ROCK ON THE RANGE 2012 REVEALS MASSIVE LINEUP FOR SIXTH ANNUAL PREMIER DESTINATION ROCK FESTIVAL
PERFORMERS INCLUDE INCUBUS, ROB ZOMBIE, SHINEDOWN, MARILYN MANSON, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, SLASH, MEGADETH, CHEVELLE, CYPRESS HILL, MASTODON AND MORE
ROCK ON THE RANGE returns for its sixth year boasting a massive lineup covering the rock spectrum. America’s premier destination rock festival will be held May 18-20 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH featuring performances from Incubus, Rob Zombie, Shinedown, Marilyn Manson, Five Finger Death Punch, Slash, Megadeth, Chevelle, Cypress Hill, Mastodon and many more. Read more
Five Finger Death Punch | American Capitalist
October 6, 2011 by Publisher
Filed under arcrvws2011
by Chris A.
Staff Writer
“I’m a red-blooded, rough-neck, son of a bitch…” the opening lyrics and the gritty tone for the newest offering by California based metal giants, Five Finger Death Punch. Add to those words, concussive drums and punishing guitar riffs, and you have a record designed for battle.
In an era where the distrusted media, agenda driven Hollywood moguls and idiotic, spoiled musicians rail against America, our government, our military and our free-market, capitalist society, heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch brings us their newest release; American Capitalist. Finally, a band that says “F-you” to what seems to be an era of American wuss-ification.
What makes this band appealing is that they don’t just go through the motions performing brutal songs on a light-filled stage packed a veritable arsenal of U.S. military firepower, these guys mean it. Recently gracing the cover of Revolver Magazine, they sent out a salute to America’s military while outfitted in battle dress and re-enacting raising old-glory on Iwo Jima. Yeah, it’s cool and inspiring to see guys who are living the dream making a living making music acknowledging the people who make it possible for them to achieve that American dream.
With every effort, Five Finger Death Punch continue to pack their discs with tone filled gritty guitars, booming vocals and battering-ram precision percussion. This isn’t metal for the weak of heart as the band unclenches it’s collective Five-Finger fist to shoot the bird directly into your face. They earn their “explicit lyrics” advisory and wear it with pride. It’s old school, big arena attitudes in slick packaging and musically, American Capitalist is inspired rock n’ roll. The record attacks listeners from the first cut to the last. Drop this CD in your car and you’re risking a traffic citation because you’re going to speed. This band has arrived and American Capitalist demonstrates that when it comes to the harder side of rock n’ roll, Five Finger Death Punch can go toe to toe with any band.
Returning to spin the dials and run the production on American Capitalist is Kevin Churko who helped solidify the bands presentation on their last album War Is The Answer. With Churko’s return and continued stability within the bands line-up, American Capitalist demonstrates a continued maturity and increase synergy of a band whose members are on the same page musically and conceptually. With an apparent disdain for the status quo, Five Finger Death Punch has always seemed to be a band somewhat blind to current cliches. They playing their music their way, with a militarist feel, a thundering attack of unimaginable proportions. It’s “shock and awe” with guitars and drums. They like it hard, they like it fast and they don’t really care if you’re offended.
The 11 cuts on American Capitalist are going to impress any long-time 5FDP fan and no, there isn’t a ballad anywhere in sight on this disc. Highlights include “American Capitalist,” “Under and Over It,” “Back For More” and eight other cuts on the disc. As good as the disc is Five Finger Death Punch is an extremely talented performance band, which means for maximum effect go see these guys.
This album snags a 9 out of 10 score. Get motivated and spin this disc!
Genre: Modern Heavy Metal
Band:
Zoltan Bathory – guitars
Jason Hook – guitars
Ivan Moody – vocals
Jeremy Spencer – drums
Track Listing:
1. American Capitalist
2. Under and Over It
3. The Pride
4. Coming Down
5. Menace
6. Generation Dead
7. Back For More
8. Remember Everything
9. Wicked Ways
10. If I Fall
11. 100 Ways To Hate
Label: Prospect Park
For more information about “Five Finger Death Punch” at www.fivefingerdeathpunch.com
Hardrock Haven rating: 9/10
Mayhem Festival LIVE!
August 11, 2010 by Publisher
Filed under arccon2010
July 23, 2010 at Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
by Steve Trager
Staff Writer
The recent third annual Mayhem Festival certainly outshined previous lineups with a much more diverse metal genre, even if most of these bands could easily headline on their own. It was the best day for a fist full of mayhem and metal hands down. Despite the extreme weather making the day seem to be a “sweat fest “nothing stops music other then some unforeseen disaster. Mayhem seems to become an annual event showcasing some of the best talent around, some garnering measureless popularity on their own as individuals, but for the most part, this festival gives the immediate fan the opportunity to be right up front in the “ pit “ as they say in music terms. The popularity of Mayhem Festival has become a staple in metal and could very well continue to become a new home in a traveling metal festival since Ozzfest is slowly diminishing.
With three stages filled with some of the best bands this year, Mayhem Festival Tour certainly captivates all the spectacles of greatness in music. However, short sets don’t really cut it when each band gets going but, one gets the ideal of such performance as the “meat and potatoes“ of certain key songs that have become a staple in bands like Hatebreed who closed out the ever popular sponsored Jagermeister music stage, cranking out songs like “To the Threshold,” “I Will be Heard” and “This is Now” have truly been the bullet in their sets over the years.
While we all enjoy our dose of metal at Mayhem this year it was nice to also see some bands that have graced headlining slots on other tours like Shadows Fall, Chimaira, and In this Moment rounding out sets on the two outside stages. Even if this seem to be the hottest day weather wise you could just look around and see endless fans with Atreyu shirts spanning generations of metal heads as they waited in the heat for them to finish out the silver star stage at Mayhem festival this year. One thing I would like to see is longer sets by some of these bands but I think it’s all about cramming in as much music in several hours as possible, and that makes it worthwhile no matter how sweaty one can get next to you. If you live for music like most of us, then nothing stops you from having the greatest day while watching your favorite bands tear it up on separate stages.
The Mayhem Festival main stage showcased four great bands this year, including Five Finger Death Punch who graduated from playing a side stage to opening the main stage to a packed house, performing songs from both efforts that included the Bad Company cover of “Bad Company,” a nice twist of a classic rock anthem turned pure metal. A quick set change that brings us to Lamb of God, a notable band with history of a fearless live performances that kill it time and time again. Lamb of God reminds me of a wrecking ball that swings to the hardest degree and can knock everything over in its path as a band.
Perhaps the nicer elements in the Mayhem Festival is that we get a double dose of headlining slots and this year is no exception with Rob Zombie as one and Korn as the second. Rob Zombie well known for his stage antics with pyrotechnics and flame bombs rounding out his stage production. Yet it is still all about the music covering his years with White Zombie and all his amazing solo work as a musician that including “More Human Than Human,“ “Thunderkiss ‘69,” “Living Dead Girl“ and “Dragula.“
Mayhem Festival wouldn’t be complete without a great set by Korn. Although it’s quite sad to see this band with just three original members as a whole, we come to expect greatness when it comes to music and that Korn still does as a live band. Seem to be more then ever out of the public eye for this band has they still can kill it with a sixty minute set covering all their hits that made them quite popular. Even if Korn hasn’t toured in some time, they still bring the energy and the passion as front man Jonathan Davis demonstrates his head banging force during songs like “Here to Stay,“ “Right Now,“ “Falling Away From Me,“ “Freak On a Leash“ and “Got the Life.“
If the last three years of this mayhem festival hasn’t shown that metal still reigns in the blood of fans everywhere, we all hope that this can be a sacred home summer after summer if Ozzfest can’t hold out any longer. Sure bands can headline on their own but what better way to cram more then a dozen bands on three different stages and call it Mayhem Festival, which is basically a nice term that centers around most heavy weighted bands these days. So we once again raise our fists and salute this entire day in metal with “Horns up“ as this years’ Mayhem Festival was the best ever for metal events of the summer. Mayhem has taken over the reigns as the new home of extreme metal.
Mayhem Festival Photo Gallery
Kansas City Rockfest 2010 LIVE!
May 23, 2010 by Publisher
Filed under arccon2010
May 15, 2010 at Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, MO.
by John Kindred & Shawna McHenry
Staff Writer
Rockfest always is advertised as a festival that keeps the average fan from shelling out wads of money. The organizers, radio station 98.9 The Rock and AEG Live, provide a days’ worth of entertainment with fairly low-cost ticket prices, food and drink prices capped at a maximum of $5 per item and readily available free water.
This year, thunder and rain marked the festival most of the day. Fans made the best of it, enjoying the music despite the lack of sun. This certainly was the one of the coldest and wettest Rockfests to date. Concertgoers have billed the day as “Mudfest 2010” on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Some imaginative fans created a mudslide, and concertgoers who took the journey down the water-soaked hill encased themselves in mud.
Two stages provided the day’s musical entertainment. Fifteen bands followed a predefined rotation that kept the music rumbling throughout the afternoon and well into the evening, which was topped off by fireworks. With this year’s headliner being Godsmack, fans truly were able to embrace some of the day’s popular hard rock and metal bands.
The second stage, sponsored by Monster Energy Drink, was given more attention to make it bigger and better than previous years. The raising of the stage by several additional feet provided crowds a better viewing of the bands. Apparently, this sparked the second stage bands to take their live performances to the next level. The highlight of the day included Airbourne’s front man, Joel O’Keefffe, climbing 20 feet up the stage scaffolding for an old-school guitar solo. Their energy and classic hard rock sound got fans out of the dreary day’s slump and back into a rock festival mood.
The spirited festival event continues to bring an economic boost to the Kansas City area, if only just for a day. The festival also caters to a younger crowd, which maybe wouldn’t have had the income to drop on a more expensive event. However, long lines for frequent food and beverage runs continued to empty wallets. And hanging out with a bone-crushing crowd of 55,000 definitely leads to claustrophobia. In the end, promoters and fans find Rockfest a win/win event.
Main Stage Monster Energy Stage
1:30 – Halestorm
2:40 – Rev Theory
3:50 – Drowning Pool
5:00 – Papa Roach
6:30 – Seether
8:00 – Three Days Grace
9:30 – Godsmack
Monster Energy Stage
12:00 – Taddy Porter
1:00 – Shaman’s Harvest
2:10 – Adelitas Way
3:20 – Burn Halo
4:30 – The Veer Union
6:00 – Janus
7:30 – Airbourne
9:00 – Five Finger Death Punch
