It's hard to believe that 20 years have passed since Cannibal Corpse first ascended from a graveyard in Buffalo, New York with the soul goal of taking death metal to a new level of ferocity, velocity and graphic intensity. The band's 1990 debut, which features songs like "A Skull Full of Maggots," "Shredded Humans" and "Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains," did just that and after moving to Tampa, Florida, Cannibal Corpse quickly became one of the main players in a vibrant scene that also featured Morbid Angel, Deicide and Malevolent Creation.

Lots of bands extreme bands soften up over time, but Cannibal Corpse remain as brutal and talented as ever. Their last album, 2006's Kill, included skulcrushers like "Five Nails Through the Neck" and "Brain Removal Device" that kept their fans' bloodlust sated, and their upcoming album, which they'll start recording soon with Erik Rutan promises to be more rhythmically complex and just as visceral.

During our podcast interview with Webster, Cannibal Corpse's main songwriter and bassist talks about the upcoming album, the band's seven-plus hour DVD set "Centuries of Torment" (which came out July 8 ) and the recent reconciliation with former lyricist Chris Barnes. Webster also discussed the seeming normalcy of serial killers, America's obsession with the macabre, the return of genuinely unnerving movies, the horrors of digital technology, the new generation of goregrind and more.

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

Some of the world's angriest grindcore vegetarians, Cattle Decapitation, have entered Sharkbite studios in Oakland, California to record their new album. The band will track drums with Zach Ohren (All Shall Perish, Decrepit Birth) and will record the rest of the album with Billy Anderson, who will also mix the disc.

"This is going to be devastating, we promise," said the band on its MySpace. "The new material is over the top. The lyrics as hateful as 'Karma.Bloody.Karma' but much more disgusting this time around.

Really? More disgusting than: "Ancupunctured face with the blades of a rake/ Skinned alive, hung on the line to dry/ Sinew and fatty tissue for soup stock/ Bones collected for future fertilizer" ("Total Gore")?

At recent shows, Cattle Dacapitation previewed some of the new album tracks, including "Tooth Enamel & Concrete", "Regret & the Grave", "We Are Horrible People" and "The Body Farm." Click "more" to watch part one of their in studio video diary. Read more...

While we've been on the Vans Warped Tour for the last couple of months, I've been shocked to find out how many kids actually think it's okay to steal from a band. I'm not talking about downloading a record. Obviously, with the amount of illegal downloading that goes on, I'm sure that some will argue that downloading isn't stealing. No, I am talking about straight up stealing -- being a sneaky little rat and stealing directly from a band. Read more...

If you've been having problems registering as a Headbangers Ball Blog user in order to comment, you're not alone. The sign-up form is a little tricky and people are getting tripped up by the box asking for the users "Profile URL." If that's been the problem, here's what to do:

Under "Profile URL" just type a secondary password -- preferably some word that includes a couple numbers. Also, be sure to fill in all the required information on the form, and check the box verifying your interest in belonging to the MTV Community. Sounds corporate and all, but it's a good way to build a real metal community and minimize spam.

Obviously, metal folks are an opinionated bunch. And in the past we've had some spirited blog discussions about everything from the death of metal-minded comedian George Carlin to whether Judas Priest or Iron Maiden rock harder. And you guys have always spoken up when it comes to deciding what video should return for next week's "Headbangers Ball." Help keep the communication flowing by registering as a member of the MTV Community.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

Currently, DragonForce are battling to win over Slipknot and Disturbed fans on this year's Rockstar  Energy Mayhem Festival, but pretty soon the band's mettle will really be put to the test. On August 26 DragonForce's fourth album, Ultra Beatdown, will be released and the speed metal race will be on to see if the band members can maintain the breakneck pace of success of Inhuman Rampage and its "Guitar Hero 3" hit "Through the Fire and the Flames." So far, the group seem to be on course. The first single on Ultra Beatdown, "Heroes of our Time" is amping up the band's fans and raising the blood pressure of their detractors and the song's video -- which receives its "Headbangers Ball" debut on Saturday night on MTV2 -- has received more accolades than Pamela Anderson's last boob job (well, maybe that's stretching things a bit, but it's pretty rad).

We recently sat singer ZP Theart and bassist Frederic Leclercq in front of the camera and listened to them rattle on about the new album, their worst beatdowns and the differences between Beatdown and Rampage. Click "more" to see part one of three: Read more...

For the next week, MetalKult.com will host a stream of the new Krisiun album, Southern Storm, which comes out August 5. the Brazilian death metal band's eighth album was produced by Andy Classen (Rotting Christ, Dew-Scented) at at Stage One Studios in Borgentreich, Germany. The producer has also worked with Krisiun on 1999's Conquerors Of Armageddon and their last album, 2006's AssassiNation.

Click "more" To listen to Southern Storm in its entirety and check out an embed player of AssassiNation Read more...

Here's War of Ages singer Leroy Hamp talking about working in the studio with As I Lay Dying singer Tim Lambesis, who produced WOA's fifth album Arise and Conquer. The disc, which came out last week, is the follow-up to 2007's Fire From the Tomb:

"When I heard Tim Lambesis was getting into producing records, I wanted to work with him. I didn't think it would be possible for us, scheduling-wise, because of how busy he tends to be. We asked our label and management about the possibility and they contacted him. He said he would be stoked to make it happen! Read more...

It's not even the end of July, but we're pretty sure that at the end of the year when we're voting for our top albums, Nachtmystium's Assassins Black Meddle Part 1 will be right there near the top.

The extreme experimental band's sixth full-length expands upon the musical growth it displayed on 2006's Instinct: Decay. Now, instead of merely dabbling with psychedelic sounds, Nachtmystium has drawn inspiration from their old Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Neu! records to create a disc that's at times painfully claustrophobic, yet frequently rife with expansive textures. The apparent contradiction allows the band to breathe and explore like never before without losing the black metal minimalism it cultivated years ago from bands like Darkthrone and Mayhem.

As reflected in his music, which shatters boundaries and scoffs at convention, Nachtmystium frontman Blake Judd abhors the constrictive constructs and shallow content of much of today's black metal acts. Moreover, he despises the trendy and unimaginative developments of the scene and prefers to tour with audacious indie bands like Boris and Torche than go out on the road with a bunch of spike-wearing face-painted Norwegians.

To get to the bottom of Nachtmystium's blackened, ethereal souls we tracked down Judd at his home in Chicago and talked about his musical motivations, his label Battle Kommand Records, why his group signed to Century Media, the indulgences that color his brand of psychedelia and who a metal band has to sleep with to get a burger named after it.

click "more" to stream or download the podcast interview: Read more...

It's pretty hard to find a good live video of Whitechapel. And if you can't figure out why, you go try holding a video camera still while a whirlpool of moshers converge all around you. And that's not to mention the challenge of capturing such loud music without having it overdistort so badly it sounds like a hailstorm on an aluminum roof.

Fortunately, the dudes at MetalInjection.net were able to shoot Whitechapel playing "Eternal Refuge" at the Summer Slaughter tour without having the footage look like a camcorder of an earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter Scale. And the sound is excellent. Since it's a one-camera shoot there's no zooming or anything, but the shoot was wisely done on a tripod and you can the entire stage without obstruction. Click "more" to watch the live vid. Read more...

"Life sucks & then you die." - Anonymous.

Banks are collapsing, our economy is tumbling, we have salmonella & e. coli outbreaks, unemployment is rising, our military is waging two wars in two countries, wages are stifled, Mother Nature has tuberculosis and skin cancer, working class folks are losing their homes, and the government apes still jump to bail out Wall Street before they offer any relief to those of us on main street.

It's enough to make even the most daring of hero want to crawl into the bottom of a cheap bottle of something (anything) alcoholic and drown our sorrows and woes until our minds perceive nothing but the warm comfort of absolute blackness. Read more...