DEVILDRIVER: 'Beast' Artwork Revealed

The cover artwork for "Beast", the fifth album from Santa Barbara, California metallers DEVILDRIVER, can be viewed below (courtesy of Bloody-Disgusting.com). Due 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 is currently being 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 11 or 12 tracks expected to make the final cut.

Songtitles set to appear on the CD include:

* Dead to Rights
* Hardened
* Bring The Fight (To the Floor)
* Shitlist
* Talons Out (Teeth Sharpened)
* Blur
* You Make Me Sick (Sacred Secrets)
* The Blame Game
* Coldblooded
* Crowns of Creation
* Lend Myself to the Night

"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.