There were plenty of heart-stopping moments and bone-breaking tackles during Superbowl XLII, but there wasn't a whole lot metal madness to speak of. After all, Tom Petty played the halftime show (yawn), and most of the advertisers opted for classical, rap or classic rock as soundtracks for their mega-expensive TV spots.

The closest anyone came to really rocking out was Toyota, who used Fu Manchu's pedal-to-the-floor 2002 song "Mongoose" to plug the Sequoia:
Toyota Sequoia

Add to My Profile | More VideosThe only other metal moment came during a commercial for Fox television's "Sarah Connor Chronicles," which used Danzig's "Mother" to illustrate the series storyline about a mother and son on the run from Terminator robots.

By comparison, it pales to last year, when Garmin International Inc. pulled hefty Grim Reaper singer Steve Grimmett out of obscurity for an ass-kickin' spot in which a GPS-armed robot reminiscent of Ultraman dukes it out with a lizard monster who resembles an origami map. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to check this one out:
Grab Your Garmin

Add to My Profile | More VideosThe most metal Superbowl XLII ad that had no metal in it came from Careerbuilder.com, which ran a spot depicting a woman unhappily sitting at a computer while her boss eats and laughs. Without warning, her heart bursts out of her chest, grows legs, climbs over to her bosses desk and whips out a sign that reads "I quit." In the end, the company's logo falls out of the sky, demolishing the office building. If only it had all been staged to the tune of Morbid Angel's "Blood on My Hands":

CareerBuilder.com Super Bowl Commercial

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This week's indecipherable logo belongs to Hour of Penance. The band formed in Rome, Italy in 1999. A year later, they recorded their eponymous demo at Outer Sound Studio with producer Geuseppe Orlando (Novembre). After touring through the country, the band re-entered Outer Sound in September 2001 and recorded a split seven-inch with Cadaveric Crematorium. Hour of Penance subsequently signed to Spanish label XTREEM MUSIC, which released it's debut full-length, Disturbance in 2003.

After a some lineup shifting, the band undertook a lengthy tour, then in 2005 the group entered 16th Cellar Studio, where it recorded Pageantry for Martyrs over a two month period. Hour of Penance spent part of 2005 touring with Krisiun and played several European festivals, then the band suffered a major shakeup. One of the founding members, guitarist Enrico Schettino, quit in September and two months later singer Alex Necrotorture split as well. In December, vocalist Francesco Paoli (ex-Fleshgod Apocalypse) replaced Necrotorture and that same month, the band went back into 16th Cellar Studios with guitarist Stefano "Saul" "Morabito handling production duties and recorded three new tracks, Promo 2007, as a preview for their next album.

The recording earned the band a two record deal with Unique Leader Records. After a year of songwriting, Hour of Penance recorded its first disc for the label, The Vile Conception, which comes out February 23. The album features Paoli, guitarist Giulio Moschini (ex-Eyeconoclast), bassist Silvano "Nightorn" Leone (Cain, ex-VII ARcano) and drummer Mauro Mercurio (ex-Kvntvr, Benighted, Rust of Reason).

Amateur live video snippets can be found here:
video1

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and here:
Video 2

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One of the more vocal and historically provocative figures in metal, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has gotten himself in trouble over the years for speaking his mind with little discretion. But these days, he's pretty self-aware about what he says and how it comes out.

It's not that he has anything more substantial to lose, he's just more compassionate than he's ever been -- genuinely concerned about the effect his words will have on others. In this case, it's former guitarist Glen Drover, who quit suddenly last month, leaving Megadeth in a pinch. Mustaine probably harbors some ill feelings about Drover's departure, but he's not about to say anything nasty. Instead, he focus on the positive, stressing how Drover's replacement, ex-Nevermore guitarist Chris Broderick, is injecting fresh life into the group and leading it towards one of the peak periods of its career.

Mustaine's optimism is a reflection of his good fortune. Megadeth are as healthy right now as they've been in a long time. Their most recent album, United Abominations, is their best since 1992's Countdown to Extinction and Mustaine's Gigantour could be the metal tour of the summer now that Sounds of the Underground is taking the year off and the future of Ozzfest is uncertain. At the very least, the Gigantour lineup -- Megadeth, In Flames, Children of Bodom, Job For a Cowboy and High on Fire -- is the tour's heaviest and hippest lineup yet.

During our Megadeth podcast discussion, Mustaine talked about why Drover left, how Broderick entered the band, how he chose the bands for this year's Gigantour, the recent resurrection of thrash metal, the disappointing absence of strong Presidential candidates and why you should fork out the cash for a pot of his delicious custom coffee.

Click here for a direct MP3 download of the podcast interview with Megadeth's Dave Mustaine.
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We recently talked with Napalm Death singer Mark "Barney Greenway" about Napalm, politics and metal for a future Headbangers Ball Blog podcast. While we were on the line, we mentioned how there aren't that many bands that have stuck it out for as long or longer than Napalm Death and still maintained their integrity, and how most great bands record their best albums in the first 10 years of their careers.

To illustrate our argument, we addressed how Slayer's 2006 album Christ Illusion is solid, for sure, but doesn't hold a black candle to their classic 1986 record, Reign in Blood. Greenway disagreed -- not that Reign in Blood is classic -- that Christ Illusion was solid.

"For me, Reign in Blood was the one," he began. "I think South of Heaven was a good album and maybe the one after that, but I haven't been inspired by anything they've done since then. I've tried and tried and tried, and I couldn't get to grips with it. They probably need some new ideas. I'm not directly comparing them with Napalm, but what we've tried to do is put some new stuff in while not losing sight of the core stuff that we did and to refresh it a little bit. I think they could stand to do that because I think on the new Slayer album, some of it sounds really tired. And I did actually read some comments from [singer and bassist] Tom Araya and some other members that sounded like they'd kind of had enough -- and it sounds like it on the last album. I'd be surprised if Slayer were around this time next year -- put it like that."

Clearly, Greenway is a wise, and possibly clairvoyant man, but we're sure there are other crystal ball readers out there who have their own take on the matter. So, you tell us: Was Christ Illusion the last tired gasp from a dying beast or was it an inspired blast of blowtorch-in-face metal that deserved to win the Grammy it garnered? And who else out there thinks Slayer won't live to see 2009?

Read what Slayer singer Tom Araya has to say about the band's latest Grammy nomination and more in our Slayer podcast.

Now watch Napalm Death's video for "When All is Said and Done":