Thanks Blabbermouth & MTV.com…

Daath guitarist Eyal Levi is issuing a stern warning to those planning to attend this year’s free Ozzfest, which his six-piece death-metal outfit will be playing with the likes of Ozzy, Hatebreed, Lordi and Lamb of God: “No one better f— with us.”

You see, Levi supports the old maxim that the best defense is a strong offense, and after the kind of tour the band shared this winter with Goatwhore, the Acacia Strain and Job for a Cowboy — the theme of which, he said, was “staying alive” — Daath are in dire need of a strong offense. Not that they’re proponents of rampant acts of violence — it’s more about protection, Levi explained.

“I don’t like getting into fights — it’s not what I’m into,” he said. “But that last tour was so crazy, as far as violence goes, I just figure we’ve got to be ready. … After this last tour … I mean, there were fights every single night. One night, there were nine fights — nine f—ing bloody fights.”

During one gig, Levi said, an audience member tried to attack frontman Sean Farber after he drenched the crowd with water.

“I guess some dude didn’t like it, and he told us to stop — in the middle of a song, mind you,” the guitarist recalled. “First of all, we’re not going to stop. Secondly, how do you expect a band to hear that? So he charged the stage and spit in Sean’s face. Sean saw him rushing towards the stage and hit him in the face with his microphone. After the show, the dude jumped our merch guy because he thought it was Sean. So let’s just say I’m going to be ready next time.”

Daath — which translates to “knowledge” in Hebrew — released their Roadrunner Records debut, The Hinderers, March 20. The Atlanta act’s material is heavily influenced by Da’at and Kabbalah, although the band does not identify a direct religious affiliation in its music. Daath explore esoteric themes associated with the Qabalistic Tree of Life and Death — a mystical-belief system that describes imbalances in areas of the brain — and use it as a framework for psychological exploration, Levi said.

“We’ve been into this kind of stuff as long as we’ve been working together, which is since I was 12 years old,” he explained. “We always kind of had a fascination with the occult, and when we were putting this project together, we were researching names and themes and one that really stuck out to us was the Tree of Life and Death life concept. We feel it maps out the human mind very precisely, and we use it as a roadmap to explore the negative sides of the human mind.”

The Hinderers was produced by Daath along with Testament guitarist James Murphy, who also makes a guest appearance on the LP. The album marks the first time most metalheads will have heard them, which doesn’t worry Levi.

“I’m not losing sleep over it,” he said. “I lost enough sleep while we were making it. It is a bit of a departure for Roadrunner these days, and I know that we have a slightly different sound, so I’m just curious to see what happens. I am ready for whatever. We always envision the worst-case scenario, as well as the best-case scenario, so we’re ready for anything. I think we have some pretty catchy music, and I think that people will dig it. We’re a grower kind of band — people will need to listen to us 50 times before they get what’s going on, since there are so many layers to our music.”

But Levi also says the time couldn’t be better for an album like The Hinderers to hit the metal scene. “I think we’re the first really extreme band to be on [Roadrunner’s] U.S. roster in 10 years — with the exception of two bands that were already established: Cradle of Filth and Opeth,” he said. “A band like us, a startup band, it’s a new thing for the label. Maybe it’s an experiment. Maybe they want to see if this style of music can do what it did in the early ’90s. It kind of already is, when you see bands like Lamb of God on [‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien’], and Slayer’s out there winning a Grammy. The time for this style of music has come back around. We’re just going to have to wait and see what happens.”