By Jon Wiederhorn

This year’s Golden Gods Awards ceremony was like no other. Former-Pantera members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown took the stage with Anthrax for a crushing version of “This Love” from Pantera’s untouchable Vulgar Display of Power; Rob Halford performed with Five Finger Death Punch and Metallica, the latter for a cover of Priest’s “Rapid Fire” from their equally important British Steel. Deftones’ Chino Moreno joined a bloodied Dillinger Escape Plan for a metallized rendition of Depeche Mode’s “Behind the Wheel.” Members of Slipknot appeared with Stone Sour as they cranked out Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave.” And David Draiman, of Disturbed and Device, took the stage with Halestorm for a version of Led Zeppelin’s classic “Whole Lotta Love” from Led Zeppelin II. You can watch footage of all the madness right here.

For most musicians at the event, the trip to Hollywood’s Club Nokia was the culmination of a relatively short journey. But for Stone Sour, In This Moment, and Hell or Highwater, the trip to the award show began with the Road to the Golden Gods, a 13-date tour that launched in Portland, Maine’s State Theatre on April 2 and ran through April 27 in Jacksonville Metro Park.

The event was sponsored by Epiphone and the lineup was handpicked by Stone Sour, who considered various groups from different metal subgenres “We wanted to make sure the bands we brought out were not only good, but also something different,” says vocalist Corey Taylor. “There’s nothing worse than going to a show and hearing the same style of music all the way through. It’s like listening to machine gun firing constantly. But because we embrace so many styles, we wanted to make sure the other bands covered that spectrum as well.”

Stone Sour also wanted to make sure they would get along well with the other bands on the tour. Taylor knew In This Moment from years of playing festivals and radio shows together and always got along well with the band members, especially their vocalist Maria Brink. “She’s an amazing performer,” Taylor says. “She’s really creative and she gave it everything she had every night.”

“I think me and Corey have a real kinship because we’ve both been through a lot in our lives and that emotion comes across in our songs,” Brink says. “It was really great to be on the road with them and watch Stone Sour. Corey’s one of the most confident performers and he controls the crowd so naturally. I find him super-inspiring to watch.”

The love fest lasted for the whole tour, partially because Brink knows the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. “Maria got us a box of kick-ass cupcakes as a thank you present for having them on the tour,” Taylor enthuses. “I went, ‘Well, you didn’t have to do that, but I love cupcakes. I’m gonna eat 12 of these damn things.’ They were so good.”

For Hell or Highwater, which features Atreyu drummer Brandon Saller on guitar and vocals, the Road to the Golden Gods was a great opportunity to showcase a group that many metalcore fans didn’t know existed. Unlike the scream-dominated Atreyu, Hell or Highwater play vibrant, hook-laden hard rock with strong vocal harmonies, kind of like a cross between Weezer and the Foo Fighters. “This was definitely the best tour we’ve been on,” Saller says. “The crowd was really responsive. We had great shows every night and we really got close to everyone in Stone Sour.”

During a day off on the way to Florida, members of Hell or Highwater went to Stone Sour and Slipknot guitarist Jim Root’s house, ate sushi, sat around a bonfire, and played guitar. “Stuff like that doesn’t usually happen on tours, especially when you’re the opening band,” Saller says. “We made friends from day one, which was awesome.”

In addition to adding musical variety to the Road to the Golden Gods tour, Hell or Highwater introduced the Stone Sour and In This Moment camps to an addictive tour game they invented that’s kind of like rock-and-roll hot potato, where everyone tries to pass off a single hotel key card to someone else without them noticing.

“We taped hotel keys to Stone Sour’s snare drum and all kinds of stupid things,” Saller says. “There’s no point to the game, but in the end, once you get stuck with it, it’s yours.”

“That was funny as hell,” Taylor says. “I had already passed it to somebody. And somehow our monitor guy ended up with it. Then that cheeky bastard stuck it in the pick holder that was on my microphone stand. So when I walked out to do ‘Bother,’ there’s that bastard card key. I just shook my head and was like, ‘Oh, godammit. You fuckin’ nailed me. I lose.’”

“We just hung out and told some good stories,” Taylor tells Revolver. “It felt good to do that. It was the first time we’ve been able to hang out and talk about him without crumbling. It was good. We laughed about the old memories. It meant something. It definitely meant something.”

Gray was found dead in Urbandale, Iowa on May 24, 2010. Police found pills at the scene. Toxicology results, released June 21, revealed that Gray had died from an overdose of morphine and fentanyl.

Original Slipknot guitarist Donnie Steele has filled in for Gray on past Slipknot shows and will play with the band on their upcoming Rockstar Energy Mayhem headline dates.

“Even though Paul’s not with us, everybody’s right, he would not want us to just stop being what we are,” Taylor says. “We headlined the first Mayhem run [futureusgalleryin 2008], and now we’re coming back and doing it again [futureusgallerythis summer], albeit it under different circumstances. But I think it’s going to be great. Plus, I’ll have my family out with me so it’s going to be like summer vacation, only more masks.”

In addition to preparing for the Mayhem tour, Taylor and guitarist Jim Root have been diligently working on the next Stone Sour album, which will be a double-disc concept album about reaching a crossroad in life and having to choose which direction to take, the responsible path or the one that might be more exciting and dangerous. In 18 days, Stone Sour will announce the title of the album, the plot details, and the release date.

“It’s fucking massive,” Taylor says. “I can’t wait for people to fucking hear it.”

Check out “Time And Time Again” off Kill Devil Hill below:

There’s no question High on Fire frontman Matt Pike is an inquisitive, well-read dude, having written songs in the past based on writings by HP Lovecraft and David Icke, but for De Vermis Mysteriis he outdid himself, crafting full concept about time travel, drugs, war and man’s inhumanity to man influenced by Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and the Bible.

“In the story, Jesus Christ has a twin [futureusgallerynamed Liao], and his twin died so that Jesus Christ could live,” Pike says. “But his twin instantly becomes a time traveler. Now, you can only go forward through time, but he comes across a scroll that was taken from ancient Stygia—and this is where I go into Robert E. Howard. Stygia was a land of black magic and witchcraft. The Vanirs, a race of warlords came and killed all the Stygians and burned all the scrolls, but some of the scrolls were smuggled out.”

Continuing the tale, Pike gets even more esoteric and story gets more bizarre: “In ancient China, Liao found a scroll that’s about how to make black lotus into a serum, which allows you to travel back through time and look at the past through your ancestor’s eyes. Now, Liao puts his name on the serum and he goes on a quest to find why his brother is this religious icon in the future that’s caused all this destruction and massive war.”

Many psychedelic concept albums enter the realm of spirituality and religion and De Vermis Mysteriis is no exception. Through each song on the album, High on Fire paint a different scenario musically and lyrically, and each tableau illustrates what Liao sees through the eyes of his ancestors.

“Basically, he answers his own question [futureusgalleryabout why Jesus Christ caused chaos and war] using the serum, but each time he uses it he wakes up in these different fucked up situation. There’s a song about witch burnings called ‘Spiritual Rights.’ And there’s one about a female oracle that makes him sacrifice a male baby. She takes the baby into the weeds with her…”

Does she kill the baby? Of course, but in the world of the Pike all is not as it seems. “She’s actually a pot plant,” he explains. “If you’ve ever lived on a pot farm you’ll know what I’m talking about. The males get burned and taken out because they fuck up all the females, but they have to fertilize them first. That’s the whole ‘Fertile Green’ song. Then ‘Madness of an Architect’ is about the Stygians and the Vanirs killing the Stygians and the scroll being saved.”

A bit confused? All will be revealed when the album comes out on April 3.

Photo by Tom Couture

REVOLVER You almost didn’t make our living rock star list because you almost died!
AL JOURGENSEN Man, after The Last Sucker [futureusgalleryin 2007] I was puking up blood every day. I didn’t know why. That’s been going on for the last four or five tours, though, and I didn’t see a doctor because I just thought that was part of what happens when you’re my age on a rock tour. I didn’t know there was a condition attached to it. I would puke blood and get off tour and it would go away. But this time I got off tour and it was worse. Blood was coming out my nose, my dick, my mouth. I’d stand up and fall over. I lost so much blood, I couldn’t even walk. Instead of calling the doctor, I put on this medieval helmet that I had made in the Czech Republic, and I would quit hitting my head on the tiles, if I put on the helmet. I wore the helmet around for a couple days. I was a tired, run-down, bloated drunk–just a mess. And then I exploded on March 27, 2010, and they had to take me to the emergency room.

How close did you come to meeting your maker?
I had 13 bleeding ulcers in my esophagus and stomach, and the ulcer that burst was over a main artery right between my stomach and intestine. I lost 65 percent of my blood. I was lying there in bed in a pool of blood when my wife called the ambulance. And here’s the other great thing. Fire station 13, it’s right across from my house. The paramedics came and said, “We don’t think we can do anything. We’ll try to get him to the hospital in time.” I was going into seizures. My blood pressure was 30 over 20. I was a corpse. I flat-lined and they brought me back. And those paramedics saved my ass and so did the emergency room people at Providence Hospital in El Paso, Texas. I checked into the hospital under the name Dick Sohard because I didn’t want the attention. They put a tube down my throat for three days and did this laser surgery on me. They had a camera attached to these lasers, and they stuck it down my esophagus and cauterized all the six open wounds. I had six active ones and seven scarred over ones. So I’ve had these things for years and I didn’t know they could kill you. I thought an ulcer just caused bad heartburn.

They finally took the [futureusgalleryintubation] tube out and I’m sitting there in the ICU, going through the TV channels. I was kind of cognizant, although they had me pretty doped up. And I realize there’s no fucking hockey channel and the playoffs were about to start. Now I’m the biggest Blackhawks fan ever. I’ve been going to games since I was 6 years old. I know the owners of the team. So I said, “Look, I’ll pay for it, just get me some fucking hockey in my room.” And they said, “No.” So I pulled out all the fucking tubes out of my arm after three days. I was supposed to be in there for a week, but after three days with no hockey, I yanked all the IVs out and walked into the lobby in my hospital robe, you know, the ones with the ass hanging out. Only, I turned it around–so I was full-frontal. I think it’s a cooler look. I did that because they had stashed away my clothes and my cell phone. I went outside to try to get a cab but security stopped me at the front. They said, “Where are you going?” I said, “I’m going to watch hockey. The puck drops in three hours.” They said, “We can’t let you go, sir.” And I said, “Fuck you. This is a free country–still, the last time I checked–sort of.” They called my doctor and she came running down. I had a big argument with her. I said, “Look, you either get me the hockey package or I’m out of here.” She leaves and comes back with a shoebox full of pills, and says, “Take these for your stomach.” We’ll let you go, but you have to take these.” So I called Angie and she picked me up.

Can you still drink?
I have a male nurse who weights 350 pounds named Hector. I call him “Hector, the third bottle rejecter.” I’m only allowed two bottles of wine a day now. And it doesn’t even get to that. It’s about a bottle and a half, and that seems to be good along with the medicine I have to take every day for the rest of my life. I just went and saw my doctor and she said, “Yeah, you’re actually doing pretty good for being a fucking degenerate.”

Unfortunately the time we had to stream the album has expired. You can buy the album on Amazon or iTunes.

REVOLVER What possessed you to write a “cowboy-core” album even before bringing back Ministry for this March’s reunion record, Relapse?
AL JOURGENSEN I’ve been promising fans a country record for 30 years, so after I got out of the hospital

Were the musicians you worked with schooled in country rock?
No way, man. I hired a fiddle player who canceled out on me, so we ended up getting these girls from Houston who play in a symphony and have never done country. Mikey and I were the only ones who knew anything about country, so it was really a case of the blind leading the blind, and that’s what makes it sound different. It’s like this stoner country record that’s perfect for sitting back, lighting up a big fatty, and listening to on headphones.

The song, which comes from the band’s upcoming album, Relapse (out March 23; see cover art below), is a rally cry for all of the protesters that have gathered across the country to demonstrate against corporate greed, cutthoat capitalism, and the one percent of Americans who earn millions of dollars a year, but receive substantial tax cuts on their income. Frontman Al Jourgensen said the chorus for the track, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 99 percent” was inspired by Country Joe and the Fish’s Vietnam protest song “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.”

“Putting out this song is the least I could do,” Jourgensen told Revolver. “We wanted to fly to New York and protest and get arrested and pepper sprayed. But we can’t do it because I got a Christmas deadline on this album. But I’m with ‘em in spirit so the least I could do is give them a chant-along song. I’m going, Hey man, here’s your song. All you gotta do is chant the chorus.”

In addition to “99 Percenters,” Relapse will feature the song “Get Up, Get Out and Vote.” Jourgensen plans to actively campaign for Democrats in Texas next year and encourages his fans to put more Democrats in Congress and the Senate and keep President Obama in office, despite his seeming willingness to compromise with the one percenters.

“This is going to be a brutal political season,” Jourgensen says. “The Republicans are gearing up for a fight because they got nothing. What do they got? Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney? It’s like a fuckin’ circus of clowns, but they have money behind them and money talks. So Obama’s gotta settle down the one percenters and get his money. I don’t fault him for that. I really feel strongly in my heart that the guy is for the people. But it’s gonna be like a war, dude. Football doesn’t even compare to the violence that’s gonna be coming up this next election.”

Relapse will be the first Ministry album of original material since 2007’s The Last Sucker and features songs written and performed by Jourgensen, guitarists Tommy Victor (Prong), and Mike Scaccia (ex-Rigor Mortis, Lard), and bassists Tony Campos (Static-X) and Casey Orr (ex-GWAR). Drummer Aaron Rossi will join the band on tour.

Ministry have booked five dates in the U.S. to support Relapse, starting June 17 in Denver, Colorado and ending June 29 with the second of two nights in Chicago, Jourgensen’s former hometown. Dates for the band’s European DefibrillaTour will be announced in January.

5.”Never drink wine that doesn’t have a cork in it. No boxes. No screw-off things. Just drink wine with a cork and shut the fuck up.”

4. “Always use clean needles.”

3. “Immediately be suspect of everyone around you, especially the ones closest to you–your agent, management, porn star wife, etc.”

2. “Audit the record labels every two years. You’re allowed to do it that often, and if you audit those fuckers, you’ll see there’s money flying hand over fist that you’re not seeing. It’s worth it. You can find auditors who will do it on speck and they’ll get a percentage of what they find, and what they find is a goldmine because these motherfuckers are shameless. I don’t care if it’s an independent label or a major label–they’re all shameless.”

1. “Put it in her ass or her mouth, but don’t stick in in her pussy unless you have a rubber.”

And his embrace of that chaos is one the things that make Biersack–who appears on the cover of Revolver‘s new, 100th issue, and whose band just released a new EP, Rebels–the fast-rising rock star that he is. The day after breaking his nose during a gig in Luxembourg, Biersack talked to Revolver from a hospital bed in London and revealed the top 5 stage accidents he suffered in 2011.

Self-Knockout
“We played a festival in Phoenix and normally I mock punch myself in the head with the mic, but I connected right with my temple and knocked myself out for the whole beginning of the first song of the set. I completely blacked out on the stage. For 50 or 60 seconds, I was lights out.”

On Your Knees
“I was on a tour in San Francisco. I tried to jump off the drum riser onto the stage and I tripped and landed right on both of my knees. I had to wear knee braces for the rest of the tour.”

A Nose for Drums
“Being a singer, I can easily break facial extremities, but breaking my nose in Luxembourg was extremely painful. I rolled backwards onstage and then stood up and I didn’t know I was right under the drum riser. The riser made contact on the bone right in the middle of my nose and cracked it from above my eyebrows right down the bridge. I fell down and was unconscious for a second. Then I got back up and went backstage to a mirror and saw it was huge and misshapen. They took me to the hospital in an ambulance.”

Warped Tooth
“On Warped Tour in Boise, Idaho, I broke my tooth on the mic. I took a pretty significant chunk out of my tooth and had to have it sanded down. It wasn’t the most painful injury, but it was the most unexpected one. I always knew I could break a leg or my nose, but I never thought I’d break my teeth.”

Stage Dive
“In June, we were in Los Angeles at our CD release show and I climbed 30 feet in the air on a marble pillar and tried to get back on the stage but missed by about eight feet. I landed on my ribs on another marble pillar that was sticking out of the ground. I shattered two ribs and displaced one.”

Yesterday marked seven years since Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell was killed onstage. This week, we are posting remembrances of him by his friends and peers. Today, Rex Brown (pictured left)—Dime’s bandmate in Pantera, who has also played in Down and Kill Devil Hill—remembers the impact Darrell had on his life. The new, 100th issue of

“I miss Dime every day that fuckin’ goes by. Dime was driven from the time he picked up that guitar. I was around when Darrell couldn’t play a barre chord. Then he discovered Ozzy’s first two records and he started practicing 11 hours a day. And he just came out to be this prodigy.

“It never ceased to amaze me what he was capable of. He always had something in his mind going on musically, and if it wasn’t that, it was a prank to entertain himself because he was always entertaining to people.

“He was the best man at my wedding and he was the warmest cat I’ve ever seen to people that he didn’t know. At the same time, I think Dime really needed to take a little break and have a little seclusion from himself and all the craziness. And he would take those times and sober up and get his stuff together and then write all these amazing riffs while he was taking a shit.

“I think about him all the time. I’ll come up with something and go, ‘Man, what would he think of this?’ And I’ll never be able to get an answer. But I’m still close to Rita . I was on the phone with her for two hours a few days ago and it always brings a smile to my face when I can talk to her, and she still has the same ideology that Dime had. You know, I can’t believe it’s been this long since he’s been gone and I miss my brother.”

Dimebag photo by Lorinda Sullivan