We think this guy's still in the band, tacky shirt notwithstanding

Indianapolis Christian experimental hardcore band Gwen Stacy are praying that 2009 will be a more stable year than 2008, and their pleas have nothing to do with war or the economy. This year they lost two key players; first, vocalist Cole Wallace was fired for personal reasons and was replaced by rhythm guitarist Bobby Oakley. Guitarist Chris Suter was hired to perform on tour. Then in November, Oakley quit for reasons unknown and ex-Oceana vocalist Keith Jones temporarily took his place. And now, the band has announced that ex-Once Nothing frontman Geoff Jenkins will be its new vocalist. 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...

When it comes to sonic devastation, Today is the Day level the playing field (and everything else within 500 miles of ground zero) like an atomic bomb. And they've been doing so since 1994 -- back when many deathcore and tech metal musicians were probably still listening to Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey. The band is fronted by gun-totin', no-bulls--t talkin' Nashville, Tennessee native Steve Austin, who possesses the strength of the Bionic Man and the ferocity of Attila the Hun. Click "more" to read explosive commentary from Austin and watch Today is the Day's video for "IED," which will receive its on-air debut on Saturday's "Headbangers Ball," which airs from 1 to 2 a.m. EST. The song originally appeared on the 2007 Today is the Day album Axis of Eden, which remains an unsung classic, so check it out. Read more...

photo by Jon Wiederhorn

We're down to the final two days of our week-long celebration of the 20th anniversary of "Headbangers Ball," but that means we've still got 48 hours to look back at the past with classic footage and glance into the future with new video premieres. Today, our second premiere is the Between the Buried and Me video for "Informal Gluttony." We'll get to that in a minute, but first some background from singer and keyboardist Tommy Rogers:

The date was August 2, 2008. The place was Nashville, Tennessee at Rocketown, where we filmed our new CD/DVD "Colors_Live." Were we nervous? Yes. We've never filmed a show for a DVD before, and we've never played a set that lasted for almost two hours before. With all the nerves aside, this was one of the most exciting moments in our career. This was a show truly for Between the Buried and Me fans -- two sets which consisted of Colors in its entirety, and six old songs chosen by the fans. (Click more to read the rest of Rogers' commentary and watch the video for "Informal Gluttony"). Read more...

The new album by Bleeding Through, Declaration, is an explosive blend of fiery black metal, inflammatory hardcore, and combustible thrash, so naturally, the first video for the record, "Death Anxiety," had to be filled with flames. To tackle the job, the band hired Dave Brodsky and he was more than up to the task. Here's singer Brandan Schieppati to tell us more:

The first line in 'Death Anxiety' says, "My body will be set aflame tonight." We knew we wanted something straightforward with this video, performance driven and without some storyline or whatever. We didn't want to be playing in a warehouse while some actors do something "spooky" somewhere else. With that being said, that first line in the song was too hard to resist. This video had to have fire! (Click more to read the rest of Schieppati's commentary and watch the video. "Death Anxiety" will debut on-air tonight at 10 p.m. on MTV2 as part of our 20th anniversary celebration of "Headbangers Ball.") Read more...

More than eight years have passed since hardcore metal band Suicidal Tendencies released their last album, Free Your Soul and Save My Mind. But while they haven't played a direct role in the scene recently, their historical contributions to skater punk and metal are more than significant.

The band's self-titled 1983 album injected hardcore rage with humor, spawning such classics as "I Shot the Devil," "I Saw Your Mommy" and "Institutionalized," which became a staple of early MTV. As classic as it was, it was the band's follow up Join the Army -- released in 1987, the year "Headbangers Ball" went on the air -- that cemented the band's love for headbanging with guitarist Rocky George's crunchy riffs and singer Mike Muir's crushing delivery, something Suicidal further explored on their 1988 follow-up How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today.

Along with other forward thinkers like Corrosion of Conformity, DRI and Cro-Mags, Suicidal helped merged two disparate worlds and while fans of both metal and punk were initially resistant to accept the other, resulting in countless beatdowns, time would prove that Suicidal and their peers were way ahead of the curve. Even after other outfits started to catch on, Suicidal continued to lead the pack, integrating their own music and their splinter project Infectious Grooves with serious funk basslines and drumbeats, while remaining true to both their metal and hardcore roots.

Over the years, numerous future stars passed through the Suicidal/Infectious gates, including current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo (ex-Ozzy Osbourne), and drummers Brooks Wackerman (The Vandals, Bad Religion), Jimmy Degrasso (Megadeth, Y&T), Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle) and Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction). All the while, Suicidal remained grass roots, retaining their independence in lieu of making any commercial concessions. The reason the band has been out of the picture for much of the last 10 years has something to do with the rise of mallcore -- which Suicidal wanted nothing to do with -- but just as much to do with Muir's back injury, which kept him pretty incapacitated until very recently.

During an exclusive "Headbangers Ball" 20th Anniversary podcast interview, Muir talked about his memories of the "Ball," the important roll Suicidal played in the crossover scene and the misconception that the band brought gangs and violence into the music. We also discussed the band's evolution over the years, the debilitating back injury that put the group on hold and the group's first album since 2000, which will likely hit in January.

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

On their MySpace, These Arms are Snakes write, "People call us a lot of things. most of them are inaccurate." At the risk of being wrong, we won't call them one of the most exciting post-hardcore bands since Fugazi, or say their combination of terse, scratchy guitars, unsettling rhythmic undulations and emphatic vocals are as exciting as they are harrowing. And we won't praise their mathematical tempos, electronic embellishments or dynamic sense of disdain. We'll just ask you to pick up their new album Tail Swallower and Dove, which came out October 7. And we'll suggest you read the following guest blog from frontman Brian Cook, who calls it like he sees it every time:

"I hate the kids."

Thanks, Rick Froburg. I'm glad somebody had the balls to say it. While the Descendents didn't want to grow up and Minor Threat were minors at heart. Hot Snakes had the balls to own up to adulthood.

I turned 31 in July. In punk years, that's old. As someone that grew up in the hardcore scene and has spent considerable amounts of time working with youth, I feel both indebted to youth culture and
intrinsically a part of it. Yet I don't want to be a poster boy for suspended adolescence. I'm perfectly content with growing up.

The issue of age gets tangled when I start to evaluate its roll in the music community. Being cognizant of one's demographic is, to some degree, an acknowledgement of the audience's age. Music is ultimately another language, another way to convey a thought or emotion. Every song, on some level, is a statement. And, ultimately, I want my music to communicate to my peers. And my peers happen to be other older dudes that grew up listening to punk and hardcore but have learned to
expand their musical horizons beyond "loud and fast rules." I don't want to be Blink 182. I don't want to be well into my adulthood writing songs about hating parents and how high school sucks. That's not my life. (click "more" to read the rest of Cook's guest blog and stream six songs by These Arms Are Snakes). Read more...

Cartoon image by Balázs Gróf

The esteemed leader of a popular metal band sent us this amazing animated music video that pays homage to the 1985 Tobe Hooper sci-fi/horror movie "Lifeforce" and features cartoon depictions of Slipknot, Metallica, Ozzy and Michael Jackson. The video is for the Budapest, Hungary metalcore band Blind Myself and was created by 32-year-old Hungarian cartoonist Balázs Gróf. Click more to watch the awesome clip, which took Gróf over a year to complete. Read more...

Now we present the final of four premieres from the new Hatebreed DVD "Live Dominance," which comes out September 2. The clip can also be seen on Saturday's "Headbangers Ball." Click "more" to read commentary by frontman Jamie Jasta and watch the video. Read more...

Here's the HeadbangersBlog.com online premiere of Hatebreed's "Destroy Everything," from the band's upcoming DVD "Live Dominance," which comes out September 2. Catch the television debut on Saturday's "Headbangers Ball." Click "more" for frontman Jamey Jasta's description of the song, then watch it yourself: Read more...