Psycho Las Vegas: Part 1 – Various Venues, Las Vegas, NV


 

psycho-las-vegas

 

Part 1

For the second year in a row, the US stakes their claim to holding a fest the equivalent of a Desertfest or Roadburn level of excellence in the form of Psycho Las Vegas. Last years’ inaugural Psycho California was a hit by all accounts, and therefore not a surprise that Vegas was the locale of choice for round two. Definitely the town is a bigger draw for the bands themselves and some party minded fans, although a few days is really all your should ever spend there at once.

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Ozzfest Meets Knotfest To Feature Black Sabbath, Slipknot, Disturbed, Slayer


ozzfest knotfest 2016 ghostcultmag

Two of the biggest heavy music brands in history have joined together as Ozzfest has returned and will team up with Slipknot’s Knotfest as a conjoined two-day festival. Ozzfest Meets Knotfest will take place Saturday, September 24 (Ozzfest) and Sunday, September 25 (Knotfest) at San Manuel Amphitheater and Festival Grounds in San Bernardino, California.Long-rumoured to be making a comeback, Ozzfest is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Knotfest which debuted in 2012 and has spawned other versions in Japan and Mexico. Tickets for the Live Nation produced fest with a multi-stage, two-day weekend camping event with more than 40 acts — go on sale Friday, May 20 at 10:00 a.m. (PST) at Ozzfest.com and Knotfest.com.

At a press conference earlier today the event was announced, followed by a performance by Zakk Wylde’s Zakk Sabbath. Present were Ozzfest founder Ozzy Osbourne and Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and M. Shawn Crahan. The event began with a movie screening, followed by a question-and-answer session with artists.

Ozzy commented on the event:

“We are here to create havoc and history. Let the madness begin…”

Slipknot, by Evil Robb Photography

Slipknot, by Evil Robb Photography

Slipknot’s Corey Taylor added:

“This could be the one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. Starting out as an Ozzfest band, coming into our own with Knotfest and now combining forces to make a little metal history…it was meant to be and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Shawn Crahan also commented:


“Playing with BLACK SABBATH is always an honor. Merging both festivals will be a legendary experience that will be life-changing for all fans. We are excited to bring all the families together again.”


Cory Brennan, President, 5B Artist Management also added his thoughts:


“The impact of Ozzfest on heavy music and on Slipknot, cannot be underestimated.For 20 years, Ozzfest has given fans their first glimpse at bands like Slipknot, Disturbed and countless others, but also bringing new fans and bands together every year. Ozzfest inspired Slipknot to continue this vital tradition with Knotfest, and it’s an honor to celebrate our genre alongside them in 2016.”

The Ozzfest Meets Knotfest 2016 Lineup Is As Follows, with a “Lemmy” stage included on both days for Lemmy Kilmister Of Motörhead, who passed away this past December 28th.

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Opeth, by Echoes In The Well Photography


Ozzfest Lineup – Saturday, September 24

Main Stage

Black Sabbath
Disturbed
Megadeth
Opeth
Black Label Society
Rival Sons


Lemmy Stage

Children Of Bodom
Hatebreed
Devildriver
Goatwhore
Huntress
Dead Cross

Nuclear Blast Stage

Municipal Waste
Kataklysm
Nails
The Shrine
Still Rebel

Knotfest Lineup – Sunday, September 25

Scott Ian of Anthrax, shot by Echoes In The Well

Anthrax, shot by Echoes In The Well


Main Stage

Slipknot
Slayer
Amon Amarth
Anthrax
Trivium

 

Lemmy Stage:

Sabaton
Suicide Silence
Overkill
Emmure
Butcher Babies
Man With A Mission

Overkill

Overkill, by Hillarie Jason


Nuclear Blast Stage

Whitechapel
Combichrist
Death Angel
Sim
Oni


Ozzfest Meets Knotfest Online

Ozzfest online

Ozzfest on Facebook

Ozzfest on Twitter

Ozzfest on Instagram

 

Knotfest online

Knotfest on Facebook

Knotfest on Twitter

Knotfest on Instagram


The Shrine – Rare Breed


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From their promo pics, you’d think California trio The Shrine play a fairly straight take on stoner rock; there’s denim, there’s facial hair, and their new album has song titles like ‘Acid Drop’ and ‘Space Steppin’. But don’t be fooled, these guys are punks in disguise.

Produced by Dave Jerden (Alice In Chains, Jane’s Addiction), Rare Breed is the band’s third album and first on Century Media and is 40 minutes of punk-fuelled rock and roll, shout-along lyrics and plenty of solos, all played with bags of energy, and there’s nothing too strenuous or thought provoking.

Lead single ‘Death To Invaders’ is a simple fist pumper, ‘Acid Drop’ combines a bit of Red Fang and shouty Oi! Punk while ‘Savage Skull and Nomads’ is a full on punk assault. On occasion – such as the groovy title track, the solo-filled ‘The Vulture’ or instrumental ‘Pull the Triggr’ – the punk takes a backseat and the stoner elements are allowed to air and provide a bit of variety.

There’s plenty of unexpected moments too; ‘Dusted an Busted’ starts as a plodding ballad-lite singalong before breaking out in a classic NWOBHM solo fest for a fiery finish, while the psychedelic jamming of seven minute closer ‘Space Steppin’ sounds like an almost entirely different band, but is still good fun.

The Shrine know how to combine punk rawkishness with proper rock and roll sensibilities. Rare Breed is good fun and sounds like it was written specifically for a classic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtrack. Hard to fault, but if punk or skater rock isn’t your thing, you might find the occasional breakouts into more experiment territory too infrequent to really enjoy.

6.0/10

DAN SWINHOE

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Video: The Shrine – Coming Down Quick


The Shrine band photo 2015

California desert rockers The Shrine have released a new video from their forthcoming album, Rare Breed (Century Media) due out in January. You can watch the video for ‘Coming Down Quick’ at this link or below:

Rare Breed was produced by Dave Jerden (Alice in Chains, Jane’s Addiction, Social Distorsion, The Offspring etc.) and releases on January 15th in the US, but out now in the rest of the world. Pre-orders for physical copies are available now in an array of packages , including limited edition test pressing vinyl (with individual artwork), a coffin-style skate deck, and even an American GI style hand-painted Rare Breed war helmet.

The day of release in Los Angeles, the band will host “The Rare Breed Experience,”. This will be a special record release party and a “flashback trip to another dimension”. RSVP to the event on Facebook here:

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Rare Breed track listing:

1. Coming Down Quick

2. Death To Invaders

3. Rare Breed

4. Acid Drop

5. What’s Let For Me

6. Savage Skulls & Nomads

7. The Vulture

8. Never More Than Now

9. Pull The Trigger

10. Dusted & Busted

11. Space Stepping

*Never More Than Now feat. Keith Morris

*Symptom of The Universe

*Bonus tracks on North American digipak release only

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Corrosion of Conformity, More Bands Added to Motörboat cruise


 

Motorhead motorboat

The Deliverance-era lineup of Corrosion of Conformity, along with The Shrine, Others and three more bands have been added to Motörhead‘s Motörboat cruise taking place next fall. COC confirmed in a Facebook post that Pepper Keenan, who played his first shows in nine years with COC this spring in the UK, will be part of the lineup that plays the cruise.

COC Post about Motorboat

 

Let’s get it going on Motörhead’s MotörBoat

Posted by Corrosion Of Conformity on Thursday, June 4, 2015

 

The Motörboat cruise will set sail from the port of Miami, FL on September 28th, with stops in Nassau and the the Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. The cruise ends on October 2nd.

 

New additions to the line-up:

Corrosion Of Conformity
The Shrine
Others
No Words
Budderside
Sonia Harley
The Dead Deads

Comedians Brian Posehn and Big Jay Oakerson are also now on the bill.

Already confirmed bands include:

Slayer
Motörhead
Anthrax
Suicidal Tendencies
Hatebreed
Exodus
Crobot
Phil Cambell’s All Starr Band
Motor Sister
Kyng
Fireball Ministry
Huntress

Also announced, Slayer will play on September 28th during the ‘blood moon’ lunar eclipse.


The Shrine Announce Upcoming West Coast Worship Tour


The Shrine (L to R: Courtland Murphy (bass), Jeff Murray (drums) and Josh Landau (guitar / vocals)

The Shrine
(L to R: Courtland Murphy (bass), Jeff Murray (drums) and Josh Landau (guitar / vocals)

California “Destroyers of Rock N Roll” The Shrine have announced their forthcoming spring North American tour, with dates posted below.

Mar 16: Beerland – Austin, TX (SXSW – 6PM as part of “Heavy Metal Cage Match” w/ American Sharks, Eagle Claw, Elder, etc.)
Mar 18: Spiderhouse Ballroom – Austin, TX (SXSW – 9PM)
Mar 20: The North Door – Austin, TX (SXSW -w/ Kadavar, Ruby the Hatchet, Elder, Castle, etc.)
Mar 21: Gypsy Lounge – Austin, TX (SXSW – 2PM as part of Thrasher + Converse “Death Match” w/ OM, Goatsnake, The Skull, etc.)
Mar 21: The Lost Well – Austin, TX (SXSW – 11PM as part of “Heavy Metal Parking Lot 2” w/ The Skull, Weedeater, Ruby The Hatchet, etc.)

the shrine dirty fences west coast tour 2015

West Coast “Worship Tour”
* All dates also include Dirty Fences

Apr 02: The Casbah – San Diego, CA (w/ Loom)
Apr 03: The Paper Agency – Los Angeles, CA
Apr 04: Thee Parkside – San Francisco, CA (w/ Banquet)
Apr 05: Analog Cafe – Portland, OR
Apr 06: Capitol Theater Backstage – Olympia, WA (w/ Mos Generator)
Apr 07: SBC – Vancouver, BC (w/ Black Wizard)
Apr 08: One Six Boardshop – Victoria, BC (w/ Black Wizard)
Apr 09: Barboza – Seattle, WA
Apr 10: Dante’s – Portland, OR (w/ JOY)
Apr 11: Eli’s Mile High Club – Oakland, CA
Apr 12: Velvet Jones – Santa Barbara, CA (w/ Blasting Concept)

The Shrine on Tumblr


The Skull To Perform At South By Southwest


the skull pic

The Skull, featuring former Trouble vocalist Eric Wagner and bassist Ron Holzner, guitarists Lothar Keller and Matt Goldsborough (ex-Pentagram), and new drummer Sean Saley, will be taking part of the 2015 SXSW Music Festival, set for March 17-22, 2015 in Austin, TX. They will supporting Those Which Are Asleep, which can be streamed here.

the skull tour 2015

THE SKULL tour dates:

Mar 17: The Demo – St. Louis, MO
Mar 18: Downtown Lounge – Tulsa, OK
Mar 19: The Rail – Fort Worth, TX
Mar 20: Dirty Dog – Austin, TX (SXSW w/ Weedeater)
Mar 21: The Lost Well – Austin, TX (SXSW “Heavy Metal Parking Lot II w/ King Parrot, FOGG + more)
Mar 21: Gypsy Lounge – Austin, TX (SXSW Thrasher “Death Match” w/ OM, Goatsnake, The Shrine + more)
Mar 22: The Music Room – Oklahoma City, OK
Mar 23: Riot Room – Kansas City, MO
Apr 17: Rickshaw Theater – Vancouver, BC (As part of Nothing is Heavy Fest (w/ Sacrifice and Ancients)
Jun 26: Cafe 611 – Frederick, MD (As part of Maryland Doom Fest (w/ Spirit Caravan, Apostle of Solitude)

THE SKULL on Facebook:


The Shrine Streaming “Waiting For The War” and “Rare Breed”


the shrine pic

The Shrine is streaming their rendition of French rockers Unit’s “Waiting For The War” here, as well as “Rare Breed” here, which is out now via Tankcrimes.

Meticulously melding the hooks and decadence of ’70s rock and glam with the fuck-all vivacity and rebelliousness of ’80s hardcore and skate punk, the self-dubbed “destroyers of rock ‘n’ roll,” worship at the altar of MC5, The Stooges, Black Flag and Annihilation Time without ever replicating them. Waiting For The War serves as the follow-up to the THE SHRINE’s critically fawned-upon Tee Pee Records-released Bless Off full-length, which earned a spot on Spin Magazine’s Top 50 Releases of 2014 list, likening the band to “Black Flag circa between Damaged and My War if they loved life more than they hated it and liked Thin Lizzy/early Van Halen/old Aerosmith/pre-Nazi Ted Nugent as much as they did Sabbath,” furthering that, “this band’s stop-and-start lurching feels too hamburger-fed and healthy to be hardcore, with one of the most proficiently engine-room-like rhythm sections in recent rock memory, and gratifyingly little if any slow-for-slow’s-sake ‘sludge’ dry-rot or fast-for-fast’s-sake ‘mosh’ malarkey.”

The Shrine on Facebook
Tankcrimes on Facebook


The Shrine Streaming “Waiting For The War”


<the shrine

Venice Beach skate punks The Shrine are releasing their Waiting For The War 12” maxi single on December 9, 2014 via Tankcrimes. Listen to the song of the same name here.

Waiting For The War 12″ Maxi Single Track Listing:
1. Waiting For The War
2. Rare Breed
3. Waiting For The War (Instrumental)

The Shrine are playing these following dates:

THE SHRINE Live:
Nov 22: Speedfest – Eindhoven, NL (w/ Midnight, Turbonegro, Napalm Death, Kadavar)
Nov 23: Astra Kulturhaus – Berlin, DE(w/ Kadava)

The Shrine Official Site
The Shrine on Facebook
Tankcrimes Official Site
Tankcrimes on Facebook


Beards, Beers, and Life: Lord Dying


RedfangEuro2014-420px

 

We ventured to Eindhoven in the Netherlands for the European tour of Red Fang, The Shrine and Lord Dying. After the pretty awesome show Lord Dying gave at the Effenaar, I had the chance to have a little chat with these guys. As soon as I stepped into the backstage room the air was filled with scent of male deodorant, beer, and a little whiff of sweat. Some bandmembers were roaming around the hallway. I walked into the dressing room of Lord Dying, Erik Olson, Don Capuano, Rob Shaffer, and Chris Evans were chilling out after their show, and I had one of the most warm welcomes ever. I got a beer pushed into my hands and from there is where we started to chat a little.

 

Welcome to the warm middle-south of the Netherlands. How do you like the Netherlands so far and did you guys had the chance to check out the environment?

Well yeah, we have a bunch of dates in Holland still coming and Roadburn in on the list. We didn’t really have the time to check things out outside of the venue. But during Roadburn we do have some time to check out the town, we believe we have 2 or 3 days in between shows.

One simple question, I’ve see you have been in Belgium a few days back, do you like Dutch or Belgium beers more?

Uhh, we actually drink this (holds up a can of Jupiler)

 

Yep, that definitely is Belgian beer, let me write that down. Talking about Roadburn, on their site they called you guys “Cavemen Metal”. What do you guys think about that name?

 

Haha, yeah that is an awesome name, yeah we totally are cavemen with beards.

So is it because of the beards?

It is pretty much all about the beards indeed.

 

 

lord dying

 

 

Lord Dying has a very distinct sound, is this a typical sound from Oregon?

In some way it is, we get inspiration from bands that play in your certain area so you hear some of the influences back in our music. We love to hang around with the folks from our area, that is why we are so happy to tour with Red Fang who are also from Oregon. It is just cool to make what you love to make, and that is what we do.

 

Is this a popular kind of genre in Oregon?

We have a great booming metal scene up there. We have a lot of doom bands and we have a lot of thrash bands. We don’t really try to fit in with all of them. We just try to experiment with the riffs and beats, we try to crossover in the styles without too much genre jumping and still being interesting to listen to.

 

You can definitely hear a lot of those influences in Lord Dying indeed. What are the key points to the music as you make it?

We all like different kinds of heavy music. It all comes together with the riffs. We all try to write it before and then we kind of try to put it in a song. We definitely take an influence from the sound that is coming from the pacific southwest. We try not to take everything to directly. We try to write our own thing. There isn’t really a thing that we specifically try to play we just do it.

Lord Dying album cover

 

Okay, so you don’t try, you guys just are?

Haha, Yeah you can put it like that indeed.

 

You had your debut album out for quite a while now, named Summon the Faithless (Relapse). You immediately earned your status in the US and in Europe. How did that happen? Most bands go by trial and error.

Look. We have good friends that support us throughout. We work hard and earned our place, first local, then the US and now Europe. We take every opportunity to play, and it doesn’t matter how much it costs. And we had our very first show with Red Fang, who are also from our neighborhood. So we had a very good start.

 

It is pretty awesome you have friends that already have such credibility that can push you guys along.

Yeah, we were lucky on that part. And they are like really great dudes. We are really stoked to do this, and we have a lot of awesome bands from Portland.

 

So in a few weeks you are going to play Roadburn, how siked are you guys?

We are pumped! We got asked and we were like “Yeah of course”. It is 3 days after our tour is over, so we are already there. Why wouldn’t we play there! We love to play as much as we can.

Lord Dying02

 

There are a lot of bands that play this kind of style, how do you guys think you stand out in the crowd?

There are a lot of different kinds of genres we get compared with. For instance sludge. In our opinion sludge isn’t the good description of us, we accept it though. People like to put names on something. But we are more high energy and we write more pumped music.

 

I was looking at your show, and I agree with that feeling. I mean, you guys are fun to watch, the energy is splattering off the stage while you guys play. Do you feel that the same?

Well, yeah! It is fun to play and we try to give the audience everything we can. Obviously there is a lot of rad sludge bands out there. But we try to keep it interesting.

 

By the way, who is the Lord in your band name and why is he Dying?

It is about worshipping and bowing down. Fuck that! We don’t like to bow down. And we don’t like authority. So that is why the Lord is Dying.

 

If you would have to choose a band you could play with where you would go totally retard about, which one will it be?

Carp, they don’t exist anymore but yeah. They are pretty awesome. But we would love to play with Slayer of course, everybody would love to play with Slayer.

 

Another beer question, we love beer questions. How much beer do you guys think you have drunk after the tour is over?

Wow, do we have to answer this question in gallons? We don’t know, enough to float a ferry from the UK to Europe, we guess.

Lord Dying03

 

And for the final question. Where do you guys hope to be in 10 years from now?

Just playing riffs. Doing the same thing. Living the life. We’ll just see what is going to happen. We can’t live off it, but we hope to still be touring around. The goal is to be staying on the road all the time. We enjoy what we are doing. Every time when we get home, we want to get touring again. We call it after tour- depression.

 

After the interview with Lord Dying I went back to the venue to see Red Fang. It was a pretty awesome evening, you can read all about it in the review about this show. We had a blast on this energetic night.

 

Lord Dying on Facebook

KAAT VAN DOREMALEN

LIVE PHOTOS BY SUSANNE A. MAATHUIS