After their biggest year ever this year, Hellfest 2023 has booked headliners Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Iron Maiden, and Slipknot! Set to take place June 15-18, 2023 In Clisson, France, the bill also includes Def Leppard, Pantera, Porcupine Tree, Amon Amarth, Alter Bridge And Within Temptation, and more! Headliners for the 2022 edition of Hellfest included Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Judas Priest, Deftones, Ghost, Scorpions, and Korn over two long weekends to make up for the missed pandemic year of 2020.
Canadian quartet Monster Truck have returned with new album Warriors (BMG). This is their fourth record and the title track kicks things off in fine fashion – it is a bouncy number with retro, eighties-era Iron Maiden guitar harmonies provided by guest axeman Dave Baksh of Sum 41 fame. This track sticks to Truckers tried and tested formula, fuzz drenched southern rock with chunky riffs, catchy choruses and chant along backing vocals that do not outstay their welcome.
This recipe served them well on 2018 predecessor True Rocker and the same is true here, as the propulsive, no nonsense boogie of ‘Golden Women’ shows. Perhaps the best taster of this is ‘Fuzz Mountain’, a Black Sabbath inspired chugger which is helped along by the insistent background hum of keys.
We chatted with Punk Rock legend Chuck Comeau of Simple Plan – all about their recent album “Harder Than It Looks!” We chatted about the “Blame Canada” tour with Sum 41, going DIY by self-producing and releasing their own records, their history of collabs, making more mature records, major anniversaries, and much more!
The very nature of Simple Plan’s hotly anticipated sixth record, Harder Than It Looks (Self-Released) is actually doubly prophetic. The French-Canadian fourpiece have kept it rather simple indeed since they hit it big with ‘I’d Do Anything’ way back in 2002. Not known as a hugely poetic or introspective lyrical band, the pop punkers instead let the music do the talking in all its springy, bobby greatness. That’s not to say the means by which to achieve this is easy, hence the album title.Continue reading
Less than one minute into the opening track ‘S.L.U.M.P.’, we are cast back to the heady days of the late nineties. Brit Rock is still around, though making way to a new breed of cats as the melodic punk of the US is becoming a strong bed-fellow with the slightly quirkier variant from the other side of the Atlantic, and bands like Ash, the multiple off-shoots from The Wildhearts, and more are spawning and bursting out and creating a scene. It was a fertile time of fun and creativity as the last vestiges of cardigans and sixth-form grunge cottoned onto the fun and febrile feel of a Cool Britannia.
Slam Dunk Festival 2022 approaches at less than two months away, taking place over June Bank Holiday Weekend, Slam Dunk Festival has revealed stage splits for its tremendous lineup. Headliners Neck Deep, Alexisonfire, Sum 41 and Dropkick Murphys and countless more bands. See the splits below.
While it may be OK to not be OK, as the main refrain of the thumping anthemic opener ‘Enlightenment?’ insists (and while it absolutely is, we still have much work to do as a collective mass to support each other), Sleeps Society (Sleeps Brothers, in assoc. with Search & Destroy, Spinefarm, UNFD, Universal) takes a step and seeks to provide a place, a community packed with a kinship of like-minded souls who will be there with and for each other. It would be easy for the Sleeps Society (a Patreon-based family) to be empty words and hollow platitudes, but there is integrity to the missives that are as important to the overall point of While She Sleeps in 2021 as the songs. Continue reading
While She Sleeps has shared a new single from their upcoming new album, Sleeps Society due out on April 16th via Spinefarm Records. Pre-orders are live at the link below. The band recently launched a new fan-oriented platform Sleeps Society and the band is just getting warmed up for what is shaping up to be a huge year. Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro on “Nervous” and Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 on “No Defeat For The Brave.” Featured on the track “Call Of The Void” are members of The Sleeps Society, showing this community will be a collaborative force in the future of the band!
Slam Dunk Festival North and South, taking over Leeds and Hatfield in late May have added a slew of new bands to the bill! Mainstage headliner While She Sleeps, with Code Orange, This Wild Life, Doll Skin, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, Spunge, A, Popes Of Chillitown, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, The Suicide Machines have joined the sick lineup that already includes headliners like Sum 41, Don Broco, NOFX, Billy Talent, The Used, Pennywise and many more! VIP tickets are all sold out but general passes are on sale at the link below. Slam Dunk Festival North takes place Saturday 23rd May at Leeds, Temple Newsam and Slam Dunk Festival South takes place Sunday 24th May at Hatfield, Hatfield Park.Continue reading
SUM 41 was forced to cancel its concert in Paris tonight (January 18th) , France after an explosive device was detonated near the venue. The Canadian rockers were scheduled to play an intimate “No Personal Space” show tonight at Les Etoiles, Paris as part of the European leg of their “Order In Decline” world tour, which kicked off on January 14 in Antwerp, Belgium. Band, crew, the fans in line are all safe, and there were no injuries. Due to the intimate nature of our ‘Personal Space’ performances, we are unable to guarantee the safety of the fans in attendance. We are deeply saddened to announce that tonight’s show has been canceled. More information to follow.” Refunds are available by at the point of purchase.Continue reading