DEVILDRIVER: 'Beast' Special Edition Detailed

Santa Barbara, California metallers DEVILDRIVER will release their fifth album, "Beast", on February 22, 2011 via Roadrunner Records. The CD was recorded at Sonic Ranch studios in Tornillo, Texas with producer Mark Lewis (TRIVIUM, CHIMAIRA, ALL THAT REMAINS) and was mixed by acclaimed British producer Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, EXODUS, MACHINE HEAD, NEVERMORE, ARCH ENEMY) at his Backstage studio in Derbyshire, England. The band recorded 14 songs during the "Beast" sessions, with 12 tracks making the standard version of the CD and all 14 songs appearing on the special edition, which also comes with a bonus DVD. The special edition includes the band's documentary "You May Know Us From The Stage" (shot by filmmaker Daniel J. Burke, a.k.a. Bruce Wayne) and official music videos spanning DEVILDRIVER's career thus far.

"Beast" special edition track listing:

01. Dead To Rights (4:53)
02. Bring The Fight (To The Floor) (3:33)
03. Hardened (5:46)
04. Shitlist (4:04)
05. Talons Out (Teeth Sharpened) (4:20)
06. You Make Me Sick (5:18)
07. Coldblooded (4:06)
08. Blur (4:58)
09. The Blame Game (4:00)
10. Black Soul Choir (16 HORSEPOWER cover) (5:07)
11. Crowns Of Creation (4:55)
12. Lend Myself To The Night (4:01)

Bonus tracks:

13. Lost
14. Fortune Favors The Brave
15. Grinfucked (live)

"The record is extreme," vocalist Dez Fafara told Revolver magazine. "And it attacks from start to finish. If you liked [2007's] 'The Last Kind Words', this is like that on steroids and crank, driving a Buick Skylark 200 miles an hour straight to Vegas."

"I felt like I was waking up and experiencing a moment of clarity that brought out all these pissed off, negative emotions," Fafara said of making the album. "It's an all-out release of pain.

"It's been a beast of a year and a half, and it's still going," he added.

Regarding the new album's musical direction, drummer John Boecklin stated, "It's interesting to me — it's not the fastest shit we have done, nor the slowest, [but it] just [has] lots of groove. But to me, when people say 'it's got groove,' I think it's a nice way of saying simple and boring these days. We wanted to avoid this.

"Our record has a great contrast of dark riffs, stomp bouncing drums with the right amount of blasts and double bass, and outstanding vocal delivery from Dez that takes it past your average approach of the metal attempt. I'm not talking about reinventing the wheel or nothing. I just think our new album sits in its own corner from any of our other albums."

DEVILDRIVER's latest CD, "Pray For Villains", sold around 14,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 35 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"Beast" special edition cover:

"Beast" standard edition: