DEVILDRIVER Frontman Says New Album Is 'Total Overkill'

Rebel Extravaganza conducted an interview with DEVILDRIVER frontman Dez Fafara last week as he was in the studio finishing up the vocal tracks for the group's upcoming CD, entitled "The Fury of Our Maker's Hand". Several excerpts from the interview follow:

Rebel Extravaganza: The new album is called "The Fury of Our Maker's Hand". What does the title mean to you? With the recent tsunami causing such horrible destruction, the title couldn't be more timely.

Dez Fafara: "Yeah! You know, that's very strange, and you're actually only the second person to make that observation. I do want to say, though, that we had decided on the album title long before everything started going haywire with the tsunami and earthquakes and everything. To me, the title 'The Fury of Our Maker's Hand' is that there's a meaning to everything that's happened. No one knows anything until we're dead, then we know it all, but it's too late, if you get what I'm saying. And that fury can be in the form of natural disaster on a global scale, or more of a personal nature, where it impacts only you."

Rebel Extravaganza: I really wanted to be able to embrace the DEVILDRIVER album, but it seemed that, while heavier other things you'd done, it was more "heavy for heavy's sake", and didn't have a very pointed focus musically. Obviously with the demise of COAL CHAMBER, you were going through a very stressful time, and with a new band, there had to be a good bit of concern as to whether your fans would follow you to DEVILDRIVER.

Dez Fafara: "You know, I can agree with you on some points, but I will say that I definitely knew where I wanted to go with both COAL CHAMBER and know where I want to go with DEVILDRIVER. The problem is in getting the musicians to follow me. You'll notice on the new CD that the old guitar player is gone. That's because he didn't want to go where I want to go. There were songs on the first DEVILDRIVER that we did use to fill space, as it were. There were songs that were very much in the COAL CHAMBER sound, and were directed specifically at pulling those fans of COAL CHAMBER into the DEVILDRIVER camp. The label had some say in the tracks that went on there, but I'm still very proud of what that album means to me. This new one, though, is...the only way I could even describe it is a jump in light speed. Whatever your opinion of the first one — and this goes for anyone — 'The Fury...' is going to devastate. I'm standing on 14 tracks right now, totalling about an hour and fifteen minutes of music, and for the first time ever, there's no way anyone wants to make any cuts, or leave anything off! I'm sure we won't put every track on the album, and we'll let it up to the label as well as us, so far as what gets on. Still, the songs that don't make the album will be on soundtracks or B-sides. Either way, we'll make sure the kids get 'em."

Rebel Extravaganza: You've mentioned recently wanting to take DEVILDRIVER in a new direction with "The Fury...." On what paths would you like to take DEVILDRIVER, and is the new album a marked change from the debut?

Dez Fafara: I wouldn't even say a "new direction", really. It's more of just a stepping up as far as technically, melodically, and lyrically. I couldn't really take this to where we should've been on the first one. You've got to appease some of those fans from your previous band...give them something they love, so they keep coming back to see what you're up to. This one's going to just open up the minds of the people who got the first CD. I know it sounds like marketing, or some hype, but I truly think that if you were into the first DEVILDRIVER, you're going to shit yourself with this one! Linear...that's a great word. The first disc was a lot more linear, but 'The Fury...' is just total overkill."

Read the entire interview at this location.