Meshuggah/Baroness/Decapitated dates revealed!
This is madness. What metal bands AREN’T touring in the next few months!? If you had an excuse to not go to any of the tours coming this winter/spring, think of another one because Meshuggah, Baroness, and Decapitated have announced North American dates in March and April!
4/29 House of Blues – Houston, TX
4/30 House of Blues – Dallas, TX
5/01 Emo’s – Austin, TX
5/03 Marquee Theatre – Tempe, AZ
5/04 House of Blues – Anaheim, CA
5/05 House of Blues – Hollywood, CA
5/06 The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
5/08 Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, B.C.
5/09 Showbox Sodo – Seattle, WA
5/11 Odgen Theatre – Denver, CO
5/13 First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
5/15 House of Blues – Chicago, IL
5/16 St. Andrews Hall – Detroit, MI
5/17 Sound Academy – Toronto, ON
5/18 Theatre of the Living Arts – Philadelphia, PA
5/19 Palladium – Worcester, MA
5/20 Olympia de Montreal – Montreal, QUE
5/22 The Fillmore – Silver Springs, MD
5/23 Terminal 5 – New York, NY
If you haven’t seen Decapitated live, you are MISSING OUT. They’re incredible. Like its a thousand degrees in here, I’ve been standing for 7 hours sweating with 600 other people, drunk as hell, but can’t look away incredible. I’m sure Meshuggah is much the same, can’t wait to knock them off the list. And hey! Baroness is on the bill too!
-Chris
Oh yea! Summer Slaughter was EPIC!
Was that show really three weeks ago? It’s been busy times for both Dan and myself, and while I would have had a report sooner, I’ve been slacking. What was by far the most brutal tour of the summer did NOT dissapoint; actually, it made me feel OLD. The days of showing up to the venue early and jumping into a sea of sweaty teenagers to get as close to the stage as possible are over. Dan and I now opt for the bar, or somewhere closer, yet still out of the way of the people getting crazy, somewhere we can actually SEE the bands play. What a concept! With the show starting at 3p.m. the stage was set for an 8-hour show filled with some of the most brutal bands around, and not a single one of them sucked.
Vital Remains were brutal, and a ton of people showed up early to check them out. Dan and I had never seen them before, but our first impressions of them in a live setting were all good! Animals as Leaders were one of the more suprising sets of the day. They have created quite a buzz this summer, and they proved they are more than worthy of the attention. The bands opening track was cut short due to a broken snare head, to which lead guitarist Tosin Abasi raised his hands triumphantly and declared, “We broke the snare drum. We did it!”. After borrowing another snare, the group set the fretboards ablaze in what was one of the best sets of the day. Carnifex really got the crowd going as did Decrepit Birth. Luckily for us, it was a hometown gig for the dudes in Cephalic Carnage and everyone went absolutely nuts from the intro cover of Boston’s “Foreplay/Long Time” to their last note, they definetely made Colorado proud! Veil of Maya were really impressive and the Red Chord were great. It was nice to see their singer give some kid in the crowd shit for wearing a purple hat, entertaining at least! All Shall Perish were up next, and were the band I was most looking forward to seeing. I’ve been slightly obsessed with this band for almost 2 years, first hearing Awaken the Dreamers, then catching up on the back catalogue, and to my extreme enjoyment, All Shall Perish completely decimated the place! Have you ever seen a band that completely destroyed a place and in the few seconds of silence after the set all you can say is “…….wow”? That would be me after All Shall Perish. BUT WAIT! The Faceless AND Decapitated still have yet to play!? The Faceless followed with another mind-bending set, as it was awesome to finally see them play live too.
The triumphant return of Decapitated followed. After losing their drummer, and ushering in a new vocalist, it was finally time to see the new lineup in action. After a solid 7 hours of music, everyone seemed to give everything they had left into welcoming these guys back. The group are sounding tighter than ever, and it was awesome to see them tearing it up on stage again. The new drummer was INSANE. Fast, technical, all while keeping a helicopter-like windmill of hair spinning around his head.
Summer Slaughter was not for the meek. It was 8 hours of just about any kind of extreme metal you could ask for. No big sponsor tents, no side attractions, just a super solid lineup, for a rediculously low price. It was pretty cool to see a lot of these shows sold out along the tour, Denver was one of them! Here’s hoping for another successful tour next summer!
The dudes at Metal Injection have posted some footage of All Shall Perish as part of their “Live Bootleg” series, check them out HERE.
-Chris
More Tours!
The dudes over at Metalsucks have announced the lineup for this year’s Summer Slaughter Tour and it’s a doozie! The tour will feature Decapitated, The Faceless, All Shall Perish, The Red Chord, Veil of Maya, Cephalic Carnage, Decrepit Birth, Vital Remains, Animals as Leaders, and Carnifex. The tour will mark Decapitated’s U.S. debut of their new lineup, and feature a shredfest unlike any other tour this summer. This makes the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Tour look like Disney on Ice. Dates will be revealed soon.
In other news, Katatonia have announced dates for a North American tour which will feature opening acts Swallow the Sun and Orphaned Land. The scheduled dates are as followed:
9/8- Baltimore, MD – Sonar
9/9 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
9/10 – New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre
9/11 – Worcester, Mass – Palladium
9/12 – Montreal, QC – Petit Campus
9/13 – Toronto, ON – Opera House
9/14 – Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s
9/15 – Detroit, MI – Blondies
9/16 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
9/17 – Chicago, IL – Reggie’s Rock Club
9/18 – St Paul, MN – Station 4
9/21 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
9/22 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
9/23 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
9/24 - San Francisco, CA – Thee Parkside
9/25 - Santa Ana, CA – Galaxy Theater
9/26 – West Hollywood, CA – Whisky A Go Go
9/27 – Mesa, AZ – U.B.’s
9/28 – Tucson, AZ – The Rock
9/30 – Dallas, TX – Trees
10/1 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
10/2 – Houston, TX – Warsaw
10/4 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
10/5 – Louisville, KY – Uncle Pleasants
10/6 – Raleigh, NC – Volume 11
10/7 - Springfield, VA – Jaxx
The Killswitch Engage frontman issues may be done. 
The band has scheduled four dates next month and word on the street is Howard Jones WILL be rejoining the group after sitting out the band’s U.S. headlining run. Jones was “in no shape to tour”, so the band recruited long-time friend and All That Remains vocalist Phil Labonte to fill in the remainder of the tour. So no more Philswitch Engage, and probably no hope of Jesse Leach rejoining. The End. Check out dates HERE.
5/19 – Norfolk, VA - The NorVa
5/20 – Pittsburgh, PA – Ches-A-Rena
5/21 – Rochester, NY - Water Street Music Hall
5/22 – Columbus, OH – Rock on the Range Festival
-Chris
Black metal friday… sort of.
Well, it’s Friday. Thanks for a great first week people!
Metalsucks have posted the exclusive premiere of the new Cradle of Filth video. The track is “Death of Love” off of their most recent release Godspeed On the Devil’s Thunder which is out now. You can check it out here.
Behemoth have posted a preview of their upcoming video for the track “Ov Fire and the Void” off the soon to be released Evangelion. The video looks particularly epic and is even more of a cock tease than the recently released “making of” videos. Coming soon isn’t soon enough. View it below.
Apparently, Decapitated have announced a new drummer, which is pretty exciting in my opinion and unthinkable only a year ago.
Satyricon, Bleeding Through, Toxic Holocaust and Chthonic are planning on heading out on a US tour this fall to obliterate every stage they set foot on. Check out the dates below.
September 25th Baltimore, MD – Sonar
September 26th Norfolk, VA – Norva Theatre
September 28th Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
September 29th Orlando, FL – The Club @ Firestone
October 01st Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
October 02nd Dallas, TX – The Door
October 03rd San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit
October 05th Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater
October 06th Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theater
October 07th Pomona, CA – The Glass House
October 08th Los Angeles, CA – Key Club
October 09th Orangevale, CA – The Boardwalk
October 10th San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
October 12th Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
October 13th Seattle, WA – El Corazon
October 14th Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theater
October 16th Salt Lake City, UT – Club Sound
October 17th Englewood, CO – Gothic Theater
October 19th Mokena, IL – The Pearl Room
October 20th Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s
October 21st Toronto, ON – Opera House
October 23rd Worcester, MA – The Palladium
October 24th Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
October 25th New York, NY – The Fillmore @ Irving
October 27th Montreal, QC – Club Soda
Skeletonwitch, the blackened thrashers, have unveiled the artwork for their new album Breathing the Fire, due out Oct. 13th via Prosthetic Records. Expect metalness.
-Dan
