Ah, Disturbed. One of the absolute biggest names in heavy metal today. Do they really need an introduction? Do they really need a biography written about them?
I'm not sure, but for the sake of the Fort Rock series -they must! There are some very interesting facts about Disturbed that may or may not be common knowledge. For starters, they originally formed under the name Brawl in 1994, and under this name were different. The band had a different vocalist, one named Erich Awalt, and a bassist named Steve "Fuzz" Kmak but also had current band members, Dan Donegan on guitar and Mike Wengren on drums. They have yet to have a lineup change since they brought David Draiman into the band in 1996. Now you may wonder -how did the name Disturbed come about? Well apparently David once said he had been contemplating the name for a while, and it just symbolized how they were feeling at the time. He went on to add, "The level of conformity that people are forced into was disturbing to us and we were just trying to push the envelope and the name just sorta made sense." Over the years, Disturbed has released six studio albums, and all but one have been number one hits. If that's not impressive, I don't know what is. Their debut album, The Sickness, came out on March 7 of 2000, and only charted in two countries. It reached number 29 here in the US, and 30 in Australia. While that sounds like a bit of a flop, this album stands in my book as one of the most impressive debut albums to ever be released. It may have only peaked at number 29, but it went on to stay on the Billboard 200 for nearly two full years after its release. Its also gone platinum four times over here in the US. It also went platinum in Canada and Australia, and Gold in the UK. They now have six albums out, and all of which have some sort of certification. Most are in multiple countries even! Their second album, Believe (released on September 6, 2002 is 2x Platinum here in the US, Platinum in Australia and Canada, Gold in New Zealand and Silver in the UK. The third, Ten Thousand Firsts (released on September 20, 2005 is platinum in the US, Australia and Canada, and Gold in New Zealand and the UK. Industructable came out on June 3, 2008 and is platinum in the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and Gold in the UK. Asylum came out on August 31, 2010 and is Gold in the US, Australia, and New Zealand, and Silver in the UK. Then finally, we are brought to their latest album, which was their comeback after a long hiatus that we will talk about in just a moment. Immortalized was released on August 21, 2015, and is already certified Gold in Canada. It doesn't have any other certifications yet, but something tells me they're coming. Now, about that hiatus. Disturbed was set to headline the first annual Rockstar Energy Uproar festival alongside Avenged Sevenfold, Hellyeah, Stone Sour, Halestorm, and more in summer of 2010. Then in October, they had to cancel their touring because David Draiman was disagosed with a serious throat condition and would have to recover for about four weeks. They returned around the end of the year, and went on toru with Korn, Sevendust, In This Moment and others. They also performed at Mayhem festival, and Download festival in early 2011, and then Rock On The Range in the early summer. Then in July, the band announced that they would be completeing a tour they wer eset to go on and then taking a hiatus. People assumed it was conflicts within the band, but David Draiman shut those rumors down rather quickly. Their hiatus began in October, and they released a compilation called The Lost Children in November. There was only one new song on the album, which was called "Hell", and fans clung to it as a reminder of Disturbed and their greatness. Some assumed they'd never return, especially when John Moyer, the band's bassist joined Adrenaline's Mob as their bassist, and David Draiman began his industrial metal band, Device, in 2012. After four years, they came back quite rather silently actuallu. Well, they tried to do it silently anyways. In June of 2015, all the sudden there was a new logo, and a video of their mascot, 'The Guy' laying there on life support, barely breathing. The video was rather ominous, but none the less, it got fans talking. Two days later, they released another video of The Guy, this time he was waking up from the life support and appeared to be coming back to life. The same day, they started a countdown. The entire internet was so excited, and absolutely exploded the next day when Disturbed finally spoke up and in different words than this went, "SURPRISE! The hiatus is over, we're back and releasing an album!" They told fans about Immortalized and released a music video "The Vengeful One." And that brings us to today. Disturbed actually didn't do a ton of touring until just here recently. They played a few shows here and there but are right now on tour with Breaking Benjamin, Alter Bridge and Saint Asonia. That tour lasts through the end of March, They then will be heading out with Nonpoint and Mindset Evolution until its time for all of the festivals. They have any coming up, such as Ufest 2016, 98Rockfest, Welcome To Rockville, Fort Rock, Carolina Rebellion, Northern Invasion, Rock On The Range, Rocklahoma, and the Chicago Open Air festival. For further information, please be sure to check out Disturbed's website or the respective festival websites. Ladies and Gentlemen, -as if you didn't know this already-Disturbed is back and ready to rock! I'm hoping to catch them at Fort Rock myself -where are you hoping to see them? Let me know in the comments below, or over on Facebook or Twitter! While you're at it, let me know what your favorite Disturbed songs are! Mine are "Down With The Sickness", "The Game", "The Voice", "Stupify", "Meaning Of Life", and "Awaken."
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Avatar is a melodic death metal band from Göteborg, Sweden that formed in 2011. The band went through a few lineup changes in their early days, but all of it was before the release of their first demos were ever released.
The band was formed by the drummer, John Alfredsson and the singer, Johannes Eckerström, who are still in the band today. In the band with them are Jonas "Kungen" Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström on guitars, and Henrik Sandelin on bass. The band's first full length album came out on January 25, 2006, and was called Thoughts Of Now Tomorrow. The album peaked at number 47 on Sweden Albums Top 60, and their success only rose from that. Their second album, Schlacht came on October 24, 2007, and reached number 27 on the charts! After tour with In Flames wihtin that year, they got Björn Gelotte, who is In Flames guitarist to contribute a guitar solo on "Letters To Nevernd." This set them up for quite a bit of consistent touring, and festival performances around Sweden. Their third album is what really got them more attention. The self titled album was released in November 2009 in Sweden only. It reached number 36 on their charts, and Avatar set out to take it further. They signed with Sony Music in January 2010 to release the album in Germany and Switzerland. The album was released in those two places on March 26, 2010, and the band just kept going. In April, they signed with the Japanese label Art Union and released the album over in Japan on May 19. After spreading their album to two continents, they set out to tour with Warrior Soul, Dark Tranquility and Helloween at different times over the course of 2010, and into early 2011. Something else that really helped them was the music video they made for "Queen Of Blades", which is the opening track on their self titled album. The song is about a fictional character named Sarah Kerrigan from the Starcraft game, which is through Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Entertaiment heard about this and mentioned it on their social media websites, which caused Avatar to get a lot of attention among the fans of the game. Given the fact that Blizzard Entertainment is based out of Irvine, California, and the band had yet to release an album in the US, it seems fair to say they were a big help in getting Avatar attention in the US. Their fourth studio album, Black Waltz was the first album to be released in the US, and it came out on February 14. The following February, they embarked on their first tour ever in the US, with Lacuna Coil and Sevendust. They then got to tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger Death Punch, after Device had to drop off the tour, before flying over to Thialand to record their fifth, and currently most recent studio album, Hail The Apocalypse. The album was released through eOne Music on March 17, 2014 and sparked a lot of attention. They have gone on to play several tours both here in the US, and Europe as headliners, and supporting acts, and have performed at several festivals such as Rock On The Range, and Louder Than Life. We're not going to say you absolutely have to listen to this band, because they're most definitely not for everyone. If you're into borderline death metal, and extremely heavy music, chances are you're going to absolutely LOVE Avatar. If that's not quite your cup of tea, you're not going to be impressed. We're not exactly a fan, but can see how others would be. They're rather dark, lyrically, and are heavy in their own manner that's slightly difficult to explain. Their success is continuing to grow, and you can catch them live at many festivals this year as well! In this order, they will be performing at Fort Rock, Welcome To Rockville, Carolina Rebellion, and Norway Rock, later in the summer. For further information, head over to the respective festival websites. Also be sure to check out Avatar's website because they are currently in the studio working on a new album! We have no information on when the album may be complete or when it will be released, but stay tuned! Maybe they will have information soon. What do you think of Avatar? Do you love them, or are they not quite your taste? Let us know in the comments below, over on Facebook, or Tweet us @Musicvamp527. As some of you may have noticed, Immortal Music has spoken a lot lately about a bunch of different festivals that are happening here in the US. The most commonly mentioned though is the 2016 Fort Rock Festival.
The reason for that is because not only does that festival kick off, what the internet has dubbed, 'The Loudest Month ever', but its the one closest to home. Frankly, I'm very excited about it, and kind of just wanted to talk about why. First, there's the fact that Fort Rock is the only thing southwest Florida has going on it. Not much brings 9,000+ people together in this city, and yet that's exactly what Fort Rock has done for three years in a row. Second, there's the memories from Fort Rock 2015 that we're going to talk about in a separate post. (Please click here to read all about Fort Rock 2015) And then lastly, and probably the most important point, its the things I'm looking forward to at this festival. The lineup this year is amazing, and actually features bands we've never seen but really wanted to. A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, and Saint Asonia are the three biggest ones. A Day To Remember has been a favorite for a handful of years. I'm discovered them just after the release of their Homesick album in 2009, so we go way back with them. Plus, their newer music (2010 to present day) has really spoken to us a lot. Despite being a Florida band, they are absolutely terrible at playing Florida shows. They don't perform in their home state nearly enough, so everytime they do, they sell out almost instantly. So, we've never gotten to catch an ADTR show. For obvious reasons, with all of that being said, we're really looking forward to finally seeing A Day To Remember perform. We even have a tattoo referencing A Day To Remember, but have yet to see them live. Then there's Bring Me The Horizon, who best to my knowledge, has never performed in our state much. I'm a newer fan to them, so this isn't a big deal. I honestly didn't care for their music before they released the Sempiternal album. There's nothing wrong with their earlier work, its just not quite my cup of tea. That being said, their That's The Spirit album is perfect! That's something we've been listening to almost on repeat since the day it came out. I absolutely love it! Given how much I've been listening to them, and what I've heard about their live performances, I'm really looking forward to seeing them. I hear they put on one hell of a show, and I am excited to take pictures of it all. And then there's Saint Asonia, which is not actually my last point, but something very special to me. Anyone who's been around for a while, more than likely knows that I've always been a big Three Days Grace fan. They were one of the first bands I ever turned to, and to this day is still something I turn to when life gets rough. We all have that voice that soothes us, and for some reason, for me, that's Adam Gontier, who is now the singer of Saint Asonia. They're still fairly new, and only played their first show last October. I was fourteen or fifteen when I first really started listening and paying attention to music, and ever since, I've wanted to thank Adam Gontier for all he's unknowingly done for me. Whenever things have gotten tough, I will just turn on some Three Days Grace, and would soon feel much more relaxed. Its always been something about Adam's lyrical style that's resinated well with me, and this voice is just calming to me. Everyone has that one person, I assume. Its not in a 'fangirl' way, though say what you will, its just in a grateful, "You've changed my life." sort of way. I sort of see it as Adam is what got me to love music so much. Before I discovered his work, yes, I enjoyed music, but I didn't ever turn to it for anything but entertainment. I sincerely think if I hadn't found Three Days Grace, and now by default Saint Asonia, I would have never gone down this path. I'm not sure what I'd be doing, but I definitely can promise you that I wouldn't be a music journalist. I've always wanted to thank him in person for changing my life, and have never even gotten close to that chance. I'm putting a lot on the line by saying this, and am sincerely trying not to get my hopes up too high, but I think Fort Rock 2016 may finally be that chance. Or, I hope anyways. I do plan on asking for an interview with Saint Asonia, and I'm just going to lay it out there. If nothing else, I'm looking forward to seeing Saint Asonia live and taking pictures. I saw Adam live with Three Days Grace twice, but its been almost five years since the last time that happened, so that alone will be very nice. Plus, I will get to take photographs of some legendary bands like Rob Zombie, Disturbed, Megadeth, and Anthrax, and a ton of other great bands as well. It doesn't make much sense to explain, but being in front of the barricade is something special and does seem to make a difference in the photographs. You wouldn't really think three feet would make that big of a difference, but it somehow really does. And its been a while since I've experienced that, just due to life in general and things falling through, so I'm really looking forward to that feeling again. I also get to do it with friends. I know of several people who are going to this event, some are even coming from out of state. Its really nice to see people coming together, some of those people I haven't seen in years! Its just going to be a very wonderful, memoerable event. Given, I have no idea how the hell I'm going to pull of two full days, but I'll make it work somehow. Did you catch what I just said about things falling through? I'm going to get really serious for a second, before I conclude this entire thing and leave you be. Some of you may have noticed for a while, I slowed down posting a lot, after I had been posting like crazy. That was because something I had been working very hard for, completely fell through, and I was rather heartbroken. It kind of killed a spark in me for a while, but Fort Rock has brought that back. Working on all the preview content, and looking forward to the event itself has made me love what I do again. So, I will keep working, and hopefully will get to cover Fort Rock for the second year in a row, and make a couple dreams come true. I promise if any of this does happen, not only will you see tons of pictures, but you will also see plenty of footage, and hear all about it here on the website. I'm looking forward to the experience and all the content, and I hope you guys are looking forward to it all as well. Stay tuned for more content revovling around Fort Rock, including a look back at Fort Rock 2015. I've talked about it before, but it seems like a good idea to look back. See you guys soon. (Wanna see everything we've done so far for Fort Rock 2016? Click here to read all the biographies, reviews, and news that we've posted so far.) Saint Asonia is thought of as a hard rock 'super group.' The reason for this is because every member has come from a very well known musical background. The band consists of, drummer Rich Beddoe, formerly in Finger Eleven, bassist Corey Lowery, who has been in several bands, including Still Rain, Stuck Mojo, Switched, Stereomud, Eye Empire, and Dark New Day, lead guitarist, Mike Mushok, who was in Staind, and then finally, front man, Adam Gontier, who was formerly in Three Days Grace.
The band formed in mid to late 2014, and released their debut, self titled album on July 31, 2015. The album appears to have only reached US charts, and peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200. The lead single was, "Better Place", though its most definitely not the best song on the album. To see what we think is the best one, click here to read a review we wrote not long after the album was released. The band made their debut live at the 9th annual Rock On The Range festival in Columbus, OH. They opened the festival, and introduced themselves with tracks like, "Fairy Tale", "Let Me Live My Life" and "Better Place", which are all featured on the album. Prior to this, the only song that was known to the world was, "Better Place." The band also played "I Hate Everything About You", which is a hit from the early Three Days Grace days, and "Mudshovel" from Staind. Adam and Mike did an interview at Rock On The Range, where someone asked them where their name came from. Adam was quoted saying, "The word 'asonia' kind of means to be tone deaf to certain sounds." He also went on to say its a reminder to block out all of the things people are saying and living your life the way you want to. Its definitely something everyone may want to keep in mind. Their growth has been somewhat slow, surprisingly, but as they keep touring, they will keep growing. They're picking up touring a lot this year, and will be performing with bands like Disturbed, Alter Bridge and Breaking Benjamin all over the US. They also will be playing a ton of big festivals coming up such as Fort Rock, Welcome To Rockville, Carolina Rebellion, 98.9 The Rock's Rockfest, Rock On The Range, Rocklahoma, WTFEST, Rockfest in Cadott, WI,and Heavy Montreal this year. And that's just what we know about so far! Most of the festivals are happening this may, but a couple go all the way through August. Be sure to check out all of the respective websites for more information, along with Saint Asonia's official website for normal tour information and more. We personally are very much so looking forward to seeing them at Fort Rock 2016, and are sincerely hoping to sit down and speak with them. Stay tuned to see what happens there! Fort Rock Series #9: Issues >>> Issues formed in 2012 and are a from Atlanta, Georgia. They have a bit of a unique style that is a little hard to completely identify. Some say they would be considered 'nu metal', and are a blend of metalcore, pop and R&B. We would also say they have a slight dubstep feel to some of their music as well. Its been said that they have a very wide influence range, including Sum 41, Katy Perry, Linkin Park, Cradle Of Filth, Stevie Wonder, Impending Doom, Miley Cyrus and many more. Regardless of their genre, they're extremely well recieved and very well loved. As it stands right now, they only have one full length album out, which is self titled. It came out in February 18, 2014, and then was re-released with a deluxe edition November 28 of the same year. The album debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 charts, selling 22,000 copies in its first week alone. This may be their only full length album so far, but later this year, they will be releasing their second album Headspace, and their self titled album was not their first release ever. Their first release actually came out in November 2012, and was seven track EP. This EP actually features a song that often comes to mind when Issues is mentioned which is, "King Of Amarillo." The band grew fairly quickly due to the fact that it was founded by ex-Woe, Is Me singer, Tyler Carter, and Michael Bohn. In the first couple of years, they had quite a few lineup changes. They went through two different bassists, had a different drummer, and two different keyboardists. The lineup as it is known and loved today though has stayed mostly consistance since 2013. It has always featured clean vocals from Tyler Carter, AJ Rebollo has always played guitar, Skyler Acord joined as the band's bassist in 2013, Josh Manuel has been the drummer since 2013, and Michael Bohn has always been the band's unclean vocalist. The band is known for songs like, "King Of Amarillo" (Which for some reason we always read as 'KIng Of Armadillo', by mistake. Does anyone else do that?), their cover of Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend", which is featured on Pop Goes Punk 5, and "Never Lose Your Flame." When exactly their second album, Headspace, will be out, we're not sure. All that is known is that they went into the studio to begin recording in July 2015. Surely it will be some time this year. Speaking of this year, they're going to be incredibly busy performing! They're setting out on tour with Crown The Empire, ONE OK ROCK, and Night Verses pn March 17. That tour goes through April 18. They then get just a few days to themselves before heading down to Florida to play at Fort Rock and Welcome To Rockville. Just under three weeks later, they will be playing at Rock On The Range, and then head on over to the UK to play with Hacktivist. Just after that tour concludes, they will be playing Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in Germany. For further information, please head on over to Issues official website and the respective festival websites. Ghost is a heavy metal band from Linköping, Sweden. They formed in Linköping, Sweden in 2008, and have released three full length albums, and an EP. While they are categorized as 'heavy metal', their must does blur lines. They are not only thought of as heavy metal by some, but doom metal, hard rock, and progressive and psychedelic rock to some extent. They do try to keep their identities rather private by calling themselves Papa Emeritus and the Nameless Ghouls. The band does dress up, and with their names being entirely unknown, they do manage to slip past fans without a trace. Its caused some problems at shows in the past though. One of the Nameless Ghouls said they have been mistaken for roadies, which can come in handy, but they've also been thrown out of venues when they were performing due to forgotten backstage passes. For all you know, you could be watching a performance with Ghost and have absolutely no idea. Supposedly that is. Each Nameless Ghoul actually represents an element -fire, water, wind, Earth, and aether, which is the clear sky above. While we see nothing 'Satatic' about this at all, some apparently claim that they are supposed to mimic the Roman Catholic Church, but with reversed images so they are worshipping Satan, not the Holy Trinity. Until we hear a confirmation on this, we're going to call some bullshit and just assume that they are representing the obvious -which is the Earth. Each member wears their alchemical symbol on their instruments, and their latest costume that came with their Meliora album left each Nameless Ghoul with all five of the element symbols embroidered onto their costumes. A different symbol is highlighted on each of their costumes to better identify the wearer. The lead singer is fire, the bassist is water, the keyboardist is air, the drummer is Earth, and the rhythm guitarist is Aether. Their lead singer plays the role of the band's mascot, which is seen as a Satanic priest that goes by the name of Papa Emeritus. There have been three different characters to take this name over time, and each has been younger than the last. The first welcomed the second on 12/12/12 in the band's hometown. He stayed in until June 3, 2015, when the second one welecomed his younger brother as Papa Emeritus II, again in Linkoping. He was "fired" this time due to his failure in overthrowing governments and churches. Papa Emeritus II and Papa Emeritus III were only three months apart from what the band has said. It is actually believed that this all has been a very elaborate story, and it all has been the same vocalist. The band has a ton of conversisy swirling around it, what with being anonymous and thought to be extremely Satanic. Despite their contraversy though, they have recieved quite the success as well. Though they've only released three albums, they're already two for two. Their 2013 album, Infestissumam and their 2015 album, Melioa, have both reached number one one Swedish charts, and have been certified as Gold. Meliora also reached number one in Finland, number 2 in Norway, and number 8 in the US. They're doing wonderfully in their music and mystery, to the point they're nominated for a Grammy Award, and will be performing at many major music festivals all over the world. You can find out who wins the Best Metal Performance and many other categories on February 15 while you enjoy that discounted Valentine's Day candy you picked up! Also as previously mentioned, you can catch this incredibly interesting metal band live at many festivals, such as the 98 Rockfest, Fort Rock, Welcome To Rockville, Carolina Rebellion, and Rock N' Derby here in the US, and a ton of others around Europe this spring/ fall. Or, you can catch them all over Europe now! For more information, head on over to Ghost's official website, or the respective festival websites. Fort Rock series #7: Sevendust |
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