Our very own Great Dane, Lars Ulrich from METALLICA has decided to test the waters on hosting an online radio show which is gonna be known as, “It’s Electric“. This is a venture set forth by Apple Music Beats1 which is also going to feature co-host Steffan Chirazi, who happens to be METALLICA‘s ‘So What!’ fan magazine editor.
3 Kisses is:
Tish Meeks – Vocals, guitar
Drew Owens – Lead guitar, backing vocals
Dale Payne – Drums
Zach Adams – Bass
Born in the fiery heat of Central Texas and then transplanted to Wasilla, Alaska comes Punk/Rock/Hard Rock/Alternative/Pop sensation, 3 Kisses. Fronted by wild woman Tish Meeks, 3 Kisses was originally formed in January 2004 as an Alternative Punk Rock outfit focused on good times aligned with unprecedented energy. True to form, Tish quickly garnering the title of “A Little Ball of Fire”, and with the rest of the band, began their dominant rampage across the Southern United States. Once their momentum overcame the region, 3 Kisses was able to expand their influence all over the country and earned them sponsorship from Jagermeister, Paul Reed Smith Guitars, Dirtbag Clothing, Daisy Rock Guitars, Miller Lite, Dunlop, Coffin Case, GoGirls Music, Texas Independent Musicians, Music Gorilla, Old Dog Products and Powered by Sam Ash. The amalgamation of fun, energetic and radio-friendly music full sarcastic angst resonated deeply with fans and catapulted 3 Kisses to enviable heights. With influences ranging from Frank Zappa and Led Zeppelin, to Joan Jett and the Go–Gos, to The Cranberries and Blondie all the way to Korn, Tool and Marilyn Manson, 3 Kisses have an enormous range of loyal music fans as well. Think hard hitting Rock acts like that that of Pat Benetar, Joan Jett, Green Day and the Ramones with the sarcastic playfulness of Pink and Avril Lavigne. This winning combination has worked brilliantly and since 2004, 3 Kisses has performed thousands of shows, been in an endless number of music magazine and radio features, been on ABC’s “Wife Swap”, had their very own reality program, been involved in numerous commercial campaigns, video games, movies and television shows (including the “2014 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards”, “Restaurant Impossible”, “Diners, Drive Ins & Dives”, “Dallas Card Sharks”, “Disaster Decks”, “Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare”, “Sonic Boom”, Lifetime movies, and “Hot Wheelsspots”), has had multiple singles land on the Top 15 by Rock Solid Pressure, is a heavy supporter of breast cancer research through the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and the American Cancer Society, been inducted into the Independent Artist Registry, holds the #1 spot for Alaskan Alternative Music on ReverbNation and has nine studio albums to their credit. Their most recent release, Angels Bleed Black, turned the page on the next chapter of this long-standing band; serving as a fitting segue into an edgier, more Metal oriented sound that is permeated with more serious subject matter while staying true to their trademark grooves, passionate lyrical themes and top-shelf musicianship. Singer and guitarist Tish Meeks, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Drew Owens, bassist Zach Adams and drummer extraordinaire Dale Payne continue to up their heavier game with Read ‘Em & Weep! After releasing the single “Dead Man’s Hand” to much critical and fan acclaim, there is no doubt that 2017 will be hotter than ever for 3 Kisses!
Dave Mustaine, the front man of thrash metal legends, Megadeth, has been time and again hinting at the possibility of re-recording their first ever album, ‘Killing Is My Business.. And Business Is Good‘. Mustaine looks really committed and wants to keep the door open for this prospect and he has been witnessed confirming the claim in a recent flurry of tweets, in fact yesterday on May 1. This happened while Dave Mustaine was involved in a Q&A tweet session with his fans on Twitter. If this really ends up materialising then this would be Dirk Verbeuren’s first recording with the band as ‘Dystopia’ involved the talented Chris Adler on drums and Kiko’s second in the current line-up.
Over the years, thrash metal has had quite a mixed bag of a journey, sometimes mostly deviating from the core of thrash metal itself to a more mass appealing sound even if hovering around in the metal boundaries. Some bands have changed the sound “to break the monotony” or in the name of “experimentation” so much that thrash metal kind of gets a bad rep once in a while especially these days. While this may excite some fans to the new sound approach, it may also lead the old school thrash lovers to much dismay, to an extent where some fans have questioned the genre’s long term existence. But as they as say “the grass is greener on the other side”, likewise there are a plethora of bands that don’t really compromise on their thrash sound. As thrash as it can be, they know how to deliver it. They couldn’t care less how mainstream the band next door allures itself or your fans into. All they know is to deliver thrash ever so gritty, fueled with anger and velocity. Such bands make sure you get what you want every time they deliver a single or one hell of a juggernaut of an album. Continue reading
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*
This month’s State is Oregon!
Man. Can hardly believe it is already May. With that we move from Pennsylvania on the East Coast to the West Coast to hit Oregon, our new state for our State of the Art series. Having a capital of Salem and being bordered by Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California and the Pacific Ocean, Oregon became the 33rd state in the U.S. February 14th, 1859. Taking up some 98,000 square miles and having a population of about 4,000,000 residents, Oregon is the ninth largest state and the 33rd most populated, respectively. Within its boundaries lies a wide variety of geography including volcanoes, large bodies of water, dense forests, high deserts, semi-arid shrublands and beaches; driving Oregon’s economy powered by agriculture, fishing, hydroelectric power, timber and cutting edge technology. Nike, FLIR Systems, Portland General Electric and Columbia Sportswear are just a few international corporations that call Oregon home [Wiki]. In addition, the state has spawned a large number of notable bands such as Red Fang, Black ‘n Blue, Toxic Holocaust, Whermact, among many others. For my first Oregon SOTA band this month I would like to shine the spotlight on Sacrifice to Survive.
Powerwolf is one of the bands that is headlining besides Saxon this year at the most metal festival in Holland. The Festival we are talking about is called ‘Into The Grave’ and it has been growing and growing since it started back in 2010. The festival is just like I mentioned in my preview (read here) about the festival itself really diverse. It features bands like Amon Amarth, Life Of Agony, Whitechapel and pirate metal pioneers Alestorm. Every genre is welcome at Into The Grave and that’s exactly what people with diverse taste in metal just like me are looking for.
Ever felt like rock bands lost their touch to their routs or that bands don’t sound like original rock? if so, i have very good news for you. Highly Suspect maintains the oh so good original rock sound like no band has. They are an American band of 3 with Johnny Stevens on the lead vocals as well as the guitar, Rich on the bass and doing backing vocals and Ryan Meyer on the drum and also on the backing vocals. They have been around for 8 years now, they started out as a bar cover band and made 4 EP’s. First one they made is ‘First Offense’ which didn’t really do it for the audience. After releasing another 3 EP’s ‘The Gang Lion’, ‘The Worst Humans’ and ‘Black Ocean’ the band created their debut album ‘Mister Asylum’ which opened everyone’s eyes and made people go nuts. People just started realizing how amazing this band is. Not only the audience started to see the bands potential but also The Grammy Awards started to see how huge this band is. They nominated ‘Mister Asylum’ for Best Rock Album of the year 2015 and they made it to the 58th place! After this huge breakthrough the band finally got the followers they truly deserved. 1 year later and full with energy and passion they released another album on the 18th of November ‘The Boy Who Died Wolf’ via 300 Entertainment.
Big news coming out from cross over thrash giants, MUNICIPAL WASTE. Hailing all the way from Richmond, Virginia, USA, they are undoubtedly the fathers of crossover thrash metal, they quickly rose to fame after their debut album and now they’re one of the major cards out there. Thrash and punk comrades the wait is over and they have finally revealed their upcoming album since their 2012 chart buster album, ‘The Fatal Feast‘ that debuted #1 on the Billboard New Artists chart. ‘Slime and Punishment‘, their sixth feather on their thrash arsenal is slated to be released on the 23rd of June, this year out via Nuclear Blast Records.
*Every 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.*
This week’s artist is Failure Anthem.
On Friday, July 14th, Failure Anthem will be right up with Hell or Highwater (last week’s spotlight artist) to be one of the first bands to take the Chicago Open Air stage in 2017. This will be their second Danny Wimmer Presents festival after playing Carolina Rebellion last year in 2016. The band has made swift progress after only forming in 2013 when guitarist Kile Odell wanted to form his own project after working with several other artists including Motionless in White. From Greensboro, North Carolina, Failure Anthem set out to deliver catchy hard rock songs with a positive message in their music. The band signed with Razor & Tie in 2015 and released their debut record in early 2016.
American black metal meets tremolo infused post rock atmospheric band Ghost Bath have a lot to be excited about this month. Back in mid March, yours truly reviewed the entirety of Ghost Bath‘s latest offering, ‘Starmourner‘ and posted said review for the entire world to see (or at least the parts of the world that were paying attention. Click here for that full review.) April 21st marked the full launch of that album to the world at large and now, they’ve got a fresh new video Continue reading
