DevilDriver

Originating in Santa Barbara, California, the groove-oriented melodic death metal outfit DevilDriver first assembled under the name Deathride, only to switch monikers after a copyright dispute. Dez Fafara, the Coal Chamber frontman who serves as the ensemble’s sole remaining founder, helped launch the project, which surfaced in 2002 yet gained real traction with the 2007 album Last Kind Words; that release inaugurated a run of strong-charting efforts that included Pray for Villains (2009), Winter Kills (2013), Trust No One (2016), and the two-part concept set Dealing with Demons (2020 and 2023). Lineup turnover notwithstanding, the group has preserved its lean, aggressive, and punishing sonic identity, securing a reputation as one of early-21st-century heavy music’s most consistent acts.

Once Coal Chamber disbanded, Fafara joined forces with guitarists Evans Pitts and Jeffrey Kendrick, bassist Jon Miller, and drummer John Boecklin to steer DevilDriver toward a harder-edged fusion of hardcore and death metal. Roadrunner, the label that had housed his prior band, issued the self-titled debut in 2003; two years later came The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand, by which point Mike Spreitzer had taken Pitts’s place. Last Kind Words marked the first DevilDriver record to reach the Billboard 200, but Pray for Villains delivered their commercial peak when it entered at number 35 in 2009 and also performed well across Europe. Following tours alongside Behemoth and Slipknot, the quintet recorded Beast with producer Mark Lewis; the 2011 album proved to be Miller’s final outing. Winter Kills, again helmed by Lewis and issued on Napalm Records in summer 2013, became their highest-charting LP to date. Departures of Boecklin and Kendrick in 2014 prompted a two-year hiatus, after which Trust No One surfaced in 2016 with newcomers Austin D’Amond on drums, Neal Tiemann on guitar, and Diego Ibarra on bass. Fulfilling a long-held interest in outlaw country, Fafara guided the 2018 covers collection Outlaws ’til the End, Vol. 1, which recast genre standards in the band’s heavy style and featured guest appearances by Randy Blythe, Brock Lindow, Burton C. Bell, John Carter Cash, and Hank Williams III. Before its release he noted that 48 original songs had already been prepared; the first batch materialized as Dealing with Demons I in 2020, containing the pandemic-themed single “Keep Away from Me” and a duet with his son Simon Blade on “You Give Me a Reason to Drink.” Tiemann exited in early 2021 and was succeeded by Cody Haglund, allowing the second half of the conceptual double album, Dealing with Demons II, to appear in 2023.