Blue Ridge Rock Festival Preview!

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Lynchburg, Virginia has officially put their name on the map in regards to music festivals. Over the past month the Blue Ridge Rock Festival has been slowly announcing bands playing the festival daily. The festival started out a little smaller than originally planned. Due to High Ticket Sales, they decided to expand the lineup and keep the ticket prices the same. How’s that for a reward? The initial bands on the lineup was Twiztid, Ill Nino, Saliva, (HED) P.E., Flaw, Saving Abel, Texas Hippie Coalition, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Moonshine Bandits, and Almost Kings. Continue reading →

The Bucketlist With Nate Garrett of GATECREEPER / SPIRIT ADRIFT!

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Photo Credit: Eric’s Bad Ass Uncle!

In this series we pose the age old questions to a wide array of music lovers. As fans of music most of us keep a mental list of active bands we want to see live that we haven’t yet seen. The Bucketlist brings to you those lists of your favorite artists and why those bands mean so much to them.

Nate Garrett is a name you may be familiar with. Musicians strike to get signed by a label throughout their careers and Nate has achieved this with not only one band but two. In 2015 Nate founded the band Spirit Adrift, which essentially started out as a one man project. In 2016 the band released an EP ‘ Behind – Beyond’ and a full length ‘Chained to Oblivion’ both via Prosthetic Records . They also released a split release with Khemmis via War Crime Recordings. Spirit Adrift has a slow festering doom sound with some psychedelic qualities. Both releases are riddled with riffs and thundering bass lines. Also on vocal duties Nate’s voice booms with soulful qualities throughout each track. All the tracks have this immense harmony and melodic feel with the powerful guitar work and drum beats holding up the back end. Around the same time Nate was founding Spirit Adrift he was welcomed into Gatecreeper as their guitarist. The bands are vastly different but do have some similar elements. Gatecreeper is certainly more in the vein of death metal, but they combine some doom influence as well. The band includes a Swedish style rapid fire riff attack and equal parts groove to make a smooth and filling cocktail of greatness. Since Nate was added to the band they have appeared on 3 splits, a compilation album, a full length and a live album. The full length ‘Sonoran Depravation’ was released in 2016 via Relapse Records, and the band’s live album ‘Unleashed in the Middle East’ was released in May of 2017 independently. You can easily say at this point that Nate Garrett is a successful musician. Dividing his time between two successful groups is certainly another feat within itself.  Continue reading →

HAIL SAGAN Releases New Video “Stealing The Crown” And Announce Tour

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Electronic Rock artist Hail Sagan announce the release of the new video for their single “Stealing The Crown”. Hail Sagan blasted onto the music scene in June of 2016 with their heavy hitting, debut single, “Dark Cloud,” which highlighted important issues such as bullying, violence, and suicide. Surrounded by a ghoulish league of masked musicians, Sagan Amery, the “purple princess,” as proclaimed by her followers, shines as a rebellious voice for the misunderstood. The philanthropic band who is continuously donating a portion of all funds to various charities, and who offers a network of outreach to those suffering from mental illness, released a self-titled EP in October of 2016, and continues to tour extensively.  Continue reading →

Review: KRAANIUM / ANALEPSY – ‘The Kraanialepsy Split’ [Official Stream]

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The Analepsy and Kraanium split might be the most brutal split from this year that got released via SLAMWORLDWIDE on the 1th of July, they are both a brutal death metal band and arguable the best in the game. To avoid any confusion I will first talk about the widely known slam band Kraanium.

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Chicago Open Air Spotlight: MUSHROOMHEAD

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*Every Tuesday and Thursday from now until Chicago Open Air gets here we will be releasing an article about a band playing the festival to get you familiar with them.*

Today’s artist is Mushroomhead.

On Saturday, July 15th, the legendary seven piece brings their experimental metal sound to Chicago Open Air from Cleveland, Ohio. They hit the BlackCraft Stage at 4:15 right after Avatar crushes the Monster Energy Main Stage. I believe Mushroomhead will leave a strong impression among the crowd that will be deserving of a main stage spot in the future. Since forming in 1993, Mushroomhead has always had a bit of a cult following that has kept them on the map. Their devoted fans have stayed loyal after all these years because of the band’s extreme passion for their music. The segment they do in their show with the water drums is something that has to be seen live. It’s truly one of the most unique things you will see in a live setting. For many years, people have argued over Slipknot or Mushroomhead. Instead of doing that, I’ve learned to appreciate both with their similarities and also their vast differences as artists. Continue reading →

TesseracT Dominate Silver Springs! [Photo Gallery]

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TesseracT

Last Thursday night the latest incarnation of the Dystopia tour with Megadeth hit Silver Spring, MD. When the tour was announced, I just could not believe how good the lineup was. A powerhouse supporting lineup of bands like the doom metal band Lillake (who we have interviewed recently), prog metal/djent giants Tesseract & Meshuggah is not something that you generally see in a short summer tour. With our upcoming coverage of Megadeth and Meshuggah at this months Chicago Open Air festival, we decided to focus our attention on TesseracT.

TesseracT

The show started early, with TesseracT, the second band of the night, taking the stage sharp at 7-10 PM. An early weeknight show meant that the venue was not packed yet. The setlist of TesseracT was short, with only six songs, and I was little disappointed with that. I really like the last couple of albums the band has released. This short set was started off with the single “Smile”, which was released late last month and will be a part of their upcoming album. This is the first single the band has released since the last album ‘Polaris’, which was released aeon ago, back in 2015. If this single is a sign of things to come, which probably is since the band says the new album will be a concept album, then things are looking great for the fans of the band. The opening track ‘Polaris’, Dystopia was the second song of the night. This was my first time seeing TesseracT live, and the guitar work and the drumming was precise from get go. The vocals by Daniel Tompkins did not hit the album like precision until the end of the first song, however from that point on it was razor sharp. I love bands that can deliver album quality sound while playing live, and TesseracT deserve full points for that. If you have followed the work of TesseracT, you are familiar with the band you know how they blend an atmospheric sound with melodic clean passages and synchronizing guitar work with short riffs. The last song of the set, “Nocturne”, which by the way is my favorite TesseracT song ever, is one of the perfect examples of this method. Many people in the crowd were not super familiar with TesseracT before this show. By the end of the set the band had made their presence felt with the blistering final track “Nocturne” and deservedly got rousing applause from the crowd.

TesseracT

So what is my take from this live performance ? Well, I hope they release their album soon and head out as the headliner on another US tour. By the time this review is published, only five more dates remain on this tour, and most of you will probably not have a chance to see them live. TesseracT have headlined at Baltimore Soundstage, the other regular venue from which I bring you reviews, in the last tour and I don’t see why they can’t do it again. Heck, I do want to see them play a long set. A headlining tour exploring the length and breadth of the country will probably be the best way to appease all the fans who are missing out now. And I am really keeping my fingers crossed here. We will be bringing more reviews to you in future, so stay tuned!

State Of The Art: GATECREEPER!

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*This is a part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

                                                                       This month’s State is Arizona!

GATECREEPER is a death metal band out of Tucson & Phoenix Arizona. They formed in 2013 with members Chase Mason on guitar, Metal Matt on drums, and Sean Mears on bass. In the early days they didn’t play a single show – they just wrote songs and recorded them. There was virtually no direction for this self-titled, 4 song EP, released in April of 2014. But, it turned out to be a great idea because they ended up with a fanbase before they played their first show.

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KINGS OF STRINGS: Eugene Kostyuk From JINJER!

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Photo Credits: Cristian Photography Lopez.

*In this segment we put guitarists and bassists from every metal genre you could imagine in the spotlight!*

Welcome to the first bassist that I will talk to you about today from our brand new segment Kings Of Strings, this will be a weekly segment that I will put out for you guys every friday. It main purpose will be to put the spotlight on a bassist or guitar player from every metal genre you could think of. This week will be all about bassist Eugene Kostyuk! 

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MOONSPELL Announce New Album ‘1755’

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Metal has always been deeply rooted in history, in terms of content – wars, natural disasters, murder, it’s all there.  But when you take a historical event, line it with poetic melody, and make it the concept for an album, you’ll definitely draw the right kind of attention.  That’s exactly what Portuguese goths, Moonspell, have done on their newly-announced 2017 release ‘1755’, which drops November 3 courtesy of Napalm Records.  The album tells the story of the devastating earthquake that decimated the band’s hometown of Lisbon in 1755, and is entirely in Portuguese! Continue reading →

Review: THE ACACIA STRAIN – ‘Gravebloom’ [Official Videos]

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The Acacia Strain is a deathcore band from Conneticut, US with some dark yet clear downtempo influences. The band started out really heavy with its first release ‘3750’ in 2004. Albums like ‘The Dead Walk’ and ‘Continent‘ pushed forward the heavy death core, almost death metal, sound the band originally had. The band took a big turn in its sound with the release ‘Wormwood’. The downtempo influences really started to break through on this album. This is also the first album that features the famous ”Bird” on the cover art. Just 2 years later The Acacia Strain let us know that they were still capable of making some kick ass music and so they did with the release of ‘Death Is The Only Mortal’.  Latest and maybe even their best work yet, ‘Coma Witch’, gave us everything we loved about the band. Last year the band collaborated to create ‘The Depression Sessions’ with death core pioneers Thy Art Is Murder. This isn’t all of it yet, Fit For An Autopsy also worked hard on this Split. They are one of the best upcoming death core bands at this very moment, check them out HERE! The long awaited upcoming album ‘Gravebloom’ will release via Rise Records in just 3 days, 30th of June. A new The Acacia Strain is just what we needed in a world full of disappointments!

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