DEVILDRIVER's 'Winter Kills' Cracks U.S. Top 40

"Winter Kills", the sixth album from California metallers DEVILDRIVER, sold around 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 32 on The Billboard 200 chart. This figure is in line with the opening number of DEVILDRIVER's fifth CD, "Beast", which also shifted 11,000 units back in February 2011 to land at No. 42.

"Winter Kills" first-week chart positions:

Germany: #24
Finland: #24
Austria: #26
USA: #32
Switzerland: #45
UK: #71
The Netherlands: #87

The instrumental parts for "Winter Kills" were recorded at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida while the vocals were laid down at singer Dez Fafara's home studio, with Mark Lewis (THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, WHITECHAPEL, ALL THAT REMAINS) handling production duties. The album's cover artwork features a photograph by Dean Karr. The layout was done by Ryan Clark of Invisible Creature.

"Winter Kills" was made available in four configurations, including a deluxe digibook with CD (including two bonus tracks, "Shudder" and "Back Down To The Grave") and live DVD (featuring 45 minutes of live raw DEVILDRIVER power — no studio overdubs at all, just the band at their best — and including fan favorites "Clouds Over California" and "The Wretched"),standard CD version, digital version and, for the first time in DEVILDRIVER history, a 2LP gatefold edition.

"Winter Kills" track listing:

01. The Oath
02. Ruthless
03. Desperate Times
04. Winter Kills
05. The Appetite
06. Gutted
07. Curses And Epitaph's
08. Caring's Overkill
09. Hunting Refrain
10. Tripping Over Tombstones
11. Sail
12. Shudder (deluxe-digibook bonus track)
13. Back Down To The Grave (deluxe-digibook bonus track)

"The Appetite" video can be seen below. The clip was directed by Dan Burke of PianoFight Films.

DEVILDRIVER previously worked with Lewis on 2011's "Beast" and 2007's "The Last Kind Words".

Commented Fafara: "This is by far DEVILDRIVER's most cohesive, powerful, groove-laden record to date! We delivered our signature California groove sound alongside a raw and biting guitar tone, mixed it with massive hooks, added in thunderous drums to rethink, and reshape another different-sounding, unique piece of rock and roll!

"DEVILDRIVER has always and will forever be about thinking outside the box and delivering on something different from record to record. We cannot be assimilated into any scene or even genre of metal, and we will continue to do things our own way with a massive middle finger in the air to the status quo!"