To start with, we gotta admit we're fans of Dragonforce. The band's hybrid of death metal, power metal and '80s pop is totally entertaining, and Herman Li and Sam Totman are pretty great guitarists. Also, as talented as they are, there's some great humor value in watching the guys bounce on trampolines from one section of the stage to the next, and seeing them sprint from platform to platform like they're navigating an obstacle course in the Special Olympics.

That being the case, we have to say Symphony X are probably the better band. Still, we thought a "Who Rocks Harder" contest between the two would be a tight battle. Not even close. Symphony X totally destroyed Dragonforce.

"I still like Dragonforce (for the record, Sonic Firestorm is their best album)," wrote Pickles. "But with Dragonforce, it’s easy to get lost in how much is going on all at once. With Symphony X, everything meshes together for a heavier and easier to listen to sound."

Other voters were less kind. "Dragonforce are more electronic than Massive Attack," offered F4RB3Y0NDM3T4L. "As far as musicianship, Dragonforce are obviously not as amazing as everyone assumes by listening to their albums. They cannot play live for s--t."

Adds Richaod, "Symphony X actually play metal with a hard edge, especially on their latest album, and not all their songs sound the same. I'd wager that Michael Romeo’s a more talented guitarist than Herman and Sam put together."

The people have spoken. To celebrate the downfall of Dragonforce and prove how f---in' good a guitarist Michael Romeo is, here's a 45 minute instructional video he did called "The Guitar Chapter. (Click "more" to view): Read more...

In the '70s, the Washington Capitals were one of the worst teams in the NHL. In 1974, their first year in existence, they won just eight games, losing 67 and tying five. That season's winning percentage of .131 remains the worst in hockey history. We had the misfortune of being at the Capital Center in Largo, Maryland to watch some of their horrible defeats through the '80s. We also witnessed a few of their wins, and when you're team is so bad they usually lose, any sort of win warrants celebration comparable to that of most teams winning the Stanley Cup.

Although we left D.C. years ago, we stood by our home team, as all dedicated sports fans must do lest they be guilty of treason on the level of divulging military secrets. Fortunately, as the decades passed, the Caps improved, landing playoff births in 1983 and 1986. Over the next 17 years, the team made the playoffs several more times, but was usually eliminated in the first round.

But now, for the first time since 2003, when they lost in the conference quarterfinals, the Washington Capitals are playoff bound! To celebrate their playoff birth, D.C. band Darkest Hour have recorded the team a fight song, "Let's Go Caps," which they've modeled after the track Pantera once penned for the Dallas Stars.

"If you listen, the song is actually a spin-off of an older Darkest Hour song called "With 1,000 Words to Say But One," guitarist Mike Schleibaum told the Washington Post's Express. "This is on purpose. It's in homage to Pantera, who did that with their song "Cowboys From Hell" and their Dallas Stars theme."

Schleibaum said the band decided to record the Caps tribute -- which features some killer riffs and a nice guitar lead, but some pretty non-existent lyrics: "Let's go Caps (repeated ad nauseam)/ Let's go!/ Let's go!/Capitals/ Washington Capitals." (click "more" to hear the song) Read more...

As Ryan mentioned in his last post, when Demon Hunter is not in the studio or on the road, we are busy designing, illustrating and handling art direction. We work primarily in the music industry and have created art for hundreds of bands.

One of the album packages we get asked most is Bleeding Through's The Truth, which I created in 2006. Here's how I pulled it off:

After speaking with singer Brandan Schieppati about the theme behind the album (including the lyrical content and the overarching message the band was conveying), I came up with a concept that I felt was cool enough to pitch to the band. Brandan mentioned to me that while so many bands were attempting to change their sound and message in the hopes of gaining popularity or fame, Bleeding Through was staying true to themselves and their music. To him, this was "The Truth." It's an aggressive record full of rants, tirades and personal vendettas. I immediately wanted to create artwork that embodied this anger. Their deep, dark 'truths' were as black as night and I wanted visually to represent that.

After pitching the idea to the band, I showed them this rough sketch:

They immediately approved the idea, but they had no idea what they were in for. Read more...

photo by Bruce Bettis

When he's not rocking out with his bros in Unearth, guitarist Ken Susi enjoys listening to hardcore bands like Judge or Sheer Terror, eating hot wings and pizza and downing about a case of beer -- usually with his bros in Unearth. He also enjoys nerding away on guitar, watching sports for hours and taking long walks on the beach. He especially likes the way the wet sand feels between his toes. Just kiddin'! Susi's no pansy, and anyone who says otherwise is liable to wind up with mouthful of shattered teeth. The dude's from the streets of Boston, after all, and has been known to get into a few scraps from time to time. But he's also got a wicked awesome sense of humor, which probably explains how we exited our interview unscathed.

So, since Susi fielded our obnoxious questions with grace and wit, we feel obligated to promote Unearth's latest effort before digging into the Q&A. Unearth have just released their first home video, the double disc DVD "Alive From the Apocalypse," which debuted at number 13 on Billboard's Top Music Videos chart with 1,800 copies sold in its first week. The band is currently on the road with Bury Your Dead, As Blood Runs Black, My Children My Bride and The Destro. And now, on with the stupid questions:

Has anyone ever confused you with Underoath?
Surprisingly, no one has ever made that mistake with us. We get a lot of, "Hey what's your band called again, On Earth?" I love that one. We hear that all the time. Oh, I also like it when people say, "Hey Ken, do you still play lead bass? Want to jam? I can play some sick double bass." Life is way too good to me.

Those guys in Underoath have God on their side. Do you think your band could take them in a fight?
I love Underoath as dudes! They have always been good friends to us and, heck, our bands started out around the same time. We spent, like, two years on all the same tours, too. It would never happen. But if It did… Are you kidding me?! Our dudes know how to fight. As far as Underoath goes, I bet the guitar player, Tim, would put up the best fight for them. He's a scrapper. You can see it in his eyes.

Your new DVD is called "Alive From the Apocalypse." When's the last time you thought your world was going to end?
Two days ago when I got diarrhea in Iowa. I was at dinner with some friends, and we went outside to head back to the club and then, boom. I felt a kick! Let me just tell you, I knew I wasn't pregnant. I ran all the way to the club and got my pants off just in time to get most of it in the bowl -- the rest overshot and covered the wall. Oops! At that moment, I thought the world was over, for sure. Read more...

Putting nearly three months of rumors to rest, Testament singer Chuck Billy announced onstage last night that his band will be opening for the upcoming Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell and Motorhead tour this August.

"We'll be on first, and we're only gonna have 30 minutes, so we won't be doing any talking," Billy said towards the end of the band's set at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in Midtown, New York. "We're just gonna hit you hard -- bam, bam, bam, bam -- with everything we've got."

On April 2, Pollstar prematurely posted (then removed) the first eight stops for the tour, which is reportedly slated to begin August 7 in Bristow, Virginia (additional dates below). Read more...

Aw, c'mon. Priceline.com's stock may be in the toilet, but you didn't honestly believe Captain Kirk and Gary Holt had joined forces on a new extreme metal project, did you?

No, Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts has got nothing to do with one of San Francisco's finest old-school thrash bands -- but it does feature William Shatner. The has-been actor performs alongside the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (what, the New York Philharmonic were already booked?) on a bunch of music written by David Itkin, who has been the music director of the symphony for the past 15 years.

According to the project's publicist, Exodus: An Oratoria in Three Parts is a "must have for fans of Shatner as well as people interested in inspirational recordings and classic Biblical literature."

We may be going out on a limb here, but we're guessing Holt doesn't fall into either category.

Once again, Gvoltt correctly guessed our indecipherable logo, proving he's the master of all things obscure and unreadable. For the rest of you, the scribbles and squiggles belong to Jours Sombres, a black metal group from Quebec, Canada that's dedicated to the fight for Quebec to achieve independence from Canadian rule. In fact the band's name translates to "Dark Days," a term that has been used to describe Britain's historical sovereignty over the region. Amusingly, on Jours Sombres' Web site, there's a link on the front page offering the English language version, and when you click on it the only thing that appears on the screen is a message reading, "Learn French."

Jours Sombres formed in 2001 and is actually the solo project of a guy who calls himself Akhéron (Tyranny Misanthropia). While the group appears to still be active, all that Jours Sombres have released so far is five songs on a 2003 split CD with Ekinox, which was re-released last year on Zephyria Records and a track on the compilation Unis Contre Les Religions Du Desert.

Cover art for Peter Beste's "True Norwegian Black Metal"

Over the past seven years, Peter Beste has taken numerous trips to Norway to shoot black metal musicians. At first, he was treated like any photographer, but gradually he was embraced by the members of the scene and invited into their inner sanctum. Bands that are ordinarily secretive and reclusive, including Darkthrone, Carpathian Forest and Gorgoroth, scheduled private sessions with Beste, during which they explored and exposed their various obsessions with paganism, nature, satanism and misanthropy, turning their most profane and blasphemous expressions into haunting and beautiful works of art.

(To read more about "True Norwegian Black Metal" and hear the Headbangers Ball Blog podcast with Peter Beste, click "more") Read more...

On Saturday night, MTV2's Headbangers Ball will premiere the new video by Firewind for "Mercenary Man." The track comes from the Greek power metal band's fifth album, The Premonition, which came out March 25.

"This is our third video with director Patric Ullaeus (In Flames, Lacuna Coil)," says frontman Gus G. "It was a great feeling going back to Sweden and working with him. When it comes to the visuals, he's our man. When I think that I want us to look like a million dollars, I think of Patric."

We'd settle for looking like $250,000. How much is a flight to Sweden these days? and does anyone have Patric's number?

(Click "more" for the online premiere of Firewind's "Mercenary Man.") Read more...

Here's another logo that takes us back to our days as an art major, cutting delicate snowflakes out of construction paper with a safety scissors. The secret to making good paper snowflakes is to be sure to make short straight cuts at steep angles -- and not to sniff too much rubber cement before you begin. Also, be sure to contrast the color of the flake with the backing paper. Black and white always works, but we suggest a bit of creativity -- maybe lime-green on hot pink. And for added effect, sprinkle liberally with pig's blood. Okay, guessing time...