DevilDriver Release Strike and Kill, and the D'Addario NYXL Strings Behind New Guitarist Gabe Mangold's Rig

DevilDriver released their eleventh studio album, Strike and Kill, today via Napalm Records (Wikipedia). The 13-track record runs just under 51 minutes and was led by the single "Dig Your Own Grave," announced in April 2026. It's the band's first album built entirely around a reshuffled lineup: new guitarist and producer Gabe Mangold, rhythm guitarist Alex Lee, returning founding bassist Jon Miller, and drummer Davier Perez, alongside frontman Dez Fafara.

Strike and Kill caps a run of lineup changes. Guitarist Neal Tiemann departed in 2021. Bassist Diego Ibarra left in 2022, the same year founding bassist Jon Miller returned and Alex Lee, formerly of Holy Grail, joined on rhythm guitar. Drummer Austin D'Amond stepped away in December 2022, replaced by Davier Perez. The last piece fell into place in September 2024, when longtime guitarist Mike Spreitzer announced he was leaving after 20 years in the band. Gabe Mangold, then of the deathcore band Enterprise Earth, joined as his replacement in October 2025 (Metal Injection). Announcing the move, Fafara said: "To have both him and Alex Lee playing together with me makes up the most powerful unit I think we've ever had."

Fafara described the new record to Australia's May The Rock Be With You in June: "It's just nonstop bludgeoning. We do have a couple moments where we take a reprieve... and I just think it's a fantastic record" (Blabbermouth). He credited the new lineup with shaping the record's sequencing and even its setlist: "They came with the setlist that we're getting ready to do live. They came with the order of the songs. It's a powerful tool to be able to let that happen and to listen."

No DevilDriver-era rig rundown of Mangold has surfaced yet, so his most detailed documented setup remains a 2020 Premier Guitar Rig Rundown from his Enterprise Earth days. It centers on a custom Dalbello Undici Modern 8-string, strung with a D'Addario NYXL .009-.046 set as its base 6 strings, plus separately added .066 and .094 strings covering the extended range. He tuned it in double drop-D (D-A-D-G-C-F-A-D), with a backup 7-string typically kept in drop B for the road.

That's Mangold's documented history, not a confirmed spec for Strike and Kill, since no rig coverage from his time in DevilDriver has surfaced. But it's the clearest picture available of how the guitarist now producing and playing on DevilDriver's records approaches extended-range, drop-tuned strings.

Full sourced breakdown of Mangold's documented gear lives on his CYS profile.

DevilDriver tours the western United States with Upon a Burning Body and Ov Sulfur starting August 14 in San Diego and closing September 5 in Anaheim, with stops including Dallas, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Reno (Blabbermouth).