LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019: Dissecting The Daily Schedules

We’re a scant week-and-a-half from the return of LOUDER THAN LIFE, one of the nation’s premiere hard rock/heavy metal events. After flooding cruelly scuttled last year’s festivities, Danny Wimmer Presents worked with the city of Louisville to find a new home for the festival, settling on the Kentucky Expo Center’s Highland Festival Grounds (with “highland” being, hopefully, the operative word). 2019’s potent lineup packs some major firepower, with headliners GUNS N’ ROSES, SLIPKNOT, and DISTURBED alongside an array of current acts like HALESTORM, A DAY TO REMEMBER, and IN THIS MOMENT, rising stars such as DIRTY HONEY and CROWN LANDS, and metal mainstays like ROB ZOMBIE, GODSMACK, and MARILYN MANSON. A lineup of this magnitude will invariably force punters to make some hard choices between this band on that stage and that band on this stage; after poring over this year’s daily schedules, here are some of the weekend’s biggest scheduling snafus and how your intrepid reporter plans to unravel them.

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Sonic Temple Saturday Review & Photo Gallery

Gojira

A hot Columbus morning greeted the concert goers as they arrived at Mapfre Stadium for Day 2 of the Sonic Temple Arts and Music Festival. The sun was beaming down and and there wasn’t much relief from the wind. There also wasn’t as many people lined up waiting to get in when the gates opened. Maybe it was the late first night that kept those numbers down.

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Chicago Open Air Day Sunday: Tool, Gojira, Fever 333, & More [Review and Photo Gallery]

Fever333

One of the benefits about less bands at Chicago Open Air this year was being able to sleep in before leaving on the second day. Since there were less bands this year, the event didn’t kick off until 2:30, instead of noon like past years. At the same time, it was strange heading in there for day two knowing that we had already arrived to the last day of the fest when it would’ve normally not even been the halfway mark of the festival yet. With that said though, we couldn’t wait to get out and catch seven fantastic sets from Alien Weaponry, The Black Dahlia Murder, Fever 333, In This Moment, Gojira, The Cult, and the legendary Tool. Continue reading

IN THIS MOMENT Brings Their Theatrical Wonderland To Mankato, Minnesota [Review & Photo Gallery]

 

In This Moment has been touring non-stop since their release ‘Ritual’ back in 2017. They have become one of rocks most theatrical bands and they brought their elaborate stage show to the Verizon Civic Center in Mankato, Minnesota and members of the Blood Legion were there to greet them. It was a great touring package as Sevendust, Light The Torch, and Hyde also took the stage. Continue reading

Rock Allegiance Artist Showcase: DEVOUR THE DAY

Hard rockers Devour the Day formed out the ashes of Egypt Central with Joey “Chicago” Walser and Blake Allison in 2012. Hailing from the bluesy city of Memphis, Walser and Allison began working on their new project immediately with Skidd Mills (Sick Puppies, Skillet, Pop Evil). After picking up former Egypt Central guitarist Jeff James and drummer Dustin Schoenhofer (Walls of Jericho, Bury Your Day) for touring they released their debut record Time & Pressure.  Devour the Day was able to sell over 220,000 copies and their radio single “Good Man” hit the Top 10 Rock charts. Continue reading

State Of The Art: ARSON CITY

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

This month’s state is Nebraska!

With each State of the Art segment, we explore bands from cities all over the country, but what happens when a band and city are one in the same? Not sure what I mean?  Omaha, Nebraska’s Arson City fit that description well with an elaborate vision of each member portraying a fictional city’s select citizens: The Mayor (Patrick Michael Wilson) taking care of vocals, The Doctor (Mark Beckenhauer) on rhythm guitar, The Enforcer (Matt Denker) on drums, The Dealer (Matt Dibaise) on lead guitar, and The Con (Matt Oliver) on bass.  Arson City was constructed in mid-2013 when members of several local bands around the Omaha area came together for a collaboration that eventually became the giant it is today. Continue reading

Louder Than Life 2017 – Louisville, KY DAY 2 REVIEW

With Day 1 in the books, the morning of Day 2 greeted everyone with clear blue skies, terrible hangovers, and the excitement the see just how it could be any better than Day 1.  My wife and I had a few friends over at our campsite for some pre-show breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and hot coffee (not bad, right?).  Afterwards, we all ventured to the camp showers where I was extremely impressed with how well maintained the facilities were and how easy and quick it was to get in and out.  With a hot shower and our bellies full, we all headed to the entrance where Black Map was already tearing it up with a loud wakeup to open Day 2 taking the place of Biters, who were unable to make it, as the day’s opener.  The band hit the crowd with early-morning performances of “Octavia”, “No Color”, and “Run Rabbit Run”, among others.  Our very own Metal Nexus founder, Fist, got a chance to sit down with Ben Flanagan of Black Map for an insightful interview at the festival, which you can watch HERE. Continue reading

Carolina Rebellion 2017 Day 2 Review [Photo Gallery]

Ready for day 2 of Carolina Rebellion. After an amazing first day everyone was pumped and ready to enter the show for day 2. The day was full of diverse bands from different generations and wide ranging genres. You can go from Tesla to Machine Gun Kelly, or Sum 41 to DED. Today’s lineup really had a little something for everyone.  The Saturday lineup was filled with a tremendous amount of new names in metal like DED, Cover Your Tracks, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and many more. Of course those are then followed up by bands who have been around the block a few times now like In This Moment, Nothing More, All That Remains and Alter Bridge. Then you have bands that have been around for decades like Sum 41, In Flames, Tesla, Korn and Def Leppard. Saturday we spent a lot of time interviewing bands and didn’t get a chance to make it out to see every band, but the ones we did see blew our minds. The must see bands on our list for this day cane in the form of a veteran act Sum 41 and a brand new band DED. Being around for the glory years of Sum 41’s career made me want to experience them live for the first time. DED is an amazing up and coming band that is about to release their debut album and their single “Anti-Everything” has become an anthem to the troublesome times we live in today. Continue reading

STONE SOUR, SEETHER, IN THIS MOMENT, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY & More Added To ShipRocked 2018 Lineup

After having sold out in record time earlier for this year’s ShipRocked 2017, featuring headliners BREAKING BENJAMIN, ALTERBRIDGE, SEVENDUST, PAPA ROACH and many more which was a hit, ShipRocked is back already with the first batch of headliners added to the list for next year’s line up, i.e. ShipRocked 2018. Set to sail off from Port Canaveral, Florida to Nassau and the private island of Half Moon Cay in The Bahamas, this truly is “The Greatest Vacation On Earth” to every sense of the word. 

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IN THIS MOMENT, GEMINI SYNDROME, AVATAR, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE In Baltimore!

In This Moment

Last Friday night at the Rams Head Live in Baltimore I witnessed the most visually stunning concert I have attended this year. The bands were In this Moment supported by Motionless in White, Avatar and Gemini Syndrome. The vast majority of shows I cover are of bands I follow religiously. These bands I wasn’t as familiar with, but you can bet that will soon change. When the tour was announced the discussion by the fans of the bands lit up the Facebook groups and other internet forums, which piqued my curiosity. On this Half God Half Devil tour, In This Moment and the cohorts of supporting bands have been selling out venues left and right. And this Baltimore show was sold out months in advance. So I let this review be an unbiased assessment of the captivating live performance of the all the bands on the given night. Continue reading