Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

The moment that rockers and metalheads down in Florida have been waiting for for over a year and a half, better known as Welcome To Rockville, is just two weeks away.  Initially slated to take place in May 2020, it was postponed due to you-know-what.  However, given that things have been easing off gradually, touring has made a comeback, and mass gatherings are allowed again, Welcome To Rockville 2021 is set to go down on the weekend of November 11-14 in Daytona Beach at the Daytona International Speedway.

The four-day juggernaut will feature headliners Slipknot, Disturbed and Metallica.  Metallica will be playing on the Friday and Sunday nights where they will play two unique sets.  With the shows they've played so far with this format, the first night will feature songs from throughout their entire career, but won't feature one song from the Black Album......until their second night, where they will play the Black Album in its entirety in celebration of its 30th anniversary this year.  That already sounds like a smoking weekend, eh?

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

Given that the pandemic seems to be slowly but surely easing a bit, touring has been making a comeback, which is great, but there are shows and tours still getting postponed amid restrictions that are still in place, but hopefully, just hopefully, this won't be an issue come spring of 2022. 

​That being said, DragonForce have announced an extensive North American headline tour for the spring, which is set to start on March 7 in Santa Ana, California, and run for a total of 38 shows before coming full circle to wrap up on April 23 in Berkeley, California.  This will be the band's most extensive North American headline run since 2008 (if it happens).  Special guests on the tour will be Battle Beast and Seven Spires.  However, Battle Beast will miss the first 10 shows before joining the tour on March 20 in Denver.  Tickets go on sale this Friday, October 29th at 10 AM local time.

DragonForce will continue touring in behind their last album Extreme Power Metal, released in late 2019.  They only ended up playing a small batch of shows in support of the album before the world got shut down due to the pandemic, so it seems only fitting that the band finish off their touring commitments for the album before continuing on with the next chapter with a new studio album.

At the same time, the band have yet to announce a new permanent bass player, or who will be filling on bass for the tour, because they've been without a bass player since 2019 when Frederic Leclercq left to join Kreator.  While touring in behind Extreme Power Metal, the band had Alicia Vigil filling in on bass.  However, it is unclear whether she will continue handling bass duties for the upcoming dates, or if they will get somebody else.  Stay tuned for details regarding that one.

The band have also premiered a new hilarious music video for the song "Strangers", which you can watch down below.  In the video, the band dress up as rockstars from the 80s, and even use Steve Vai's guitars from the Whitesnake and David Lee Roth eras for good measure.

In the meantime though, you can see the full routing for the upcoming North American tour down below.  Fingers crossed it will come to fruition, because a lot of international bands cancelled their tours due to travel restrictions and visa issues.

Mar 07 - Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory *
Mar 08 - San Diego, CA @ Observatory *
Mar 09 - Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trad Post *
Mar 10 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre *
Mar 11 - Seattle, WA @ Neptune *
Mar 13 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom *
Mar 15 - Calgary, AB @ Palace Theatre *
Mar 16 - Edmonton, AB @ Union Hall *
Mar 18 - Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory *
Mar 19 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
Mar 20 - Denver, CO @ Oriental Theatre
Mar 22 - Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theatre
Mar 23 - St. Louis, MO @ Red Flag
Mar 24 - Milwaukee, WI @ Rave II
Mar 25 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Mar 26 - Chicago, IL @ Metro
Mar 27 - Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew's Hall
Mar 29 - Ft. Wayne, IN @ Piere's
​Mar 30 - Toronto, ON @ Opera House
​Mar 31 - Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre

Apr 01 - Quebec City, QC @ Imperial Bell
Apr 02 - Worcester, MA @ Palladium
Apr 03 - New York City, NY @ Irving Plaza
Apr 05 - Reading, PA @ Reverb
Apr 06 - Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
Apr 07 - Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage
Apr 08 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre
Apr 09 - Greensboro, NC @ Arizona Pete's
Apr 10 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Apr 12 - Tampa, FL @ Orpheum Theatre
Apr 13 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution
Apr 15 - Dallas, TX @ Amplified
Apr 16 - Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
Apr 17 - Austin, TX @ Come & Take It Live
Apr 19 - Mesa, AZ @ Nile Theatre
Apr 20 - Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
Apr 22 - Los Angeles, CA @ Belasco Theatre
Apr 23 - Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre

* No Battle Beast

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

It's been four years since they last put out a record, so that means it's high time for new music from Arch Enemy.  Well, the good news is that they are back with their first new song since 2017 called "Deceiver, Deceiver", and the music video is available for streaming down below.

​At the moment, they haven't announced anything regarding a new studio album, but given that Will To Power came out four years ago, it wouldn't be surprising if they were just releasing this song as a teaser for an album announcement that's to come soon.  We'll have to wait and see.  In the meantime, enjoy the new Arch Enemy track down below.

Blog author:  Alex Stojanovic

We're a week away from the release of Trivium's upcoming album In The Court Of The Dragon, which you can read our review of here.  Given that it's been almost two months since they released the last single "Feast Of Fire", it was obviously time for another taste, so the boys decided to go big, and release the music video for the epic closing track "The Phalanx", which you can watch down below.  For the video, the band teamed up with the developers for the video game Elders Scroll, and combined clips from the game with the band playing at their Hangar.  The song also features orchestrations composed by Ihsahn.  Fun fact about this track was that it was initially written during the Shogun sessions back in 2008, and was left as it was, with the exception of the bridge.