After hearing horror stories about the queues I was pleasantly surprised to arrive at the hollow turn of Donington for Download Festival 2023, and was parked up within 10 minutes. Not to dismiss the stories is it close the rather excellent download festival app a tool which I would find invaluable during my visit constantly advising incoming travellers of reach to avoid owing to congestion.Continue reading
Download Festival 2023 has broken their own record this summer with weekend, day and camping tickets now completely sold out. Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon and Slipknot headline a remarkable year for the UK’s biggest rock festival. Download Festival’s 20th anniversary has become a double celebration, as today the festival sells out, marking 2023 as the fastest-selling year of all time. Day, weekend and camping tickets have been snapped up by fans eager to celebrate an incredible 20 years for the legendary festival. The special anniversary edition, taking place for the first time over four days on 8-11 June 2023 at Donington Park, will feature headliners Bring Me The Horizon, Slipknot and Metallica, who will perform two headline sets with no repeat songs.
Mammoth WVH, led by Hard Rock royalty Wolf Van Halen, is back with its second album Mammoth II. The 10-track record will be available worldwide on August 4th via the band’s new label, BMG. Recorded at the legendary 5150 studio, the album was produced by friend and collaborator Michael “Elvis” Baskette. Mammoth II is available for pre-order in multiple configurations at the link below. Check out the first single and video for “Another Celebration At The End Of The World!”
Rocklahoma welcomes Godsmack, Pantera, Rob Zombie, Limp Bizkit, Bush, Chevelle, Corey Taylor, and many more top rock acts to America’s Biggest Labor Day Weekend Party, Friday, September 1 – Sunday, September 3 at Pryor Creek Music Festival Grounds in Pryor, Oklahoma, just outside Tulsa. The festivities kick off with the Rocklahoma campgrounds opening on Sunday, August 27 and music performances get underway at the official Rocklahoma pre-party on Thursday, August 31. Full weekend passes are on sale now, with single-day tickets available this spring.
Boston Massachusetts was invaded by Alter Bridge and tour mates Mammoth WVH and RED for the Kings and Pawns Tour. Alter Bridge is out supporting the band’s latest effort which is a fantastic record. As I walked up to the venue a long line of music fans were eager to get into the building to get the night started. After a short wait as the nearly sold-out crowd filtered into Roadrunner one of Boston’s new venues.
Download Festival 2023, celebrating 20 years as a festival has added 40 new bands to the lineup and announced its day-splits for the weekend! Newly added to the festival are Halestorm, Neck Deep, Hot Milk, Alter Bridge, Bob Vylan, Electric Callboy, Carcass, Five Finger Death Punch, Palaye Royale, Jinjer, and many more. The full list can be viewed below. Already the fastest-selling event in its 20-year history. Day tickets are on sale now! The four-day festival (first time ever) is headlined by Metallica, who are performing two unique headline sets over the weekend with no songs repeated, and will be joined by fellow headliners Slipknot, and Bring Me The Horizon. Over 60 bands announced including Evanescence, Parkway Drive, Disturbed, Pendulum, Architects, Ghost, The Distillers, Placebo, Alexisonfire, Asking Alexandria, Motionless In White, I Prevail, The Blackout (reunion), Fever 333, Stray From The Path, Lorna Shore, Nova Twins, Within Temptation, many and more.
Having a father famous in the same field as you must be a blessing and a curse – being the son of Diego Maradonna, Michael Schumacher, Paul McCartney or Bob Dylan helps get your foot in the door but are hard acts to follow. Eddie Van Halen was the best of the best and after his untimely passing in 2020, his son Wolfgang focused his energies on his solo project Mammoth WVH. His self-titled debut came out a year later, with Wolfgang playing all the instruments himself.
This deluxe edition comes with three extra tracks, the best of which is ‘Talk and Walk’ – a stomping rocker with a smooth, AOR chorus. As for the album, as a whole, it is a decent offering of arena-friendly hard rock, with alternative, Foo Fighters, and Alter Bridge influences. It starts off with ‘Mr. Ed’, a glossy alt-rock bruiser with a sweet chorus and a 4/4 rhythm, a fiery tip of the hat to his dad.
With its seventy-minute runtime you certainly get your money’s worth, from the punchy swagger of ‘Horribly Right’ to the crunchy guitars, short and sweet solo, and thunderous drums of ‘You’ll Be The One’ there is plenty here to like. The best ones are ‘The Big Picture ‘ and ‘You’re To Blame’ – the former is a hefty slab of metal with a pounding riff and a consummately crafted chorus, the latter a sharp alt rocker made for radio with a fiery solo. Not far behind is ‘Feel’ – a lively, Foo Fighters-like track powered with a sprightly drum beat and a restless rhythm.
It is not all thrashing guitars and distortion, he lets his softer and poppier side out occasionally – the lush guitars and the soaring vocal harmonies of ballad ‘Resolve’ offers a sweetly struck bit of variety. Alas the other moments do not quite reach these heights, with ‘Circles’ sounding like a humdrum version of ‘How Soon is Now’ by The Smiths and the polished pop punk of ‘Think It Over” belongs on the soundtrack to some nameless mid ‘00s teen movie.
A mid-’00surs aside, Mammoth WVH (EX1) is a relentless album full of loving made, hard and heavy rockers with a commercial sheen. It is full of attitude and energy, and a big chorus or two, but its length and well-worn stylings means it gets a bit generic at times.
Buy the album here:
https://found.ee/MammothWVHDeluxe
7 / 10
THOMAS THROWER
Welcome To Rockville – America’s Largest Rock Festival–will kick off the Danny Wimmer Presents festival season in Daytona Beach, Florida Today! The top-notch talent includes headliners KISS, KORN, Guns N’ Roses, and Nine Inch Nails, plus appearances by 80+ additional bands including Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, The Smashing Pumpkins, Breaking Benjamin, Megadeth, Porno For Pyros (in place of Jane’s Addiction,) Papa Roach, Rise Against, Halestorm, In This Moment, Seether, Bush, and many more.
Alter Bridge has booked a headline tour of Europe for late 2022. The “Pawns & Kings” tour will hit 25 cities over 18 countries, kicking off on November 1st in Hamburg, Germany, and wrapping up on December 12th in London, England. Direct support on the tour will come from Halestorm and Mammoth WVH. Alter Bridge will soon announce their new album, due for release later in the year. Pre-sale and general on sale details are available below.
The Young Guns Tour made a much-anticipated stop at Big Night Live in Boston Massachusetts featuring Mammoth WVH and Dirty Honey. The two up-and-coming rock bands treated the crowd to blistering sets of no-nonsense rock ‘n’ roll. Each band is out on the road supporting their debut albums that were released in 2021.