DevilDriver aren't the only band to get exasperated with hotshot handicapped producer Jason Suecof in the studio. Chimaira got so frustrated with Suecof blowing off sessions and changing subjects six times a minute that they threw him into his swimming pool, wheelchair and all. But like Chimaira, who wound of creating one of the best albums of the year -- Resurrection -- with the demented Floridian, DevilDriver and Suecof were a dysfunctional marriage made in heavy metal heaven. Which doesn't mean they didn't nearly kill the man.

"We couldn't be more polar opposite, and I had to tell him to shut the f--- up so many times. I was ready to wring his throat" frontman Dez Fafara told MTVnews.com's Metal File. "We actually got into it about two or three times where he would criticize something and I would just be like, 'You suck, you've got no groove.' But the friction worked and we came out of it the best of friends. More importantly, he really captured this band, and now I feel like it would be hard to work with anyone else."

A brief listen to the new DevilDriver album, The Last Kind Words (out June 5) confirms Fafara's conviction that he and his bandmates are finally at the top of their game. Like the band's first two albums, 2003's eponymous debut and 2005's The Fury of Our Maker's Hand, the new disc combines brutal thrash and death metal with elements of nu-metal, but the songs are now more progressive, weaving in a new level of melodic variation and atmospheric flourishes.

"I think we knew we had to reach within ourselves as a team and pull something out that was really different," Fafara said. "Everyone totally put aside their egos and stepped up to the plate to do what needed to be done. In America right now, there's so much of that sing-songy metal going on, so we knew if we did something totally balls-out it was going to be well-received."

The title of the album comes from the lyrics to "Not all Who Wander are Lost," which pretty much conveys the singer's belief that people should live in the moment instead of dwelling on the misfortunes of the past. "The 'last kind words' could be 'f--- you' before complete annihilation," he explained. "For me, this album is about being motivated to stand up to the punishment of being a human and to have the character in you to go on when all people want to do is hold you down."

For the complete interview with DevilDriver and the rest of this week's metal news, check out MTV.com's Metal File.

And now, check out DevilDriver's video for "End of the Line":

How many thrash fans know that before Overkill became a contending New York thrash band, the members donned face paint and goth eyeliner and lead singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth wore a vampire cape onstage? Or that the group's early dungeon stage set was composed largely of supermarket milk crates? And while everyone knows Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett was originally in Exodus, not as many headbangers are aware that Anthrax ex-guitarist Dan Spitz started out in Overkill.

These are just a few of the factoids revealed in the hour-long film "Born in the Basement," which came out May 12. The movie tells the story of Overkill founder Rat Skates, who started as drummer in the punk band Lubric---s and gradually transformed the project into Overkill, one of the hardest working thrash bands of the early '80s.

"Born in the Basement" isn't really a documentary about Overkill. It's a story about ambition, perseverance and creativity -- a tale about fighting the odds and flipping the bird to the forces of adversity in order to pursue a dream. And it's a reality check for anyone who thought being in a signed rock band was an invitation to lifelong rock stardom.

The film was written and narrated by Skates, and in the process of telling his personal story, he reveals how thrash metal emerged from the resentment of suburbia, the attitude of punk and a love for the new wave of British heavy metal. But the coolest parts of the film illustrate how Skates publicized the band through DIY marketing: silk screening all the band's t-shirts by hand, stamping its logo on guitar picks, drumsticks and tollbooths and photocopying everything from flyers to cassette inserts to make Overkill seem as professional and put together as possible even though the band nearly always broke.

Interestingly, the story ends with Skates deciding to leave the group he loved in 1987 because, even though Overkill were touring the world and had been signed to a major label, the members were being given a mere $15 per diem to eat and receiving no royalties or merch income.

Rather than relate the story with resentment or hostility, Skates simply tells it like it was, revealing all of the highs and lows of life in an active thrash band. And he does so with a sense of humor and a great fondness for the past.

In addition to the insightful commentary, "Born in the Basement" features previously unseen footage of the Lubric---s and early Overkill as well as music and photos from Skates' archives.

A preview for the film can be found here.

Now check out the band's only video with Skates on drums, "In Union We Stand":

Nice mirror image thing and all, but c-mon guys! Most Norwegians can piss stuff in the snow that's more legible than that. It would probably be easier to read Chinese subtitles on a static-filled TV screen. With the two little mouth or lightning bolt things at the top, it reminds us of what the dragons used to look like on our 1978 Atari 2600 videogame "Adventure."

Well, for what it's worth, here are your choices:

a) Beelzebub b) Gargamel c) Enthral d) Amnesiac e) Testament

Noisy Christians Norma Jean's scorching video for "Songs Sound Much Sadder" will receive its MTV2 debut this week on Headbangers Ball. The track is from the band's latest album Redeemer, which came out last September.

The surreal video was directed by PopCore Films and features the band members dressed as doctors in surgical masks observing test subjects on exercise bicycles. As the patients perspire, their sweat is accumulated and injected into a vat, but something goes wrong when a rosebush bursts out of the ground, the musicians wind up on the bikes and the patients flee.

Where did they go? Maybe to Australia, where Norma Jean are currently in the middle of a tour with Every Time I die. On July 18 the band will join the Warped Tour in Atlanta. They will stay on the bill for five shows, through July 27 in Orlando, Florida.

Now, here's the equally bizarre "Blueprints for Future Homes," which was also directed by PopCore:

In October 2001, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares and singer Burton C. Bell got into a fistfight on the band's bus that spelled the beginning of the end. About a year later, Bell walked into a rehearsal and told his bandmates he was quitting. Unable to continue without their vocalist, Fear Factory broke up -- for a while. Then in 2003 they reformed without Cazares, insisting that Dino had been the primary source of their previous discord. Since then the band have recorded two albums, 2004's Archetype and 2005's Transgression.

Over the past five years, Cazares has appeared as a producer on the Roadrunner United compilation album and as a producer for the soundtrack of the TV show "Shield." But he's been largely under the radar as a player -- until now.

In August Cazares will release Bleed the Fifth, the debut album from his new band, Divine Heresy. A few days ago, he streamed snippets of two songs from the album, "Bleed the Fifth" and "Failed Creation." The former is a ferocious blend of death metal beats and jagged thrash riffs and the latter is more in-your-face, with storming blast beats, start-stop rhythms and semi-melodic vocals.

Cazares plays bass and guitar in Divine Heresy and is joined by drummer Tim Yeung (Hate Eternal, Vital Remains) and singer Tommy Vext.

"It took me four years to find the right musicians to make this happen and I'm very excited to finally unleash this to the world," Cazares said in a statement. "Many people will be wondering what it sounds like, but it is hard for me to describe it. All I can say is when you hear the legendary machine gun riffs mixed with Tim Yeung's lighting speed double bass drums combined with Tommy's brutal and powerful vocals, just be prepared to face annihilation. I promise you will not be disappointed."

Bleed the Fifth was co-produced and co-mixed by Dirty Icon (Logan Mader and Lucas Banker) and Divine Heresy.

Sadly, one of the most talented and interesting extreme metal bands, Strapping Young Lad, are no more.

In various recent interviews, frontman Devin Townsend has said that he's breaking up Strapping to produce other bands and spend more time with his family. He told one journalist, "I told [the record label] I'd do five records — I did five records. At the end of it they offered us this big deal, we'll re-sign you, we've got all these big bands that'll take you out on the road now. I just said 'I'm done, I told you, I'm done.' There's a good chance that if it hadn't gone to the level that it has then we might be doing it still."

Townsend recently completed his new solo album Ziltoid the Omniscient, on which he performed all the instruments.

For those of us who insist on dwelling in the past, here's a professionally recorded 45-minute long Strapping Young Lad concert video from the 2006 Download Festival. The set features the tracks "Imperial," "Velvet Kevorkian," "All Hail the New Flesh," "Wrong Side," "Aftermath," "Love?" "Sleep on it," "Polyphony/The New Black" and "In The Rainy Season."

Strapping Young Lad's swan song, The New Black, came out last July.

The latest video from Lacuna Coil, "Within Me," wasn't exactly a cakewalk. The clip, which debuts on Headbangers Ball this week, was directed by Kal Karmen on March 2 and 3, and required the band to appear in multiple locations: the Borgo Medievale park and castle in Turin, Italy and the parched desert of Sardinia. On top of that, as soon as she was finished filming her parts, frontwoman Cristina Scabbia flew off to the U.S. to guest in Megadeth's "A Tour Le Monde (Set Me Free)" video.

Being the center of attention -- and running from place to place to do so -- is nothing new for Scabbia. This month she's on the cover of Revolver Magazine's "Hottest Chicks in Metal" issue along with Bleeding Through keyboardist Marta and Lacuna Coil are currently in the middle of the Hottest Chicks in Metal tour, which also features Within Temptation, The Gathering, In This Moment, Stolen Babies and Kylesa, all of whom feature hot chicks. Dates run through June 7 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Scabbia recently told ChartAttack.com that she views the tour as an opportunity to prove that rock chicks are more than just pretty faces. "It's a common belief that if you have a woman in the band, or if you are a woman, you want to try to sell your image. As soon as I heard about all the bands taking part in this tour — they are all really talented and all the girls can really sing — I thought of it as a way to kill this kind of preconception with a funny name for the tour."

Perception killed. Now here's Lacuna Coil's video for "Closer":

This week, Headbangers Ball will debut the new Dark Tranquillity video for the song "Focus Shift."

The clip was directed by Roger Johansson, who also worked on the band's 2005 vids for "Lost to Apathy" and "The New Build."

The track "Focus Shift" appears on the new Dark Tranquillity album, Fiction, which has been showered with praise since its release on April 24.

"In all fairness, we're used to our albums receiving rave reviews from fans and critics alike, but the reactions to our new little baby have exceeded everything we've experienced before," wrote the band in an update. "A lot of people even have dubbed it our best album (at last we could dethrone the 12-year-old The Gallery from that spot)."

The band also filled fans in on their recent touring. "We'll have our busiest summer ever, playing the three most prolific Swedish festivals Hultsfred, Arvika and Sweden Rock) as well as heading out all over Europe. Touring plans for the autumn are starting to take shape, and as soon as we know anything definite, we'll let you in on the information."

Now we'll let you in on the video for "Lost to Apathy":

The basic message of Ozzy Osbourne's ninth studio album, Black Rain (Epic), is illustrated by the song "I Don't Wanna Stop": ("All my life I've been over the top/ I don't know what I'm doing/ All I know is I don't wanna stop.") For those who didn't get grasp the tricky concept, Ozzy reiterates on "Not Going Away." The veteran rocker's declarations not to disappear are accompanied by a renewed energy and hunger that make Ozzy's first album in six years a welcome return. Black Rain is filled with triumphant fist-raising songs colored by guitarist Zakk Wylde's crunchy riffs and sqealing pinch harmonics. And the aggression of the disc is enhanced by songs about war ("Countdown's Begun") and consumerism ("The Almighty Dollar"), making it seem more timely than some of Ozzy's past solo albums. But the bottom line is this: No matter how much mainstream exposure he receives on television and in the tabloids, Black Rain is proof that, for Ozzy, the music still matters most.

Carnal Forge -- Testify For My Victims (Candlelight) It may mark the debut of new vocalist Jens C. Mortensen, but Testify For My Victims isn't a radical departure for Sweden's Carnal Forge. The band's sound is still anchored in melodic death metal and thrash rhythms and fleshed out by hardcore-style vocals. Sure, there's some melodic singing here and there, but for the most part, the Forge's mission is to keep in brutal.

The Dead See -- Through The Veil (Pluto) -- From the blackened heart of Lubbock, Texas comes The Dead See with a barrage of textural down-tuned stoner sludge that sounds like an agonized hybrid of Eyehategod and Neurosis. The band's debut, Through the Veil, is probably also inspired by recreational pharmaceuticals and horror films, and the combination yields songs that are dark, ominous and entrancing. Come See.

Despised Icon - The Ills Of Modern Man (Century Media) -- The third album by Montreal technical grind band Despised Icon is as musically accomplished as it is heavy. The band's abrupt tempo shifts are impressive and unsettling and the many melodic guitar runs between bludgeoning rhythms are jarring enough to sustain listener's interest far beyond the next bout of sadistic hammering.

Death Before Dishonor - Count Me In (Bridge Nine) -- Boston-based hardcore metal band, Death Before Dishonor don't believe in subtlety. Like their idols Hatebreed, the group tempers scalp-ripping riffs with aggressive mosh passages that'll leave many a pit slippery with blood.

After four consecutive nights of 10-plus hours of sleep, I have finally shaken off the remnants of the insanity that was the Shadows Fall 2007 Jagermeister Music Tour. I am just glad I survived with just a sore neck and bruised liver, avoiding any long term damage. It was great to finally get back on the road and get swept up in the maelstrom of life on tour. While we were writing out new album, Threads of Life, we were home for a lot longer then we had been used to. It was definitely the longest break from touring that we have ever had as a band. This allowed an extreme amount of latent energy to build up and goddamn, if people on this tour weren't partying like they had something to prove!! Now it is time to relax at home for a few weeks and gear up for the next rock n roll rollercoaster.

All this free time allows me to contemplate random thoughts. Lately, I have been experiencing a bizarre and sometime eerie phenomenon. I have developed a symbiotic relationship with my iPod. Let me explain.

It seems that whenever I hit shuffle it sifts through the countless hours of music and selects a song that fits the mood and vibe of whatever is happening at that exact moment in time. For example, when I was out on my mountain bike the tunes that came up on shuffle seemed to mirror the ebb and flow of the ride. When I started out, it chose some nice cruising music -- a little live Pink Floyd. As I started into the woods it kicked it up a notch with some Bon Scott-era AC/DC. And when I reached a huge incline and had to take it into high gear, I was urged on by some Minor Threat. Rounding the final corner, I was greeted by a serene lakeside view that was accompanied by some smooth Miles Davis. It was uncanny. And it seems like this kind of thing happens every time I hit shuffle regardless of what I am doing.

At first I figured it was just a cool coincidence, but then it started occurring way too often. Was it possible that my iPod was actually tapped into my everyday experience? Are there Apple-run satellites watching our every move then interfacing with our iPods? I fear it goes even deeper than that. Maybe every time we put our headphones on, the iPod picks up on our brainwaves and sorts out the information to evaluate our emotions and environments and choose an appropriate soundtrack. It receives impulses from our eyes, heart rate and body temperature -- everything you can imagine to create a complete picture of our activities and mindframe. Then it sends this information to an Apple-run database every time we update or charge our iPod.

While having a constantly evolving soundtrack is pretty friggin' cool, it raises concerns about what all could mean. Where will this invasion end? By the time the iPhone is released, they will have developed technology to implant digital seeds in our brains to make us carriers for their evil I-spawn that will burst forth from our skulls like those creatures in the film "Aliens." Now there's something to think about.

OK, enough random paranoid thoughts about iPods' impending takeover of humanity. Right now, we are gearing up for the Download festival in the UK, and I cannot wait to get back to Castle Donnington. It is an absolute honor to play such hallowed ground. I remember staying up to watch "Headbangers Ball," enduring the torture of Trixter videos and Adam Curry's hair, waiting for my chance to enter the "Win a Trip to Donnington With Iron Maiden" contest. I must have called that non-toll-free number a thousand times before realizing that I had to be 18 or older and could not have gone even if I won. Never did I think that years later I will be sharing that stage with metal legends.

After Download we will take a few weeks off to prepare for this summer's Sounds Of The Underground tour. Sounds is going to be a heavy metal BBQ keg party disaster, and we can't wait. We plan on taking the disco that was spawned in the front lounge of our bus and moving it outside in a dual tent setup. Lights, fog machine and a playlist ranging from W.A.S.P. to KC and the Sunshine Band. This is no longer a show, it is a traveling party hell -bent on destruction. Like the Boy Scouts say: Be prepared.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back soon with more random, babbling inane thoughts and maybe an update or two about what is happening with Shadows Fall. Til then I will be watching the Red Sox and preparing for the iPod invasion.

You have been warned.