Category Archives: Artist Showcase

Bourbon & Beyond Festival Spotlight: LUKAS NELSON AND PROMISE OF THE REAL

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Lukas Nelson and Promise of The Real will be one of the up coming acts at this years Bourbon and Beyond. Bourbon and Beyond has a new home. It is still in Louisville, Kentucky of course, but will call a new festival grounds home. This year, Bourbon and Beyond will take place at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo. The previous location, Champions Park, had a terrible flood last year and day 2 of Bourbon and Beyond was cancelled. However, to make up for that, Bourbon and Beyond is now a 3-day festival. This means an additional day of bands, bourbon and best friends! How awesome is that? This will be Lukas Nelson and Promise of The Real’s debut at the Bourbon and Beyond Festival. If you have never heard this band before, prepared to be amazed! With that said, let’s discuss Lukas Nelson and Promise of The Real. Continue reading →

Louder Than Life Festival Spotlight: CROWN LANDS [Videos]

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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 Canadian psych-blues outfit CROWN LANDS.

One of the bands jump-starting LOUDER THAN LIFE on Friday is CROWN LANDS, a duo hailing from Oshawa, Ontario. For the past four years, Cody Bowles (drums/vocals) and Kevin Comeau (guitars/keyboards/pedals) have been expertly crafting hard-stomping rock that finds the sweet spot between WOLFMOTHER, THE WHITE STRIPES, and RUSH while belying the seeming limitations of their streamlined blueprint. Songs like “Being Right” and “Mountain” retain a touch of garage rawness while still sounding like widescreen epics, and hepped-up jumpers like “Misery” and “Mantra” have a fair bit of glitter encrusted on their shitkicker boots. Continue reading →

State Of The Art: ATOMSHIP!

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Atomship is one of those bands you will instantly love when trying out, even if you don’t like the genre you will most likely still appreciate the pure skill this band has. The drumming is fantastic and I am blown away by the riff work and soul touching vocals, all in all Atomship really deserves their own spot in this month’s State Of The Art!

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Bourbon & Beyond Festival Spotlight: SAMANTHA FISH [Official Videos]

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Samantha Fish will be one of the many tremendous acts at this year’s Bourbon and Beyond Festival. Bourbon and Beyond has a new home. It is still in Louisville, Kentucky of course, but will call a new festival grounds home. This year, Bourbon and Beyond will take place at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo. The previous location, Champions Park, had a terrible flood last year and day 2 of Bourbon and Beyond was cancelled. However, to make up for that, Bourbon and Beyond is now a 3 day festival. This means an additional day of bands, bourbon and best friends! How awesome is that? This will be Samantha Fish’s debut for Bourbon and Beyond. All I can say is be prepared to be wowed with her masterfully skilled guitar playing and showmanship. With that being said, let’s talk a little bit about Samantha Fish. Continue reading →

Louder Than Life Festival Spotlight: DED [Official Videos]

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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 checking out DED.*

If you haven’t had a chance to hear or see the band DED you have truly been hiding from all the good things in the world. The band released their Fred Durst directed video for “Anti-Everything” in March of 2017 and it was like a haymaker to the metal world waking us up from the same old generic regurgitated metal we have had for years. DED had a fresh new sound that re-awakened the nu-metal scene and had everyone screaming for more. The band formed in Phoenix, AZ in 2016 with the goal of putting listeners on edge. They have achieved various other goals in the process as well. The band has been one of the best up and coming bands of the past couple years and has helped revive the nu-metal scene that once was considered endangered. Over the course of their first year they have took the music scene by storm with their first two singles. They were collecting fans from all over the world even prior to their album dropping. Their live performances and EP led to a quick amount of success including shows with Beartooth, Atreyu, Every Time I Die, and then a massive tours with Korn and Stone Sour. They will be one of the must see bands at this years Louder Than Life Festival performing on Sunday September 29th. Of course the lads are no stranger to festival stages and have previously played Carolina Rebellion and played Epicenter’s inaugural year this year, Chicago Open Air, Shiprocked, Rock Allegiance, Revolution Rock Fest, Rocklahoma, Aftershock, Knotfest, and they are also Louder Than Life veterans after performing on the festival in 2017.

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State of the Art: Mississippi’s PARTHURNAX

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*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is Mississippi.*

Parthurnax is born out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi although it might as well be out of the snow covered forests of Finland. Much like the origin, Parthurnax is a bit of a mystery. It is unclear who is behind the project. A bit of snooping gives credence to the fact is a solo project as Facebook posts use “I” in the available few. One thing that is certain however, is the fantastic instrumental music. Classic heavy metal riffs with hints of Scandinavian prog. Fans of Dragonforce, Wintersun, Eluveitie, etc. That very Eurocentric sound that goes over so well at Wacken. Continue reading →

Bourbon & Beyond Festival Spotlight: BLACKBERRY SMOKE [Official Videos]

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Welcome back to our ongoing series of Bourbon & Beyond 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 20-22nd in what’s sure to be one of the biggest concert events of the year. This week, we’re taking a closer look at Blackberry Smoke.

Blackberry Smoke is one of the up and coming bands to play this year at the Bourbon and Beyond Festival. Bourbon and Beyond has a new home this year. It is still in Louisville, Kentucky of course, but a different festival grounds. This new location is the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo. The former location, Champions Park, was flooded last year and day 2 of Bourbon and Beyond was cancelled along with the whole Louder Than Life festival. Bourbon and Beyond was previously a 2 day festival but this year has expanded to 3 days, so you get an entire additional day of bands. Blackberry Smoke was set to play last year but didn’t get the opportunity due to the park flooding. So, all the fans that missed out last year, get ready because they are making their phenomenal return and I’m sure they will make up for the rains that washed them away last year! Let’s talk some about Blackberry Smoke. Continue reading →

Louder Than Life Festival Spotlight: DEADLAND RITUAL [Videos]

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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 →

State Of The Art: Mississippi’s CLAWHAMMER [Album Stream]

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*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is Mississippi.*

Clawhammer is a hard rock/heavy metal band from Mississippi formed by Paul Hill and Paul Craig.  The outfit is rounded out by Stephen McNeer on rhythm guitar, Pete Lindsey on drums and Brad Litton on bass.  Normally, there would be more detail about the group, but I can’t find any!  However, I can speak to the music and it really is classic metal, forged from the steel of the South and the artistic ethic of the doom/goth scene. Continue reading →

Louder Than Life Festival Spotlight: HO99O9 [Videos]

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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 checking out Ho99o9.*

Ho99o9 (pronounced Horror) is one of the up and coming band performing at Louder Than Life this year, it’s first year in the new location at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo in Louisville, Kentucky. Last year’s festival was cancelled due to flooding at Champions Park the former location of the festival since its inaugural year. This band is like nothing you have ever seen or heard before. Their sound is a mixture of punk, industrial and rap. The band finished up 2018 on tour with The Prodigy in the U.K.. Their sound is somewhat similar to The Prodigy mixed with Nine Inch Nails, Dead Kennedys and a touch of rap. Ho99o9’s sound changes somewhat drastically from song to song and they can’t really be pigeon holed to one specific sound or style. The New Jersey duo explains that they weren’t exposed to rock, punk or metal growing up and all they really heard was hip hop. Now days you will see the band members repping such bands as the Misfits, Cro-Mags, and even Eye Hate God. Continue reading →