southernmetalreporter

I was just breezing through some stuff on the Relapse Records site and noticed that ultra grindcore kings Agoraphobic Nosebleed have completed a new album(Agorapocalypse) and are gearing up for the release. The date set as of now is April 14th for North America and April 20th everywhere else. This is the first album with new vocalist Kat,the rest of the band is rounded out by Scott Hull, J.Randall and Richard Johnson. The album was recorded by Scott Hull in his own Visceral Sound Studios. If you are a grindcore fan and not familiar with Agoraphobic Nosebleed I urge you to get off your tail and check them out, they are the real deal when it comes to this genre of music.

Whats up everybody? I am back, should have been back Sunday, didn’t get to it, was just plain flat out to lazy yesterday,but today i get up and see some news I like! If any of you are familiar with the big Bonnaroo festival that has been a national music festival phenomenon the last few years here in Tennessee then you might wanna try and hit it up this year. Nice mix of good metal to go with all the other eclectic mixes of music. Last year we got Metallica and Mastodon, this year we get Nine Inch Nails and Down! i couldn’t be more excited about this. I live about 25 minutes from the concert site so its basically right in my back yard as far as concerts go. It really is a cool experience to see bands like that play in front of the large amount of people that show up at this thing. I can only imagine Nine Inch Nails will have one killer show to see up on that massive huge main stage at night out in the open air. Also, if you are open to other types of music which i hope you are we have other big acts in the way of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band and The Beastie Boys and i am sure there are some Mars Volta Fans and Phish fans out there. It’s a great festival with lots of stages and lots of things to do, they have comedy tents and all kinds of art shows and weird exhibition shows its and all around great time in a small town. This show brings more people to town that the town has residents. It was a real oddity seeing Metallica and Chris Rock in front of 70,000 people in little Manchester Tennessee last year. Anyway, check this out. It’s 4 days worth of camping and music and all kinds of different fun. Tickets are probably a lot to swallow for a lot of people in this economy but it is a great time if you can afford to get to it.The festival will be held June 11-14 this year. Check out the full lineup and tickets here. Time slots are not set yet but it wont be to much longer to find out who plays on what day.

Click here. I just check for ticket registration and the link for tickets was up. It went down for a bit but looks to be back up now. I put in for mine. Go put in for yours before they are gone. Free Mastodon and Neurosis and High On Fire and Pig Destroyer people!!! Go check and see if that link is still up and get yours now!

One more reason to hit the California Metal Fest on March 28th has just been given. Mighty thrashers Exodus have been confirmed. I would love to see Exodus and would attend just for them if i live in or near Anaheim. Not to much to add to that, just thought i would let ya know because that is a pretty big addition to the show. 

Again, I was roaming around the net and ran across some new tour dates over at Lambgoat. Converge are doing a few shows before they hole up in the studio for their new album. Dates are down below and they will be joined by Ceremony,Coliseum,Rise and Fall and Pulling Teeth and it looks like the last date will be shared with Genghis Tron and that is a show i would like to see but i can’t. That sucks for me but maybe you are from that area. If you are, get out and see them.

3/23 Allston, MA @ ICC Church
3/24 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
3/25 Cleveland, OH @ TBA
3/26 Lemoyne, PA @ Championship
3/27 Brooklyn, NY @ Europa
3/28 Richmond, VA @ United Blood Festival
3/29 Philadelphia, PA @ The First Unitarian Church w/ Genghis Tron

I was just roaming around Blabbermouth and ran across a headline that may just make my cruddy week and crappy month a little better. It was a headline indicating that the rumors and possibilities are very strong that Slayer will be taking Suicide Silence out with them for a summer tour this year. If you are into these two bands i really don’t need to say anything to stress how ridiculous that tour would be so i will just leave it at that. It isn’t official yet but it’s on the table and rumored to have strong truth to it. Slayer,Suicide Silence and bands to be named later as if they needed more.Needless to say i will follow this story and update on this as soon as anything else surfaces.

I recently reported on the free rock show coming up in Atlanta Georgia, The Scion Rock Fest. This show just got way better. The original lineup of bands has been updated and added to and this show is now officially stacked. It was already a stellar lineup but it is now officially insane and i cant believe they are giving the tickets away for free. The bands added to the show are Converge, Pig Destroyer,Septic Flesh,Coalesce,Trash Talk, Evil Army,Us Christmas,Gaylord, and Apocalyptic Visions. Again I stress to you this show is free and is being headlined by Mastodon, High On Fire and Neurosis and many other good bands. The ones i listed above are just the newly added bands. Tickets will be up for grabs starting at 9 a.m. on January 28th and the show will be taking place exactly a month later on February 28th. there will be a limited number of tickets as The Masquerade is not a huge place and this also means that if you get tickets you had better plan on getting there early well before the doors open up. You can find any additional information at the official Scion Rock Fest web site.

Some new Romantic Destructo news for today,I’m telling you people to get on board with these guys. I plan to drill them in your head. Ok, that sounds a little to pushy, but I am going to do my part in selling this band and getting you to buy in as new fans. But onto the heart of the issue. Romantic Destructoposted up the latest in whats going on with them on Myspace today. They are still getting geared up for the studio and the release of their first full length with DEKA Records, while getting things in line for that they are keeping warmed up with some live shows and they have posted a new date. They will be playing February 8th at Loudhouse Coffee in Greenbrier Tennessee. The show is listed on the Loudhouse Myspace as opening up at 6pm. The show will feature Romantic Destructo along with Precore,Sunlit Ether,The Asendicate,and Manifested Demise. There is no reason this should not be a good show and i encourage anyone within shouting distance to hit this up and enjoy some new stuff. Romantic Destructo also posted up a picture of what their first t-shirt is going to look like. That big picture at the top of this entry is said shirt. Want one? I Do. Believe i will have to pick one of those up when they get them done. Well that’s the latest from those guys. Keep posted and I will bring it to you as i get it and have you all informed and ready to go when that new album is done.

For any of you readers, if I have any, that live in California,the California Metalfest is looking strong. Looks like some pretty heavy hitters have signed up and there are supposed to be more on the way. California Metalfest will be taking place on March 28th at The Grove in Anaheim California Nuclear Blast,Century Media and Metal Blade records are all sponsors of this even so a good lineup is really to be expected. Some of the participants of this years show include Carcass,Suffocation,Samael,The Faceless,my personal favorites Whitechapel,Arsis,Decrepit Birth,Veil of Maya and Psycroptic and more to be announced sometime soon. Pretty big lineup and already worth getting tickets and they still have more to come. Makes me wish I could live in California for a few days since we don’t get much of anything like that here in good ole Tennessee. If you live in California and you like the metal, you cant get much more bang for the buck than this for a day so get on over there and hang out with your….out and rock out with your….out. You fill in the blanks

I guess this will be my third post in as many days dealing with free streaming albums,seems too be popular these days. Today’s free tunes comes from the old codgers of the Grindcore scene,Napalm Death. Lets just say that being around forever and a day has not slowed these guys down or kept them from writing good music.Napalm have been doing their deal for 27 years and they can still hold it down. Right now on their Myspace page HERE you can hear their entire new album “Time Waits For No Slave” all the way through for no cost. It is well worth the time to go take a listen. The last couple of albums from Napalm Death have been really really good. The fact that these guys have been doing this kind of music for 27 years is amazing and the fact that it doesnt show what so ever in the music is even more amazing. Going over to take a listen to this is definitely my tip for the day. Get out and see these guys live if you get the chance. I saw them a few short years ago when “The Code is Red,Long Live The Code” came out, they played with Goatwhore and Cattle Decapitation and more than held their own with these much younger bands.Fan friendly guys as well, they appreciate the fact that people still come out to see them. Go take a listen to the new stuff and catch them live if they get anywhere near your town.

Max has been gone from the band for ages and Igor left a short time ago, so neither of the founding Cavalera brothers are left in Sepultura. It Seemed strange enough when Max was gone but Derrick Green stepped in and the band kept going. Green is not a bad vocalist by any means and is actually pretty good but i am like a lot of other fans and just went completely indifferent once Max was gone and every time they release a new album you just see it and say “hey, there’s another Sepultura album coming out, I wonder if it’s any good?” and that is the last time you think about it. I think this will be the case even more so now that Igor has also left the band and joined up with Max to do the Cavalera Conspiracy project. Regardless of all that, Andreas Kisser keeps on plugging away. He and Paulo jr. and Derrick got themselves another drummer and have another post Max and first completely Cavalera free album out entitled “A-Lex”. I’m sure there is some sort of concept idea with the title but I’m not going to dig into that right now. My job for the moment is to let you know that the whole entire album is currently posted up HERE . Andreas Kisser really is a pretty damn good guitarist and song writer so i’m sure there is some decent stuff on there, we just have to find a way to get ourselves interested. There it is. Go take a listen if you like,it don’t cost nothin’.

Here are a couple of links to see some Romantic Destructo video’s of the band performing live. I have had trouble with video showing on here when I embed it so i am putting the links that will open to a new window when you click it. I know that sucks more than just watching them here….but what can ya do sometimes. Just go watch and enjoy.

Everlasting Nothing

Panty Dropper 69

Romantic Destructo is a band you will be seeing on here pretty regularly if you follow this page at all. Why? I want to see them do good and make it out of town and show everyone some more of what Tennessee has to offer. They will make good representatives of the things we have going on here and they also just seem like good guys.Try and keep up with them, i will do my best to keep you updated on what they have going on. Here is their latest post from Mysapce that gives you a pretty good idea that these guys just like playing their tunes and doing their thing and are happy to be getting somewhere. Here ya go, straight from their mouth.

“well we will be headed in to the studio march and april to record the full length debut on deka records. we will most likely be touring a lil this summer in a town near u. we have a show in coulmbia tennessee tomorrow @ atomic rocket lounge we hope to see a few people there .we can not wait to embark on this great oppurnity we are really blessed that our music is about to be our liven which at first we may be broke fuck it we love life not money take care r.d”

In what will definitely be one of the bigger selling and successful tours of the year as it always is, Distrubed’s Music As A Weapon tour has been announced for 2009. I have my own personal struggles with deciding wether or not I like Disturbed on a day to day basis, but with those things aside I kinda feel bad for those guys on this tour. Disturbed need to both hug and slap the promoter that finalized this lineup. Hug the guy for putting together a tour that is going to sell a serious amount of tickets, but slap him for putting together a lineup that will kick the crap out of them every night before they even take the stage. Here is who Disturbed will follow every show for the entire tour. Lacuna Coil,Chimaira and Killswitch Engaged. Having seen Killswitch before I pitty the fools that have to follow these guys anyway but add in Lacuna Coil and Chimaira i just don’t get how this tour works for Disturbed unless the crowd that shows up is 90% Distrubed fans, which could happen but that is one serious set of bands to have to follow up on your own tour. I know Disturbed has been working a little harder the last couple of years on building their metal credibility and kudos to them for taking these bands with them, but it will be a hard night for them every night. Regardless, this should be a good show to go see, Disturbed have been pretty good about taking out good tours with pretty decent ticket prices in recent times so i recommend supporting this if for no other reason than the supporting bands. The official web site (www.musicasaweapon4.com) for the tour will be up and running on January 27th. and will have all the official dates, locations and exhibition information.

Lamb Of God have made their tour plans official and it’s a good one. Lamb of God will be joined by God Forbid,both of which have highly anticipated new albums ready to go. Also on the bill As I Lay Dying, Children Of Bodem and Municipal Waste. Thats about as metal of a tour as you can get. dates have been announced and they are as follows. if you can get to one of these shows. Do it.
April 2, 2009 - Dodge Theater - Phoenix, AZ

April 3, 2009 - Palladium - Los Angeles, CA

April 4, 2009 - Events Center - San Jose, CA

April 5, 2009 - Crest Theater - Fresno, CA

April 7, 2009 - Paramount - Seattle, WA

April 8, 2009 - UBC Thunderbird Arena - Vancouver, BC

April 10, 2009 - Shaw Conference Center - Edmonton, AB

April 11, 2009 - The Coral - Calgary, AB

April 12, 2009 - Praireeland - Saskatoon, SK

April 13, 2009 - Convention Centre - Winnipeg, MB

April 14, 2009 - City Auditorium - Thunder Bay, ON

April 16, 2009 - Ricoh Coliseum - Toronto, ON

April 17, 2009 - Cepsum - Montreal, QC

April 18, 2009 - Palladium - Worcester, MA

April 19, 2009 - Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA

April 21, 2009 - LC Pavillion - Columbus, OH

April 22, 2009 - Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA

April 23, 2009 - Blackham Coliseum - Lafayette, LA

April 24, 2009 - Verizon Theatre - Houston, TX

April 25, 2009 - Concrete St. Ampthitheatre - Corpus Christi, TX

April 26, 2009 - Palladium Ballroom - Dallas, TX

April 28, 2009 - Fillmore - Denver, CO

April 29, 2009 - Uptown Theater - Kansas City, KS

April 30, 2009 - Myth - St. Paul, MN

May 1, 2009 - Congress Theater - Chicago, IL

May 2, 2009 - The Pageant - St. Louis, MO

May 3, 2009 - Egyptian - Indianapolis, IN

May 5, 2009 - Expo Five - Louisville, KY

May 6, 2009 - Fillmore Theater - Detroit, MI

May 8, 2009 - Roseland Ballroom - New York, NY

May 9, 2009 - Convention Center - Asbury Park, NJ

May 11, 2009 - Rams Head Live - Baltimore, MD

May 12, 2009 - House of Blues - Boston, MA

May 13, 2009 - Washington St. Armory - Albany, NY

May 14, 2009 - TBD

May 15, 2009 - House of Blues - Myrtle Beach, SC