THROWDOWN are about to enter the studio with producer Zeuss (HATEBREED, SHADOWS FALL) to begin work on their new album, “Vendetta”, and the band, as always, are on a mission. “We want to remind the hardcore and metal world what this music is and isn’t about, because some people seem to have forgotten,” proclaims singer Dave Peters, matter-of-factly. “We wrote these songs to crush all the trendy bullshit out there, and we’re going to do just that.” “Vendetta” follows the band’s landmark album “Haymaker”, a to-the-point tour de force slab of bludgeoning self-motivational venom that redefined the beautifully uncomplicated side of the metallic-hardcore genre when it was released in 2003. The album spawned the “Headbanger’s Ball” staple “Forever”, a new anthem to rally behind for a generation hungry for their own EARTH CRISIS or BLACK FLAG. And it opened doors for THROWDOWN to show up on the Ozzfest second stage and to hit the road with LAMB OF GOD, HATEBREED, FEAR FACTORY, NORMA JEAN and more. “Haymaker” drew favorable comparisons in the press to SEPULTURA and PANTERA while rightly aligning the band with the burgeoning Orange County hardcore scene and the so-called New Wave of American Heavy Metal embodied by bands like KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and SHADOWS FALL. “We make it a point to make each record twice as brutal as the one that preceded it and we were worried that we couldn’t do that after ‘Haymaker’. But two weeks into the writing process for ‘Vendetta’, we just had to laugh,” says Peters. “These songs destroy that album.” A few of the songs THROWDOWN will carry in their new arsenal when they enter Planet Z Studios next month include “Shut You Down”, “Burn”, “I’d Give My Life”, “This Discipline”, and the undoubtedly crowd-motivating sing-along ready “And We Rise”. Guitarist Matt Mentley, bassist Dom Macaluso, drummer Ben Dussault and Peters have spent the new year fine-tuning material they wrote over the past year, some of it on the tour bus and in the van. “We’re making the heaviest record of 2005, unless MESHUGGAH goes into the studio,” Dave says, laughing. “Then we’ll be making the second heaviest record of the year.” While people will have to wait until July to get their hands on “Vendetta”, there will be no break in the chances to see the band live. THROWDOWN will headline a two-week U.S. tour in early March with support coming from THE CHARIOT and IT DIES TODAY. And following that, they’ll be all over the U.S. and Canada with their friends in AS I LAY DYING. “Everyone has that one or two special records that makes them want to punish everyone that ever wronged them. We want to make that record for today’s hardcore and metal kids,” Dave says. “An album that does what PANTERA’s ‘Vulgar Display Of Power’ and SEPULTURA’s ‘Chaos A.D.’ did for us. We won’t be satisfied until we’ve made that album.” blabbermouth.net