We like some extreme s--t around here, but we're also realists. As stoked as we are to run interviews with Deicide, Nile and Dillinger Escape Plan, we're fully aware that our parent company has certain guidelines it must adhere to, especially when it comes to the videos that go on Headbangers Ball on MTV2.

So, while we're all about subversion from within, we sometimes have to play by the rules. And that means we probably can't get away with airing Belphegor's new video for "Bondage Goat Zombie" on TV -- especially since their 2006 clip for "Bluhtstorm Erotika" didn't pass inspection due to its explicit content (ie nudity), and, sadly, didn't make it to the Ball. In protest, the band didn't even bother submitting its latest celluloid atrocity, but that doesn't mean we can't screen it here for all you sick puppies right here on the Blog (click "more" to watch the new vid). Read more...

After a full week to duke it out, the Headbangers Ball Blog readers were completely split down the middle when trying to determine who rocks harder, Rush or Dream Theater.

Systematic Freewill argued, "Without Rush, Dream Theater wouldn’t be what it is today. Rush had a huge influence on them." And Robert countered, "Rush is influential and definitely helped DT define their sound, but Dream Theater has a more consistent output."

So, in an effort to break the tie, we're giving you guys until Friday to place your votes and give us reasons why one rocks harder than the other. Check out these vids and make your decision.

Thanks to Five Finger Death Punch's successful tour on last year's Family Values and their current breakthrough single "The Bleeding," the band's debut album, Way of the Fist, has sold a respectable (in these times) 89,000 copies since its July 2007 release. And the group remains the only new rocker on the Billboard Active Rock Top 10.

On April 26, the band will head out on tour with Disturbed and this summer Five FInger will take part in the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival along with Slipknot, Disturbed, Dragonforce, Mastodon and others, which shouldn't hurt their bid for world domination.

Obviously, these guys don't have a lot of downtime, however when he can find a window of breathing room, guitarist Zoltan Bathory often flips on the tube and forks out some of his royalty money to watch some mixed martial arts fighting on pay-per-view. Here he is, talking about his favorite passtime.

A sport that was once underground and banned by some politicians, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) (aka cage fighting), was successfully kept out of certain states, but has hung in and fought its way to the top of the entertainment food chain. Today, MMA has become mainstream prime-time television fare and a pay-per-view record-breaker. Strangely enough, your grandma probably even knows who Chuck Liddell is. Better yet, your grandma probably knows what a triangle choke is! Wild! Read more...

The advertising copy promotes the double DVD "Metallica: The Halcyon Days" as "the essential critical review of the hardest rocking band in the world." The fact that the set is completely unauthorized and has received very little publicity makes us dubious of the claim. In other words, that's a boldfaced discmaimer: Don't send us letter bombs if you buy this and it turns out to be the worst documentary since "The Aristocrats." Read more...

Dash is happy walking around Melbourne. That's just a really nice photo. Jesus. Australia is big and expensive and, like, England-meets-Canada, but warm with big trees and crazy animals. We are beggars in Australia. Sandwiches cost the equivalent of $15. And no one told us, but koalas don't even hang in the cities. Lame.

Koalas get so stoned off eucalyptus that sometimes they fall out of their trees and die. In fact, that's their number one cause of death. They sleep 20 hours a day and will maim you with their claw grip. This is a picture of David, Jon from 12, Dash, and Gary LaChance, our videographer, eating stupid vegan food and talking electronics. Crazy, crazy s--t went down in Australia. Read more...

photo by Kamakazewords, courtesy of flickr.com

Dillinger was a master criminal. You are not. But what’s the most dramatic escape plan you’ve ever had to hatch?
Ben Weinman: Okay, so we were in Colorado and next to the club we were playing there was a porn shop. We had about three hours to kill before we played, so we went in. There were these things called jack shacks where you can go in little like closet things that play pornos. We all took a room and proceeded to talk to each other through the walls laughing at what was on different channels. I had nobody to the left of me. At least I thought I didn't. Then all of a sudden, the channel got stuck on gay porn. I had never seen it before. It was insane to me. I have nothing against the gays. They are fine people. Great taste. In fact, I'm pretty metro myself. But I panicked. Then a little hatch opened up and I saw a guy's face. It was the little booth next to me. Someone was trying to do some gay shit with me. I tried to open the door but it was stuck. I Started screaming and ran through the door. I knocked it off the hinges and the guy at the counter looked at me like, "What the f--k!

Has anyone ever though there was a guy in the band named Dillinger?
No, but we have been called The Dillingers, collectively. And once a girl wrote about me in a book and called me Dylan to conceal my identity. Read more...

When HORSE the band keyboard Erik Engstrom contacted us a month ago to tell us his band was embarking on a 40-country, seat-of-the-pants world tour with no booking agency and no major tour support, we said, "Dude, don't get arrested and wind up in a foreign jail." Then, when he said they would be taking pictures along the way and asked us if we wanted to document the chaos, we said, "Sure, especially if you get arrested."

The first set of shots from Australia and New Zealand look like regular travel photos with a couple live pics thrown in. Still, they're well framed and aesthetically pleasing, and they start the proceedings on a nice, level plane that will hopefully spiral into a vortex of chaos, debauchery and overseas penitentiaries as the weeks progress. In fact, Engstrom promises next week's Japanese pix will be far crazier, so stay tuned:

All photos by Sarah Hamilton, Le Beast Photography

Flights to Fiji for seven and having a four hour layover from 3-7 a.m. the day of the first show of the tour -- $7000. Matching the upholstery when you get off the plane. Priceless.

Sydney - first show of Earth Tour. Not much to say about this photo except that Megabats (huge bats flying around all over Sydney) are closer related to monkeys than bats, which means they are like flying monkeys.

click "more" for, well, more! Read more...

Ozzy-Sabbath wrote the book and Dio-Sabbath penned the worthy sequel. And for bands whose members came of age in the early '80s, Dio-Sabbath might actually have been more influential. "When they reunited last year I was overjoyed," says 3 Inches of Blood bassist Nicholas John Cates. "And when I heard they were writing a few new tunes for a greatest hits album, I was even more excited."

In that case, Cates must be besides himself now that Heaven and Hell (aka Dio-Sabbath) have announced that Ronnie James Dio is in England right now working with the band on their next record. The group will fly to Los Angeles in April to continue working and plans to be pounding away through May. A full album of new Dio-Sabbath is enough to render Cates speechless, but for now there are just three new songs and the bassist has no trouble talking about those. Read more...

I'm a supporter of the police force. Strange as it may seem, I am.

I have many, many police officer friends and have a blast hanging out with them. However, I had a situation come up two weeks ago that I can't let go, and if I don't calm down, it could get me in a little trouble. At the moment, I have a bad shoulder. Actually, it's been hurting for about six years and I need to get surgery, but I'm holding off as long as I can.

When I was 17 years old, I was in a terrible car accident. I didn't hurt my shoulder at all, but I did receive 125 stitches in the face. Also, I have a wife and two beautiful children and would never put their lives in any danger. When I get in my car, everyone in my family puts on seat belts. When I put mine on, I place the belt under my left shoulder because it puts pressure on my shoulder. Read more...

Once again, GVOLTT guessed the indecipherable logo, which this week is Zushakon. Erratic_Prophet came crazy-close with a guess of Zushavon, but there's no prize for second place. Actually, there's no price for first place either, just the secure knowledge that you're the grand master of generally illegible band logos.

Zushakon are a Singapore black metal band founded by singer Djinn and New Zealand born guitarist and bassist Armaros, both of whom used to play in the pagan metal band Orthanc. At the time, Djinn was known as Penetrathor and Armaros went by D.S. Velkin; they've since shed such silly stage names for their current titles, which aren't quite as silly. In any case, Djinn, the owner of the Singapore metal record store ToMegathereon, recently launched Starless Aeon Records which put out Zushakon's 2007 EP Chaosophist. The disc also featured drummer Radovan Draza, but he quit in January becuase of "drug and legal problems back in Serbia" and was replaced by Serberuz HammerFrost, who joined the band's "anti-cosmic" crusade. Here's the band's manifesto, as revealed on their MySpace.

Here is the band's manifesto:

"Zushakon is the sonic propaganda of Anti-Cosmic 'Gnostic Left Hand Path,' which is committed to the old ways of Black Metal and stands united with bands, labels, xeroxed zines and individuals who still live by the old ways and want to revive the once glorious and much feared Black Metal Underground. Zushakon strongly supports the wrathful form of 'Gnostic Left Hand Path' ideology and teachings of the "TEMPLE OF THE BLACK LIGHT" www.templeoftheblacklight.net) also known as the "MISANTHROPIC LUCIFERIAN ORDER" (M.L.O). We bear within us the Black Flames of the Acosmic spirit. Zushakon is Anti-Cosmic Metal of Chaos!!!"

Sounds evil. We just hope they're not anything like neo-Nazis because we hate inadvertently promoting prejudiced hatemongers, and when we accidentally do, we get a lot of nasty letters.