A New Level of… Something

Let’s get it out of the way: Headbangers Ball is never going to be what we want it to be. I mean, come on, Decibel is never fully going to be what you want it to be, and we fucking rule. (Help is available for that.) As for this show, MTV’s had 23 years to make it decent, and probably came closest the eight years it was off the air. The Riki era was rife with questionable selections, from glam to grunge, but it also had personality to spare and, most importantly, the bands that showed up had fun. The Jamey era—well, the dude has done and continues to do a lot for extreme music, but his stint shouldn’t exactly be bullet point numero uno on the ol’ résumé.
Which brings us to today, and the point of this post. Headbangers Ball v.3 is going to drop this Saturday (surprise, right?), focusing on “The Year in Metal.” Longtime national heavy DJ José Mangin is your new host, and Life of Agony are gonna play—okay, a pretty good start, right? But back to “The Year in Metal”: turns out there will be a panel of notable extreme music figures to discuss said happenings.

These include:
• José
• Rob Blasko, formerly of Cryptic Slaughter, currently Ozzy’s bassist
• The singer of this band
• The guitarist of this band
• The editor-in-chief of this magazine
• ALBERT FUCKING MUDRIAN

Check out a preview here:

Saturday night, midnight, MTV2. Tune in, drop out—you know the drill.