Coal Chambers vocalist, Dez Fafara, hooked up with guitarists Evans Pitts and Jeffrey Kendrick, bassist Jon Miller, and drummer John Boecklin to form DevilDriver -- a rather more extreme band dedicated to the subsequent hardcore-meets-death metal trends. Signed to Roadrunner like Fafara's previous group, DevilDriver released their eponymous debut to mixed reviews in 2003, and then its even less appreciated follow-up, The Fury of Our Maker's Hand (where Pitts was replaced by Mike Spreitzer), a couple of years later. Last Kind Words was released in 2007, again on Roadrunner. Regardless of public opinion, the band toured relentlessly across the U.S. and Europe behind all three releases. They got their day in the sun when their 2009 album, Pray for Villains, debuted at number 35 on the Billboard 200. After touring with groups like Behemoth and Slipknot, DevilDriver went back into the studio to begin work on their fifth album. Beast, produced by Mark Lewis, was released in 2011. The band would team up with Lewis again for their next album, Winter Kills, which arrived in the summer of 2013.
