This weekend, our very own and very talented Chris Collins attended Dallas, TX’s Winter Jamboree Fest and managed to snap pics of Whitechapel, Volumes, Structures, Stray From The Path, In Search of Sight, and The Plagued, as well as a group shot of Volumes, Structures, and Counterparts.
After the jump, browse Chris’ shots from the fest!
The Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival is probably the biggest commercial metal tour in the United States since its inception in 2008. There was a point in my life when I would have loved the shit out of this tour, but I don’t see much to get excited for as far as my own enjoyment is concerned. Not to talk down on the tour or the bands on it; I’m glad there are more huge metal tours like Mayhem making their way across North America than there were when I was first getting into the genre. Hell, I wouldn’t even mind seeing Slipknot, as they’re a band that really pulled me into more aggressive music. I just can’t help but feel underwhelmed, you know? I’m busy being stoked on the possibility of catching Cannibal Corpse, BTBAM, The Faceless, and more on this year’s Summer Slaughter (which will be announced next week. God, I hope I’m right about that lineup).
But some of you are probably excited for Mayhem Fest, and that’s awesome. This year’s lineup is better than last year’s from where I’m sitting, and features Slipknot, Slayer, Anthrax, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, As I Lay Dying, Whitechapel, and High on Fire. Some of these bands are pretty awesome. Some of them.
After the jump, you can peruse the large list of dates to find your hometown or a city in close proximity!
- JR
Rarely do I get multiple opportunities to see the same tour; I’m lucky enough to have one! As you all know (because I never shut up about it), my options are limited to whatever comes within 4 hours of my hometown. With Whitechapel’s upcoming Recorruptour, however (which features Miss May I, After The Burial, The Plot In You, and Structures and Within the Ruins on select dates), I have four possible locations to catch this thing if I cared enough. Personally, I don’t, but it’s nice to know that I could!
So hats off to Whitechapel and the bands on this tour for making sure there is ample opportunity for fans to make it out. Strangely enough, the tour starts in March and ends in May, but there’s an entire month of April that is missing. Strange, but not as strange as Miss May I being billed higher than After The Burial.
Dates for this trek are after the jump.
- JR
Whitechapel01. Section 8
02. Strength Beyond Strength (Pantera Cover)
03. Breeding Violence (Big Chocolate Remix)
04. This is Exile (Ben Weinman Remix)
05. End of Flesh (Acoustic Version)
Much like their western contemporaries in Job For A Cowboy, Knoxville sextet Whitechapel seem to be stepping a bit away from the tropes of deathcore and are making an effort at approaching the realm of death metal. We’ve seen it on 2010′s A New Era Of Corruption with increased quality of songwriting, and Recorrupted continues with the band’s signs of improvement and artistic growth.
Whitechapel always struck me as being either generic or fairly decent until their latest album A New Era Of Corruption dropped. Then I thought they were alright, or pretty good at best. I figured they’d eventually work themselves into a sound I could actively enjoy as their career progressed, and this new Whitechapel track “Section 8″ is pretty damn awesome.
It’s a pretty interesting track that actually makes use of the three guitars. My only problem with the track is the style of mixing and the choice of tones which emphases low end and buries the leads and higher notes underneath, leaving them just barely audible. There’s a lot of cool ideas, and it’s a shame they’re barely audible. The song is still pretty awesome and gets me excited for their upcoming EP, rumored to be titled Recorruption, and is set to include some remixes of tracks, one of which from The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s Ben Weinman. That should be out around November 8th via Metal Blade.
Give “Section 8″ a stream over on the band’s Facebook. A like is required, but suck it up and quit being greedy.
- JR
Chimaira are going to be busy boys this fall. Not only are they on tour with Impending Doom, Rise To Remain, and Revocation as of October 12th, but they will also be linking up with Skeletonwitch (fresh from their headline tour with Kvelertak), Unearth and Molotov Solution about a week after that ends to give you a whole wealth of chances to see them live, if said chance might be your thing.
Jeff took a look at their new album the other week, and we’re pretty excited about all things Kvelertak, Skeletonwitch and Revocation, so you can’t really lose. Respective tour dates after the jump, courtesy of Lambgoat. In the meantime, here’s “Born In Blood” featuring Phil Bozeman of Whitechapel.
- CG
Betraying the Martyrs01. Ad Astra
02. Martyrs
03. Man Made Disaster
04. Because of You
05. Tapestry of Me
06. Liberate Me Ex Inferis
07. Leave It All Behind
08. Life Is Precious
09. Love Lost
10. Azalee
11. When You’re Alone
French newcomers Betraying the Martyrs are one of those types of bands that have a sound you can trace back to nearly countless other bands that have taken the spotlight in their respective genres. As their name would lead you to believe, the band have their sound firmly rooted in metalcore and deathcore. However, Betraying the Martyrs aren’t entirely unoriginal. In and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with not trying to re-invent the wheel. Breathe in Life simply makes a dedicated effort to perfect it, and manages to get shockingly close.
I totally understand why some people don’t like Betraying the Martyrs. The clean vocals and orchestrations may turn some people off. I, on the other hand, absolute adore them. Their vocalist has a low that is comparable to Phil Bozeman (of Whitechapel fame), and it’s all well arranged, orchestrated, and epic. So imagine my day when I found their new video, which you can see here:
My day did indeed become boneriffic, and so should yours, if this kind of thing appeals to you. The video is well shot and well edited but it brings the cheese, and at its core is nothing more than the band doing this awesome tune, which debuted in the form of this video. The song, entitled “Man Made Disaster“, is a total tour-de-force of well produced, well balanced metal, changing moods and time with ease. Some parts honestly remind me of a toned down Deconstruction gone deathcore, which is not a bad comparison at all.
Breathe In Life will be released on Sumerian Records and Listenable Records on September 20th, and I’m foaming at the mouth for it.
- GR
Chimaira01. The Age of Hell
02. Clockwork
03. Losing My Mind
04. Time Is Running Out
05. The Year of the Snake
06. Beyond the Grave
07. Born In Blood
08. Stoma
09. Powerless
10. Trigger Finger
11. Scapegoat
12. Samsara
Cleveland, Ohio’s finest are back with another concrete slab of American metal. After shedding half their lineup last year, they have come back leaner and meaner by adding Daath’s Emil Werstler on bass, Daath’s Sean Z on keyboards/samples and backing vocals, and Bleed the Sky’s Austin D’Amond on drums(although their producer Ben Schigel hammers all the skins on the album). I had the priviledge of seeing this lineup play it’s first ever live show a few months back and they fucking dominated, so I was more than excited to hear what a revitalized Chimaira could come up with for The Age of Hell.
Ingested01. Crowning The Abomination
02. Decline
03. The Consequence
04. A Coming Unperceived
05. This Disgusting Revelation
06. Castigation And Rebirth
07. Manifesting Obscenity
08. 22
09. Kingmaker
10. The Alpha
11. Omega
If you’re already a fan of Ingested then you’ve probably come across some of the promotion for The Surreption and have most likely spotted the stand out word that lies in every single piece. The Surreption is more mature and like a small child learning a new swear word, I shall attempt to get it all out of my system straight away. This is a mature brutal death metal that is more mature compared to the brutal death metal shown on the previous record Surpassing The Boundaries Of Human Suffering mostly because they’ve matured by dropping a lot of the misogynistic gore elements and instead replaced them with slightly less misogynistic gore elements. How mature. For a little more in depth analysis of the sound then, by all means, feel free to read on but for those of you who are already familiar with the sound of Ingested then your best bet is scroll straight down the score and then comment on how lazy/wrong/dashingly handsome I am.
