DEVILDRIVER Will Start Performing COAL CHAMBER Songs, Says DEZ FAFARA

Dez Fafara says that DEVILDRIVER will start performing material from COAL CHAMBER, the band that put him on the musical map and gave him his first and only gold-certified album in the shape of the group's 1997 debut.

COAL CHAMBER existed for ten years before disbanding in 2003 to pursue other musical projects. They reunited in 2011 for touring purposes but it wasn't until 2014 that the band began work on a new studio album of original material, 2015's critically acclaimed "Rivals". Several months of touring activity followed before Dez returned to DEVILDRIVER to make a new record, 2016's "Trust No One".

Speaking to Greece's Metalpaths, Fafara said: "I will tell you this now: DEVILDRIVER is going to start playing four COAL CHAMBER songs. I'm tired of wating to play the music that made me who I was. I waited thirteen years to play 'Loco' again, and that's the song that made me who I was, that I wrote… And I refuse to wait to play 'Fiend' or 'Sway' — any of those songs — anymore. I'm not gonna wait for people."

He continued: "I had a late-night phone call a couple of months ago with Glenn Danzig, who called my house. And Danzig told me: 'Listen when I left the MISFITS, I played SAMHAIN songs andMISFITS songs when I was playing DANZIG songs. When Rob Zombie left WHITE ZOMBIE, he played WHITE ZOMBIE songs. Why have you waited so long?"

Fafara painted a bleak picture of COAL CHAMBER's future during a 2016 interview with Revolver magazine. He stated at the time: "I had a lot of fun doing that record and playing shows with them again. But there were some circumstances that were not ideal and that's why that thing is not continuing as of right now. If something comes up and I have time and want to make a record and the members have their shit together, I'll do it. But as of now, there's some deep-seated shit that certain dudes in the band still need to work out. And if they work it out and want to tour or make another record, they can come back and give me a call. But right now, everyone in DEVILDRIVER is stoked. No one's fighting. And I feel lucky to be where I am."

Dez had stated in previous interviews that COAL CHAMBER's original split happened because "I did not want to be around the band's hard drug use and I realized that going onstage every night that the money was feeding their habit, so I walked to save my friends." He added that his COAL CHAMBER bandmates were "clean" as of 2012, which made him realize that "it was the right thing to walk [away from the group back in 2003]."