photo by Jon Wiederhorn

Anyone who has followed the Orange County metalcore scene knows that Bleeding Through were one of the progenitors of the movement along with Eighteen Visions, Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold. And while each of the other aforementioned bands has gotten increasingly more mainstream over time, Bleeding Through have become heavier than ever. (click "more" to read the full show review and check out our accompanying photo essay). Read more...

For this blog, I wanted to show you how I turned some ordinary photographs of Lamb Of God into the apocalyptic images that grace the cover and feature pages of Revolver magazine's April 2009 issue, on newsstands now!

The concept for these images goes in line with the overarching theme behind the band's new album Wrath, which is, in short, all things end-times: plagues, pestilence, locusts, hail, blood red skies and rivers, etc.

For the cover specifically, the direction was to place the band in a swarm of locusts, with a sky of deep red looming in the background. For this image, I was able to keep most of the photo intact, and just add the locusts. I also wanted to add a horizon line comprised of steeples and old-world architecture. All in all, this image was pretty cut and dry. The most tedious part of the process was accurately cutting out the locusts, and placing them into the image.

(Click "more" to read how Ryan Clark turned the members of Lamb of God into harbingers of the apocalypse for the cover and inside magazine art.) Read more...

This week's episode of "Headbangers Ball" features no video premieres, no exclusive live footage, nothing you haven't seen before if you're a regular viewer. So why should you tune in? 'Cuz this is the show you dudes programmed all on your own. We've tallied your votes for best videos of the year, and on Saturday we'll run your top 10 choices from 2 to 3 a.m. EST, ending the show with your favorite metal vid of 2008.

Due to the diverse demographics of our viewers, your final 10 doesn't exactly mirror ours, which is why we've included a separate list of our own favorite videos of 2008. If you can't wait until tomorrow night to see who won, click "more" to read both lists and watch the top five vids on each. Read more...

The triple-disc Demon Hunter set, "45 Days," came out today. To celebrate the occasion, we've got an exclusive live video from the DVD, "Lead Us Home." The track is from the "Live in Nashville" section of the package. The other DVD is a tour documentary by Gale Glendening, and the set also includes a CD of live music. Click more to watch "Lead Us Home." Read more...

There are only three days left until Demon Hunter's new DVD, "45 Days," comes out. The three-disc package features a documentary, live footage and a CD of music from the film. To further whet your appetite, here's an exclusive preview. Click "more" to watch. Read more...

Here's the latest guest blog from Demon Hunter, in which singer Ryan Clark talks about the art for the band's triple DVD "45 Days," which drops November 25.

For those of you that have been keeping up with these blogs by my brother Don and I, you already know the deal: Designers by day, Demon Hunter by night (or something like that). For this latest installment, we actually have the opportunity to show you something that combines the two.

If you’re familiar with Demon Hunter, you might already know that our fans have an incredible impact on what we do. For instance, the songs "Follow The Wolves," "The Soldier’s Song," "Thorns" and "A Thread Of Light" are all direct responses to emails we’ve received from fans. The intense, heartfelt stories that we’ve heard and read from our fans gave us the idea to do something unique when we set out to embark upon the Stronger Than Hell tour. We wanted to document some of these stories, so that we could share with the rest of the world just how inspiring Demon Hunter fans are.

As we began to flesh out this idea, we started searching out the perfect guy to shoot and edit the documentary. By random chance, I happened upon the website of a photographer/videographer named Cale Glendening. He was young and relatively new to his profession, but I could tell that he had an amazing eye for it. Cale spent the whole tour with us, filming and taking photos the entire time. When the tour was over, Cale returned home to Tulsa, Oklahoma to spend the next few months sifting through days and days of footage, and edit it all into one beautiful, cohesive piece. When Cale sent us the first edit of the full documentary, we were truly blown away. To see a trailer for the documentary, go here:

The documentary is the primary piece to a three disc set that we'll be releasing in November entitled "45 Days." In addition to the documentary, we filmed a full live show in Nashville, Tennessee and recorded an instrumental soundtrack specifically for the documentary.

This release is packaged in a three disc digi-pack full of photos from the tour. The inspiration for the artwork is taken from the classic live look of records and films like "Depeche Mode 101," U2's "Rattle And Hum," and Johnny Cash's American recordings. Photographer Anton Corbijn's beautiful monochromatic photography was also a huge inspiration. Simple and stark was the goal. Click "more" to see some photos from the package. Read more...

It seems an unlikely pairing -- Demon Hunter working with Machine Head to create art for the special edition of The Blackening. Here, Demon Hunter guitarist and designer Don Clark explains why it had to work.

First off, let me start off by talking about Machine Head -- in general.

I remember when my buddy Brandon Ebel first told me about the band's first album Burn My Eyes in 1994, shortly after its release. At the time, I was playing in hardcore bands and deep into that scene, but metal was also a huge part of my life. Fear Factory, Sepultura, Prong, Metallica (obviously), Pantera, Slayer ... the list goes on. So, when I heard Burn My Eyes ... I was obviously floored. I even remember the day I drove down to Tower Records (RIP) on Broadway Street in Sacramento to pick it up -- and the moment I popped it in the CD deck. It had that new American thrash sound that I loved, but it had something else -- "Davidian." To this day, I don't know if it gets better than that opening riff, following by the classic line "LET FREEDOM RING WITH A SHOTGUN BLAST!" I still get chills when I hear it. From that moment on, Machine Head were my metal band of choice, trumping all others. (click "more" to read the rest of Don Clark's homage to Machine Head and to see the art he and his brother Ryan created for the expanded edition of The Blackening. Read more...

In early June, Bleeding Through submitted a guest blog to us lamenting the situation they were in at the time with their label Trustkill Records. According to the bandmembers, their new album Declaration could only be recorded with money lent from singer Brandan Schieppati's dad and a loan from their manager since Trustkill coughed up less than 25 percent of the budget they had promised for the record. Contracts were breached repeatedly, and while the label eventually ponied up cash owed and set a release date of September 30 for Declaration, they're still not providing tour support, leaving the band scrambling to pick up the tab for tickets to fly to Europe for a tour with Bullet For My Valentine.

Clearly, the years of bitterness with their label and the industry in general have left a deep imprint on Declaration, and album so fueled by rage, so ignited by distrust and contempt that it's hard to listen to without wanting to send a mailbomb to sombody you despise. While the band's past records have combined hardcore aggressive with the precision of thrash and ominous keyboards, here Bleeding Through ramp up the brutality, infusing many of the songs with black metal blast beats, orchestral buzzsaw guitar and swooping keys reminiscent of Dimmu Borgir or Emperor. And while there are still some melodic vocal parts, they're substantially scaled down from those on The Truth. And instead of railing about painful relationships, Schieppati, who is now happily married, have substituted circumstantial and existential aggression for romantic dysfunction.

During an off day on the band's tour with Bullet For My Valentine, we sat down with Schieppati and discussed the quagmire with Trustkill, how it rubbed off on the new songs, how the singer was convinced he wad dying from cancer, the misconception that Bleeding Through would pull an Atreyu for this disc and get all commercial, and the band's determination to forge ahead and fight to persevere in the face of a record industry that seems to be collapsing like a deck of cards.

Click "more" to stream of download the podcast: Read more...

Here's Demon Hunter singer and Invisible Creature designer Ryan Clark talking about the new art work he and created for The Showdown's new album Back Breaker.

Continuing with the theme of our every-so-often design blogs, I've got something hot off the press (actually, it hasn't even been printed yet) to show you.

I started working on the artwork for The Showdown's new record, Back Breaker just before leaving on tour this Summer. The Greek-mythology-themed song titles instantly drew me to a concept that I pitched to the band, which went something like this: Read more...

photo by Jon Wiederhorn

We know you all love Opeth's video for "Porcelain Heart" and the Danava clip for "Where Beauty and Terror Dance" 'cuz you voted for 'em last week, and we re-aired them on the May 16 edition of Headbangers Ball. So, you can't choose those again, however there's plenty of other rad stuff we played Saturday to select from, and the winner will earn a place on next week's show.

These include last week's exclusive premieres -- Pelican's "Dead Between the Walls" and Otep's "Crooked Spoons" -- as well as cool videos by Saviours, Demon Hunter, Obituary and more. Other past winners, Warbringer and Behomoth, don't qualify for this week's vote either, which doesn't mean we might not still program 'em. Remember, one vote per headbangers -- no cheating. click "more" to see your choices (drum roll, please): Read more...