If we've learned anything from last week's 'Who Rocks Harder' contest between Unearth and The Black Dahlia Murder it's that both bands have some seriously loyal and passionate fans, and that we'll probably receive as many comments from people complaining about who won as we got while the competition was going on. Read more...

It's been a minute since we brought you a new Hatebreed video, so let's remedy that right now. Here's "Never Let it Die," the last clip the band's gonna do for its Supremacy album. But first, frontman Jamey Jasta's gonna rant for a bit about the video and the band's upcoming live album. Click more to feel those Jasta man vibrations, and to watch the video. Then catch it again on Saturday's Headbangers Ball on MTV2. Read more...

Anyone interested in a new video by hardcore/metal noisemongers Shai Hulud? We thought so!!! Read what guitarist Matt Fox has to say about the clip for "Misanthropy Pure," then watch the video before its Saturday night debut on "Headbangers Ball". Don't forget to check out the clip after you get through Fox's verbose text. Read more...

"A disguise of self-deception hides my secrets perfectly..." -- "Perfectly Flawed"

"Perfectly Flawed. Perfectly Incomplete."

Ye gods, I love this song so much.

I know many of you (fans, friends, foes, managers, mudslingers, peers, puds, laymen, label execs, et al) were afraid and apprehensive when you first heard of this mysterious, diabolical apostasy. "Oh dear God!" they exclaimed. "She's singing a beautiful song with an incredibly wonderful message about self-love and self-acceptance. Well," they deduced, "she's obviously gone mad. Mad I tell you! Completely, utterly, and absolutely bat-s--t crazy! People will never go for it!" they proclaimed! "Otep can't sing about loving one's self! What is she? Some kind of troublemaker? She can't sing about individuality when it's society and the mainstream that dictate our every thought and whim. They tell us who to be, who to love, what we all must look like, who we should admire, what god to worship, they pick our friends, they scale our value! Free-thinking? Self-love? Dear God! It would be pandemonium. What she's singing about is nothing short of cultural blasphemy!" Read more...

Some pundits would argue that Chicago instrumental metal band Pelican should be disqualified from this week's Headbangers Ball viewer's vote for artist from last week's show to return on Saturday's program. This argument stems from the fact that the band's overwhelming victory clearly had something to do with a little post on its MySpace that read "Vote to Rerun Pelican on Headbangers Ball." Read more...

Everything comes full circle in our last batch of Blog exclusives from Testament, the MTV Artist of the Week. Check 'em out 'cuz you won't see these clips on-air, yet they're hardly outtakes. Read more...

Anyone who has listened to German black/death metal band Dark Fortress' new album, Eidolon, can tell that the band's new frontman Morean is a fierce, commanding presence. He's also frickin' smart as he proves in his guest blog, in which weighs the value and veracity of occult tome The Necronomicon.

Click "more" to read Morean's heavily contemplated arguments and perceptions: Read more...

Here's the second of three posts of exclusive Testament footage you won't see on MTV's "Artist of the Week." Click "more" to check out the clips: Read more...

If you've always wanted to watch Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie get his thumb sliced open with a scalpel, now's your chance. During a Vegas emergency room procedure, Gillespie squirms, whines and narrates with the camera rolling as a doctor slashes open the musician's infected digit, drains the oozing pus and inserts what looks like a shoelace into the open wound. Where did this guy go to med school?

Highlights include Gillespie asking the doctor if his thumb will hurt afterwards, and the physician refusing to answer, and Gillespie enduring one long slice and then exclaiming, "You're still cutting?!" as the doc goes back for a second stab. But be warned, this stuff's more grisly than the last "Saw" movie.

Click "more" to read post-op commentary from Gillespie and watch the bloody video: Read more...

All this week, Testament will be the featured artist on MTV's 52/52. Look for tons of exclusive stuff, including live footage shot April 2 at Alcatraz and April 6 at B.B. Kings in New York and interviews and backstage clips. If you miss some of it on air, you can catch it all here.

...Well, actually, not all. Some of the filming was exclusive to the Headbangers Ball Blog, and over the next three days we'll present a batch of clips that you won't see on TV. The first contains four minutes of revealing interviews and the second is a professionally shot clip of "Practice What You Preach."

Click "more" to view, and check back tomorrow: Read more...