Romancing the wound ...

Reaching oneness. Tasting god.
Spiritual intercourse.

This is the opiate of art.

It's here, on stage, in the dark, beneath a cloud cover of stale tobacco and thick fogs of perspiration, where the worlds of the seen and unseen amalgamate, and I finally feel whole. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that compares to playing live music. For those that have never known this kind of out of body ascendence, try this: Read more...

Last week, in our exclusive Demon Hunter podcast interview, frontman Ryan Clark talked about lots of stuff, including the band's new video for "Carry Me Down." No need to keep praying for its arrival, we've got it for you right here. But first, here's Clark, who's temporarily returned from storming the gates of hell to tell us about the clip.

"The video was shot over two days on Whidbey Island, which is about an hour north of Seattle, and was directed by Zach Merck [who also worked on the band's video for 'Fading Away,'" Clark tells Headbangers Ball Blog. "The weather was absolutely freezing, but the overall experience was amazing." click "read more" to hear more from Clark and watch the video. Read more...

Now, we've seen tons of vampire movies lately, ranging from the ultra-cheesy ("Hollywood Vampyr") to the existential ("Night Watch") to the positively gore-drenched ("The Thirst"), but we've never watched anything quite like David Slade's "30 Days of Night" (Sony Pictures).

The movie is adapted from the popular cult graphic novel, and while is stays fairly true to the original, it stands on its own as a savage and harrowing piece of American horror filmmaking. The story takes place in a town in Alaska that turns dark for 30 days every winter. For bloodsucking beasts that can only survive at the night, this provides the perfect opportunity to feed without worrying about being back in the coffin by dawn.

Actually, there's nothing romantic or noble about these vampires, each of which is faster than a tiger and more lethal than a chainsaw massacre. And they're not there to satisfy their hunger and leave, they've come to kill every person in town, then burn the place to the ground before anyone knows they were there. And they're as clever as they are brutal, slaughtering sled dogs, destroying vehicles and severing lines of communications so no one has the chance to escape or warn the neighbors.

So, it's up to the town sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Harnett) and his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George) to save everyone from the invading hordes. The characters in the movie may be a tad one dimensional, but the acting is excellent and the suspense is nerve-rattling, as one by one the locals are dragged away and consumed. Also, the cinematography is breathtaking and the gore effects are top-notch, offering an assortment of kills that are horrifying because you never see the details and disgusting because they happen across the full screen. Generally, we're skeptical about comic book adaptations, but Slade nails this one like a wooden cross through Dracula's heart. Here's hopin' there's a sequel. Read more...

Between 1993 and 2000, guitarist Erik Rutan played with legendary Florida death metal band Morbid Angel before stepping out with his own group Hate Eternal, which, since its 1999 debut, Conquering the Throne, has released four albums. The group's latest, Fury and Flames, came out February 19 and encapsulates all of the ferocity and musical agility the band has become known for, along with a level of heaviness and speed it hasn't displayed in five years. In addition to working with Hate Eternal, Rutan has spent the last seven years engineering, mixing and producing other bands, including Vital Remains, Through the Eyes of the Dead and Demiricous. Now, here's Rutan to talk about the rewards and perils of production.

I often think about the positives and negatives, the good and the bad, in all facets of my life, for I believe in always having the ability to turn a negative into a positive. I have realized that a lot of people that are not musicians or in the music business sometimes do not understand what it takes to complete an album or what goes on in the studio. When I have told friends who are not in the industry what I do for a living, a lot of times their response is, “Hey, did you bust open a keg tonight or what, man?” An even more common reaction is, “Wow, what a tough life.” Let’s just say they are unaware of the full efforts required to complete an album -- something I know all too well about as a producer and a musician. Read more...

We've heard of bands dropping off tours because of illness, injury, excessive drug use or the inability to get along with other groups on the bill, but this is a first. Whitby, Ontario experimental metal band Protest the Hero have abandoned their tour with Silverstein for sucking too hard. Read more...

Even if Exodus hadn't taken Warbringer under their wing and showed 'em the ropes on tour we've got a feeling that Warbringer guitarist Adam Carroll still would have chosen Exodus' "Riot Act" video as his Bang of the Week. Just listen to the dude's playing. There's no question that those chainsaw riffs and flailing solos were largely influenced by Exodus axeman Gary Holt, ex-guitarist Rick Hunolt and current shredder Lee Altus. Sure, Warbringer were also inspired by Slayer, early Metallica, Sodom, Kreator et al., but the most pungent flavor in their sound in Exodus, and it's something they're hardly ashamed of, as they revealed in an interview story earlier this year. Click "read more" to hear from Carroll and watch the video. Read more...

Thanks to former MTV news man Gideon Yago and VBS.TV, Everyone knows about Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda and their quest to flee governmental persecution and lower the boom. But the Iraqi rockers aren't the only Arabic metal band getting props these days.

And in a strange twist of circumstances, CNN seems to see itself as holy warriors in the crusade to turn on the Western World to the terror and torture of Middle Eastern Metal. Recently, the network aired  two stories on the genre. The first was an eight-plus minute profile of the Jordanian band Tyrant Throne and the Saudi Arabian group Wasted Land. The second story was a more concise, but more widely broadcast story about Wasted Land by reporter Nic Robertson. Click "read more" to watch the shorter Wasted Land piece. Read more...

Mainstream emo-prog band Coheed and Cambria have voiced a major vote of confidence for experimental metal mavericks, Baroness by offering them 11 support slots on their upcoming tour. But don't hold that against them. The Savannah, Georgia band still rocks like a speeding locomotive with chipped wheels. The two groups will hit the road together starting May 19 in Portland, Oregon and dates run through May 31 in Toronto, Ontario. Baroness' latest record, Red Album, came out September 10.

Disturbedhave made their new song, "Perfect Insanity," available fans to download from their official Web site, www.Disturbed1.com. The track will appear on the band's fourth studio disc, Indestructible, which is scheduled for release in late May. The first single from the album will be "Inside the Fire," and director Nathan Cox (Marilyn Manson, Queens of the Stone Age) has been hired to shoot a video for the song. Read more...

photo by Alex Scolca

The year was 1983. I was 6 years old.

We pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. My grandparents seemed to freeze in their tracks, pointing into the sky. My brother Josh and I knew something special was happening. Our eyes followed their fingers to the end of the street where, just above the tree line, a massive object moved very slowly across the horizon.

This thing was huge, like a flying city. It was covered in multicolored lights and made hardly any sound. There was this sort of low hum, nothing motor like, but a faint and very deep rumbling. It wasn't dark out yet and we could clearly see the solid shape of this thing. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before or since. Read more...

Every time we turn around, old timers no one cares about and bands with just one studio album seem to be releasing live DVDs. Add that to the bonus DVDs groups are tagging onto their CDs with the hopes they will encourage fans to actually buy the damn things, and you're left with a case of genuine DVD overload. And don't get us started on the standard format -- a full concert and loads of stupid road antics chock full of the requisite drinking, puking, vandalizing stuff -- and boobies.

Well, having gotten that out of our systems, we're happy to say that the upcoming DVD set by Massachusetts metalcore/thrash band Unearth actually rips. For proof, hit "read more" and watch out the DVD preview clip at the end of this post). Read more...