8.24.24 KNockdown Center, Brooklyn, NY Due to the massive success of the second edition of Milwaukee Metal Festival, the iconic midwestern event is returning in 2025! The festival will take place once again at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom from May 16-18, 2025, with the pre-party kicking off on May 15. Early bird tickets are now available at the link below! The festival is now pleased to welcome Down (w/ Phil Anselmo, Kirk Windstein, Pepper Keenan, Jimmy Bower + Pat Bruders), The Dillinger Escape Plan (performing Calculating Infinity in its entirety), Exodus, 3 Inches of Blood and more to the lineup, with many more TBA! The first wave of bands is now as follows:
Tag Archives: Trouble
Swallow The Sun Featuring Ballet Finland to Perform “Plague of Butterflies” at 70000 Tons of Metal Cruise
In a groundbreaking event, Finnish Metal icons Swallow The Sun featuring the Avant-Garde Ballet Finland are set to present their collaborative performance, “Plague of Butterflies”, during 70000TONS OF METAL in 2025. This unique performance will make its World Premiere outside of Finland in January 2025, on board The Original, The World’s Biggest Heavy Metal Cruise, with two separate presentations of the work occurring whilst on board. Following each of the two performances of “Plague of Butterflies”, Swallow The Sun will play two different regular sets as well.Continue reading
Trouble to Celebrate The 40th Anniversary of Their Album “Psalm 9” with Deluxe Picture Disc Re-issue
US doom metal legends, Trouble, are seeing in the 40th anniversary of their 1984 debut album, Psalm 9, with a deluxe reissue. The album is available to pre-order now from Hammerheart Records (shipping in late October), as a special edition picture LP. Keep reading below for details.
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Stone Nomads Share Cover of Trouble Classic “The Tempter” and Announce New EP
Texan sludge-doom trio, Stone Nomads, recently dropped a new version of the classic Trouble track “The Tempter,” featuring Exhorder/Trouble vocalist Kyle Thomas. The band will also release their new EP, Beyond the Gates, a follow-up to last year’s full-length LP …At the Gates of Solitude. It comes out on Vinyl and digital on June 10th through Gravitoyd Heavy Music, and is the label’s first release off 2024. Check out “The Tempter” and find more information in the article below.
The Inaugural Heavy Chicago Fest Books Corrosion Of Conformity, D.R.I., Trouble, Novembers Doom, Repulsion, Macabre, and More
Chicago’s newest music venue, Avondale Music Hall, announces a brand-new metal festival – Heavy Chicago – offering three shows happening over two weekends this fall. Saturday, October 28 will host the return of Chicago’s own Trouble after five long years, along with Acid King featuring the return of Chicago native Lori S, plus stoner rock act Bongzilla from Madison, Wisconsin, and Chicago act Novembers Doom to kick off the night. The following weekend, Saturday, November 4 and Sunday, November 5 keep Heavy Chicago rolling with a Saturday night headlining spot from Corrosion Of Conformity and support from California space rockers Nebula as well as Milwaukee’s The Crosses featuring Die Kreuzen singer Dan Kubinski for an “all Die Kreuzen” set. Sunday wraps things up with legendary crossover thrash kings DRI celebrating 40 years of Crossover as well as the only 2023 worldwide show date for grindcore legends Repulsion and Chicago’s own Macabre. More acts will be announced soon. In addition to the music, Kuma’s will be onsite selling burgers and there will be PBR drink specials.
REVIEWS ROUND-UP: Stoner Doom Edition ft. Tenebra, Eric Wagner, Domkraft, Slomatics, Ufomammut
Tenebra – Moongazer (New Heavy Sounds / Seeing Red)
There is something evocative about the retro / occult rock of Italian quartet Tenebra that is encapsulated in a most vigorous way on the third track of Moongazer, ‘Black Lace’. A steady, spacious build from jangled, careful chords that takes its time gives room for the powerful smoke-and-whiskey vocals of Silvia to take centre stage, before a Zeppelin-esque vocal-led coda closes things out. It is not the only, nor possibly even the best, song to do this, but as a drawing together of the best elements of the Tenebra sound perhaps serves as their best showpiece. Continue reading
FESTIVAL REVIEW: Damnation Festival 2021- Live at Leeds University
In the time since its 2005 inception Damnation Festival has grown to into a four-stage affair that has become a mainstay of the UK metal scene. 2021’s festival on 6th November was significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it marked the event’s return after a year off due to COVID restrictions. Secondly, it sold out in record time; as soon as the UK government announced the end of all restrictions (back in March), all tickets were swept up within a matter of weeks. Thirdly, the lineup had to be dramatically changed, with many major international acts such as Wolves in the Throne Room and Pig Destroyer having to have their appearances cancelled due to then-ongoing uncertainty surrounding travel restrictions. Fourthly and finally, 2021’s Damnation marked the end of its 14-year tenure at Leeds University: 2022’s festival will return to Manchester (where it first took place for two years) at a larger arena venue.
Eric Wagner, Vocalist of The Skull (ex Trouble) Has Died
Sad news to report as Eric Wagner, legendary Doom Metal vocalist of bands such as The Skull and formerly of Trouble has died, according to a report from The Obelisk website . He was 62 years old. Eric was to have performed with The Skull at Psycho Las Vegas this past weekend, and was in the midst of a co-headlining tour with The Obsessed. However, he ended up contracting COVID-19 and pneumonia as a result, before passing away as a result. The news was broken on social media by his son. Wagner carved out a legendary career in the genre of heavy metal as a vocalist for over 40 years, since coming out of Chicago. After an incredible run with Trouble in the 1980s which helped revive interest in traditional doom metal, heavy metal and adding other classic rock influences, before the bands’ reunion in 2007. After leaving the reunion he co-founded The Skull, and provided to be no less important, headlining festivals around the world and recording several key albums. This loss is devastating and we send our sympathies out to Eric’s family, friends, bandmates, and fans at this time. Continue reading
DOOM METAL ROUNDUP: Mourn The Light, Bottomless, Lucifer’s Fall, and Purification
Mourn the Light – Suffer, Then We’re Gone
Mourn The Light offers Traditional Doom Metal with a few twists on their first full-length album. It doesn’t quite hit the full operatic scope of Epic Doom or reach the speeds of Classic Metal, but influences from both at work throughout Suffer, Then We’re Gone (Argonauta Records). The riffs and song structures are in line with the busy nature of Psalm 9-era Trouble while the vocals offer a husky but theatrical bellow, drawing further comparisons to groups like Altar Of Oblivion and Argus.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Exhorder – Mourn The Southern Skies
Formed in 1985, Louisiana’s Exhorder left a brief but lasting impression on a dying thrash scene with their controversial 1990 debut Slaughter in the Vatican and its more mature, but equally impressive 1992 follow-up, The Law (both Roadrunner). Just as thrash was making way for the unplugged introspection and tatty woolly jumpers of grunge, Exhorder arrived in an attempt to revitalise the scene. Continue reading