Devil Loses Drivers

Good morning, and welcome to another edition of “New Wave of American Heavy Metal Bands Falling Apart”!!! I’m your host, Axl Rosenberg. On today’s episode, we have DevilDriver, who played Slipknot’s Knotfest just this past weekend. That performance went so well that two members of the band split immediately following its conclusion! Says vocalist/leader Dez Fafara via The Book of Faces:

Hey everyone. What a blast Knotfest was. No better way to end the Winter Kills cycle. With the end of this cycle comes some other endings. John Boecklin, Jeff Kendrick and DevilDriver have parted ways. Nothing dramatic, no drag down fights, just time to move on. As I have said previously, DevilDriver is on hiatus while I re join Coal Chamber for a new record release and tour. DevilDriver will be back, make no mistake of that, in 2016 with a new record which we are already writing, tours around the world and the massive pits you have all gotten used to. All in DevilDriver wish John and Jeff the best.
-Dez

This leaves Fafara as the sole original member of DevilDriver — although remaining guitarist Mike Spreitzer has been on all of the band’s albums save for their debut (so, basically, all of the band’s good albums). To what extent Kendrick and Boecklin’s departure hurts the band… well, I guess we won’t find out ’til 2016.

And it may be kind of a moot point anyway; DevilDriver redeemed Fafara for Coal Chamber once, but I dunno if it will work a second time. I guess it will depend on the quality of the Coal Chamber album and/or the size of Dez’s JNCOs. I still think the dude is loco for going back to CC.

Say sayonara to Boecklin and Kendrick with this really crappy quality fan-filmed footage from DevilDriver’s Knotfest performance: