MassConcerts proudly presents the first details for NEW ENGLAND METAL & HARDCORE FESTIVAL 2013, today confirming the dates and preliminary list of bands for this year’s occurrence of the long-running annual event.
For the 2013 installment, the NEW ENGLAND METAL & HARDCORE FESTIVAL will once again overthrow the historic venue, The Palladium, in Worcester, Massachusetts, this year marking the 15th anniversary of the iconic weekend-long gathering! The festivities will commence with a pre-party on April 18th, 2013 and the three official days of the fest following on the 19th, 20th, and 21st.
Commented the festival’s founder Scott Lee of MassConcerts: “I am excited with how far we have come and am ecstatic for this to be on our 15th year! It has been a long, interesting journey. We always try to make it a memorable event and we really hope you all enjoy the festival this year.”
With more than forty acts from all realms of the extreme music world already set to storm the two stages of NEW ENGLAND METAL & HARDCORE FESTIVAL XV -- and with many more to be announced in the coming weeks -- the confirmed headliners for the event will include Hatebreed, Opeth and Suicidal Tendencies, as well as legendary thrash titans Anthrax performing their Among The Living album in its entirety, as part of their headlining spot on the Metal Alliance Tour.
View the full list of bands set to confirm this year below. Tickets for the event will go on sale next Wednesday, January 16th.
NEW ENGLAND METAL & HARDCORE FESTIVAL XV:
Anthrax
Hatebreed
Opeth
Suicidal Tendencies
After The Burial
Alpha & Omega
Antagonist AD
Ark Of The Covenant
Black Breath
Born Of Osiris
The Contortionist
Dead By Wednesday
Death Before Dishonor
Ensiferum
Erra
Exodus
Expire
Fit For An Autopsy
Heidevolk
Hellsot
Holy Grail
I Declare War
Incendiary
Katatonia
Legion
The Mongoloids
Mother Of Mercy
Municipal Waste
No Mercy
Power Trip
Rude Awakening
Saving Grace
Shadows Fall
Suburban Scum
Those Who Fear
Trap Them
Trollfest
Twitching Tongues
Tyr
Within The Ruins
Xibalba
Since 1999, the NEW ENGLAND METAL & HARDCORE FESTIVAL has showcased a vast array of metal and hardcore acts across two stages, while also providing merchandising and promotional areas for record labels and other vendors, at Worcester, Massachusetts’ massive venue The Palladium.
Stay tuned for a torrent of continuous updates and coverage opportunities for the NEW ENGLAND METAL & HARDCORE FESTIVAL are made available via Earsplit PR, an official sponsor of this year’s event.
Lately, I have been really hard on music. By this I mean, it has been hard for me to find something I could listen to over and over and not get tired of it. It’s been a while since I have been excited about a traditional punk band. When I say traditional punk, I’m talking about old-school hardcore punk. Bands in the vain of Bad Brains, Black Flag, MDC, Suicidal Tendencies or Minor Threat. Bands that meant something and were not just making punk music to profit off it. The band that has me excited about punk again is the band Cerebral Ballzy. These guys are a total throwback to the in your face bands of the 80’s. Case in point: I work at a tattoo shop with a guy named Troy. This guy hate ALL NEW hardcore bands but he love Cerebral Ballzy. Troy’s a guy who grew up on hardcore, back when it was punks vs. skins and fights broke out at every show. For him to take interest in a new throwback style hardcore band says a lot.
I had a chance to see Cerebral Ballzy live a few weeks ago in Dallas. Talk about an energy filled performance, singer Honor Titus was all over the place. On stage jumping around, hanging off the wall and ceiling mounted speakers and even taking the show to the floor: pushing the crowd out of the way and walking across folding tables (and drunkenly toppling them over and falling to the ground). His stage presence was great. Another thing about his performance I loved was how before each song he would in a drunk slurred stooper explain what each song was about before starting to play. Stating, “This song’s about pizza!” “This song’s about beer!”, “This song’s about puking!” or “This song’s about pizza, beer, puking and pizza!”. I was enthralled by the boys in Cerebral Ballzy to say the least. I had to pick up their debut Self Titled LP. Boy am I glad I did! Now on to the jams!!
The track “On The Run”, leads things off with a vengeance. Think Bad Brains inspired ferocity. Not what the Bad Brains with H.R. are now but the intensity they had when they first started out in D.C. “They wanna restrain me, they wanna punish and torture me”, are the opening lyrics to a very powerful song. This is this centuries answer to Black Flag’s “Rise Above”.
My favorite track on this album is the song “Junky For Her”. This is basically a song about being enthralled with a girl and not being able to get enough of her. This is one of those songs that hits home, as being a “junky” for a girl is the only addiction I have ever had, well aside from my need for music.
Other standout track on this album are: “Sk8 All Day” (this song’s about skateboarding), “Cutting Class” (this song’s about school) and “Underage Drink Forever” (a bonus track about beer).
Cerebral Ballzy are one of the up and coming punk bands to be aware of. They have already garnered significant attention after being featured on Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” and having just gotten off a tour with Punk Icon, Keith Morris’ Off! And Justin Pearson’s Retox. Do yourself a favor and pick up Cerebral Ballzy’s debut LP and get your punk ass to a show.
Cerebral Ballzy goes good with: Bad Brains, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, Fucked Up, Off!, Circle Jerks, Fear, Youth Brigade
Continuing on with our journey through Taang! week, we find this delicious, belly-satisfying smorgasbord of back-in-the-da,y East Bay pun- thrash courtesy of the Part-Time Christians.
Fast and furious? Check. Anger spat out in a spleen venting eruption? Yep. Gut-wrenching, grinding guitar riffs? Oh, yes. An absolutely bizarre fixation with . . . bowling? Uh, yeah. We got that too. Forget skate punk. The Part-Time Christians may just be the world's founders (if not the only members) of the Bowling Punk genre. Yeah, maybe you hadn't heard of it before now. But you should, because the P.T.C.'s are killer at what they do.
I gotta admit, I took to this CD a bit more rapidly than I may have otherwise once I read the liner notes where bassist-cum-lead screamer Cosmo lays out a tale that hit real close to home. And I mean that literally. While I'd never heard these guys before, it seems they formed back in my days, right in my backyard. In those notes Cosmo reveals how he left his evil step-dad's home in Iowa and moved west to Modesto and then Concord, California. Knowing that Concord was just a stone's throw from SF and having just seen his first Dead Kennedys show, he envisioned himself knee-deep in an alternative culture where punk kids ruled society, hardcore was the national anthem, and piercings and punk attire was the Gucci couture. Big mistake. Back in the early '80's, as Cosmo soon discovered, Concord, California was "quite possibly the most outwardly racist, heavy metal hell" he'd ever set foot in. And it was. I know this. I nearly got my ass kicked several times growing up outside of Concord. And I was a metal head! But the difference was I didn't wear my AC/DC allegiance on my sleeve, drive a pick-up, and spout out like a lunk-headed, jock jackass. I was into Maiden and Saxon and Motorhead back when Concord didn't know they existed. In their one-neuron-shared mind, I was just as weird as the punks were. So I got on well with the punk kids. I wasn't one of them, but I was just as much an outsider by musical proxy as they were. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that rubbish.
Despite this wall of hatred around them, Cosmo managed to field together a band, get East Bay Ray from The Dead Kennedys to listen, produce their initial stuff and release some 7"'s on Alternative Tentacles Records. After a blitzkrieg career that found the East Bay band playing alongside such acts as the Dead Kennedy's, Suicidal Tendencies, T.S.O.L., Exodus, Social Distortion, Butthole Surfers, Faith No More, Death Angel, and the Lords of the New Church, the band broke up. Now, 22 years later, P.T.C. has reformed and this Taang! release compiles 21 songs into a must have retrospective and current snapshot of the underground legends.
First up, we get the whole 8 song Rock and Roll is Disco EP originally released in 1984 and appearing here on CD for the first time. And there it is. Everything that made the band tick. A vicious low rumble of bass, a maniacal smashing of cymbals and drum, a larynx shredding vocal attack of pure, unadulterated punk. "Religion on a Stick" just attacks out of the speakers with a huge middle finger raised to the religious hypocrites who "church on Sunday, sin on Monday." Probably just as powerful now as it was back in the day. But the boys don't just vent. There's a pounding to the guitars and bass that captivates. There's some chord progressions that definitely take this out of the ordinary. Dynamic changes. Structure. Nearly a singable chorus. It's pure hardcore of the first order, and possesses that little something extra. "Bonique" follows and again it become apparent that these guys may have been full-on punk, but that doesn't mean they were instrument bashers. They knew how to play, how to write some songs, mash in some heavy metal elements to the punk assault. Truly, they were a hybrid crossover between punk and metal long before that term ever existed. And suddenly, the times they played with Faith No More, Exodus and Death Angel begin to make sense.
Then there's that other thing. The bowling obsession. And when I say obsession, I mean OBSESSION. How do the song titles "Strength Through Bowling", " Bowling Pin Massacre," "Orthopedic Bowling Shoes"," and "Gutterball" grab you? But don't worry, these weren't novelty attacks by the band. "Strength" is a hardcore frenzy of staccato vocals and buzzsaw guitars. "Bowling Pin Massacre" is a very early punk/funk/rap fusion that actually is more fun (and more funky) than you might expect. "Orthopedic" almost qualifies as post-punk with it's chiming guitar lines, while "Gutterball" is anger and venom, just as it should be when your "life is a gutterball."
But one thing that makes this release so cool is the hint of what the future holds for PTC. From their 2008 reunion we get four songs in the form of the P.T.C. Lives EP. With a revamped, but familiar line-up P.T.C. come raging back sounding just a vital as ever. "Chrome (Got What it Takes)" is pure hardcore/metal melding energy. Rampant bass and roughshod guitars buzz under Cosmo's barely contained vocals. This is seriously heavy, seriously intense, and seriously good. It reminds me of the latest Leatherface offering, and if that band hit's your musical G-spot then you really should check P.T.C. out. Compared to back-in-the-day, the songs may be a touch slower, but if anything, they're a bit meaner. A more metallic edge has been ramrodded into the mix. "Electric Fence" almost sounds like a cross between Sabbath and the DK's. Which, if you think about it, is pretty f-ing cool. "Bionic Cop," keeps the crossover heat rising with pure thrash riffery and hardcore gang-vocal choruses. Finally, "One Dead Bee" expands the metal-punk reformation to the epic with its 6:44 assault to the frontal lobe.
Adding to the cool factor of the whole thing is the final section. 8 song demo versions recorded in 1983. Raw, crude. An attitude more than an actual band here, the song's are fun for filling in the history line of the band. But truthfully, with the rough sound quality, these are probably more of interest to committed P.T.C. fans rather than new acquaintances. Still, some of the cuts that never made it onto the Rock and Roll is Disco EP are pretty fricking fun, like "Sex in a Sub-Compact" and the gothic/punk horrorscapade of "Cemetery" leading the pack.
Funny, how I had to wait 27 years and needed the assistance of a Boston-formed punk rock label to introduce me to guys that fought the same battles I fought back in high school, right in my own backyard. But there it is. I'll be looking for the next P.T.C show in the Concord area and be sure to be there moshing to welcome back the boys.
Since their beginnings in Venice, CA in the early ‘80s, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES have led the charge in the skate punk/thrash metal movement, consequently influencing an entire generation of bands along the way.
Now all true fans get a little post-Christmas treat. Live At The Olympic Auditorium, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES’ first ever DVD release! The DVD will street January 26, 2010 via the band’s own imprint, Suicidal Records. The approximately 80-minute DVD features 16 tracks including ST classics “Institutionalized,” “War Inside My Head,” and “Possessed To Skate” and captures Suicidal in their most natural environment: Onstage, uncensored and ready to tear you to shreds.
Elaborated ST founding vocalist Mike Muir: "The band started getting emails from some crazy guy that always said, 'I know you'll probably think I'm crazy, but I'm not. I'm wanna book ST for a show and I got this idea...'. Well, one by one we shot down the 'unique' ideas until one time he emailed and said the Olympic Auditorium was being bought by a Korean Church. Shouldn't it be sent off with a special last gig? The band agreed and then the work began. The promoter -- Evel Dick Donato who went on to win Big Brother -- tells a bit about the show, making of etc. on the intro. Lots of drama, none more than the day before the show when I woke up and couldn't walk. But the show must go on and the back surgery would have to wait till afterwards. Suicidal recorded Live at the Olympic Auditorium in front of 4,000 Cycos...but now you can enjoy it in the safety of your living room."
Buy here:
Tracklisting 01. “Intro” 02. “I Shot Reagan” 03. “War Inside My Head” 04. “Subliminal” 05. “Ain’t Gonna Take It” 06. “Suicidal Failure” 0 7. “We Are Family” 08. “Possessed To Skate” 09. “I Saw Your Mommy ” 10. “Waking The Dead ” 11. “Show Some Love...Tear It Down! ” 12. “Cyco Vision” 13. “Two-Sided Politics ” 14. “Won’t Fall In Love Today” 15. “Institutionalized” 16. “Pledge Your Allegiance”
