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 areHalestorm, 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.
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.
Louder Than Life Festival has announced its lineup for 2022, seeking to top the epic edition in 2021. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Slipknot and KISS will headline the festival of 100 artists over 4 days! Joining them will be Rob Zombie, Bring Me The Horizon, Alice In Chains (And A Separate Set From Jerry Cantrell), Alice Cooper, Incubus, Evanescence, Lamb Of God, Tenacious D, Yungblud, Chevelle, Papa Roach, Halestorm, Mastodon, In This Moment, The Pretty Reckless and many more! Taking place from September 21st – 25th 2022, the fest takes place at The Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center Passes are on sale now for $10 down (through March 31) at the link below. Continue reading →
Coming up next week in Sacramento, California, the sold-out Aftershock Festival has announced their full weekend performance times and running order, Onsite Experiences, and Food & Beverage Offerings for the four day long music fest. Metallica will headline two nights with The Original Misfits, Cypress Hill, Rancid, Social Distortion, The Offspring, Anthrax, Machine Gun Kelly, Rise Against, Volbeat, Testament,Gojira, Mastodon, Seether, Mudvayne, Dropkick Murphys, Pennywise, Mammoth WVH, and tons more bands. It takes place October 7-10 Festival at Discovery Park!
Wolfgang Van Halen shared his debut solo single “Distance” yesterday, which immediately landed on the #1 spot on iTunes Top 100 Songs. Not just for rock, but all of music. The chart list countdown contains the hottest and most popular music hits and singles from all musical genres downloaded from the Apple iTunes music store, including today’s hot pop, rap, rock, and country songs. “Distance” is a tribute to his late father Eddie Van Halen, who passed away last month after losing his battle with cancer. Proceeds from the sale of the single will benefit the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. Wolfgang was writing material for his upcoming solo album available via Explorer1 Music Group/EX1 Records, which was put on hold due to Eddie’s illness.
Wolfgang Van Halen has shared his debut solo single “Distance” which is a tribute to his late father Eddie Van Halen, who passed away last month after losing his battle with cancer. Proceeds from the sale of the single will benefit the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. Wolfgang was writing material for his upcoming solo album available via Explorer1 Music Group/EX1 Records, which was put on hold due to Eddie’s illness.
