DEVILDRIVER

'DevilDriver' (initially called 'Deathride') is a death metal-influenced groove metal band from Santa Barbara, California. They were dubbed by Phil Anselmo, the former Pantera leadman and current Down lead singer, as the next Pantera.[1] The band are also becoming known for their signature large circle pits, much like Lamb of God's "Wall of Death".

Contents

Biography

Genre

Members

Former

Discography

Albums

Singles

Other

References

External links

Biography

The group was started by Dez Fafara and Evan Pitts. Evan saw Dez one morning in a diner in California. The rest of the members were recruited over time. Dez Fafara is the former frontman of the band Coal Chamber, who broke up prior to his term in DevilDriver, for reasons still hotly debated by many to this day. After the demise of Coal Chamber, DevilDriver became his main focus. Their debut album, the self-titled DevilDriver, was released on October 23, 2003 under Roadrunner Records. Dez wanted to focus more on the extreme side of music, influenced by black, death, and thrash metal. This is more apparent on their second album, The Fury of Our Maker's Hand, where one can hear traces of Scandinavian death metal, specifically with the guitar work.
Their second album, ''The Fury of Our Maker's Hand'', was released in 2005 and was generally well-received by fans and critics alike, even garnering a 4K review from rock magazine Kerrang.^[1]
The band went on numerous tours in support of the album, including stops in the United States, Europe, and Australia in support of bands such as In Flames, Fear Factory, and Machine Head, as well as the Burning Daylight Tour, their first headlining.
On October 31, 2006, DevilDriver re-released ''The Fury of Our Maker's Hand'' with three additional studio tracks and three live recordings of previously released material. The special edition also contains a DVD of all of their music videos to date.
Recently, DevilDriver wrapped up the recording sessions for their third album (which was released June 16 and June 19 2007 in Australia and the United Kingdom respectively, and was released on July 31 in the United States), entitled ''The Last Kind Words'', at Sonic Ranch studios outside El Paso, Texas and promoted it by playing at the British rock festival Download Festival at Donington alongside headliners Linkin Park, Iron Maiden, and My Chemical Romance.
"Horn of Betrayal" was debuted from ''The Last Kind Words''. It was played on May 16th on Sirius Satellite's Hard Attack channel.
The entire completed album leaked onto the internet in mid June, 2007.
On July 28th, 2007, the band announced on their MySpace that they would join Ozzfest on August 2nd. Stating that they would play at 3:30 in the afternoon, it can be determined they are taking the second stage non-rotating spot left vacant by recently departed Mondo Generator. DevilDriver will be starting their UK Tour in October 2007
They will be apart of Gigantour, which also includes Lacuna Coil, Static X and Megadeth (who are headlining) that tours through Australia in November.

Genre

DevilDriver's genre is subject to heavy dispute between fans. Lead singer Dez Fafara once said in an interview that the band did not want to be pigeonholed to any particular single genre, and that they get inspiration from many different styles of music. The band are mainly regarded as groove metal.

Members

★ Dez Fafara - vocals

★ Mike Spreitzer - guitar

★ Jeff Kendrick - guitar

★ Jon Miller - bass guitar, guitar

★ John Boecklin - drums, guitar

Former

★ Evan Pitts - guitar
Evan Pitts quoted his reason for leaving the band was: "I didn't want to tour anymore, the lifestyle did not suit me well."

Discography

Albums

'Album cover'	'Album title'
	'''DevilDriver''' ★ Released: October 28, 2003 (U.S.) ★ Label: Roadrunner Records ★ Chart positions: #17 (U.S. ''Billboard'' Heatseekers) ★ U.S. sales: ★ Singles: ''I Could Care Less'', ''Nothing's Wrong?''
	'''The Fury of Our Maker's Hand''' ★ Released: June 28, 2005 (U.S.) ★ Label: Roadrunner Records ★ Chart positions: #117 (U.S. ''Billboard'' 200) ★ U.S. sales: 10,400+ ★ Singles: ''Hold Back the Day'', ''End of the Line''
	'''The Last Kind Words''' ★ Released: July 31, 2007 (U.S.) ★ Label: Roadrunner Records ★ Chart positions: #46 (Australian ARIA Albums Chart) ★ U.S. sales: 14,000+ ★ Singles: ''Not All Who Wander Are Lost''

Singles

★ "I Could Care Less" (2003)

★ "Nothing's Wrong?" (2004)

★ "Hold Back the Day" (2005)

★ "End of the Line" (2005)

★ "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" (2007)

Other

★ Two DevilDriver songs have appeared on the TV series ''Scrubs'' - "Devil's Son" in the episode "My Therapeutic Month", in which the track is (incorrectly) described as speed metal, and "Driving Down the Darkness" in "My Long Goodbye".

★ "The Mountain" was featured on the soundtrack for the U.S. release of ''.

★ "Digging up the Corpses" is a DevilDriver song exclusively produced for the movie .

References

1. Kerrang DevilDriver Review Scan

External links

★ Official DevilDriver website

★ Official Roadrunner Records website

★ Official DevilDriver MySpace

★ DevilDriver UK (fansite)

★ DevilDriver World

★ DevilDriver U.S. (fansite)

★ Metal Archives listing

★ Interview with DevilDriver on TruePunk.com