This summer, heavy revolutionaries OTEP unleashed their most uncompromising, candid, all-inclusive and controversial assessment of the current residing political regime that they have ever released – the new album ‘Kult 45.’ In support of the album, OTEP recently announced her upcoming “The Art of Dissent” U.S. headline tour, kicking off in Bakersfield, CA on Friday, November 23. Tickets are available now via all venues – see below for a full listing of tour dates. Continue reading
David Byrne
Danny Wimmer Presents the second annual Bourbon and Beyond festival which made its way into Champions Park in Louisville, Kentucky. The grounds were setup with all kinds of different food vendors and they smelled great as soon as you walked through the gates. Every kind of bourbon you could desire was on hand. The VIP tent really made you feel at home with a huge bar, big screen TV’s with a live feed from the main stages, and plenty of tables and couches.
I didn’t know what to think of the weather. Just about everyone I saw had a poncho or rain suit and for good reason. On this cool, rainy, gloomy day in September, a day of live music, great food, and bourbon was upon us. The Bluegrass Situation Stage and the Mash Stage were home to the smaller side stages and the Barrell Stage and the Oak Stage were setup for the headlining acts. The first day had some heavy hitters with John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, and Lenny Kravitz. The Louisville crowd was setup for a great time. Continue reading
Alternative rock veterans Chevelle have announced the release of 12 Bloody Spies: B-Sides and Rarities. This album will be a compilation of beloved B-sides and deep cuts from 2002-2016. The album is due out October 26 and available for preorder via Epic Records.
The preorder comes with access to the single “Sleep Walking Elite” from the Vera Sera sessions. This hook-filled riff adventure will be a nice treat for fans who thirst for classic Chevelle tracks. The full collection includes such tracks as an acoustic version of “Sleep Apnea” from Sci-Fi, the bonus tracks “Until You’re Reformed” from Wonder What’s Next, and “A Miracle” from The North Corridor. It will be sought-after gold for dedicated fans of Chevelle. Track list is below!
With all of the momentum of being in high gear for their last album, “Great Is Our Sin,” progressive death metal masters Revocation are back and screaming with a hellish, visceral vengeance with their latest chapter, “The Outer Ones.” The Boston extreme rockers are redefining and improving on the signature sound they’ve been crafting for years, with 5 genre-bending albums being released since 2005. Shane Frisby was the man behind the boards on this album to ensure the group got the most out of the tenacious and gut-wrenching death metal sound they were striving for. This amazing piece of work is being released under Metal Blade records on Friday, September 29th and we have your first look at it here. Continue reading
Chris Hawkey
Chris Hawkey would welcome the crowd to day two of RockTember. Hawkey is from Minnesota and does a wide of range of music that covers country to hard rock and metal. He mixed in original material with covers of “Wasted Years” (Iron Maiden), “Man In The Box” (Alice In Chains), and “Fat Bottomed Girls” (Queen). His band sounded fantastic and he has a great stage presence. He was able to win over a skeptical crowd that had worried he wasn’t rock enough to play this festival. Chris Hawkey was an entertaining and fun opening act that set the table for things to come. Continue reading
This October 19th, 2018 Brazilian metal veterans Soulfly are set to release their 11th full-length album, ‘Ritual’ via Nuclear Blast. In recent interviews, frontman/guitarist Max Cavalera has described the new album’s sound as “tribal-death-thrash.” In the early years, Soulfly could be described as more of a nu-metal act that incorporated elements of thrash, tribal percussions, and reggae into the mix, so the direction of ‘Ritual’ was intended to be something of a return to earlier form for the band which has taken on more of a traditional groove-thrash approach as of late. Max, who left the legendary Sepultura to pursue Soulfly as his main musical outlet in 1998 has traditionally invited a number of guest artists to feature on each album, while the main band lineup itself has been something of a revolving door for a number of years – aside from lead guitar shredder Marc Rizzo since 2003. In 2012, Max’s son Zyon Cavalera joined the group as drummer and has continued on as a permanent member ever since, while providing progressively more impressive skills behind the kit with each new album release. Appearing for the first time on album with the band and signing on in 2015 is Mike Leon on bass. Staying true to tradition, ‘Ritual’ features powerful guest performances from metal heavy-hitters Randy Blythe (Lamb of God) and Ross Dolan (Immolation). 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 Florida.*
Groovy. Progressive. Symphonic. It sounds like it comes straight out of Scandinavia. However, this all comes from the brain of one man from Jacksonville, Florida. His name is Andrew Howington and his project is called Chorosphere. Howington plays every instrument, programs, writes, sings and probably gives exceptional life advice. The amount of depth and flavor in Chorosphere is akin to the orchestration done by Ayreon, Epica, Sonata Arctica and Mayan. 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 Florida.*
“A country divided
A smeared reputation
The veil pulled back
To reveal the death machine” – All Is Dust
This month, I take a look at Leviathan Cross, the three piece band based out of Tampa, Florida who have “a fascination with the occult and the macabre.“
The band were formed in 2015 and have released two EPs to date, a self-titled in 2016 and ‘All Is Dust’ in August of this year. The band is comprised of James Herrholz on guitar/vocals, Kyle Weidner on bass/vocals and Brandon Thrift on drums. They have a dark sound, which stretches beyond the three piece format. There is an errie sense of menace in their grooves that would neatly fit into the soundtrack of a horror film.
The music, whilst distorted to some white noise limit on their self-titled EP, has evolved into a riffing maelstrom of monstrous proportion on ‘All Is Dust‘. They have cleaned the production and swabbed the sonic decks with the now crystal clear sound taking them into the stratosphere of Doom Metal.
The latest release really does bite at your ears from the off. It has a nasty claustrophobic vibe that also tingles your senses with aggressive distain. The band are tight and have more hooks than a butcher’s shop. They stretch muscles of music and infuse with spices beyond imagination.
The songs on ‘All Is Dust’ leap out and pull you into the weird layer of pain. sweetened by guitar nuggets and drums that paralyse with an urgency unknown by many who play in this dark arena.
“Ava” ushers in the EP with a choppy piece of alternative guitar and then smashes you with a riff that is a classic. The singing is clean, but emotional. This may be one thing that sets Leviathan Cross apart from many others in the genre. It is a unique sound, full of unexpected melodies and power. The voice should be slightly higher in the mix, but it still sounds fantastic. The fuzzbox distortion solo is great as well.
A bumping bass and drums opener sets off the NWOBHM inspired “Static Regime“. It is another killer riff and I can see these guys playing arenas with this tune.
“Beyond The Veil” sparkles with grinding diamonds in its life. “The Well” has some thundering bass drumming and a razor sharp riffing wall. The song speeds along, breaking into territory that was reserved for Speed Metal bands back in the day. This is not your standard Doom fare.
The penultimate track is “K Webster“, which is less of a success for me, as it hasn’t the tunefulness of the other compositions.
The EP finishes with the title track and this is a pretty political song, opening with some of President Trump’s soundbites. It is a call for greater unity and a discovery of division. It is also the only time when Death Metal vocals are used, to great effect. Awesome!
There you have it – Florida produces yet another top band, destined to be remembered in years to come as a serious player. Check them out!
Skid Row
It has become a rite of passage that every September a pilgrimage is made to the Grand Casino Amphitheater in Hinckley, Minnesota for a few days rock-n-roll, old school style. This is a festival for the people that grew up in the MTV era where music videos dropped wild and flamboyant rock stars right into your living room. RockTember celebrates a once in lifetime generation of music. Continue reading
Bullet For My Valentine
Bullet For My Valentine is currently making a run through the United States in support of the new release “Gravity”. This Tour was billed with We Came As Romans and Bad Omens. It was just announced that We Came As Romans will join this tour as planned, despite the passing of singer Kyle Pavone, but they did not appear at this show. Bad Omens, from Los Angeles, moved up a slot in the bill and provided direct support. Continue reading
