The correct answer to yesterday's Indecipherable Logo is: c) Despondency

Just one of three Despondency's in the United States, this pummeling death metal band was formed in 1994 in Madera, California by guitarist Kelley "Beef" O'Rafferty and bassist Shawn Shannon. The current lineup also features singer Jesse Parliman and guitarist Roel Guajardo. Despondency's most recent offering, 2006's Exposing Misery's Design, includes the tracks "Worthless," "Suicidal Slut," and "1300."

Here's an indecipherable video to go along with the logo:
Kelly 1300

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Many key players in black metal history, including Emperor, Satyricon, Borknagar, Cradle of Filth and Venom have contributed to the new DVD "This is Black Metal," which comes out October 9.

The package will feature videos for: Celtic Frost's "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh," Throes of Dawn's "Vertigo," Emperor's "Inno a Satana," Astarte's "Black Mighty Gods," Satyricon's "Fuel," Borknagar's "Future Reminiscence" and Cradle of Filth's "No Time to Cry." There are also interviews with members of Celtic Frost, Venom, Emperor, Morbid Angel and Satyricon.

In addition, "This is Black Metal" contains the short film "Black Metal Parking Lot (The Movie)," which was produced by Jasmin St. Claire and Bobbi Badden. The piece follows the format of the classic 1986 movie "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," which is being released separately on DVD on October 30.

The hysterical 16-minute long cult film was shot in the Capital Centre parking lot in Landover, Maryland before a Judas Priest show and is completely composed of interviews with fans. In addition to offering a flashback to the '80s -- denim, leather, spandex, mullets and all -- the movie provides a sociologically revealing perspective on the era's metal subculture. Also, the DVD includes an extra two hours of content, including outtakes, video sequels from the 2004 Trio TV Series "Parking Lot," commentary by directors Jeff Krulik and John Heyn, and new interviews with cast members from the original movie.

Now, here's a teaser for "This is Black Metal" -- Celtic Frost's "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh":

The first time we realized that Otep is a simple anagram for "Poet" we were sort of bemused. Here was a nu-metal band with an emotionally extreme frontwoman who fancied herself a wordsmith. Then, we read some of Otep Shamaya's lyrics and we realized, "Damn, this girl really can wrangle together an evocative phrase or two." Over the years, this respect blossomed into admiration for the band and its turbulent style or art-laden rock. So, when we found out that Otep had a new record on the horizon, The_Ascension (out October 30), we took the opportunity to ask Shamaya to write a guest blog that expressed her obsession with poetry and the connection between finely honed words and bludgeoning rock. What follows is a beautifully poetic and revealing post about the power of well-crafted words.

Such sweet madness is this! The chemical wedding of poetry and song.

This is how the veil breaks. Once ink has been shed, once the quiet clicking of the keys begins, once the river of words devours my hungry head ... I can slip softly into a dissident kingdom of my own design.

Here, the night sky is peppered with eyes that blink and twinkle where the stars should be. The moon is always high and radiates a kaleidoscope dye of crimson, gold, and opal blue. It rests in the eastern sky and, with the right kind of mind, can be reached in a single leap. To keep the cerebral rivers from running dry I coil up in the limbs of an ancient tree to practice the dark arts of my private poetry. And all across the land, pagan mystery schools ritualize the path of the Sacred Hand.

In the east are the seven hills of ancient Rome, where sin is painted on our skin in Minoan glyphic poems. To the north, the enchanted forest of Far Arden is home to the Satyrs, Cyclops, and Centaurs that conspire, craft and breed. In the west, great pyramids of ivory overlook an endless emerald sea, where the Sirens and Oracles weave and sing a web of prophecies. To the south, a jagged landscape of carbon and fire holds a sanctuary for me when conflict and confrontation are all that I desire. And each night I dream in surges of divergent reality. Read more...

The great thing about truly indecipherable logos is they reveal as much about the viewer as the creator (on in German thrashspeak Kreator). Pretty much anything can be read into them if they're unreadable enough. One person's Puppy Love Project could be another's Putrified Liver Projectile. Here's an angular little logo that reminds us of the childhood game Pick up Sticks. Here are your choices:

a) Putrified Liver Projectile b) Satanicide c) Despondency d) Mayhem e) Manglemeat

We launched our Headbangers Ball Blog podcast series last week with an interview with Heaven and Hell. So, since we started with a classic, old-school band, this week we decided to tackle modern metal artist, Atreyu.

For our exclusive podcast with Atreyu singer Alex Varkatzas we hooked up with the man towards the end of the band's run on Family Values and talked about reaching outside the box, learning to sing, road fatigue, the hazards of stress, the death of metalcore and the sonic shift the band has undergone since 2006's A Death Grip on Yesterday.

Now that we've addressed both ends of the metal spectrum, we plan to cover everything in between in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned.

Now, here's Atreyu's new video for "Becoming The Bull":

The dudes in Madball were so pissed off after watching the hardcore documentary film "American Hardcore" that they decided to take matters into their own fists. Not only did guitarist Mitts write an angry guest blog about the production, he and his bandmates have decided to shoot footage with the band's the documentary overlooked, and release is as a bonus feature on their next DVD. Now, that's hardcore. Now here's Mitts explaining what got Madball all riled up:

While we were on tour this summer, we had a day off in a small town that didn't have much to offer in terms of night life. So, instead of going into town and finding trouble, we decided to hang at our hotel and watch a movie. Someone had lent us a copy of "American Hardcore," and, naturally, we were interested in checking it out.

By the end of the night the four members of Madball were very angry, to say the least. Now, if you haven't seen this movie, I will say some things later that will be of interest, simply because they apply to stuff outside what the movie covered or didn't cover. If you did see this two hour piece of garbage, here's some stuff that needs to be addressed.

First off, it would be unfair to completely write off everything that was featured in the movie. They did a great job covering the early roots of how punk transformed into hardcore around the time of the late '70s and early '80s. There's no denying the massive impact made by bands such as the Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Black Flag, etc. However, the writer and director spent way too much time mentioning bands that were simply following trends (I won't name names), and far too little time focusing on pioneering bands such as Agnostic Front (whose first release came our in 1982), Cro Mags, D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies. They also spent a great deal of the movie discussing local scenes in California, Boston, D.C., -- while almost completely neglecting New York. How can you leave out New York? Maybe I'm a little biased, having grown up in the New York hardcore scene, but at least give it equal time, no? Read more...

We just can't get enough of these video satires by Cheeky Dave and Brave Sir Garrick. Here, they take on one of the heaviest, most brutal metal songs of all time, Slayer's "Angel of Death."
Interpretation of Slayer - Angel of Death

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And now, here's the real thing -- Slayer's "Eyes of the Insane":

I first met Phil Anselmo on the Sepultura/Pantera/Biohazard tour. He came in the dressing room while I was tattooing, threw some Carnivore in the player, and kinda started a moshpit right there! At first, we were scoping each other out. Each of us know who the other was, but we had never really met.

Somehow, we started talking about Norwegian black metal forefathers, Darkthrone. Despite their enormous influence, very few people in the States know who they are and the fact that we both liked them gave us an excuse to keep talking. We wound up in his dressing room talking about music. He played me an old side project of his called Christ Inversion. It was brutal stuff, and he also played me quite a few other projects he was working on. We started talking about Halloween and horror and hit it off pretty well, which was cool.

At the end of the night, he invited me down to New Orleans to work with him on his legendary haunted house called House of Shock. I remember that first time scaring people. I was on a tour, and I got the bus driver to drop me off in New Orleans so I could hook up with Phil for Halloween. That was my first year working with him at the House of Shock, and after that, it turned into a yearly vacation. I went down every October for about five or six years straight, putting on corpse paint, wearing dark hoods and cloaks and going into the haunted house to terrorize people. There’s nothing more fun than scaring the shit out of people and trying to make them piss themselves. Read more...

We left it up to Trivium guitarist Corey Beaulieu to pick our new Bang of the Week, and we've not surprised by his choice. Actually, it's a good one. Sure, having his band tear it up on tour with Machine Head didn't discourage Corey's decision, but there are other reasons he selected their scathing track "Aesthetics of Hate." First, it's a brutal, storming song filled with great guitar work, vicious vocals and a classic metal structure. But perhaps more importantly, the song is a rant against a right wing, conservative elitist who wrote an article on the Web that slammed Dimebag Darrell and his passionate fans mere hours after the death of the guitar hero. Since then, Beaulieu has become close friends with Dime's ex-wife Rita Haney and brother Vinnie Paul, which is all the more reason for his decision. But let's hear what Corey has to say:

"Trivium are all big fans of Machine Head, and earlier this year when we toured with them, they asked us to take part in the video shoot with a bunch of fans, which was a really fun thing to do. If you pay attention, you can see drummer Travis Smith crowd surfing somewhere in the video."

Beaulieu is not the first one to praise "Aesthetics of Hate" and he won't be the last. Rock:

For their seventh full-length studio album, Swedish melodic death metal/thrash band, Arch Enemy (Century Media), have taken a cue from their past. This may have nothing to do with the return of guitarist Chris Amott, since he left after the band's last album, 2005's Doomsday Machine. However, the emotional boost his bandmates (including his brother Michael Amott) received may have contributed to the more energized and melodic vibe of the songs. Not that Rise of the Tyrant sounds like Dokken. The songs are ferocious, raw and vital and singer/growler Angela Gossow is in peak form. But what makes the disc stick like an icepick to the forehead are the epic arrangements and blazing, intertwining guitar melodies. Stay tuned to Headbangers Ball Blog for a podcast with Gossow in the the next couple weeks.

Other new releases:
The Bled - Silent Treatment (Vagrant) -- Call them screamo, metalcore or mall metal, this Tucson, Arizona band rock. Silent Treatment is heavy, angular and edgy, converting pent-up aggression into a vicarious catharsis you can sometimes even hum.

Down - Down III: Over The Under (Independent Label Group) -- We've waited six years for this one, and, while we can't say we'd happily do it all over again, the band's third album doesn't disappoint. Combining the direct, throat-clenching riffs of their 1995 debut with the leaden, meandering grooves of Down II, Down III: Over the Under is a test of survival -- a harsh, visceral journey through a bleak, devastating landscape. If only these guys put out records more often.