After a successful return of Milwaukee Metal Festival in 2023, the iconic midwestern, multi-day event is now revealing 19 more bands and daily schedules for the highly anticipated 2024 edition, with more TBA! To celebrate this absolutely stacked lineup, Milwaukee Metal Fest is extending early bird tickets through December 11, 2023!
Approaching an almost full 2024 lineup, “Sweden’s coziest rock festival”, Time To Rock, have just added Doro, Visions Of Atlantis, and Jean Beauvoir (Plasmatics) to their bill. With Amorphis and Amaranthe, Uriah Heep and Unleash The Archers, plus many others already announced, the event takes place next July 05th – 08th, at Knislinge, South Sweden. Read below for more.
UPDATED: The fest has now announced the first wave of bands for 2024, including Mr. Bungle, Blind Guardian, Slaughter To Prevail, In Flames, Hatebreed, Deicide!
Milwaukee Metal Fest has announced the dates May 17th to 19th for its 2024 edition, with a pre-party May 16th. Now run by Jamie Jasta (Hatebreed, Kingdom of Sorrow) and Sound Talent Group‘s Tim Borror, the event this year featured Lamb Of God, Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, Biohazard, Machinehead. Keep reading below for tickets and more.
West coast thrash metal veterans Metal Church will release their 13th studio album, Congregation of Annihilation, on May 26th via Rat Pak Records (America) and Reaper Entertainment (Europe). The new album marks the first release since the tragic death of legendary frontman Mike Howe who passed in July of 2021. It also marks the first album with new vocalist Marc Lopes (Ross the Boss / Let Us Prey) who came on board in the summer of 2022 and features the current lineup of founding guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof, guitarist Rick Van Zandt, bassist Steve Unger, and drummer Stet Howland. The new songs are a return to the band’s musical roots harkening back to the vibes of the self-titled first album and The Dark. Congregation of Annihilation was produced by Kurdt Vanderhoof and is now available for pre-order in various bundle configurations in North America at the link below. The band’s first single is the anthemic “Pick A God and Prey” and a lyric video for the song can be seen here:
Confirming the rumors following a snippet of a new song, Metal Church has named Ross The Boss, Let Us Prey vocalist Marc Lopes as its new singer. Lopes follows vocalist Mike Howe, who died in 2021. Metal Church guitarist and leader Kurdt Vanderhoof shared a photo of Lopes on social media and wrote in an accompanying message: “Yes, the rumors are true, it’s official! Please welcome vocalist Marc Lopes to the congregation!
According to TMZ, the death of Metal Church singer Mike Howe has been ruled a suicide by hanging. He was 55. This contradicts the original report initially by TMZ. The news was broken by the band in a Facebook post, and Mike died at his home in Eureka, California today, July 26th, 2021. One of the best pure melodic singer ever in Heavy Metal, Howe originally hailed from Michigican singing for the band Breaking Point, Howe joined Metal Church for 1989’s Blessing In Disguise.We’ll continue to monitor this story. Continue reading
Sad and sudden news as Metal Church singer Mike Howe has died. He was 55. No cause of death was revealed at this time. The news was broken by the band in a Facebook post, and Mike died at his home in Eureka, California today, July 26th, 2021. One of the best pure melodic singer ever in Heavy Metal, Howe originally hailed from Michigican singing for the band Breaking Point, Howe joined Metal Church for 1989’s Blessing In Disguise and would sing on six more releases from 18989 to 1993, and again from 2016 – to 2020 in his stints in the band. We’ll continue to track this news as it develops. We send our condolences to his family, friends and fans at this time. Continue reading
Michael Alago recently released his memoir I Am Michael Alago: Breathing Music. Signing Metallica. Beating Death. (BackBeat Books), written by Alago with Laura Davis-Chanin (with a foreword by Mina Caputo of Life of Agony and John Joseph of Cro-Mags) and you can read our review here. Michael is the music industry legend that signed Metallica to Electra Records and helped guide them on the path to being the biggest band of all time. He also played a role in the careers of White Zombie, Cro-mags, Metal Church, Flotsam and Jetsam, and more. The Drew Stone documentary Who The F*ck Is That Guy: The Fabulous Journey of Michael Alago (just wrapped on Netflix after an unprecedented 3 years, now on Amazon Prime and YouTube) grew awareness of him beyond music documentaries and VH1’s Metallica Behind The Music. Now you can see never before seen outtakes of Michael with Metallica after they filmed their segments for the film, posted to Drew Stone’s YouTube. Continue reading
The Annual Metal Hall of Fame Gala – “the most important night in metal” – can now be seen exclusively on Amazon Prime Television. The program features an overview with features of the 2020 Metal Hall of Fame including inductions, tributes, and all-star jams. Watch heavy metal legends Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Geoff Tate, Don Dokken, Chris Poland, Stephen Pearcy, Graham Bonnet, Metal Church, legendary music promoter Jack Orbin and Prong as they are inducted into the Hall and amazing performances including Chris Poland, Riot Act (featuring members of Riot), and an epic jam featuring Steve Vai, Geoff Tate, Joe Satriani, Bjorn Englen, Chris Poland, and Pat Gesualdo. Modern Drummer magazine also joined forces with the Metal Hall of Fame to present the only official tribute to late Rush drummer Neil Peart, who had passed away just a week before the event.Continue reading
Stars from across Rock and Metal will join together on a livestream to raise money tonight on the David Z Foundation Livestream. David Z (David Zablidowsky) was the brilliant metal and progressive rock musician best known for his work in bands such as Adrenaline Mob, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and ZO2, died three years ago on July 17th, 2017 when a tractor-trailer collided with Adrenaline Mob’s tour bus. Check out the updated poster from Mike Portnoy’s tweet below. You can donate at the GoFundM link below and watch the live stream including artists ranging from Mike Portnoy, Dee Snider, Chris Jericho, Ray Luzier (Korn), John Moyer (Disturbed) Rikki Rockett, Don Dokken, Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan, Jeff Scott Soto, Carmine Appice, Eddie Trunk, Marco Mendoza, Joel Hoekstra, Tiffany, John Pooper, Alex Skolnik, Charlie Benante, Dug Pinnick, Ra Diaz and more! Continue reading