For Immediate Release

DEVILDRIVER

with Whitechapel, Carnifex & Revocation

June 2, 2014 at Mill City Nights

Event Details: DevilDriver

Venue: Mill City Nights

Show Date/Time: Monday, June 2 at 6:15pm. Doors 5:45pm. Ages 15+

GA Tickets: $22 ($25 DOS)

Tickets will go on sale on Friday, April 4 at 10am at the Mill City Nights box office, online at AXS.com, at Electric Fetus in Minneapolis, Discland in Bloomington, or by calling 1-888-9-AXS-TIX. For more information, please visit www.millcitynights.com.

www.axs.com/events/249601/devildriver-tickets

www.devildriver.com

www.facebook.com/DevilDriverOfficial1

The title of the album is all about rebirth, says Dez Fafara, captain and power-bellowing frontman for rugged metal institution Devildriver about his bands new record, Winter Kills. I love to see things grow from seed. I love to see the dying-off and the rebirth of thingsthats why I had no problems starting a second band.

In his long tenure on the frontline of heavy metalfirst as frontman for respected 90s nü-metal unit Coal ChamberFafara has seen and heard it all. But while he doesnt appear to be on some kind of invented crusade to save metal, hes quite forthcoming with the respect he has for both his bandmates and the artistry they bring blasting through the speakers of the tiniest earbuds to a PA system the size of a Congressional voting district. Theres a lot of follow-the-leader going on, for sure, says Fafara. But I cant do it. What Ive learned about us is that through all of the differences in the things we like, weve become a cohesive unit. Everybody can bring their distinct styles, but it still makes it Devildriver.

While not as fatalistic as its title suggests, Winter Kills does mark a number of significant changes in Devildrivers universe. The new album will be the bands first for Napalm, the highly regarded independent metal label that has become a significant force in the planets heavy-music scenes. Recent touring bassist Chris Towning will be wielding the low end for the band, full time. The rest of Devildriverdrummer John Boecklin and guitarists Jeff Kendrick and Mike Spreitzerhave taken a huge quantum leap from 2011s Beast to deliver a whole new level of urgency and musicianship thats just as vibrant and incendiary as the bands early recordings. Producer Mark Lewis was recruited to put the band through the paces, as well as their lead singer: Fafaraa homebody who prides himself in living two hours from Los Angeleswanted to be able to work as stress-free as possible, so he had a vocal booth built in his home for maximum ease, and had Lewis engineer the sessions.

Fafara will readily acknowledge the basic tenet of heavy metal is achieving the essence of power and complete freedom. At its most base level, its a concept that manifests itself in the form of a high-speed joyride, or defeating ones antagonists, be they Frank Frazetta-rendered warriors or the guy/girl who was looking at your lover too long at the biker bar and now has a concussion and a collection of broken pool cues. On Devildrivers sixth release, Winter Kills, the band certainly didnt skimp on the riffage, the idling-dragster tempos or the sheer sonic drive that makes them one of heavy musics respected outfits. Winter Kills is all about the creation of flashover moments to empower people with hope and affirmationor at the very least, the inspiration for people to create great work and their own meaningful universes. This aint no tired Tony Robbins posi-posturing or Joel Osteens cartoony, cash-and-Christ posing. The world got more oppressive, and both Fafara and Devildriver are stepping up their game to keep hope alive in the most bone-powdering, cochlea-bleeding, neck-snapping way possible.

I come from a construction-worker background, Fafara begins. I want blue-collar dudes to listen to my songs and be able to say, Man, thats exactly how I feel about today, my boss and the idiot I had to yell at today. Metal is a very empowering thing, the same way God is an empowering thing. For kids on the outside who dont want to wear the polo shirt to school, they have their mystic in whatever singer they choose for their favorite band. And words can be that for you. I want to stress that Ive never wanted to be all about the negative.

The way the men of Devildriver ply their aggression on Winter Kills, a listener could get lost in the maelstrom inherent in the bands power-groove death-metal hybrid. But while the bands warrior spirit shines like white light from a torched magnesium factory, theres a lot of heart at play here. You might feel like you could tear down a four-story tenement with your bare hands while playing Desperate Times. But the reality was that Fafara was pre-occupied with the cancer diagnosis his sister was given. Other songs like Curses And Epitaphs and Haunting Refrain are about the deaths of relationships, but instead of playing into hard-guy revenge clichés or sappy pop-heartbreak formulas, Fafara approaches these scenes with a sense of humility, humanity and fortitude.

I am that guy who always adheres to the ethic of keeping your nose to the grindstone and keep your head above water, he says. If there are any outside influences to what we do, it would have to be the watching the daily struggles of people. Even if theres a negative note to things, [my lyrics] are trying to tell people to keep your head up, keep your wheel strong and follow through with what you are doing. I listen to a lot of different music; so do my kids. The thing is, Im not hearing a lot of that sentiment.

A search for that very mindset is a pretty good indicator to why one of the planets heaviest bands would want to cover something as unlikely as Awolnations biggest hit, Sail. But unlike the more irony-laden dimbulbs who would find such a cover gleefully perverse (or at worst merely an elaborate goof), Fafara felt the resonance of the tune right away. He first heard the song blasting out of his 15-year-old sons bedroom, which in turn got the wheels in the singers head grinding. Ive always been a lyrics guy, and when I heard that song, I totally got it, he beams excitedly. [The metaphor of] sailing is totally about touring. I was on Ritalin for 12 years when I was a kid for my ADD, so I totally understand that line. I just fell in love with that song. I called the band and told them to call it up on the computer. They said, You know what? Lets attack this. (Hes not sure if Awolnation CEO Aaron Bruno has heard the Driven version yet, but Id love it if he did.)

At the end of the day, Dez Fafara is more than the mayor of metal, the governor of groove or the therion of thrash: Hes actually a modern renaissance everyman whose open-mindedness, working-class upbringing and years in the heavy-rock trenches have kept him grounded and in touch with the possibilities that could be achieved within the greater hard-rock community. Like any other rock lifer who has seen music demeaned by everything from downloading to backing tracks being used onstage, he still holds his passion for music close to his soul. Winter Kills is proof-positive of that. Over the course of six albums and countless road miles logged in service to metal, its crystal clear both he and the members of Devildriver arent going to be phoning it in anytime soon. Because why in the fuck should they?

I dont want to dumb things down, but I really want to rock harder, says the singer. I have a competitive edge and I find it important to raise the bar musically and bring it to people. Once that desire goes away, I will retire. I think Winter Kills is our best record because it is cohesive and all of the members of the band know where were going. Its good for me as captain not to stifle what the band want to do. The mission is to keep developing and not to become stagnant.

Its important to keep people guessing, says Fafara, pretty much revealing the raison detre of his career. I think people know theyre not going to get the same Devildriver record every time. Were not going to follow the pack: Thats why our honesty keeps shining through.