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525 Power Tracks - Featured Artist |
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DevilDriver |
DevilDriver
is
Dez Fafara - vocals
Mike Spreitzer - guitar
Jeff Kendrick - guitar
Jon Miller - bass
John Boecklin - drums, additional guitar
DevilDriver has always been a band on a three-pronged mission: Work
hard, rock harder, and kick as many asses as possible in the
process.
Since first forming in 2003, the Santa Barbara metal quintet has
stuck resolutely to this mission, even though it's often meant
traveling a rougher, less glamorous road than most musicians would
prefer to endure. Rather than cashing in on the popularity of his
previous successes, frontman Dez Fafara insisted from the get-go
that DevilDriver should not only forge their own unique sound, but
should also start at the proverbial bottom of the bill and work
their way up through endless touring, earning the music world's
respect one fan at a time.
"I get that hard-working attitude from my father," says Dez. "I
believe in gnawing at the bit, you know? It's taken its toll on us,
sure - but hard work, road work and belief in ourselves is what
we're based on."
Pray For Villains, DevilDriver's gut-punching new album, is clearly
the culmination of that endless hard work and unconquerable
self-belief. Having honed their powerful sound over the course of
three previous albums - 2003's self-titled debut, 2005's The Fury of
Our Maker's Hand and 2007's The Last Kind Words - and countless live
dates (including their legendary Download appearance in 2007, where
the band's ferocious performance triggered what many believe to be
the largest circle pit in history), the band is now operating at a
higher level than ever before.
"For us, it's been a constant growth, musically," Dez explains. "Not
only in terms of finding out how to write together, but in figuring
out what a good DevilDriver song is. Every single record has been a
progression, and we approached everything the same way as we've
always done, but it clicked really hard on this record. This is the
defining sound of what we are, and where we're going to go in the
future."
Produced by former Machine Head/Soulfly guitarist Logan Mader (who
has previously manned the controls for the Cavalera Conspiracy,
Divine Heresy and Five Finger Death Punch), Pray For Villains finds
DevilDriver rocking as brutally as ever, with the rhythm section of
drummer John Boecklin and bassist Jon Miller pummeling the listener
into submission while the guitar tag-team of Jeff Kendrick and Mike
Spreitzer lets fly with one nasty riff and incendiary solo after
another, and Dez truly howls like a man possessed. The album is both
more technical and more straightforward than anything DevilDriver
has done in the past, but there's also an additional emphasis on
groove, dynamics and song-craft.
"We decided not to go even more brutal, more heavy, more screamy,
more fast than last time, because we've already proved we can do
that," says Dez. "There's a lot more groove going on, a lot more
dynamics. The guitar work is amazing -some of the solos absolutely
blow me away - and the drumming is un-fucking-real. There's gonna be
kids in their basements trying to learn this shit forever. Yet we
also said, ‘Let's not only bring groove into this, but let's bring
hooks, and let's write better songs.' We didn't dial it down at all,
but we wanted to add some substance to it, as well."
Lyrically and thematically, the album's rampaging title track pretty
much sums up where Dez is coming from on Pray For Villains. Inspired
by his love of Western films, the song is about "how you put all
your eggs in one basket, and you bet on the hero - but it's actually
the bad-ass villain who comes in and saves the day," he explains. "I
love Westerns, especially the ones with Clint Eastwood; I like the
anti-heroes, rather than the John Wayne kind of guys. I was thinking
that in those films, just like in real life, it usually takes a
fucking bad-ass to come in and do the job - and that's usually not
the guy in white with the shiny gun. A lot of these songs, including
‘Resurrection Blvd.,' ‘In The Cards' and ‘Forgiveness Is A Six-Gun,'
are definitely influenced by that."
Themes of self-reliance, hard work and positive energy also run
through tracks like "I See Belief," "Pure Sincerity" and "Back With
A Vengeance," all of which reflect both the scars and the hard-won
accomplishments of DevilDriver's first half-decade. "I'm not a
nihilistic dude," Dez explains. "The line,‘I see belief when no one
else does' - a lot of people are so negative about things, saying,
‘Oh, that will never work,' or 'We'll never get that tour,' or
‘We'll never get to that place' but I'm just not that guy. Call it
stupidity or blind luck," he laughs, "but I've got a feel for what's
going to happen with this band. I believe in the motivation and
upward mobility of this band, as well as the movement and the bond
that we're creating between our fans and us. I want to bring that
positivity through the power of metal and say to people, ‘Hey, keep
your head up/Get your head out of the sand'- take a breath of fresh
air, try to be positive about life, and move through it with
strength, power and belief in yourself."
Of "Pure Sincerity," Dez reveals, "That's for when people ask,
‘What's DevilDriver about?' Well, listen to ‘Pure Sincerity': ‘Give
‘em what they want/Give ‘em what they need/Pure Sincerity'. That's
all it's ever been, from the time we started making music - giving
them what we feel is our music, and not trying to follow any kind of
trend."
"Back With a Vengeance" is a howl of triumph, a musical victory lap
for a band that many critics discounted or disregarded, at least
until DevilDriver's ever-increasing fanbase and reputation for
consistently punishing live shows became simply too much to ignore.
"That song's about looking yourself in the mirror and going, ‘Yep,
that's right, we're kicking ass like I always knew we would be,'"
Dez explains. "Don't ever count any motherfucker out in life. It may
have taken a record or three to get it through everybody's heads,
but now it's obvious. And on ‘Back With A Vengeance,' I'm actually
giving myself a minute to step back and look at DevilDriver and go,
‘Holy shit, we all built this thing together - and it's a monstrous
machine!'"
To no one's surprise, DevilDriver will be taking that monstrous
machine on the road for the rest of 2009, and probably beyond. (The
band's innate affinity for touring is reflected on the new tracks
"I've Been Sober" and "Another Night In London.") "We need to
travel," says Dez. "So we're booked through Christmas ‘09; we're
going all over the world, and we're not coming home. Our schedule is
so rigorous, it's unreal - sometimes even I don't know why I put
myself through it - but I love the road. I love my family, but I
can't sit home for more than two weeks," he laughs. "I think time
for me at home is wasted right now. I'm still young enough to go out
and do my thing."
"You have to love what you do," Dez concludes. "We love to play
together as a band, we love to be onstage, and we love to deliver
our music to people live. We've always said that's been part of the
mission - and if you're gonna talk it, you've gotta walk it."
Catch DevilDriver
on Tour:
Aug 24 2009 7:00P the Rock St. Paul, Minnesota
Aug 25 2009 7:00P Granada Theater Lawrence, Kansas
Aug 26 2009 7:00P Pop’s Sauget, Illinois
Oct 16 2009 8:00P Relentless Garage London, London and South East
Oct 17 2009 7:00P Relentless Garage London
Oct 18 2009 7:00P Rios Leeds
Oct 18 2009 7:00P Rios Leeds
Oct 19 2009 7:00P Rock City Nottingham
Oct 20 2009 7:00P Garage Glasgow, Scotland
Oct 21 2009 7:00P Academy 2 Manchester
Oct 23 2009 7:00P Wulfrun Wolverhampton
Oct 24 2009 7:00P Academy Newcastle
Oct 25 2009 7:00P Roadmender Northampton
Oct 27 2009 7:00P La Locomotive Paris
Oct 28 2009 7:00P Essigfabrik Koln
Oct 29 2009 7:00P Batschkapp Frankfurt
Oct 30 2009 7:00P Marix Batschkapp
Oct 31 2009 7:00P LKA Longhorn Stuttgart
Nov 1 2009 7:00P Hof Ter Loo Antwerpen
Nov 3 2009 7:00P AtAK Enschede
Nov 4 2009 7:00P Romein Leeuwarden
Nov 5 2009 7:00P Garage Saarbrucken
Nov 6 2009 7:00P Posthof Linz
Nov 7 2009 7:00P Backstage Munich
Nov 8 2009 7:00P Abaton Prague
Nov 9 2009 7:00P Hirsch Nurnberg
Nov 10 2009 7:00P Seifenfabrik Graz
Nov 11 2009 7:00P Hafen Innsbruck
Nov 12 2009 7:00P Z7 Pratteln
Nov 13 2009 7:00P Arena Vienna
Nov 14 2009 7:00P Hellraiser Leipzig
Nov 15 2009 7:00P Markthalle Hamburg
Nov 17 2009 7:00P Traedgarn Gothenberg
Nov 18 2009 7:00P KB Malmo
Nov 19 2009 7:00P Klubben Stockholm
Nov 20 2009 7:00P voxhall Aarhus
Nov 21 2009 7:00P Columbia Club Berlin
Dec 11 2009 7:00P The Riverstage Brisbane
Dec 13 2009 7:00P Luna Park Sydney
Dec 15 2009 8:00P Festival Hall West Melbourne
Dec 16 2009 7:00P The Barton Theatre Adelaide
Dec 18 2009 7:00P Metro City Perth
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