On Friday, Headbangers Blog will present an in-depth and confessional podcast interview with Disturbed frontman David Draiman. To whet your appetite for the full 40-minute interview (which can be streamed or downloaded), we’ve transcribed the first five minutes of the conversation. Disturbed’s fourth album, Indestructible, the follow-up to 2005's Ten Thousand Fists, will come out June 3.

Headbangers Blog: You’re doing about three weeks of U.S. dates before heading off to Europe. Will you be playing much new material for those shows (which start April 26 in Little Rock, Arkansas and run through May 17 in Columbus, Ohio)?
David Draiman: We’ll only be playing the two songs that have been released thus far, [“Inside the Fire” and “Perfect Insanity”] until the actual release date. Unfortunately, that’s what we’re bound to until the record is actually out there. It’s kind of a tease, but for the first three-week run, even though we can’t play all of the new material, we’ll probably throw in a couple of older songs, and/or b-side stuff that just the diehards will get or people haven’t heard in a while or people never thought they’d hear live. So, we’re trying to keep it as fresh and exciting as possible for everyone without revealing too much of the new record.

There was a time when bands could actually test their upcoming album material on audiences to see how they responded, but now with the Internet, that rarely happens.
It’s a different world these days. It’s unfortunate because you truly do get a different level of appreciation for a song based on how it impacts live. Read more...

The Big Apple might as well change its name to the Big Korn Cob. Okay, maybe that's a big Korny, but tomorrow will be a pretty big day in New York for the forefathers of nu-metal.

First, the band will set up a Korn field in the middle of Times Square for a noon press conference, then Korn will head over to the South Street Seaport Pier 17 to perform a special live set to celebrate the release of their self-titled eighth studio album, which can be heard streaming in its entirety streaming at The Leak on MTV.com.

The press conference will be held at the Armed Forces Recruiting Station andKorn are expected to talk about the new record,their plans for working with the USO and their upcoming plans to upgrade their environmental efforts on this summer’s Family Values Tour in partnership with MusicMatters and SMART.

The free concert at the South Street Seaport will begin at 6 p.m. After the 45 minute concert, Korn will sign autographs for fans at the J&R store on 23 Park Row. The first 500 fans who purchase the new disc at J&R will receive an invite to a special VIP meet-and-greet.

Korn's Family Values tour, which also features Evanescence, Atreyu, Hellyeah, Trivium, Flyleaf and others, started July 20 in St. Louis. Dates run through September 2 in Irvine, California.

On March 26, at the world's first virtual press conference, Korn, Hellyeah and Atreyu talked with fans about this year's Family Values (click here, for the full story on MTVnews.com).

Fans got inside tour lineup information directly from the artists, as they went online to interact with computer generated images of their favorite band members. "The fans really made last year's tour incredible, so we just had to do it again this year," said Korn singer Jonathan Davis. "We could not be more excited about this year's lineup."

The tour launches on July 16 in St. Louis, Missouri, and will also feature Evanescence, Trivium and Flyleaf.

"We are very psyched to see some of our favorite bands and getting all of our fans together for this amazing festival," said Evanescence frontwoman, Amy Lee.

In addition to normally priced house seats, lawn seats will be available for $9.99 at every outdoor stop. "It's important to us that we do all we can to have a great line-up and make this tour affordable," said Davis. "Live music should be something that all of us should be able to share together. The success of last year's tour proves we can make a difference. I believe it has already had an effect on a lot of other tours, and that's cool."

Family Values will hit the following cities (dates and venues TBA): St. Louis, MO; Minneapolis, MN; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; Camden, NJ; Boston, MA; Washington DC; Hartford, CT; Buffalo, NY; Detroit, MI; Toronto, ON; Pittsburgh, PA; Scranton, PA; East Rutherford, NJ; Indianapolis, IN; Atlanta, GA; Orlando, FL; Miami, FL; Tampa, FL; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; San Antonia, TX; Oklahoma City, OK; Kansas City, MO; Denver, CO; Albuquerque, NM; Phoenix, AZ; Bakersfield, CA; Sacramento, CA; San Francisco, CA; Irvine, CA.

Ex-Pantera and Damageplan drummer, Vinnie Paul, will tour this summer for the first time since December 2004, when his brother, Dimebag Darrell, was killed onstage in Columbus, Ohio.

Paul will be playing with his new band, Hellyeah, on the Family Values tour, which also features headliners Korn, Evanescence, Atreyu, Flyleaf and Trivium. Other bands will be announced shortly.

The tour launches on July 20 in St. Louis -- three days after the upcoming Korn record is supposed to come out -- and hits 30 cities before ending in Washington, D.C. on a yet-unscheduled date.

Hellyeah's self-titled debut album comes out April 10. The band features Mudvayne singer Chad Gray, Mudvayne guitarist Greg Tribbett, Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell and Nothingface bassist Jerry Montano. The first video from the disc, "You Wouldn't Know," premieres on Headbangers Ball this week.

Now here's a blast from the past -- Pantera with "Walk."