Download Festival 2010 is getting bigger and bigger! Here are the newest bands added to the festival bill:
Coheed and Cambria Airbourne HIM Dillinger Escape Plan Cinderella Steel Panther We Are The Fallen 36 Crazyfists A Day To Remember Whitechapel Hell Yeah The Blackout Dommin Taking Dawn Job For A Cowboy Saxon RATT Unearth Lawnmower Deth Rise To Remain August Burns Red Y&T
Single day tickets are on-sale today! Check out the rest of the lineup (including Aerosmith, AC/DC and Rage Against the Machine) and day splits here. Amazing lineup if you ask me - best festival of 2010 so far.
Treat has a new album called Coup De Grace. I haven't listened well enough to do a fair review, but I will before Wednesday when I speak with the band. In between watching CNN and C-SPAN last night, I checked out some classic Treat on YouTube. Really, I think I basically love all rock bands from Sweden. Maybe I should move there! Nah, I'm a proud American...still, Sweden Rock Festival calls my name...
Cinderella played their first show in years Friday night at the Grizzly Rose in Denver. I trolled YouTube looking for videos but didn't find much - just a lone clip of the band's (apparent) first couple songs of the night. The clip is of "Second Wind/Push Push" and is a little hard to discern at first but gets better as the clip rolls on. Cinderella immediately packed up their gear and headed for Utah last night for another "warm-up" show. The band will play Verona, New York on April 8th and Philadelphia on April 9th.
Someone on Metal Sludge posted the setlist:
Second Wind / Push Push The Last Mile Night Songs Somebody Save Me Heartbreak Station Coming Home Fallin' Apart At The Seams Long Cold Winter Gypsy Road Don't Know You Got (Till It's Gone) Nobody's Fool Shelter Me Shake Me
As you know, Cinderella is booked for a lot of festivals including Rocklahoma, Shiprocked, M3 and Sweden Rock. Come on summer!
Welsh metallers Bullet For My Valentine will release Fever April 27. The new album is a wildly anticipated follow-up to the 2008 release Scream Aim Fire. Fever has 11 tracks:
01. Your Betrayal 02. Fever 03. The Last Fight 04. A Place Where You Belong 05. Pleasure And Pain 06. Alone 07. Breaking Out Breaking Down 08. Bittersweet Memories 09. Dignity 10. Begging For Mercy 11. Pretty On The Outside
So, what does the album sound like? In a word, "Bullet." There's a lot more aggression on Fever than Scream Aim Fire, but the album is definitely commercial enough to make a big splash. The band never strays from their signature harmonic guitars. The songs are a mix of melodic and thrash. Sure, this isn't in-your-face metal and no, it's not Glam - but that's not BFMV. The band is a sort of mix of all those things and for them, the formula works.
I love the song "Your Betrayal." I actually think it could fit on the band's first album, The Poison. Matt Tuck doesn't seem to be having any vocal issues at all on Fever and he sounds especially good here.
What is my favorite track? "A Place Where You Belong," natch. Awhile back, singer Matt Tuck told Metal Hammer there wouldn't be any ballads on Fever. Well, that was before he and the rest of the band created "A Place Where You Belong." Don't worry: the song isn't gooey. We're talking dark themes here. The song actually revolves around suicide, so there's a real, believable element of pain.
"Will you wait for me?/I'll see you on the other side," Tuck sings before a lengthy guitar solo.
The special thing about Bullet For My Valentine is that they are not afraid of guitar solos. The band knows an appropriately written and placed solo can really drive a song. This is never more true than on "A Place Where You Belong."
Is this metalcore? Well, I don't know. I think BFMV is metal, plain and simple. The band has been accused of trend hopping in the past, a charge I just don't get. Songs like "Begging for Mercy" certainly don't sound like something your average drive-time DJ would spin but boy, s/he should. If "A Place Where You Belong" is my favorite track on Fever, then "Begging for Mercy" is a close second. The song is fast and begins with those famous growls sprinkled all throughout The Poison and Scream Aim Fire. This is definitely the "get in the pit" song on Fever.
The first official single from Fever is "The Last Fight." Again, this is a fast one, but there's that melodic guitar overtone which always equals radio play. The drums receive some special attention here, too. Sometimes Tuck's Welsh accent seems heavy and others, non-existent. On "The Last Fight" it's pretty clear Tuck has an accent, but it doesn't detract from the song. "Can you See me through bloodshot eyes?" demands Tuck on this one. In a lot of ways, "The Last Fight" sounds the most classically metal, especially when the song reaches the apex of the breakdown. You'll like this one.
My early prediction? Fever will make my top 10 best of 2010 list for both this site and Noisecreep. Mark it.
Don Gilmore produced Fever. Bullet For My Valentine are touring this spring with support from Airbourne and Chiodos.
Catch my new interview with Matt Tuck soon on Noisecreep.
I always knew Warren Buffett rocked and now there's proof! The financial expert donned an Axl Rose-like costume in a new GEICO "music video." The song, entitled "Lizard Ballad: All For You" is below. At the beginning, I'm reminded of the Crash Test Dummies. The music in this clip is freaking horrid, but it's a good ad concept. Even better is that the clip was just for fun at the employee's annual meeting last month. In case you're wondering, the people in the video are actual GEICO employees. (GEICO is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.).
I think it's great Buffett donned the classic Rose kilt. Gotta love plaid.
I've written about Orianthi before. Half of you agreed she rules and the others couldn't get past the fact that she sings pop songs while shredding. Last night, Orianthi performed on American Idol and I was reminded how much I'd love to see her live. It's not even about the singing - it's about watching her hands move on the fretboard. Fantastic!
I just checked Orianthi's website - she's only got a couple live dates planned and neither is near me. In case you're interested, she's playing University of Illinois (Champaign) on April 12 and the Hangout Festival at Gulf Shores, Alabama on May 14. I actually really would love to attend Hangout but three festivals in as many weeks just isn't possible, even for the Glam mistress!
I've been wanting to post the video of Orianthi with Steve Vai for awhile but something always comes up or I get distracted. The clip is great - the song is "Highly Strung" and Vai looks and sounds great here. I'm a fan or harmonics - and I hope you like the song, too.
Tomorrow on Bring Back Glam! a review of the new Bullet For My Valentine album, Fever!
On May 4th, Extreme will release Take Us Alive - a CD/DVD combo via Frontiers. Here's a trailer from the DVD. The show was shot at the House of Blues, in Boston, Massachusetts on August 8, 2009. Check it out!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:01AM 