Life is about to get pretty hectic for Children of Bodom's Finnish frontman Alexi Laiho. Tomorrow (April 12), his band will travel to Denver, Colorado to play their first show on this year's Gigantour (with Megadeth, In Flames, Job For a Cowboy and High on Fire). And while the tour ends May 22 in Mesa, Arizona, a few days later, Children of Bodom will launch their world tour, playing shows across Europe, Australia and Japan.

Aside from a week off here and there, the band will remain on the road until at least August to support their new album, Blooddrunk, which comes out April 15. And that's just fine with Laiho. While he enjoyed working in the studio on the follow-up to 2005's Are You Dead Yet?, he's itching to get back onstage, where he receives his most direct and immediate feedback for his fleet-fingered leads and caustic performances. (click "more" to hear the podcast interview wth Alexi Laiho). Read more...

Back in 1993, an alt-metal band from Belfast Ireland by the name of Therapy? recorded a song called "Teethgrinder" about bruxism, a condition that causes patients to grind their teeth together, usually at night. The track featured surging, tinny guitars, a kickin' backbeat and spoken word samples of a woman saying, "I'm a teethgrinder. In My Sleep I grind my teeth." Aside from being the quintessential example of how metal outfits inspired, perhaps, by Ministry, were acquiring the undeserved "industrial" tag for using samples in their music, "Teethgrinder" stands as one of best songs by this vastly underrated band.

Of course, that's got nothing to do with "Toothgrinder" by the San Francisco extreme experimental meta group Animosity -- although listening to their 2007 album, Animal, in its entirety just might cause an extreme case of bruxism. Animal, the band's third record, features "Toothgrinder," which brings us back to where we started. The video for the song (click "more" below to watch the Hedbangers Blog premiere) was directed by singer Leo Miller and centers around his obsession with his hometown. Read more...

Want Barack Obama

Who cares if silly Elton John is out there performing benefit concerts for Hilary Clinton, raising millions of dollars to support a basically unelectable candidate? Barack Obama has Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French on his side.

With the help of some friends, French has a recorded the song "I Want Barack," a revision of Twisted Sister's hit "I Wanna Rock." And, according to a press release from the Jay Jay French and Friends Camp, the song is expected to be featured at upcoming Obama rallies.

"Inspired by a deep desire to see Senator Obama elected President of the United States, I set out to create an anthem that could be sung in large gatherings as a rock 'n' roll version of 'Hail To The Chief,'" French says.

Don't feel left out, John McCain. Glenn Danzig's "Twist of McCain" is surely just around the corner.

You know how when you get an official piece of documentation and you have to have it notarized before you submit it somewhere? So you scramble all over the place trying to find a real estate office, bank or lawyer's office where there's someone who's a notary public. And then you try to get them to stamp your paperwork without giving you a hard time or charging you an unjust amount for their meager service. And inevitably, the ink for their stamp is dry, so you have to go somewhere else and waste more time. Then, when you finally find someone who's open and willing to notarize your s--t for you, even if they hold the stamp as still as dead crack whore when they push it down, it invariably comes out looking like today's band logo.

One of the most bad-ass retro metal bands since Cathedral, The Sword are doing their best to bring crushing power chord volleys, thunderous rhythms, lumbering beats and lyrics about Medieval war, honor and glory back to heavy metal. But don't just take our ringing endorsement as the holy Grail, heed the advice of the biggest metal band around, Metallica, who have invited The Sword to open on seven July dates of their European tour.

And these dudes from Austin, Texas don't just write killer songs, they also make great videos - like their new one for "Maiden, Mother & Crone," which makes its TV premiere on Headbangers Ball on Saturday night on MTV2. There's no question that the clip looks awesome on a high definition screen, but it also looks pretty damn cool on a computer monitor (click "more" to see the Internet premiere of the video). Read more...

Headbangers Blog is proud to present the premiere of the new video from Agnostic Front for the song "For My Family." The song, a celebration of family and a shout-out to New York City's hardcore scene and the "Lower East Side Crew," comes from the band's new album, Warriors, which was released in November.

"If this video seems like it has a lot of meaning, it was absolutely our intention," frontman Roger Miret tells Headbangers Ball Blog. "This is a visual heirloom we're passing on to the New York music scene about the history and future of hardcore. It’s a very personal letter for my family, acknowledging the love, respect, and honor we hold for NYHC and our families today, tomorrow, and forever. We personally felt a need to give back to our fans and followers with this video because they are the true funders of this video, which is truly made by us for them. This is their anthem and our dedication to their support."

(To read more about the video and watch the premiere, click "more"). Read more...

Yesterday, we posted our first three video interview clips with Opeth, in which the band talked about the creation of their upcoming album Watershed, which comes out June 3.

Here are the last three segments. To hear the band talk about touring with Dream Theater, their goals for Watershed and the contrasts on the album, click "more." Read more...

Century Media Records, which released Celtic Frost's last album, Monotheist in 20006 as well as the recent Hellhammer double-disc set of demos, Demon Entrails, is awaiting confirmation from singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer that Celtic Frost has broken up.

This morning, Celtic Frost's Web site posted the following message on its home page: "Celtic Frost singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer has left Celtic Frost due to the irresolvable, severe erosion of the personal basis so urgently required to collaborate within a band so unique, volatile, and ambitious."

In a Headbangers Ball Blog podcast interview in February, Fischer seemed cautiously optimistic about the future of Celtic Frost, but stressed, "It's very complex and very difficult to work with Celtic Frost. We are three very volatile characters. There's a lot of creativity, which, of course, at the same time, fuels a lot of dispute. It’s a healthy process, but it's a very difficult one." Read more...

"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work."
-- Emile Zola

I have made a fort of blankets to hide my illness. I feel safe here, free from the prying eyes of god and country. My only companion is a head full of words too congested with pharmaceuticals (and the cerebral cloud cover that accompanies this type of ailment) to freely emancipate themselves in the fluid streams and torrential downpours that I frequently experience and exploit for my own selfish and selfless gain.

But here, beneath the piles of bedding, I type and wheeze, and cough and scream, in the agony of this introspective dry-spell. What gods have I offended to be afflicted with such punishment? Not only to be sick, to be coughing and sneezing in endless feverish fits, but to be anchored to nothingness and tossed into a motionless sea of thick, sober, sludge. It is a sanction that seems much too strict for whatever limit, law, or directive that I may have broken or violated. Read more...

One of the most elusive and challenging bands to categorize and even fully comprehend is Opeth, a Swedish former death metal outfit that has also experimented with goth and classical, but is now most deeply steeped in post-prog metal -- which explains what they'll be doing on the Progressive Nation tour this summer with Dream Theater. The tour, which also features 3 and Between the Buried and Me, launches May 2 in Los Angeles and runs through June 1 in Tampa, Florida.

Opeth's new album Watershed actually comes out June 3, two days after the end of Progressive Nation (we told you those prog guys were cryptic). The group recorded the disc at Fascination Street studios in Orebro, Sweden between November 1 and early January.

For the next two days, Headbangers Blog will feature exclusive video interview footage with Opeth. Today, they discuss the creation of the new album, the destruction of a church organ and working with female vocalist Nathalie Lorichs.

Click "more" to watch Part One of the Opeth interview: Read more...