DevilDriver continued building momentum toward their next album this past weekend, using their set at Welcome To Rockville to introduce new material to a live audience.
On Saturday (May 9), the California metallers performed their new single, “Dig Your Own Grave,” live for the first time. The track’s debut took place in Daytona Beach, Florida, and fan-filmed video footage of the performance is available below.
“Dig Your Own Grave” is taken from DevilDriver’s upcoming eleventh studio album, Strike And Kill, which is scheduled to arrive on July 10 via Napalm Records.
Speaking about the song’s theme, frontman Dez Fafara previously offered insight into its meaning: “‘Dig Your Own Grave’ is about how one wrong decision, one wrong move can see your whole world turned upside down, effectively ‘digging’ your own grave… it’s that simple.
“It can also refer to how your decisions can f**k someone else. This is why there’s the line ‘six feet ain’t deep enough for you’, because only a deep, deep hole is fitting for what you’ve done or tried to do to others. Be careful when you choose to make decisions at midnight.”
With the all-star lineup of frontman and mastermind Dez Fafara, virtuoso guitar duo of Alex Lee and Gabe Mangold, eruptive drummer Davier Ortega Perez, and the return of founding bass legend Jon Miller, Strike and Kill sees DevilDriver return to their carnivorous origin, reigniting the incendiary sound that founded their legacy, a must listen for all fans of the genre.
Fafara on Strike and Kill: “My headspace hasn’t changed, I have not become complacent or soft in my view of the world or in my music. Metal is our outlet as listeners and writers, so on this record we focused on ‘getting it all out’ lyrically, and backing those lyrics with savage, relentless music that fuels the heavy California groove like no other. DevilDriver has never sounded like any other band, we do our own thing in our own way, and I’m the most proud of that.
“I’m so proud of these musicians, this music, and the vibe around this record. DevilDriver sounds like no one else out there right now, we are here to Strike and Kill!”
Following DevilDriver‘s career defining double album Dealing With Demons Vols. 1 & 2 —with Vol. 1 sitting at #1 at metal radio for a triumphant 15 weeks, and Vol. 2 celebrated by internationally revered media like Metal Injection, Kerrang!, and Blabbermouth, who lauded “you can’t stop the unstoppable”— the band sets out on a rabid hunt with Strike and Kill, holding the blade to your throat, and serving up that trademark DevilDriver blend of melodeath elegance, blackened atmosphere, tectonic grooves, and Fafara‘s iconic visceral delivery.
Wasting no time, the album bursts open with the incendiary “Dig Your Own Grave,” a flurry of assault rifle kicks and crunchy riffs encircle the listener casting them into the waiting abyss before transitioning into “Dead in the Water,” showcasing the vibrant melodeath tapestries of master guitar duo Alex Lee and Gabe Mangold. “Sanctified In Scars” implements industrial pulsating beats and ethereal sonic textures, sanctifying Fafara’s venomous voice with blackened tremolo excellence. The album’s title track “Strike and Kill” is a reconciliation of hardships and lessons learned, built upon the backs of blisteringly technical riffage and dizzyingly swift drumming by Davier Perez. Tracks like “In the Moonlight” and “Never Coming Home” wrap listeners in serenely blissful guitarmonies, elevating the brutality with elegance and emotion. “Ride or Die” unleashes pure metal inertia, pulling listeners in with unrelenting force. Exemplifying their technical edge with tracks like “Headed for the Fall” and “You’re just a Ghost,” the band embraces mind-bendingly off-kilter patterns that spin listeners’ heads. “Summoning Shadows” offers the albums longest respite from carnage, with textured acoustic guitars building tension before the band comes crashing back in with triumphant power. “Shut the Silence On” and “Oath of Iron” get super thrashy with their ballsy riffage and blast beats, before “All Bets are Off” brings things to a cataclysmic conclusion.
Strike and Kill track listing:
- “Dig Your Own Grave”
- “Dead in the Water”
- “Sanctified In Scars”
- “Strike and Kill”
- “In the Moonlight”
- “Ride or Die”
- “Headed for the Fall”
- “Shut the Silence On”
- “Never Coming Home”
- “Summoning Shadows”
- “You’re just a Ghost”
- “Oath of Iron”
- “All Bets are Off”
