A month after announcing their new album Dealing With Demons I and dropping the debut single, DevilDriver have given fans another taste of what to expect with the brutal new cut called 'Iona'.


Pulsating with a dark and ominous energy for almost 5 minutes, 'Iona' sees the band pushing their music into some aggressive territory, with frontman Dez Fafara explaining:

"'Iona' is unlike any other DevilDriver song we’ve put out. From the frantic verses to the haunting chorus, this song is another move forward to push our sound and the listener's ears into the fray! The chorus, 'she carries a black rose, effigy from a story closed,' tells the story of the long dead ghost of Iona and her obsession with death represented by the black roses in her hands – each one the soul of someone she’s taken from this life on a lonely dark road, assimilating their souls into black roses, which she carries for eternity.

This theme relates to myself and Dealing With Demons in that, often times, we as people have a hard time 'letting go' of things. This can be applied to relationships, death, and so on. Iona carrying the black roses symbolizes her inability to move on – always seeking revenge. The past is exactly that – the past – it’s important to let go and not be stuck in a perpetual loop of living in it."

Have a peep of the grim, grayscale music video below:

Dealing With Demons I is set for release on October 9, and will serve as the first half of a staggered two-part album. In an interview with Maniacs last year, Dez had this to say on the double release:

"...if anyone approaches you about doing a double record, don't do it. It's the fuckin' most work I've ever put into something in my life. I had sleepless nights where I was grinding my fuckin' teeth. Like, I'd wake up and my hands would hurt from clenching my fists, and I was recording so fast and hard that it was just daily, daily, daily, daily. And now being able to listen back to this record, it's absolutely astoundingly on fire."


"...that thing is breaking all the fucking rules, all the boundaries. It's heavier, it's groovier, it's got bigger hooks and I broke all my boundaries vocally. If you like Coal Chamber, if you like DevilDriver - this record you're gonna get those things put together vocally, which is something annihilatingly dark and heavy. I mean dark. It's really going to a punk rock, goth kind of place with me. Just really dark and brutal and I think people are gonna love it, man."

The new record will also feature Dez's son Simon "Blade" Fafara on the track 'You Give Me A Reason To Drink'.

 

DevilDriver - Dealing With Demons I Tracklisting


1 - 'Keep Away From Me'

2 - 'Vengeance Is Clear'

3 - 'Nest of Vipers'

4 - 'Iona'

5 - 'Wishing'

6 - 'You Give Me a Reason to Drink' (feat. Simon Blade Fafara)

7 - 'Witches'

8 - 'Dealing With Demons'

9 - 'The Damned Don't Cry'

10 - 'Scars Me Forever'

Listen to DevilDriver now.