EXIT 111 FESTIVAL 2019: Sunday [Review & Photo Gallery]

Days one and two of the inaugural Exit 111 Festival in Manchester, TN featured 30 bands and over 20 hours of southern rock, thrash, metalcore, alt rock and just about every other heavy music genre on one small farm in Middle Tennessee. Day three was poised to wrap things up with a bang, with another 15 bands and a scheduled three hour set from headliner and recently resurging late 80s rockers Guns N’ Roses. So pitter patter, let’s get at’er.

Continue reading

LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019: Saturday [Review & Photo Gallery]

Halestorm

After being forced into a flood-induced sabbatical last year, LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019 roared back to life the last weekend of September. Over 50 artists and nearly 130,000 fans descended on Louisville, Kentucky’s Fair and Exposition Center, making Derby City the undisputed capital of the hard rock world (for at least a couple days). Your intrepid METAL NEXUS away team braved the teeming throngs and the suffocatingly oppressive heat, chasing slivers of shade while soaking in the sights and sounds in order to bring you these dispatches from the front lines of the biggest rock festival in America. Continue reading

LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019: Dissecting The Daily Schedules

We’re a scant week-and-a-half from the return of LOUDER THAN LIFE, one of the nation’s premiere hard rock/heavy metal events. After flooding cruelly scuttled last year’s festivities, Danny Wimmer Presents worked with the city of Louisville to find a new home for the festival, settling on the Kentucky Expo Center’s Highland Festival Grounds (with “highland” being, hopefully, the operative word). 2019’s potent lineup packs some major firepower, with headliners GUNS N’ ROSES, SLIPKNOT, and DISTURBED alongside an array of current acts like HALESTORM, A DAY TO REMEMBER, and IN THIS MOMENT, rising stars such as DIRTY HONEY and CROWN LANDS, and metal mainstays like ROB ZOMBIE, GODSMACK, and MARILYN MANSON. A lineup of this magnitude will invariably force punters to make some hard choices between this band on that stage and that band on this stage; after poring over this year’s daily schedules, here are some of the weekend’s biggest scheduling snafus and how your intrepid reporter plans to unravel them.

Continue reading

LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019 Ticket Giveaway! [Entry Details]

Louder Than Life is back with yet another star studded lineup after being forced to cancel the festival in 2018 due to flooding at Champions Park, which also caused the Bourbon & Beyond Festival to cancel the final day of that festival as well. The flooding caused immense damage to the festival grounds so the team at Danny Wimmer Presents and the city of Louisville found a new home for not only Louder Than Life and Bourbon & Beyond but also the new country music festival Hometown Rising. The new home for the 3 consecutive weekends of music and spirits will be held at the Highland Festival Grounds At the Kentucky Expo Center. Keyword being “Highland,” so the rains won’t stop us in 2019. Guns N’ Roses will be the major headliner this year along with Slipknot performing after their brand new album release that has been the talk of the metal world. Guns N’ Roses alone is enough to have Loudmouths already packing their bags in anticipation to head to Louisville or should we say “Paradise City.” Continue reading

EXIT 111 Festival Releases Daily Set Times!

 

Exit 111 has been one of the most anticipated festivals of the summer and fall in its inaugural year. Taking place on the farm that Bonnaroo has made iconic right outside of Nashville, Tennessee. The lineup is diverse but appeals to more of a rock and metal crowd than Bonnaroo. You have legendary bands with decades of experience like Guns N’ Roses, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ TopCheap Trick and Def Leppard. Then you also have bands that have made a name for themselves and would be a headliner on most any tour lineup like Coheed and Cambria, Mastodon, Ghost, and Deftones. Then you have my favorite bands to see; the up and coming bands that I personally think you shouldn’t miss. These bands have something to prove and they will go all out to impress the massive crowds at festivals. Those bands include Tetrarch, Dirty Honey, Alien Weaponry, Them Evils, Power Trip and Kyle Shutt (of The Sword) showcasing his solo act. I don’t think I need to explain how important it is that you also get a chance to see Slayer one last time, and this will be their final performance in the Volunteer State, so don’t miss them. Continue reading

Louder Than Life Festival Spotlight: THE PINK SLIPS [Official Videos]

Welcome back to our ongoing series of LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019 artist profiles, our weekly guide through the lineup of acts who’ll take the stage at Louisville, Kentucky’s Highland Festival Grounds at Kentucky Expo Center September 27-29 in what’s sure to be one of the biggest concert events of the year. This week, we’re taking a closer look at the Los Angeles based synth-punk band The Pink Slips.

 

Louder Than Life is bringing a wide variety of musical genres to Louisville, Kentucky this year. From Celtic punk rock and hair metal to southern sludge and the synth-punk rockers The Pink Slips. Formed in 2013 in the City Of Angels aka Los Angeles The Pink Slips have been building their sound and their fan base along the way. The band cut their teeth in legendary Hollywood venues like The Troubadour and the Viper Room, well before the band’s members could legally drink at the bar. The Pink slips is led by vocalist Grave aka Grace McKagan the daughter of Guns N Roses bassist Duff McKagan. Duff has also showcased his vocal talents on his side project Loaded, and he is also a member of several other talents bands like Velvet Revolver, Hollywood Vampires and various others. So it’s easy to that musical talent courses through her veins. The remainder of the band is filled out with Trent Peltz on keyboard and backing vocals, Keenan Bevans behind the drum kit and Desi Scaglione  on guitar. Continue reading

Louder Than Life Festival Spotlight: DEADLAND RITUAL [Videos]

Welcome back to our ongoing series of LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019 artist profiles, our weekly guide through the lineup of acts who’ll take the stage at Louisville, Kentucky’s Highland Festival Grounds at Kentucky Expo Center September 27-29 in what’s sure to be one of the biggest concert events of the year. This week, we’re taking a closer look at newly-formed supergroup DEADLAND RITUAL.

Not every unsigned band can grab a spot on the lineup for a festival on the magnitude of LARGER THAN LIFE. But then, not every unsigned band can unravel the certified Hall of Fame pedigree of DEADLAND RITUAL. Boasting the assembled firepower of drummer Matt Sorum (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N’ ROSES, THE CULT), guitarist Steve Stevens (BILLY IDOL, VINCE NEIL), bassist Geezer Butler (BLACK SABBATH, HEAVEN & HELL), and vocalist Franky Perez (APOCALYPTICA, SCARS ON BROADWAY), DEADLAND RITUAL’s deft audio alchemy combines a century’s worth of hard rocks and heavy metals into a sleek and shiny new alloy that’s both classic and cutting edge. Judging from their two officially released singles, “Down in Flames” and “Broken & Bruised,” a kind of sultry doom will be the unit’s primary stock-in-trade, riding the Big Groove of the formidable Butler/Sorum rhythm section on a thick slab of power riffs and impassioned vocals underneath a desert sky of electric gray. Continue reading

EXIT 111 Festival: With GUNS N’ ROSES, DEF LEPPARD, LYNYRD SKYNYRD, SLAYER And More [Complete Lineup & Details]

The first ever Exit 111 festival is coming to the Tennessee Bonnaroo grounds this fall and features a monster musical lineup including Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Slayer, Megadeth, ZZ Top, Ghost, Mastodon, Deftones, Coheed and Cambria, Lamb of God, and many more. The three-day experience will take place on Friday, October, 11th, Saturday, October 12th, and Sunday, October 13th at Great Stage Park in Manchester, Tennessee. Grab your tickets (on sale now) right here. Continue reading

LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019 Full Lineup Announcement & Preview!

Louder Than Life is back with yet another star studded lineup after being forced to cancel the festival in 2018 due to flooding at Champions Park, which also caused the Bourbon & Beyond Festival to cancel the final day of that festival as well. The flooding caused immense damage to the festival grounds so the team at Danny Wimmer Presents and the city of Louisville found a new home for not only Louder Than Life and Bourbon & Beyond but also the new country music festival Hometown Rising. The new home for the 3 consecutive weekends of music and spirits will be held at the Highland Festival Grounds At the Kentucky Expo Center. Keyword being “Highland,” so the rains won’t stop us in 2019. Just a week ago it was leaked and then announced that one of the worlds most popular bands Guns N’ Roses would be headlining the festival. That band alone is enough to have Loudmouths already packing their bags in anticipation to head to Louisville or should we say “Paradise City.” Continue reading

Duff McKagan Taps Shooter Jennings To Produce His New Solo Album!

Photo by Scott Dudelson

Legendary Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan taps producer Shooter Jennings for his new solo record in the works. The two came together earlier this spring to begin the recording process in Los Angeles. The unnamed album is due out next year. It is a musical supplement to McKagan’s 2015 book, How To Be A Man (And Other Illusions), a New York Times bestseller. A followup book was put on hold for the time being as these songs seemed to write themselves. These new songs were inspired by McKagan’s experience traveling the world with Guns N’ Roses’ on their extravagant Not in This Lifetime tour. McKagan stated “The heartbreak, anger, fear, confusion and divide I have experienced over the last two and a half years of traveling this globe of ours coerced these words into songs that tell my truth, and one that I hope will spread and help us all. I do this for my daughters … I do this for my love of where I grew up …I do this because I truly feel it must be done and said right now.” Continue reading