Since he was young, Phil Anselmo has been obsessed with boxing. A microcosm of the battles between mankind over the ages, a reflection of the principles of social Darwinism and a display of agility, stamina and strength, boxing is considered by some -- including Anselmo -- to be the ultimate sport.

As a warrior, a motivator and a victor, Anlselmo can relate to many of the boxing greats. With Pantera, Superjoint Ritual and Down, he has dealt with an abundance of adversity, surprises and ultimately, triumphs. These, he compares to the challenges a boxer faces in the ring. Here, Anselmo discusses the similarities he sees between rocking with Down and swinging like current WBA Heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev.

Look for this and more clips from Anselmo on this week's Headbangers Ball on MTV2.

On Thursday, Massachusetts thrash masters, Shadows Fall, will unveil their new video for "Another Hero Lost" right here on the Headbangers Ball Blog. On Saturday, the clip will hit the big screen on Headbangers Ball on MTV2.

"Everyone in Shadows Fall is extremely proud of our new video for the song, "Another Hero Lost," Fair said in a statement to Headbangers Ball Blog. "This is the most personal song we have ever written and I wanted the video to be a reflection of that. The video
combines some intimate performance footage of the band contrasted by stark black and white images of everyday people paying tribute to loved ones who left this world before their time."

In an interview with Revolver, Fair said the song was inspired by the death of his cousin, a soldier who was killed in Iraq.

“He was a 25 year old marine who left behind a two year old kid,” Fair said. “The reason he went into the service was our other cousin, his close friend, was killed in the Twin Towers, which inspired him to go in, and now these two families are dealing with another loss. But he really believed in fighting for his country. And I support everyone who’s over there so much because the situation they’re in, whether I politically agree with it or not, it’s their reality, and these are the people who are on the wall for you.”

Fair’s cousin wasn’t killed in combat, he lost his life in a humanitarian effort, which, in some ways, was even more painful for the singer. “He didn’t even think what he was doing was life threatening,” Fair said. “There was a tremendous flash flood and the Marines were trying to evacuate civilians. Then all hell broke loose. So, at least it wasn’t some bizarre friendly fire. It was a crazy accident. But any loss is just as sad. At least it wasn’t something that could have been avoided.”

Look for the full video for "Another Hero Lost" on Thursday. For now, here's Shadows Fall's video for "Redemption":

I'm in a state of complacency with music as of right now. I started playing because of my love for music. I wanted to make people feel the same way I felt when I listened to Jimmy Eat World's Clarity. I wanted to make someone bang their head as hard as they can when nobody is around the way I did to At The Drive In or The Refused. I started playing music because of the art of it. I was 17 when I went on my first tour. I didn't need any money, monitors, crew or anything. All I needed was a basement or club floor and a few dozen kids to stand in front of.

Fast forward seven years and so much has changed. Underoath have contracts, tour buses, agents and crews. I'm 24 and about to be married. I will have a wife and bills. I can't afford to tour and come home with nothing. I can't afford to jump off a speaker and break an arm. There's so much responsibility and business involved now, it's insane. I feel like my artistic and social vision for our band takes so many shapes now that it's hard for me to grasp what is real and what isn't. Our band employs more people now than ever even came to see us five years ago. This is mind blowing to me. I personally feel that musically I approach things almost identically as I used to, but now there's so much more that goes into the business to the point where the original vision and intent with which the music originally was created is blurred by the time it reaches the people. Read more...

Metal titans, Lamb of God, are in the final stretch of the tour to support 2006's critically acclaimed Sacrement. The last leg will be a North American co-headlining tour with Killswitch Engage that launches November 28 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Dates run through December 17 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Then, Lamb of God will retire to the farm to start working on their next album.

The tour with Killswitch (which also features DevilDriver and Soilwork) is kind of a reunion of the 2003 Headbangers Ball Tour, which also featurd Shadows Fall. On Friday, look for a Headbangers Ball Blog podast interview with Killswitch guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, in which he discusses the tour, his trick back, his hopes for the next KSE record and more.

"[The tour with Killswitch] is the exclamation [point] to the album cycle," Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler tells MTVnews.com's "Metal File." "We're going to go away and hibernate for a while after this tour, so we wanted to make it something special — and get back with our friends in Killswitch, especially. On this tour, we want to dig a bit deeper on all of our records, so we're not bored with it. It's important for us to step it up a notch and give people a reason to come out and see us." Read more...

Maybe it’s cuz we just saw the Cult or maybe it’s just cuz we’re sorta thick when it comes to these things. But we were left scratching out head for a minute to figure out what Ministry were getting at by naming their farewell concert run the C U LaTour. Then it hit us. SeeYouLaterTour. Yeah, like we said. We’re kinda thick like that. But we had no trouble grasping the significance of the event itself.

When frontman Al Jourgensen says this will be his last world tour with Ministry, you can bet he won’t be back in five years with some lame-ass reunion. This is it, the end of the line, the last hurrah for the most important band in the history of industrial metal – one without whom Nine Inch Nails, Static-X and even Linkin Park might sound entirely different.

In an exclusive interview with the Headbangers Ball Blog, Jourgensen revealed the details of Ministry’s final North American run, which will launch March 28 in Vancouver and continue through May 8 in Ministry’s birthplace, Chicago. Meshuggah and Hemlock will open all dates.

For the C U LaTouR, Jourgensen will be joined by singer Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory, Ascension of the Watchers), guitarists Tommy Victor (Prong) and Sin Quirin (Revolting Cocks), keyboardist John Bechdel (Prong, Ascension of the Watchers, False Icons) and bassist Tony Campos (Static-X). Campos will be taking the place of recently departed Ministry and Killing Joke Paul Raven, who died of a heart attack on October 20 in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Tony’s replacing Raven because we’ve gone through hell over the last weeks and I know Tony and Raven got along great and Raven would have loved it,” Jourgensen told Headbangersblog.com. “We just got done working with [Static-X frontman] Wayne [Static] and Tony on some cover songs, and Tony fits right in, so this is a great way to end it. And it just happened to work out great with Static-X’s schedule. So that rules.” Read more...

Some of you guessed this one, so maybe next time we'll have to dig up something a little more challenging. And for the dude who guessed "Kachanp," you're so close -- and yet further away than the sun. The band's name is Kachana and it plays a style of thunderous power metal that should appeal to fans of Hammerfall, Blind Guardian and even Manowar. Now here's a little history:

Heavy metal may largely be considered music of the working class, but some of its practitioners are learned scholars. We're not sure if the members of this British group are masters of quantum physics or anything, but they formed in 1998 while attending Bristol University, so they've gotta be smarter than, say, Sebastian Bach.

Kachana started out playing death/thrash metal, but after three demos and the 2003 album Killing Inside, founding frontman, Sacha Darwin, left to focus on his other group, Irony of Chrst. Enter singer Tom Morton, whose whose clean, classic vocals give the group new depth, allowing it to stray away from its roots and  focus on a more melodic and majestic style of metal.

Kachana -- Morton, guitarists Alex Sarantis and Dan Beufort, bassist Mark Shield and drummer Tom Huskinson -- debuted their new sound on the self-released album The Plains of Illyricum, which was mixed by Martin Bell at Audiogog Studios in Romford, Essex, England in 2006. The band is currently shopping around for record deal. Hear that, Nuclear Blast?

And since we've got power metal on our minds, check out the hyperkinetic Dragonforce with "Through the Fire and Flames":

Army of Anyone drummer Ray Luzier (ex-David Lee Roth) will join Korn for their next tour, which launches in January.

Recently, Luzier has played as a session drummer for various acts including singer and guitarist Richard Patrick (Filter, Army of Anyone), bassist extraordinaire Billy Sheehan and King's X singer and bassist Doug Pinnick.

He has also performed, toured or recorded with Slash, Seal, Tracy G, Edgar Winter, Wicked Alliance and The Boston Pops Orchestra.

A native of West Newton, Pennsylvania, Luzier graduated from Musician's Institute's Percussion Institute of Technology in 1989, and later returned as an instructor at the school, where he taught rock drumming classes and private lessons on and off from 1992 to 2001. In 2004, he released a well-received instructional DVD.

You've read the short Q&A we posted a couple days ago, now check out the full 30 minute podcast interview with Slash.

During the podcast, the former Guns N' Roses guitarist talks about why he decided to write his autobiography, when he found the time to do it, the creative process he underwent with co-author Anthony Bozza, the tales of drug excess and self immolation and what he's planning for his upcoming solo album.

Click here for a direct MP3 download of the Slash podcast
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In memory of the late Decapitated drummer Witold "Vitek" Kieltyka, who died early this month in an auto accident while on tour in Russia, Headbangers Ball will play Decapitated's "Spheres of Madness" this weekend.

Countless tributes have poured out since the gifted drummer's death. The official Decapitated Web site described his playing as "crushing and invigorating" and added, "He will be missed and cannot be replaced."

Behemoth frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski commented, "We're not only missing a dear friend but also a great talent. It was so awesome to watch Decapitated growing bigger and bigger with every step they made. See you in the afterlife, Vitek."

Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake stated, "The metal community has lost one of the most talented and skillful drummers of our time. Vitek was a true talent and drummer genius and his passing is just so very, very wrong The future will be a sadder place. Rest in peace, Vitek."

And Polish death metal veterans, Vader, who watched Decapitated as they rose to the top of the country's metal scene said, "This is another huge loss for metal and the saddest news we have heard this year. We are all in shock."

Vitek was just 23 years old and he leaves behind a wife and child. Those who wish to help out his family and the family of singer Adrian "Covan" Kowanek, who was also badly injured in the accident, can send donations in several ways:

Go to www.paypal.com
Log into your account (…or sign yourself up)
Click on the "Personal" tab
Click on "Send Money"

To: decapitatedfund@hotmail.com
From: Your PayPal e-mail address
Amount: your choice!
For: service/other (donation)

To send donations via bank money transfers:
Recipient's name: Anna Kieltyka
Account Number: 70 1050 1458 10 0000 2293 2551 01
Bank Swift Code: INGBPLPW
Bank Name: ING Bank Slaski
Bank Address: Rynek 8, 38-400 Krosno, Poland

European donations can be mailed to:
Nuclear Blast Europe GmBH
Attention: Vitek/Covan Assistance
Oeschstr. 40
73072 Donsdorf
Germany

All checks/money orders need to be made out to Anna Kieltyka.

North American donations can be mailed to:
Nuclear Blast USA
Attention: Vitek/Covan Assistance
2323 W. El Segundo Blvd.
Hawthorne, CA 90250
United States Of America

All checks/money orders need to be made out to Anna Kieltyka.

And now, here's Decapitated's "Spheres of Madness" video dedicated to a gifted musician who died way before his time:

No, this isn't a documentary about Rob Zombie or one of his old short films. It's a 15-minute flick written, produced and directed by two New Zealand metal heads, Michael J. Asquith and Ben Stenbeck, which won "Best Short Film" at the 2005 New York City Horror Film Festival and "Best Horror Comedy Short Film" at the 2005 Screamfest LA.

The humorous horror story features three headbangers trapped in a stopped car during what seems to be the End of Days. As a flock of lumbering flesh-eating zombies gather around the vehicle, the three survivors kill time by talking about evil icons of metal, namedropping Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and Motorhead. One of the highlights comes when one of the dudes mentions Kiss, and his friend snaps back, "F--- man, Kiss aren't evil. They're gay."

Soon, however, dread overtakes chuckles and the headbangers realize there's no escape from zombie horrdes. Shot on a zero budget, this 2004 feature is riveting thanks to an adept blend of terror, comedy and surprisingly strong acting.

And the song by Metal Skull (a.k.a. Crumb) ain't bad either. According to their Web site, Asquith and Stenbeck are currently working on a full-length movie and a TV show. We can't wait.