One of the most high-profile European summer festivals is Download, a three-day event which, in 2007, featured a wide variety of bangers including Iron Maiden, Stone Sour, Korn, Slayer, Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God and tons more.

According to eFestivals.co.uk A batch of artists have already been confirmed for this year's event, including Judas Priest, Kiss, Him, Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, Children of Bodom, Disturbed, In Flames, Motorhead, Job For a Cowboy, 36 Crazyfists and Chris Cornell. Read more...

When we first learned that Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe had guested on Overkill's new album Immortalis, but we dismissed it as a bad dream brought about by too many cheese sticks. Then we heard the track "Skull & Bones" and we figured, "Nah, that's gotta be a Blythe impersonator. There's no way one of the leaders of the new school like Blythe would cross paths with thrash metal old-timers like Overkill." But finally, we saw it with our own eyes and had to accept it. Hell, we grew to embrace it -- two generations of sincere, uncompromising metal artists toasting one another's accomplishments and joining forces to create a fortress of sound and fury.

If you still think you're dreaming, those two pictures above are genuine photos from the shoot for "Skull & Bones." Now click on "read more" and well show you some exclusive behind the scenes footage and interviews from the video set. And if you think that's cool, come back on Friday for the premiere of the "Skull & Bones" video. You wanna thrash? You've come to the right place!! Read more...

When it comes to Australian cinema, crocodiles seem to be the new great whites. Over the past year, two jaw-snapping films have been produced in the region, both of which have generated frantic splashes of media attention. The more publicized of the two, "Rogue," directed by “Wolf Creek” creator Greg McLean, has been touted as having the largest budget ever for an Australian horror film. The second, and far more nightmare-inducing flick, however, is "Black Water" (Sony), an exercise in dread and imminent demise that’s somewhat similar to the shark film "Open Water."

Based on a true story, the movie features a married couple and the wife's sister, who head out a fishing trip in the mangrove swamps of Northern Australia unaware that a giant, intelligent, man-eating croc is waiting for them around one of the watery bends. Early on, the beast tips over the vacationer's motorboat and chows down on their guide, leaving the three survivors to scramble up the nearest tree and wait for someone to rescue them. Pretty soon it becomes clear that they're in a remote region and no one knows of their existence. It becomes equally apparent that the toothed beast hunting them has a hunger for humans and isn't going anywhere. Desperate and exhausted, the three devise various plans for escape, some more deadly than others.

Black Water succeeds largely because of its unflinching approach. It's not excessively gory, but it’s extremely bleak, Directors David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki never force viewers to suspend their disbelief in order to follow the survival efforts of the frequently hopeless characters' and there's none of the lighthearted humor that ruined movies like "Lake Placid." The acting is excellent; the characters' plight is palpable. And while there are several eyepopping attack sequences, there are just as many scenes in which the tension builds precipitously, but nothing much happens and by the end, the viewer is left feeling satisfied and exhausted. Read more...

Clearly, the frenetic blastbeats, buzzsaw guitars and harrowing growls of Brain Drill's debut, Apocalyptic Feasting, were heavily influenced by Cannibal Corpse. And that's not a diss -- not even to Cannibal bassist Alex Webster, who has called them "one of the most musically over-the-top bands I have ever heard" and said their music is "truly raising the bar for technicality, velocity and overall extremity in death metal." But Brain Drill, who formed in 2005 in Santa Cruz, California, aren't just interested in building upon the bludgeoning grind of the Corpse. They're also inspired by Spawn of Possession, Origin, Disgorge, Decrepit Birth and Necrophagia.

"We were definitely inspired by all of those bands, and I always wanted to play technical death metal — but I wanted to take those influences and make sort of a musical collage, with elements from them all," guitarist Dylan Ruskin tells MTVnews.com's Metal File. Read more...

Last night a DJ saved my life. No, I am not talking about the 1982 hit single by Indeep. I'm talking about how I can flip through my iPod and find any song to reflect my emotions, intensify my aggression, bring me to the edge or pull me back and sooth every wound I might have incurred. I am that DJ and the life I am saving is my own.

There are many people who say that music is their lives and they would be dead without it; that it's all that they live for; that it helps them get through their day. Now, take a step back and become the musician, the artist, the one that is making the music that can alter someone's existence.

I have had countless fans come up to me on tour or stop me in the street or email me about how my music has personally helped them get through their problems or helped comfort them during the hard times in their lives. My words have helped that form a foundation in which to find solace. Having that ability is the greatest feeling in the world. Being able to help people in their most dire times just by doing something that you love is very fulfilling. Some people know what their purpose is in life, and I know that making music and rocking out is mine. Read more...

Max and Iggor Cavalera, the Brazilian brothers who turned Sepultura from a garage band to an international force in the '90s, are back to inflict more metallic pain.

Inflikted, the debut album from their new band Cavalera Conspiracy drops March 25, and while it doesn't exactly take over where Max left Sepultura in 1996 (when he departed from the band), it's a crushing and ferocious barrage of thrash riffs and punk attitude which proves to any naysayers that the brothers have still got that lethal one-two punch even after a decade of not speaking to one another.

In our third and final post, the Cavaleras discuss what inspired the lyrics of Inflikted and what it was like to be back in the studio together after all that time (click "read more" to watch the interview, and come back on Thursday for the premiere of their video for "Sanctuary"). Read more...

The answer to yesterday's indecipherable logo is With Blood Comes Cleansing.

The Albany-based Christian death metal band formed in 2005, wrote a batch of songs and immediately recorded a six-song demo, which scored them a deal with Blood & Ink Records for their full-length debut, Golgotha, which came out in 2006. The album combined razor-edged thrash riffs pounding metalcore rhythms and earned them a sizable following in the Christian metal underground. Read more...

We first heard Hellhammer back in the 1984 on the Metal Massacre V compilation. The album featured a bunch of cool stuff by Omen, Metal Church, Fates Warning and even an early, bone-splintering track from Voivod. But it was the staggering Motorhead-meets-Venom cacophony of Hellhammer's scabrous "Crucifixion" that had us transfixed.

The low, wobbly guitars, nausea-inducing string-bends and blasphemous vocals were like nothing we'd ever heard before and we immediately sought out the Swiss band's four-song EP, Apocalyptic Raids, which was also devastating, but disappointingly short, containing a mere four songs. Even more unfortunate, by the time it came out, the band had broken up and frontman Tom Gabriel Warrior and bassist had formed the new, more innovative and forward-thinking band Celtic Frost. But as influential as Frost were in the development of doom and and experimental metal, it's impossible to overlook the importance of Hellhammer in creating the nihilistic blueprint for black metal with their attitude, image and subject matter (click "read more" for a link to the podcast interview with Warrior). Read more...

In our second of three exclusive video interview posts with Cavalera Conspiracy, frontman Max Cavalera and drummer Iggor Cavalera discuss the D-Low memorial show that re-cemented their bond as brothers and the sonic vibe they were after with their debut album, Inflikted, which comes out March 25.

The record, a stormin' punk/thrash hybrid, is all the more impressive considering the years of turmoil that preceded its creation. While the Cavaleras spent nearly every day together from the time they were kids through their glory years in Seputlura, their relationship came to a complete 10-year halt after Max quit Sepultura in 1996 and started Soulfly.

Click "read more" to watch the video interview clips, and get ready for the premiere of the band's debut video for "Sanctuary" next Thursday on Headbangersblog.com. Read more...

If you're sick of seeing The Dillinger Escape Plan perform the same two new songs, "Black Bubblegum" and "Milk Lizard," everywhere you go, check out this bad-ass footage of "Sunshine the Werewolf," "Sugar Coated Sour" and "Party Smasher," expertly shot by the folks at Metalinjection.net. Nicely done, guys (click "read more" to watch the complete clips): Read more...