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!
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.
We can’t delve quite into Year of the Knife’s No Love Lost (Pure Noise Records) without addressing the unfortunate accident that this Delaware collective endured this Summer. For those not in the know consult the internet and read up on what happened in Salt Lake City this July.
Death Metal supergroup Umbra Vitae, consisting of current and former members of Converge, Hatebreed, The Red Chord, Twitching Tongues, Scorpion Child, and more, performed their first-ever live shows in December 2022. They releasaed their debut album Shadow of Life on Deathwish Inc. in 2020. The band made their live debut at The Middle East Nite Club in Cambridge, MA on December 15th, and Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY on December 16. The band includes vocalist Jacob Bannon (Converge, Wear Your Wounds, Blood From The Soul), guitars/vocals: Mike “Gunface” McKenzie (The Red Chord, Wear Your Wounds, Stomach Earth), guitars/vocals: Sean Martin (Twitching Tongues, Wear Your Wounds, ex-Hatebreed), bassist Greg Weeks (The Red Chord, Labor Hex), and drummers Jon Rice (Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, ex-Job For A Cowboy, Scorpion Child). Watch fan-filmed footage here!
I’m not going to start this write-up and pretend like I have a solution for grief or that I’ve made peace with the fact that Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder is no longer with us. As of this writing, it’s been nearly a week since his passing and frankly, I’m still trying to process that. Telling myself that it can’t be true since I’ve seen Strnad and his bandmates have seemingly all the fun onstage at least seven times.
In time I’ll accept what has occurred. But let’s take a look back.
Decibel Magazine has announced its 2022 Philadelphia edition of their popular Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly. Taking place June 10th – and 11th, 2022,— the world’s loudest, two-day craft beer event has booked a killer bunch of bands for the event Cannibal Corpse, Candlemass, Wolves In The Throne Room, The Red Chord, Voivod, Full of Hell, Soul Glo, All Else Failed, Derkéta, Craven Idol, Sanguisugabogg, The Silver, and Deathevokation. For exclusive performances WITTR will perform all of Two Hunters, Nuclear Assault will perform all of Game Over, and the reunited Red Chord will perform all of their classic Clients album. All tickets are on sale Friday, February 4 at 10 a.m. EST.
I assume it’s easy to look back at the aughts and be dismissive of the entire decade particularly from the perspective of metal or punk fan. Nu-Metal was slowly being phased out as any goodwill from the previous decade had eroded and acts like Simple Plan and Good Charlotte made everyone realize that maybe the idea of Pop-Punk was a mistake. But those who kept their ear close to the ground knew better than to become jaded. Hard rock was alive and well and young bands were doing very exciting things. Young bands like Between the Buried and Me with their seminal Alaska (Victory Records 2005/Craft Recordings 2020).
Ghost Cult was honored to chat with musician and artist Jacob Bannon of Converge, Wear Your Wounds, and his new band Umbra Vitae. That group just released their debut album, Shadow of Life, (read our review here), a brutal, OSDM flavored album created by Jacob and a group of master musicians and friends such as Mike McKenzie (The Red Chord, WYW) and Sean Martin (Twitching Tongues, ex Hatebreed, WYW) Greg Weeks (The Red Chord, Labor Hex) and Jon Rice (Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Job For A Cowboy). In a frank discussion with our editor Keefy, Jacob discussed the impact coronavirus has had on the music world and more specifically his bands and his label Deathwish Inc., what are the Death Metal inspirations of the group, how Umbra Vitae came together, how this is a full band and not side-project, the poem that inspired the band name and the entire album, an update on new Converge and WYW music, and much more. Jacob is working to stay focused and creative during the pandemic to keep his bands and Deathwish Inc. alive in all of this and if you can, please support his music, art activities at these links.
Buy the album here https://orcd.co/umbravitae
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Converge is one of the lucky Hardcore/Punk bands that has seen notable success over the years. Though they have flirted with the metal genre on some of their albums like The Poacher Diaries (Relapse Records) and You Fail Me (Epitaph Records), frontman Jason Bannon has been itching to make something heavier. This veteran vocalist loves his celebrated children Converge and Wear Your Wounds, but is now really exposing his heart for ferocity with his new Death Metal project, Umbra Vitae. Along with some other experienced and eager members, Bannon has just released the band’s debut LP, Shadows of Life on his own label, Deathwish Inc.
New Death Metal supergroup Umbra Vitae brings together guitarists Sean Martin (Twitching Tongues, Ex-Hatebreed) and Mike Mckenzie (The Red Chord, Stomach Earth), bassist Greg Weeks (The Red Chord) and drummer Jon Rice (Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, Ex-Job For A Cowboy). The name comes from a poem by Georg Heym, first published in 1912. Umbra Vitae’s debut album, Shadow Of Life, will be released on May 1 via Bannon’s own Deathwish Inc. label. Check out the first single, ‘Return To Zero’!