Often, we'll track down a crazy looking logo without any knowledge of the band using it. But we're pretty stoked about this week's Indecipherable Logo band.

Okay, their logo isn't the coolest looking thing we've ever seen, and we can't find an inverted cross or pentagram anywhere. The whole thing is too curvy and the mirror lettering effect isn't terribly effective.

But listening to their tunes gives us a new appreciation of them and makes us understand that their logo sucks because they've been spending most of their time crafting nefarious black metal and less on cobbling together their art work.

 The band's name and some of their choice tunes coming tomorrow. For now, leave your guess in the comment box below.

Since we finally got the chance to see the gripping "Saw IV" --which was less grisly, but just as good as its predecessor  -- we figured it was about time to revisit the other installments of this groundbreaking horror series. And, so did Lionsgate, which has reissued unedited director's cuts of all three flicks with tons of bonus features in the six-DVD box "Saw Trilogy" (Lionsgate).

Here's a quick recap in case you've been living in a Third World country for the past four years: "Saw" (2004) introduces the sinister yet moralistic serial killer Jigsaw, and begins with two characters chained to a metal pipe, who wake up in a bathroom next to a dead body. They soon discover they are part of Jigsaw's "game," in which sinners can absolve their sins and learn the value of life by being tested by torments that almost always kill them.

"Saw II" (2005) In the somewhat disappointing, but still sickly enjoyable sequel, Jigsaw traps a batch of folks, one of whom is a detective's son, in a shelter and subjects them to lethal doses of nerve gas. Through a recorded message, he explains to them that in order to survive, they will have to find the antidote within two hours. Of course, the place is rigged with traps and death is everywhere. "Saw 3" (2006) is the nastiest of the batch. Here, Jigsaw is in the last stages of a battle with cancer, so his apprentice, Amanda, kidnaps a female doctor to keep the demented arbiter of justice alive long enough to finish his latest game. This contest involves an angry father who lost his son to a drunk driver and the procession of Jigsaw's victims he must encounter the get to the man who was behind the wheel. "Saw Trilogy" includes lots of behind-the-scenes footage, various documentaries and, of course,  games. Let the games begin. Read more...

Here are clips of Cephalic Carnage performing "Divination & Violation" and "Counting the Days" from this year's Summer Slaughter tour.

Additional performances from Necrophagist, Decapitated, Cattle Decapitation, The Faceless, Beneath the Massacre and As Blood Runs Black can be viewed on the Metal Injection Summer Slaughter page.

For the rest of the week, we're going to be posting some of our top videos of the year. To check out the full list of clips and choose for your favorite, check out MTV2's Headbangers Ball video voting site.

Below, is the video for Mastodon's "Sleeping Giant," which is one of weirdest things we've seen in a while. This sliver of science fiction looks like something from "Mystery Science Theater," but with a much better soundtrack that doesn't have any theramin. The guys from Mastodon aren't featured at all in the apocalyptic video, but there are plenty of miniature dinosaurs, monsters and aliens that are just as scary looking.

"Sleeping Giant" was directed by Roboshobo. "The concept for the video was kind of my take on the mythology that seems to be encapsulated in the album," the director told Headbangers Ball Blog. "When I mentioned to [drummer] Brann [Dailor] and everyone the idea of giving it a period feel like [Michael Anderson’s ‘Logan’s Run’ or [Alejandro Jodorowsky’s] 'The Holy Mountain,' they lit up at the idea of a Jodorowsky vibe. I think its a nice blend of science fiction and surrealism."

So much for analysis. Now, here's the rock:

In our last Who Rocks Harder, Gwar wiped the floor with Lordi. It wasn't even a contest, so this week we've got a match-up that should prove more competitive.

A couple of years ago, one of the stupidest, most nondescript genre labels ever began to circulate -- "the new wave of American heavy metal." The so-called scene was named after the '80s movement "the new wave of British heavy metal," yet the two had absolutely nothing to do with one another. The bands that fell under the umbrella term were similarly unrelated, ranging from traditional metal bashers to metalcore growlers.

The two biggest acts that were ridiculously categorized as NWAHM happen to be launching a tour together in just a few days. While both Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage both march to the beat of their own drummers -- Chris Adler and Justin Foley respectively -- each clearly rocks. The question we post to you is who rocks harder? Leave your comments below.

Here's a guest blog from The Autumn Offering frontman Matt McChesney about keeping it clean while on tour. And you thought touring in a rock band was all glitz and glamor. Help keep McChesney stocked with toothpaste and shampoo by picking up the band's new album Fear Will Cast No Shadow, which came out October 30.

One particularly disgusting little necessity of the road is truck stop showering. Now, some bands opt to go days, even weeks without showering (our bassist Sean went a month!). But I cannot. Being a vocalist, cleanliness is as necessary as sleep. If you’re filled with germs you get sick. When you get sick you sound like s--t. F--k that. I aim to kill every night. Currently, I am writing to you from a hotel, which simplifies the need for both sleep and a shower. It's not always that easy.

When the drives are long, your options are much more limited. For example, I felt wretched the day after the first show on our current tour. We drank the bar dry and ended up at some random girl’s apartment. We had to leave early, so a truck stop was key. We spotted some dirty little dive between Chicago and Wisconsin. I walked into the place looking like Nikki Sixx on the ‘87 World Tour --. hair all jacked up, some girl’s makeup on me, and reeking like piss and vomit. I calmly approached the attendant (who bore a striking resemblance to Redd Fox) and asked for a shower. He looked at me like I just took a s--t in his favorite hat. So I figured I was in for a real treat. I gave the guy the ten bucks and he handed me a towel. The towel looked as if Rosanne Barr had the s--ts and was fresh outta toilet paper. I said to myself, "F--- it, I'm going in."

This particular stall had all my favorites: cartoon porn on the wall, a machine that dispensed condoms and a giant turd in the toilet. Sweet. The ants and cockroaches seemed to say to me, "You are one disgusting motherf---er". Whatever. I left clean and refreshed, off to fight another day. God, I love touring.

Laura, the lead singer for Light This City, may been inspired to join a band after seeing Arch Enemy's Angela Gossow onstage, but for her Bang of the Week, the energetic growler chose progressive metal band, 3, and their video "All That Remains."

"It fits the music perfectly," she enthuses. "It is at once darkly beautiful and strange, rich and original, and incorporates their haunting album artwork and castle ruins. Not only do they f---ing shred, but also we’ve hung out with them a few times and they are some of the nicest guys in the world. They’re pretty intimidating in their musicianship and creativity, but definitely down to earth and so cool overall.

"3 is one of the most important bands out there right now, and even though their newest album, The End Is Begun, keeps giving and giving, I am really curious and excited to see what they will come up with in the future."

Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan was hoping bassist Jared Anderson, who had played with Rutan in Morbid Angel and on the first two Hate Eternal records, would rejoin the band for its upcoming disc. But on October 14, Anderson died in his sleep of undetermined causes. Unable to find a suitable replacement, longtime friend and Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster stepped in to record. But while the musical gap was filled, Anderson's death left a scar in his heart.

"Jared was one of my best friends, and his passing away really affected me and influenced this record a lot," Rutan told MTVnews.com's Metal File. "It's a very dark and heavy record — not just heavy as in 'heavy metal,' but heavy-hearted as well."

Partially in reaction to Anderson's death, Rutan decided to throw caution to the wind and write in an almost stream-of-consciousness style, without concern for rules or traditions.

"I just did whatever I wanted and didn't pay attention to whether one riff is faster than another or whether one section is better than the next," Rutan said. "It's the first album [on which] I wasn't concerned about outside influences or sources. It was more just coming from the soul and it created a lot of diversity in terms of dynamics."

But while certain elements of songs like "Hell and Venom" and "Parabellum" will explore new sonic themes, the trademark anger and intensity will be as present as ever. "Hate Eternal has always been based around rage and fury," he said. "For me, this band is all about expressing negative emotions and turning them into something positive. That will never change."

When we asked Himsa singer, John Pettibone, to think about a subject or genre that influenced his development and helped shape him into a ferocious frontman, he answered unequivocally and without a pause, "Horror movies." The following is an annotated list of the ten tales of terror he found most inspiring. A little late for Halloween, we know, but, fortunately, horror is a state of dread that's with us 365 days a year. Here's to your nightmares, and ours:

Here are the ten horror movies I enjoyed the most growing up, and the role they played in my twisted mental cave of existence and pleasure.

10. George A. Romero's "Dead" Series: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978) Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005).
"We're coming to get you, Barbara"
'Nuff said!

9. The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
"Don't bury me, I'm not dead."
Yes, Wes Craven. Yes, Bill Pullman. And yes, drugs to induce zombification. This is also my favorite movie poster and a great soundtrack. Haitian voodoo at its finest. I wrote a song about this movie when I was in Undertow, my first band.

8. The Last House on the Left (1972)
"To avoid fainting, keep repeating, 'It's only a movie...It's only a movie...'"
Another Wes Craven delight. This was the first time I witnessed shocking torture on screen. Two girls go to the city to see a band called "Bloodlust" -- totally rad! They break down, start to hitchhike, get kidnapped by a gang of psychos and then things get really raw, really fast. I
never hitched a ride in my life cause of this movie and the neighborhood I lived in looked just like this set. Oh, and BLOODLUST! Read more...

The correct answer the Indecipherable Logo of the Week is: B) Xulub Mitnal. Even though they're from Yucatan, Mexico and have released but one demo, 2007's El Origen de Nuestro Odio, one of our the Headbangers Ball Blog faithful, who simply goes by the name Harris, was able to decipher the tangle of letters and symbols. Not only that, he actually knows who they are.

Basically, the band was formed in early 2007 by three members of the Mexican group Bloodlust. Nearly all of the musicians have the first name Xulub, which is kind of a flip on what the Ramones did. Or maybe "Xulub" is like "Michael" or "Emily" in the Yucatan. Anyway, the group consists of singer Xulub Ka'anbes, guitarist Xulub Paax, bassist Sabhoath and drummer Xulub Ta'ankelem and they write songs with titles like "Ba'ate il," "Esperitu Podrino," "Nekrowarlust" and "Guerrero De La Muerte." From what we've heard on their MySpace, they sound kind of like Bathory or early Mayhem, but maybe that's just cuz the production of the demo is so low-fi it sounds like it was recorded on a boombox. Read more...