WARBEAST Release “Maze Of The Minotaur” & Announce Benefit Shows! [Stream]

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Photo by Eric Younkin Jr.

‘Enter The Arena’ is the impending new full-length from Texas thrash metal behemoths WARBEAST. Set for release on August 4th via Philip H. Anselmo’s Housecore Records, the punishing, ten-track production was captured at Anselmo’s famed Nodferatu’s Lair, mixed by Mike Thompson at the Riff Factory, and mastered by Lee Russell. The record features newest WARBEAST recruits, guitarist Drew Shoup and bassist Lyric Ferchaud, and stands among band’s most potent, volatile, and unrepentantly powerful offering yet. The release of WARBEAST‘s Enter The Arena follows Corbitt’s recent esophageal cancer diagnosis. A treatable though rarely curable disease, Corbitt faces the likelihood that he will never be able to sing again. The singer, who is currently undergoing an intensive schedule of radiation treatments, played his final show on Saturday, May 27th at the Rail Club in Fort Worth, Texas. View the farewell footage HERE. Continue reading →

ACCEPT Release First Album Trailer For “The Rise Of Chaos”

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‘The Rise Of Chaos‘ is ACCEPT‘s 15th studio album and their 4th offspring under Nuclear Blast Records, following the previous releases of ‘Blood Of The Nations’,’Stalingrad’, and ‘Blind Rage’. The new album is going to come out crashing through the gates on August 4th, 2017 for a worldwide release.

Today, the band releases their first album trailer, which was filmed at the recent ACCEPT media day in Hamburg on June 13th. A press conference took place on the day featuring Wolf Hoffmann and Holger Hübner, the WACKEN Festival organiser, both looking ahead to ACCEPT’s exclusive upcoming Wacken performance. To wrap up the day, Wolf signed the infamous “Golden Book” which belongs to the Hard Rock café in Hamburg. Watch the clip, attached below.

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Chicago Open Air Spotlight: AVERSED

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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 Aversed.

On Sunday, July 16th, students from the Berklee College of Music will bring their melodic death metal sounds to Chicago Open Air. Aversed is a 5-piece, female-fronted band that formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 2009. The band was added to the festival just a few weeks before the schedule was released so you won’t see them on the poster below. This was a much needed addition as the festival was lacking a female-fronted group. They hit the BlackCraft Stage on Sunday very early at 12:05 p.m. but it will be a performance you don’t want to miss. I’ve always found that some of the best performances of a festival will take place very early in the day. Read a little bit about how Aversed is preparing for the festival in this article from The Artery on WBUR 90.9 here.

Aversed released their debut EP last year in November titled ‘Renewal’. “Prison of Existence” opens the EP with a ferocity that shows they are more than just a band to get the day started off. Drawing influence from several bands playing the fest that day like Behemoth, Ozzy Osbourne, and Slayer, they create an extreme sound similar to that of the most recent Arch Enemy record. Even with only 5 songs, the EP clocks in at about 30 minutes with its epic combination of death metal growls, melodic vocals, fast-paced rhythms, and god-tier shredding from the guitarists. Check out “Prison of Existence” and a music video for the title track “Renewal” below. The video shows that the band puts a lot of energy into their live shows so I’m looking forward to seeing them own the stage very soon. This will be the quintet’s first time playing a Danny Wimmer Presents event. Buy your tickets to see Aversed make their festival debut at Chicago Open Air here. Follow the band on Facebook for upcoming news on brand new music and tours. Also follow the festival page for updates and additions to the festival in the coming days. 8 more days people!!

Aversed is:
Haydee Irizarry – Lead Vocals
Sungwoo Jeong – Guitar/Vocals
Alden Marchand – Guitar
Martin Epstein – Bass
Jeff Saltzman – Drums


Watch The Cool New STONE SOUR 360° Performance Video, “Somebody Stole My Eyes”

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Breakthrough rock act STONE SOUR has shared a 360° performance video for “Somebody Stole My Eyes,” featured on their acclaimed new album, ‘Hydrograd‘.  Filmed at Sphere Studios in North Hollywood, CA, the 360° performance video is streaming now on STONE SOUR’s official YouTube channel.

‘Hydrograd‘ has been out for almost a week now and has been receiving constant positive feedback from fans and critics alike. So much so that, their lead single “Song #3” spends a third straight week at #1 at Active Rock Radio, marking the GRAMMY® nominated band’s fourth #1 single and eighth Top 5 single at the format.

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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!