Artist Interview

The following is an extended interview from Revolver's Metal Health issue. Pick up a copy here!

After seeing family members beginning to have health problems, the Five Finger Death Punch bassist got serious about fitness. As a practitioner of Muay Thai for about five years, he also lifts weights and eats natural foods. And he does everything to stick with this routine while on the road, as he has been nearly nonstop in support of FFDP's two new albums, The Wrong Side of Heaven & The Righteous Side of Hell Vol. 1 and 2.

REVOLVER Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory does Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Has he taught you any BJJ?
CHRIS KAEL You know, him and our head of security are both way into BJJ, judo, and mixed martial arts. They often try, but I'm more of a kickboxer at heart. I like the contact of the punch—the kicks, the knees, the elbows. I've never really been a fan of the ground game.

What's your current workout routine besides Muay Thai?
Monday is core, Tuesday is chest and back, Thursday is legs, and Friday is arms. Then two days a week, I do some pretty intense cardio. The cardio session is 35 minutes on the treadmill with an incline. I go from a light jog at five miles up to a 10-miles-per-hour sprint for a minute, then I go back down for recovery, but I do that over and over again.

So why did you get serious about health anyway?
Basically just to avoid the serious health problems people in my family are having back in Kentucky who are older than me. Everything from diabetes to heart problems, all these different ailments. A lot of that comes from a sedentary lifestyle. You're sitting around not doing a whole lot with poor diet. A lot of that can be thrown off by an hour a day in the gym and watching what you eat. That definitely is what started it for me—seeing problems other family members were having later in life. I'm essentially trying to get ahead of the curve and avoid those things.

What's the secret to working out?
I believe in a combination of several things. Don't go in the gym and do the exact same thing because it only works one muscle group and gets boring. That's why I do Muay Thai and weightlifting and variations of cardio—whether it be a rowing machine, a treadmill, the elliptical… I know it's against man code to use the elliptical—but it works and I'm still doing it. [Laughs]

And what about your diet? I know you like natural and organic foods.
If it comes out of a box, I'm not going to eat it for the most part. There's so many preservatives, so many salts. I try to eat as much healthy greens as possible. A lot of lean meats, I love bison—bison burgers, bison steaks, bison tacos.

MORE FFDP: Louder than Life Recipe: Five Finger Death Punch Bassist Chris Kael's #ShitYesSon Bison Burgers

What's one mandatory supplement?
There is a supplement called Green Vibrance. It's a probiotic. It's not the greatest tasting thing in the world—it literally tastes like licking the bottom of a lawnmower. [Laughs] But it's super healthy it gives your body that extra boost to get your day started.

What's a good lifestyle change anyone could make?
If you're looking to lose weight, and it's what is prevalent in the metal community—beer and alcohol drinking—eliminate that. And hell, if you're drinking three beers a day, that's between 400-600 calories. I know a lot of us guys have that belly in the middle. I'm telling ya, get rid of the beer and it will come right off.

Five Finger often gets labeled as "meathead music." Are you cool with being perceived as a gym band?
Anything that inspires people to do anything positive—whether it's working out or getting through the day—if we're positively affecting lives in any sort of fashion, that's cool by me.

SiriusXM's Jose Mangin recently chatted with Slayer and Exodus' Gary Holt on Liquid Metal's 666-LIVE call-in show. Read what the guitarist has to say about Exodus, new Slayer material, Metal Allegiance, if he will ever write a book, and much more below (which was transcribed by Josh "Shitkill" Musto), and let us know what you think in the comments!

Jose Mangin: So tell us about the reaction that fans had for the new album, 'Blood In, Blood Out,' which came out in November. Great album, welcome back Zetro to the awesome fold of Exodus. It sounds really cool on and off the radio. How are the fans reacting to the songs that you guys are playing live?
Gary Holt: I mean awesome. You know, that's all you can ever ask for is that people like it. You start out, you make an album for yourself—you don't make it for anybody else because the minute you do that you might as well be making Top 40 pop stuff and not even the good ones, because you're writing based on what you think people want to hear. At the end of the day if they like it it's like killer, mission accomplished. But everybody loved the record. Me, I haven't listened to it since it was mixed.
Mangin: Oh shit!
Holt: I never listen to my own stuff.
Mangin: Well how do you feel? I mean I read a bunch of interviews about the new album, but that was a few months back. Now you've had some time to sit on it and to relax on and off the road, how does Gary Holt feel about the new Exodus?
Holt: Oh, I could make a better album right now.
Mangin: Nice!
Holt: You know, I'll never make the perfect album. If you make the perfect record, where have you got to go from there? There's nowhere to go but down, so I always look at it like I'm always looking to toss whatever I've done and I always find the flaws in it and there's always something wrong. I'm never absolutely happy, so you just wait 'til the next one and just try to top yourself each time.
Mangin: Is the band getting along? You guys feel good with each other with Zetro back in the band?
Holt: Oh yeah. I mean, we got home and everybody kind of scattered like roaches when the lights come on, but yeah, everybody's completely on the same page and rearing to go. It's all good.

Mangin: Hey well I wanted to ask you here moving from Exodus to Slayer—I know you guys are in the studio working on a brand new Slayer album. You guys put out the song "Implode" as a free download last April for the Revolver Golden Gods Awards performance, which was just an awesome way to kick off last year's Golden Gods. Slayer in the studio, can you say anything about how the songs are coming out? What your role is so far in the new Slayer songs?
Holt: It's crushing. "Implode" is a great song. I really love it, it's a lot a fun to play. Compared to the other stuff Kerry [King] has written it's nothing, doesn't even touch it. There's some really great stuff. I got the call and I went down to do solos and I did nine leads in one day and I went home. Everybody was like damn that was crazy, and what I did was I blew my left wrist out. I was shredding so long and hard and I just wanted to get through them and I felt some pain halfway through it and I just kept going and the next day I couldn't even move my hand.
Mangin: Oh shit, dude…
Holt: But you know what? Kerry asked me if I wanted to revisit any of them this week and go down and do any more tracking and I hadn't listened to the leads since a couple days after I did them, which was probably a while ago. I listened back to them, not even remembering what I did and I was just shredding man, not even gonna mess with them.
Mangin: Oh perfect, nice! Well how the songs feel to you? Are they faster Slayer, what we would expect?
Holt: There's a little bit of everything but everything I'd reference to is 100% Slayer. I mean it's crushing heavy and it's dark and sinister and it's everything you hope a Slayer album should be. There's no ballads!

Mangin: There's a big concert happening next Wednesday, January 21 at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California that I know you're gonna be a part of. I've seen you as a part of these all-star performances before, the Metal Allegiance show with a bunch of your friends from Anthrax, Megadeth, Mark [Osegueda] from Death Angel, Chuck [Billy] from Testament, Mike Portnoy [The Winery Dogs, ex-Dream Theater], a bunch of badasses—Troy Sanders from Mastodon, Rex Brown [Kill Devil Hill, ex-Pantera].
Holt: John Tempesta—it's gonna be awesome.
Mangin: Tell us about how many songs are you performing there next week and how do you like performing these type of all-star things, which seem to be over the last few years happening more and more.
Holt: I mean, the first two we did were a lot of fun. But to me, I always stress over it a little bit too much, especially depending on the songs. Like the first one in New York, when it was called Metal Masters, we were doing "Goddamn Electric" by Pantera and you gotta do Dime's solo on that or at least some reasonable facsimile. I was like, "Why do I have to do that solo? It's fucking nuts!" But it's fun, it's loose, you know, you try to make 'em as tight as possible but at the same time we don't go in too uptight about it. It's gonna be fun having Mark Osegueda there, one of my best friends on the planet. I'm doing five songs—the powers that be were like, "You can do as many as you want, tell us which ones." I was like, No I'll do less! How about I do three songs? So I'm doing five, a couple surprises, I should be home working on them right now but I've been kind of lazy.
Mangin: I'm glad they have somebody helping Chuck out because I remember Chuck always gets stuck doing most of the vocals for all these songs.
Holt: Yeah, last time for sure. I think this time around he's definitely got a lot more help on his side with Troy and with Mark.

Mangin: I'm glad they brought some extra help right there, because they were working him fucking thin. Metal Allegiance is happening this Wednesday at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California. There are a couple surprise performances, I know we can't talk about one of the bands playing, but Scott Ian is gonna be doing his spoken word. Have you seen Scott do his spoken word thing, Gary?
Holt: Not me, but I see him flapping his gums all the time. [Laughs] I love Scott, you know? It's like every day around all of this old guard of guys it's like a spoken word event.
Mangin: Would you ever write a book? I mean, I know you've got a lot of stories and you've been around a lot. When you think of thrash bands and the originators, Exodus was around before all of them and you guys were leading the way. I'm sure you have a lot of stories in the Gary memory bank.
Holt: Yeah I mean, I've had offers to do a book and when the time's right, I'll do it. Everybody's doing books, but I mean I'll tell ya—I know everything. I know the dirt on everybody. [Laughs] And there's nothing I don't know, all the inside scoop and secrets. But at the same time I wouldn't want to short-change the book by not telling all, but at the same time I don't want to piss anybody off—you know, I don't want everyone to be mad at me.
Mangin: Yeah, well, that's the thin line between going all out or "ahh I don't want to say that part" and lose some of the awesome content of a book. You know, it's hard to make that decision.
Holt: One of these days. One of the reasons I haven't done it yet is because my story isn't finished yet.
Mangin: There you go.
Holt: I'm still writing chapters, so like right now I think might be leaving out the greatest finish the story world has ever seen.
Mangin: Man, Gary Holt—Exodus and fuckin' Slayer. So what's Exodus doing, what's the next plan for Exodus as we move forward?
Holt: We've got Australia, we're doing Soundwave in February and I believe we've got Japan coming up after that. And we're working on some other stuff right now. Everybody has been in that recuperation mode, just taking time to recharge the batteries—me especially.
Mangin: Wear Crocs when you're on stage, dude. Paint them blood red or something, it'll help your feet.
Holt: [Laughs] No thanks. I ain't never selling out man, you know me.

Chris Krovatin is the author of multiple young adult novels, including Heavy Metal & You, Venomous, and Gravediggers: Mountain of Bones. He also fronts the New York metal band Flaming Tusk. He is a contributing writer for Revolver and generally comes off as a good-natured pain in everyone's collective ass. This column represents his opinions–and probably only his opinions.

Mayhem with Watain and Revenge

Saturday, January 10 at Webster Hall, NYC

• Number of times I've missed Mayhem before: Once. Twice? Once.
• Number of times I've seen Watain before: This will make four.
• Band I'm excited to see: Honestly? Watain. That Wild Hunt album absolutely rules.
• Expression of excitement: Hard drinking immediately upon arrival.
• Price of a beer and a shot at Webster Hall: Don't even think about it. Open a tab and rue your life later.
• Amount of merch being sold: A metric fuckton.
• Favorite piece of merch available: Watain scarves! How absolutely absurd.
• Chances I'm buying a Watain scarf: At $25? I'll take some patches, please.
• Patch bought: The Watain 'Black Metal Warfare' patch.
• Chances of Black Metal Warfare actually erupting: Little to none. Most of the dudes here look like they'd have trouble lifting a maul, much less using it.
• Square footage of black leather worn at this show: Approximately 70,000.
• Number of smiles viewed among the crowd: Maybe seven, not including my friends.
• Stupid drunken parody genre created: Quack metal—black metal made by ducks.
• Jesus Christ, slow down, lushie: Sworn! To the DUUUUCK!
• First up: Revenge from Canada.
• Sounds like: Whuff. Belligerent military occupation? Not like Canada, that's for sure.
• Aesthetic observation: Revenge are really sold on hardcore practical evil. Their songs aren't about Satanism, they're about sterilization. It's kind of insane.
• Future consideration: Never chill out, Revenge. Your style doesn't seem like it would fit you guys doing a "Sweet Leaf" cover in your old age.
• Number of drinks consumed post-Revenge: Maybe five? Jesus.
• Coworker present: Current Revolver Executive Editor Sammi Chichester.
• Prayers of thanks offered to Satan that I didn't run into Sammi in my polluted state: 25.
• Members of Mayhem unable to get into the U.S. due to visa problems: Necrobutcher.
• Number of black metal bands used to visa issues: All of them, it seems. Every last one.
• To be fair: Mayhem's original line-up were implicated in some of the arsons that made the black metal scene famous.
• Number of times I remember shouting "MAYHEM" at no one in particular: Two or three.
• Number of times I probably shouted "MAYHEM:" 300.
• Up next: Watain from Sweden.
• Sounds like: Raging thrash-influenced black metal with a primitive angle to it.
• Looks like: The ultimate black metal band. Seriously, Watain's stage show rules.
• Favorite tracks played: "Outlaw" was absolutely awesome, as was "Sworn To The Dark."
• Tracks I wish they'd played: "They Rode On" or "Satan's Hunger" would've been sweet, but hey, you can't have everything.
• Level of drunkenness unlocked: Bad Santa.
• Number of people here I should probably say "Hi" to: 12.
• Number of those people I say "Hi" to: Aw, man, some chicken fucking tenders would be amazing right now.
• Finally: Mayhem from Norway.
• Sounds like: Grinding black metal from a group of pissed-off elder gods.
• Strange aesthetic choice: The whole white-blazer-dripping-head-wound thing Atilla Csihar does. It reminds me of later-era Boy George.
• Solid aesthetic choice: Bone-cross mic stand! If there's ever a dude to imitate, it's King Diamond.
• Favorite tracks: "My Death" and "Pagan Fears."
• Songs played that I recognized: A decent number, but man, Mayhem have a ton of shit that I just can't nail down off the top of my head.
• Legacy observation: Mayhem are one of those bands that have been doing this so long, their catalog includes what feels like three different bands' work.
• Amount of Mayhem's set remembered clearly: A generous 65 percent.
• Amount of cab ride home from Webster Hall remember: A generous 7 percent.
• Persons-worth of diner food consumed upon arrival home: Three, by the looks of things. Blugh.
• Number of regrets: None.

Words by Dan Epstein

"I still can't believe it," laughs Chris Motionless. "There's not a single aspect of this record, from the first day of writing to the release date, that went wrong. I'm still waiting for there to be some kind of catch!"

Motionless is referring to Reincarnate, the aptly-titled third album from his industrial horrorcore band Motionless in White. A massive, platform-booted leap forward from 2012's Infamous, Reincarnate is a gripping work that veers from symphonic black metal ("Puppets 3 [The Grand Finale]," featuring Cradle of Filth's Dani Filth) to '80s electronica ("Wasp") to volcanic surges of Marilyn Manson–style biliousness ("Everybody Sells Cocaine") and back with total self-assurance.

"This is the first record I can look back at and say that I'm proud of everything about it," Motionless explains. "I'm a perfectionist, and I always look back at things that I've done and pick it apart. And this…" he pauses, momentarily lost for words. "This…is not like that!"

If the normally voluble MIW frontman is struggling to articulate his feelings right now, it's understandable. After nine years of serious graft, Motionless in White— who have gone through numerous lineup changes since 2005, when the singer formed the band while still in high school—are finally poised on the precipice of a massive breakthrough. Released in mid September, Reincarnate debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard chart, selling over 31,000 copies in its first week. The band's dance card is full through the end of 2014, supporting Lacuna Coil and Dani Filth's side project Devilment on a European tour, followed by a round of U.S. theater dates supporting HIM.

Like Dani Filth, the MIW frontman has a fearsome onstage persona that's somewhat at odds with his friendly and well-spoken offstage self. "I don't want to be an aggressive and intimidating person to people in real life," he explains. "That's why my stage character has a different name than me [Chris Cerulli]—it's a good way to let that part of my personality shine. It's a big reason why I love to play live, having that outlet.

"Still, just because that person onstage is that way, doesn't mean that I'm not," he continues. "It's just that I don't ever let it show normally. I have to get onstage in order for that portion of myself to show. Writing music and performing in the studio, that person's still in there, so it's not like I have to go into this Zen state of mind and light a bunch of incense to get that persona. It's just as much a part of me as the nicer half is. There's a lot of anger inside of me, and I certainly don't have to convince myself to be pissed off!"

Despite his inner rage and rising rock stardom, the MIW frontman comes across in conversation as impressively grounded, a fact he attributes to his blue-collar upbringing in the former coal-mining town of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

"My dad's busted his ass as a blue-collar working man his whole life, and those values definitely made their way down to me," he says. "I've never been handed anything. I put everything that I have into the band. Everything that the band is, it's because of the hard work that I've done for years to make it this way. I'm very proud of my accomplishments, because nothing was handed to me. I'm not some Hollywood kid who had everything given to me by my rich fucking parents. I'm very lucky in the way I grew up.

Without that, I'm not sure it would have gone this far, or that I would be who I am." While his parents initially viewed his rock star ambitions as "just a phase," the singer says they were incredibly supportive from the get-go. "Before we had enough money to buy a van, my dad was always loading up our shit in his truck and driving two hours so we could play a show at a venue in front of 10 fucking people," he recalls. "They're very proud parents. They can look at a magazine that I'm on the cover of, and know that they had something to do with that—and I love that."

Still, he says, they're not above giving him a little well-meaning parental shit from time to time. "They're not hateful towards anything that I do, and they know that I'm an adult and I'm going to do what I'm going to do," he says. "Of course, my dad has never been a real big fan of the makeup, or the stuff I wear. I don't wear work jeans and pocket Tees to work every day. I wear moderately flamboyant stuff onstage, and he's not really fond of that, but that's just the blue collar coming out...

"My mom, she hates that I shave my eyebrows off, and that I have my neck tattooed," he laughs. "She's always like, 'Christopher, when are you going to grow your eyebrows back?' I'm like, 'I don't know, Mom!'"

Chris Krovatin is the author of multiple young adult novels, including Heavy Metal & You, Venomous, and Gravediggers: Mountain of Bones. He also fronts the New York metal band Flaming Tusk. He is a contributing writer for Revolver and generally comes off as a good-natured pain in everyone's collective ass. This column represents his opinions–and probably only his opinions.

High On Fire with Windhand and Mountain of Wizard
Saint Vitus in Brooklyn, NY

• Start times for High On Fire's two Saint Vitus shows: 6:00 PM and 10:30 PM.
• Show chosen to review: The early bird special.
• Stated reasoning: It's got a novelty value to it, you know? Not many metal bands do early shows. I want to see why High On Fire would go in that direction.
• Honest reasoning: I am a creaky old man who fetishizes the idea of getting to bed before midnight. I will be cranky having to wait for the G train at two in the morning.
• Worthy company: Everyone on line for the show with me looked to be thirty or older.
• Most effective Saint Vitus drink special: The Bishop—a tall boy and a shot of well whiskey.
• Number of Bishops consumed upon arrival: Two. Fuck my liquor.
• High On Fire's previous Saint Vitus appearances: None, according to Vitus owner and bartender George Souleidis.
• Holy shit: "And they're playing six new songs tonight."
• Holy SHIT: "Seriously, dude. It's like Christmas every day here."
• First up: Mountain of Wizard from NOLA.
• Sounds like: Instrumental stoner metal made entirely of big awesome riffs. Like an instrumental Black Sabbath on cocaine.
• Well, hold up: Not, like, and instrumental version of Sabbath when they were on all the cocaine. Like, they don't sound like "Johnny Blade."
• Member you think is doing most of the guitar insanity: Short-haired goateed guy at stage right rocking the fuck out.
• Actual guitar maniac: Guy with the long hair standing off to stage left.
• Concert wisdom: Often, it is the weird, less face-forward guitarist doing all of the real whacky shit. Think Jeff Hanneman.
• New York metal press of note here for the early show: Fred from Noisey, Vince from MetalSucks, and Jimmy of Revolver (amongst other publications).
• Remember, friends: Metal journalism is heavily influenced by people who want to get to bed before midnight.
• Merch observation of the night: Between Windhand and High On Fire, it seems stoner bands sure do love that whole Parody-The-Masters Of Reality-Cover-Logo thing, with the purple wavy writing and all.
• Number of merch pieces with said parody purchased: A High On Fire koozie. Shut up.
• Up next, we have: Windhand from Richmond, VA.
• Sounds like: Electric Wizard-y stoner doom with witchy female vocals.
• Appropriate soundtrack for: Drinking at a roadside biker joint in 1978, in a cartoon.
• Are Windhand vest metal: Oh, shut the fuck up. What a stupid term.
• Audience response: Decent, but man, you can feel the stoned and drunk haze settling over the crowd pretty hard at this point. They might just be a little too chill for the heaviness this pack of animals craves.
• Then again: That might just be me.
• Crowd position before High On Fire take the stage: Right up front!
• Amount to which I desperately have to piss: Very high.
• Chances of me getting my spot in the crowd back after leaving to piss: .02%
• Upside to losing my spot to pee: Brushing shoulders with Matt Pike as walks to the stage.
• And now: High On Fire from Oakland, CA.
• Sounds like: Taking a bong hit right before a Marshall Amp is literally thrown at your face.
• New features on Matt Pike: A Lemmy-esque handlebar mustache.
• Things I would do to see High On Fire play a straight set of Motörhead songs: Kill, cheat, lie, sell the farm, sell government secrets, cut off a section of a pinky.
• Prediction: At some point, Lemmy will walk into his dressing room, and Matt Pike will emerge in Lemmy's signature black outfit and cowboy hat. He will answer only to "Lemmy." Matt Pike will become the new Lemmy, and will continue the reign of Motörhead.
• Highlight tracks of the night: "Rumors of War," "Madness Of An Architect," and "Speedwolf."
• New tracks played: All I can clearly remember is that one is called "Carcosa," which is an awesome True Detective/Robert Chambers reference, and that song slayed.
• Time out of the show: 10:25.
• Time home: 11:44.
• Advice to all bands: Play an early show. I'll be there.
• Better advice to all bands: Be anywhere near as good as High On Fire. Then you can do whatever the fuck you want.

All That Remains have premiered another new song, "This Probably Won't End Well." Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

The band's new album, 'The Order of Things,' is out February 24 via Razor & Tie.

For more on All That Remains, read an excerpt from Revolver's latest issue!

When former Vedera singer Kristen May was asked to try out for Flyleaf in 2012 after the departure of the band's beloved vocalist Lacey Sturm, she met the band for sushi before they ever stepped into a rehearsal space together. "I think it was really smart of them to do that," May recalls with a laugh. "There was always the chance I would just hate them as people, but thankfully it all worked. We just talked about where we were all coming from and then rehearsed the next day. Once we started playing, I had this kismet feeling, like I was supposed to be there."

Not everyone felt the same way. When May was announced as the Christian rock band's new frontwoman, many disgruntled fans took to the message boards and social media to express their displeasure. "Flyleaf needed a singer, and I'm that singer," May says bluntly. "We're moving forward, and I try to ignore the haters."

That momentum has resulted in Between the Stars, the band's first full-length album with May on vocals (she appeared on the stopgap Who We Are EP last year). "The past couple years of touring with Flyleaf has obviously been me singing songs that I didn't write," May tells Revolver. "It's been a growing experience, and a good opportunity for me and the band to get to know each other. But making this album has brought us even closer because we got to see who we are as writers and share our stories. This album really comes from my heart, so it's exciting to put it out there."

What was your first show with Flyleaf like?
KRISTEN MAY I was a little nervous. At soundcheck, something happened with my in-ear monitors, so I couldn't hear anything. That kind of added an extra layer of, "Oh, crap!" But we'd rehearsed enough where I felt comfortable with the songs. Mostly I was just excited about getting out there and playing because it had been a couple of years since I had really gotten up on a stage like that. It was exciting and unnerving at the same time.

Had you ever been to a Flyleaf show before you joined?
I'd never seen Flyleaf perform, which is odd because my old band was constantly touring at the same time they were and playing a lot of the same venues. I'd see their posters all the time. But we were both so busy I never made it out to a show. I only knew "All Around Me" and "I'm So Sick." I'd never bought a Flyleaf album, so when they asked me to sing for them, I really had to do my homework.

When you were first announced as the new vocalist, there was a torrent of abuse directed at you on the Internet by some Flyleaf fans. How did you deal with that when it was happening?
I had a feeling there would be some backlash because I'm a different singer than Lacey. I don't scream—I'm more pop-oriented, more melodic. That's important to me in my songwriting. But what I realized is that it wasn't so much about me or what I was doing—it was that they connected so much with Lacey that it didn't matter who came in. The band could've hired Beyoncé and people still wouldn't have been happy. So when I put myself in the shoes of someone who's been a fan of a band for eight years and then having someone else come in, I'm sure I would feel taken aback, too. Now, would I go on the Internet and be mean? I wouldn't, but that's just not my style. There were a couple of times when I responded to people, but nothing ugly. I didn't tell anyone they should also die. [Laughs]

Obviously, you've got the pipes for the job. Was being Christian also a prerequisite for joining Flyleaf?
Maybe that was something in the back of their minds that was important to them, but they never asked me if I was a Christian. But yes, Lacey was Christian and all the guys, their faith is very important to them—and we all express our faith in different ways. I'm a Christian, but I've already gotten backlash from many Flyleaf followers that I'm not Christian enough because I drink wine or do yoga and that's against God.

Wait, isn't there a famous biblical story about Jesus turning water into wine?
[Laughs] I know, I know. I think it just goes back to the judgmental attitude people can have, or comparing me to what they think Lacey did. We all have different ideas about what a Christian should be or a person in a band should be. I guess I challenge certain norms in that way.

The anti-yoga thing is weird, too. I've heard about certain Christians who feel that yoga is an affront to God, but that just sounds insane to me.
I don't really understand it, either. There are certain people who maybe think…gosh, we could be opening a real large can of something here...[Laughs] but for me, I don't see things like yoga and meditation or, you know, drum circles as a threat to Christianity. I think God gives us so many ways in our lives to be happy, and if something makes you a more peaceful, pleasant person, what's the problem?

SiriusXM's Jose Mangin recently chatted with Lamb of God's Chris Adler on Liquid Metal's 666-LIVE call-in show. Read what the drummer has to say about being a dad, his new restaurant, new Lamb of God material, and much more below (which was transcribed by Josh "Shitkill" Musto), and let us know what you think in the comments!

Jose Mangin: So what's up dude? Happy New Year! I see a lot of cool family pics over the holidays, everybody's doing well in the Adler household?
Chris Adler: Yeah man, things are good. I mean we're definitely looking forward to maybe a little bit better of a year this year than last year, or maybe the couple past years have been for the band. But yeah, the family is good and things are moving along. We're working on some new music, we really couldn't be happier about having the opportunity to keep doing this.
Mangin: Hey, I wanted to ask you, how old is your daughter now, Chris?
Adler: She's six, man. She was in kindergarten last year, she's in first grade this year and it's my favorite thing every day. People probably don't think of us as normal people, but I'm up at 7 A.M. every day making breakfast. I give her a ride to school every day so she doesn't have to ride the bus and walk her to her classroom. And we're doing piano lessons and all that good stuff. So I'm definitely happy to be Mr. Mom when I'm here.
Mangin: Oh, that's so cool. Is she getting into metal at all? Are you starting to play her some like Venom records or something?
Adler: She calls it "boy music," but recently she has. She's really into this Swedish band called Mustasch that I like to listen to a lot, kinda hard-rock band.
Mangin: Yeah, it's kind of a stoner-rock band right?
Adler: Yeah, it's kinda like that. And another kind of, I don't know what you wanna call it but Cloudkicker, she really loves that stuff as well.
Mangin: Alright, look at that dude! You gotta get her into some of the guttural stuff too, man.
Adler: Yeah, you know she's like every other six-year-old girl, she's singing 'Frozen' all day long, but when I'm home she does do it with the death metal voice, so that's pretty cool.
Mangin: Yeah dude, there are signs of an awesome household right there, Mr. Adler!
Adler: It's pretty good. We've got two drum kits sitting next to each other and she rocks out with me.
Mangin: Yeah I was gonna ask, you're giving her piano lessons but what about her drum skills? You're not gonna put her behind the kid, or you're starting to?
Adler: Yeah Mapex, the company that I work with for drums is really cool and gave her a tiny little cocktail kit that she's able to sit at and play everything, you know she can reach the bass drum, hi-hat, and everything. So she's got a couple different beats and I follow along and we take turns kinda riffing back and forth on little fills and stuff like that. It's really the first time that I've really sat around like in a drum circle. I've always been kinda intimidated or i just wanted to play with a guitar player. I never really thought of drums as kind of a solo instrument but I can actually jam with her man, it's really cool. I just got a drum kit for her school music department, brought that into school there. I go in to the kindergarten and play for the kids, and played along to sesame street music and all that kinda stuff. I went to career day and talked about, you know like how you can follow anything to want to do, you know math can be boring and anything can not be as fun, so just find something fun that you like to do and fall in love with it and keep trying and you'll get there.

Mangin: You my friend, Chris Adler, recently opened up an awesome restaurant with a partner called the Big Whisky Grill—is it McCormack's Whisky Grill or Big Whisky Grill?
Adler: Is it the Big Whisky Grill—there is a McCormack's and it's the same guy, he's got a small whiskey spot in a place called The Fan here in Richmond—and we've opened one at the near West end. It's a huge place, capacity of almost 700, and I think it's the second biggest whiskey bar in the country. The food is just fantastic and we hired the No. 1 chef in Richmond for the past years running to come over there. We opened towards the end of November, we just kinda finalized the menu, trying a bunch of different stuff and we're all real happy with what's going on there. The bar is doing real well and people are just starting to figure out that we've got the great food too, so it's going good, man.
Mangin: Wow, well why did you decide to do this restaurant?
Adler: Well to be honest, what happened was I think when this whole deal went down with Randy [Blythe, Lamb of God vocalist] being potentially locked up for ten years, pretty much everybody in the band started running for plan B, like, "Oh my god, what are we gonna do, how are we gonna do this?" I don't think anybody had any intention of continuing the band without Randy, there's no way we were gonna as a group replace him and try to continue on. If Randy had decided he wants to go sell vacuum cleaners or something like that then maybe we would talk about replacing him—but if he's hung up on this thing that we were all involved in, there's no way we were gonna continue. So we were looking at basically the end of our career. And so I think people put a lot of time and effort into what they might to next, you know there's not a retirement plan in rock n' roll, and people think we're all millionaires and we're not. You just kinda take it as you can and try to make ends meet and everything that I had saved I decided to go in with a real good buddy of mine on making a place kinda special. What's special about it for me other than the 900 different whiskies that we have, is that my wife Julie. She's had a lot of different allergy problems and a lot of kids today have allergy problems, and her sister actually has two kids that have such bad allergies that as a family they can't even go out to eat—they have to stay in and make all this kinda crazy stuff. Long story short, in this place because it's so big, we're able to have a secondary kitchen with secondary utensils, plates, chefs, the whole deal, and offer an allergy menu, so that families with those kinds of issues can come out without worrying about cross-contamination. So not only is it gluten-free and stuff like that, but its also nut, soy, eggs, most of the food based allergies that people run into these days. I tried to make a spot where people could feel like their safe, because I've been out with Julie so many times where you get a salad and she's got a walnut vinaigrette dressing on it, and next thing you know I'm running to the hospital with my wife. It's crazy. So those kinds of things might not affect everybody, but from the people that know the effects, it's a really big deal, so I wanted to add that aspect to it.

Mangin:I was gonna ask you just to conclude a Lamb of God update—do you guys have some song ideas written, have you guys had the band meeting, do you guys have a plan for 2015?
Adler: We do, we've got a couple big things lined up already, both commitments that we had kinda made before we got into the writing and recording schedule. So we're heading to Australia in just a little bit in February for Soundwave festival, which we're excited to get back on stage. Then I guess we're doing a couple festivals in June where we may, I'm not sure—we haven't had that band meeting—but we may be playing some new material on those things, but those things are kind of 45 minutes greatest hits show, so nobody really wants to hear anything new, they want to kill each other to "Now You've Got Something To Die For" and "Black Label," so we'll figure it out when we get there. But definitely the plan is by the end of the year is to have a new album out and do a very full extensive U.S. run.
Mangin: Wow, and how about song ideas? How are they fleshing out Chris?
Adler: It's great. I guess the thing that I was overwhelmed with was the idea of us taking the year off of 2014 and then have us come together basically around now and start putting things together. But as usual, everybody is a little antsy and wanting to jam and it wasn't like, "Oh hey, Willie [Adler] has an idea and Mark [Morton] has this kinda cool solo thing he wants to add on top of it"—both of these guys came in with about fifty different song ideas. So what's been great is just going through all these ideas which are all really good and being able to say okay we have this much material, let's pick the top 10 or top 15 or 20, and just keep working on that. Then they get upset because number 42 had their favorite part—so okay, grab that favorite part from 42 and let's make song 6 way better. So it's been that kind of a process as we go along. Also I've noticed the guys are really writing the kind of stuff that I find myself kind of...I don't know...I don't want to say singing along, because there's no vocals on them yet, but the melodies of the ideas really stick with me, which is one of the things that if I were to ever complain about more of the recent stuff that I've been buying music-wise—it's great while I'm listening to it, I'm impressed, it's over my head, it blows me away, but when I'm done with it I couldn't tell you how it goes. Our goal is you know, that the guys that'll write the songs that stick with you are the guys that are gonna stick around. So I'm really impressed with what these guys have been doing on a songwriting level, stepping it up and writing stuff that kinda sticks with you.

"I'll be honest with you, this last album has been a bit of a challenge only because we tried to take on so much of it ourselves," Obituary frontman John Tardy admits. Indeed, the Florida death-metal pioneers not only wrote, recorded, mixed, and produced their ninth studio full length, Inked in Blood, but they also funded it via Kickstarter—which is something Tardy had never heard of before the band went that route.

"I know Sepultura had a project they were trying to get funded on there," he explains. "So we gave it a try and I did not expect hundreds of people to sit there and support us like they did." Fans contributed over $60,000, and Tardy says that he and his bandmates are having a great time fulfilling the rewards for backers. "We've been in contact with a lot of fans," he enthuses. "Actually, just this weekend, we decided to throw together a listening-party barbeque for a few people."

Bands use Kickstarter for a variety of reasons and projects. Do you see a line where it's inappropriate?
JOHN TARDY I do, but if you like a band and want to support them by "giving" them money, that's up to you. But I don't like asking people for too much. By the way, you look at a lot of those projects, even ours for instance— there's about 20 percent of that money that never did come through because credit cards didn't work. Kickstarter doesn't change that number. That said, you cannot take away from the people who did support it.

Another way that you guys have been reaching out to fans is via social media where you've been asking people to "Show off your Obituary collection." See anything creepy yet?
[Laughs] One time I autographed a fan's hand and the next year when we went back, she had it tattooed. So that was a little weird, like, you probably could have done without that. But at the same time we have always been an accessible band. I have been answering fan email for the longest time. To this day, people still ask, "Is this really John Tardy?"

You played September's East Coast Tsunami Fest where the lineup was primarily hardcore bands, including Sick of It All, Cro-Mags, and Bane. What's it like playing to a hardcore audience?
It's cool with us. I love the hardcore feeling and the energy they got—I dig it. For some reason, and maybe it's because we have those hooky grooves that you can tap your toe to instead of blasting away at a thousand miles an hour, hardcore fans are into us. Besides, I'd much rather go see a bunch of different bands that sound different as opposed to three death-metal bands in a row.

How is it different from playing metal festivals?
We show up to these big metal festivals and there's all these metalheads walking around in their jeans, black T-shirts, and leather jackets. We show up in shorts and flip-flops with Miami Dolphins shirts on. I'll tuck my hair up into a hat and nobody will even recognize me.

It's like a "disguise"—yet these people should know who you are.
It's hilarious. You can be at the bar and they'll sit down next to you and no one will have a clue.

You have some famous fans including Phil Anselmo and Lamb of God's Randy Blythe, who cite you as a big inspiration.
Before we did [2005's] Frozen in Time, it was eight or nine years in between albums. But we did some festivals and we'd run into bands like Slipknot, and they'd say, "We have all your albums," and I'd sit there and think, How cool is this?! Those bands are so much bigger than us, so when you hear them say that, it's kinda like the first time we realized maybe this Obituary thing is getting to be a bit bigger than the little thing we do from time to time.

Horrorcore hip-hop duo Twiztid will release their new album, 'The Darkness,' on January 27 via Majik Ninja Entertainment. In anticipation, the band has teamed up with Revolver to premiere a new song, "A Little Fucked Up." Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

To get 'The darkness,' visit iTunes. For more on Twiztid, follow them on Facebook and Twitter.