SONIC TEMPLE Friday Review & Photo Gallery!

Ghost

Mapfre Stadium in Columbus Ohio has been home to Rock on the Range for the last 11 years. But after last year’s festival, Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) split ways with their former partner AEG and were unable to keep the rights to the name Rock On The Range thus the festival being renamed: Sonic Temple Arts and Music Festival. Could it create the same moments and memories that made Rock On The Range legendary for over 10 years?

I arrived at Mapfre Stadium about 2 hours before doors open. There was already a huge line of people waiting to get in and you could feel the excitement from everyone.

The Jacks

The Jacks were the first band on the schedule and they opened up the Echo Stage with a good easy going set. Their EP hasn’t been released yet so the crowd got to hear some upcoming songs off of it including “Walk Away” and “Looking For Love.” It’s going to be a long day of live music. They were the perfect band to start the day.

Shvpes

Shvpes was next up on the Echo Stage they were first band of the weekend featuring members that have famous fathers. Griffin Dickinson, the band’s lead singer, is the son of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson. That alone brought out a decent crowd. They were a little faster tempo than I was expecting and that seemed to energize the crowd as we had our first mosh pit and crowd surfers of the weekend. Most of their set included songs off of their 2018 album ‘Greater Than’ including “Undertones” and “Afterlife.”

Badflower

Badflower had the honor of opening this year’s Main Stage and they didn’t disappoint. They didn’t play to a huge crowd, however, as most of them were still lined up trying to get in the gates. It was also probably the calmest the main stage crowd was all weekend. Most of their set included songs from their debut album including “x ANA x,” “Ghost,” and “Heroin,” in which lead singer Josh Katz stated was the #1 rock song in America in the upcoming chart. “I’m going to get in trouble for saying that” he stated before starting the song.

Wage War

For all the metalheads in attendance, we got our first metal band of the day over at the Echo Stage. Wage War come out to thunderous cheers and multiple devil horn salutes in the air. The crowd instantly broke out into 3 circle pits and the band was loving the energy from the crowd. Their set included their new single “Low” and songs from their other 2 albums including “Alive” and “Stitch.”

Avatar

Next up on the Main Stage is the band that may have put on the best performance of the day on that stage. The Swedish rockers, Avatar, came out with high energy and had members of the band sitting on a throne above the drum set as they performed “A Statue of the King.” The crowd was going crazy as they performed their hits “Hail the Apocalypse” and “Smells Like a Freakshow.” To add to the insanity of the performance, a guy in a chicken suit was crowd surfing nonstop. An Avatar stage show is really cool to witness and is a must see if you can catch them on the festival circuit.

Zeal & Ardor

The Echo Stage was now the place to be to see the most unique band of the weekend. Zeal & Ardor, a relatively new band that mixes black metal with southern blues and gospel, absolutely destroyed the 2nd stage and put on what I think was the best performance of the entire weekend. The crowd was completely enthralled with the band as they sang along to all of the evil lyrics to songs such as “Blood In The River,” “Devil is Fine,” and “Don’t You Dare.” It was nonstop awesomeness for their 30 minute set and the only time the singer spoke to the crowd was to say “We don’t talk a lot. I hope that’s ok.” When you kick as much ass as they do, it absolutely is.

Beartooth

Imagine getting to play the Main Stage of a festival in front of your hometown fans. That’s exactly what Beartooth got to do. And the crowd was loving it as much as they did. Lead singer Caleb Shomo kept urging the crowd; “More crowdsurfing. More mosh pits.” The crowd responded with an onslaught of people getting tossed toward the stage as the band played songs such as “Disease” and “In Between.”

Parkway Drive

The heaviest band to play the Main Stage so far was up next. Parkway Drive had the crowd raging during the hottest part of the day with the sun beaming down on the stadium floor. That didn’t seem to bother the crowd as they seemed to enjoy the set that consisted mostly of songs from the bands most recent album ‘Reverence.’

Tom Morello

I left Parkway Drive’s performance early to head over to the Wave Stage to see Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello play a solo set. This was one of the most interesting sets of the weekend. Morello started out by playing in the crowd during the first song. During the 2nd song, he went on stage and played with a DJ and a video board that displayed various political messages including anti-police messages such as “Be white or get shot.” During all of this, I kept saying to myself “did I really miss Black Label Society for this?” But as soon as I said that, we got what may be the best highlight of the weekend. To honor the 2 year anniversary of Chris Cornell’s death, Morello brought out System of a Down’s Serj Tankian to play a cover of Audioslave’s “Like a Stone.” The performance was incredibly emotional. The performance ended with Morello bringing people up from the crowd on the stage to sing songs from the Rage Against the Machine catalog.

Halestorm

Now it was time for the first of the Main Stage headliners. Halestorm started their set with a drum solo. At first I thought that was odd but it gave the crowd a chance to get over from the side stages and get settled in. Their set contained all of their hits and a selection of songs from their new album ‘Vicious.’ A couple of set highlights included Lzzy bringing up a girl from the crowd and giving her a custom Epiphone Explorer. Very cool moment. Halestorm also dedicated their hit song “Get Off” to their 10 year anniversary of playing Rock On The Range over on the Jager Stage when no one knew who they were.

Meshuggah

The headliner for the Echo Stage was none other than extreme metal band Meshuggah. This was my first time seeing the Swedish metallers and I was expecting big things. I had kept hearing that a Meshuggah pit was a religious experience. But I didn’t experience that. The band was good and they played a wide range of songs from their catalog but I didn’t feel they gave the crowd much energy and they stood in spot on stage for most of the set. Others in the crowd seemed to be having a blast as I smelled the most marijuana that I did all weekend. Maybe that’s what I needed to really enjoy the set.

Ghost

The sun was setting. The cool breeze has started blowing through. It was time for the ritual to begin. Ghost provokes a very decisive reaction from fans: you either love them or you hate them. I fall under the former and I loved their set. All of the best songs from their albums were played including “Absolution,” “Cirice,” “Dance Macabre,” and “Square Hammer.” For the first time ever at this festival (and probably only time), a full on saxophone solo broke out during their instrumental tune “Miasma.” Heavy metal doesn’t have to be heavy to be great. Ghost is the perfect example of that.

As soon as Ghost left the stage, the rains began to pour down. The rains didn’t last long and had stopped by the time System Of A Down hit the stage. It has been 16 years since I’ve seen them live and since they don’t play many shows, I was beyond excited to see them again. As soon as they started playing, I could tell something was out of sync. After 3 songs, Daron Malakian announced to the crowd that they had to reboot the sound system. He led the crowd in a “fuck the system” chant that ended up being a theme of the set. After a 10 minute delay, the band came back out and continued the set. System Of A Down is known for not being that great of a live band and for me personally that was the case here as well. Even after the audio fix, the band just didn’t seem in sync. I’m not sure if it is the fact that they don’t get along very well or the fact that it had been 8 months since they played together, but the performance just wasn’t that great. The crowd still had a great time and we got to hear 27 songs including an even mix from all of their albums. But it was a disappointing end to a great day of live music.

 

PARKWAY DRIVE, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, THY ART IS MURDER Dominate The UK [Review & Photo Gallery]

Parkway Drive may have only scheduled 4 dates for their UK tour but with the jaw dropping lineup of support acts they have bestowed upon us pure metal happiness. Kicking things off is Parkway Drive’s fellow Australian’s Thy Art Is Murder using their deathcore sound to get the crowd pumped right from the start, they are followed by metalcore royalty with Killswitch Engage who have been on a roll since original singer Jesse Leach re-joined the band. Then the proverbial cherry on top of course is Parkway Drive touring in support of their tremendous new record ‘Reverence.’ This tour February 1st stop in Cardiff at Motorpoint Arena was bound to be explosive.

Thy Art Is Murder

 

From the get go the lads in Thy Art Is Murder were not messing around whilst smashing straight in with “Dear Desolution” with its ultra fast double bass drum and fast runs and riffs on the guitars. Then CJ kicks in with his unique powerful screams, growls and shouts, the crowd went nuts. This is the first time I’ve witnessed them live and to see them grace a stage like this arena was amazing, they looked right at home. I can only imagine what a smaller show would be like (carnage) but then they played the fourth song on the setlist “Reign Of Darkness” and CJ asked the crowd to split for a wall of death. It was at least a 20 foot gap from the front of the arena to the back. Then bang the charge from the crowd and for the next two songs the crowd was going insane. Ending on “Puppet Master” was a great choice with that pounding snare hitting intro got the crowd banging their heads. As the momentum picked up they knew it was their last chance to dance so they went crazy for CJ and crew. I can’t wait to witness this again soon.

Killswitch Engage

Not gonna lie I’m a huge Killswitch Engage fan and have been since day one. Recently I witnessed them supporting Iron Maiden last year at the London o2 which was a phenomenal performance and to be fair it always is. Tonight people who had a ticket were in for a treat. They played 11 songs in total and a great mixture of old and new. You could tell they had a lot of fans in the audience due to the amount of singing going on and especially to “My Curse” and “My Last Serenade” the crowd were nearly drowning out the band they singing along so loud. I was hoping Guitarist Adam D was going to pop to the bar and order a couple shots mid song like he did at a recent show whilst still playing his guitar (We’ve all seen that video right?). I was waiting but sadly this didn’t happen (search for the video its awesome). Watching Adam’s quirky personality on stage is always amazing, the faces he pulls are great along with his jogging around the stage, he is in my eyes one of the best guitarists out there. Jesse Leach is just one of those flawless live vocalists, he sounded perfect in every way. I normally don’t say this but it was great vocal deliveries all night long. He delivers just as good as the album version live. He deserves a lot of respect, hats off to you sir! The pit was crazy from start to finish. I stood just out of the area and saw a random shoe on the ground and then another shoe made it to the stage. As Jesse asked who’s it was, well there was either one person with no shoes or two people with one shoe…ha ha ha. One more thing to look out for is a new album from Killswitch Engage this year and 2019 marks the 20 year anniversary of the band so I’m sure its going to be a banger of an album.

Parkway Drive

 

So the time has come for the Australian lads in Parkway Drive to hit the stage. The lights dimmed and the band appeared at the back of the venue with four of their crew surrounding them with flame torches. They walked through the crowd to the stage with the intro to “Wishing Wells” before gracing the stage and continuing to deliver the rest of this tune from ‘Reverence’. Lights dimmed to an almighty roar, Parkway Drive officially warmed the crowd up together with the amount of pyros, explosions and flame throwers from all sides of stage.

The stand out tunes for me were “Carrion,” “Vice Grip” and “Wild Eyes.” To hear everyone in the crowd chanting to the riff like on the album version was incredible and vocalist Winston McCall looked like that gets him amped every night. Drummer Ben Gordon is a beast on the kit, he’s a drummer I’ve liked for a while now. If you wanna be a hard hitting drummer just watch this guy. He didn’t let up all night and had 17 tunes to play, just wish he had his drum cradle tonight but unfortunately some venues can’t accommodate everything in a bands production. To be fair, it did not matter as Parkway Drive let the music and performance do the talking. Winston McCall did say it felt like last week they were playing Merthyr Tydfil to 10 people and he couldn’t sing ha ha.

Well I was there in the early days and not so long ago when people used to turn up with inflatable boats and crowd surf in them, amazing times. However, to see this band progress into what they are now and to be doing arena tours is well deserved. I hope the momentum for them keeps growing. If you manage to get to a show you can expect explosions, flames, fire balls from all directions, a string section joining them and Winston McCall going to a little stage at the sound desk to join a cello player to perform with elevating platforms which Luke Kilpatrick and Jeff Ling were lifted high up above the stage. I read an article saying there are no bands coming up to replace the legendary bands we are losing, well think again, they are here and they are called Parkway Drive. They have always been here and right now they are getting the recognition for their hard work over the last 16 years. So stadiums might be next on the agenda? I certainly hope so. I would like to wish every member of the band all the best for the future. We can only hope they help influence a new generation of bands that are even half as talented as they are.

 

Wessel’s Top 10 Albums Of 2018!

Metal has yet again spoken beautifully with metalcore records such as Erra & Ice Nine Kills or even the highly praised Aborted piece. And if those albums weren’t exactly for you then the long awaited Underoath will for sure do you right. It doesn’t matter how you put it, 2018 has been a fantastic year for metal!

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The Bucketlist With Winston McCall of PARKWAY DRIVE! [Video]

Parkway Drive

*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*

 

Parkway Drive have truly been one of the leaders within the metalcore genre and probably one of the most popular and brutal bands to come out of Australia. Winston McCall leads the charge with his brutal yet catchy and poignant vocals; he is supported by the insane riff creator Jeff Ling, rythm master Luke Kilpatrick and bassist Jia O’Conner and the earth crushing drums of Ben Gordon. The Australians formed in 2003 and have released 6 studio albums and one EP. Their 2015 release ‘Ire’ propelled the band even further into metalcore glory and it’s only the beginning of things to come. The band on May 4th released what I believe is their best work yet in ‘Reverence’ via Epitaph Records (see our review here). They have been a must see band for fans all over the globe and Parkway Drive has been feeding the addiction those fans have of seeing the band perform live. The band just wrapped up a set of U.S. tour dates along with festival appearances at Welcome To Rockville, Carolina Rebellion,  and Northern Invasion and they are about to come upon U.S. shores once again in August and September then back to Australia during the month of October to tour with Killswitch Engage and Sydney, Australia’s Thy Art Is Murder. They are by no means slowing down and there are tons of opportunities to see the band live, don’t miss yours. Continue reading

Carolina Rebellion 2018: Friday [Review & Photo Gallery]

 

Underoath

 

After a whole year of waiting Carolina Rebellion 2018 has finally arrived. As the gates opened fans sprinted to stages all across the festival grounds in hopes to hang on to the rail at the stage their favorite band would be performing on. As we eagerly awaited tickets to go on sale, then for the lineup, and finally for the set times and keeping our fingers crossed our favorites bands don’t play at the same time. Another big thing most of us wait for is our first carton of Island Noodles of the festival season. We certainly wish we could cover every band that played this year but it just isn’t logistically possible with interviews, and other media related happenings. Friday was a day filled with great bands and if you wasn’t there you certainly missed an epic Carolina Rebellion. The day 1 lineup was pretty stacked with up and comers like Counterfeit and Dubé, then also those veteran acts like Sevendust and Stone Temple Pilots. Then you had some acts that are amazing we aren’t use to seeing in the festival circuit like Andrew W.K., and Power Trip. Then closing out the night you have Shinedown followed by the legends Alice In Chains. Friday wasn’t my favorite lineup of the festival but it certainly had a lot of talent hit the stages and some very impressive performances. Continue reading

Review: PARKWAY DRIVE – ‘Reverence’ [Full Album Stream]

After the huge succes of the 2015 album ‘IRE’ Parkway Drive is back to destroy whatever is left with the dark and harsh vocals of Winston supported by the insane riffage of Jeff, Luke and Jia and the Earth crushing drums of Ben. So you better get ready to witness the end of the world!

Before we get into the new and stellar album ‘Reverence’ we need to dive into the deep and try to grasp the absolute beauty of their past records. Now if you have been a Parkway Drive or even a metalcore fan for a while you already know that they have held the throne from the beginning of time with the 2007 release of ‘Killing With A Smile’. This and several other past albums such as ‘Horizons’, ‘Deep Blue’ and ‘Atlas’ have all been of huge help to the metalcore world. For both musicians and for people who enjoy the music as much as I do. They have for sure set a near perfect example of how the core of metal should be delivered in its best ways. But before you come knocking on my door Parkway Drive has been released music before, they released 2 EPs which you have probably never heard of. They have done a split ep with I Killed The Prom Queen back in 2003 and the not so famous but spectacular 2004 EP ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’.

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PARKWAY DRIVE Release Live Video Of Vice Grip!

Metalcore kings Parkway Drive just released their live video of ”Vice Grip” of the album ‘IRE’ yesterday, June 21, and it is breathtaking! I wonder if this band even needs an introduction but for those 2 people living under some rocks next to the bridge, here we go!  Continue reading

Carolina Rebellion: Saturday Review & Photo Gallery

Red Sun Rising

Red Sun Rising

Day 2 (Saturday) was the day I was anticipating the most. The lineup for Saturday was chock full of heavier bands that I had been wanting to see or already seen and love very much. The first band I got to see was Red Sun Rising. The band had this amazing intro that started up and then came to a screeching halt before kicking back in, the crowd lovingly applauded. It was just barely noon and these guys had more energy than half the bands the day before. It was nonstop movement on the stage as they played their hit songs “The Otherside” and “Emotionless.” Vocalist Mike Protich took this stance or pose on stage while singing that reminded me of the late great Scott Weiland. Not only was Mike mesmerizing on stage but his vocals sounded just as good live as on the record. Continue reading