring drummer Vinny Appice (HEAVEN & HELL, BLACK SABBATH, DIO), guitarist Mark Zavon (RATT, W.A.S.P., 40 CYCLE HUM) and singer Dewey Bragg.

Brown tells 8CountNews.com: "Down's not officially over. I'm just officially out of the band. Things came to a head. They are better off doing what they're doing. They have Patrick Bruders (CROWBAR) playing bass. I kind of lost the passion after a while. There were other problems that we had, so it was best that we parted ways."

Check out the entire chat below:

Kill Devil Hill has scheduled the following live dates:

August

8 - Las Vegas, NV - The Crown Theater
10 - Hollywood, CA - Whisky A Go Go