DEVILDRIVER Reveals Menacing Second Single “Iona” + Eerie New Music Video

Top-charting dark groove metal originators DEVILDRIVER recently announced the highly-anticipated release of their upcoming double album, Dealing With Demons. The first volume – entitled Dealing With Demons I – drops on October 9, 2020 via Napalm Records and marks the band’s first release of new, original material since 2016’s acclaimed Trust No One. Representing the onset of a final purging of the themes that have long possessed frontman Dez Fafara and DEVILDRIVER’s music, each track on Dealing With Demons I illustrates a different demon to be dealt with, or released.

Today, the band is following up on the release of their burgeoning latest single “Keep Away From Me” and its thought-provoking video with yet another unforgettable anthem – the menacing, mosh-ready second single “Iona”. From the ominous siren at its start to its grooving verses, the track pulls no punches. The hair-raising, anthemic chorus line, “She carries a black rose…” beckons the listener again and again into a chilling ghost story! Travel the dark road into Iona’s clutches via the heart-gripping music video, directed by Vicente Cordero, below.

Frontman Dez Fafara says about “Iona” and the demons that inspired the track:
“Iona is unlike any other DEVILDRIVER song we’ve put out. From the frantic verses to the haunting chorus, this song is another move forward to push our sound and the listener’s ears into the fray! The chorus, “she carries a black rose, effigy from a story closed”, tells the story of the long dead ghost of Iona and her obsession with death represented by the black roses in her hands – each one the soul of someone she’s taken from this life on a lonely dark road, assimilating their souls into black roses, which she carries for eternity.
This theme relates to myself and “Dealing With Demons” in that, often times, we as people have a hard time “letting go” of things. This can be applied to relationships, death, and so on. Iona carrying the black roses symbolizes her inability to move on – always seeking revenge. The past is exactly that – the past – it’s important to let go and not be stuck in a perpetual loop of living in it.” 

Respected standard bearers for 21^st century metal, DEVILDRIVER have spent nearly two decades pursuing a course of uncompromising artistry and nonsense-free dedication to the road. Led by the prolific Dez Fafara, the Californian crew have earned their reputation as one of the hardest working bands on the planet, while issuing a steady succession of brutal but distinctive albums along the way.

Dealing With Demons I showcases the supreme form of the band – Dez, guitarists Mike Spreitzer and Neal Tiemann, drummer Austin D’Amond and bassist Diego “Ashes” Ibarra. This isn’t just some of the most vicious DEVILDRIVER material to date, but some of their most lethally memorable too. Produced and engineered by Steve Evetts with additional engineering from guitarist Mike Spreitzer, it’s a triumph for teamwork and tenacity.

With new milestones like Dez Fafara’s eerie verses on “Wishing” and the frontman’s first co-authored lyric (the seething, poignant “Nest Of Vipers” was written by Dez and Neal Tiemann), Dealing With Demons I ferociously delivers the goods while kicking open several new doors for DEVILDRIVER to power through in the future. From the self-explanatory, explosive opener “Keep Away From Me” to the chilling imagery of “Iona”, this album is powerful evidence that Dez and his band mates have given DEVILDRIVER a volatile, visceral kick in the ass. Demons are getting dealt with in the harshest of manners.

“It’s time to lay it all out, on two records. I’m never gonna revisit these subjects again. I’ve been writing about this sort of human nature, disloyalty and dishonesty, love and loss, since the beginning of my career. I am going in a more lyrically woke direction in the future. A lot of people say my music gives them strength. But what they don’t realize is that these topics haunt me. Over the course of these last few years we fled from wildfires, my wife battled cancer and now we are going through a pandemic… so it is what it is… let’s dump it all on the table and purge. I want to go through different topics in the future, so here we are now. I’ve laid it all out on a double record for all of you to hear.”

This is just the beginning – fans should be prepared for the onslaught of what is to come with the impending second volume of the double album, which promises to go even harder. This is a two-part acceleration into the future – after witnessing Dealing With Demons I, listeners will be clamoring for the second half!