Steve Bell of Australia's Time Off magazine recently conducted
an interview with DEVILDRIVER frontman Dez Fafara. A couple
of excerpts from the chat follow:

On being renowned globally in metal circles for both their
intense live shows and their willingness to write songs
combining hooks and melodies with brute force and power:

“I'm really fortunate in this band to be fronting a fantastic and
versatile bunch of musicians, and I'm raised on music with
hook. My favorite guys in music are people like Elvis,
Johnny Cash, Danzig, Ozzy, Phil Anselmo. Those guys all had
hooks in their music, and what we strive for is groove and hook,
and we want to make sure that our sound is defining, which
means we don't follow or sound like anything else.
That's really important for us right now, especially at this
early stage of the game.

“I'm not into that, and it was one of the same reasons that I
left COAL CHAMBER, because it started following into a scene
or a category and I wasn't into it. I was, like, 'Not only are
people not getting it, but I'm out of here man!
I'm going to do something that's way against what you
think I'm going to do.'

“With any kind of credible art — painting and sculpting are
other interests of mine — I can see who's selling out to
make a dime, and you can see the underground artists who
are doing something different. With those sort of people I
find myself gazing at their stuff going, 'Wow, I've never seen
this!' I've always been intrigued by that, and I know that
COAL CHAMBER did that in the beginning, and I know that
DEVILDRIVER is

MarisTheGreat.com, the web site which publishes interviews with bands along with disturbing pictures of the musicians who, for all intents and purposes, appear dead, recently conducted an interview and a photo session with North Carolina thrashers SANCTITY. Check it out at this location.

SANCTITY's video for the song “Beloved Killer” can be viewed below. The clip was shot in Asheville, NC with director Ramon Boutviseth. The track comes off the band's Roadrunner Records debut, “Road to Bloodshed”, which hit stores on April 24.

SANCTITY formed in 2000 and is comprised of Jared MacEachern (vocals, rhythm guitar), Zeff Childress (lead guitar), Derek Anderson (bass) and Jeremy London (drums).

SANCTITY took part in last year's Gigantour alongside MEGADETH, LAMB OF GOD, ARCH ENEMY and OPETH.

A short video interview with TRIVIUM guitarist Corey Beaulieu and guitarist/vocalist Matt Heafy conducted by Australia's Beat TV can be viewed below (Note: The TRIVIUM interview begins around the seven-minute mark).

In a recent interview with Australia's The Metal Forge, Matt Heafy stated about the group current recording plans, “We're gonna start [writing the next album] real soon. We've got a shitload of songs written already, and we're gonna demo them in September and record them in January through June or July or some shit. I guess half of next year or something. We'll get it out probably third quarter, if not fourth quarter of next year.”

Video footage of members of DOWN performing the song “Bury Me in Smoke” with their girlfriends (a.k.a. “The Sisterhood”: Rachel on drums, Anna on bass and Kate on guitar) on November 19, 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona can be viewed below.

The newest social networking web site called Woozyfly.com recently conducted an interview with Jimmy Bower and Kirk Windstein of DOWN. The interview took place before the band's perfomance at The Roseland Ballroom in New York City and can be viewed at this location.

DOWN's video for the song “On March The Saints” made its “Headbanger's Ball” debut Saturday night (November 17) on MTV2. This episode also featured a piece with singer Phil Anselmo in which he compared the world of boxing to playing music.

DOWN's new album, “Over the Under”, was released on September 25 through ILG/Warner Music Group (one day earlier internationally via Roadrunner Records). The LP was issued in Europe as a limited-edition digipack CD featuring the bonus track “Invest in Fear”.

Headbanger's Blog conducted a humorous and insightful podcast interview with guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz. During their 30 minutes together, Adam talked about the laxative effects of coffee; the back problems that threaten his career on an almost daily basis; his role as KSE's Flavor Flav; flatulence on the road; his side career as a producer and how KILLSWITCH's next record might feature the fastest songs they've ever played.

Click here for an MP3 download of the KILLSWITCH ENGAGE podcast.

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE recently received its first RIAA gold certification for its sophomore Roadrunner release, “The End of Heartache”. Featuring breakthrough radio hits “Rose of Sharyn” and the Grammy-nominated “The End of Heartache”, the album was released on May 11, 2004 and experienced a steady rise to gold status. The album was hailed as “a stunning collection retaining much of their signature musical brutality but teasing with electric hooks, strategic use of silence” by Rolling Stone and organically received a mass of critical acclaim.

Source: Blabbermouth

…well naturally

In the second installment of Headbanger's Blog's week-long series with DOWN/ex-PANTERA vocalist Philip Anselmo, the pugnacious fighter steps into the ring and talks about why he's the undisputed heavyweight champion of heavy metal and how he

Metal icons MEGADETH are set to return for a second tour in support of their ‘return-to-form’ album, ‘United Abominations’, in February 2008.

The formidable Dave Mustaine and his bandmates have recently completed a sold-out Australian run with Mustaine’s ‘Gigantour’ mini touring festival (which this year featured labelmates, DevilDriver) and have just returned home to the US for the holiday season.

MEGADETH then head across the pond for their ‘United Abominations – Tour Of Duty’ which starts in Moscow, Russia in late January. The string of dates winds up in Bangalore, India in mid-March, having spun its way across the UK and mainland Europe.

Meantime, bag your tickets for the UK shows while there’s still some to be had.

Sun 17th Feb – Norwich UEA
Mon 18th Feb – Nottingham Rock City
Tue 19th Feb – Glasgow Academy
Wed 20th Feb – Newcastle Academy
Fri 22nd Feb – Birmingham Academy
Sat 23rd Feb – Manchester Academy
Sun 24th Feb – Brixton Academy

Headbangers Ball Blog put together a podcast interview with guitarist Adam D which consists of a 30 minute talk about the laxative effects of coffee; the back problems that threaten his career on an almost daily basis; his role as KSE's Flavor Flav; flatulence on the road; his side career as a producer and how Killswitch's next record might feature the fastest songs they've ever played.

A video interview with Robb Flynn has been added to the Black Crusade minisite, click here to watch it.

Machine Head are on tour in the UK with Trivium, Dragonforce, Arch Enemy and Shadows Fall.

Fri 23rd Nov – Birmingham NEC
Sat 24th Nov – London Brixton Academy
Sun 25th Nov – London Brixton Academy
Mon 26th Nov – Cardiff CIA

Nickelback won the favorite band award in the rock/pop category at the American Music Awards on Monday.

“The Ultimate Video Collection” DVD which features all of Nickelback's promo videos is scheduled for release next Monday (26/11/07)