Okay, the dudes in HORSE the band will never get a job at the Travel Network with restaurant descriptions like, "They also give you all this random s--t that I'm sure no one has ever eaten in their life, and it takes up the whole table," but we're happy to be their chosen home for the photo essays of their traveling-the-world-on-a-shoestring-budget tour. Here, they present shots of South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand. Judging by the imagery selected, it looks like they spent more time eating than rocking. Don't worry about the tapeworms, guys, they're free of charge. And now you can eat all you want and not worry about gaining any weight.

Photos by Sarah Hamilton, Le Beast Photography 

OH MY GOD, HONG KONG IS SO F--KING WEIRD. LOOK A CORN GUY!!!! HOLY CRAP!

OH MY GOD!! FUK HING LANE!!!! HONG KONG AAAAAA HOLY CRAP Read more...

On Friday, Headbangers Blog will present an in-depth and confessional podcast interview with Disturbed frontman David Draiman. To whet your appetite for the full 40-minute interview (which can be streamed or downloaded), we’ve transcribed the first five minutes of the conversation. Disturbed’s fourth album, Indestructible, the follow-up to 2005's Ten Thousand Fists, will come out June 3.

Headbangers Blog: You’re doing about three weeks of U.S. dates before heading off to Europe. Will you be playing much new material for those shows (which start April 26 in Little Rock, Arkansas and run through May 17 in Columbus, Ohio)?
David Draiman: We’ll only be playing the two songs that have been released thus far, [“Inside the Fire” and “Perfect Insanity”] until the actual release date. Unfortunately, that’s what we’re bound to until the record is actually out there. It’s kind of a tease, but for the first three-week run, even though we can’t play all of the new material, we’ll probably throw in a couple of older songs, and/or b-side stuff that just the diehards will get or people haven’t heard in a while or people never thought they’d hear live. So, we’re trying to keep it as fresh and exciting as possible for everyone without revealing too much of the new record.

There was a time when bands could actually test their upcoming album material on audiences to see how they responded, but now with the Internet, that rarely happens.
It’s a different world these days. It’s unfortunate because you truly do get a different level of appreciation for a song based on how it impacts live. Read more...

Having recently completed a trek with Nile, Suicide Silence were preparing for their European/Russian tour -- which starts April 18 in Bruschal, Germany and runs through May 14 in St. Petersburg, Russia -- when guitarist Chris Garza took a few minutes to answer some of our stupid questions. And we gotta say, we learned more than we ever needed to know about his personal hygiene, grisly former day job and drinking habits. Suicide Silence will embark on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem tour this summer with Slipknot, Disturbed, Machine Head and others.

Headbangers Blog: Your album is called The Cleansing. What do you do for cleansing when you’re on the road, since it’s sometimes hard to shower?
Chris Garza: Actually, we shower almost everyday which is a surprise. After a show just try to stop by at a friends house or get a hotel room and attempt to wash as much stench off as possible.

If you didn't become a musician what line of employment would you have pursued?
Before I started touring full time, I was working at a hospital. I would have stuck with that. I was in sterile processing so I would get all the used trays from the operating rooms and wash all the blood and bones off of the instruments. Then, I’d put it all together, sterilize the tray, pack it, and bring it up to the room where someone was being sliced for open heart surgery. It Doesn't get too much more metal than that. Don't call yourself a metal band if you haven't seen someone cut open and washed the blood remains. Read more...

ArmsBendBack guitarist Carson Slovak is the mastermind behind Century, a bruising modern, textural hardcore band that started as a one-man project and has evolved into a ferocious quartet that beats the hell out of any of those third generation metalcore monstrosities.

Century's third release, Black Ocean (out April 29), is at once brutal and beautiful, cathartic and destructive turning juxtaposition into an art form that defies expectations and refuses to be ignored. Slovak produced the disc at his home studio and also created the art work. Read more...

In the '80s, the Cro-Mags were a powerful force in hardcore and well as an important bridge in the sonic union of punk and metal. And, singer John Joseph played a significant role in the band's confrontational and political impact, exploding onstage with the destructive might of a truck bomb.

Currently, Joseph spends much of his time with his other band Bloodclot, who have upcoming shows August 11 in Washington, D.C. and August 13 in New York. He is also a published author, having recently published his autobiography "The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon" on Punk House (www.punkhouse.org). His follow-up, "Meat is For Pussies," will drop this summer.

I just want to know one thing… What the hell happened to the revolutionary attitude in music? You can’t find it anywhere. I know. I looked. Is it just a coincidence that bands that talk about it have been silenced from the mainstream? I think not. Where’s the next Bob Marley, Public Enemy, KRS-ONE, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys or Cro-Mags? Well I have been talking about this for over 25 years in my music career, and now it’s all coming to light.

The TV media is controlled, the print is controlled, what you hear is controlled. Why? One word, people. Agenda. Certain people in power want to make sure that you stay numb and dumb. I mean, do you think they want you pondering the issues being brought up in the truth movements? Hell, no. They want you to pay attention to the mindless fluff on TMZ (FOX – TV; no coincidence there) and follow the downfall of Anna Nicole Smith, or Britney Spears, or find out who’s banging who and which stars are headed to rehab.

I give Gov. Jesse Ventura major props for standing up and voicing his opinion. He’s even gone on Alex Jones’ show and talked about how he knows we were lied to big-time about 9/11 and questioned what really happened that day. Having witnessed the buildings fall from a mile away, I, too, questioned what we were told and got my answers in the past seven years. All I can say is, Man, what a crock of s--t we were fed. Read more...

There's nothing jokey about the new Arsis album, We Are the Nightmare. The riveting, mindblowing display of technique and heaviosity is one of the finest slabs of technical death metal we've heard in several blood-red moons.

However, when they're not playing or recording, these guys are total goofballs. The bonus DVD on We Are the Nightmare features all kinds of stupid antics, jokes and other bizarre s--t musicians do in front of the camera when their bored, drunk or both. In this case, we're guessing the dudes in Arsis are pretty hammered considering they're bragging about having consumed 10 liters of wine -- in paper cups, no less. Now that's class.

Before releasing the record, Arsis edited together a DVD sampler for Headbangers Blog that's funnier than "America's Funniest Home Videos" (okay, that show sucks, but...). To watch the wackiness, click "more" and get ready to giggle your innards out. Read more...

Diary of the Dead - Exclusive Trailer

Horror film director George A. Romero has had as much influence on the dawn and development of death metal as any other movie maker. If it weren't for his 1968 classic "Night of the Living Dead" (the "Citizen Kane" of zombie flix) and its follow-ups -- 1978's "Dawn of the Dead," 1985's "Day of the Dead" and 2005's "Land of the Dead" -- art work and lyrics by bands like Cannibal Corpse, Repulsion, Impaled and Exhumed might have been disgusting in an entirely different way.

To celebrate the May 20 DVD release of Romero's latest triumph, "Diary of the Dead," The Weinstein Company and Genius Products launched a short film contest and received hundreds of entries from aspiring filmmakers. Romero, himself, picked the grand prize winner, "The Final Day," a three-minute clip by Paul Del Vecchio (director/producer), David R. Doumeng (writer/producer), and Douglas Frye (producer). The short flick chronicles the final experiences of a lone survivor of a zombie infestation.

Here's the prize-winning short:
"The Final Day" - Diary of the Dead DVD contest entry

To see the four runners up, "Deader Living Through Chemistry," "Opening Night of the Living Dead," "Run For Your Life" and "& Teller (which stars Teller from the magician duo Penn and Teller) click "more". All five three-minute movies will be included on the "Diary of the Dead" DVD. Read more...

A couple days after the beginning of this year's Gigantour, Job For a Cowboy probably have a lot to say about being on one of metal's highest-profile tours with Megadeth, In Flames, Children of Bodom and High on Fire. They've surely got some interesting stories about hanging out with Dave Mustaine, drinking with Children of Bodom's Alexi Laiho and lighting up with High on Fire's Matt Pike. But instead of asking guitarist Bobby Thompson such timely and relevant questions, we decided to talk to him about lassoing cattle, "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks and headbanging in Australia.

Headbangers Ball Blog: Cowboys do everything from roping steer to irrigating land to baling hay. From your experience, what the best job for a cowboy?
Bobby Thompson: Drinking whiskey, buying and shooting guns, and gambling.

Your latest album is called Genesis. Obviously that’s the name of a book in the Bible. It's also the title of an adult magazine. Which would you rather read in the back of the bus?
Adult magazine 100% -- unless Genesis is a mag full of naked dudes. I don't know anything about that mag I usually stick to Hustler. Read more...

That mess of a logo up there belongs to Cadaveric Engorgement, a death metal band from Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The group was formed in late 2000 by drummer Kyle Hartnaft, guitarist Roary England, bassist Josh Cambell, and singer Kevin Welch, and was originally a side project of Goregantua.

Cadaveric Engorgement began performing semi-professionally in 2003, then Cambell left for a spell in 2004 to join Hate Engine. Fill-ins followed, and the band hired second guitarist Jon Godfrey. The next year Cambell returned and the group recorded their their self-titled demo, which featured the songs "Damned," "Die For Jesus," 'Vile Requiem" and "Plague Bearer."

In 2006, Godfrey bailed for personal reasons, and was replaced by Carnal Sin guitarist Phill Calvin. Cadaveric Engorgement quickly finished two new songs, "Head on a Stick" and "Vengeance Through Dismemberment," and, after a short West Coast tour, the band started recording their first full-length album Plague Bearer.

Although the disc is now finished, Cadaveric Engorgement are still searching for a label to release the album. In the meantime, the band continues to write new material.

British director Simon Rumley’s fourth film "The Living and the Dead" (TLA) isn't your typical horror movie. There are no zombies, ghosts, psychopathic killers or aliens, yet it's more horrific and hard to watch than anything George Romero or Rob Zombie ever conceived.

The film focuses on a family run by bankrupt aristocrat Donald Brocklebank (Roger Lloyd-Pack) whose wife Nancy (Kate Fahy) is dying of cancer and whose twenty-something son James (Leo Bill) is suffering from severe schizophrenia. In the beginning of the movie, Donald makes plans to travel to London to sell his mansion and sort out his finances. Before he goes, he hires a nanny to care for his family in his absence, however he leaves before she arrives -- bad move.

Convinced he can care for his ailing mom, James locks the nanny out and carries out a series of appalling and atrocious acts unaware of the damage he's causing. Impaired by his condition, which is worsened by his inability to take his medication by himself, the boy accidentally tortures his mother, at one point leaving her to crap the bed, at another, force feeding her a pile of pills because, in his warped mind, he thinks if some is good, more must be better. Eventually, James becomes completely unhinged and starts hallucinating and hurting himself. Then, he pulls out a butcher’s knife.

Shot on film for about a million dollars, “The Living and the Dead” is stark, graphic and surreal, bringing to mind elements of “Requiem For a Dream” and “Spider,” while maintaining its own disturbing aesthetic. In short, “The Living and the Dead” reveals the real life terrors of mental illness and the wake of violence and misery that can plague patients unable to cope with their condition. Chilling even without the carnage, nightmarish sequences involving needles, a bathtub and a gravesite will stay with you forever. Read more...