One notable release is Earache Records’ The World’s Shortest Album, which features 13 songs in 83 seconds. Of course, bands like Napalm Death, Brutal Truth, Anal Cunt and more are included.

A list of metal and hard-rock releases are below:

• All That Remains – Fall Of Ideals 12”

• Avenged Sevenfold – Live In The LBC & Diamonds In The Rough 12”

• Avenged Sevenfold – Carry On Picture Disc

• Between The Buried And Me – Parallax 1 & 2 Vinyl Boxset

• Between The Buried And Me – The Anatomy Of 12”

• Botch – American Nervoso (deluxe 2xLP)

• Coheed And Cambria – The Afterman: Descension (Big Beige Demos) 12”

• Deep Purple/Type-O Negative – Side by Side: Highway Star 7”

• Deftones – Live: Volume 1 – Selections from Adrenaline 12”

• Dio – Magica Picture Disc

• Dio/Killswitch Engage – Side by Side: Holy Diver 7”

• Katatonia – Buildings 7”

• Lamb Of God – New American Gospel (Grey Marble Edition) 12”

• Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory 12”

• Misfits/The Lemonheads – Side By Side: Skulls Picture Disc

• Puscifer – V is for Vagina 12”

• Soundgarden – King Animal Demos 10”

• Testament – Dark Roots Covers Picture Disc 7″

• Touche Amore/Title Fight – Split 7″

• Rob Zombie – Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown/ Teenage Nosferatu Pussy (Explicit Only) 10”

You can find more information about Record Store Day here.

Device, the new industrial-rock project led by Disturbed’s David Draiman, will release their self-titled debut on April 9. The album includes guest appearances by Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, and Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple and Black Country Communion.

In anticipation, the band is streaming the album in its entirety. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.

For more information, visit deviceband.com and check out the band on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, and iTunes.

Device, the new industrial-rock project led by Disturbed’s David Draiman, will release their self-titled debut on April 9. The album includes guest appearances by Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, and Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple and Black Country Communion.

In anticipation, the band has debuted their cover of the classic Ozzy-and-Lita Ford duet “Close My Eyes Forever,” which sees Draiman tackling Ozzy’s vocals and Halestorm‘s Lzzy Hale taking on Lita Ford‘s parts. Check it out below, see what Draiman has to say about the song in the video, and let us know what you think in the comments.

For more information, visit deviceband.com and check out the band on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, and iTunes.

Device, the new industrial-rock project led by Disturbed’s David Draiman, will release their self-titled debut on April 9. The album includes guest appearances by Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, and Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple and Black Country Communion.

In anticipation, the band is debuting new song “You Think You Know” right here right now. Check it out below, see what Draiman has to say about the song in the video, and let us know what you think in the comments.

For more information, visit deviceband.com and check out the band on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, and iTunes.

In this week’s Album of the Week poll, you, the fans, voted Hell or Highwater to the top spot, for their album, Begin Again. Check out the top five vote-getters below:

1. Hell or Highwater – Begin Again
2. The Virginmarys – King of Conflict
3. RED – Release the Panic
4. Coheed and Cambria – The Afterman: Descension
5. Heaven’s Basement – Filthy Empire

Stay tuned for this week’s poll, which will be live tomorrow on RevolverMag.com. Until then, you can check out Hell or Highwater’s “Go Alone (featuring Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows)” off Begin Again below:

David Draiman’s new band Device (pictured above in the studio), which has previously been described as an industrial project in the vein of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails, have revealed a lot of details regarding their forthcoming debut album.

The band first single, “Villify,” will debut at radio on February 19, with the full record tentatively due for April 9. The album will include guest appearances by: Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, Glenn Hughs of Deep Purple and Black Country Communion, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

Device’s live band will include Will Hunt of Evanescence and Virus of the band Dope.

A Day to Remember
TITLE: Common Courtesy
RELEASE DATE: Spring
When A Day to Remember released their new song, “Violence (Enough Is Enough)” late last year, frontman Jeremy McKinnon granted Revolver the exclusive interview on the track and the band’s forthcoming album. While the song is one of the group’s heaviest ever and, according to McKinnon, the new record will have “more heavier songs than on the past two records together”–which is fine by us, of course–he also adds that the album represents ADTR’s ongoing mission to be “your favorite band. Period. We’re trying to play all of your favorite styles of music and not have to switch CDs because I want to hear a pop-punk song or a hardcore song or an acoustic rock ballad.” Which also sounds find by us.

Alice in Chains
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
With 2009′s Black Gives Way to Blue, Alice in Chains pretty much pulled off the impossible: Create a new album 14 years after their last release and seven years after the death of iconic lead singer Layne Staley. As such, Black Gives Way to Blue was named Album of the Year by the Revolver staff and was voted on by the fans to win the same honors at the 2010 Revolver Golden Gods. Singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell says of the new album, “It’s got all the elements of any record we’ve put out, but it’s unlike any record we’ve put out.” He added, “Basically, it’s the next chapter in the Alice in Chains book.” That chapter was introduced late last year with the release of a new song, “Hollow”–listen to it right here.

Philip Anselmo and the Illegals
TITLE: Walk Through Exits Only
RELEASE DATE: Spring/summer
Preceded by two sampler tracks featured on a split 10″ with Warbeast, titled War of the Gargantuas, which is due out on January 8, Phil Anselmo’s highly anticipated solo album will finally see the light of day this year. Backing him on the record is Houston-based guitarist Mazi Montazeri, of whom Anselmo says, “If Ozzy Osbourne had his Tony Iommi and then found his Randy Rhoads when he went to do his solo stuff, I have found my Randy Rhoads.” The singer promises a “fucking very aggressive record”; we’ve heard the unmastered tracks and they easily outdo the two songs on War of the Gargantuas, delivering a dense, intense mix of extreme music styles–think Deathspell Omega with a hardcore edge and some Pantera groove.

Asking Alexandria
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
It has been a few monster-sized years for Asking Alexandria: The band rocked the Revolver Golden Gods in 2011, relocated to LA, opened for Guns N’ Roses, headlined the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour 2012, and pretty much claimed their spot as one of the top young metal outfits on the planet. And it will continue in 2013 as the band will release its third studio album this spring after gracing the cover of Revolver‘s January issue. According to frontman Danny Worsnop, their next album will be “a musical baby of Mötley Crüe and Slipknot.”

Avenged Sevenfold
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring/summer
Even though they didn’t put out a new record last year, Avenged Sevenfold had a very busy 2012. They won the “Best Live Band” and “Most Dedicated Fans” awards at the Revolver Golden Gods, they played at Metallica’s Orion Music + More festival, and released the song “Carry On” on Call of Duty: Black Ops II and appeared as characters in the game–you check out their appearance and the song right here. In an exclusive interview in late 2012, vocalist M. Shadows told Revolver that the band has about six solid new songs written and they have a Black Sabbath-esque, classic metal feel to them. Consider us fucking stoked.

Bad Religion
TITLE: True North
RELEASE DATE: January 22
Having influenced everyone from AFI, The Offspring, and Parkway Drive, melodic punk-rock pioneers Bad Religion are set to release their, count ‘em, 16th album in late January. We’ve heard it and it’s their fastest, most aggressive record since the ’90s. If you miss the days of Recipe for Hate, True North is for you.

Behemoth
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Fall
Polish extremists Behemoth are hard at work on their 10th full-length, which will be their first since 2009′s Evangelion and the first since frontman Nergal successfully battled leukemia. As of December, Nergal said that his band already had 30-40 minutes worth of new material and was, at the time, demoing it in a rehearsal studio. “I’m really thinking about my record,” he told SkullsNBones.com. “I’m dreaming my record, I’m eating my record, I’m shitting my record… I mean, everything just comes to the same thing: this artistic release that’s gonna take place in the fall next year.”

Black Sabbath
TITLE: 13
RELEASE DATE: June
Over three decades since they released their last album, the original lineup of Black Sabbath—vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward—revealed in 2011 that they are working on an LP of new songs with producer Rick Rubin (Metallica, Slayer, Slipknot). Since then, Ward acrimoniously split with the band (his recording replacement? Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine), and it was revealed that Iommi is battling lymphoma but is forging ahead with the writing process nonetheless. Iron Men, indeed.

Bullet for My Valentine
TITLE: Temper Temper
RELEASE DATE: February 12
Vocalist Matt Tuck spent a portion of 2012 making a record and touring with his side project AxeWound (which also features Liam Cormier of the Cancer Bats). However, in the fall, things seemed to shift in the Bullet for My Valentine direction when the band released a new single, “Temper Temper”–listen to it right here. The group announced that would also be the name of its fourth record, due out early next year.

Carcass
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
After months of rumors, it’s officially official: English grind masters Carcass are recording their first new album in 17 years. Original members Jeff Walker (vocals, bass) and Bill Steer (guitar, vocals) are being joined in the studio by Trigger The Bloodshed drummer Dan Wilding and metal super-producer Colin Richardson, who helmed Carcass’ last four albums. The band is financing the recording themselves and then shopping it to labels. “Fans can expect to be shocked,” Walker tells Revolver. “If it wasn’t good, me and Bill wouldn’t have bothered and we certainly wouldn’t be wasting our time or all the money we’ve put into this. I think we have enough good ideas to justify releasing a new album—we’re certainly not doing it because some label has offered us a huge wad of cash!”

Children of Bodom
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Children of Bodom are a band that’s not afraid to have fun–like when they did an entire album of covers by pretty much every artist you could  imagine, metal, punk, pop, and otherwise; more impressively, they did it well. Having renewed a partnership with label Nuclear Blast Records, who worked with the band early on, the next thing on the Finnish group’s to-do list is a follow-up to 2011′s Relentless Reckless Forever.

Device
TITLE: Device
RELEASE DATE: April
This new industrial-rock project is led by Disturbed vocalist David Draiman, who, while on hiatus from his main band, has joined forces with former Filter guitarist Geno Lenardo. The group, which is, according to Draiman, in the vein of Ministry or KMFDM, plans to release a single, “Villify,” in February, followed by a full-length in April. Oh yeah, and did we mention that Geezer Butler, Serj Tankian, Tom Morello, M. Shadows, Glenn Hughs, and Lzzy Hale will all be making guest appearances? This one is gonna be huge.

Dillinger Escape Plan
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
These spazz-metal maniacs’ last album, 2010′s Option Paralysis, was their first on their own label, Party Smasher Inc., and it earned them the “Best Underground Band” award at the 2010 Revolver Golden Gods. Since then, they’ve toured with Deftones and Mastodon and, later in 2012, the band started seriously working on studio album No. 5. Vocalist Greg Puciato says that the new record represents the band’s “biggest jump since Calculating Infinity to Miss Machine in terms of really getting far, far out into Crazyville.”

Dream Theater
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci said that writing for the prog-metal leaders’ 12th studio album would start following the end of the A Dramatic Turn of Events tour. The band reportedly tested out some new song ideas during soundchecks on that trek, and they plan to reconvene for more serious songwriting work early this year.

Eyes Set to Kill
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
Eyes Set to Kill toured in 2012 behind their record from the year prior, White Lotus, which they self-released. The band from Tempe, Arizona, is led by sisters Alexia and Anissa Rodriguez, featured in Revolver‘s Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock issue. The band’s untitled fifth full-length is expected to be released around spring and will be its first on new label Century Media.

Five Finger Death Punch
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
As of last fall, Five Finger Death Punch had six to eight new songs in various stages of preparation, according to guitarist Jason Hook. The band was working on material using a new portable studio setup that the group put together in 2011. “The idea behind that is just to keep the creative muscle worked out,” Hook says. “It’s kind of like going to the gym–if you stop for a year, you lose all your strength, and we just want to keep that muscle tight. We’re in the business of making music. Touring is great, but we should always be prepared and always be exercising the creative muscle.”

Ghost
TITLE: Infestissumam
RELEASE DATE: April 9
James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo, and Duff McKagan are all fans of these Swedish cult metal favorites, so get with the program. Ghost recently debuted a new song, “Secular Haze” off their highly anticipated sophomore album–listen to it right here–which adds a new carnivalesque, Danny Elfmanish flair to their already patented Mercyful Fate-meets-Blue Öyster Cult sound. We can’t wait to hear the other nine tracks.

Godflesh
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
When British industrial-metal groundbreakers Godflesh reunited to play shows in 2010, it was great news—more than a few extreme-music fans, including a couple editors at Revolver, were crushed when the band canceled its 2001 U.S. tour and then broke up the following year. (Godflesh played their first American gig in forever at Maryland Death Fest 2012.) But news that main man Justin Broadrick & Co. are working on a new album, 10 years after the release of their swansong, Hymns, well, that’s a whole other level of mind-blowing.

Hatebreed
TITLE: The Divinity of Purpose
RELEASE DATE: January 29
Despite CNN mistakenly labeling them a racist band in the aftermath a white supremacist musician shooting up a Wisconsin Sikh temple, it was otherwise a good year for Hatebreed. The hardcore band spent the year finishing its sixth record, which is titled The Divinity of Purpose. In late fall, the group debuted a new single called “Put It to the Torch.”–listen to it right here.

HIM
TITLE: Tears on Tape
RELEASE DATE: Spring
Last year Finnish band HIM released a compilation, XX: Two Decades of Love Metal, while drummer Gas Lipstick recovered from a repetitive-strain injury. Vocalist Ville Valo told Revolver the band is ready to get back on the road with new material and said, “It’s exciting in a good way, like, the butterflies in my stomach are the size of fucking giant bats! So that’s a good sign. It means we really care about what we’re doing.”

Judas Priest
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
The Metal Gods may have announced their departure from the stage, which they commemorated with 2011′s triumphant Epitaph Tour, but the members of Judas Priest swear we haven’t heard the last of them. With the addition of new guitarist Richie Faulkner, who replaced K.K. Downing when he retired and made his debut with the band supporting James Durbin on American Idol, the band is currently working on a reported 12 to 14 new songs that they hope to release in 2013.

Killswitch Engage
TITLE: Disarm the Descent
RELEASE DATE: April 9
Early last year, the metalcore pioneers announced that vocalist Howard Jones had left the band citing personal reasons as the cause. Original lead singer Jesse Leach was shortly thereafter re-enlisted as his replacement. KSE then hit the road on their Alive or Just Breathing 10th Anniversary Tour and start playing a new song, titled “No End in Sight,” live last summer.

Korn
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
It may have seemed like the band members’ side projects were ringing in the end of Korn, with vocalist Jonathan Davis spending a lot of time on his electronic work and guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer focusing on Fear and the Nervous System. However, when Revolver spoke with Munky last year, he said Korn had 15 new songs already and was looking for a producer, adding, “We have a big 2013 planned for our fans, for ourselves, and our families.”

Mastodon
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
In December, singer-guitarist Brent Hinds revealed that he was writing new Mastodon music. He said, “I’m playing a lot of slide guitar and just getting really Jimmy Page-y on the place and getting really eerie and Radioheadish and very spooky sounding.” The band hopes to record its sixth studio full-length early this year–it will be follow-up to 2011′s Hunter.

Megadeth
TITLE: Super Collider
RELEASE DATE: June
Regardless of what you think of frontman Dave Mustaine’s politics, there is no question that, musically, he and his bandmates in thrash titans Megadeth have been on a roll lately. The group are neck-deep into album No. 14 and the follow-up to 2011′s acclaimed TH1RT3EN. Dubbed Super Collider, it will be the first Megadeth record to be released through Dave Mustaine’s own label, Tradecraft, which is distributed by Universal.

Motörhead
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Summer
The loudest band in the world plans on continuing to be just that. The group spent last year touring heavily–including on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival–and releasing two volumes of The Wörld Is Ours—Everywhere Further Than Everyplace Else that included live tracks and live footage. Vocalist-bassist Lemmy Kilmister said the band would enter the studio shortly and plans on a release in the summer.

Nine Inch Nails
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Industrial kingpins Nine Inch Nails may have played their “farewell” tour in 2009, but there appears to be new life in Camp NIN. This past year frontman Trent Reznor has stayed busy by scoring movies (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network), writing music for video games (Call off Duty: Black Ops II), and recording with How to Destroy Angels, but when Rolling Stone asked Reznor if new Nine Inch Nails material was a possibility, he said, “All signs point to yes. There are some things in the works.”

Opeth
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Last August, vocalist-guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt announced that he had begun writing new material for the forthcoming 11th Opeth album. It will be the follow-up to 2011′s Heritage, which debuted at No. 19 on the Billboard 200 chart. Over the past year, the band hit the road with Mastodon and Ghost, and Åkerfeldt said, “I’m gonna start writing more for real once we finish the tour.”

Palms
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: June 25
The recently formed LA supergroup features three former member of late, great post-metal outfit Isis–Aaron Harris, Clifford Meyer and Jeff Caxide–along with Deftones’ Chino Moreno on vocals. Harris told Guitar World, “Chino joined shortly after [futureusgallerythe three of us started the band] and our sound took shape from there. We’ve worked really hard on this first release and are excited for people to hear it. It’s nice to be back behind the drum kit, and with this lineup.”

Queens of the Stone Age
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
The latest offering from Queens of the Stone Age is going to be an all-star affair. For it, the band welcomes back Dave Grohl on drums–Grohl previously played on the group’s Songs for the Deaf–as well as former bassist, and frontman Josh Homme’s bandmate in Kyuss, Nick Oliveri. Oh yeah, and then there’s a guy named Trent Reznor, who will be making an appearance on the album. “The record sound like running in a dream inside a codeine cabaret,” the group recently told MOJO. “I hope you understand what that means, cause we don’t. Sounds like a load of pretentious shit! What? Gotta go, the therapist says our time is up…”

Scars on Broadway
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
Vocalist Daron Malakian (also of System of a Down fame) went from a full band to just his lonesome with this side project and recorded this forthcoming new album singing and playing all the instruments himself. Malakian told Revolver, “I was ready to do another Scars on Broadway record. I’ve just been going with the flow, and the flow’s taken me here.” Expect a more System of a Down-esque sound than on Scars’ debut, courtesy of songs like “Fuck N Kill.”

Shai Hulud
TITLE: Reach Beyond the Sun
RELEASE DATE: February 19
The metalcore stalwarts have changed their vocalists many times over the years, but Shai Hulud have decided to stick with vocalist Chad Gilbert (also from New Found Glory fame) this time out. Recently, the band has been participating in large festivals but also plans to play smaller venues as well. Amid all that, the fourth studio album, Reach Beyond the Sun, will release in February.

Soilwork
TITLE: The Living Infinite
RELEASE DATE: March 5
“The inspiration is flowing!” vocalist Björn “Speed” Strid said while working on this latest album. And indeed it has been, considering that the Swedish melodic death-metal vets have emerged with not one but two discs of new music. Soilwork began recording last August with producer Jens Bogren (Opeth, Amon Amarth), After guitarist Peter Wichers left the band for the second time. Strid added, “People can expect a continuation of the intensity and presence of The Panic Broadcast, only taken to a higher level.”

Slayer
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Thrash metal’s Angels of Death had a triumphant 2011 in spite of a few setbacks. After guitarist Jeff Hanneman was sidelined due to contracting a flesh-eating bacteria from a spider bite, the group toured throughout most of the year with Exodus axman Gary Holt and Cannibal Corpse fret-burner Pat O’Brien filling in for shows with their peers in the Big Four—Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax. Kerry King revealed two song titles for the upcoming album, “Chasing Death” and “Implode,” with a full-length due out this year.

Stone Sour
TITLE: House of Gold & Bones Part 2
RELEASE DATE: April
Vocalist Corey Taylor set his goals high with House of Gold & Bones, devising it as a double concept album about the journey of life and the choices you make. Part 1 was released in the fall to critical acclaim, which only sets the bar even higher for part 2. Aside from the albums, the project is also being turned into a comic book.

Suffocation
TITLE: The Pinnacle of Bedlam
RELEASE DATE: February 15
These Long Island, New York, death-metal fixtures are set to release their seventh studio album. While vocalist Frank Mullen said he will sit out a few future tour dates–for which the band will be joined by a replacement vocalist–he hasn’t left the group, and Suffocation will drop the follow-up to 2009′s Blood Oath, which will also feature a bonus DVD.

Tomahawk
TITLE: Oddfellows
RELEASE DATE: January 29
When Anonymous was released in 2007, the makers of the album were a little less than anonymous. After all, those who follow heralded Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton know all of his projects and follow them closely. The 2013 release on Patton’s Ipecac Records will feature new members bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer John Stanier joining the singer and Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison. Until Oddfellows hits on January 29, Tomahawk have lead single “Stone Letter” to tide you over–listen to it right here.

Tool
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
The rumor mill had Tool’s fifth album coming out last year. Clearly that did not come to pass. And while frontman Maynard James Keenan has been seemingly preoccupied putting out Puscifer records, reuniting with A Perfect Circle, and squashing grapes, recent posts by Tool’s webmaster suggest that significant songwriting progress is being made. So we’re holding out hope that they will finally put out a new album this year—and until they do, we’re prepared to be teased, tortured, and titillated by more rumors and misinformation, much of it doubtlessly spread by Tool themselves.

Toxic Holocaust
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
In 2012, Portland thrashers Toxic Holocaust managed to release a split with Municipal Waste and get a song featured in the television show Sons of Anarchy. Their last album, Conjure and Command, was the first record to feature a full band rather than mastermind Joel Grind doing everything.

Volbeat
TITLE: Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies
RELEASE DATE: April 9
It’s been a monster few years for Danish “Elvis metal” outfit Volbeat: They went from virtual unknowns in the U.S. to opening for Metallica, playing the Revolver Golden Gods (in 2011), and scoring No. 1 rock radio hits in the states. The group is promising to top it all off with a new album this year, the follow-up to 2010′s Beyond Hell/Above Heaven, which is being produced by former Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano, alongside longtime Volbeat collaborator Jacob Hansen.

Watain
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: August
These Swedish black metallers are pretty fucking extreme, just see their live shows–all flaming tridents and dead animal parts–as evidence. Now Watain are set on taking their lawless darkness to the next level, have recently signed a deal with Century Media Records for their fifth album.

Rob Zombie
TITLE: Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
RELEASE DATE: April 23
Rob Zombie is a man with many endeavors. In 2012 he finished his new horror film, Lords of Salem,  which is due in theaters this Spring, and released a remix album, Mondo Sex Head. Last fall he toured with Marilyn Manson on the Twins of Evil tour, graced the cover of Revolver‘s special issue Rock! Shock! and Horror!, and he started recording his fifth solo album earlier in June. Zombie says the album will be “dark, heavy, and weird.” We would expect nothing less.

After over two weeks of furious voting that saw over 400,000 ballots cast, the results are in on our Song of the Year readers’ poll, and the winner is…prog-metal upstarts Periphery (pictured above) for their “Make Total Destroy.”

The top five vote-getters are:

1. Periphery “Make Total Destroy”
2. Black Veil Brides “In the End”
3. Avenged Sevenfold “Carry On”
4. The Pretty Reckless “Kill Me”
5. Papa Roach “Still Swingin’”

Check out Periphery’s “Make Total Destroy” below:

In the meantime, we’re asking you to choose 2012′s Song of the Year. We’ve put together a list of the biggest and baddest songs in hard rock and heavy metal below; all you have to do is pick the best. And feel free to vote as many times as you want–until the poll ends on January 1.

UPDATE: The poll is closed. For the results, click right here.

Avenged Sevenfold recently released a new song “Carry On” on the smash video game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II. They also appear in the game, after the credits, as animated versions of themselves, playing the new track. We recently had a chance to chat with A7X frontman M. Shadows and we talked not only about “Carry On” and Call of Duty but also about his band’s next album, due in 2013, and his favorite record of 2012.

REVOLVER How did the song “Carry On” first come together?
M SHADOWS Well, there are some funny back stories to it. There is this station on XM radio called Boneyard, Ozzy’s Boneyard, and me and

Is that the fastest you’ve written a song?
Probably, I don’t know. It’s definitely the fastest timeline. We don’t really do too many things like this. Ya know, when video games call or when people ask for stuff, we tend not to do that stuff. We like to not do too many things like that. Since me and Zacky and Arin are huge fans of Call of Duty, it was more of an honor to do it. We wanted to be involved in the game. We said, “OK, we wanna do this. How long do you need it? Oh, it’s in a week? OK, yeah, we’ll make it work.” It was the quickest turn around for something that had to be shown to people on such a global scale, for sure. It was fun, and it was cool.

When you’re rushing something like that, not to say that you were rushing, but are you happy with the way everything turned out?
Yeah, we didn’t over think it. We knew that we had to either drop a guitar solo or drop a bridge so we dropped a bridge because they needed the song to be under 4 minutes for animation purposes. I mean, this thing was getting done in August and I don’t know how many millions of dollars it costs to do all the animation on something like that, but we needed to make the song short and to the point and, like I said, uplifting and fun. So if it was an Avenged Sevenfold song on a record, we probably would have looked at a couple of things like putting in a bridge and things like that that we normally have. We just put in a drum solo and two guitar solos and called it a day. It’s fun to do stuff like that because where we normally wouldn’t tread on an album, it’s fun to put something out like that and be able to experiment even if it’s a shorter version of something we would normally do.

Tell us about the experience of being animated. Did you get to wear one of those funky suits with the lights on it?
Oh, we got to wear ‘em! Yeah, we got to basically perform the song a million times with skintight suits on, the stuff all over your face, the animation, whatever they need to animate that stuff. They took pictures of all the tattoos. It was pretty crazy and we had to perform the song as if we were playing in front of an audience. It was a different experience, but it was fun! It was comfortable. All of the people over at Treyarch have been friends of the band for a couple of years now going back to when we worked with them on Black Ops I for Zombies: Map. So you’re doing this in front of some of the directors over there that are gonna make sure the game gets done right. It’s totally comfortable. They’re friends at this point. We don’t see them as some outsider’s corporation. They’re just people that we know at this point.

Did they involve you at all in seeing the building of the animation or did you just see the finished product?
I went in a couple of times. They didn’t want to send anything over the Internet, which I understand. It was really important to them that everything was secret. That was why up ’til the day of release, anything that got released they were taking down immediately. Those people at Activision are just hawks. It was crazy! So I saw the cut of our characters and they sent me renderings of what our characters would look like, but I didn’t see the finished product until a leak on YouTube, to be honest. Then I saw that and it got immediately taken down and then it wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I actually got to see it for real.

What did you think?
I think it’s awesome! I think it’s fun. It’s so funny. When you look at a company like Call of Duty and you see all the backlash they get for making the biggest game and everyone’s got a complaint about this or that. Ya know, to me, this was meant to be fun. It’s entertaining. It’s funny at the end of the game. It has nothing to do with the campaign. It’s more of just showing that Treyarch and Avenged Sevenfold have a sense of humor about it. It’s a fun thing with all of the characters in the game are all in the audience and stuff. For us, it was a fun thing. It was an honor to do it. That’s pretty much it, ya know?

Plus, you got to rough up some of the characters.
Totally! So cool. That’s one of the things I was laughing at. It’s funny, like, people who see us and don’t know Avenged Sevenfold are gonna think we’re a bunch of dicks! Total assholes! Just beating up these characters.

So, since you did this new song, have you been working on an album, too?
Ya know, the song we did, like I said, back in July. We’ve been working on the album since September, and this isn’t a dig at the direction of that song or anything, but I want people to understand that even if they like that song or if they don’t like it or whatever, the album is a completely different entity. We’re working in a direction that I really feel confident with. Ya know, this wasn’t a song for the album. It was more of a thing we did for fun for Call of Duty. The album has been getting worked on and we’ve been pretty quiet about it. I think that’s because we’re really trying to make this thing as good as possible without getting all these expectations and all sorts of people talking about “They said this or they said that.” All I can say is that I’m really, really happy with the album, and I’m really proud of it so far. I think we’re gonna start recording in January.

I know you don’t really want to talk about the direction yet, but how many songs have you written so far for it?
That’s a hard question to answer because songs come and go. There’s about six songs, whole song ideas that I’m 100% happy with. There’s a lot of other ideas and if those pieces find their place in other songs that could be… Let’s just put it this way, a million ideas and six solid songs.

What has it been like working with Arin on this album with writing?
It’s been good, man! It’s been cool. A lot of it’s been us refreshing him on what our influences are and where we’re coming from as a band. There’s a lot of things that he was never brought up on that we have to quickly get him acquired to such as Pantera and Metallica and Slayer and Megadeth and we’re introducing him to these records that were literally the biggest records when we were growing up. Just records that you have to know. He’s much younger and he grew up listening to Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine, ya know? So it’s a completely different generation and it makes me feel old to even talk about it. Right now, we’re handing him Far Beyond Driven and Master of Puppets and saying, “Learn these albums. You need to learn these things” because when we’re talking about “groove metal,” we’re not talking about some Warped Tour band. We’re talking about fucking Pantera! We’re talking about Black Sabbath, ya know? So we’re getting him acquired to that and I think he’s learning really quickly what we’re looking for. We’re not looking for an overly technically proficient drummer. We’re looking for a guy that knows how to fit the song and be in the groove and play the right thing in the right moment. It’s been cool. It’s been good. He’s been doing really, really well.

Have you seen him attach himself to one of these records? Is there one that he’s just going crazy over?
I think he was blown away by the simplicity of “The Black Album” and what Lars does. How it’s just so catchy, but so simple. What Lars is doing in there, just even his snare hits, it’s almost music in itself because it’s as catchy as guitar riffs. You take a little bit of that and you take a little bit of what Vinnie Paul is doing in his style of kick-drum patterns and all that stuff and the groove, that he’s not overplaying stuff, but when he does come out of his little pocket, it’s perfect. It’s things like that that you see he’s kind of reacting to. He gets it. But he hasn’t really acquired that because a lot of modern-age metal is a lot of double kick and a lot of aggressive, overplayed drums, and a lot of times they forget about the groove. We’re trying to get him on the plain of “Hey dude, we’re not trying to impress people with our playing abilities. We’re trying to write the best songs possible.” He’s getting there. I think that takes a lot of maturity especially for a guy his age. When we were his age, we just wanted to shred. So he’s doing well. He’s growing up fast.

It sounds like going back and revisiting these records has been rubbing off on you. It sounds like you’ve really been thinking about that stuff.
Totally, dude. I’m going back even further. This isn’t a dig at anyone who’s doing dubstep and shit, but people keep saying, “Do you think Avenged is gonna put that kind of stuff in their music?” It’s actually the exact opposite. We’re going back to Sabbath stuff. We’re looking at the blues chords they’re playing most of their stuff in. We’re listening to classical. We’re listening to Zeppelin. We’re kind of going backwards with what we want this record to feel like. Kind of old soul. All this new stuff, “Let’s put some techno beat in our bridge” is just completely what we don’t want to do.

That sounds good!
It’s crazy. You get all these fans that are like, “Do you think Avenged is gonna do this type of thing?” It’s like, Man, I wanna make music. I get it. It’s pump-up music. You wanna go to a club and dance. It’s fun. Some of it’s really good, but to me, I wanna write a classic metal record, a classic rock record in 2013. So that’s our goal.

I guess to wrap things up, one thing I was wondering, we were talking about the album in 2013, but what are your favorite albums of 2012?
Um, I’m not exactly sure when these albums came out, because I’ve been known to get albums later than their release date. I love the Volbeat record that came out probably two years ago or a year ago. I actually got really into Lana Del Re,y which is kinda an oddball choice. I got into some older records that I never really got into. I got into Love At First Sting. I think that what it’s called. The Scorpions’ record. Some old-school stuff. Some Zeppelin stuff that I hadn’t heard before. Newer stuff, I don’t know. I just downloaded the Soundgarden record. I haven’t listened to it yet. I just downloaded the new Three Days Grace to check it out. Haven’t listened to it yet. A couple of things I’ve downloaded but haven’t had time to really dig into because we’re writing and not that the new stuff isn’t inspiring, it’s just that we’re really trying to get to the meat and potatoes of the classic, what makes classic records and these riffs, and just getting into the old Pantera stuff, old Zeppelin stuff, old Sabbath stuff right now.

The Ozzy’s Boneyard stuff.
Ozzy’s Boneyard, dude! That’s a little more up-tempo than what we’re going for, but yeah definitely. Definitely, you just learn so much from classical music and metal is always taken from classical. It’s so funny to me that classical has always been musically so proficient. You get these great lead lines and these great melodies and the way the chords are working together and then a lot of metal bands want to just ignore that aand go with pure double bass and screaming over it. To me, when bands like Metallica do, like, the bridge in “Master Of Puppets,” it’s so classical. It’s just brilliant. If it’s done right, I think there’s something to be said about classical music and metal. It’s fucking brilliant.

What is it that you like about the Lana Del Rey record?
I just love her songwriting. I think it’s a really well-done record. It’s warm. I just love her songwriting. The melodies are brilliant, I think. The production is great. I mean, it’s something I love to listen to, throw it on, and I love every song on that record. It’s one of those things that I can throw on and push shuffle and never be bummed when something comes up.