Devildriver set to record new double album

Devildriver frontman Dez Fafara has revealed that the band have written 48 songs for their new album – and they intend to put it out as a double album released in two halves a year apart.

“We’re writing the record of our lives right now – that I can tell you,” Fafara tells Metal Wani. “And making no bones about it, this will be the record of our career. This will be record that other artists judge us, as well as themselves, on once they hear this.”

The singer says that Devildriver will whittle the tracks down to 20 or 22 songs, with a view to releasing the first part of the album in 2019 and the second half 12 months later. They plan to begin recording in June.

“I used to get a record every year from my favorite bands, and even two a year sometimes from bands like Kiss,” he says. “We’re kicking it up. We’re not gonna rely on this three-to-four-year-plan that bands are doing. It used to be where you had to go away for a year in order to let the fans catch up to you and this and that, and it is not that way anymore—you need to get art out and you need to be out in everyone’s face and you need to be touring, and we’re getting ready to kick that up in a big way.

The LA band are set to release a brand new country-themed covers album, Outlaws ’Til The End, on July 6. It features versions of songs by the likes of Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Johnny Paycheck, and features guest appearances from country-metal rebel Hank Williams III and Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe.

“The blues and outlaw country are what made rock’n’roll,” says Fafara. “They were around before rock‘n'roll, and in my head, I've always heard these songs heavy."

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.