Clicks From The Pit

ATEEZ at Footprint Center in Phoenix, AZ
2024-07-25 19:30 - 23:30 (America/Phoenix) | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, United States
ATEEZ is a South Korean group that has taken the world by storm immediately after their debut in October 2018. Known for standout performances, the octet have turned storytelling into a full musical experience. The eight members of ATEEZ are HONGJOONG, SEONGHWA, YUNHO, YEOSANG, SAN, MINGI, WOOYOUNG, and JONGHO. Establishing themselves as top artists early on in their career with a sold out global tour only four months after their debut, they continue to break their own records. With a unique narrative that starts from the very first release in the ‘TREASURE’ album series and continues through the ‘FEVER’ and ‘THE WORLD’ masterpieces, the group combines bestseller narratives with personalized music that speaks to their generation. Beyond the multitude of titles they’ve earned throughout the years as the ‘Next Generation Act’ and ‘Best World Performer’ in award ceremonies, ATEEZ have attained the distinction of becoming a ‘million seller’ group with the release of their 8th EP. In 2024, they dominated on the global stage, taking over festivals around the world with performances at Coachella (US) and Summer Sonic (JPN), even set to headline at Mawazine (MAR). Their second studio album, ‘THE WORLD EP.FIN : WILL’ broke their personal record on the global charts, debuting at No.1 on the Billboard 200 for the week of December 11 and charting for six weeks. In their newest release, ATEEZ captures their brightest moments with GOLDEN HOUR : Part.1 and the lead track ‘WORK’.

Stick Figure at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA
2024-07-16 17:00 - 23:30 | Greek Theatre, 2700 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, 90027, United States
With a distinctive sound developed through tireless attention to musicality and artistry, Stick Figure has redefined American reggae music with his latest album, Wisdom, released on September 9th, 2022. As with his previous releases, Wisdom was written, produced and recorded by Scott Woodruff, a self-taught musician, at Stick Figure-owned Great Stone Studios in Oakland, CA, former home of Green Day. Wisdom is Stick Figure’s seventh album and follows the unprecedented success of 2019’s World on Fire, which peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Top 200, #6 overall Top albums, #1 Independent, and #1 Reggae album. World on Fire has sold over 300,000 copies including streaming equivalents, according to Nielsen soundscan data. Stick Figure’s catalog has now sold well over one million copies and been streamed over three billion times.
Wisdom is a journey and a search for what matters in life–a search for meaning, purpose, place and belonging. Wisdom is a code to live by where we can accept that it is ok to start over, to make mistakes, to love, and to feel pain. It is a reminder to focus on the little things that bring joy and know that all of it is a part of our individual story. It also shows us that we should have some fun doing it all! In signature Stick Figure style, Wisdom can bring peace and happiness in the dark moments as well as in the good times, and the benefits of the music can stay with the listener long after the record has stopped spinning.

For more than two decades, SOJA have elated audiences across the globe with their fresh yet timeless take on roots reggae, a sound born from their shared passion for making music that transports and inspires. On Beauty in the Silence—their first new album in four years—The Grammy Award-Winning band deepens that communal spirit by collaborating with artists from all corners of the reggae world, including the likes of UB40, Slightly Stoopid, Stick Figure, and Rebelution. Fueled by the sheer force of their connection and chemistry, Beauty in the Silence ultimately makes for a much-needed antidote to fractured times, infusing so much warmth and wisdom and unstoppable joy into each and every track.
Jacob Hemphill (lead vocals, guitar) – Bobby Lee (bass, vocals) – Ryan Berty (drums) – Kenny Bongos (percussion) – Patrick O’Shea (keyboards) – Hellman Escorcia (saxophone) – Rafael Rodriguez (trumpet) – Trevor Young (lead guitar, vocals)

Born and raised in Philly, crash landed in Charleston, Kevin and John Shields are breaking into previously uncharted waters with their quirky indie hip-hop group, Little Stranger. Between John’s melodic singer-songwriter magnetism, Kevin’s in-your-face delivery, and an overall undeniable groove, this duo is sure to get any audience up and moving. Stylistically reminiscent of Gorillaz and Odelay-era Beck, Little Stranger delivers a fresh take on melodic hip-hop. Every track brings the uniqueness and strangeness that their name implies.
For the past few years, the duo has perfected their live performance by playing over 100 shows per year prior to the coronavirus shutdown. The group also puts a big focus on creating arresting visual experiences through their music videos, their own eccentric television program (LSTV), and in-house graphics. Between their out-of-the-box creative endeavors and an ever-increasing arsenal of new tunes, Little Stranger is poised to make 2024 another slam dunk.

Avril Lavigne at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2024-06-02 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, 85035, United States
Grammy-winning Canadian pop/rock singer/songwriter Avril Lavigne became an international star in the 2000s with her punk-influenced pop anthems and anti-starlet image. First appearing in 2002 with the spunky debut single “Complicated,” she touted a skatepunk image that purposely clashed with the polished glamour of mainstream pop. Lavigne, who was 17 at the time, quickly rose to teen idol status, selling several million copies of her debut album, Let Go (the best-selling album by a female artist in 2002), while inspiring a genuine fashion craze with her penchant for tank tops and neckties. As the decade progressed, so did her marketable sound, which took a contemplative turn on the chart-topping sophomore effort Under My Skin before reaching an aggressively upbeat tone for 2007’s The Best Damn Thing. A pair of hit albums later, Lavigne took a three-year hiatus from the spotlight to focus on health issues related to Lyme disease, returning in 2019 with her mature sixth album, Head Above Water. In 2021, she made her debut for Travis Barker‘s DTA label with the pop-punk single “Bite Me” from 2022’s Love Sux.
Born into a devout Christian household in the small town of Napanee, Ontario, Lavigne sharpened her vocal talents in church choirs, local festivals, and county fairs. She began playing guitar and writing songs in her early teens, focusing her early efforts on country music and contributing vocals to several albums by local folk musician Steve Medd. Arista Records caught wind of the singer and brought her aboard at the age of 16, with CEO Antonio “L.A.” Reid personally taking Lavigne under his wing. She quit high school, relocated to Manhattan, and set to work with a handful of prime songwriters and producers, but the partnerships only produced country songs, not the rock music in which Lavigne had become increasingly interested. Arista relented and instead sent Lavigne to Los Angeles, where she fashioned her melodic, edgy debut alongside such writing teams as the Matrix. Released in 2002, Let Go was the polished product, and its four high-charting singles — “Complicated,” “Sk8er Boi,” “I’m with You,” and “Losing Grip” — led the album to multi-platinum status within its second month of release. Lavigne became the youngest female musician ever to have a number one album in the U.K., and she supported the wildly popular LP (which eventually gained eight Grammy nominations) with a tour of Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia.
Compared with the antics of other teen idols of her day, Lavigne was a new kind of superstar, one whose appeal didn’t rely on sexy videos or suggestive music. She further distinguished herself by bypassing the assistance of professional writing teams during the creation of her second album, choosing instead to collaborate with singer/songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, Evanescence‘s Ben Moody, and Evan Taubenfeld (who had previously worked with Lavigne as her touring guitarist). Released in May 2004, Under My Skin was more serious than its predecessor, dealing with such issues as premarital sex (“Don’t Tell Me”), depression (“Nobody’s Home”), and the death of Lavigne’s grandfather (“Slipped Away”). The album debuted at number one in more than ten countries, went platinum within one month, and further established Lavigne as a pop icon. Incidentally, a song that was co-written by Lavigne and ultimately cut from the final track list — “Breakaway” — was later given to Kelly Clarkson, who used it as the title track and lead single for her Grammy-winning sophomore album.
Lavigne married her boyfriend of two years, Sum 41‘s Deryck Whibley, in July 2006, just one month after the animated film Over the Hedge announced her cinematic debut (Lavigne voiced the part of Heather, a hungry opossum). She also appeared in Richard Linklater‘s fictional adaptation of Fast Food Nation, which was released that November. Nevertheless, she spent most of the year working on her third album, enlisting former blink-182 drummer Travis Barker to play drums, and cherry-picking a variety of producers (including her husband) to helm the recording sessions. The Best Damn Thing appeared in April 2007, and its lead single, “Girlfriend,” marked a return to the bratty, spunky punk-pop of her first album. “Girlfriend” soon became the subject of controversy as the ’70s power pop band the Rubinoos sued Lavigne, claiming that her tune reworked their 1979 song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” No amount of bad publicity could hurt the singer, however, as “Girlfriend” became her biggest U.S. single ever and The Best Damn Thing topped album charts worldwide.
Lavigne filed for divorce from Whibley in October of 2009. The dissolution of their union featured heavily on her next album, 2011’s Goodbye Lullaby, which included tracks produced by Whibley.
Lavigne returned to the studio just weeks after the release of Goodbye Lullaby and began work on her fifth album. In 2012, she started working on material with Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger and eventually the pair began dating; she married Kroeger on July 1, 2013. By that point, she had released the platinum-certified “Here’s to Never Growing Up,” the first single from her eponymous fifth album. Released in October, Avril Lavigne featured eight songs co-written by Kroeger, who also duetted with her on the record’s third single, “Let Me Go.”
In early 2015, Lavigne released “Fly,” an empowering ballad written for the Special Olympics World Summer Games. That same month, she also revealed that she had been diagnosed with Lyme disease. Soon after, she separated from Kroeger. For the next few years, as she healed, Lavigne remained out of the public spotlight. In 2018, she returned with the single “Head Above Water,” which was inspired by her battle with Lyme disease; it unexpectedly made the Christian radio Top Ten. Despite this success, the accompanying album, Head Above Water — which appeared in February 2019 — was a secular pop album, albeit one with an inspirational bent. While it was her worst-charting long-player to that point, it still reached Canada’s Top Five, the U.K. Top Ten, and number 13 on the Billboard 200.
After re-recording Head Above Water‘s “Warrior” as “We Are Warriors” to raise funds for pandemic relief efforts in 2020, Lavigne returned to the studio to record her seventh album with producers including Barker, Machine Gun Kelly, Mod Sun, and Goldfinger‘s John Feldmann. In the meantime, she was featured on the Mod Sun single “Flames” in early 2021, and with Barker on Willow Smith‘s “Grow” mid-year before signing with Barker‘s Elektra Music Group imprint, DTA Records. Her own single, “Bite Me,” appeared before the end of 2021. That punk-infused anthem landed on her seventh full-length, 2022’s Love Sux, which also featured “Love It When You Hate Me” with Blackbear and “I’m a Mess” with Yungblud. The album hit number three in Canada and cracked the Top Ten of the Billboard 200.

Formed in 2003 in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland, All Time Low started out as a high school cover band before morphing into a melodic pop-punk act influenced by predecessors like New Found Glory and blink-182. An enduring presence in the late-2000s scene, they were a Warped Tour mainstay from their breakthrough sophomore set, So Wrong, It’s Right (2007), to their chart-peaking sixth LP Future Hearts (2015). Following a late-career dip into pop with 2017’s Last Young Renegade, they returned to their pop-punk roots in the early 2020s with Wake Up, Sunshine and Tell Me I’m Alive.
Singer/guitarist Alex Gaskarth and guitarist Jack Barakat were All Time Low’s co-founders, with bassist Zack Merrick and drummer Rian Dawson rounding out their energetic pop-punk sound and rowdy live shows, which often included silly string and beach balls. Honing their skills between homework and other teenage commitments, the guys managed to tour across the East Coast and the South during school breaks. They issued a four-song EP, 2004’s The Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End, with help from local label Emerald Moon, and followed its release with a full-length album, The Party Scene, one year later.
Touring across the country that summer, the guys found themselves on bills with similar acts like Motion City Soundtrack, the Early November, and Plain White T’s. Along the way, All Time Low also bumped into fellow pop-punkers Amber Pacific, who brought the young band to the attention of their label, Hopeless Records. The label was immediately impressed, and All Time Low had officially become part of the Hopeless family by March 2006, just a few months shy of the members’ high-school graduation. Finally done with schoolwork and able to concentrate full-time on music, the group issued Put Up or Shut Up — a seven-song EP that mostly featured new recordings of older material — that July.
All Time Low supported the EP’s release with a handful of Warped Tour dates before hitting the road again with Amber Pacific. So Wrong, It’s Right appeared in 2007, marking the band’s first full-length release for Hopeless. After being named 2008’s Band of the Year by Alternative Press, All Time Low returned with their second album, Nothing Personal, in July 2009. Debuting at number four on the Billboard charts, Nothing Personal helped make All Time Low one of the top emo-pop acts in the business. Two CD/DVD packages, MTV Unplugged and Straight to DVD, were released the following year, tiding fans over while the guys returned to the studio to begin work on their major-label debut for Interscope Records.
Dirty Work, featuring the single “I Feel Like Dancin’,” was released in 2011. The album reached number six on the Billboard charts the week it was released, and the band hit the road. In 2012, All Time Low announced they had parted ways with Interscope and released a new song, “The Reckless and the Brave,” on their website in June. Soon after, they re-signed with Hopeless and began work on a new album. Don’t Panic was released in November 2012, then reissued almost a year later with four newly recorded songs and four acoustic versions under the name Don’t Panic: It’s Longer Now! In 2015, All Time Low returned with their sixth record, Future Hearts, which found them reuniting with their Dirty Work producer, John Feldmann. In 2016, they released Straight to DVD 2: Past, Present & Future, a sequel to the 2010 live album. In February 2017, All Time Low issued the single “Dirty Laundry” in anticipation of their seventh studio long-player, Last Young Renegade, that arrived in June of that year. Renegade was their first effort issued on Fueled by Ramen and featured the singles “Nice2KnoU” and the pop-focused “Life of the Party.” Their fifth consecutive Top Ten record, the set’s unabashed pop polish proved divisive and, after the era came to a close, the band got to work on a course-correcting follow-up.
In 2018, the summery and anthemic one-off single “Everything Is Fine” offered a taste of things to come with album number eight, which landed in early 2020. Wake Up, Sunshine saw All Time Low returning to their pop-punk roots after a brief pop foray on 2017’s Renegade. Featuring appearances by blackbear and the Band Camino, the upbeat LP reached number on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart, buoyed by singles like “Some Kind of Disaster” and “Monster,” the latter of which was re-released in December 2020 with guest vocals from Demi Lovato. The following year saw the band team up with English indie rockers Pale Waves for the single “PMA” before returning with 2022’s “Sleepwalking.” That pop-leaning track appeared on their ninth album, 2023’s Tell Me I’m Alive. Later that year, the band teamed up with Avril Lavigne on the fiery standalone single “Fake as Hell.” ~ Corey Apar

Royal & the Serpent’s dramatic alt-electro-pop is the brainchild of Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter Ryan Santiago. She introduced her assertive sound and distinctively girlish yet bluesy voice with the single “Temperance” in 2017. The project reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart with “Overwhelmed” from her debut EP Get a Grip in 2020. A featured spot on the Knocks‘ “Sound the Alarm” beside Rivers Cuomo resulted in an appearance on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart the following year. Royal & the Serpent’s third EP, IF I DIED WOULD ANYONE CARE, saw release in 2022.
With inspirations spanning big band, early rock & roll, Janis Joplin, and Stevie Nicks, the New Jersey native established Royal & the Serpent after settling in Los Angeles to work on developing her sound. She ultimately recorded her first single, 2017’s “Temperance,” with producer Ken Nana of MIKNNA. In 2018, she co-wrote and was featured on “Wicked” by producer Tommee Profitt, a spooky, theatrical track that was used for the trailer for the crime film The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Royal & the Serpent returned with the single “Together” in early 2019 before signing with Suicide Squeeze, which issued “Weddings & Funerals” that April. That year, she also delivered a pair of singles (“Salvador Dali” and “IDK”) in collaboration with Marky Style.
Royal & the Serpent’s June 2020 Atlantic Records debut, “Overwhelmed,” reached number 20 on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and she released the corresponding debut EP, Get a Grip, in October. Another EP, Searching for Nirvana, followed in June 2021. A month later, Royal & the Serpent was featured alongside Rivers Cuomo on the Knocks track “Sound the Alarm.” It landed in the Top 30 of Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Confrontational Royal & the Serpent single “PHUCKBOI REJECTS” and her third EP, IF I DIED WOULD ANYONE CARE, followed on Atlantic in early 2022. Another single, “Better,” followed off the EP. Also that year, she paired with GG Magree for the emotionally raw, punk-infused single “Bitch.”

Black Veil Brides at Marquee Theatre
2024-05-24 18:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ, 85281, United States
Before the birth of the BVB Army, the thousands of lyric tattoos, and the gold and platinum records that followed, Black Veil Brides was simply a dark vision dreamt up by an only child in Ohio.
He loved Batman and KISS. Then, the striking visage of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, on the cover of his dad’s dusty CD (released a dozen years before he was born) kicked open the door for Andy Biersack. Sweeney Todd cleared the way for The Phantom of the Opera, Misfits, and all that followed, culminating in the birth of Andy Black and the ascension of Black Veil Brides.
The Bleeders EP, Black Veil Brides’ inaugural release in a new partnership with Spinefarm Records, celebrates one of the singer’s first loves. The EP boasts the title track alongside a loving rendition of Sweeney Todd’s “My Friends” and a faithful cover of U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”
The group’s cinematic scope and unwavering commitment to self-expression strikes a familiar chord with their fellow “bleeders” who seek refuge (and revenge) in the power of the dark and imagination.
There are over 160 million views of “Knives and Pens,” an early demo committed to music video before Andy (who moved to Hollywood at 18 and lived in his car) met his band of brothers. The RIAA-certified platinum single “In the End,” itself close to 170M views, further proves the group whose merch dominated Hot Topic before they’d even made their debut album was built to last.
A treacherous DIY headlining outing in 2009 paved the way for the next 15 years of performances and beyond, a history that includes the triple-co-headlining smash Trinity Of Terror Tour; multiple mainstage runs on Vans Warped Tour; treks supporting Avenged Sevenfold and Mötley Crüe; and just about every major rock and metal festival in North and South America, Europe, and Australia.
Guitarists Jake Pitts and Jinxx joined the fold before the creation of BVB’s debut album, 2010’s We Stitch These Wounds. The duo played in an earlier band with drummer Christian Coma, who came aboard for their first Billboard Top 20 album, Set the World on Fire, featuring gold single “Fallen Angels.” Metalcore milestone Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones followed in 2013.
A no-frills fourth album, 2014’s Black Veil Brides, gave them another Top 10 debut. 2018’s Vale went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock chart. 2021’s The Phantom Tomorrow, the band’s first album with bassist Lonny Eagleton, produced the No. 8 Rock single “Scarlet Cross,” their highest charting yet.
Bleeders offers a taste of what will become Black Veil Brides’ most visceral, theatrical, and unrelenting era yet. They combine a unique identity with an unquenchable creative thirst. They’re an object of devotion for those who sing their anthems in unison, a diverse BVB Army who never surrenders.
Black Veil Brides and their audience slash away at the darkness together, bleeders one and all.

GHØSTKID emerges in 2024 as an entity untamed, unfiltered, and resonating with the haunting echoes of raw, unapologetic music. Formed from the depths of Sebastian “Sushi” Biesler’s unyielding creative spirit, the band boldly ventures into new realms of expression, weaving a tapestry of darkness, aggression, and unflinching honesty. GHØSTKID prepares to unleash their forthcoming album in early 2024!
Joined by an assembly of kindred spirits and musical conspirators – Jappo Van Glory (guitar), Chris Canterbury (guitar), Stanislaw Czywil (bass) and Steve Joakim (drums) – GHØSTKID’s journey unfolded, amplifying the convergence of metal, industrial, goth and pop. From the ferocious intensity of “HEAVY RAIN” to the emotive depths of “VALERIE” each track embodies a visceral narrative, weaving tales of anguish, passion, and unrelenting determination. The band’s upcoming opus delves fearlessly into the dark recesses of the human psyche confronting the gritty truths of life, love, and the raw essence of being.
Prepare to be engulfed in a cacophony of unbridled ambition and unfiltered emotion. GHØSTKID transcends mere auditory experience; it’s a visceral, transformative journey – a convergence of haunting melodies and unapologetic aggression, echoing in the corridors of your soul long after the music fades.

Hailing from Orlando, FL this Hard Rock act shows us a side of darkness that brings a sentiment of anguish mixed with a sincere notion of understanding. The band’s new single “Paper Crown (feat. Bryan Kuznitz of Fame On Fire,)” premiered on Octane is the newest release of the band’s growing discography. “Dancing Dead” and “Drown” are hair-raising tracks, immersing fans in a fear-stricken world. Conceptual ideology aside, the band brings hard hitting instrumentation and a vocal power that stands to cement the act as a fresh mainstay of the hard rock and metal genres for years to come. “The confines of Florida have seen some absolutely epic bands make names for themselves, but it’s time to look to the future. There is a quickly rising band that is making all the right moves in all the right places.” Says New Noise about the band. They have recently shared the stage with Famous Last Words, Limbs, Until I Wake and The Word Alive. Fans can catch the band supporting Black Veil Brides & VV this fall. “Dark Divine is new to the scene but garnering a lot of attention quickly and rightfully so. They are hands down one of the best young bands out there, and we are certain the BVB Army and VV fans will love them.” Andy Biersack / Black Veil Brides frontman says regarding their upcoming tour. Dark Divine’s debut ‘Deadly Fun’, produced by Zach Jones (Chelsea Grin, We Came As Romans, Fit For A King) out now via Thriller Records.

98KUPD Presents UFest 2024
2024-04-26 16:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, 85035, United States
Legends and innovators of the Southern California punk scene, The Offspring have seen massive global success.
The story began when their punk pop sound became a popular sensation in 1994. The Offspring released their self-titled debut album in 1989. Four years later, their 2nd album, Ignition, became an underground hit, setting the stage for the huge success of their 3rd album 1994’s Smash which paved the way to radio success. The Offspring were played on both alternative and album rock stations, confirming their broad-based appeal.
Five successful gold and platinum albums followed: Ixnay on the Hombre; Americana; Conspiracy of One; Splinter; Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace; and Days Go By. The band’s 10th album was their first in 8 years. But 2021 was the year that SoCal legends released their blistering new album Let the Bad Times Roll. Album highlights include the title track which takes a critical eye at the state of America in recent years, the devastating urgency of The Opioid Diaries, and the horn-fueled skank of “We Never Have Sex Anymore” a song that nods to the band’s cheeky humor.
The Offspring have sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, won countless awards, and have toured consistently, playing more than 500 shows in the last decade alone. The band’s music has had a lasting impact across film, television, and gaming and continues to make its mark on pop culture today.

CHEVELLE is the understated musical powerhouse who have continually delivered rock anthems for the past 24 years. 7 number one hits, 17 songs reaching the top 10 charts, over 4 million records sold in the USA and many more worldwide. Platinum and gold albums across their 8 studio records and successful live CD and two live DVD releases completes their extensive body of work to date. It’s all credit to their continuing dedication to be true to their craft, the genre and their fans. Chevelle’s last two album releases, La Gargola and The North Corridor both debuted #1 on the Billboard rock charts and #3 and #8 respectively, on the Billboard top 200 charts. With no signs of this Chicago alternative rock trio slowing down any time soon, their numerous chart-topping releases have certainly earned this band a place in American rock music history. After more than two decades together, numerous releases, and countless worldwide tours, the band consisting of brothers, Pete Loeffler [guitars, vocals] and Sam Loeffler [drums], have confidently sailed through decades of uncharted waters and have emerged with a collection that’s equally intricate and intimate.
Their next album release, set for 2020, will be sure to add another chapter to the extensive catalog of this successful music career.

In 2006, Motionless In White materialized out of Scranton, PA with an inimitable conjuration of sharp metallic rock, industrial, magnetic melodies, and larger-than-life visual imagery. The quintet—Chris Motionless [Vocals], Ricky Olson [Guitar], Ryan Sitkowski [guitar], Vinny Mauro [drums], and Justin Morrow [bass]—quietly clawed their way to the forefront of hard rock, gathering nearly half-a-billion cumulative streams and views to date. Following the success of Creatures [2010] and Infamous [2012], Reincarnate [2014] sunk its teeth into the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200, bowing at #9 and capturing #1 on the Top Rock Albums Chart. Both Graveyard Shift [2017] and Disguise [2019] cracked the Top 5 of the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart and Top Rock Albums Chart. Along the way, they sold out headline tours and supported everyone from Slipknot and Korn to Breaking Benjamin. Not to mention, Motionless In White have collaborated with Jonathan Davis of Korn, Maria Brink of In This Moment, Dani Filth of Cradle Of Filth, Tim Sköld of KMFDM, Caleb Shomo of Beartooth, and more. The five-piece kept busy throughout 2020 with the Deadstream event performance of Creatures for its decade-anniversary, a cover of The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me,” and the standalone single “Creatures X: To The Grave.” Now in 2022, Motionless In White are set to return with their new album Scoring The End of the World which sees them perfecting the poetically pummeling sound they patented.

They’ve been a band — and a vital one at that — for more than 30 years. But ask rock icons P.O.D. what still inspires them after all this time, and they’ll tell you they still operate as if they’re perpetual underdogs. Yes, with every new album they release, with every show they play, these musical lifers still feel they have something to prove. “We’re still here and we’re still creating some of the best music we’ve ever made,” says guitarist Marcos Curiel. “When it comes to heart, grit and soul, P.O.D. is your band.” Adds vocalist Sonny Sandoval: “We’re always still proving who we are — always having that punk-rock mentality.”
Their new single “DROP”, via Mascot Records, features a vicious vocal cameo from Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe. “‘DROP’ is another one of a kind, unparalleled banger that sets this band apart from everyone else,” says Sandoval. “When you hear it, you know it’s P.O.D.!”

Bad Wolves refuse to follow. Instead, the platinum-certified Los Angeles band—John Boecklin [drums], Daniel “DL” Laskiewicz [lead vocals], Doc Coyle [lead guitar, backing vocals], Max Karon [guitar], and Kyle Konkiel [bass, backing vocals]—circumvent convention by stretching the boundaries of hard rock with earthquaking heaviness, enigmatic experimentation, and enthralling melodies. Bulldozing boundaries is nothing new for the boys though… Bad Wolves arrived with the rarity and the force of a lightning bolt in 2018. This collective of tried-and-true musicians rallied around an unconventional vision for heavy music, grafting rafter-reaching hooks to pit-splitting riffs and mind-bending rhythms with a penchant for unexpected twists and turns. Their full-length debut, Disobey, bowed in the Top 25 of the Billboard 200 and delivered a platinum single and a gold single. On its heels, they showed no signs of stopping with N.A.T.I.O.N. [2019]. However, Dear Monsters kickstarted another season in 2021 as “Lifeline” netted their sixth #1 at Active Rock Radio. Reaching a critical high watermark, Billboard hailed the latter as “Bad Wolves’ most diverse and far-reaching album to date,” and Hysteria raved, “The band has served up something truly monumental.” Nearing 1 billion total streams, they sold out headline shows on multiple continents and toured with everyone from Papa Roach and Hollywood Undead to Volbeat.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE FOR MERCH www.burythedarkness.com Based out of Tempe, Arizona, Bury The Darkness, comprised of — Frankie Ghiloni [Vocals], Marc Rosenfeld [Lead Guitar], Brandon Brantley [Bass], Brennan Davis [Rhythm Guitar], Devin Bowers [Drums] — are a hard hitting Modern Metalcore band carving their path after releasing their debut single during the strains of a global pandemic. After the success of their debut single the band went on to collaborate with fellow Arizona Metal band Dropout Kings on their single ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’. Bury The Darkness are here to stay with bouncy guitar riffs and anthem like choruses. Their debut album ‘Dead Inside’ produced by Ryan Daminson (Asking Alexandria ,Memphis May Fire, The Word Alive) Out Now!

Sessanta with Primus, Puscifer and A Perfect Circle at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2024-04-16 19:30 - 2024-04-17 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, 85035, United States
A post-punk Rush spiked with the sensibility and humor of Frank Zappa, Primus’ songs are often secondary to showcasing their instrumental prowess. Led by elastic bassist and sole constant member Les Claypool, their music is willfully weird and experimental, but it’s not alienating; the band was able to turn its goofy weirdness into pop stardom. At first, Primus were strictly an underground phenomenon, but in the years between their third and fourth albums, their cult snowballed. Released in 1991, Sailing the Seas of Cheese found mainstream success and spawned the alt-rock hit “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.” Pork Soda (1993) and Tales from the Punchbowl (1995) received platinum and gold certification, respectively. Citing creative stagnation, the band ceased operations after the release of 1999’s Antipop but re-formed as a touring entity in 2010. Since then, Primus has remained active, releasing idiosyncratic efforts like Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble (2014), The Desaturating Seven (2017), and the EP Conspiranoia (2022), with the core trio of Claypool, guitarist Larry LaLonde, and drummer Tim Alexander.
Primus is all about Les Claypool; there isn’t a moment on any of their records where his bass isn’t the main focal point of the music, with his vocals acting as a bizarre sideshow. Which isn’t to deny guitarist Larry LaLonde or drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander any credit; no drummer could weave in and around Claypool‘s complicated patterns as effortlessly as Alexander, and few guitarists would willingly push the spotlight away like LaLonde does just to produce a never-ending spiral of avant noise. This means that they are miles away from being another punk-funk combo like the Red Hot Chili Peppers; Claypool may slap and pop his bass, but there is little funk in the rhythm he and Alexander lay down. Formed in El Sobrante, California, in 1984, the band saw multiple lineup changes before releasing their 1989 live LP, Suck on This, and 1990 debut studio album, Frizzle Fry. Their heady blend of art-rock, funk, and heavy metal found favor with the masses the following year with the release of the gold-selling Sailing the Seas of Cheese. 2003’s Pork Soda fared even better, earning the band their first platinum certification.
After touring for a year — including a headlining spot on Lollapalooza 1993 — Claypool revived his Prawn Song record label in 1994 and released a reunion record by Primus’ original lineup under the name Sausage. In the summer of 1995, Primus released their fifth album, Tales from the Punchbowl. It was another success, going gold before the end of the year. In the summer of 1996, Primus announced they were parting ways with their drummer, Tim Alexander. He was replaced by Brian “Brain” Mantia, who made his debut on The Brown Album, was released in the summer of 1997. The covers EP Rhinoplasty followed in 1998, and a year later, Primus returned with Antipop. Antipop was a departure from previous Primus albums, as different producers were used on almost every track (including such notables as Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, Limp Bizkit‘s Fred Durst, Tom Waits, South Park creator Matt Stone, and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland), and it featured such guest artists as Metallica‘s James Hetfield and former Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin. After a supporting tour wrapped up in 2000, Mantia left the band to join Guns N’ Roses. Claypool talked about reuniting with former drummer Tim Alexander in the press, but shortly afterward announced that Primus was going on indefinite hiatus. During the ensuing break, Claypool focused on recording the debut album by his side project, Oysterhead (who also included Copeland and Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio), as well as releasing his two-part solo outing, Live Frogs: Set 1 and Set 2.
The band focused on touring in 2010, when Alexander once again left the band. Claypool and LaLonde turned to former drummer Jay Lane; the band went back into the studio to work on a new full-length. In 2011, Primus released their seventh album, Green Naugahyde. Three years later, the band followed up with Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble, an album that found the band reuniting with drummer Alexander to cover the iconic soundtrack to the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. In 2017 they returned with yet another literary-influenced album, The Desaturating Seven, which was inspired by Italian author Ul de Rico’s children’s book The Rainbow Goblins. Included on the album was the single “The Seven.”
In 2022, the band issued their first new music in five years with the politically charged three-song EP Conspiranoia, which featured the 11-minute title track. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Photo By Adam Messler
When he’s not fronting Tool and A Perfect Circle, Midwest-bred singer/songwriter Maynard James Keenan exorcises his solo demons with a third project dubbed Puscifer. As an outlet for the darker and more personal musings that don’t quite fit into the Tool and APC molds, Puscifer blends introspective reflection and sophomoric humor in a way that is distinctly Keenan, apparent in the titles of releases such as the 2007 debut V Is for Vagina, 2013’s Donkey Punch the Night, and 2015’s Money $hot. By 2020, in light of world events, Keenan and company buckled down and got a little more serious for their fourth set, Existential Reckoning.
While one might imagine Keenan would have enough going on to keep him busy as vocalist for Tool and A Perfect Circle, in 2007 he decided to branch out with a project called Puscifer. Described by Keenan as “the space where my Id, Ego, and Anima all come together to exchange cookie recipes,” Puscifer first appeared as the name of a fictional band Keenan fronted in a cameo on the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show in 1995. It wasn’t until 2003 that Keenan actually recorded under the name, when he teamed up with Danny Lohner for a track called “Rev 22:20” for the Underworld soundtrack. Four years later, he set to work on an entire Puscifer album. Organized less as a traditional “rock band” and more as a musical collective in which Keenan could work with a rotating lineup of like-minded artists, Puscifer’s early recording projects featured a large cast of noted musicians, including Tim Alexander from Primus, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk from Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine, former King Crimson member Trey Gunn, violinist Lisa Germano, pop singer/songwriter Jonny Polonsky, and actress and vocalist Milla Jovovich.
The first product of Puscifer’s new life was a single issued in early October 2007; the A-side was “Cuntry Boner,” a gleefully offensive song originally recorded by Electric Sheep (a short-lived punk band featuring Adam Jones and Tom Morello years before they would respectively join Tool and Rage Against the Machine), while the flipside was a cover of the Circle Jerks‘ “World Up My Ass.” Later the same month, Puscifer’s debut album, V Is for Vagina, was released; like the single, it was issued in the United States by Keenan’s own Puscifer label, and it featured ten original songs, many of which were dominated by slow but potent dance grooves rather than Tool‘s prog metal textures. Keenan said the group had no immediate plans to tour, but he was collaborating with several filmmakers on short movies based on the songs, which could be shown at live performances. In April 2008, a remix album titled V Is for Viagra: The Remixes was released and featured contributions from members of Nine Inch Nails, Telefon Tel Aviv, Ministry, and Slipknot, among others.
Keenan returned the following year with the EP “C” Is For (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference Here) before releasing the full-length Conditions of My Parole in 2011. The EP Donkey Punch in the Night arrived in 2013 with a pair of new tracks, as well as covers of Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Accept‘s “Balls to the Wall.” Money $hot, the band’s third studio LP, followed in 2015 and featured the single “Grand Canyon.” A remix collection, Money $hot Your Re-Load, arrived the next year. To close out the decade, Keenan revived both A Perfect Circle and Tool, which kept him busy into 2020. That year, along with longtime collaborators Carina Round and Mat Mitchell, Puscifer issued their fourth long-player, Existential Reckoning. More subdued and with fewer jokes than usual, the album took aim at American society in a year consumed by pandemic and political turmoil, which could be heard on the singles “Apocalyptical” and “The Underwhelming.” It reached number seven on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart and was followed by the 2021 concert recording Existential Reckoning: Live at Arcosanti. A third set from the era, Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired, was released in 2023 and featured reimagined versions of album tracks from the likes of Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Phantogram, Justin Chancellor (Tool), Scott Kirkland (the Crystal Method), and many more. ~ Mark Deming & Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi

American rock supergroup A Perfect Circle was formed in the late ’90s by Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan and former Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel. On their debut, Mer de Noms, A Perfect Circle were seen as an extension of the alt-metal-fused-with-art-rock style popularized by Tool in the early to mid-’90s. Despite comparisons, however, A Perfect Circle quickly developed into its own entity, focusing on lighter and more melodic sounds that were combined with a theatrical, ambient quality incorporating occasional strings and unconventional instrumentation on later albums like Thirteenth Step and Eat the Elephant. Over the decades, members of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Smashing Pumpkins, and Queens of the Stone Age have played a role in the band’s revolving lineup under the core songwriting duo of Keenan and Howerdel.
After the release of Ænima in 1996, Tool found themselves in the midst of an extended legal battle with former label Freeworld Entertainment. When the dust settled two years later, the band reached a 50-50 joint venture agreement for future recordings and, feeling a little burned out, decided to take some time off. It was at this point that Keenan joined up with Howerdel and Paz Lenchantin to form A Perfect Circle. Keenan had met Howerdel in 1992 when Tool opened for Fishbone. Howerdel had been Fishbone‘s tech at the time and he played Keenan a few of his songs. Keenan was impressed and the two talked of collaborating in the future. However, the opportunity wouldn’t present itself until the end of the decade. With Keenan on vocals, Howerdel on guitar, and Lenchantin on bass, the trio recruited ex-Failure and Enemy member Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar and ex-Vandals and Guns N’ Roses member Josh Freese on drums.
The quintet rehearsed together but didn’t announce the formation of a new band until performing for the first time on August 15, 1999, at a benefit concert at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. Howerdel, who had been composing songs for years, as well as working with bands such as the Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails, became the band’s chief songwriter and producer. A Perfect Circle released their debut album, Mer de Noms, in 2000. Featuring the hit singles “Judith” and “3 Libras,” Mer de Noms debuted in the Top Five of the Billboard 200 and eventually went platinum. The band opened Nine Inch Nails‘ Fragility Tour in 2000, but soon attracted their own headlining audience. The band took a short break between albums, allowing Keenan to hop back to Tool for the release and promotion of 2001’s Lateralus.
In the meantime, preparation for A Perfect Circle’s sophomore effort continued. Lenchantin and Van Leeuwen — both involved with other projects at the time — were swapped out for Jeordie White (Marilyn Manson) and Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails), respectively. Keenan returned to the fold in early 2003. Months later, Thirteenth Step arrived, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200. Moodier and more expansive, the set included Top Five rock chart singles “Weak and Powerless” and “The Outsider.” Lohner made way for James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) as the band embarked on an international tour.
Concluding the trek, A Perfect Circle issued the covers album eMOTIVe in 2004. The politically charged, anti-war collection featured interpretations of songs like John Lennon‘s “Imagine,” Marvin Gaye‘s “What’s Going On,” and Depeche Mode‘s “People Are People.” The album was also notable for the inclusion of new track “Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drum” and “Passive,” a holy grail for fans written by Keenan, Howerdel, Lohner, and Trent Reznor for their scrapped Tapeworm project.
Shortly after the release of eMOTIVe’s companion DVD set aMOTION — which bundled the band’s music videos along with a remix CD — A Perfect Circle went on a hiatus that would last over a decade. During their downtime, Keenan recorded albums with Tool and his solo project, Puscifer, while Howerdel started a new band, Ashes Divide. While rumors of the band writing songs cropped up now and again, A Perfect Circle returned (to the stage, at least) in 2010, and released a new song, “By and Down,” on their 2013 greatest-hits compilation Three Sixty. However, it would be another half-decade before an official return.
In late 2017, the group reunited for a tour of the United States, teasing fans with the possibility of a trek to the studio. They issued the single “The Doomed,” their first new song in over a decade. “Disillusioned” and “TalkTalk” followed in early 2018. That April, A Perfect Circle released their fourth LP, Eat the Elephant, with another revamped lineup that added Matt McJunkins (Eagles of Death Metal) and Jeff Friedl (Puscifer) to the Keenan/Howerdel/Iha trio. As political as eMOTIVe and even more melodic than Thirteenth Step, Eat the Elephant also marked the first time the band recruited an outside producer; namely, Dave Sardy. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Tracy Frey, Rovi

A Day To Remember at Desert Diamond Arena
2024-04-09 08:00 - 17:00 | Desert Diamond Arena, 9400 W Maryland Ave, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
Over the course of the past several years, each of A Day To Remember’s releases have hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock, Indie and/or Alternative Charts. They’ve also sold more than a million units, racked up over 800 million Spotify streams and 500 million YouTube views, two Gold-selling albums and singles (and one Silver album in the UK) and sold out entire continental tours (including their own curated Self Help Festival), amassing a global fanbase whose members number in the millions. All of which explains why Rolling Stone called them “An Artist You Need To Know.” In other words, their creative process has worked and worked well. But for new album Bad Vibrations, the Ocala, Florida-based quintet switched gears and headed for uncharted territory.
“We completely changed the way we wrote, recorded and mixed this album,” says vocalist Jeremy McKinnon. “It was one of the most unique recording experiences we’ve ever had. We rented a cabin in the Colorado mountains and just wrote with the five of us together in a room, which was the polar opposite of the last three albums we’ve made. We just let things happen organically and in the moment. I think it forever changed the way we make music.”
Bad Vibrations debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Top Album Sales Chart. It was also the #1 album in Australia, #6 in the UK and #7 in Germany.
On Aug 20 the band debuted their new single ‘Degenerates’.

The Story So Far have returned with their new album I Want To Disappear. Comprised of ten songs, it contains everything that’s brought them international acclaim and success since their inception. The current lineup features Parker Cannon (vocals), Kevin Geyer (lead guitar, keys), Ryan Torf (drums, rhythm guitar, and keys) and Will Levy (guitars). “We’re always just trying to make something that we love and that feels like it’s relevant to where we are in life,” says Torf. “We’ve already done so much in the past, but we wanted this to feel like the present thing that we are. We tried to make something that we connected with, and that hopefully our fans will like as well. But first and foremost, it’s just something that we’re proud of and feel good about.”

Four Year Strong have carved out their own niche in the music community by merging the infectiousness of pop-punk with the aggression of hardcore and never shying away from breaking with creativity-limiting conventions. This is evident on the band’s fifth full-length Brain Pain, a collection of songs that retains the qualities of the band that fans have grown to love while pushing forward the band’s effort to continually redefine their sound. “One thing we’ve struggled with in the past is writing in a way that’s personal to us that our wide range of fans can find a way to relate to as well,” vocalist/guitarist Dan O’Connor explains. “On this record we really tried to find the thing that connects us to our younger fans or the people who have been listening to us for a long time who still see us as younger kids despite the fact that we’re now in our thirties.”
The band — which also features vocalist/guitarist Alan Day, bassist Joe Weiss and drummer Jake Massucco — began conceptualizing the ideas for Brain Pain two years ago and for the past year-and-a-half have focused on bringing those thoughts to fruition. “We probably had 40 song ideas to get the creative juices flowing and some of those grew into the songs that are on this record,” Day explains, adding that it was important for the group not to rush the album or go into it with any musical or logistical limitations.

Tool at Crypto Arena in Los Angeles, CA
2024-02-15 19:30 - 23:30, 2024-02-14 19:30 - 23:30 | Crypto Arena, 1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA, 90015, United States
Tool established themselves as one of America’s most enduring and unpredictable acts with an ever-evolving brand of muscular but mind-altering sonics, a wry sense of humor, and a mystical aesthetic that attracted a cult-like following of devoted fans with just a handful of albums spread across decades. Their greatest breakthrough was to meld dark underground metal with the ambition of art rock, crafting multi-sectioned, layered songs as if they were classical composers. While embracing the artsy, they also paid musical homage to the relentlessly bleak visions of grindcore, death metal, and thrash. Even with their post-punk influences, they executed their music with the sound and feel of prog rock, alternating between long, detailed instrumental interludes and lyrical rants in their songs. Debuting in the early ’90s with Undertow, they were initially lumped in with the nu-metal contemporaries of the time, which made them a hit on rock radio with their sophomore effort, 1996’s Ænima. However, they soon broke away from those associations, evolving beyond the confines of traditional song structures and song lengths, crafting epics that often clocked in past the ten-minute mark on LP head-trips Lateralus (2001) and 10,000 Days (2006). After a lengthy 13-year hiatus, they returned to the fold in 2019 with their fifth opus, the chart-topping, Grammy-nominated Fear Inoculum. In 2022, they celebrated their 30th anniversary with “Opiate²,” a re-recorded version of their debut single.
Formed in Los Angeles by percussionist Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, vocalist Maynard James Keenan, and original bassist Paul D’Amour, Tool had a knack for conveying the strangled, oppressive angst that the alternative nation of the early ’90s claimed as its own, which helped them slip into the scene during the post-Nirvana era. Buffered by a prime slot on the third Lollapalooza tour in 1993, their debut full-length album, Undertow (Zoo Entertainment), rocketed to platinum status. Fervor for the band even resurrected their first effort, 1992’s Opiate EP, on the Billboard charts. While they were in the studio recording a follow-up, D’Amour amicably parted ways with Tool and his spot was filled by Justin Chancellor. By the time the fresh quartet delivered their sophomore album, Ænima, in late 1996, the alternative rock mainstream was ready. The album shot to number two on the Billboard charts and was certified multi-platinum in less than a decade. Singles “Stinkfist,” “Forty Six & 2,” and the Grammy-winning title track were all Top Ten hits on the U.S. Rock chart, boosted by the twisted and often disturbing music videos created by Jones. After a co-headlining slot with Korn on Lollapalooza ’97, Tool remained on the road, supporting Ænima into the next year.
As nu-metal established its mainstream dominance at the close of the decade, Tool returned to the shadows. During their hiatus, Keenan formed a side project with former Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel. A Perfect Circle debuted in 2000, and their album Mer de Noms was a surprise hit. Their ensuing tour was a sold-out success as well, which only served to fuel Tool breakup rumors. To quell the speculation, they issued the stopgap B-sides/DVD set Salival late the same year. Meanwhile, in the studio, the band continued to journey down a new path that further distanced them from the mainstream. Delving deeper into their own mythos, songs grew longer, lyrics more inscrutable, and artwork increasingly psychedelic. Though they retained their pummeling, metal-oriented base, the quartet smashed the formula by further experimenting with complex time signatures, expansive atmospherics, and a classical approach to song compositions. The first taste of 21st century Tool arrived in January 2001 with the Grammy-winning single, “Schism,” which was also their first song to chart on the Hot 100. Lateralus (Volcano) arrived that May, topping the Billboard 200. Subsequent singles “Parabola” and “Lateralus” were favorites on the U.S. Rock charts, and the album soon went multi-platinum.
After another several-year sabbatical — during which time Keenan bounced back to A Perfect Circle — the group returned with another chart-topper, 2006’s 10,000 Days. Their most esoteric statement yet, the album spawned the singles “Vicarious,” “Jambi,” and U.S. Mainstream Rock number one “The Pot.” Although it was also the band’s lowest-selling effort to date, the record still managed to win the group their third Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. At the conclusion of touring, Tool began another extended hiatus. Although the band re-emerged for a brief summer tour in 2009, it would be another ten years before fans could hear new music. During this period, Keenan debuted his de facto solo project, Puscifer, and returned for a third album with A Perfect Circle. Behind the scenes, the band was also bogged down by a lawsuit that wouldn’t be resolved until 2015. The next year, shaking off the cobwebs, Tool returned to the road for another quick jaunt in the U.S., kicking off another cycle of speculation from fans starved for new material.
After an interminable 13-year gap between albums, Tool returned in 2019 with their epic fifth album, Fear Inoculum. Their third straight chart-topper, the set also featured their second Hot 100 placement to date, the ten-minute title track, which became the longest song to ever appear on that chart. Meanwhile, for the first time, Tool made their entire discography available for streaming; this propelled all of their past albums back to the charts, breaking records in the process. They embarked on a sold-out arena tour of the U.S. alongside Killing Joke and capped their successful comeback with a pair of Grammy nominations for “7empest” and “Fear Inoculum.” The former track scored them a Grammy in 2020 for Best Metal Performance. In March 2022, they released “Opiate²,” a re-recorded version of their 1991 single “Opiate,” issued to mark the 30th anniversary of their debut EP. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Elder is a genre-pushing rock band that melds heavy psychedelic sounds with progressive elements and evocative soundscapes. Formed in a small coastal town in Massachusetts in the mid aughts, the band has reinvented their sound over the course of six albums to grow from a stalwart of the stoner/doom scene into one of the most unique voices in the heavy rock underground. Their long-scale compositions unfold as journeys, running the gamut of styles from the 70’s to the present within a single song with a penchant for “sheer gatefold-era grandeur” (Rolling Stone).

Tool & Elder at Footprint Center
2024-02-10 19:30 - 23:30, 2024-02-09 19:00 - 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, United States

EAGLES at FootPrint Center in Phoenix, AZ
2024-01-19 19:30 - 2024-01-20 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, United States
The Eagles were unquestionably the biggest mainstream American rock band to emerge in the 1970s. Not only did they sell more records and concert tickets than their peers — Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and Hotel California are two of the biggest-selling albums of all time — but they captured the shifting zeitgeist of the ’70s, riding the country-rock hippie hangover at the end of the ’60s until it reached the slick, expensive, and expansive pop/rock of Southern California in the late ’70s. Co-leaders Don Henley and Glenn Frey didn’t seem like brothers, but rather partners who made a pact to lead a coolly professional outfit designed to maximize their impact. This was not a group of teenage friends who played local dances together. Every one of the original members — Henley, Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner — had headed toward LA with different bands and once those groups fell apart, they stuck around town, playing whatever gig that happened to show up. For all four, one of those gigs was supporting Linda Ronstadt in 1971. The chemistry was evident on-stage and in the studio, so the quartet decided to form a band, releasing their debut in 1972. Hits came swiftly but stardom didn’t settle in until the latter half of the decade, after 1975’s One of These Nights became a smash. Soon afterward, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) turned their early years into canon and then came 1976’s Hotel California, a record that defined all manners of ’70s excess. By that point, the band’s lineup had shifted — Leadon and Meisner were out, as was Leadon‘s replacement Don Felder; guitarist Joe Walsh and bassist Timothy B Schmit were in — and the group turned out to be ill-equipped to handle their mega-stardom. One more record, 1979’s The Long Run, appeared before the band split, with Henley and Frey achieving considerable solo success during the ’80s. Rumors of reunions never abated, not even when Henley quipped that hell would freeze over before the Eagles would play again and, eventually, an album materialized in 1993, when the Hotel California-era band adopted the MTV Unplugged format for their own needs on an album naturally called Hell Freezes Over. From that point on, Eagles tours were regular events — sometimes they were ambitious endeavors, sometimes they were a gig or two, the one thing in common being their success — and although the group continued to thrive on the existence of its back catalog, they recorded a brand-new double-album called Long Road Out of Eden, a record that once again put the Eagles on the top of the charts in 2007.
The band was formed by four Los Angeles-based musicians who had migrated to the West Coast from other parts of the country. Singer/bassist Randy Meisner moved to L.A. in 1964 as part of a band originally called the Soul Survivors (not to be confused with the East Coast-based Soul Survivors, who scored a Top Five hit with “Expressway to Your Heart” in 1967) and later renamed the Poor. He became a founding member of Poco in 1968, but left the band prior to the release of its debut album in order to join the Stone Canyon Band, the backup group for Rick Nelson. Meanwhile, singer/guitarist/banjoist/mandolinist Bernie Leadon arrived in L.A. in 1967 as a member of Hearts and Flowers, later joining Dillard & Clark and then the Flying Burrito Brothers. Singer/drummer Don Henley moved to L.A. in June 1970 with his band Shiloh, who made one self-titled album for Amos Records before breaking up. Finally, Glenn Frey performed in his hometown and served as a backup musician for Bob Seger before moving to L.A. in the summer of 1968. He formed the duo Longbranch Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther, and the two musicians signed to Amos Records, which released their self-titled album in 1969.
In the spring of 1971, Frey and Henley were hired to play in Linda Ronstadt‘s backup band. Meisner and Leadon also played backup for Ronstadt during her summer tour, though the four only did one gig together: a July show at Disneyland. They did, however, all appear on Ronstadt‘s next album, Linda Ronstadt. In September 1971, Frey, Henley, Leadon, and Meisner signed with manager David Geffen, agreeing to record for his soon-to-be-launched label, Asylum Records; soon after, they adopted the name the Eagles. In February 1972, they flew to England and spent two weeks recording their debut album, Eagles, with producer Glyn Johns. It was released in June, reaching the Top 20 and going gold in a little over a year-and-a-half on the strength of two Top Ten hits — “Take It Easy” and “Witchy Woman” — and one Top 20 hit, “Peaceful Easy Feeling.”
The Eagles toured as an opening act throughout 1972 and into early 1973, when they returned to England to record their second LP, Desperado, a concept album about outlaws. Produced by Glyn Johns and released in April 1973, it reached the Top 40 and went gold in a little less than a year and a half, spawning the Top 40 single “Tequila Sunrise” in the process. The title track, though never released as a single, became one of the band’s better-known songs and was included on the Eagles’ first hits collection.
After touring to support Desperado’s release, the Eagles again convened a recording session with Glyn Johns for their third album. Their desire to make harder rock music clashed with Johns’ sense of them as a country-rock band, however, and they split from the producer after recording two tracks, “You Never Cry Like a Lover” and “The Best of My Love.” After an early 1974 tour opened by singer/guitarist Joe Walsh, the band decided to hire Walsh‘s producer, Bill Szymczyk, who handled the rest of the sessions for On the Border. Szymczyk brought in a session guitarist, Don Felder (born in Gainesville, Florida, on September 21, 1947), an old friend of Bernie Leadon‘s who so impressed the rest of the band that he was recruited to join the group.
On the Border was released in March 1974. It went gold and reached the Top Ten in June, the Eagles’ fastest-selling album yet. The first single, “Already Gone,” reached the Top 20 the same month. But the most successful song on the LP — the one that broke them through to a much larger audience — was “The Best of My Love,” which was released as a single in November. It hit number one on the easy listening charts in February 1975 and topped the pop charts a month later.
The Eagles’ fourth album, One of These Nights, was an out-of-the-box smash. Released in June 1975, it went gold the same month and hit number one in July. Moreover, it featured three singles that hit the Top Five: the chart-topping title song, “Lyin’ Eyes,” and “Take It to the Limit.” “Lyin’ Eyes” won the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, and the Eagles also earned Grammy nominations for Album of the Year (One of These Nights) and Record of the Year (“Lyin’ Eyes”). The group went on a headlining world tour, beginning with the U.S. and expanding into Europe. But on December 20, 1975, it was announced that Bernie Leadon had quit the band, and Joe Walsh (born in Wichita, Kansas, on November 20, 1947) was brought in as his replacement. He immediately joined the tour, which continued to the Far East in early 1976.
The Eagles’ extensive touring kept them out of the studio, and with no immediate plans for a new album; they agreed to release a compilation, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), in February 1976. The album’s success proved to be surprisingly meteoric. It topped the charts and became a phenomenal success, eventually selling upwards of 25,000,000 copies and dueling with Michael Jackson‘s Thriller for the title of the best-selling album of all time in the U.S.
It took the Eagles 18 months to follow One of These Nights with their fifth album, Hotel California. Released in December 1976, the record was certified platinum in one week, hit number one in January 1977, and eventually sold over 10,000,000 copies. The singles “New Kid in Town” and “Hotel California” hit number one, and “Life in the Fast Lane” made the Top 20. Meanwhile, “Hotel California” won the 1977 Grammy for Record of the Year and was nominated for Song of the Year; the album itself was nominated for Album of the Year and for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus. The Eagles embarked on a world tour in March 1977 that began with a month in the U.S., followed by a month in Europe and the Far East, then returned to the U.S. in May for stadium dates. At the end of the tour in September, Randy Meisner left the band; he was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit (born in Sacramento, California, November 20, 1947), formerly of Poco, in which he had also replaced Meisner. (Randy Meisner died on July 26, 2023 at the age of 77.)
The Eagles began working on a new album in March 1978 and took nearly a year and a half to complete it. The Long Run was released in September 1979. It hit number one and was certified platinum after four months, eventually earning multi-platinum certifications. “Heartache Tonight,” its leadoff single, hit number one, and “I Can’t Tell You Why” and “The Long Run” became Top Ten hits. “Heartache Tonight” won the 1979 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The Eagles toured the U.S. in 1980, and at a week-long series of shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, they recorded Eagles Live. (Also included were some tracks recorded in 1976.) Released in November 1980, the double LP (since reissued as a single CD) reached the Top Five and went multi-platinum, with the single “Seven Bridges Road” reaching the Top 40.
The Eagles were inactive after the end of their 1980 tour, but their breakup was not officially announced until May 1982. All five released solo recordings. (Walsh, of course, maintained a solo career before, during, and after the Eagles.) During the rest of the ’80s, the bandmembers received several lucrative offers to reunite, but they declined. In 1990, Frey and Henley began writing together again, and they performed along with Schmit and Walsh at benefit concerts that spring. A full-scale reunion was rumored, but did not take place. Four years later, however, the Eagles did reunite. In the spring of 1994, they taped an MTV concert special and then launched a tour that ended up running through August 1996. The MTV show aired in October, followed in November by an audio version of it, the album Hell Freezes Over, which topped the charts and became a multi-million seller, spawning the Top 40 pop hit “Get Over It” and the number one adult contemporary hit “Love Will Keep Us Alive.”
The Eagles next appeared together in January 1998 for their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, when the five present members performed alongside past members Leadon and Meisner. On December 31, 1999, they played a millennium concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles that was recorded and included on the box set retrospective Selected Works: 1972-1999 in November 2000. All was not well within the band, however, and Felder was expelled from the lineup in February 2001. A protracted legal battle ensued as the Eagles soldiered on as a quartet, releasing The Very Best of the Eagles in 2003 and achieving minor success with the single “Hole in the World.” Felder‘s case was settled out of court in 2007; that same year, the Eagles returned with the band’s seventh studio album, Long Road Out of Eden, a double-disc album that quickly went multi-platinum. In 2013, the band made the documentary History of the Eagles, and toured behind it until mid-2015. Six months later, Glenn Frey became ill and passed away on January 18, 2016. He was 67. Just over a year after Frey‘s death, the Eagles were revived with Glenn‘s son Deacon taking his place; Vince Gill also joined on guitars and vocals. The group played the Classic West and Classic East festivals in July of 2017, then set out on the road in 2018. At the end of the year, the group’s entire discography was boxed up as the Legacy set. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions. Becker and Fagen never truly enjoyed rock — with their ironic humor and cryptic lyrics, their eclectic body of work shows some debt to Bob Dylan — preferring jazz, traditional pop, blues, and R&B. Steely Dan created a sophisticated, distinctive sound with accessible melodic hooks, complex harmonies and time signatures, and a devotion to the recording studio. With producer Gary Katz, Becker and Fagen gradually changed Steely Dan from a performing band to a studio project, hiring professional musicians to record their compositions. Though the band didn’t perform live between 1974 and 1993, Steely Dan’s popularity continued to grow throughout the ’70s as their albums became critical favorites and their singles became staples of AOR and pop radio stations. Even after the group disbanded in the early ’80s, their records retained a cult following, as proven by the massive success of their unlikely return to the stage in the early ’90s.
Walter Becker (bass) and Donald Fagen (vocals, keyboards) were the core members of Steely Dan throughout its various incarnations. The two met at Bard College in New York in 1967 and began playing in bands together shortly afterward. The duo played in a number of groups — including the Bad Rock Group, which featured future comedic actor Chevy Chase on drums — which ranged from jazz to progressive rock. Eventually, Becker and Fagen began composing songs together, hoping to become professional songwriters in the tradition of the Brill Building. In 1970, the pair joined Jay & the Americans‘ backing band, performing under pseudonyms; Becker chose Gustav Mahler, while Fagen used Tristan Fabriani. They stayed with Jay & the Americans until halfway through 1971, when they recorded the soundtrack for the low-budget film You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It, which was produced by the Americans‘ Kenny Vance. Following the recording of the soundtrack, Becker and Fagen attempted to start a band with Denny Dias, but the venture was unsuccessful. Barbra Streisand recorded the Fagen/Becker composition “I Mean to Shine” on her album Barbra Joan Streisand, released in August 1971, and the duo met producer Gary Katz, who hired them as staff songwriters for ABC/Dunhill in Los Angeles, where he had just become a staff producer. Katz suggested that Becker and Fagen form a band as a way to record their songs, and Steely Dan — who took their name from a dildo in William Burroughs‘ Naked Lunch — were formed shortly afterward.
Recruiting guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and keyboardist/vocalist David Palmer, Becker and Fagen officially formed Steely Dan in 1972, releasing their debut, Can’t Buy a Thrill, shortly afterward. Palmer and Fagen shared lead vocals on the album, but the record’s two hit singles — the Top Ten “Do It Again” and “Reeling in the Years” — were sung by Fagen. Can’t Buy a Thrill was a critical and commercial success, but its supporting tour was a disaster, hampered by an under-rehearsed band and unappreciative audiences. Palmer left the band following the tour. Countdown to Ecstasy, released in 1973, was a critical hit, but it failed to generate a hit single, even though the band supported it with a tour.
Steely Dan replaced Hodder with Jeff Porcaro and added keyboardist/backup vocalist Michael McDonald prior to recording their third album, Pretzel Logic. Released in the spring of 1974, Pretzel Logic returned Steely Dan to the Top Ten on the strength of the single “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” After completing the supporting tour for Pretzel Logic, Becker and Fagen decided to retire from live performances and make Steely Dan a studio-based band. For their next album, 1975’s Katy Lied, the duo hired a variety of studio musicians — including Dias, Porcaro, guitarist Elliot Randall, saxophonists Phil Woods, bassist Wilton Felder, percussionist Victor Feldman, keyboardist Michael Omartian, and guitarist Larry Carlton — as supporting musicians. Katy Lied was another hit, as was 1976’s The Royal Scam, which continued in the vein of its predecessor. On 1977’s Aja, Steely Dan’s sound became more polished and jazzy, as they hired jazz fusion artists like Wayne Shorter, Lee Ritenour, and the Crusaders as support. Aja became their biggest hit, reaching the Top Five within three weeks of release and becoming one of the first albums to be certified platinum. Aja also gained the respect of many jazz musicians, as evidenced by Woody Herman recording an album of Becker/Fagen songs in 1978.
Following the release of Aja, ABC was bought out by MCA Records, resulting in a contractual dispute with the label that delayed until 1980 the release of their follow-up album. During the interim, the group had a hit with the theme song for the film FM in 1978. Steely Dan finally released Gaucho, the follow-up to Aja, in late 1980, and it became another Top Ten hit for the group. During the summer of 1981, Becker and Fagen announced that they were parting ways. The following year, Fagen released his solo debut, The Nightfly, which became a critical and commercial hit.
Fagen didn’t record another album until 1993, when he reunited with Becker, who produced Kamakiriad. The album was promoted by the first Steely Dan tour in nearly 20 years, and while the record failed to sell, the concerts were very popular. In 1994, Becker released his solo debut, 11 Tracks of Whack, which was produced by Fagen. The following year, Steely Dan mounted another reunion tour, and in early 2000 the duo issued Two Against Nature, their first new studio album in two decades. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Steely Dan followed it in 2003 with Everything Must Go. Fagen‘s solo album Morph the Cat was released in 2006, and Becker released Circus Money in 2008 as Steely Dan embarked on another tour. In September 2017, it was announced that Becker had died in Maui, Hawaii. He was 67-years-old.
Fagen carried on with Steely Dan after Becker‘s passing, often calling the group “the Steely Dan Band.” This new lineup was showcased on a pair of live albums released in September 2021: Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live and Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly Live, both recorded between 2018 and 2019. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Muse + Evanescence & Highly Suspect at Desert Diamond Arena
2023-04-02 19:00 - 23:30 | Desert Diamond Arena, 9400 W Maryland Ave, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
Muse are Matt Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme. Since forming in 1994, Muse have released nine studio albums, selling over 30 million units worldwide. Their latest album ‘Will of the People” debuted at #1 in multiple territories including, UK (their 7th consecutive #1) , Austria, France, Finland, Italy and Switzerland. Their previous album, ‘Simulation Theory’, debuted at #1 in multiple territories and followed their 2015 album, ‘Drones’, which went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, the band’s second. Muse have won numerous music awards including two Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, five MTV Europe Music Awards, two Brit Awards, eleven NME Awards and seven Q Awards, amongst others.

Evanescence will release their first album of new original music in nine years, The Bitter Truth (BMG) over the course of this year, beginning with the first song and video, “Wasted on You,” out now. The video for “Wasted on You” was shot by each band member on their iPhones while currently in isolation. As Amy explains, “We were recording this music right up until we couldn’t go into the studio anymore, and finished it remotely through file sharing and phone calls. Tweaking mixes, adding background vocals, creating the video and album art all from home has been like water in the dessert for me, my light in a dark time. We are still writing and have a lot more work to do on this album, but this time we wanted to release the songs individually, as we create, to live more in the moment with our fans and our music. Wasted On You wasn’t the song we were planning to release first, but when the whole world went into indefinite lockdown and everything changed, so did the feeling and meaning of what we wanted to say right now. I didn’t write these lyrics about what we’re all now going through, but somehow that’s exactly what they are.

A muscular, hard-hitting, and wide-ranging group in the vein of Pop Evil, Queens of the Stone Age, and Royal Blood, Brooklyn’s Highly Suspect rode a series of indie EPs and years of touring to a pair of Grammy nominations for their 2015 debut. A year later, their follow-up delivered another hit in the Grammy-nominated single “My Name Is Human,” setting high expectations for their third outing, 2019’s hip-hop-leaning MCID. The band continued to blur genres on 2022’s The Midnight Demon Club.
The band formed in Cape Cod in 2009 around the talents of Johnny Stevens (guitar, vocals, synths) and twin siblings Ryan (drums, vocals) and Rich Meyer (bass, vocals). After working regionally as a cover band, they relocated to Brooklyn and began recording original material, resulting in a pair of EPs, First Offense (2009) and The Gang Lion (2010). They continued to establish themselves with one more EP, The Worst Humans, in 2012, before heading into the studio with producer Joel Hamilton (Black Keys, Elvis Costello) to record their debut long-player. The resulting Mister Asylum, which featured the fiery single “Lydia,” was released on 300 Entertainment in 2015. Their debut received critical praise and two unexpected Grammy nominations, leading to an extensive supporting tour.
Off the road by early 2016, they immediately returned to the studio to record a second full-length, The Boy Who Died Wolf, which saw release in November of that year. The album’s lead single, “My Name Is Human,” topped Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and earned Highly Suspect another Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song. As early as November 2018, they began teasing information about their next album which they later revealed would be called MCID. A pair of singles, “Upperdrugs” and “16,” were released in August of that year, with the eclectic, hip-hop-infused MCID, which featured guest spots from Young Thug, Gojira, Tee Grizzley, and Nothing But Thieves‘ Conor Mason, arriving in November 2019. Three years later, Highly Suspect released The Midnight Demon Club, a kinetic and life-affirming set that paired hip-hop beats and cinematic soundscapes with blazing metal.

Saliva + Through Fire & Any Given Sin at Marquee Theatre
2023-04-02 18:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ, 85281, United States
After acquiring front man Bobby Amaru in 2011, Saliva became infused with new blood, energy, and spirit. The same energy launched Saliva’s career in 2001 with the release, _Every Six Seconds – a certified Double Platinum-selling album, containing the hits, “Click Click Boom” and 2002 Grammy nominated, “Your Disease.” Saliva’s in-your-face, anthemic writing style continued with a certified Gold-selling album *Back in to Your System_ with hits: “Always,” “Raise Up,” and the Nikki Sixx co-written, “Rest In Pieces.”*
Saliva will continue to release tracks and ultimately a full album in Spring of 2023. The new music has a contemporary feel but sticks to the blue collar roots that their fans love.
Saliva is Brad Stewart (bass), Wayne Swinny (guitar), Sammi Jo Bishop (drums) and Bobby Amaru (vocals).

By disregarding rules, we defy expectations. Rather than stick to the script or follow a template, Through Fire consistently evolve, reshaping hard rock with electronic flourishes and airtight songcraft. As a result, the Omaha, NE quartet—Justin McCain [lead guitar, songwriter], Grant Joshua Kendrick [lead vocals], Tyler Halverson [bass], and Zach Halverson [drums]—haven’t just broken the mold; they’ve also broken through as a force to be reckoned with. They’ve notably racked up nearly 100 million cumulative streams and views in addition to landing massive syncs during the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and from the NBA, NFL, UFC, and ESPN with standout “Stronger” even serving as the theme for WWE’s Backlash. Along the way, they’ve notably toured with All That Remains, Fozzy, Seether, and more.
Now, they continue to forge ahead on their third full-length offering, Devil’s Got You Dreaming [Sumerian Records].
“We definitely tried to push some boundaries and venture into new territory where we haven’t gone as a band in the past,” notes Justin. “There was a different approach, and we tried sounds we hadn’t tapped into or utilized. We went into this with no rules, and we had fun.”

Every once in a while, a singer comes along that single-handedly resets the bar for what a rock vocalist should be. Someone with such raw emotion and power that it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Maryland-based rock band ANY GIVEN SIN’s Vic Richie is that singer. ANY GIVEN SIN spent much of 2019 generating buzz with the release of their single “Dynamite,” which quickly became the number one most spun song on SiriusXM’s Octane. The band soon solidified its position on Octane, landing the coveted Accelerator Artist title, and blazing past some of the biggest names in rock on the weekly BIG UNS Countdown. As the number two most requested song on the channel, it ended up at number twenty-nine on Octane’s Top 100 year-end countdown. The success of their first single was quickly followed up with the release of their second single, “Another Life,” which, in turn, became the number one most spun song as well. Any Given Sin recently released their third single, “Insidious.” The band has been working with some heavy-hitters in the rock world including Trevor Kustiak (Evans Blue), John Moyer (Disturbed), and most recently, Chris Dawson (SAUL, Seasons After), who produced both singles, “Another Life” and “Insidious.” Complete with epic, crunchy guitar riffs and put-a-hole-in-your-soul, massive drums, this is a true-blue American rock band with both authenticity and power.

STAIND at Arizona Bike Week 2023
2023-04-01 20:30 - 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
It has been said that first impressions last a lifetime. Luckily for Staind, some only last for about 45 minutes. After a volatile disagreement with Limp Bizkit‘s Fred Durst over some of Staind’s early cover art, it seemed their big break had walked out the door. Fortunately, by the time Durst had witnessed Staind’s intense live show, he was ready to exchange phone numbers.
Staind’s story began in the New England area when vocalist Aaron Lewis and guitarist Mike Mushok met at a Christmas party in 1993. Mushok was able to bring drummer Jon Wysocki into the fold, and Lewis‘ connection with a bass player (who later left) completed the early lineup. Establishing themselves took time, and extensive touring of the Northeast with other established metal acts helped them sell over 2,000 copies of their self-released debut in just over a year. They were primed for their big break, and on October 23, 1997, the hard work paid off.
At a show in Hartford, Connecticut, Staind were all set to open for Limp Bizkit when Bizkit singer Durst raised a stink over cover art on Staind’s self-released CD. After a heated conversation over whether or not Staind were Satan worshipers, Durst forcefully returned the disc to the band, and walked away. But 45 minutes later Durst was back, not to further the argument, but to make sure he kept in contact with Staind. Blown away by their live show, Durst exchanged phone numbers, and loved their demo tape when they gave it to him. He convinced them to travel to Jacksonville, Florida, to work on the new songs.
After reworking the new material and a successful live show, Durst contacted the head of Flip Records and arranged a meeting for Staind with the label. While in Los Angeles, a three-song sampler was recorded, and by the time February rolled around in 1998, the band had a record deal. After playing the Vans Warped Tour, they began work on their first album, Dysfunction. The album was produced by Terry Date (Deftones, Pantera, Soundgarden) and was released April 13, 1999. A tour with Kid Rock followed that spring and later the band reunited with good friends Limp Bizkit for a summer tour.
Their follow-up, Break the Cycle, enjoyed a prolonged visit at the number one spot on U.S. charts in 2001. Smash hits like “It’s Been a While,” “Fade,” “For You,” and “Epiphany” catapulted Staind into the mainstream, leaving their 2002 DVD MTV Unplugged to go gold. Staind released 14 Shades of Grey in spring 2003, and after a two-year break returned with the chart-topping Chapter V, named to include their self-released debut in the Staind canon. A Singles and Videos compilation arrived in 2006, followed by the all-new studio album Illusion of Progress in 2008, the latter of which debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The band’s eponymous seventh studio album, which saw the departure of longtime drummer Jon Wysocki, arrived on September 13, 2011. Later that year, the band recruited drummer Sal Giancarelli and hit the road, documenting the tour with 2012’s Live from Mohegan Sun, which captured the tour’s first show. ~ Chris True, Rovi

MEGADETH at Arizona Bike Week 2023
2023-03-31 20:30 - 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
To be released by UMe on September 2, 2022, The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! further establishes MEGADETH as a band that has both defined and repeatedly redefined heavy metal since formation, and which follows up 2016’s Grammy®-winning Dystopia, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 (MEGADETH’s highest chart position since its 1992 classic Countdown to Extinction). MEGADETH has crafted a record with a visceral energy, heaviness, and sometimes paranormal pace that few would expect from such a seasoned band with so little to prove. The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! melds the ultra-frenetic riffing, fiercely intricate guitar solos, and adventurous spirit of the quartet’s groundbreaking early output with the musicality and melodicism of its ‘90s songwriting, all laced with signature virtuosity and precision – plus, of course, Mustaine’s singular vocal snarl and wry, take-no-shit lyrical vitriol.
“I don’t think we’re nearing the end, not even remotely,” Mustaine concludes. “I feel more energized now that I have in decades.” Appropriately, the album closes with “We’ll Be Back” …

Billy Idol at Arizona Bike Week 2023
2023-03-30 20:30 - 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
Billy Idol was an early architect of the sound, style, and fury of punk rock. Billy was responsible for some of punk rock’s most memorable, literate, and evocative moments and created a pioneering new sound by bringing the spirit of ’77 to the dance floor, going on to fashion an immediately identifiable musical blueprint that integrates club-land throb, rockabilly desperation, and rock’n’roll decadence.
His lip-curling sneer and fist-pumping persona vaulted him into the mainstream as one of MTV’s first megastars, making him one of the most recognizable faces in pop music. He has sold 40 million albums while scoring numerous platinum albums worldwide, nine top forty singles in the U.S. and 10 in the U.K. His smash singles include “Dancing With Myself, “White Wedding,” “Rebel Yell,” “Eyes Without A Face,” “Flesh For Fantasy,” “Mony Mony” and “Cradle of Love.”

Texas Hippie Coalition at Arizona Bike Week 2023
2023-03-29 20:30 - 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
Backyard barbeques, barroom brawls, tent revivals, and big rock festivals alike are suitable environments for the Red Dirt Metal of TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION, a band with a sound so devilishly electrifying that they had to come up with a new genre to describe it.
BIG DAD RITCH captains this pirate ship of bikers, outlaws, troubadours, and hellraisers, welcoming all comers to the THC party with gregarious charisma and Southern charm. Across a half dozen albums, countless club gigs, and show stealing performances at Rockstar Mayhem, THC has spread the good word of big riffs, big hooks, and wild times.
High in the Saddle is a record full of unashamed, full-throttle ass kicking. It’s the band’s second pairing with producer Bob Marlette (Black Stone Cherry, Rob Zombie) and sixth album over all, on the heels of the No. 2 Billboard Heatseekers slab, Dark Side of Black .
Rock/metal tastemaker Loudwire.com described THC’s “nonstop gritty, grooving, and downright party rock” as “sounding like the bastard that spawned from a threesome between Monster Magnet, Willie Nelson, and Pantera.” Guitarists Cord Pool and Nevada Romo, bassist Rado Romo, and drummer Devon Carothers build songs with traditional blue-collar and red-blooded American craftsmanship, skillfully transforming Big Dad Ritch’s tales of recklessness and revelry into anthems for the Red Dirt Metal lifestyle.

Arizona Bike Week 2023 at WestWorld of Scottsdale
2023-03-29 12:00 - 2023-04-02 19:00 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
Are you all set for Arizona Bike Week 2023?! If you haven’t already, make your camping or hotel reservations now!
Get ready to be part of an incredible motorcycle rally and music festival at WestWorld of Scottsdale from March 29-April 2!
The RockYard concerts will be epic, featuring Billy Idol, Megadeth, Staind, and Texas Hippie Coalition! The PowerYard will offer non-stop entertainment and excitement, including world-class vendors, bike shows , charity ride raffles, live music, our sexy rally girls, and much more! Check our Event Schedule often. We’re adding to the list daily.
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FX Promotions, Inc. dba Arizona Bike Week
Corporate Address: 104 S. Robson, Mesa, AZ 85210
Venue Address: 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
phone: 480.644.8191 | fax: 480.733.4006
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Skillet + Theory Of A Deadman at Arizona Financial Theatre
2023-03-22 19:00 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, United States
One of the best-selling rock bands of the 21st century, two-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated multiplatinum Wisconsin quartet Skillet—John Cooper [lead vocals/bass], Korey Cooper [guitar/keys], Jen Ledger [drums/vocals], and Seth Morrison [lead guitar]—write the soundtrack to triumph. An undying spirit humbly asserted and affirmed the band as one of this generation’s most successful rock acts. However, as all classic underdog stories do, it happened quietly under the radar. By 2019, they not only garnered a pair of GRAMMY® Award nods and sold over 12 million albums worldwide, but they also took home a Billboard Music Award for the double-platinum Awake. Its breakout single “Monster” remains “one of the most-streamed rock songs of all-time” with 285 million global audio streams. 2016’s Unleashed bowed at #3 on the Billboard Top 200. Going #1 on Rock Radio, the lead single “Feel Invincible” cracked 150 million global audio streams and went platinum. Meanwhile, the gold-certified Unleashed became their fourth consecutive album to receive either a gold, platinum, or double-platinum plaque. To date, nine original tunes earned RIAA recognition in tandem with high-profile syncs by everyone from WWE and Marvel to ESPN and NFL. Between selling out arenas on four continents, the group performed on CONAN and graced the pages of USA Today and New York Times, to name a few. In 2018 alone, the band clocked 1 billion streams. This momentum continues on their 2019 tenth full-length, Victorious.

Songs make statements at just the right time. Born at the intersection of insurgency and inspiration, music props up a sounding board for the people to be heard. Theory Of A Deadman amplify this voice on their seventh full-length offering, “Say Nothing”, releasing 1.31.20. The award-winning multiplatinum Los Angeles-based Canadian band—Tyler Connolly [lead vocals, guitar], Dave Brenner [guitar, backing vocals], Dean Back [bass], and Joey Dandeneau [drums]—flip the pulse of the world into scorching songcraft, integrating experimental vision, rock ‘n’ roll attitude, and clever pop ambition.
In the midst of this storm, Connolly and Co. speak up like never before. “This album allowed me to say all of the things that were on my mind earlier, but I was too afraid to say,” the frontman admits. “This album is about what’s going on in the world, the state of American politics, and everything else. It was a completely different way of writing for us.”
“What makes this record important is the content,” Brenner elaborates. “Tyler approaches some really tough topics like domestic violence and racism. There are real discussions happening in the tracks backed by heavy stuff to make you think.”
“We just want to write what speaks to us,” Connolly leaves off. “The best thing is when people sing lyrics back to you, or if a song gets somebody through a tough time. There’s something we all might be able to dig here.”

By turning inward, Saint Asonia amplify every element of their signature sound. Skyscraping hooks soar higher, while arena-ready rhythms rattle harder. The guitars cut deeper, and the lyrics resound louder than ever. The quartet—Adam Gontier [vocals, guitar], Mike Mushok [lead guitar], Cale Gontier [bass], and Cody Watkins [drums]—find power and strength on their aptly titled 2022 EP, Introvert [Spinefarm Records].
Saint Asonia initially united two hard rock luminaries under a new banner. Respectively, Adam and Mike had each reached stratospheric heights in Three Days Grace and Staind, toppling charts, packing venues, and selling millions of records. As such, their union captivated audiences worldwide. In the wake of their 2015 self-titled debut Saint Asonia, Loudwire christened the band its “Best New Artist” at the Loudwire Music Awards. The 2019 follow-up, Flawed Design, yielded the blockbuster single “The Hunted” [feat. Sully Erna of Godsmack], generating over 15 million Spotify streams. In a “4.5-out-of-5-star” review, New Noise Magazine declared, “Any fan of hard rock (whether they’ve listened in recently or not) should give Saint Asonia a spin.” Plus, Loudwire applauded it as one of the “The 50 Best Rock Albums of the Year.” Not to mention, they toured with everyone from Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, and Seether to Alter Bridge and Mötley Crüe.

Taylor Swift, Paramore & Gayle at State Farm Stadium
2023-03-17 18:00 - 2023-03-18 23:30 | State Farm Stadiu, 1 Cardinals Dr., Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
Taylor Swift is that rarest of pop phenomena: a superstar who managed to completely cross over from country to the mainstream. Others have performed similar moves — notably, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson both became enduring pop culture icons based on their 1970s work — but Swift shed her country roots like they were a second skin; it was a necessary molting to reveal she was perhaps the sharpest, savviest populist singer/songwriter of her generation, one who could harness the zeitgeist, make it personal and, just as impressively, perform the reverse. These skills were evident on her earliest hits, especially the neo-tribute “Tim McGraw,” but her second album, 2008’s Fearless, showcased a songwriter discovering who she was and, in the process, finding a mass audience. Fearless wound up having considerable legs not only in the U.S., where it racked up six platinum singles on the strength of the Top Ten hits “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me,” but throughout the world, performing particularly well in the U.K., Canada, and Australia. Speak Now, delivered almost two years later, consolidated that success and moved Swift into the stratosphere of superstardom. Her popularity only increased over her next three albums — Red (2012), 1989 (2014), Reputation (2017) — and found her moving assuredly into a pop realm where she already belonged. Even when she scaled back her approach with 2020’s stripped-down sibling releases folklore and Evermore, she remained atop the pop world, a position she maintained with re-recordings of her back catalog along with Midnights, a moody album released in 2022.
This sense of confidence had been apparent in Taylor Swift since the beginning. The daughter of two bankers — her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, worked at Merrill Lynch; her mother, Andrea, spent time as a mutual fund marketing executive — Swift was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and raised in suburban Wyomissing. She began to show interest in music at the age of nine, and Shania Twain wound up as her biggest formative influence. Swift started to work regularly at local talent contests, eventually winning a chance to open for Charlie Daniels. Soon, she learned how to play guitar and began writing songs, signing a music management deal with Dan Dymtrow; her family relocated to Nashville with the intent of furthering her music career. She was just 14 years old but on the radar of the music industry, signing a development deal with RCA Records in 2004. Swift sharpened her skills with a variety of professional songwriters, forming the strongest connections with Liz Rose. Taylor’s original songs earned her a deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, but not long after that 2004 deal she parted ways with Dymtrow and RCA, all with the intent of launching her recording career now, not later.
Things started moving swiftly once Swift came to the attention of Scott Borchetta, a former DreamWorks Records exec about to launch Big Machine Records. Borchetta saw Swift perform at a songwriters showcase at the Bluebird Cafe and he signed her to Big Machine in 2005; shortly afterward, she started work on her debut with producer Nathan Chapman, who’d previously helmed demos for Taylor. Boasting original song credits on every one of the record’s 11 songs (she penned three on her own), Taylor Swift appeared in October 2006 to strong reviews and Swift made sure to work the album hard, appearing at every radio or television event offered and marshaling a burgeoning fan base through the use of MySpace. “Tim McGraw,” the first song from the album, did well, but “Teardrops on My Guitar” and “Our Song” did better on both the pop and country charts, where she racked up five consecutive Top Ten singles. Other successes followed in the wake of the debut — a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist (she lost to Amy Winehouse), stopgap EPs of Christmas songs — but Swift concentrated on delivering her sophomore set, Fearless.
Appearing in November 2008, Fearless was certified gold by the RIAA in its first week of release, and the record gained momentum throughout 2009, earning several platinum certifications as “Love Story,” “White Horse,” “You Belong with Me,” “Fifteen,” and “Fearless” all scaled the upper reaches of the country charts while “You Belong with Me” nearly topped Billboard’s Hot 100. Along with the success came some headlines, first in the form of an infamous appearance at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards where her acceptance speech was interrupted by Kanye West, who burst on-stage to declare that Swift’s rival Beyoncé deserved the award more, but her romances also started gaining attention, notably a liaison with Twilight star Taylor Lautner, who appeared with the singer in the 2009 film Valentine’s Day.
Her flirtation with the silver screen proved brief, as she then poured herself into her third album, Speak Now. Released in October 2010, Speak Now was another massive first-week smash that refused to lose momentum. Hit singles like “Mine” and “Mean,” which won two Grammy Awards, played a big factor in its success not just on the country charts but on pop radio as well. Following a 2011 live album called World Tour Live: Speak Now, Swift turned toward following a pop path on her fourth album, hiring such mainstream musicians as Dan Wilson, Butch Walker, and Britney Spears producer Max Martin. This mainstream pulse was evident on “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” the first single from Red. Upon its October 2012 release, Red shattered expectations by selling over a million copies in its first week, a notable achievement that was doubly impressive in an era of declining sales. Once again, Swift’s album had legs: it was certified platinum four times in the U.S. and its international sales outstripped those of Speak Now. She supported Red with an international tour in 2013 and more hits came, including “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “22.”
As Swift geared up for the release of her fifth album in 2014, she made it clear that 1989 was designed as her first “documented, official” pop album and that there would be no country marketing push for the record. “Shake It Off,” an ebullient dance-pop throwback, hit number one upon its August 2014 release. When 1989 appeared in late October 2014, it once again shot to number one and became her third straight album to sell one million copies in its first week (a new record for any artist).
Swift gathered many awards during the subsequent year, including Billboard’s Woman of the Year, the Award for Excellence at the American Music Awards, and a special 50th Anniversary Milestone Award from the CMAs. Her 1989 World Tour crossed Asia, North America, and Europe during the last half of 2015, and she won three Grammy Awards at the 2016 ceremonies, including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Music Video for “Bad Blood.” At the end of 2016, she released “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” a duet with ZAYN from the soundtrack for Fifty Shades Darker. The single reached the Top Five across the world. Swift returned with her sixth album, Reputation, in November 2017. Preceded by the number one hit single “Look What You Made Me Do,” Reputation debuted at number one, and while it didn’t replicate the success of 1989, the album did help underscore her popularity while also pushing her toward mature musicality.
Reputation was Swift’s final record for Big Machine. In November 2018, she signed with Universal Music Group, which distributed her new albums under its Republic Records banner. The first album in this contract was Lover. Released in August 2019, Lover was preceded by two singles, “Me!” and “You Need to Calm Down,” which both reached number two on the Hot 100 and helped push the album to number one. The acclaimed LP and two of its singles received a total of three nominations at the 62nd Grammy Awards.
Swift’s plans to support Lover with a tour in 2020 were scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With some unexpected time on her hands, she wrote and recorded a new set of songs, many in collaboration with Aaron Dessner of the National; Bon Iver and longtime Swift associate Jack Antonoff also contributed. The resulting album, folklore, was released on July 24, 2020, and went straight to the top of the Billboard 200. Less than five months later, Swift released a companion album to folklore called Evermore. Featuring many of the same collaborators as its predecessor, the Grammy-nominated Evermore debuted at number one upon its December 11, 2020 release. Altogether, the sibling LPs planted Swift atop the U.S. charts for a combined 11 weeks, and folklore became the best-selling album of 2020.
In 2021, she began the process of re-recording her back catalog after her Big Machine masters were sold off in 2019, starting with 2008’s Fearless. The first of these tracks — “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” — arrived that February, with Fearless [Taylor’s Version] arriving in April. The new version of Fearless contained cameos from Colbie Caillat, Keith Urban, and Maren Morris, along with several previously unheard tunes originally written during the same time period; it debuted at number one on Billboard upon its release. Swift next revisited Red, releasing Red [Taylor’s Version] in November 2021. This revamp of the 2012 album featured new duets with Phoebe Bridgers, Chris Stapleton, and Ed Sheeran, along with a ten-minute version of the ballad “All Too Well.” Another re-recording, “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” (originally off 1989), arrived in May 2022 and was included in the soundtrack to the coming-of-age drama The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Swift opened up another chapter in her career with the October 2022 release of Midnights, an album co-produced by Jack Antonoff and featuring a duet with Lana Del Rey on “Snow on the Beach.” ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

When Paramore revealed they were recording together in January 2022 the response from music fans around the world was immediate and celebratory. In the time since the Grammy-winning, RIAA-certified multi-Platinum band released their last album, After Laughter – and Hayley Williams unveiled two lauded solo albums – Paramore have become more popular than ever. Over the last few years Paramore’s influence and popularity has snowballed, as the age of streaming organically propelled them into a position as one of the world’s biggest, most culturally compelling rock bands. For the band, who formed as teenagers in Tennessee, their 20 year trajectory has seen them grow from youthful outsiders to bonafide pop culture icons, permeating the musical landscape by inspiring a new generation of musical talent.

hi i’m GAYLE and liking the color orange is a personality trait so is being indecisive and having a split dye. i hope my music can help u be more confident and comfortable inside ur emotions because writing and singing about them helps me. maybe if u like my music i’ll be able to meet u at a show or in my dms soon <3

Cradle Of Filth & DevilDriver at Marquee Theatre
2023-03-08 18:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ, 85281, United States
A British extreme metal institution, Cradle of Filth emerged in 1991 with a style that leaned heavily toward black metal. As the years progressed, their sound evolved as well, with elements of gothic and symphonic metal taking over, resulting in a more commercial approach that yielded internationally charting efforts like Damnation and a Day (2003), Thornography (2006), Hammer of the Witches (2015), and Existence Is Futile (2021).
Cradle of Filth formed in 1991, originally comprised of vocalist Dani Filth (born Daniel Lloyd Davey), guitarist Paul Ryan, his keyboardist brother Benjamin, bassist John Richard, and drummer Darren. After recording a demo dubbed Invoking the Unclean a year later, the group recruited guitarist Robin Eaglestone, who quit soon after recording a second demo, Orgiastic Pleasures; however, when Richard exited the band a short time later, Eaglestone stepped back in to assume bass duties, opening the door for guitarist Paul Allender. Following a third demo, Total Fucking Darkness, Cradle of Filth — with new drummer Nicholas Barker — signed with the Cacophonous label, issuing their proper debut, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, in mid-1994.
The lineup changes continued when the Ryan brothers both departed to form the Blood Divine (and Allender left as well), making room for guitarists Stuart Antsis and Jared Demeter and keyboardist Damien Gregori to debut on the 1996 mini-LP Vempire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein. For the full-length Dusk and Her Embrace later that same year, Gian Pyres took Demeter’s spot, and afterward, Gregori was replaced by keyboardist Les Smith; at any rate, the album substantially expanded the group’s growing cult following. COF’s next effort, Cruelty and the Beast, appeared in 1998, amid the band’s steadily growing reputation for elaborate Alice Cooper/Marilyn Manson-style concert theatrics. Two years later, they returned with From the Cradle to Enslave, an EP that featured new drummer Adrian Erlandsson (formerly of Sweden’s At the Gates and the Haunted), as Barker had departed to join Dimmu Borgir.
The band’s dizzying lineup changes continued apace as Paul Allender rejoined the group and Martin Powell (ex-Anathema and My Dying Bride) replaced Smith on keyboards for the full-length Midian, which was appropriately released on Halloween in 2000. Bitter Suites to Succubi was issued on Spitfire in summer 2001. The group added a choir and orchestra to the lineup for 2003’s Damnation and a Day on Red Ink, and moved to Roadrunner for 2004’s Nymphetamine. Thornography followed on Roadrunner in 2006, a year that also saw the release of The Cradle of Filth Box Set. Eleven Burial Masses, a collection of live material, arrived in 2007, followed by the concept album Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder in 2008, which saw Erlandsson replaced by new drummer Martin “Marthus” Škaroupka.
In 2010, the band left Roadrunner, signing to Peaceville in Europe and Nuclear Blast in the U.S. for the release of their ninth studio LP, Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa, a concept album that focused on the myth of the demon Lilith, the alleged first wife of the biblical Adam. It was the first Cradle record not to contain any instrumental tracks, and also featured the sole appearance with the band of keyboardist Ashley Ellyllon, formerly of Abigail Williams. In 2012, reduced to the trio of Filth, Allender, and Škaroupka, the group released The Manticore and Other Horrors, on which they did a bit of a turnabout, returning female vocals and hardcore punk riffs to the fore. A deluxe remastered and expanded edition of their early demo, Total Fucking Darkness, was released in May 2014; featuring additional, previously unreleased tracks, it proved a stopgap.
Cradle of Filth’s Hammer of the Witches was announced in May 2015, marking the first new music from the group in three years — the longest gap in their career. It featured a new lineup that included guitarists Marek Ashok Šmerda and Richard Shaw (marking a return to twin-guitar harmonies) and new keyboardist/female vocalist Lindsay Schoolcraft. The video for “Right Wing of the Garden Triptych” was released in May, followed by online streams of “Deflowering the Maidenhead, Displeasuring the Goddess,” and “Enshrined in Crematoria” in late June. The album arrived in mid-July.
Cradle of Filth announced their 12th album, Cryptoriana: The Seductiveness of Decay, in June 2017. Produced by longtime collaborator Scott Atkins in Suffolk, the set was inspired by the Victorian obsession with death and the supernatural, and was issued in September while the band were already promoting it on tour. It would be five more years before fans saw another record from the group. Entitled Existence Is Futile and concerned with existential dread, their 13th album was released in October 2021. The preceding year’s COVID-19 lockdown postponed its release, allowing them longer to work on it, rewriting and restructuring their demos to produce the best work possible. Recorded once again with Atkins, it was their first to feature new keyboardist/backing vocalist Anabelle Iratni. Guitarist Stuart Antsis, who played with Cradle of Filth from 1995 to 1999, died on August 21, 2022, at the age of 48.

A punishing groove and melodic death metal unit based out of Santa Barbara, California, DevilDriver originally operated under the moniker Deathride before a copyright issue forced them to adopt a new name. Co-founded by Coal Chamber vocalist Dez Fafara, who remains the group’s lone original member, the band debuted in 2002, but didn’t truly catch fire until the release of 2007’s Last Kind Words, which heralded a string of high-charting albums like Pray for Villains (2009), Winter Kills (2013), Trust No One (2016), and the concept double album Dealing with Demons (2020 and 2021). Despite enduring numerous personnel shifts, the band has maintained a lean, loud, and punitive sonic attack that has established them as one of the more reliable heavy music purveyors of the early 21st century.
Following the dissolution of his Marilyn Manson/Korn-influenced nu-metal band Coal Chamber, vocalist Dez Fafara hooked up with guitarists Evans Pitts and Jeffrey Kendrick, bassist Jon Miller, and drummer John Boecklin to form DevilDriver — a rather more extreme band dedicated to the subsequent hardcore-meets-death-metal trends. Signed to Roadrunner like Fafara’s previous group, DevilDriver released their eponymous debut in 2003, followed a sophomore effort, The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand (where Pitts was replaced by Mike Spreitzer), a couple years later. 2007’s Last Kind Words was the group’s first outing to crack the Billboard 200, but they got their day in the sun when their 2009 album, Pray for Villains, debuted at number 35 and found success in Europe as well. After touring with groups like Behemoth and Slipknot, DevilDriver went back into the studio to begin work on their fifth album. the resulting Beast, produced by Mark Lewis, was released in 2011, and would be their last album to feature longtime bassist Jon Miller. The band would team up with Lewis again for its next album, Winter Kills, their highest-charting LP to date, which arrived in the summer of 2013 via Napalm Records. 2014 saw the departures of drummer John Boecklin and guitarist Jeff Kendrick, which prompted Fafara to put the band on hiatus until 2016. The group did indeed resurface that year, releasing its seventh studio album, Trust No One, which would be the first DevilDriver outing for three new members, ex-Chimaira drummer Austin D’Amond, guitarist Neal Tiemann, and ex-Static-X bassist Diego Ibarra. In 2018, Fafara, a longtime fan of outlaw country, fulfilled his ambition to unite the genre with metal on DevilDriver’s eighth album, Outlaws ’til the End, Vol. 1. A collection of covers of classics of the genre refashioned in the band’s inimitable powerhouse style, it featured guest vocals from several metal and country artists including Randy Blythe, Brock Lindow, Burton C. Bell, John Carter Cash, and Hank Williams III. Prior to that album’s release, Fafara mentioned to the press that the band had written 48 songs that were ready to record. The first fruits of those sessions appeared in 2020 as Dealing with Demons I, the initial part of a double album which included the COVID-19-themed single “Keep Away from Me” and a collaboration with Fafara’s son Simon Blade on “You Give Me a Reason to Drink.” Early 2021 saw the band part ways with guitarist Neal Tiemann, who was replaced by Cody Haglund. The second installment of the concept LP, Dealing with Demons II, arrived later that year.

Black Satellite is a rock duo from NYC comprised of Larissa Vale and Kyle Hawken. Having been writing music together for several years, Black Satellite is the culmination of a deep-rooted partnership contributing to their unified writing style.   Shortly after launching their first single Valkyrie from their full-length album Endless, Black Satellite was requested as support for Starset at NYC’s Gramercy Theatre on the strength of their debut. Their follow up single Blind premiered on ibobi Radio and was subsequently featured on Alternative Press via their discover playlist. Black Satellite was also named one of Alternative Press’ “12 Bands You Need To Know” in a print issue of the magazine.   Billboard describes the album as “the end point one might arrive at after listening to all of Muse’s catalog and deciding they just weren’t epic enough.”   Black Satellite subsequently released two cover songs paying tribute to Type O Negative, which charted on metal radio.   The band has recently concluded writing and recording their sophomore record, Aftermath, mixed by veteran producer Ben Grosse (Marilyn Manson, Breaking Benjamin, Filter). Release date to be announced. Their new single “Void” is the first taste of the brand new album. Knotfest commenting on the track: “the first single offers a glimpse into the bold, stylishly dark sound that has made the duo of Larissa Vale and Kyle Hawken such a promising prospect.”   Black Satellite is scheduled to tour with Fozzy Fall 2021.

Static-X - Rise of The Machine Tour 2023 at The Van Buren
2023-03-07 18:30 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003
American metal crew Static-X emerged at the tail end of the ’90s, pushing an aggressive thrash metal blend with industrial overtones and a techno pulse. Their breakthrough debut, 1998’s cult classic Wisconsin Death Trip, rocketed them to stardom in the heavy music world, their image boosted by frontman Wayne Static‘s distinctive hair and vocal delivery. While maintaining momentum into the 2000s with additional efforts like Machine and Shadow Zone, Static‘s passing in 2014 effectively halted the group in their tracks. However, at the close of the decade, the original lineup made a comeback with the help of previously recorded Static vocals, issuing Project Regeneration in 2020.
Static-X’s roots trace to the Midwest, where vocalist/guitarist Wayne Static grew up in Michigan and drummer Ken Jay in Illinois. They ended up in Chicago separately and met at the record store where Jay worked, introduced to one another by future Smashing Pumpkins vocalist Billy Corgan (who was in the band Deep Blue Dream with Static). Static and Jay decided to head west to California and start up a new band. Shortly after their arrival, Osaka native Koichi Fukada responded to the duo’s ad and became their new guitarist, as well as programmer. Bassist Tony Campos, the only true Californian, was the final piece of the puzzle. Signed to Warner Brothers in February 1998, Static-X debuted with Wisconsin Death Trip a year later. The album was a hit and eventually certified platinum, bolstered by the strength of the singles “Push It” and “Bled for Days.” Despite the success, founding guitarist Fukada briefly left the group in 2000, replaced by Tripp Eisen (ex-Dope) for 2001’s gold-certified Machine, their highest-charting effort to date. Further lineup changes followed, as drummer Jay left after the 2003 album Shadow Zone. Soon after, misdemeanor charges forced Eisen to leave the band in 2004 (he was later convicted and spent a year in prison). Still, Static-X was undeterred. Static tapped Fukada to rejoin on guitar and programming in 2005, while touring drummer Nick Oshiro took over full-time.
In June 2005, a rejuvenated Static-X returned to recording with Start a War, home to the single “I’m the One.” Fifth album Cannibal arrived in 2007, charting inside Billboard’s Top 40. The band toured and released a CD/DVD document, Cannibal Killers Live, then settled into the recording of their sixth studio album, Cult of Static. Released in March 2009, it debuted inside the Top 20, their second highest showing to date. The group went on hiatus not long after finishing a lengthy tour, with Wayne Static announcing a renewed focus on his Pighammer side project, with contributions from his wife, Tera Wray. In 2011, Pighammer appeared as a solo album under his own name. A year later, he re-formed Static-X — minus any of the original members. The lineup, which consisted of his solo backing band, mounted a tour but broke up by 2013, and a year later, Wayne Static was dead of a drug overdose at the age of 48. Just over a year after that, his widow Tera Wray took her own life.
This tragedy seemed to spell the end of Static-X, but a few years later, the remaining bandmembers patched up their differences and decided to see if they could salvage anything from past recordings. Starting from a slew of unreleased demos, the group went into the studio, once again with Ulrich Wild, where they stripped Wayne‘s vocals from the demos and composed entirely new tunes around them. The resultant album, Project Regeneration, was released in two volumes, with Vol. 1 arriving in the summer of 2020. To support the release, the band embarked on tour with a new, masked frontman named Xer0, rumored to be Edsel Dope of Dope. Lead single “Hollow” crashed the U.S. Dance/Electronic chart, peaking in the Top 15. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Josh Loehr, Rovi

One can’t overstate the size of the Fear Factory boot print on the neck of heavy metal. Unleashing influential albums with devastating anthems for over 30 years, Fear Factory is widely recognized as both crucial and innovative in extreme metal circles. Fear Factory manufactured, demanufactured, and remanufactured a sound that reverberates across several subgenres. They perfected an explosive blend of staccato paint-stripping riffs, industrial-tinged drums, electronic flourishes, and a scream/sing dichotomy, all of which became staples in heavy music, ever since the group first emerged in L.A.
Fear Factory records are cinematic in scope; sonic landscapes, echoing the dystopian post-apocalyptic futures found in classic sci-fi literature and films, from Ray Bradbury to Blade Runner. Aggression Continuum, the tenth studio album, is the culmination of three decades of unforgettable songs, performances, and forward-thinking storytelling concepts, while simultaneously rebooting Fear Factory onto a brilliant and excitingly unpredictable new path.
Aggression Continuum boasts the definitive attack of songs like “Recode,” “Distruptor,” and “Purity.” The riffs, concepts, and passion remain strong, as Fear Factory celebrates its past, present, and future. Whatever may come, Fear Factory will be there, a soundtrack to humankind’s uncertain times ahead.

An uncompromising New York City-based outfit that draws from both heavy metal and industrial music, Dope’s confrontational emissions evoke Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and White Zombie. Emerging in 1999 with the hard-hitting Felons and Revolutionaries, the group continued to beat the post-industrial drum on 2005’s American Apathy and 2018’s Blood Money, Part 1, while managing to weave in elements of speed, alternative, rap, and nu-metal.
The quintet was formed in the Chicago area by brothers Edsel Dope (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Simon Dope (keyboards). Simon studied chemistry at the University of Florida, then received a scholarship to Polytechnic in Brooklyn. There he was joined by his brother, with the two claiming to have financed their demos by selling drugs. The initial incarnation of the band included lead guitarist Tripp Eisen, bass player Acey Slade, and drummer Preston Nash. They began a selective series of gigs in late 1997. In October 1998, they were signed to Flip Records, which made a production deal with Epic.
Dope’s debut album and best-selling release to date, Felons and Revolutionaries, was released in September 1999. The Dope brothers gutted their lineup after the ensuing tour, switching Slade to guitar and bringing in original bassist Sloane Jentry, guitarist Virus, and drummer Sketchy Shay. In the fall of 2001, they released their second album, Life. Two years later, the band inked a deal with Artemis and issued the nu-metal-leaning Group Therapy. The punitive American Apathy arrived in summer 2005, featuring covers of Depeche Mode‘s “People Are People” and N.W.A‘s “Fuck tha Police.” It topped the Billboard Heatseekers chart upon release. No Regrets was issued four years later, and featured a guest appearance by Zakk Wylde. After an extended hiatus, Dope’s classic lineup returned with a new album and coinciding tour. The band — Edsel Dope, Acey Slade, Virus, and Racci Shay — released Blood Money, Pt. 1 in late 2016, with a sequel, the aptly-named Blood Money, Pt. 2, arriving in 2019.

Known for their theatrical live show and the black masks that most of their members wear on-stage, Mushroomhead are one of the more unique and adventurous alternative metal outfits that emerged in the 1990s. The band’s forceful yet melodic alternative metal incorporates elements of hip-hop, punk, and goth rock as well as industrial and techno. Since releasing their eponymous debut in 1995, Mushroomhead have sold over two million albums worldwide, with highlights arriving via 2003’s XIII, 2006’s Savior Sorrow, and 2014’s The Righteous & the Butterfly.
The members of Mushroomhead have been performing incognito since 1993, when drummer Skinny founded the band. At first, Mushroomhead were only meant to be a side project. Their members were playing in various local bands at the time, and they wore the blacks masks (which look like a cross between S&M/bondage masks and World War I gas masks) so that people wouldn’t recognize them. The only Mushroomhead member who doesn’t wear a black mask opts for Kiss-like clown makeup instead. After a few years, the group became one of Cleveland’s top local attractions — and the bandmembers kept wearing the masks when they saw how intriguing people found them to be.
Mushroomhead’s self-titled debut album was released independently in 1995, followed by Superbuick in 1996 and M3 in 1999. The Midwesterners signed with Eclipse in 2000, and their next record, XX, came out the following year. In 2001, Mushroomhead’s members included drummer/founder Skinny, lead vocalists J-Mann and Jeffrey Nothing, guitarists Bronson and Gravy, keyboardist Shmotz, bassist Pig Benis, and sample provider Stitch when they signed to Universal Records to re-release XX. Their first proper effort for the label was 2003’s dynamic XIII, but the band soon parted ways with not only Universal but also vocalist J-Mann during a subsequent tour. Undeterred, Mushroomhead pressed on with their D.I.Y. ethos intact and welcomed new frontman Waylon, formerly of 3 Quarters Dead, into the fray.
The concert film Mushroomhead, Vol. 1 followed in mid-2005 before the group returned in September 2006 with the critically acclaimed Savior Sorrow, released through New York-based indie Megaforce Records. Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, the band’s seventh studio album, arrived in 2010, followed in 2014 by The Righteous & the Butterfly, the latter of which became the group’s first album to crack the Top 20 of the Billboard Top 200. 2020’s A Wonderful Life introduced new members Steve Rauckhorst and Jackie LaPonza (vocals), and Tom Shaffner (guitar), who replaced longtime vocalist Jeffrey Nothing and guitar player Tommy Church. It was Mushroomhead’s eighth studio LP and first outing for Napalm Records

Steel Panther at Marquee Theatre
2023-02-26 18:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ, 85281, United States
Satirically pretending to be a hair metal band that missed its big break in the ’80s, singer Ralph Saenz (“Michael Starr”), drummer Darren Leader (“Stix Zadinia”), bassist Travis Haley (“Lexxi Foxxx”), and guitarist Russ Parrish (“Satchel”) hit the club circuit on the Sunset Strip around the turn of the millennium under the name Metal Shop (later changed to Metal Skool, and then to Steel Panther). With big, spiky wigs, leather jackets, zebra-striped spandex, chops earned from playing in a Van Halen tribute band, and lots and lots of machismo, their comic take on sex, drugs, and rock & roll to the extreme caught on quickly, leading to sold-out shows and some unexpected brushes with mainstream success. As their popularity increased, the Hollywood crowd started frequenting their sets, often making appearances on-stage. This led to some opportunities: the band fittingly played the role of a metal band as “Danger Kitty” in a Discover Card commercial; they appeared on The Drew Carey Show as themselves; and their song “FF” was used as the theme for MTV’s Fantasy Factory.
In 2008, the band signed to Universal Republic. After releasing the singles “Death for All But Metal” and “Community Property,” Steel Panther’s full-length Feel the Steel was released in October of 2009. The album broke the band onto the Billboard chart, netting them a spot at number 98 on the U.S. charts (and 48 on the rock chart). Not wanting the fun to stop, the band got back to it quickly and in 2011 followed up with Balls Out, which featured guest appearances from comedian Dane Cook and Nickelback‘s Chad Kroeger, among others. 2014’s All You Can Eat featured the single “Party Like Tomorrow Is the End of the World,” and featured cover art parodying Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. In 2016, the band issued their first concert LP, Live from Lexxi’s Mom’s Garage, which was released in conjunction with their first full-length feature film, which blended comedic vignettes and other assorted antics with the aforementioned glam-folk garage show.
At the end of 2016, Steel Panther released a cover of Cheap Trick‘s “She’s Tight” in advance of their fourth studio album Lower the Bar, which arrived in March 2017. The group headed out on tour in support of the album, playing dates across the world before embarking on their Sunset Strip Live tour, which saw the band playing a mix of original material and classic metal covers. Tapping producer Jay Ashton for their fifth album, the band dropped the unabashed Heavy Metal Rules in late 2019, preceded by the single “All I Wanna Do Is Fuck (Myself Tonight).”
Following a brief spell of absence from touring Lexxi Foxx announced his departure from the band in 2021, with the group holding open auditions for a new bassist. The group eventually settled on Joe “Spyder” Lester, whom had played live with the band in Foxx’s absence. Steel Panther returned to the studio to record their sixth album, On the Prowl. Producing it themselves, the album continued with their tongue-in-cheek hair metal, with the tracks “Never Too Late (To Get Some Pussy Tonight)” and “Friends with Benefits” preceding its release in early 2023.

Riff-monsters Crobot conjures up the kind of rock ‘n’ roll that has grooves so powerful they throw you around the room and hooks high enough to shake the heavens. They take the sweet-sounding nectar of the gods and pour it down your throat until you’re wailing along like a banshee. With tens of millions of streams, countless shows and acclaim from the likes of Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Kerrang, BBC Radio, SiriusXM Octane, Loudwire, Guitar World and more, Brandon Yeagley [vocals], Chris Bishop [guitar], Tim Peugh [bass], and Dan Ryan [drums] realize their vision like never before on their fifth full-length, Feel This [Released June 3 via Mascot Records]. Feel This is the follow-up to 2019s Top 10 Heatseekers album Motherbrain – whose cumulative streams have surpassed 30 million. 20 million of which were for the goliath single “Low Life” – a US Top 10 at active rock radio on the Billboard Mainstream with a 29-week run.

Parkway Drive at Marquee Theatre
2023-02-01 18:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ, 85281, United States
In the kitchen of the Byron Bay home of Winston McCall stands a refrigerator, adorned on one side by a quote from Tom Waits: “I want beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.”
This, the Parkway Drive vocalist says, is a pretty good summation of himself. It holds true, too, as one of the guiding principles behind Darker Still, the seventh full-length album to be born of this picturesque and serene corner of north-eastern NSW, Australia, and the defining musical statement to date from one of modern metal’s most revered bands.
Darker Still, McCall says, is the vision he and his bandmates – guitarists Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick, bassist Jia O’Connor and drummer Ben Gordon – have held in their mind’s eye since a misfit group of friends first convened in their parents’ basements and backyards in 2003. The journey to reach this moment has seen Parkway evolve from metal underdogs to festival-headlining behemoth, off the back of close to 20 gruelling years, six critically and commercially acclaimed studio albums (all of which achieving Gold status in their home nation), three documentaries, one live album, and many, many thousands of shows.
“When Parkway originally started out, we all were trying to push ourselves to do more than we possibly could,” is how McCall explains it. “The better we got at it, the more comfortable we got, to the point where it became all comfortable. That is when we chose to acknowledge that just being comfortable was not necessarily doing justice to the skills and the creativity that you have grown over the years. What you hear on Darker Still is the final fulfilment of our ability to learn and grow catching up with the imagination that we have always had. These are the kinds of sounds we always had in mind. This is the way we always dreamed.”
To understand that growth is to understand Darker Still, both musically and thematically. Those who thought they had Parkway Drive figured out – the unrivalled energy, the high-octane breakdowns, McCall’s trademark bark – need reconsider everything they know about Australia’s masters of heavy. Not that anyone truly paying to their recent evolution should be surprised, though. “This is a journey we began with Ire, and which grew further still on Reverence,” McCall says, referencing the band’s preceding 2015 and 2018 works, respectively. In that context, it is easy to view Darker Still as the curtain-closer on a transformative trilogy that has seen Parkway reach new heights of creativity and success by eschewing the restrictive, safe conventions of genre and abandoning their own self-imposed rules in favour of a wide-eyed appreciation of bold new horizons. “There are compositions and songs that we’d never attempted before – or, to be more accurate, which we have attempted in the past, but not had the courage, time or understanding to pull off,” McCall reveals.
The vocalist would be the first to tell you that in order to grow, you have to let go of the past; a mantra Parkway embraced tighter than ever before when it came to blueprinting Darker Still. McCall describes how “we wanted to make a record that stood alone from the records we hear at this point in time”; one that delivers on “a more expansive sound, which allows a new weight to fall into the music.” Gordon, meanwhile, says it features “some of the heaviest moments we have ever created, but it is a different kind of heavy: an emotional catharsis that you can feel in every cell in your body.” The drummer is brutally honest in his reflection that, between “the ever-changing COVID lockdowns, government mandates, travels restrictions and tense personal relationships within the band”, Darker Still was the most challenging moment of the band’s career. Ling offers agreement, admitting that the three-year journey of writing and recording – which commenced as far back as April 2019 and would conclude in February 2022 following three months in the studio with producer and engineer pairing George and Dean Hadjichristou – “broke me by the end” as he juggled lockdown family life with the “daunting task of trying to stick everyone’s ideas together” in his downstairs home studio.
“When writing songs, we have a few questions that we ask ourselves that helps define our creative path,” he explains of the gruelling process. “‘What will this song achieve?’ ‘Why does this song deserve to be on this album?’ ‘What emotional response will this song provoke in the listener?’ If all these points check out, we know we are on the right path.”
“We are very much a collaborative band when it comes to song writing,” says Gordon. “Each song goes through several layers of scrutiny and refinements before the final version emerges. Some songs are completely unrecognisable from the first rendition to what ends up on the record.”
And so while Darker Still remains irrefutably Parkway Drive, it finds the band sonically standing shoulder to shoulder with rock and metal’s greats – Metallica, Pantera, Machine Head, Guns N’ Roses – as much as it does their metalcore contemporaries. “I wanted a classic guitar tone for this record,” explains Ling, who credits much of his inspiration to the connection his riffs have with a crowd in a live setting. “I’ve always been drawn to early ‘90s metal, so something along these lines with a modern edge was my jive. Creatively my goal was to write intricate and intriguing music that is also simple enough for everyone to understand and enjoy. We made a conscious decision to not go overboard with layering and soundscaping. This move would help reinforce our raw and classic album vision.”
“Production wise, we wanted to have a slight throwback to the ‘90s, leaning into some more real and natural sounding tones, which gives the record more character,” nods Gordon, whose work behind the kit on Darker Still – “Less about how much I could show off, and more about what will best compliment the song,” is his simple assessment – is emblematic of the record at large. “It took us a long time to learn about the importance of dynamics,” he says. “We now pick our moments much more and let the song breathe when it needs to.”
It is a revivified sound that provides the backdrop for some of McCall’s most personal and introspective songs yet. Exploring the concept of the ‘dark night of the soul’ – “The idea of reaching a point in your life where you are faced with a reckoning of your structure of beliefs, your sense of self and your place in the world, to a point where it’s irreconcilable with the way that you are as a person,” as McCall describes – Darker Still unfurls like the great rock concept albums, from Pink Floyd to, most comparably, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral.
Amongst ruminations on society’s fear of death, societal isolation and a loss of humanity, its 11 tracks play out in a classic three-act structure. Ground Zero opens its ‘setup’; a “reckoning with your own internal monologue, says McCall, which ominously speaks to “the fights, the falls, the scars and broken bones” and how “beneath it all, the cracks begin to show…” Its second act – its ‘confrontation’ – frames the album’s title track at its core: a classic rock epic about “love and time” that spans a near seven-minutes and which evokes Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters. The album’s ‘resolution’, meanwhile, concludes with From The Heart Of Darkness: a brooding monster that opens with McCall’s contemplative searching (“There’s a war going on inside, nobody’s safe from / You can run, but you can’t hide / When it’s your soul you must confront”) before exploding with its mosh-call of “Fury be my victory!”
“I wanted the end of the record to mirror my experience to a degree of what this journey has been like for me,” McCall reveals. “I found that I was always afraid of showing defiance to be honest and true to myself, even if that meant sacrificing who I was to become a better version of who I could be. That has to be ripped from the darkest part of you, because the darkest part of you is what you are always afraid of in the first place. It’s the thing that you don’t want to shine the light on. It’s the element that you don’t want to show people, which you shy away from, which you’re too scared to embody.”
It is a closing statement that truly defines Darker Still. This is the Parkway Drive the band have been striving to be for two decades. Ling says it best: “I’m really proud of what we have achieved together, and feel that as musicians, we have really ascended to new realms of class and ability.” Emerging from the darkness of the past few years, this is the true face of Parkway: redefined and resolute, focused in mind and defiant in spirit.

Over the course of their career, Memphis May Fire have channeled a generation’s worth of angst, frustration, and pain, with a focused blend of gigantic melodic hooks and crushing aggression. Even after topping Billboard’s Hard Music Albums chart, having an album debut at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200, and breaking into radio’s Active Rock Top 20, Memphis May Fire refuse to sacrifice who they are or the people who made them.
A new season unfolds for the band, and it’s filled with revitalization and renewal. Stripping things down to their core elements, hearkening back to the days when they created the music their fans most cherish, Memphis May Fire rekindled the spark within to build an inferno of riffs and inspirational words. They have returned to their roots with the seasoned polish earned through years of touring and making music together. “Blood & Water” is proof positive of this fact.
Memphis May Fire have toured with a vast list of important rock and metal acts that include Killswitch Engage, Sleeping With Sirens, Black Veil Brides, Sevendust, and Atreyu. They’ve co-headlined with Yellowcard and The Devil Wears Prada, regularly appeared on Warped Tour, and at major rock festivals. The band’s previous six albums’ continued relevance is a testament to the energized connectivity between the band and their audience. Songs like “Miles Away,” “No Ordinary Love,” “Beneath the Skin,” and “Carry On” account for 100 million views and millions of streams.
Expect more anthems for the broken and beyond from Memphis May Fire in due course.

CURRENTS is the new standard for death-infused metalcore. This is emotionally fraught and impossibly angry music soaked in cold, depressive atmosphere. CURRENTS explore the forbidden realms of a tortured psyche, searching for meaning amidst uncertain chaos and venom.
Heartache, physical abuse, abandonment, trauma – no dark emotion is spared examination. CURRENTS also turn their gaze outward, offering no mercy to man-made catastrophes like climate change and animal abuse. An exploitative system that inflicts such harm upon humanity and the entire world will not be spared the wrath within this explosive, weaponized bombast.
Immediately upon the arrival of the first taste of the band’s second album, the comments section lost its collective mind. Shockingly devoid of the genre’s penchant for hateful trolling, the music video for “Poverty of Self” (a scathing indictment of the predatory industries taking advantage of the sick and broken) was met with an avalanche of praise. “These guys are breakdown scientists,” declared one commenter. “That intro wastes no time to smash you right in the face,” wrote another.
The best gem? “I would donate my organs to this band just to watch them live again.”
The Way It Ends, the second full-length from the Connecticut bruisers, is a thematic and spiritual successor to their dense, bludgeoning, and smartly constructed full-length debut, The Place I Feel Safest (2017), and a direct follow-up to the blistering and diverse EP, I Let The Devil In (2018).
Those well-versed in Meshuggah, Humanity’s Last Breath, Vildhjarta, and Architects have embraced CURRENTS with full-throated passion. A combination of their contemporaries and influences, channeled through unique perspective and personal experience, resulted in something revolutionary. It’s why they were handpicked for tours with August Burns Red, As I Lay Dying, We Came As Romans, Fit For A King, Born Of Osiris, and the Impericon Never Say Die! Tour.
CURRENTS is comprised of singer Brian Wille; guitarists Chris Wiseman and Ryan Castaldi; bassist Chris Pulgarin; and drummer Matt Young. A winding road through earlier incarnations culminated in a series of self-released EPs, leading to the band’s partnership with SharpTone.
Kerrang! put “Silence” from The Place I Feel Safest on a list of the 15 Greatest Mosh-Calls in Heavy Music, alongside bangers by genre leaders like Parkway Drive and Code Orange. Calling the song an “exploration of emotional torment, all blunt force riffage, wiry guitars, and spat vocals,” the rock mag summarized the track as “a narcotic blend of melodrama and madness.”
Album number two was produced by ex-For Today guitarist Ryan Leitru (Sleeping Giant, Your Memorial) and Wiseman, generating the kind of expansive and expressive performances best captured by producer/engineers who are also passionate musicians. Mixing duties were handled by ex-Periphery multi-instrumentalist Adam “Nolly” Getgood (Devin Townsend, Animals As Leaders). The Way It Ends was mastered by Kris Crummett (Dance Gavin Dance, Issues).
CURRENTS take special care to ensure each release serves a purpose, with a cohesive journey from start to finish, more in line with classic metal albums than today’s mere collections of songs. The lyrics are thoughtful yet accessible, skipping easy t-shirt ready sloganeering for actual depth. Blast beats, breakdowns, and a driving onslaught of riffs are tempered by stripped back, tranquil, ambient moments. There’s post-hardcore, punk rock dissonance, and even black metal esotericism.
“A Flag to Wave” is a CURRENTS anthem, a mission statement kicking The Way It Ends off after a moody intro, cascading with devilishly dynamic riffing and intense, rapid fire rhythm. By contrast, album tracks like “Kill the Ache,” “Split” and “Origin” introduce slight electronic elements, keys and synths, that actively drive the songs forward. A significant portion of The Place I Feel Safest was about abandonment. Building to a crescendo, “Let Me Leave” serves as a narrative mirror image, from the opposite perspective, a first-person account of the one who walks away.
The raw emotion on display in CURRENTS is the key to the deep connection the band has made with its ever-widening audience. They’ve proven themselves a consistent, determined, and reliable entity that will always challenge themselves and move forward, without compromising their core.

JINJER & POD at The Van Buren
2022-12-20 19:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ, 85281, United States
A versatile, progressive groove metal unit based out of Ukraine, Jinjer have found success both in their Eastern European homeland and abroad with their punitive blend of post-hardcore and death/progressive/nu-metal. Drawing from a wide array of influences, including R&B, soul, hip-hop, and the full spectrum of heavy metal, the band formed in 2009 and features a lineup consisting of Tatiana Shmailyuk (vocals), Roman Ibramkhalilov (guitar), Eugene Abdiukhanov (bass), and Vladislav Ulasevich (drums). Jinjer issued a pair of EPs, 2009’s OIMACTTA and 2012’s Inhale, Do Not Breathe, before breaking big at home with the release of a full-length version of the latter album in 2013. The group’s sophomore long-player, 2014’s Cloud Factory, caught the attention of heavy metal institution Napalm, which signed Jinjer and released their third full-length effort, King of Everything, in 2016. The group toured heavily in support of the LP, hitting the European festival circuit and making their presence known overseas as well. In early 2019, the band returned with the Micro EP, again on Napalm. By the end of the year, its natural counterpoint, Macro, arrived. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Since 1992, P.O.D. have globally rallied audiences around a hypnotic hybrid of hard rock, hip-hop, reggae, and alternative punctuated by a message of unification and a powerful pledge to persevere. Sonny Sandoval [vocals], Marcos Curiel [guitar], Traa Daniels [bass], and Wuv Bernardo [drums]—rose up from a tough neighborhood just four exists north of the Mexican border into a three-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated multiplatinum mainstay. Moving 10 million-plus records, selling out gigs on multiple continents, logging four Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200, and collaborating with everyone from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® inductee Carlos Santana to Katy Perry, the group continue to bring people together everywhere.
After countless sweaty basement shows coast-to-coast, the grind continued on 1999’s platinum The Fundamental Elements of Southtown. It set the stage for Satellite in 2001. Not only did Satellite bow at #6 on the Billboard Top 200 and go triple-platinum, but it also yielded four signature singles “Alive,” “Youth of the Nation,” “Boom,” and “Satellite” and the band garnered three GRAMMY® nods. Three top 10 albums followed with the gold Payable on Death, Testify, and When Angels & Serpents Dance. 2012’s Murdered Love logged a Top 20 debut. After 2015’s conceptual The Awakening, Circles earmarked a new chapter in 2018. Billboard claimed, “P.O.D. takes a leap forward with ‘Circles’,” as “Listening For The Silence” and “Always Southern California” lit up DSPs.

In This Moment + NOTHING MORE + Sleep Token & Cherry Bombs at House of Blues Las Vegas
2022-10-14 17:00 - 23:30 | House of Blues Las Vegas, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, 89119, United States
Initially conceived as a metalcore counterpart to Evanescence, In This Moment moved into more melodic territory with its fantastical 2008 breakthrough album The Dream. Though capable of throat-scraping screams, vocalist Maria Brink shone brightest on mature and atmospheric material, putting In This Moment in the running as a promising goth rock band. The Los Angeles-based act also widened its exposure by touring with the like-minded Lacuna Coil as well as metal veterans Megadeth and Ozzy Osbourne.
Born of a chance meeting and the innate musical rapport established between vocalist Maria Brink and lead guitarist Chris Howorth, In This Moment quickly grew from local cult favorites performing in Los Angeles clubs to a MySpace phenomenon before landing a deal with Century Media. Along the way, the group was fleshed out by rhythm guitarist Blake Bunzel, bassist Jesse Landry, and drummer Jeff Fabb. In This Moment embarked on several U.S. tours with the likes of Diecast and 36 Crazyfists and gradually honed its melodic metalcore songwriting for their 2007 debut album, Beautiful Tragedy. The band supported it on the Hot Chicks of Metal Tour, featuring Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation, among others. The Dream arrived in 2008 and became their breakthrough as well as their first on the album charts. It was followed by the Top 40 A Star-Crossed Wasteland in 2010.
Multiple changes to the band’s original line-up took place in their earliest years, with Landry leaving the band in 2009, replaced by new bassist Kyle Konkiel. Konkiel only lasted a year before he too left the band and was replaced by Travis Johnson in 2010. One of the largest line-up shifts occurred when founding members Jeff Fabb and Blake Bunzel left in 2011. Their replacements — drummer Tom Hane and guitarist Randy Weitzel — stepped in to complete the recording of electro-charged fourth album Blood in 2012. The album was a Top 20 hit.
The group moved to a major label, Atlantic, for their fifth studio long-player, 2014’s Black Widow, and were rewarded with placement inside the Top 10. In 2016, Hane left the band and former 3 by Design drummer Kent Diimmel took over. In June 2017, the band dropped the single “Roots” in anticipation of the release of sixth full-length Ritual, which arrived in July and hit number 23 on the chart. The following year, recording for their seventh album coincided with a tour, teasing the theme of “mother” in its stage show. The band pushed their sound into heavier territory, including on the single “The In-Between” and the album Mother, which appeared in March 2020.

Employing a powerful blend of twisty progressive rock, explosive heavy metal, and soaring, radio-ready alt-rock, hard-hitting, forward-thinking San Antonio-based quartet Nothing More invokes names like System Of A Down, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Incubus, The Mars Volta, and Killswitch Engage. Formed around the talents of longtime friends Jonny Hawkins, Daniel Oliver, Mark Vollelunga, and Ben Anderson, the band spent years honing their sound and skills, and sharpening their worldview on the road, adopting a strict D.I.Y. ethic and issuing their music independently. In 2013 they inked a deal with the Eleven Seven Label Group, the home of acts like Five Finger Death Punch, Sixx:A.M.., Papa Roach, and HELLYEAH, and released their eponymous debut for the label, along with the fiery first single “This Is the Time (Ballast),” the following year. It proved to be a breakout release for the veteran band, charting well and introducing them to a much wider audience. Led by the single “Go to War,” Nothing More returned with their follow-up, The Stories We Tell Ourselves, in September 2017.

Sleep Token are a masked, anonymous collective of musicians; united by their worship of an ancient deity crudely dubbed “Sleep”, since no modern tongue can properly express its name.
This being once held great power, bestowing ancient civilizations with the gift of dreams, and the curse of nightmares.
Even today, though faded from prominence, ‘Sleep’ yet lurks in the subconscious minds of man, woman, and child alike. Fragments of beauty, horror, anguish, pain, happiness, joy, anger, disgust, and fear coalesce to create expansive, emotionally textured music that simultaneously embodies the darkest, and the brightest abstract thoughts. He has seen them. He has felt them. He is everywhere.
Sleep Token, led by the perpetually tormented Vessel, creates music that brings to the fore our most submerged thoughts and feelings, coaxing them from the desolate, terrifying caves of our subconscious mind.

Cherry Bombs bring an entire new way to experience rock and roll music – combining daredevil arts with feminine power, fearless and dynamic performances feature dance, fire, aerial, grinding, stilt walking, and so much more.

Cutting their teeth in the world of motorcycle rallies, they soon climbed the ranks of live entertainment by being the first group of its kind to bag a national tour with Buckcherry and Black Stone Cherry in 2016. Since then, Cherry Bombs have appeared in performances and tours nationally and internationally (Stone Sour/Steel Panther, Corey Taylor, KnotFest Mexico, ForceFest Mexico, KnotFest Colombia), on television (AEW), and in numerous music videos (Corey Taylor, 21 Savage, Fozzy, Moonshine Bandits).

2019 saw the premiere of the YouTube docu-series titled, “Girl Gang”, which pulled the curtain back to reveal what it takes to put on such a unique show. The series has been met with overwhelmingly positive reception for its raw storytelling and willingness of the performers to show vulnerability. Episodes focus on the inner-workings of Cherry Bombs, including the adventures, challenges, and triumphs they experience. With four seasons of “Girl Gang” out, fans anxiously await the next one with each passing year.

Like many in the industry, the pandemic of 2020 forced Cherry Bombs to cancel their tour. However, they adapted quickly, and filmed their headlining show, “Macabarét” – a story of karma wrapped in temptation, action, and danger around every corner. This “eyegasm” of a movie was streamed worldwide and met with rave reviews, cementing it to become an annual event every October.

For 2022, Cherry Bombs will be hitting the road nationally, and, for the first time- reaching their fans across the pond as they travel to select cities in the UK.

Bring Me The Horizon + Knocked Loose & grandson at Arizona Financial Theatre
2022-10-07 18:30 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, United States
BRIT and Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling quintet Bring Me The Horizon is one of the most electrifying and successful rock bands to emerge from the UK. The group released their gold-certified sixth studio album, amo, in 2019, which debuted at Number 1 in 17 markets and was named “one of the most anticipated albums of 2019” by Billboard, with NME describing it as “bold, brilliant and boundary-pushing.” amo garnered the band their second Grammy nomination for ‘Best Rock Album’ after the LP’s first single, “MANTRA,” earned them a nod for ‘Best Rock Song’ in 2018. The Sheffield 5-piece also received their first BRIT Award nomination for ‘Best Group’ this year. Bring Me The Horizon has sold over 4 million albums globally to date, played sold-out shows in over 40 countries, including two sold out nights at London’s O2 and one night at The Forum in Los Angeles, wowed a traditionally non-rock crowd at Glastonbury Festival in 2016 and 2018, and stole the show at high profile festivals across Europe all summer 2019. amo followed 2016’s critically acclaimed, Platinum-certified That’s The Spirit, which entered the UK charts and the US Billboard album chart at Number Two. They have now also amassed over 1 billion video views on YouTube. Bring Me The Horizon are vocalist Oli Sykes, guitarist Lee Malia, bassist Matt Kean, drummer Mat Nicholls, and keyboardist Jordan Fish.

For A Tear in the Fabric of Life, Knocked Loose wanted to do something different. Or they may have been forced to. With quarantine upending their extensive touring schedule — “we’ve kind of been consistently on the road since 2014,” says vocalist Bryan Garris — the group found themselves in early 2020 sequestered near Louisville, in Oldham County, Ky., where they’re from. By June, they were hunkered down in a cabin in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., focused on writing a concept album. By the end of September they had finished recording.
What they came up with is a six song-EP that expands on the narratives hinted at on A Different Shade of Blue, their 2019 full length, and grows beyond them sonically. It’s the band’s most dynamic and contained offering to date, and a balancing act: a mid-length EP with grand ambitions and scope, one full of new sonic elements and a cohesive aesthetic that hangs onto Knocked Loose’s trademark anthemic delivery.

Grandson is the pseudonym of Canadian/American alternative artist Jordan Benjamin. He takes elements of his rock and roll, hip hop and electronic music roots and combines them to tell stories of reclaiming power over one’s life, confronting social issues facing his generation, and opening up about struggles with addiction and mental health. Since releasing his Modern Tragedy EP series, grandson has toured extensively across North America, Russia, and Europe, accumulated hundreds of millions of streams online, and received co-signs from the biggest names in rock and roll and progressive politics, from Tom Morello to Bernie Sanders. Now, grandson has released his debut album, Death Of An Optimist. This body of work conflates personal anxieties with political realities. As the protagonist, grandson simultaneously explores the dark underbelly of his unrelenting optimism for change, by creating an antagonist, X. An ambitious project, grandson delivers a subtle A-side/B-side structure totaling twelve tracks, following grandson and X’s dueling world views. Through DOAO, grandson delivers an overwhelming urgency to do something, “After the hardest year of our lives, it’s time to confront the reflection staring back at you, because only in doing so can you know who you truly are,” he says. Showcasing a conflicted soul for intense scrutiny has the benefit of not dictating what is right or wrong. It just shows that we’re in this together.”

Stevie Nicks + Vanessa Carlton at Ak-Chin Pavilion
2022-10-06 20:00 - 23:30 | Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Famed for her mystical chanteuse image, singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks enjoyed phenomenal success not only as a solo artist but also as a key member of Fleetwood Mac. Possessed of a raspy croon, Nicks had a duo with Lindsey Buckingham in the early ’70s, releasing an excellent folk-pop album as Buckingham Nicks before the pair were absorbed into veteran U.K. group Fleetwood Mac. Nicks’ and Buckingham‘s talents helped steer the band to superstardom with the enormous hit albums Fleetwood Mac and Rumours. In the ’80s, Nicks ventured out on her own, scoring numerous hit singles and ultimately leaving the band. In the late ’90s, however, she reunited with her Fleetwood friends, who began performing and recording with renewed vigor.
Stephanie Lynn Nicks was born May 26, 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona; the granddaughter of a frustrated country singer, she began performing at the age of four, and occasionally sang at the tavern owned by her parents. Nicks started writing songs in her midteens, and joined her first group, the Changing Times, while attending high school in California.
During her senior year, Nicks met fellow student Lindsey Buckingham, with whom she formed the band Fritz along with friends Javier Pacheco and Calvin Roper. Between 1968 and 1971, the group became a popular attraction on the West Coast music scene, opening for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Ultimately, tensions arose over the amount of attention paid by fans to Nicks’ pouty allure, and after three years Fritz disbanded; Buckingham remained her partner, however, and they soon became a romantic couple.
After moving to Los Angeles, the duo recorded its 1973 debut LP, Buckingham Nicks. Despite a cover that featured the couple nude, the album flopped, but it caught the attention of the members of Fleetwood Mac, who invited Buckingham and Nicks to join their ranks in 1974. In quick time, the revitalized group achieved unparalleled success: after the LP Fleetwood Mac topped the charts in 1975, the band recorded 1977’s Rumours, which sold over 17 million copies and stood for several years as the best-selling album of all time.
Major hit singles like “Dreams” and “Rhiannon” made Nicks a focal point of Fleetwood Mac, and in 1981 she took time off from the group to record her solo debut, Bella Donna, which hit number one on the strength of the Top 20 hits “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (a duet with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), “Leather and Lace” (a duet with Don Henley), and “Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove).” After a return to Fleetwood Mac for the 1982 album Mirage (which featured her hit “Gypsy”), Nicks released her second solo effort, The Wild Heart, highlighted by the Top Five smash “Stand Back.” Rock a Little, which featured the single “Talk to Me,” followed in 1985.
After a long hiatus (during which time Nicks was treated for a chemical dependency problem), Fleetwood Mac reunited for the album Tango in the Night; The Other Side of the Mirror, Nicks’ first solo record in four years, followed in 1989. After a series of lineup changes and dropping sales figures, she left Fleetwood Mac in 1993 and issued Street Angel a year later. In 1997, she rejoined the reunited Fleetwood Mac on tour and on the album The Dance. In 1998 Nicks, along with her Fleetwood Mac bandmates, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the same year that her three-disc Enchanted box set landed in stores.
Nicks returned to the studio in 2001 with friends Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines for the solo album Trouble in Shangri-La, and again in 2003 for the Fleetwood Mac reunion album Say You Will. Reprise released the CD/DVD Crystal Visions: The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2011 — almost a decade to the day after Trouble in Shangri-La’s release — that Nicks returned with a new solo album. Produced by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, In Your Dreams found her singing a mix of Bob Dylan-inspired folk songs, Italian love ballads, and rock anthems. In Your Dreams debuted at six on Billboard’s Top 200 and generated an adult contemporary hit in “Secret Love.” Nicks rejoined Fleetwood Mac in 2013 for the Extended Play release and a reunion tour that eventually blossomed into a full reunion with Christine McVie. In 2014, Nicks released 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, a collection of newly recorded versions of old songs; it debuted at seven on the Billboard charts. In 2015, she continued to tour with the reunited Fleetwood Mac and the following year her first two albums, Bella Donna and The Wild Heart, were given deluxe reissues.
In 2016 and 2017, Nicks toured with the Pretenders. As Fleetwood Mac was gearing up for a 50th Anniversary tour in 2018, the group parted ways with Lindsey Buckingham, replacing him with Neil Finn and Mike Campbell. Nicks was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act in 2019, making her the first woman to be inducted twice. To accompany her induction, Rhino/WMG released the anthology Stand Back: 1981-2017. In October 2020, she released the song “Show Them the Way,” which featured contributions from Dave Grohl and Dave Stewart. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

“Always building up, falling apart. Love is an art,” sings Vanessa Carlton on the title track of her sixth album, Love Is An Art. Like the record itself, the song is a meditation on the eternal seesaw that is human connection: the push, the pull, the balance, the bottoming out. It’s that constantly evolving nature of love, expectations and compassion that Carlton analyzes from all angles on Love Is An Art, from romantic, to parental, to the friends that hold us up and the leaders that repeatedly let us down. And on tracks like the album’s opener, “I Can’t Stay the Same,” that also includes the relationship with the person staring back at us in the mirror, each and every morning.
Produced by Dave Fridmann (MGMT, Flaming Lips), Love Is An Art finds Carlton reckoning with toxic relationships (the confessional “Miner’s Canary”), eternal partnership (“Companion Star”) and the children who fill the world with love and grace while politicians fill their pockets (the passionate “Die, Dinosaur,” written after the shootings in Parkland, Florida). And true to Carlton’s skill as both a lyricist and an instrumentalist, the arrangements on Love Is An Art tell these tales as vibrantly as the words themselves: piano parts that speak of rage and tenderness, synths that burst and glow like dawn.

Knotfest Roadshow at Ak-Chin Pavilion
2022-10-02 18:30 - 23:30 | Ak-Chin Pavilion, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
There was never a band like SLIPKNOT, and there will never be another. Like a spore out of the Midwest, they’ve quietly bloomed into the most uncompromising, undeniable, and unique presence on the planet whose influence transcends genres and generations. Since sowing the seeds for revolution in Iowa during 1999, these musical outliers have captured a GRAMMY Award alongside 10 nominations, scored 12 Platinum / 41 Gold album certifications around the world, and logged over 8.5 billion global streams and 3.5 billion video views to date – unprecedented for a rock act in this generation or any other. Rolling Stone cited the seminal platinum-selling 2001 album Iowa among “The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time,” while The Ringer attested, “They’re the most important heavy band of their era.” In addition to marking the group’s third consecutive #1 debut on the Billboard Top 200, their sixth full-length album, WE ARE NOT YOUR KIND, bowed at #1 in twelve countries worldwide in 2019. Selling out shows on multiple continents, they deliver an irreplicable multi-sensory experience on tour and through their own festival KNOTFEST. With their seventh album THE END, SO FAR, SLIPKNOT are back, and nothing will be the same again.

Like the undead slashers celebrated in their songs, Ice Nine Kills return with The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood, a sequel of gruesome movie-sized proportion to The Silver Scream. The new album carves out a fresh, bloody homage to the VHS celluloid classics that possessed singer Spencer Charnas at an early age, with a devilish new twist.
Ice Nine Kills make music both timeless and timely, mixing metal, hardcore, and punk, with accessible power. New anthems like “Rainy Day” and “Hip To Be Scared” demonstrate Spencer’s fascination with fright, pop culture obsession, and his expertise with inescapably wicked melodic hooks and clever twists of phrase. Producer Drew Fulk returned for Welcome To Horrorwood which includes cameos from members of Papa Roach, Cannibal Corpse, Atreyu, Fit For A King, and Senses Fail.
Decadent, devious, and fiercely insane, Ice Nine Kills celebrate pop culture’s darkest edges, mining a cinephile library’s worth of iconic horror on The Silver Scream and its sequel. The creative marriage made in hell of music and fiction began in earnest with the Every Trick In The Book, which brought the previous three records’ themes to new levels.
The band’s synergy of music and lifestyle draws favorable comparisons to Slipknot and Rob Zombie. Visionary trailblazers and multimedia raconteurs, INK built a thrilling world for a growing legion of devoted true believers, with theatrical shows, high-concept videos, and inventive band-to-fan communion.

A sweeping self-awareness and expansive creativity are at the heart of CROWN THE EMPIRE, the modern post-metalcore anthem makers who embrace their dirty rock roots and stadium-ready melodies with bold courage.   What began as high-school pals posting clips on YouTube has grown to over 60 million views on the platform alone; endless streams of songs like “Machines,” “Hologram,” and “Voices”; and several Billboard 200 accomplishments, including a Number 1 debut on the Top Rock Charts. Alternative Press anointed them as Best Breakthrough Band and with good reason. Praised enthusiastically as “thrilling,” “progressive,” and “dynamic,” by tastemaker genre publications like Rock Sound, Kerrang! and Outburn (who, like AltPress, put the band on their cover), Crown The Empire climbed to the top of an emergent style by jettisoning the scene’s most formulaic traits.   A cinematic sensibility permeates each chapter in the band’s story, from the epic thematic darkness of their earlier work to the sci-fi dystopian ambience of new songs like “20/20.” Super-intense and high-energy songs will always remain a part of the Crown The Empire mission statement. It’s a journey that’s been marked by growth at every turn, coalescing into the modern incarnation of Crown The Empire, a band that’s built to last.
