Reunited rockers Acceptance have released their killer new album Colliding By Design, via Rise Records. The band has also just released a new music video for their track ‘Fire And Rain’, which you can see below. Continue reading
Capsize 10 -15-2016
Live At Chain Reaction Anaheim, CA
All Photos By Meg Loyal Photography
Sacramento, California once again hosted the top west coast rock and metal festival in America this year as Monster Energy Aftershock took over NorCal for an entire weekend. The lineup was killer, the fest goers were chill, and the non-music events and activities were fun for all. Danny Wimmer Presents and the team at AEG Live who also put on fests such as Rock On The Range, Monster Energy Welcome To Rockville, Monster Energy Fort Rock, Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion, Louder Than Life and more do a fantastic job from start to finish, as with every fest they manage. Continue reading
To The Wind 10 -15-2016
Live At Chain Reaction Anaheim, CA
All Photos By Meg Loyal Photography
Vanna 10 -15-2015
Live At Chain Reaction – Anaheim, CA
All Photos By Meg Loyal Photography
For the ninth year in a row music lovers and tattoo culture seekers joined at the Travis Barker’s (Blink 182) Musink Festival. Held at the Orange County Event Center and Fairgrounds in California and featured headliners Snoop Dogg, Deftones, and Circa Survive, as well as the Transplants come back show, Yelawolf, Taking Back Sunday, Plague Vendor, Atreyu, Face to Face, Spirit In The Room and more.Continue reading
A little off the beaten path compared to L.A. and San Francisco, Bakersfield resides in in the California suburbs. The town is actually more well known for its legacy of punk rock more than a hotbed of metal, so it was a little surprising to see the major tour of metal legends Slayer, the well—loved thrashers Testament and death metal leaders Carcass planned a tour stop here. No doubt many resident has driven the traffic heavy, palm-tree lined highways of the 101 and I5 for glimpse of these bands in other towns. But tonight all you had to do if you were a fan of classic metal bands of the last 30-plus years, would be to roll downtown and get a ticket to the big show.
Slayer and Testament are regulars on the annual touring circuit, rarely taking time off to record these days. UK bred Carcass is still on the road supporting 2014’s Surgical Steel album (Editor’s Note: The Ghost Cult Album of the Year for 2014), and have been regular visitors to the USA since their return. You never know these days the way this year has gone if the next time you see a band will be your last, so it was good to see a lot heads in the house early. Carcass ripped through a short set of “hits” the fans seemed to lap it up’ Jeff Walker was seated for the show due to a broken foot, but it made little difference to him. The band is talking about having a new album out in 2017, so hopefully we will see Carcass again sooner than later back on our shores.
Testament themselves are well-known road warriors. Bay-Area bred thrash metal titans, the band serves as a great opener to Slayer. You would be hard-pressed to find a fan in the building that didn’t like both the headliner and this band, and maybe some preferred the former. Testament has been busy working on their new album, but we heard no new songs tonight. They played their set with an energy and a hostility of the much younger, hungrier band. They slammed through their songs, ran around the stage, and basically had a great time. Led by hulking front man Chuck Billy, his voice is the only thing bigger on stage than his form. Testament knows how to put on a show worthy of the top spot on any bill, not just this one.
Considering that Slayer has toured so much, the crowd here tonight was decidedly pumped up, again owing to the choice of market too. The band as masters at setting the pre-show mood with their mysterious 30-foot tall curtain. When the lights go down the crowd gets pumped as the only soft part of a Slayer show; the intro music and the lights against the curtain, right before the first notes take hold. Once the curtain drops it’s pure madness as the band opened with the title track from their most recent album, Repentless (Nuclear Blast). The band played a good number of tracks from that recent album, but ultimately leaned on older songs. That is what the crowd wants from Slayer: the classics, every time. It’s not really a Slayer show without hearing ‘Mandatory Suicide’, ‘Seasons In The Abyss’, ‘Dead Skin Mask’, ‘South of Heaven’, and ‘Chemical Warfare’, is it?
The band still get high marks for showmanship, especially Kerry King and Tom Araya. With the three year anniversary of the passing of founding member Jeff Hanneman near, the band pays tribute to him nightly, not just with his music, but with a huge banner draped in hiss honor. Closing of course with ‘Raining Blood’ and ‘Angel of Death’, Slayer continues to be a thrash metal institution. I can’t wait for them to come back!
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Slayer Set list:
Repentless
Postmortem
Die by the Sword
Disciple
God Send Death
War Ensemble
When the Stillness Comes
You Against You
Mandatory Suicide
Hate Worldwide
Chemical Warfare
Pride in Prejudice
Take Control
Seasons in the Abyss
Hell Awaits
Dead Skin Mask
Hallowed Point
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Black Magic
Angel of Death
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY MEG LOYAL PHOTOGRAPHY
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Music fans, tattoo lovers and all kinds of awesomeness is set to collide at the Travis Barker’s (Blink 182) 9th Annual Musink Festival. Sponsored again by Coldcock Whiskey, the fest kicks off today at the Orange County Event Center and Fairgrounds in California and features headliners Snoop Dogg, Deftones, and Circa Survive, as well as the Transplants come back show, Yelawolf, Taking Back Sunday, Plague Vendor, Atreyu, Face to Face and many more. Ghost Cult will be there once again to cover it!
A plethora of infamous master tattooists such as Paul Booth, Gtc’s Tattooland, Spotlight Tattoo, Freddy Negrete, Shamrock Social Club, Nikko Hurtado, Royal Peacock Tattoo, Gold Rush Tattoo, Oliver Peck, Nspired1, Robert Atkinson, Oc Tattoo, Corey Miller, Baba, Franco Vescovi, Boog, Bj Betts, Carlos Torres, Norm, Little Linda, Carlos Rojas, Dan Smith, Shaun Topper, Rich Pineda, Yushi and more.
Friday night’s music action kicks off at 3 PM and features none other than hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg, playing for practically a hometown crowd. Joining him are Barker’s Transplants band and the sensational Yelawolf.
Saturday the fairgrounds open at noon for a full day of tats, contests, food and fun. Saturday is headlined by Deftones, who are gearing up for the release of their new album Gore (Warner Brothers). Joining them will be the always fun live Taking Back Sunday. Miss Musink will be crowned on the stage, and Plague Vendor will also play.
Sunday has another “pinch” me type bill with Circa Survive and the reunited Atreyu back to back! Face To Face is also playing so get your spot early and prepare to dance!
In addition to special Coldcock events and tastings for those over 21, there are a bunch of other contests and a cool lowrider car show and contest. There are VIP packages to meet Travis Barker as well. VIP tickets as well as general tickets and info can be found at: Additionally there is an extremely limited supply of VIP Meet & Greet packages with Travis Barker available at this link http://musink.org/
Meet And Greet with Travis Barker hours:
Friday, March 4th: 3pm-10pm
Saturday, March 5th: noon-10pm
Sunday, March 6th: noon-9pm
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Senses Fail just put the cap on a terrific 2015! they reunited as a band, put out a cool new album Pull The Thorns From Your Heart (Pure Noise Records) and headlined The Warped Tour. When you do all that, what do you do for an encore? Go out and slay venues all over the world of course! The band spent the last half of the fall co-headlining with another seminal post-hardcore/screamo band, Silverstein. Each band has had a similar career trajectory and much in common (huge followings, Warped Tour alums) so touring together made sense. Bringing along hardcore heads like Hundredth and Capsize (not pictured) this was a slick bill that played to many full houses with tons of passionate fans moshing, screaming a long, and having a ball. Meg Loyal of Meg Loyal Photography caught the tour at one of Ghost Cult’s favorite venues, The Worcester Palladium. Keep going out there and supporting these bands in 2016 and you might just be rewarded when your favorite band reunites and comes to your town for a show!
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