Some people believe ghosts can't be photographed, but what about demons? If they're in human form, you'd think they could be captured on film -- which might explain why there are lots of pictures of Deicide frontman Glen Benton looking more evil than Charles Manson. But is Benton really a vessel for Satan or is he just an artistic dude who hates organized religion, has a bunch of pent up aggression and needs an outlet to release his venom? (to hear his answer in this week's podcast click "more") Read more...

Not since "Silence of the Lambs" has such a violent, bleak and nihilistic film risen to the top of the Hollywood heap and taken the Oscar for movie of the year. In some ways, "No Country For Old Men" (Miramax) is even more horrific than "Silence." Equal parts western revenge story, drug gangster picture and stalker tale, this Cohen brothers production takes good guy/bad guy conventions and twists them into a pretzel.

And that's why we were shocked when "No Country For Old Men" took best picture. We would have thought the Academy would be appalled by the fact that Javier's sociopathic character Anton Chigurh is, in his own way, the most principled individual and that the protagonist, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is an opportunistic petty criminal/Vietnam vet who thinks he can get away with stealing millions of dollars from drug dealers, knowing full well that the last people they were supposed to do business with were slaughtered by an unknown assailant.

Morality is flipped like in inverted cross in this story, and ultimately everyone who gets in the way of Chigurh, good or evil, is in some scalding hot water. These folks include a bounty hunter named Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) and a cop by the name of Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who enter the picture to further distort and complicate matters.

As much as the viewer may want "No Country" to adhere to traditional plot conventions, the movie constantly strays from the norm and never shies away from brutality to make its point that for every action there's a consequence, no matter how seemingly random or chaotic as it might be. Beyond the stellar cast, there are some gorgeous landscape and setting shots and enough action to please Sam Peckinpah. Even without Chigurh's weapon of choice - an airgun used to kill cattle - "No Country" is totally metal-friendly. Though we gotta add that the lethal device is the coolest thing we've seen since Rose McGowan strapped a machine gun to her leg stump in Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse: Planet Terror." Read more...

While scrolling through the Interweb, we came across this headbanging-worthy commercial from the beef industry or some organization pushing red meat to old people. We think it's from England, or maybe Australia or New Zealand or something. All we know is the narrator's got one of those accents you hear on BBC news and the advertisement is pretty damn funny. Although we don't know if it would actually encourage us to load up on burgers and T-bones even if we were pushing 60. Then again, we don't have a clue how we'll feel when we're that old -- if we ever make it there. Hell, we don't even have to worry about our prostate yet. Now, anal warts -- well, that's another story.

This crazy black metal band's music has been described as "anti-cosmic Satanism," which is a pretty nihilistic way to approach life. We can understand having a complete lack of belief in a higher (or lower) deity, a total absence of faith in the benevolence of man or a total disregard for any sort of authority or organization, but to be "anti-cosmic," now that's hardcore. Clearly, there are some letters, symbols and a pentagram in this logo, but we think it's still pretty hard to read -- but maybe that's just 'cuz we harbor some fascination with the cosmos. And we've always thought, in his own way, Carl Sagan was kinda metal. Dontcha think?

Check out the new Sworn Enemy video for "A Place of Solace," but first here's singer Sal to fill you in on the details.

"Well, we hooked up with the amazing director David Brodsky (Gwar, The Red Chord) for this video and are stoked with the end result," Sal told Headbangersblog.com. "After seeing some of his prior work, we pretty much knew that we had the right guy on it. We actually worked with him on a video years ago, so we had a relationship with him as well. You can just tell when things feel right. The shoot was a lot fun but the weather was a bummer. It was cold as hell outside and we were freezing. He made us do so many takes in the cold over and over again. I think personally he wanted to freeze us out -- just kidding."

The band shot the clip at an abandoned psychiatric ward, which fit the harrowing vibe of the song. "The storyline is loosely based on a father and the son that have done wrong to each other, and both, in order to achieve their solace, believe that they’d be better off without the other… rightly or wrongly," says Sal.

Click "more" to enjoy the madness: Read more...

Al Atkins with his new band Holy Rage

One of the most cringe-worthy news stories to flash across our computer screen this week was on original Judas Priest singer Al Atkins, who for some reason felt the need to pen an autobiography about his the stardom he never enjoyed: "Dawn of the Metal Gods: My Life in Judas Priest and Heavy Metal," which is coming out by the end of the year on Iron Pages.

Seriously, does anyone want to read about some dude who sang in Judas Priest before Rob Halford and way before the band became remotely successful? We'd rather enjoy a book about Halford's temporary replacement Tim "Ripper" Owens -- providing it was half as good as the astonishing biopic "Rock Star" (detect heavy dose of sarcasm here), which was based on an article in the New York Times about Ripper's story. Read more...

"All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity." -- Robert Kennedy

Numbers. Statistics. Percentiles. Casualties. It's been five years since the Iraq invasion. Five years. It's hard to believe we've been living this nightmare for so long. Can we (in our national consciousness) even remember what it was like before war? Before the lies? What happens after? I mean, if the next President abates this awful thorn, will we even know how to manage ourselves without the terrible itch of war at our side? It's been five years, with almost 4,000 American soldiers killed, over 30,000 wounded or maimed, without any real plan or motivation (other than to secure oil wells and end an old grudge against Saddam), and what does our most gracious leader do to celebrate all of this loss, all of the lies, and all of the chaos? Well, friends, our dear lord and savior Jesus W. Bush stepped to the podium today to say, "Yes, America it was worth it. So suck on that, plebes!" Read more...

Lots of metal bands hold open calls for fans who want to appear in their videos. Usually, you just have to show up wearing your favorite t-shirt and be willing to sit around doing practically nothing for about eight hours for no pay. But the black souls of Dimmu Borgir are a bit more demanding.

If you want to be in their upcoming video, which shoots April 14 and 15 in the Los Angeles area, you'll have to prove to them you've got what it takes. And, in this case, what it takes is a some genuine battle armor. Of course, Dimmu's not being too particular. According to a message posted to their faithful, "any and all styles [are] welcome." Read more...

Dude, did you notice something different about our Blog today?

Besides the fact that we spanned what's probably our widest one-day age gap to date by posting pieces on musicians ranging from 15 years old to... however old those guys in Rush are.

No, the real difference in today's blog is our new, ass-stomping banner, which features the classic old Headbangers Ball '90s logo and a pile of skulls that are either covered in blood or being consumed by flames. How much more metal can you get that that? And the answer's none: none more metal (if you don't know what the hell we're talking about, go rent "This is Spinal Tap." You'll be glad you did).

The new banner comes courtesy of artist Mike Hrubovcak of visualdarkness.com, who has now truly crossed over to the dark side by designing a piece specifically for a property of mainstream mega-corporation Viacom. Thanks, man.

We had long thought no one was more dedicated to their favorite band than Rush fans. Then we bumped heads with the Dream Theater legions. Clearly, the two groups inspire such loyalty for many of the same reasons.

Both bands play progressive hard rock that's heavy on musicality, but also rife with strong hooks and melody. And both deliver live with a precision and chemistry that's nearly unparalleled. Clearly, there are lots of people out there that are diehard fans of both... Well, now they have to choose.

Maybe the question "who rocks harder?" isn't exactly fair. Neither band strives for heaviness in and of itself, and while Dream Theater's rhythms are more metallic than those of modern day Rush, Dream Theater probably wouldn't be the same band today were it not for Rush, which opened the commercial floodgates to prog-metal back in the mid-'70s -- back before Dream Theater singer James LaBrie's voice had even changed. Of course, back then, Rush frontman Geddy Lee was singing so high it sounded like his voice hadn't changed either.

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