DevilDriver

Photo: Eddie Melendez / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

CountryUnited States
Formed2002
StatusActive
GenreGroove metal
LabelNapalm Records

DevilDriver are the Santa Barbara band who were launched by former Coal Chamber singer Dez Fafara and built their name on groove metal records such as The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand and Pray for Villains. Active since 2002, they have released eleven studio albums, most recently Strike and Kill in 2026.

Read the full story

DevilDriver began in Santa Barbara, California, in 2002, when former Coal Chamber singer Dez Fafara started jamming with musicians he met. The first line-up was Fafara, guitarists Evan Pitts and Jeff Kendrick, bassist Jon Miller and drummer John Boecklin. They first called themselves Deathride but changed the name because too many other bands already used it.

Signed to Roadrunner Records, they released DevilDriver in 2003, then The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand (2005), The Last Kind Words (2007), Pray for Villains (2009) and Beast (2011). Guitarist Mike Spreitzer replaced Pitts in 2004, and Jon Miller left in 2011.

After moving to Napalm Records the band released Winter Kills in 2013. Boecklin and Kendrick both left in 2014, and a reshaped line-up made Trust No One (2016), Outlaws ’til the End: Vol. 1 (2018) and the two-part Dealing with Demons, issued in 2020 and 2023. In 2022 Jon Miller returned, guitarist Alex Lee arrived and drummer Davier Pérez Ortega joined.

Spreitzer left in September 2024 after twenty years, and Gabe Mangold joined in October 2025. Strike and Kill, their eleventh studio album and Miller’s first with the band since Beast, was released on 10 July 2026 by Napalm Records, with Mangold producing.

Current line-up: Dez Fafara (vocals), Alex Lee (guitar), Gabe Mangold (guitar), Jon Miller (bass), Davier Pérez Ortega (drums).