Rockharz Festival 25 Is Totally Sold Out!


This year’s Rockharz Open Air is sold-out, faster than ever before. As preparations begin to host the 25th edition of the festival, it will take place from July 4th to July 7th, 2018 in Ballenstedt. The fest is headlined by In Flames, Powerwolf, Kreator, Hammerfall, Eisbrecher, Paradise Lost, Amorphis, Knorkator, Schandmaul, Cannibal Corpse, Alestorm, Ensiferum, Exodus, Sodom, Equilibrium, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Finntroll, Battle Beast, Amaranthe, Bannkreis, Gloryhammer and many more. You can see the final poster below. Continue reading


Rockharz Open Air Adds Six More Bands, Tickets On Sale Now


Rockharz Open Air is celebrating 25 years as a festival in 2018. This year’s fest is already loaded with talent and grows all the time, now with six new bands. Joining the lineup headlined by In Flames, Powerwolf, Kreator, and Hammerfall are Bannkreis, Versengold, Winterstorm, Oni, Blind Channel, Manntra with special guest, Michael Rhein (In Extremo). The fest takes place from July 4th to July 7th 2018 in Ballenstedt, Germany. Tickets are on sale now and a sellout is expected. Continue reading


Rockharz Festival Adds Powerwolf, Cannibal Corpse And Sodom To Complete 2018 Line-Up


Rockharz Festival, celebrating 25 years in 2018, has completed their incredible line-up with the addition of Powerwolf, Cannibal Corpse, and Sodom. Tickets are on sale now and Ghost Cult has the full details. Continue reading


Alestorm, Primal Fear, Ahab And More Added to Rockharz Festival


The 25th Anniversary edition of the Rockharz Festival has added Alestorm, Primal Fear, Ahab, Erdling, Letzte Instanz and Nothgard to the 2018 event. Rockharz takes place next July 4th to July 7th 2018 In Ballenstedt, Germany.

The full lineup for Rockharz 2018 so far includes:Continue reading


Diablo Blvd – Follow the Deadlights


diablo-blvd

 

For the last 10 years, Antwerp’s hardest working and hardest rocking band Diablo Blvd have been plying their rock n roll trade to a steadily increasing level of acclaim and popularity. 2015 should see their stock rise even further, with the support slot on the forthcoming Epica European tour being confirmed. It’s no great surprise then to see this timely (if fairly rapid) reissue of their third album, Follow the Deadlights, from their new worldwide distribution partner, Nuclear Blast.

Follow The Deadlights is a solid, muscular hard rock album with echoes of Black Label Society, Corrosion of Conformity (the more eagle-eyed among you will have already spotted where they got their moniker), The Cult and the occasional flourish of mid period Danzig which, I’m sure you will concur, is a fairly decent set of influences.

Opening track ‘Beyond the Veil’ comes rumbling in, drums aplenty, akin to what might happen if BLS met Alter Bridge on a dark night of the musical soul. ‘Rise Like Lions’ has pretty much the same opening drum led flourish but this time with a bigger riffs and greater level of ambition; ‘Get Up 9’ ups the tempo somewhat, a driving and burly number with a healthy dynamic. The title track, following the well-thumbed rule book of hard rock and heavy metal, has a massive chorus and set of guitar solos and ‘Son of Cain’ ticks every single one of the melodic hard rock boxes and a few more that you didn’t think needed ticking. In a good way, though. ‘We are Legion’ is as preposterous as it is infectious, leaving no cliché unturned but you can’t help but be carried along with the band’s enthusiasm and earnestness. Who cares that you’ve heard this stuff a thousand times before?

It would be really easy to be cynical about records like Follow the Deadlights. Yes, I’ve heard it all before and yes, the structure of the record is as predictable as fireworks on Bonfire Night and yes, sometimes you can see the joins but at the same time, you can see how these guys have earned their slots with Epica and, late last year, Machine Head. Follow the Deadlights sounds highly accomplished and there has, self-evidently been a sizeable effort in bringing together the band’s influences, creative juice and energy into the ten songs on offer here. Follow the Deadlights is probably not going to set the world on fire but as an exercise in modern hard rock and heavy metal, it does a solid job.

7.0/10

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MAT DAVIES