It would pretty ridiculous for a band to release two DVDs in just two years. Then again, Dethklok are a pretty ridiculous band.

That's right, "Metalocalypse Season II: Black Fire Upon Us" is headed our way as a double-DVD set (providing it's not banned first for inciting fans to commit suicide), and will drop like a severed head on December 2 -- just in time for the holidays.

In the episodes, the brootal cartoon metal band gets caught up in the disparate but ultimately similar worlds of electrocutions, weddings, publicity stunts and fashion lines (take that, Shagrath). The DVDs feature all 18 season two stories and a slew of hidden special features that fans will have to find on their own.

Click "more" to hear something you won't have to find on your own -- our podcast interview with Dethklok singer Nathan Explosion, guitarist Skwisgaar Skwigelf and drummer Pickles. Read more...

Yeah, we know Unearth's new album, The March, is coming out October 14 and it's a pretty strong record, but right now we're far more stoked about the new Earthless double disc, Live at Roadburn, an offering that definitively conveys the breathtaking spontaneity and headspinning grandeur of this San Diego droner-metal band.

A stuporgroup composed of guitarist Isaiah Mitchell (Nebula, Drunk Horse), bassist Mike Eginton (Electric Nazarene) and drummer Mario Rubalcaba (ex-Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes, Blackheart Procession), Earthless play transcendent, apocalyptic, riff-rock that flows, bubbles and burns like rivers of magma through dense forestland. Touch points are Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Tab-era Monster Magnet, Sleep, Loop, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, and unlike many stoner bands, Earthless draw from each of their influences in a way that's easily identifiable, but never derivative.

Chaos and chance are two of their main motivations, which explains the birth of Live at Roadburn. The sonic expedition wasn't meant to be an album, let alone a four-song double disc that seems to last as long, and is nearly as vibrant as a colorful acid trip. Here's what happened. Earthless were invited to play the 200-capacity club the Batcave at the 2008 Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland, but right before they were scheduled to go on, they were asked by festival organizers if they would play the main stage instead. As it turned out, headliners, Isis, had only used part of their two-hour long time slot and fans were clamoring for more. So, Earthless moved themselves and their equipment, then blissed out for 90 minutes before 2,000 awestruck music fans. When they found out that the show had been taped, they listened back to the recordings and decided that the gig captured their improvisational spirit and raw urgency better than any studio recording, they decided to release the entire spellbinding concert.

Click "more" to ingest some of the magic. Read more...

We've been waxing rhapsodic about Gojira's new album, The Way of All Flesh since mid-August, and now fans can finally hear it for themselves. The disc doesn't come out in the U.S. until October stream, but the band has posted 10 of the 12 tracks (the other two are coming shortly), which rip like a fishnet stocking. Click "more" to hear it, see tour dates with In Flames and check out our podcast interview with frontman Joe Duplantier. Read more...

Last week, we posted a guest blog by Cattle Decapitation vocalist Travis Ryan, in which the grindcore growler discussed espoused the virtues of Carcass and explained how his faith in metal was restored when he attended the group's reunion show in Hollywood at the House of Blues.

Even if you weren't there or at any of the other Carcass shows, you can see what Ryan was talking about 'cause, thanks to the magic of bootlegging, a dude who goes by the moniker Sickvideo, has posted a really decent sounding clip of the band. This is about about as you're gonna get with a one camera shoot. Click "more" to watch footage of Carcass' "Jigsore Quandary" and "Carnal Forge." Read more...

Aw, c'mon. We would never really strangle a little girl -- unless you didn't put your brains in gear and choose an act from last week to return to the next "Headbangers Ball." You've got a tough choice to make (not the thing about the little girl... we know you're do the right thing). There are some pretty righteous videos in the running, including the Architects "Always," which was an exclusive for the "Ball."

As always, past winners and old videos are not eligible. In other words, pick exclusively from the list below and only select one act. Feel free to include a description of why your choice should win. The best entries will be quoted when we announce the winner. Only one vote allowed per IP address. The polls are open now through Wednesday at 3 p.m. Click "more" to see the list of this week's contestants: Read more...

They're not as well known as Dimmu Borgir, Gorgoroth or even Watain, but Dark Fortress have been stoking the fires of black metal since their formation in 1994. There are primarily two reasons why they've been a bit under the radar for over a decade. They're from Germany, not Norway, and their lineup has shifted with more frequency than Marilyn Manson's image.Guitarist Asvargyr is the only member left from the band's original lineup, but soft of the changes have been for the better. In 2007, vocalist Morean replaced Azathoth and provided a new sense of motivation and leadership. Dark Fortress' 2008 album, Eidolon, came out on Century Media, giving the band greater visibility and Morean's sinister presence and charisma have made Dark Fortress a band to watch. For his second guest blog for HeadbangersBlog.com (read the first one about mysteries of "The Necronomicon" here), Morean debunks the myth of the eternal heavy metal bacchanalia. Click "more" to read the rant: Read more...

Nevermind that none of the members of Rush are Jewish. That's not stopping VH1 Classics from devoting 24 hours of programming to the Canadian power trio starting at sunset on September 29 -- the beginning of Rosh Hashanah (which the network will celebrate as RUSH Hashanah).

The tribute to Rush will include two of the band's concert DVD, "Rush in Rio" and 'R30" as well as past and present videos from band. Rush will release a new concert DVD, "Snakes and Arrows Live," on November 25. Dust off your shofar and play along with these classics: Read more...

This, from Chris Harris at MTVnews.com's "Metal File."

For metal, hardcore and hard-rock fans, the last two years have brought some long-awaited, never-thought-we'd-see-'em reunions. Bands such as Carcass, Snot, Overcast, Pestilence, Living Sacrifice, At the Gates, Possessed, Rage Against the Machine and Suffokate — among others — have all been resuscitated, as members have put aside their various differences, with some groups staging rather successful comeback tours. But the thing about reunions is that they don't always stick, lasting — in some cases — just two or three gigs.

Such has been the case for Long Island hardcore hellions Vision of Disorder, who've played just a handful of reunion shows since dissolving back in 2002. Frontman Tim Williams — who didn't languish in the wreckage left by V.O.D.'s demise, instead teaming up with guitarist Mike Kennedy to launch Bloodsimple — is looking forward to the band's upcoming reunion gig in New York on November 16 (the bill will also feature Overcast, Indecision and Nassau Chainsaw) but isn't so sure V.O.D.'s return will lead to anything more than feelings of nostalgia.

"Never say never, but reunions are short-lived; everyone knows that," Williams told Metal File this week. "Who knows what's going to happen, but for the time being, this will be it. We're going to do some shows, but V.O.D. will never come back the way it was. It'll never be like a full-time, full-on reunion, but there's definitely going to be some shows. Then again, if the right opportunities presented themselves to the band, and we all agree on it, I think we'll probably do some more shows, because we were pretty happy with the success and the turnout the last couple of shows have had. We're just very skeptical, and we want to be careful." Read more...

A couple of years ago, no one knew who Five Finger Death Punch were. That was soon to change.

The wayward supergroup gelled when former members of semi-popular Los Angeles bands -- Motograter's Ivan Moody (vocals), U.P.O.'s Zoltan Bathory (guitar), W.A.S.P.'s Darrell Roberts (guitar) and Jeremy Spencer (drums) and Anubis Rising's Matt Snell (bass) -- joined forces to write songs that were more contemporary, well-crafted and radio-ready than those of their former outfits.

Their efforts paid off. In 2006, Five Finger Death Punch went into the studio to record their debut The Way of the Fist on their own and in 2007 they signed a label deal with management company The Firm. The album entered the Billboard album chart its first week of release and has produced the radio singles "The Bleeding" and "Never Enough." To date, the record has sold over 200,000 copies.

Five Finger Death Punch cemented their reputation as an exciting live bands opening shows for Korn, Hellyeah, Trivium and Atreyu. Recently, FFDP played The Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival and on October 3 the band will launch a headline tour in Sauget, Illinois with In This Moment, Bury Your Dead and Another Black Day. Dates run through December 4 in San Diego.

We recently hooked up with Moody and talked about the album's success, the band's history, FFDP's love for mixed martial arts fighting, and the emotional and physical scars that have impacted the band's churning, melodic metal.

Click more to stream or download the podcast. Read more...

Trivium have posted the first six songs from their new album, Shogun, for fans to listen to in advance of the September 30 release of the disc. Heavier, darker, angrier, more pissed off, faster and more epic than anything in the band's already impressive catalog, Shogun is incredibly dense, layered and full of atmosphere -- actually, that's not exactly true.

We pulled that last paragraph almost directly from Bleeding Through's promotional bio for their new album Declaration, which also comes out September 30. See, we were originally gonna link to the Bleeding Through album Declaration, but since that's no longer streaming on their MySpace, we figured we'd plug Trivium instead. And since we'd already cut the Declaration description to paste into our Bleeding Through post (the truest action of a lazy blogalist) and we liked the way it read, we decided to insert into our Trivium piece since some of it applies. dense (check), layered (check), full of atmosphere (check), heavier, darker, angrier (well, maybe not).

But why form your opinions from a bunch of words cobbled together by a writer who may or may not have listened to the album before writing the description? Click "more" and listen for yourself. Read more...