Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes, Napalm Death, Kris Barras Band, Pengshui and Aniilmalia added to Download 2022


Following their massive headline set at last year’s Download Pilot event, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes will be joining this year’s Download festival, alongside four other new additions, including Napalm Death, PENGSHUi, and Aniilmalia. Download 2022 is the big reunion of the rock community, as the festival makes its highly anticipated return with the first full-scale Download in three years and a gargantuan line-up of the world’s most exciting bands in rock, pop punk, hardcore, metal and much more. The three-day festival takes place on 10-12 June 2022 at the spiritual home of rock in Donington Park, Leicestershire. Tickets are now on sale now at the4 link below.

Continue reading


KISS, Biffy Clyro, System Of A Down and More Booked for Download Festival 2021


Download Festival will return for 2021, featuring headliners KISS, Biffy Clyro, and System Of A Down and many more bands including A Day To Remember, Mastodon, Control The Storm, Gender Roles, Jamie Lenman, Myles Kennedy & Company, Deftones, Korn, The Distillers, Steel Panther, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Darkness, Black Veil Brides, Creeper, Alestorm and The Pretty Reckless. Seventy-three bands in all have been announced! Tickets go on sale on August 7th at 9 AM GMT. More bands have yet to be announced. The three-day festival takes place on 4-6 June 2021 at the spiritual home of rock in Donington Park, Leicestershire. Tickets will go on sale at this link here. Continue reading


Mastodon, Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes, Alter Bridge, The Darkness, Sepultura and More Added to Download UK


A bunch of new bands have already been added to the bill on this year’s Download UK Festival. The new acts include Alter Bridge, Bowling For Soup, The Darkness, The Distillers, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Mastodon, Funeral For A Friend, The Menzingers, Employed To Serve, 3 Doors Down, Milk Teeth, Motionless In White, Holding Absence, Lacuna Coil, Loathe, Sepultura, Amaranthe, Cemetery Sun, Fire From The Gods, Gender Roles, Haken, Hatari, Heavy Lungs, Higher Power, JJ Wilde, Kill The Lights, Modern Error, Northlane, Press Club, Polyphia| The Raven Age, Renounced, Shvpes, Sleep Token, SULLII, The Glorious Sons, The Hara, The Skints, Tempt, Twin Temple, Thy Art Is Murder, Wage War, and Will Haven! Also announced are the Day And Stage Splits, WWE NXT UK returns, and Kerrang! Radio Hosts the Finding Fresh Blood contest for a chance to perform on The Avalanche Stage. 2020 Download headliners Iron Maiden (Legacy Of The Beast Tour), Kiss and System Of A Down this summer and takes place on 12 – 14 June 2020 at the spiritual home of rock in Donington Park, Leicestershire. Continue reading


Horseneck Streams New Single


California post-Hardcore/Sludge group Horseneck — featuring within its ranks current and past members of Will Haven and Chelsea Wolfe will release their anticipated second full-length, Fever Dream, next month. Engineered by the band’s own Lance Jackman at The Dock in Sacramento and mixed and mastered by Eric Stenman (Will Haven, Far, Weezer) at The Appliantz Shop in Encino, the record includes guest vocals from Grammy nominated rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Gary U.S. Bonds and indie rock/folk hero Jules Bee (Baenziger) from Sea Of Bees. Stream ‘Pen15’ right now!Continue reading


Minors – Abject Bodies


When Atrophy came out a year and a little bit ago, Ontario Hardcore outfit Minors made a lasting impression in their twenty-minute onslaught of Converge melancholy and frenetic All Pigs Must Die-like energy. It was another home run for Holy Roar Records, but due to its December release it sadly got overlooked by a large portion of the Metal media. Well, it’s a new year and with that comes new material from the Canadians in the form of Abject Bodies; a traumatic continuation of their uncompromising sludgy, Hardcore oppression.Continue reading


Listen To Will Haven Cover Classic Pink Floyd Tracks From “Dark Side Of The Moon”


Will Haven, by Rich Price Photography

Post-hardcore legends Will Haven are kicking off new European tour dates tomorrow night, beginning in Belgium and through the end of next weekend in London. To celebrate the band has covered Pink Floyd’s classic album ending tracks from legendary album Dark Side of The Moon (EMI). Listen to‘Brain Damage/Eclipse’, streaming now along with a very “Floyd” style visualizer!Continue reading


My Favorite Concert Memory: Sheel Davé Of Bad Rabbits


Bad Rabbits are releasing their new album this week. Mimi is releasing on August 10th as combination self-release and with the InGrooves label. Since forming in 2007 Bad Rabbits have shared the stage with everyone from Kendrick Lamar, The Roots, Wu-Tang Clan, Steve Aoki, Common, Allen Stone and John Legend to Deftones, Passion Pit, Paramore, 311 and Taking Back Sunday, and tours and festivals including Reading, Leeds, Wireless, Bestival, Roots Picnic, Boston Calling and Afropunk as well as the Vans Warped Tour. Drummer Sheel Davé shares a favorite concert memory with the band.Continue reading


Temples Festival 2015 Day 1: Live at Bristol, Motion


FTemples-Fest-2015Friday

Kicking off Temples Festival with a torrid mix of grind and punk Teef are a rude awakening. Sadly the shrieking of their vocalist is only appropriate during the more intense moments with several mediocre riffs tempering what should have ignited the blue touch paper. Oblivionized are much better. Nasty atonal riffs á la Discordance Axis, the Londoners bash through relentless cuts from their ‘Life Is A Struggle, Give Up’ platter in a fashion which forces early comers to take note or die.

The Afternoon Gentlemen, by Rich Price Photography

The Afternoon Gentlemen, by Rich Price Photography

The second band in the second stage were Leeds based grinders The Afternoon Gentlemen. Unperturbed by waiting for the displaced Young And In The Way to conclude their set on the main stage they managed to bring their own brand of party atmosphere. The massive bouncy energy of the band transferring into an enthusiastic crowd with ease. Crowd surfers were present very early on as well as paramedics. The Yorkshiremen Pummeled the crowd with song after song playing some newer tracks from the record they have coming out later this year. Grind is one of those genre’s that has to be done right and the ‘Gents certainly do it right but their performance struggles to hold the attention of the audience with many drifting away towards the end of the set.

Enabler, by Rich Price Photography

Enabler, by Rich Price Photography

Enabler are a revelation. Taking to the stage displaying a terrifying ferocity, they receive a huge reception from the crowd. A particularly potent mix of hardcore with a large side helping of metal. The second they started like a kick to the gut and it was immediately obvious they weren’t here to mess about, and the audience knew it. This was an impassioned performance which was quite incredible to watch. In a festival with no shortage of amazing bands Enabler proved to be a real highlight.

Deathwish signees’ Harm’s Way deliver their pulverising metallic hardcore to an appreciative small crowd. Brusing mosh fodder which won’t change the world but can certainly help work up a sweat.

Most of us rarely start a festival by being told to fuck off, but for those of us that headed over to catch an early set by blackened crusters Young and in the Way, that’s exactly how Temples 2015 kicked off. While many wouldn’t dare insult the fans, it fit perfectly into their take no prisoners sound. Those squeezing themselves into the tiny third for a dose of filth from the New Zealanders Meth Drinker were treated to a wall of slow gnarly distortion.

Trap Them, by Rich Price Photography

Trap Them, by Rich Price Photography

Trap Them’s first UK show in four years is heralded with unbridled enthusiasm and the group reciprocates every last bit of energy they receive, delivering a watertight set of no bullshit brutality. Numbers from ‘Darker Handcraft’ eventuate intensity and unhinged aggression. Seering filth encrusted riffage and brutal blasts see the main stage temperature rising to fever pitch.\\

Sacramento’s Will Haven punish the main stage with Grady Avenell cutting an intimidating figure onstage.The dissonant groove of ‘Fresno’ ignites a thunderous response with material from new EP Open The Mind To Discomfort getting a good airing alongside juicy cuts from the quintet’s stellar back catalogue. Sheer unbridled aggression tempered with the eerie melodies conjured by Jeff Irwin and Anthony Paganelli ensure this performance is nothing short of enthralling.

Will Haven, by Rich Price Photography

Will Haven, by Rich Price Photography

Ramping up the speed again, Magrundergrind whipped up the festival crowd as beer cans were replaced with people being thrown through the air. With the songs averaging just a minute apiece there was plenty of time to cram in the crowd pleasers. Eight hundred bruises and a sore neck later, we’re pretty sure that was a good time… if only we could think past all the concussion.

Nails may have been the more extreme proposition but Weedeater were no less deranged. Frontman Dixie looks truly unhinged, his cross-eyed forty-yard stare burning holes in the crowd while Travis Owens pounds his kit mercilessly with style, even showboating with his sticks without missing a beat. Resin tinged anthems like ‘Gimmie Back My Bullets’ provide more than enough material for those who the motto ‘tune low, play slow’ is a way of life.

Nails, by Rich Price Photography

Nails, by Rich Price Photography

It quickly became apparent that songs about “people who talk fucking shit,” is a mantra for Californian based Nails. Repeated before most tracks, it quickly turned into a bit of light comedy relief, which was welcome as the band were on devastating form that evening churning out track after track of ground-shakingly heavy grinding. Despite their popularity, Nails sound feels more at home in a grimy basement cellar, and seeing them on such a large stage just didn’t seem to translate as well as it should have. The same could not be said for Pig Destroyer. Heading out for the first of their two sets that weekend they threw the crowd into the nastiest cuts of grindcore from their collection. Members of the crowd who had any space to breath could count themselves lucky as the room dissolved into a crushed mass of bodies. The sacrifice? Flailing limbs and flying bodies: wherever you stood it was a slaughterhouse.

Converge, by Rich Price Photography

Converge, by Rich Price Photography

Who knew metalcore could fit in so well in this line-up. While the genre may have a bad reputation among doom fans, Converge are providing a lifeline to the genre with their powerful and energetic performance. Twisting the wires round his throat and clasping his head, front man Jacob Bannon seems endearingly honest performance backed by their abrasive, twisting backing. Converge proved that twenty-five years of performing is no excuse not to pull out a blindingly energetic set.

A rare UK outing for Bongzilla ensures the outdoor stage is packed despite impressive opposition from Boston trailblazers Converge. Dealing in the kind of lumbering riffs that revel in their atavistic primitively, they’re the idea doom act to close a darkened stage with their Neanderthal low end anthems. Undeterred by the completion, the Wisconsin act delivers a herculean performance of Sabbathian might which while somewhat myopic in is focus, remains a potent high which concludes day one in style.

[slideshow_deploy id=’27847′]

WORDS: ROSS BAKER, CAITLIN SMITH & RICH PRICE

PHOTOS: RICH PRICE PHOTOGRAPHY


FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Temples Festival 2015


Festival season is just around the corner, and what better way is there to start the summer than with Temples Festival? Launched in 2013, Temples is an independent music festival based in Bristol. The event will take place from 29th – 31st May at the historic venue Motion.Continue reading