Two days ago, I posted that we were looking for three to four writers for Immortal Music with honestly very little hope that anyone would even see it. I was very pleased to see that I was incorrect with that, as I woke up yesterday morning to two responses.
Its not a ground breaking amount of answers, but it was still a response and I was extremely excited about it! I did decide to bring one of them on, her name is Alexis and she will be introducing herself to all of you later today or tomorrow. She seems great, and seems to have a fantastic attitude along with a writing style that I enjoyed. Now, here's the reason I'm actually writing this. Its not only to make Alexis feel welcomed, though she definitely is and hope she feels it. Its also to address a previous post, and by that I mean, the one where I first acknowledged that I was looking for writers at all. I still am accepting submissions, however, I think it would be best to build a team slowly rather than all at once. I have had very little experience having writers under me, and I would like to do things right. So I feel like while we learn a rhythm and methods to make everything run smoothly, it probably would be best to work on one one for now. So, you can still feel free to submit your work with some information, but I will be holding off for now on bringing anyone else in. Also as I bring in more people, I will be looking for more specific things. Currently I don't know what those things are, but your music preferences will play a big factor. I want to create diversity so I don't want too many lines to cross. Alexis and one of my other submissions that is on hold for the time being both have similar interests to myself, but also different ones so we can cover more ground. The number one thing I know I want in the future though is someone that enjoys multiple genres, so they can cover a ton of bases. Namely rap, hip hop or anything country. I'm sure there's readers out there that would love to see that stuff as well, but since I am not into those genres even slightly, they've never been reached. So don't feel discouraged if you want to possibly help with Immortal Music! I will be bringing in more, I just want to do a trial run first and work slowly. We are still building, it just takes time! So if you want to submit anything, please go here to see what all your need to send over and then feel free to email me! Meanwhile, please stay tuned because Alexis and myself will be trying to bring Immortal Music back to life! We're hoping to get a bunch of content coming soon, so please stay tuned and be sure to give Alexis a very warm welcome!
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I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I miss Immortal Music. I don't know if anyone else does, or if anyone would even see this, but its true. I miss the entire life that came with music journalism. The planning, writing, promoting, the interacting with fellow music lovers and professionals alike, the shows. I miss it all. It made me feel productive and important and I feel that is something I lack without Immortal Music.
However, all of that being said, I have found it incredibly difficult to find the motivation to write. I can't explain why that is, considering I think about it still on the daily. I think its just because I know I won't get back to where I used to be, and I tend to be quite busy. That's not an excuse, but I think that's why I keep getting discouraged from trying again. I had an idea though, and I wanted to see if anyone else would be on board with it. I was thinking Immortal Music could expand, and I could bring in other writers. I've tried this a little bit in the past, and didn't end up having the most positive experience, but I'm hoping maybe I can do things better. Someone suggested to me a while back that I cover more genres and because of who it came from, I kinda ignored that suggestion. I didn't want any of his advice, and it always seemed to come from a place of negativity anyway. The thought has recently cropped back up though and I've been thinking about it a lot. If we could cover more genres, therefor more ground, maybe a bigger audience could be reached. I could still do whatever I wanted, but then also have branches, if you will. Other people to research news, review albums, tell stories, even cover shows for different genres. For example, I don't care for rap or country, but maybe someone else does and has a passion for writing or photography. So I was thinking of coming up with an application, and interviewing some potential writers. I just have to keep up my end and make sure to edit and post all the content sent to me. Of course there will be some ground rules, though we will get into those soon. First here's the application information. If you are interested, please email me at [email protected] with all of the following information.
I would like to bring in three or four more writers. I primarily listen to rock, pop punk, metal and on occasion heavy metal. If you're into those as well, that's not a problem. I would like to find one more person that likes those genres, especially heavy metal due to the fact that I do not tend to gravitate toward that genre. I also would like to find someone who likes rap/ hip hop, country, and pop. If you like all of that, absolutely apply! As long as you're motivated and interested, I would love to hear from you. No promises that you will be brought on, and I will say this does NOT PAY. I would love to be able to pay my writers but unfortunately, I have never even been paid for this so its a bit out of the question. Maybe one day that will be possible, but until that day comes, the only payment is exposure and experience. I apologize for that, I know that is the last thing any writer ever wants to hear, but we all start somewhere. There will be some ground rules, but we will get into that privately once you've been accepted. No sense in boring everyone with the details. They're important, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. I will say journalism is a lot of fun, a lot of work and can get a little bit stressful at times. We will work together through those times and grow a lot of experience together. So if you're interested in joining the team, and are serious about writing and music, please email me all the information above at [email protected]. You can also private message the Facebook page, but I would much rather the email. Facebook doesn't always show me notifications as quickly as it should, where as I do see the emails. Thank you for your interest, and I look forward to hearing from you! Together maybe we can grow and do something great. Greetings! Its once again been a very long time since my last post. I do apologize for that, that was by far not my intention. If this is the first article you're seeing at all in close to a year and you're thinking, "Ariel, what on Earth are you talking about?" Please click here.
If this is the first time you're coming across Immortal Music at all, then hello! Welcome to Immortal Music, a website made by a music fan, for other music fans! There's a lot of things I have done with this website, and a lot more I would like to do. Back in November, I posted about wanting to start sharing stories regarding music. Stories of concerts, memories that are connected to songs, ect. Those stories were going to come from myself, and anyone else that was interested. However, not a single person expressed interest. I have actually shared a handful of stories, and many more photos over on Instagram, Just after posting that as well, despite all my intentions being there, life changed completely. In that article, I stated that I got a lot of personal gains during my seven month hiatus from Immortal Music, including a place to call my own. Well, just a few short days after that was posted, everything changed. I ended up getting very sick from an allergic reaction, leaving me unable to breathe properly for close to a month. I also ended up moving, and very briefly had three jobs. All that changed, I went down to one job that actually allowed a lot of free time. But, not being able to breathe properly left me highly unmotivated. I also found myself greatly missing my social life, as it went from being abundant and pleasant, to virtually non existent. So rather than focusing on work, I found myself focusing on friendship and art. I've taken my camera out with my a few times now, though I have yet to take it to any kind of show. Local or other wise, though it is a goal. I've found such joy and relaxation almost from taking pictures of anything I could see. Some of my favorite pictures are actually from Epcot's Flower And Garden Festival, and of other people. Don't worry -those other people are not strangers! They're of friends, and my friend's daughter. Looking at the new pictures I've taken has had me reflecting on how much I've grown as a photographer. I've been sharing pictures I've taken between 2011 and now over on Instagram, and most of them are from shows I've covered. Not all, but most. Its made me miss covering shows again. Actually, a lot of things have made me miss shows. Part of it is probably because I was so active in the music world for so many years that I don't know much different. Most everything professional to me, gets related back to the music world because that's just what I know and am used to. Part of it is because I have found my love of music again, and for years my love of music always came with the journalism and wanting to share it with the world. I also still want to try to get people involved, and hear other people's stories, but I can't make people interact, you know? I think honestly I've just started missing everything again. I'm currently working two jobs and honestly don't really have a ton of time, but I sincerely really want to make things work. My issue is I have random bursts of being very ambitious. In my head, I'm the kind of person that can handle two jobs, get a lead on a third, and transition into two full time jobs. I can do both of those, where I'm working probably around 50+ hours a week, manage an up and coming band from another country, cover shows all over the state, write, edit, post and promote it all, and film and edit videos as well. All while somehow finding time to have a social life, and learn to drive as well. Realistically, I know that's not possible at all. I don't say that to be negative, I say that because as I write this I am sick from working a lot and adjusting to such a busy life style again. And I know others are busier than me, and I am by far not complaining. That's actually where my optimism comes from, because I know there are people out there that manage to do 'it all.' Somewhere in my head, I do imagine it will all be possible, it just takes time. I also didn't mean to go on a ramble here, if I'm being completely honest. I had a purpose for writing today and then it turned into whatever this is. The whole reason I started writing was because I do want to get the website active again. I want it to all look very nice, and I want to start posting everything again. Whether or not that really will happen, or how active it will be, who knows. All I know is I do want to make an effort to post random blogs, stories, news, even reviews again. I have requests out to cover two shows, those are Sum 41's Does This Look Infected? 15th Anniversary with Seaway and SuperWhatevr, and the final Vans Warped tour. I'm really looking forward to both, and hope to be able to bring you guys along for either. The Warped tour date I've requested is the absolute last one ever on August 8, in West Palm Beach, and I am just hoping to hear back about it soon. Its been so long since I've even been to a show, and I miss the energy of the crowd. I miss the vibes and the fun, even the chaos that comes with covering a show. I miss it all. Hopefully the motivation stays put and everything works out as planned. Hopefully you guys are here for it as well. I look forward to speaking to everyone soon and trying to get active again. Here's hoping I can do it all and we will talk very soon. Stay tuned. Hi there! Its been quite a while since the last time I posted on here, and I suppose I owe you guys an explanation on that. Maybe I don't, maybe nobody really cares, but honestly that doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is I feel like you guys deserve an explanation on this past year honestly.
If anyone out there is still an active, or even somewhat active reader of Immortal Music, chances are they noticed the decline and sudden stop of content here on the site. It didn't start getting really spotty until the beginning of this year, but it was a bit slower toward the end of 2016. There's a lot of reasons for that, some of which I will not go into details about. I wrote a little bit about it last August, I discovered after looking back while revamping the website. I started hitting a burn out probably around mid 2016. At that point, I had been actively doing Immortal Music for five years, and had the Facebook page that's connected to the site for six. I had made it a goal to do everything and anything I could think of regarding this whole brand many years ago. But there's one slight issue that comes with such a goal. I made that goal before I had what I'm going to call 'A Day Job." When I fully started Immortal Music, I was 18. And while I had been actively applying for jobs left and right since I was about fifteen, nothing had stuck. No job stuck at all until I was 21, to be quite honest. So I went from being able to dedicate 8+ hours to planning, writing, editing, and promoting to making time. And despite what anyone says, this has been a job. I don't make money from it so many have said its just a hobby, but no. Its a lot of hard work, and it does get stressful sometimes. Especially when people start noticing. I started pushing myself even harder just at the risk of never getting anywhere with it. I would see progress and worry that the press people that email me news updates regularly would just stop if I wasn't actively posting. 'Fans' would no longer interact with me. All my hard work would simply go to waste. So I started doing anything and everything I could. Reviewing albums I didn't like, and twisting my own thoughts so they didn't sound like I was hating on them. When honestly, I cannot tell you how many albums I listened to two or three songs from, used those as the songs I wanted to 'highlight' and posted it without giving it a second thought. This happened way too many times because I would hear just the style alone and completely hate it, but feel bad saying so because someone worked very hard on it. I started thinking the more content, the better. If I did an overhaul, people would notice. They would see my determination and realize I was serious and help me do the things I wanted to do. This sparked because of a festival in 2015 called Rock Allegiance. It was pretty much my dream lineup, and I wanted to go more than anything. Only problem was it was all the way in Pennsylvania, and I live in Florida. A friend of mine, whom I met through the Facebook page actually, and had been offering to help me for a long time, came up with the idea that we could work together to promote really well and maybe they would give me a pass for it. A pass, would also come with two tickets. One for me, one for her, and we would meet in person for the first time. This was a great plan to me, and I can't ever seem to do anything half-assed. So I proceeded to make a list of every single album or EP that every band on the lineup had. I don't remember how many there were now, so I'm going to guess around 20. I decided that we were going to make it a goal to review all of their albums, and EPs, post biographies and post any news that revolved around any of the artists, or the festival itself. Even with all that effort in mind, just due to the fact that I'm based out of a state fairly far away from where the festival is held, I figured I wouldn't get it. However, we did manage to get all of that content up, and I emailed the press woman for the festival about once a week with updates. We got it. We got the passes for the festival, but sadly didn't get to go due to some complications life likes to throw at you. I was disappointed for a little bit, but then a similar lineup was announced for Fort Rock. Which, if you've been around for a while, you're aware that I've now actually covered 3 Fort Rock festivals,and have been to all but one. I decided we had to do it all over again, just for this festival. I managed to write 120 album reviews, 22 biographies, and God knows how many news articles, and archived them all, all while working a retail job at holiday time. And this was in the time span of maybe a month and a half, I may add. All so I could cover a two day festival with a lineup I loved. I got it, and because of all that actually got that same festival this year with very little effort. The effort was fully planned, and started but the burn out was hitting very hard. Over 300 reviews are on this website, and admittedly most of them were written in that time. In the time, I was enjoying it for the most part, but for the wrong reasons. I liked feeling productive, and having that much content was definitely actually getting interaction that I had missed having. But I was no longer doing it for fun, or the love of music. I wasn't writing what I liked, I was doing what I felt needed to be written and in a timely manner. I made it a job, I suppose. After so long of doing that, and a lot of things changing in my personal life, I stopped caring. I stopped wanting to do that. So I allowed myself a break and you know what I discovered? My fear of being dropped was proven to be dead wrong, This is the first time in 7 months I have posted on this website and I still get multiple press emails a day. That put my mind at ease, and allowed me to rest. I was able to focus a lot on personal gains, such as in that time I managed to purchase a brand new computer, my first DSLR, finally move out into my own space, and find my love of music again. That's something I definitely found myself getting detached from. I got to the point that I wouldn't listen to a new album until I had time (and drive) to review it. I can't even remember when that started, but I know it took me forever to get around listening to Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco or anything by I Prevail past their cover of "Blank Space" because I wanted to have time to do reviews. I did eventually get around to doing I Prevail's entire discography, but I can't tell you if I ever did one for Death of A Bachelor. All of the albums involved though ended up being things I love and play on a near daily basis. So because of wanting to do so many reviews, and not really having the time or motivation, I was missing out on great music. I was pushing myself away from something that made me insanely happy because I turned it into work. That's not okay, and I think everyone can agree with that. After taking my break, and seeing that no harm was coming from it whatsoever, it got me thinking. Back in the early days of Immortal Music, when it was mostly just fun interactions through Facebook, I didn't know what 'professionalism' was. I talked about what I loved, what other people loved, held discussions, shared lyrics, ect. I fully just celebrated music with other music fans. I didn't worry about thinking someone wouldn't take me seriously, or I would sound like a 'fangirl', if I went on too long about certain bands. I was just having fun. To be quite frank, I think that's why people interacted back then. It was just fun for all, and for the love of music. I can't even tell you when or why I started making it a business and watching what I said online. I just did, and my personality was no longer shining through. Immortal Music has always been a touch of me, but I think over time, you couldn't see who I am through it at all. So, if anyone out there would like to support me in this, I would like to fully celebrate music. You may be asking what exactly that means, but hang on, I'll properly explain. I still probably will do a review here and there, and I probably still will post news on occasion. But its going to be things I'm actively interested in, or someone out there really expressed interest in hearing my real thoughts on. That's going to be the kicker too, I have to make it a point to be fully honest. If I hear an album and I really don't care for it, its entirely okay to say its not my taste. I've always hated disappointing people, so I would always put a positive spin on things. That's really not okay, because technically its lying. What I'm primarily going to do though, is share pictures and stories from now on. I discovered, through this site no less, that I absolutely love photography. I have literally thousands of pictures saved on an external hard drive, and a ton of them have stories to them. Some you may have heard, some you may not have. So I thought it would be fun to focus more on the photography, and stories. I also used to always make fun lists of songs that I loved, some with categories, some without, I would talk about how I got into certain bands and what they mean with me. Anything music related I talked about, and I know others do it too. That's where I really need your help. I know everyone out there has some story related to music in one way or another. Whether its a picture you took from a concert, along with some memory of that night, how you met a musician you adore, or simply what a song means to you. Anything music related, I would love to hear and share. I'm going to create a new page (it may already be up, check the menu, and if its not there yet, please stay tuned) just for you guys and your stories. If you feel like sharing your photos, stories, favorite songs, anything you want that's music related, please do! I haven't quite figured out how I want to do the posting system. If I'm going to do it once a day or how ever much I feel, but we'll work that out as time goes by. Before that though, you obviously need to know how to submit your stories, right? Email us at; [email protected] with all of the following; Your name / Alias Age General location Your photo (if applicable) Your story/ content Your favorite social media w/ link if possible (OPTIONAL) (Example: Ariel /24/ FL Instagram: @Immortalmusic ) Please make sure you only use the content that is yours. Do not go getting an image off of Google and claim it is yours. Please always give credit where credit is due, and get permission whenever possible when using someone else's work. Do NOT give your full name, or address. For your safety, we do not want any of that. We only ask for your name or an Alias so we can give you the credit for your work. I will try to get your stories up as quickly as possible, but bare with me. Nobody will be forgotten, and I will try to email everyone back with a link to their posted article. You are highly encouraged to share with your friends, family, co-workers, pets, aliens -whoever you want! The whole point is to share the love of music with others, so have fun with it. Your content will be shared in a timely manner, and in your words, though I may edit it a bit. I will make sure it is still your work, but some grammatical or spelling errors may be fixed. Hopefully you guys are excited for this revamped Immortal Music as I am, and I hope to hear your stories very soon. Please keep checking the Facebook page and of course the website for future content from me. I have a few stories already planned to share, one of which probably wasn't really ever talked about in the past. I apologize for the long winded post after such a long break and I look forward to speaking with you all soon. Thank you very much for all your support, you are the best and I love you all. April 29th, marked day one of the fifth annual Fort Rock festival here in Fort Myers, FL. It also marked day one of Welcome To Rockville, and together these two massive festivals kicked off what I like to call, festival season. Several others are set to occur in the coming weeks and months such as Carolina Rebellion, the iconic Rock On The Range, Rocklahoma, Rock USA, Northern Invasion, and so many others. I'm hopeful that all of those go very well for those who attend, and by far exceed my experience at Fort Rock 2017. As some of you may be aware, this was my third year in a row covering Fort Rock. I've only missed one year at all, and that was Fort Rock 2014. Every single year something has gone wrong on my end of things, and usually it's just interviews getting jumbled or the press company having some disorganization and misplacing my passes. Something like that. Something that in the end is easy to get past, but in the moment completely ruins my mood and causes a great deal of stress. This year however, apparently things were going a little too well. We got to the venue during Motionless In White's set, and got in the line to get my tickets and passes for the weekend. There was a nice breeze, and the guy up at the media tent actually remembered me from last year, which made getting my pass easier than any other year. Aside from the fact that it sounded like whoever was running the soundboard was sleeping on the job, things were looking very promising. We get inside, and I was just a little too late to cover Nothing More, so we decided to explore for a little bit. We first took a look at the merch, and was sadly disappointed. For the first time ever, I was not impressed with the merch at all. I actually only bought one thing out of the entire weekend, and that was an I Prevail shirt on day two. I posted a picture of it over on the Facebook page, if anyone is interested in seeing it or any other merch I have for that matter. After that we headed over to the FYE tent, because FYE sponsors the event and sells records and CDs. They also have artists, both big and small, come do signings, which was our main reason for looking. Now, ironically, something had been telling me we needed to go to the festival earlier than we did, but due to the heat and not actively knowing why this feeling was there, we did not go. Come to find out, that was because Papa Roach did a signing that had just finished about twenty minutes before we got inside. They were probably still signing things when we were getting my pass. So as a big fan of Papa Roach, that was disappointing, but there will always be another chance in the future. By the time we got done in there, it was just about time to go cover the first band of the day: In This Moment. I had a couple discoveries with them, and I was quite happy with them. For starters, they were extremely smart with the way they had the media enter this year. They set up the barricades in such a way that gave us our very own walk way. This sounds extremely minor, but it actually was extremely helpful. In past years, we were either given nothing and had to fight our way through the crowd, to get all the way up to the barricade or go through the VIP section. Both tended to have similar results -an argument with someone who didn't want to move or didn't think you belonged. So realizing that they actually thought ahead and gave us our own way in was fantastic! Then there was the experience of covering In This Moment. They are honestly a photographer's dream! If you've seen In This Moment, in person or even just in photos, you've seen that they all have a certain aesthetic to them that's very unique, and at times appeared to be inspired by the movie Silent Hill. Not only is that awesome, in person and on camera, but I also discovered very quickly that none of the members of the band, aside from the drummer move very much. I don't know how those watching the performance felt about that, but as a photographer that is constantly trying to capture a moving target, I much appreciated it. I've never had an easier time getting glamorous shots in my life, and I had an absolute ball doing so. It set a great tone for the day -I was sure things were just going to go fantastic. I also had a slightly alarming moment, before realizing what I was looking at. As you can see in the pictures below, they had back up, what I'm going to call 'dancers' on the stage. While I loved their outfits, and over all look, at a glance, it looked like they were completely nude under the outfits. I had a brief moment of questioning if I was looking up at someone's private parts, but quickly realized they, and Maria alike, all had on skin colored leotards underneath. That gave me a good laugh, because I was shocked for a second. After In This Moment was Of Mice And Men, who I actually have wanted and tried to cover for several years now. Surely by now most of you are aware that Austin Carlile, the band's frontman and screamer, departed from the band mostly for health reasons a few months ago, so all the songs were done by Aaron Pauley instead. I've never been a massive fan of Of Mice And Men, I will admit. They've had a handful of songs I've liked over the years, but unfortunately, I must say I was not overly impressed with their performance. There's no particular reason for that, they just....didn't stand out to me. Only things I really want to say is I enjoyed hearing my favorite song from them, "Would You Still Be There" and their brand new song, "Unbreakable." But other than that, nothing stood out to me, which sadly says a lot as those were two of the three songs I photographed. Alter Bridge followed them, and it was basically the same thing to me. I had fun taking pictures, but aside from a song or two that was played while I was photographing, I wasn't overly interested in their performance. Just after Alter Bridge came Three Days Grace. I don't have a ton to say about them, except I actually was more impressed with them then I expected. I've talked about how I feel about modern Three Days Grace in previous posts through out the website, and let's just say the last time I saw Three Days Grace as they are now did not go over nicely. So I actually opted out of covering their performance, but I did pay a great deal of attention to them. I covered most of what I have to say about them in the vlog, so please click here to watch it. I did not actually take pictures of their performance, but got plenty of footage during their set. Unfortunately, here is where things started to drastically go down hill for me. Just as the bands that fully had my attention got on stage too -just my luck, right? Seether came on, and this was actually my third time seeing them, and second time covering them. I must say, I was highly impressed with not only their performance, but the pictures I got. The last time I saw them was at the Hard Rock in Orlando, FL in January 2015 and the venue was working against all of the photographers with the lighting so most of pictures from their performance were not fantastic. This time however, I did get many good pictures, and greatly enjoyed that they played, "Nobody Praying For Me." They did that as their second song, and I was very happy about that because I do greatly enjoy the song, and they did not play it before. However, this is exactly when things fell apart. Two crowd surfers got over the barricade and stopped walking right next to me. They asked the security guard with the hose if he could spray them real quick, I saw him shrug out of the corner of my eye, and then all the sudden was sprayed with water. It got all over me, my camera and the camera of the guy next to me. I quickly borrowed a towel of another photographer to dry it off, and went back to taking pictures. I assumed there was no harm done. Then I went and sat down, just to watch the rest of Seether and was messing with my camera, just to check on it. I then realized it was freezing when I zoomed out, or tried to take a picture. The on / off button was doing nothing, and none of the other buttons were responding. So I popped the battery thing open, and the camera restarted itself. I did this a few times, and the problem appeared to go away. So while this was a new problem I had never experienced before, I tried to brush it off. It was soon time for my favorite act of the night, Papa Roach. I go up there to cover their set, and my camera refuses to cooporate. I would take one picture, and it would freeze, and I would have to pop the battery chamber open in order to take another picture. This whole process wasted a good ten seconds each time, I would say. Which when you only have three songs to get as many pictures as you possibly can -that's a lot of wasted time. I had to give up about half way "To Be Loved" which was the first song, and I fully admit, I was heart broken. Not only was I greatly looking forward to covering Papa Roach, but now my camera was also broken. My camera has been one of my prized posessions, and something I worked hard to get. Not to mention, cameras are extremely expensive, especially when you work at a minimum wage job. Plus not being able to cover the band I was most excited for, when I had every right to, was also very upsetting. I recorded a lot during their set, but my mind the entire time was running a mile a minute, all regarding my camera. I texted my mother, who I am very close with, to tell her what happened, and to confirm that she was going to come get us after Papa Roach was done as originally planned. Rightfully so, she was also infuriated about my camera, and decided to come down to the venue anyways. Now, take this as you will, but somehow, after hearing about what was going on, the security at the front gate allowed my mother into the venue so she could help me find the head of security. She had absolutely no ticket, or pass of any kind, and told them that. She also had her purse, which they did not look in at all. Since she is a good person, this is fine, but for safety reasons, it actually would have made perfect sense for them to not allow her in or if nothing else, at least check her bag. The security guard we talked to though ended up being absolutely incredible, and told us a lot of information while trying her best to help us out. I wish I would have gotten her name, because I greatly appreciated her attitude and assistance. She was guarding the entrance for the VIP section, and my mother went straight to her, I found her soon after. She asked for every detail of what happened, and was furious for me. I even showed her what it was doing, and after that, she asked her supervisor if she could walk away from her post to help us find the head of security, Darnyll and JR. They tried calling JR's cell phone several times, he never answered, and he was no where to be found. We ran all over the place, including up in front of the barricade to talk to other security guards, and toward the behind the scenes area. Nobody could find who we were looking for, and he still wasn't answering. Word was now spreading among the security, and most were upset for me, and almost all were saying they were sorry and it would probably come out of the guy's paycheck. After searching for a good while, the security lady said we were welcome to sit down in the VIP section, and hang out while they waited for some information. By now Chevelle was on stage, and I was trying to focus on their set, not everything that was going through my head. It didn't work, and I sadly was not very impressed with the way Chevelle sounded, though I did recognize more songs than I expected to. We unfortunately had no luck and were asked to come back to talk to JR and Daryll at 8:30 the next morning. I've worked with this company before, which is DAK but thanks ot this experience, I learned a lot about how the company is run. Almost all of the guards themselves were very nice, helpful, and took their jobs very seriously. Which is impressive, fantastic, and highly appreciated. Almost everyone I spoke to had the right attitude regarding everyone's safety, and happiness. The girl that was helping us though also told us how they are treated, and frankly, if all security companies treat their guards like this, all of them need way more respect. As we were waiting with her, she told us that they were from Miami, FL, which is about three hours from here, and were expected to stand in the same spot for sixteen hours without food, smoke breaks, or even a chance to sit down. They even had to be descreet about their water bottles, all for $100 a day. That breaks down to being less than minimum wage here in Florida, and they were expected to do it two days straight. I don't remember what time she told me they got there, but they had to be up and ready to be at the venue by 8:30 on day one, and would stay both days til 11:45pm. They were even told specific rules for while they were at their hotel, like they weren't allowed to smoke at all on the premise. So honestly, next time you see a security guard being unfair, or just coming across as judgemental or moody, cut them some slack. They're dealing with a lot, and are probably more exhausted than most of the people they're trying to protect. The staff was fantastic, as I already said, despite everything they're dealing with. However, at least in my experience, their boss was the exact opposite. We did go meet with them at 8:30 the next morning, and they were both rude, and disrespectful. Neither of them daned to introduce themselves, though we knew who it was thanks to the description we were given. He barely even looked at me, and he was rather condescending. He told me that it was my problem, not theirs, and when he heard how long I've been doing this he just clicked his tongue and says, "Well that's not a very long time, I've been doing this for 30 years." I instantly responded with, "Well I'm only 24, so yes it is a long time." He also tried to tell me that it was in the wavers I signed when I got my passes that they weren't responsible for me or my equipment. I looked, he was dead wrong. Everything I signed, was actually stating that Monster Energy and the PR company had rights to my images, and I was not allowed to sell anything. None of it stated anything about bodily or equipment harm. He barely even apologized, and this was after he basically just shut me down. It was very clearly a back thought that was rather empty. "I'm sorry that happened to you, but what would you rather us do? Save people's lives or your camera?" I told him both because I do agree that spraying people with a hose is a good idea. It keeps people cool, and had I been out in the crowd and this happened, I probably wouldn't have been having that conversation with him. But they're not supposed to spray people in front of the barricade, they're supposed to spray the crowd. I would have even understood this had they pulled someone unconscious or just barely conscious out and had them laying on the ground and sprayed them. But these two girls were fine! They were smiling and laughing, they just wanted a quick cool down. He should have thought about it before he did it, because not only was he extremely close to my camera, but another photographer's and several speakers. There was thousands upon thousands of dollars of equipment that close to us, and if it had been a speaker or something, that could be highly dangerous. All in all, I was very disappointed with this year. The security was great, but they're working for a terrible company, and have a very rude boss. The lineup, aside from a handful of bands, in my opinion was a let down, and the fact that I now have to replace my camera due to someone else's lack of thought, completely ruined the experience. I'll tell you one thing though, for the first time ever I went to a show without my camera. Given, it was under terrible circumstances, but on some level, it was very refreshing. We came back to Fort Rock later that day to watch I Prevail, who as you may know, I've been greatly enjoying lately. Some videos I found on YouTube had me questioning if they were going to live up to their records live, but they exceeded my expectations. They made up for the day before, and I honestly really enjoyed their set. They played two of my favorites by them, "Scars" and "Rise", both of which I got on video and they were definitely entertaining to watch. Their frontman, Bryan was all over the stage and seemed to be having a ball just goofing around as he sang. I look forward to seeing I Prevail again, hopefully when I'm in a much better mood. Fort Rock 2017, you disappointed me greatly. Something goes wrong every year, I expected that, but this took the cake. Hopefully 2018 will go over much better, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it a year from now. If you are interested in seeing any of the content from this year, please head on over to the page to see all of the pictures, and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Over there you will see the vlog, which is already up and several songs, which will be slowly uploaded over the next week. If you went -how did it go for you? I would love to hear anyone's stories and see any pictures or videos you may have. Feel free to share with me in the comments here, or over on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Yesterday Seether announced their seventh studio album, Poison The Parish and released a new song to go with it! The song is called "Let You Down", and if you would like information on the album, please click here. I already wrote about it and gave you all the information, including the track listing, pre-order information, and the album cover. Due to work, I was actually unable to sit down and watch the new music video, but I heard it was rather creepy, and definitely dark. Which is not abnormal for Seether, as most know. The last couple albums have been a little more lighthearted for them, but they've never lost their meanings. Hearing about the subject matter of the song, and the content of the video from a very reliable source, it made me curious. And I decided I didn't want to watch it without giving you guys my feedback. So, before I continue, I'm going to give the very obvious spoiler alert. If you're reading this, and have not heard, "Let You Down" yet, please do not read further until you listen to it. I don't want to ruin it for you, so I have put the video below -as you can very clearly see. They definitely were having fun with the dark elements here....a small man in a bunny suit, with blacked out eyes, coffins in an abandoned area, the black and white. They embraced their inner dark side clearly.
I'm liking the sound, its Seether with a refreshed feeling, and its definitely a very deep song. I can't help but wonder what inspired the song directly. Its very clearly about assisted suicide, which is said during the song. Its spoken in favor of assisted suicide, which is actually rather surprising, due to the fact that his brother committed suicide several years back. I also wonder what it was like on the set of the music video, with all the people in costumes to make them look dead. Surely it was way less disturbing in person than it is in the black and white video. This definitely leaves me curious for what all the album is going to feature, and honestly wonder if they may be about to release some of their best work yet. We all will just have to see, won't we? Evey year, usually right around this time of year, I do the Immortal Music Awards. Generally, the planning for it starts in July, and then from October to the middle to end of December I ask you guys to vote on your favorites for the year. Well, this year, things are going to be a bit different. After doing all I did for Fort Rock, changing jobs, and having a lot of life thrown at me, I completely forgot to do the planning. Which means I had nothing to back it up. I thought I could sort of quickly throw something together and get you guys to vote, but I wasn't sure if it would even work. With the luck I've had with social media in the last year or so, I wasn't sure if people would see anything. I tried to ask on Facebook if you guys wanted me to even bother, and surprisingly did get some answers. They were pretty positive, and surprisingly on my level. That level was wanting to, but not being postive if it would work. So we came to the conclusion as a group to skip the 2016 Immortal Music Awards. However, I didn't feel right skipping them entirely. The first year I did them -in 2011!- I didn't ask for anyone's input. Just made up 'awards' based on my own thoughts. While getting all of your input is way more fun, like I said -I couldn't just leave it alone. So, this is what we're getting this year. Next year, I promise to do it properly again. With the planning, and the voting and then the final proper reveal. I promise I won't drop the ball next year....or at least, I promise to try to not let it fall through the cracks. I'm sorry I did this year. It was a pretty massive year, some of which I will explain when I do the 2016 recap. Anyways, without further adue, let's get into the best of 2016 (in my opinion, of course!) Please feel free to answer with your own awards! I would love to see who you think is the best. Every year, I ask a few questions, and they mostly look forward to the coming year. I wanted to get those out of the way first before I get into the categories. ⦁ Who would you like to see release more content in 2017? ⦁ Who would you like to see tour more in 2017? ⦁ Which album are you most excited about for 2017? ⦁ What was your best moment from 2016? I would like to see more content from All Time Low, Bring Me The Horizon, Saint Asonia, and Shinedown. The only one that I really think will release an album in 2017 is Saint Asonia, and that's only because I know they've been writing new music. I just would like more content from All Time Low, BMTH and Shinedown, but I'm not really expecting too much. Though I vaguely remember something about BMTH writing new music already? That's The Spirit is only a little over a year old, and is doing fantastic, but if the creative juices are flowing, then its possible! I could be completely wrong on hearing that though. As for the touring, I would really like to see All Time Low tour more, as well as Art of Dying -as its been 5 years since I last saw them! They haven't come to Florida in five years -do they not realize that's too long? Also on my list is Falling In Reverse, Papa Roach, Asking Alexandria or We Are Harlot. And I wouldn't mind seeing Neck Deep come around a bit more either. I'm pretty much open to anyone touring more. For the albums I'm really excited about, at the top of my list is Papa Roach's new one! I'm so excited for them to release new music. I absolutely loved their F.E.A.R album, but I admit I'm not overly thrilled with the single, "Crooked Teeth." Its okay, but its definitely not their best work. None the less, I'm quite excited to see what they have in store for us. I'm also curious about As It Is' Okay album which comes out January 20. Then there's my best moment of 2016.... That's a tough one. I have a lot more to say that will just be put into the 2016 Recap blog, but I'll go ahead and say one thing. Which I will surely repeat in more detail in the recap. That was meeting Brent Smith of Shinedown, very briefly while covering their set. That was the funniest way I have ever met someone, and it just amuses me how 20 photographers can get into such a zone that they don't notice a singer crouched down wanting their attention. Go read the recap, I'll tell the story (and many, many more) over there. Enough with the questions....let's get into those categories. I tend to keep the categories fairly basic. and they don't really ever change. I'll try to keep this brief, since this is by far not a brief post. Once again I would like to state that these are just my opinions, and I would love to hear your favorites as well! Best Guitarist: Zach Myers of Shinedown There's a lot of choices, but I decided to choose Zach because I saw Shinedown for the forth time earlier this year, and they never fail to impress me. Plus, I am almost certain he remembered me from when I interviewed him in 2014. Runners up included; Tony Perry of Pierce The Veil, DJ Ashba from Sixx:AM, and Lee Malia from Bring Me The Horizon. Best Bassist: Nikki Sixx of Sixx:AM I decided to pick him because I saw Sixx:AM at Fort Rock this year and honestly wasn't expecting much. I've never been a massive fan of their music, but their stage presence blew me away. Nikki himself is a performer, and then you add the rest of the band to it. That gives you one hell of a show. I did not think of any runners up for this category. Best Singer: Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon. I chose Oli because seeing BMTH at Fort Rock this year was one of the biggest highlights of my year. I find him to be quite talented, and a lot of fun to watch. My only complaint really is how much he encourages mosh pits and crowd surfing. It was fun to watch from the safety of the VIP section, but I had never witnessed so many people come out of a crowd unconcious before. Its simply dangerous. Runners up; Adam Gontier of Saint Asonia, Brent Smith of Shinedown, James Michael of Sixx:AM, and Dennis Stoff formerly of Asking Alexandria. Best Screamer: Austin Carlile from Of Mice And Men Austin has had an incredibly hard year, and he pushed on for a very long time. He's now finally taking some time to recover, which is much needed. He's one of the strongest people I know of, and I for one have all the respect in the world for him. He's recently spoken out about Marfan Syndrome, and stated he will never get better. I can only imagine the battle he's dealing with, not only pyschically but mentally. He deserves a lot more credit than he's given, just for his strength alone. His talents are simply a bonus. The world needs more people as grateful and humble as Austin Carlile and I felt it was worth expressing, despite the announcement of his departure yesterday. Runner ups; Ivan Moody of Five Finger Death Punch. I went back and forth on if he was a singer or screamer, but regardless felt he needed mentioning. Much like Austin, he's been dealing with his own battles. His this year have come in the forms of addiction, and mental health issues. He's showing a lot of strength by helping himself out, and too many fans are not supporting him in this. I for one, commorate such strength. I also wanted to mention David Draiman because won last year, and while I wouldn't exactly call him a screamer, he does put on one hell of performance. Much like Sixx:AM, I did not know what to expect when I saw them live, but what completely blown away. Best Drummer: Barry Kerch of Shinedown I don't have a full reason for this, except for the fact that I enjoy Shinedown as a hole. I only attended two shows this year, which was Fort Rock and Lacey Sturm in a bar in Winter Park, FL. At Fort Rock, I couldn't really see any of the drummers very well, but I did manage to get a picture of a few of them. Barry being one of them. As said earlier, this was my forth time seeing Shinedown live, and I can't say as though I've ever shed light on him, so now I am doing so! Runners Up: Dustin Steinke -touring drummer for Sixx:AM, Rian Dawson of All Time Low, Mike Wengren of Disturbed, and Jeremy Spencer of Five Finger Death Punch Favorite Band: I Prevail I had enjoyed I Prevail's cover of "Blank Space" for all of 2015, and all of this year, but for some reason didn't actually sit down and listen to their original music until later in the year. Where have they been all my life? They're so good, lyrically and musically. I've been missing out on their music, and am very glad I got around to listening to them. Runners Up: Bring Me The Horizon, Shinedown, Papa Roach, Five Finger Death Punch. Best Music video: Follow You -Bring Me The Horizon Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of too many music videos I've even watched this year. Which makes absolutely no sense because I know there's been tons of them. But then this one came to my mind and its totally different from my usual taste. I don't tend to do the zombie thing, but yet it completely worked for Follow You. Best Song: Stuck In Your Head -I Prevail I have been absolutely loving this song. I was extremely late on listening to I Prevail, as I said a few categories above. Their debut album, Lifelines came out in October of this year, and I honestly only listened to it a couple weeks ago. BUT Stuck In Your Head has been stuck in my head (how ironic) ever since. So I decided to pick this one as the best song. Runner Up: Heathens by Twenty One Pilots; Why is it the second you get asked a question you draw a blank on every new song? I suddenly started questioning if anything I listen to all the time came out this year or if it was last year or later. Perhaps its because I was working on this at 5 o'clock in the morning, but Heathens was all that would come to my mind. Funny thing is, I work at a movie theater and since it plays at the end of Suicide Squad, you'd think we would all be sick of it at the theater. Somehow that's not the case, we all happily would listen to it 5 times a day while cleaning the theater, and still to this day talk about it. Just the other day I had to tell one of my managers who it was by again. This was my original answer before remembering Stuck In Your Head which also came out this year and is something I've been loving. Best Album of 2016: Bad Vibrations from A Day To Remember Much like with the best song...I completely drew a blank for a moment on every new album! Then a quick look through my iTunes reminded me of Bad Vibrations. This album had to grow on me because at first, I didn't really know if I liked more than a couple of songs. After listening to it a few times, I realized the album feels quite personal to Jeremy McKinnon which makes it very special. Hottest Female in Music: Melanie Martinez I know that sounds completely out of character for Immortal Music, but honestly she's the first solo artist I've liked in I'm not sure how long. I very rarely like solo artists to begin with, let alone ones that are basically pop. There's something about her that's very attention grabbing, and different. I chose her mostly because of her unique sound and surprisingly dark lyrics, but she's also very pretty. Runners Up: Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, Hayley Williams of Paramore, Lindsay Gunn of Pvris, Jenna McDougal of Tonight Alive. Hottest Male in Music: James Michael of Sixx:AM. I was tempted to give this to any of the boys in Bring Me The Horizon, just because of how much I've been listening to them this year, but I decided to go with James Michael instead because he really impressed me when I saw them live. This is not based on looks at all, though I will say one of my favorite pictures from the year is of him. You'll see it again, I'll probably include it in the year's recap. Runners Up: All of Bring Me The Horizon, Jack Barakat of All Time Low (who was the winner for two years in a row), Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach, Brent Smith of Shinedown (who is just classy), Zach Myers of Shinedown, and Dennis Stoff formerly of Asking Alexandria. I think that about covers it....I hppe you guys enjoyed reading my thoughts on some of the music world talents. I honestly couldn't just leave the Awards alone, but didn't have time to get you guys to vote on everything as throughly and fairly as I have in past years. So, going back to the 2011 roots of the awards felt like the only way to go. I really want to hear your thoughts on each category as well! Who would you have chosen for each? Let me know! Thank you very much for reading, and sticking by me all year. Its highly appreciated, more than words can really express. Stay tuned because I am hoping to be more active in 2017. The fun actually begins January 7, as we will begin posting an album review every single day! All of this is for the 2017 Fort Rock festival, and we're hoping to keep the fun going long after the festival. We shall see what happens! Thank you for all your love and support, and here's hoping 2017 is way better to the world than 2016 was. Look back the Immortal Music Awards! 2011 - 2012 -2013 -2014 -2015 Hello, readers, friends, family, fans -whoever you happen to be! I really hope you've had a great holiday, and are looking forward to 2017. I'm hopeful that its going to bring bigger, better and greater things to the entire world, and am doing my best to start off the new year with a bunch of content. Which actually brings me to something I wanted to address with all of you. As you may have been aware, a few weeks ago we announced the 2017 Fort Rock Project, which was going to contain news, reviews, biographies and the occasional blog post here and there. All of which was going to be for Fort Rock artists. This is the second annual Fort Rock Project here on Immortal Music, and I am still going to do this with the help of Coby Andrews, who joined us earlier this year. The project is going to still be in effect, however, I am going to make a slight change. Originally the plan was to post a review basically every single day, news as often as possible and a biography every week. We still are going to do the reviews, and of course the news is a must, but I've been doing a lot of thinking about the biographies. I think I am going to opt out of them this year, for the most part. There's a few reasons for this, and hppefully they make sense to anyone besides me. The main reason is the fact that hardly anyone seems to read them, which makes sense. A quick Google search will tell you the band's back history, and since its all right there on the internet anyways, it felt sort of redundant to transcribe them all into my own words. Especially given the fact that stats have shown that they are often over looked, despite all forms of promotion. The other reasons go hand in hand with that. They take forever to transcribe, depending on how long the band's history is. I easily can spend an entire week working on one, because I can't dedicate a very long amount of time to write it all in one setting. With my day job, the holidays, or just other content that needs worked on, all the biographies get worked on in segments. Plus, I find them boring to write. As I said before, all the information is easily found online, so it began to feel like a waste of time. Its not that the bands are not interesting, because they most definitely are, it just felt like an improper use of time. I'm not saying there won't be any biographies -you're still more than likely going to get one here and there. Just do not expect to see them every week. However, I strongly urge you to come back to Immortal Music every single day because beginning January 7, there will be a review posted every single day! Also in just a few more days -on New Years Eve-, I will be posting the 2016 Immortal Music Awards, and there may be a 2016 Recap blog. So definitely stick around, because you don't want to miss a thing. If you've been around for awhile, you might remember us doing a little thing called the Fort Rock project last year. The Fort Rock project was where we posted news, biographies, reviews, and the occasional blog post for artists performing at Southwest Florida's biggest and best event -Fort Rock.
This year, is quite similar. Last year over 23,000 people gathered to see bands like Disturbed, Shinedown, Bring Me The Horizon, Five Finger Death Punch, Rob Zombie, Bullet For My Valentine, Megadeth, and many, many more. In promotion for this, we posted a total of 228 articles, most of which were reviews. This year fans will be gathering to see bands like Def Leppard, Soundgarden, A Perfect Circle, The Offspring, Seether, Papa Roach, In Flames, I Prevail, and many, many more. We have already begun working on content for this year's festival and below are all the links. If you'd like to see what all we did last year please click here. December 2016 News: All That Remain's Phil Labonte joins 5FDP (12/1/16) Fort Rock Lineup (12/5/16) I Prevail Goes Acoustic with Linkin Park Cover (12/15/16) Alter Bridge 2017 tour w/ Nonpoint (12/15/16) Mastodon's original singer passed away (12/28/16) Blog posts: Fort Rock Predictions (11/29/16) Thoughts on the Fort Rock lineup (12/7/16) Fort Rock Project 2017 Announcement (12/8/16) Def Leppard Biography (Fort Rock Project #1) (12/12/16) Changes To The Fort Rock Project (12/28/16) January 2017: News: I Prevail Announces tour (1/3/17) Rocklahoma 2017 (1/10/17) Josh Balz leaves Motionless In White (1/10/17) Def Leppard Announces tour w/ Tesla and Poison (1/12/17) A Perfect Circle Tickets on sale now! (1/13/17) Motionless In White -"Eternally Yours" (1/13/17) Album Reviews: Three Days Grace- Three Days Grace (1/7/17) Dinosaur Pile-Up -Eleven Eleven (1/8/17) One-X- Three Days Grace (1/9/17) Karma And Effect -Seether (1/10/17) Lifelines -I Prevail (1/11/17) Light Me Up -The Pretty Reckless (1/12/17) The Paramour Sessions -Papa Roach (1/13/17) The Few Not Fleeting -Nothing More (1/14/17) Disclaimer II -Seether (1/15/17) Behind Silence And Solitude-All That Remains (1/16/17) The Taken EP -Cover Your Tracks (1/17/17) Point #1 -Chevelle (1/18/17 One Day Remains- Alter Bridge (1/19/17) Human -Three Days Grace (1/20/17) Creatures -Motionless In White (1/21/17) Aggressive -Beartooth (1/22/17) Metamorphosis -Papa Roach (1/23/17) Blood -In This Moment (1/24/17) On Through The Night -Def Leppard (1/25/17) Americana -The Offspring (1/26/17) Louder Than Love -Soundgarden (1/28/17) Danger In The Morning EP -Goodbye June (1/29/17) February 2017: Blog posts: Thoughts on Seether's "Let You Down" (2/24/17) News: New All That Remains new singles! (2/3/17) In This Moment and Motionless In White tour! (2/6/17) New Papa Roach song- Help! (2/16/17) I Prevail Forced to Reschedule Shows (2/18/17) New Seether music on the horizon??? (2/22/17) Rise Above Fest 2017 Announced (2/22/17) I Prevail and Starset tour (2/23/17) Seether -Poison The Parish (Album Announcement!) (2/24/17) Album reviews: Once More 'Round The Sun -Mastodon (2/1/17) March 2017: News: Motionless In White -Loud (3/2/17) Seether -Poison The Parish tour! (3/3/17) Total: 51 Other relevant content......All of the following are for artists that will be at the 2017 Fort Rock festival, but was written prior to this. Fun fact! One of the reviews was actually the very first review to ever be written for Immortal Music. Dating all the way back to 2010 -which was just before Immortal Music as it is today began.) Reviews: Life Starts Now- Three Days Grace (1/10/10) Holding Onto Strings Much Better Left To Fray -Seether (9/12/2011) Transit Of Venus- Three Days Grace (10/14/12) Isolate And Medicate- Seether (7/26/14) Reincarnate -Motionless In White (1/6/15) Disgusting -Beartooth (5/25/15) Black Widow -In This Moment (8/12/15) Heart Vs Mind EP - I Prevail (7/30/16) Nothing More -Nothing More (8/18/16) F.E.A.R -Papa Roach (1/28/16) Getting Away With Murder -Papa Roach (6/11/16) Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces- Seether (6/14/16) Infest -Papa Roach (6/16/16) Time For Annihilation -Papa Roach (6/20/16) Infamous -Motionless In White (7/2/16) The Connection- Papa Roach (8/12-16) Biographies: Seether Biography (6/20/16) Interviews: John Humphrey of Seether (1/15/15) Def Leppard is a name that just about everyone knows. Even if they don't, they definitely have heard a song or two from them. They originally formed in 1977 and were a big part of the new wave of British heavy metal. Now I'm not sure if you'd call them 'heavy metal' today, I've heard everything from grunge rock, hard rock, or glam metal. Whatever you choose to call them, they're inevitablly a legendary band. They originally were formed when Rick Savage, Tony Kenning, and Pete Willis all met at Tapton School in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. They filmed a band called Atomic Mass, originally, which had quite the different lineup. When it first started, they had Rick Savage on guitar, but then he switched to bass. Pete Willis took up the guitar, and Tony Kenny was their drummer. They then welcomed Joe Elliot as a guitarist, and it was supposedly all because Pete missed a bus to practice. During the audition, they actually decided he would be a great singer, so they decided to place him there. Here's some proof that all bands start small -their first show was in the dining hall of Westfield School in Mosborough, Sheffield. The name Def Leppard didn't come fully for a while, though they did adopt 'Deaf Leopard", which was something Joe Elliot thought of. He apparently thought of it while he was in English class, working on reviews for imaginary rock bands. As someone who writes reviews frequently, that's much appreciated. Upon hearing it, Tony suggested that they change the spelling a bit, because it felt too much like a punk band name to him. Thus 'Def Leppard' was born. Here's where their lineup changes began fully. In January 1978, Steve Clark joined the band In November, just as they were about to record their first EP, Tony left the band suddenly. He was replaced for the recording sessions by Frank Noon. By the end of the month, they also welcomed a full time drummer , RIck Allen, who was only fifteen at the time. He however, joined just after the recording of what would later be called The Def Leppard EP. The three song EP was released in January 1979 and had great sales after "Getcha Rocks Off" was played on BBC Radio 1 frequently. Then throughout 1979, their following began to grow around the British heavy metal and hard rock community. This lead them to become one of the leaders in the new wave of British heavy metal, despite their young age. All of this success lead to them getting a record deal through Phonogram/ Vertigo (also known as Mercury Records in the US). Upon getting signed and getting a new management team, they were booked to go on tour with AC/DC. Def Leppard finally released their debut album, On Through The Night the following year. The album came out on March 14, 1980.The album reached numbre 15 on the UK album charts and reached 51 on the Billboard 200 here in the US. By November 18, 1983, the ablum was certified Gold by the RIAA, and platinum by May of 1989. The album featured re-recorded verisons of early demos, and two tracks from their EP. Those two tracks were "Rocks Off" and "Overture." Over all, the album recieved positive reviews, and many highlighted the fact that they were one of the leads on the new wave of heavy metal in England. The songs from this album were performed live for a few years, but were mostly dropped after 1983. Only two that remained for a longer period were, "Rock Brigade" and "Wasted", but even those didn't get played life again until after 2000. With this album, not only came some great fame, but also some displeasure. On the album is a song called "Hello America", which was percieved to be 'trying too hard to appeal to American fans.' People reacted so badly that when they performed at the Reading Festival in Reading and Leeds in England, that fans supposedly threw beer cans and bottles filled with urine at the band. Journalists accused them of "Selling out", and frankly, it was all about too much. Luckily, the band shut down what all was said about the Reading incident and said that all of the bands that performed that day recieved similar treatment. Sounds like a shitty festival experience, if you ask me. Luckily none of this backlash effected them too harshly. In fact, by this time AC/DC's producer decided to approach them. They then worked together on what would be come the band's second album, High N' Dry. This album too recieved some good reviews, and ratings. It hit 26 on UK album charts, and 38 on the Billboard 200. It even made a comeback on charts the following yaear, after the release of their third album, Pyromania. We'll get back to that album shortly, but when High N' Dry made its come back, it popped back up to number 72 on the US charts. This album also held the song that would become the very first metal video to ever be played on MTV. That song was "Bringin' On The Heartbreak", and the video was played in 1982. High N' Dry was originally released on July 11, 1981, and then was re-released on May 21, 1984 with two more bonus tracks. The two tracks were remixes of "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" and "Me & My Wine." They made videos for both of these songs, and both videos featured Phil Collen who was actually not yet in the band, but soon joined when Pete Willis departed from the band in 1982. Pete departed exactly a year after the album was released, due to excessive alcohol consumption while working. He didn't stay out of the music scene forever though, he did go on to have two other bands, Gogmagog and Roadhouse. Now with Phil Collen in the band, they released their third album, Pyromania. See, I told you we would get back to this one? Pyromania was released on June 20, 1983. This is where they really hit a turning point in their career. The lead single, "Photograph" is what helped make them a household name. According to Wikipedia, it even beat out Michael Jackson's "Beat It" as the most requested video on MTV and became a massive part of radio in the rock world. It also topped the US charts for six whole weeks, and brought them the chance to do a headlining tour around the US. After the success of "Photograph", they decided to release two other singles, "Rock of Ages" and "Follin'." All of this helped them sell over six million copies of the album, and broke into some new charts. Never before had they reached charts in Sweden, Canada or New Zealand but here they did. Pyromania reached number 4 in Canada, number 26 in New Zealand and 23 in Sweden. It also reached number 18 on UK charts, and number 2 in the US. This album brought them the most success they had had yet. By 2004, Pyromania was actually given a diamond certification, for selling over 10 million copies in the US. So clearly, this was quite the impressive album. After the success of that album, the band relocated to Finland, supposedly for tax purposes to begin writing their next album. Then suddenly, on New years eve of 1984, their drummer, Rick allen was in a bad car accident back home in Sheffield. He was out with his girlriend and swerved off the road and went through a drystone wall. This accident resulted in him losing his arm, yet Rick remained very determined to keep going with the band. His dedication is highly impressive, and admirable. He realized he could use his legs to do some of the drumming, and taught himself to do that. He also then worked with the brand Simmons to design an electric drum kit to help him out. Def Leppard supported their friend and never once looked for a replacement. Within a matter of months, he was back drumming, and once said the moment he was able to drum one of their songs again, was quite emotional. Even if you're not a Def Leppard fan, you really have to respect that. That's a massive challenge, that some couldn't cover come. He didn't let that get him down, and that's a very inspiring feat. He made his comeback officially at the 1986 Monsters of Rock festival and recieved an ovation from the audience. Probably partly due to his accident, there was a bit longer of a gap in between albums for Def Leppard. Finally though, they released their fourth studio album, Hysteria on August 3, 1987. This one managed to beat out the success even o their last album, selling over 25 million copies, and charting number one in both the US and UK. The album's title actually in a way is a tribute to Rick, who thought of it. He was refering to the accident and the coverage the media produced surrounding the situation. This album features the one song that I am certain just about everyone has heard. That one is "Pour Some Sugar On Me." Many would say they have much better songs, and they definitely have tons of other hits, but that song is one I am confident just about everyone has heard at least once in their life. This album literally exploded with success. Since its release, its gone 12x platinum here in the US, 10x Platinum in the US, 2x platinum in the UK and 4x platinum in Australia. It remained in the US Top 40 charts for 96 weeks straight, had three singles break into the top ten here in the US, and still sits as the 51st Best Selling album of all time here in the US. This is the kind of success that bands dream of, so I can just imagine how completely thrilled they must be with everything they've done. "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was the fourth single from the almost, reached number 3 on the Billboard 200, and was named by VH1 to be number two in the list of "100 Great Songs of the 80s'." They just kept getting hits with this album, having "Love Bites" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, "Armageddon It" hit the Top 5, and "Rocket" was in the Top 20. Adter all of that excitment, surely they felt on top of the world and wanted to give fans even more. So, they then performed "Tear It Down", which was B-Side for Hysteria at the MTV Music Awards in 1989. After the fans gave extreme postive feed back, they decided to rework it some to put it on their next album, Adrenalize. They were eager to record the fifth album, because the last album was so successful but also came after quite a long gap. However, there was quite the setback. Steve Clark, the band's guitarist was struggling quite a bit with alcoholism, and it had gotten worse somewhat recently. He took a six month leave from the band, after being in and out of rehabb for quite some time. Then unfortunately, on January 8, 1991, he died in his house in London from alcohol and perscription medications. The rest of the band decided to contiune and recorded the album as a four pierce band. Phil Collen tried his best to imitate the style Steve would have produced on the guitar for the album. They then released Adrenalize on March 31, 1992. The album reached number one in the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia, and has gone gold in the UK, 3x Platinum in the US and 4x Platinum in Canada. From the first single, "Let's Get Rocked", it was a massive hit. That song alone was nominated for the Best Song Of The Year at the 1992 MTV Music Video Awards. Being the glam metal that it was, it stood out quite a bit. At this point in time, pop-metal and grunge were quite popular so they drew a ton of attention. In October of 1993, they released a collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks that spanned anywhere from 1984 all the way to 1993, and called it Retro Active. Also in this time, as a reflective sort of states, Def Leppard released their first greatest hits album. This one was called Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995). That one came out on October 23, 1995, and had alternate track listings in North America, the UK, and Japan. All of the albums issues though featured a new track, which was a power ballad called, "When Love & Hate Collide." This song actually became their biggest hit ever in the UK, as it hit number 2 on the UK Singles charts. Also on that day, the band got placed in the Guiness Book Of World records by performing three concerts, on three continents in one day. Starting at midnight, in Africa, they began a marathon tour and finished late that night in Canada. They made a stop in England along the way for good measure. Then in May 1996, they released their sixth studio album, Slang. This album was a massive difference for the band musically, as it featured darker lyrics than ever before, and a stripped down, more alternative rock feel to it. Something else that was a bit different for this album, was the band recorded it all together, rather than recording each part seperately. This gave the album a bit of a live feel to it, and had quite the response. The album hit number 5 in the UK and number 14 in the US. It also has been certified platinum in Canada and gold in the US and UK. This was also the first album to be recorded with Rick Allen using a semi acoustic drum set since his accident. Prior to this, he used his electric set. They did revive their classic sound though on June 8, 1999 with Euphoria. This one too was recieved very well -its beginning to feel like Def Leppard could release the sound of a rock dropping to the floor and it would still do well on charts. This one hit number 11 in both the UK, and US, and had a number one hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts. That song was the lead single, "Promises." After all the success they had over the years, Def Leppard were induced into the Rock Walk Of Fame on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard by Brian May of Queen. Thne in 2001, VH1 released a biopic docudrama called Hysteria- The Def Leppard Story. This played dramatic restorations of the band's history, ranging from 1977 through 1986. They did include the struggles and overcomings of Rick Allen and Steve Clark. They said this gave them some of their highest ratings ever, and you can get the documentary on DVD. Now it came time for Def Leppard's tenth album, which was simply titled X. X was released on July 31, 2002. This album has a vastly new direction for the band, as it leaned a bit more toward pop. When obviously their sound was always more on the hard rock side, this album is seen as one of the lesser successful albums. However, it still had a decent reaction. Strong crowds still showed up to the tour supporting it, and the album reached number 11 on the Billboard 200, and 14 in the UK. However, it did not spark any number one hits, nor has it gotten certified at all. This is where they slowed down a bit on the recording, but still were doing other things. They released an expanded and updated version of their Best hits in October 2004, switched their management team from Q-Team to HK Management, and releaased a cover album titled Yeah! Yeah! Came out on May 23, 2006, and were covers of many childhood songs for them from bands like Blondie, The Kinks, Sweet, ELO, Bad Finger and many others. This album also broke into the top 20 in the US, reaching 16, making it the tenth consecutive Top 20 hit. They were also the inagural indutees of the VH1 Rock Honors, along side Queen, Kiss and Judas Priest on May 31, 2006. They also got to hear All American Rejects do a cover of their song "Photograph." Following this show was a tou with Journey, and they re-released Hysteria in a two- disco deluxe edition that gave the original album in a remastered format. Included with this were b-sides, bonus tracks and remixes. To support this, they went on toru with Foreigner and Styx. Finally on April 28, 2008, Def Leppard released their first studio album in six years. This one was called Songs From The Sparkle Lounge and clearly fans were extremely excited for this new release. The album debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, 7 in Canada, 8 in the over all world chart, and broke the top 50 in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Fermany, New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK. The first single, "Nine Lives" actually featured Tim McGraw and was a joint effort written by Joe Elliot, Phil Collen and Rick Savage. They then set out on tour with a few different bands over the course of 2008/ 2009. These bands included Styx, REO Speedwagon, Black Stone Cherry, Thunder, White Snake, and more. In this time as well, they got to play the Download festival! Oddly enough, they actually performed with Taylor Swift in October 2008, and it was for CMT Crossroads: Taylor Swift and Def Leppard. It was released on DVD June 16 the following year, and was sold exclusively through Walmart. They also unfortunately had to cancel the final leg of the 2009 North American tour, due to unseen personal reasons. Of course, people assumed they were breaking up, which the band instantly shut down. No idea what really caused it, but honestly touring can kick your ass. Sometimes you get sick, run down, and its just simply too much. People tend to forget that. After that happened, the band decided to take all of 2010 off of touring, but to somewhat make up for it released their first live album. The album was called Mirror Ball- Live & More and was a two disc live album that feautred three new recorded songs. For some erason they chose to release it in parts of Europe on June 3, then the rest of Europe on June 6, and finally the US on June 7. It was also announced around this time that Def Leppard would be performing at that year's Download festival. They also set out on a two month tour around the US that summer with Heart, and then also did seven shows in Australia in October with The Choirboys, and Heart as well. Two Japanese shows happened in November, and ssix happened in the UK in December with Steel Panther and Motley Crue. They also toured with Poison and Lita Ford in the US over the summer of 2012. In June 2013, Vivian Campbell announced that he had Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which is a malignant form of cancer that effects the Reed- Sternberg cells, all of which are locationed in the lymph nodes. He kept playined with Def Leppard, and never canceled or rescheduled a show. He said that performing was the best way to remain otimistic, so he refused to quit. He proudly annunced in November that he was in remission, but unfortunately it came back. Hey said once it goes back into remission, he can undergo a stem-cell transplant. They released another live album, Viva! Hysteria the following year, on October 22, 2013, and this was the first time they actually played an album in full from start to finish. In February 2014, the band decided to do yet another remastered verison of an album. This time it was Slang, and they relreased it with 30 tracks total, and included unreleased material, B-sides and demons. Following that, they went on tour with Kiss, and all ticket sales contributed to military chariteis such as the Wounded Warrior Project. They also contriubuted to the Paul McCartney tribute album, Art Of McCartney. Joe Elliot on his own also recorded another song for the album. In more recent time, they've done a decent amount of things, including some unique things such as having a cartoon and documentary in the works. However apparently these things were put aside, but hopefully at some point the world will see these. They toured quite a bit over the course of 2014 and 2015 with Kiss, Styx, Tesla and Whitesnake. Then they released their eleventh and most recent album, which was self titled. The album came out on October 30, 2015 and debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200. It ended up going up to number 5 on the Bollboard 200, but also hit number 1 on three other US charts. It hit 2 in Swizterland, and broke the top twenty in the UK, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Canada, Austria and Australia. This brings up to this year. They kicked off 2016 with the Hysteria On The High Seas Concert Cruise around the MSC Divina. It was supposed to be open just for concert goers, but the sales were a bit low, so cabins on the boat were opened up to others as well. The cruise apparently was something of a mess. First sales were low, then the boat could not dock at the island they were supposed to, due to terrible weather. Then Joe Elliot got laryngitis, and that lead to the band performing without him for the first time ever. Vivian and Phil took over on vocals, and shorted the set. When they got back to land, Joe was still sick. He worked to get through the first concert back on land, but then unfortunately they had to cancel the next night's show because the doctors told Joe that he would do serious damage if he kept trying. Luckily, it didn't take too much longer for him to recover, and by July they were able to go back out on tour and completed all 48 concerts. As the year comes to a close, things are really looking good for Def Leppard. They will be performing at a few big festivals, starting with Fort Rock on April 29, then they will be playing Welcome To Rockville on April 30, Carolina Rebellion on May 6 and River City Rockfest on May 27! They also have yet another live DVD out for pre-order right now. This one is called Def Leppard Live from Detrot, and will be out on Feburary 2017. You can pre-order it now through PledgeMusic, and get several pre-order bundles! Be sure to stay up to date with Def Leppard by liking their Facebook page and checking out their official website. |
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