STAIND at Arizona Bike Week 2023
2023-04-01 20:30 - 23:30 (America/Phoenix) | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
It has been said that first impressions last a lifetime. Luckily for Staind, some only last for about 45 minutes. After a volatile disagreement with Limp Bizkit‘s Fred Durst over some of Staind’s early cover art, it seemed their big break had walked out the door. Fortunately, by the time Durst had witnessed Staind’s intense live show, he was ready to exchange phone numbers.
Staind’s story began in the New England area when vocalist Aaron Lewis and guitarist Mike Mushok met at a Christmas party in 1993. Mushok was able to bring drummer Jon Wysocki into the fold, and Lewis‘ connection with a bass player (who later left) completed the early lineup. Establishing themselves took time, and extensive touring of the Northeast with other established metal acts helped them sell over 2,000 copies of their self-released debut in just over a year. They were primed for their big break, and on October 23, 1997, the hard work paid off.
At a show in Hartford, Connecticut, Staind were all set to open for Limp Bizkit when Bizkit singer Durst raised a stink over cover art on Staind’s self-released CD. After a heated conversation over whether or not Staind were Satan worshipers, Durst forcefully returned the disc to the band, and walked away. But 45 minutes later Durst was back, not to further the argument, but to make sure he kept in contact with Staind. Blown away by their live show, Durst exchanged phone numbers, and loved their demo tape when they gave it to him. He convinced them to travel to Jacksonville, Florida, to work on the new songs.
After reworking the new material and a successful live show, Durst contacted the head of Flip Records and arranged a meeting for Staind with the label. While in Los Angeles, a three-song sampler was recorded, and by the time February rolled around in 1998, the band had a record deal. After playing the Vans Warped Tour, they began work on their first album, Dysfunction. The album was produced by Terry Date (Deftones, Pantera, Soundgarden) and was released April 13, 1999. A tour with Kid Rock followed that spring and later the band reunited with good friends Limp Bizkit for a summer tour.
Their follow-up, Break the Cycle, enjoyed a prolonged visit at the number one spot on U.S. charts in 2001. Smash hits like “It’s Been a While,” “Fade,” “For You,” and “Epiphany” catapulted Staind into the mainstream, leaving their 2002 DVD MTV Unplugged to go gold. Staind released 14 Shades of Grey in spring 2003, and after a two-year break returned with the chart-topping Chapter V, named to include their self-released debut in the Staind canon. A Singles and Videos compilation arrived in 2006, followed by the all-new studio album Illusion of Progress in 2008, the latter of which debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The band’s eponymous seventh studio album, which saw the departure of longtime drummer Jon Wysocki, arrived on September 13, 2011. Later that year, the band recruited drummer Sal Giancarelli and hit the road, documenting the tour with 2012’s Live from Mohegan Sun, which captured the tour’s first show. ~ Chris True, Rovi

Saliva + Through Fire & Any Given Sin at Marquee Theatre
2023-04-02 18:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
After acquiring front man Bobby Amaru in 2011, Saliva became infused with new blood, energy, and spirit. The same energy launched Saliva’s career in 2001 with the release, _Every Six Seconds – a certified Double Platinum-selling album, containing the hits, “Click Click Boom” and 2002 Grammy nominated, “Your Disease.” Saliva’s in-your-face, anthemic writing style continued with a certified Gold-selling album *Back in to Your System_ with hits: “Always,” “Raise Up,” and the Nikki Sixx co-written, “Rest In Pieces.”*
Saliva will continue to release tracks and ultimately a full album in Spring of 2023. The new music has a contemporary feel but sticks to the blue collar roots that their fans love.
Saliva is Brad Stewart (bass), Wayne Swinny (guitar), Sammi Jo Bishop (drums) and Bobby Amaru (vocals).

By disregarding rules, we defy expectations. Rather than stick to the script or follow a template, Through Fire consistently evolve, reshaping hard rock with electronic flourishes and airtight songcraft. As a result, the Omaha, NE quartet—Justin McCain [lead guitar, songwriter], Grant Joshua Kendrick [lead vocals], Tyler Halverson [bass], and Zach Halverson [drums]—haven’t just broken the mold; they’ve also broken through as a force to be reckoned with. They’ve notably racked up nearly 100 million cumulative streams and views in addition to landing massive syncs during the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and from the NBA, NFL, UFC, and ESPN with standout “Stronger” even serving as the theme for WWE’s Backlash. Along the way, they’ve notably toured with All That Remains, Fozzy, Seether, and more.
Now, they continue to forge ahead on their third full-length offering, Devil’s Got You Dreaming [Sumerian Records].
“We definitely tried to push some boundaries and venture into new territory where we haven’t gone as a band in the past,” notes Justin. “There was a different approach, and we tried sounds we hadn’t tapped into or utilized. We went into this with no rules, and we had fun.”

Every once in a while, a singer comes along that single-handedly resets the bar for what a rock vocalist should be. Someone with such raw emotion and power that it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Maryland-based rock band ANY GIVEN SIN’s Vic Richie is that singer. ANY GIVEN SIN spent much of 2019 generating buzz with the release of their single “Dynamite,” which quickly became the number one most spun song on SiriusXM’s Octane. The band soon solidified its position on Octane, landing the coveted Accelerator Artist title, and blazing past some of the biggest names in rock on the weekly BIG UNS Countdown. As the number two most requested song on the channel, it ended up at number twenty-nine on Octane’s Top 100 year-end countdown. The success of their first single was quickly followed up with the release of their second single, “Another Life,” which, in turn, became the number one most spun song as well. Any Given Sin recently released their third single, “Insidious.” The band has been working with some heavy-hitters in the rock world including Trevor Kustiak (Evans Blue), John Moyer (Disturbed), and most recently, Chris Dawson (SAUL, Seasons After), who produced both singles, “Another Life” and “Insidious.” Complete with epic, crunchy guitar riffs and put-a-hole-in-your-soul, massive drums, this is a true-blue American rock band with both authenticity and power.

Muse + Evanescence & Highly Suspect at Desert Diamond Arena
2023-04-02 19:00 - 23:30 | Desert Diamond Arena, 9400 W Maryland Ave, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
Muse are Matt Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme. Since forming in 1994, Muse have released nine studio albums, selling over 30 million units worldwide. Their latest album ‘Will of the People” debuted at #1 in multiple territories including, UK (their 7th consecutive #1) , Austria, France, Finland, Italy and Switzerland. Their previous album, ‘Simulation Theory’, debuted at #1 in multiple territories and followed their 2015 album, ‘Drones’, which went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, the band’s second. Muse have won numerous music awards including two Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, five MTV Europe Music Awards, two Brit Awards, eleven NME Awards and seven Q Awards, amongst others.

Evanescence will release their first album of new original music in nine years, The Bitter Truth (BMG) over the course of this year, beginning with the first song and video, “Wasted on You,” out now. The video for “Wasted on You” was shot by each band member on their iPhones while currently in isolation. As Amy explains, “We were recording this music right up until we couldn’t go into the studio anymore, and finished it remotely through file sharing and phone calls. Tweaking mixes, adding background vocals, creating the video and album art all from home has been like water in the dessert for me, my light in a dark time. We are still writing and have a lot more work to do on this album, but this time we wanted to release the songs individually, as we create, to live more in the moment with our fans and our music. Wasted On You wasn’t the song we were planning to release first, but when the whole world went into indefinite lockdown and everything changed, so did the feeling and meaning of what we wanted to say right now. I didn’t write these lyrics about what we’re all now going through, but somehow that’s exactly what they are.

A muscular, hard-hitting, and wide-ranging group in the vein of Pop Evil, Queens of the Stone Age, and Royal Blood, Brooklyn’s Highly Suspect rode a series of indie EPs and years of touring to a pair of Grammy nominations for their 2015 debut. A year later, their follow-up delivered another hit in the Grammy-nominated single “My Name Is Human,” setting high expectations for their third outing, 2019’s hip-hop-leaning MCID. The band continued to blur genres on 2022’s The Midnight Demon Club.
The band formed in Cape Cod in 2009 around the talents of Johnny Stevens (guitar, vocals, synths) and twin siblings Ryan (drums, vocals) and Rich Meyer (bass, vocals). After working regionally as a cover band, they relocated to Brooklyn and began recording original material, resulting in a pair of EPs, First Offense (2009) and The Gang Lion (2010). They continued to establish themselves with one more EP, The Worst Humans, in 2012, before heading into the studio with producer Joel Hamilton (Black Keys, Elvis Costello) to record their debut long-player. The resulting Mister Asylum, which featured the fiery single “Lydia,” was released on 300 Entertainment in 2015. Their debut received critical praise and two unexpected Grammy nominations, leading to an extensive supporting tour.
Off the road by early 2016, they immediately returned to the studio to record a second full-length, The Boy Who Died Wolf, which saw release in November of that year. The album’s lead single, “My Name Is Human,” topped Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and earned Highly Suspect another Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song. As early as November 2018, they began teasing information about their next album which they later revealed would be called MCID. A pair of singles, “Upperdrugs” and “16,” were released in August of that year, with the eclectic, hip-hop-infused MCID, which featured guest spots from Young Thug, Gojira, Tee Grizzley, and Nothing But Thieves‘ Conor Mason, arriving in November 2019. Three years later, Highly Suspect released The Midnight Demon Club, a kinetic and life-affirming set that paired hip-hop beats and cinematic soundscapes with blazing metal.

98KUPD PRESENTS UFEST 2023
2023-05-06 02:30 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Godsmack has more Top 10 Rock Songs than Foo Fighters or their hometown heroes, Aerosmith. Stretching back to their four-times platinum self-titled debut, initially recorded in 1996 for $2500, the veteran band’s catalog of hits is enough to fill a marathon set without running out. Songs like “I Stand Alone,” “Awake,” and “Voodoo” are certified anthems deeply encoded into hard rock’s DNA.
Like the antiheroes of a heist movie planning one last score, the Lawrence, Massachusetts-bred quartet takes a victory lap with Lighting Up the Sky, dropping one more classic album as they ascend into the celebratory portion of their career. Sully Erna, Robbie Merrill, Tony Rombola, and Shannon Larkin climbed the creative mountain over and over. They are consummate rock fans themselves, so they refuse to finish as one of those bands where fans hit the beer line during “the new stuff”.
Lighting Up the Sky is undoubtedly a stunning swan song, should it truly prove to be the final studio album of new music from Godsmack. “Surrender,” the first new song in four years, earned well over a half million streams on Spotify alone in its first two weeks of release. Songs like “What About Me” and “Soul On Fire” stand up to anything in the band’s rich multi-platinum catalog. “Lighting Up the Sky is packed with melodies”, assures the frontman. The band’s body of work includes eight albums, four Grammy nominations, two iHeartRadio Music Awards noms, and a Billboard Music Award. (more at Godsmack.com)

Platinum-certified and twice GRAMMY-nominated Michigan rock powerhouse I PREVAIL — Brian Burkheiser (vocals), Eric Vanlerberghe (vocals), Steve Menoian (guitars/bass), Dylan Bowman (guitars), and Gabe Helguera (drums) — are back with TRUE POWER, their third full-length offering on Fearless Records. The much-anticipated album arrives on August 19.

Employing a powerful blend of twisty progressive rock, explosive heavy metal, and soaring, radio-ready alt-rock, hard-hitting, forward-thinking San Antonio-based quartet Nothing More invokes names like System Of A Down, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Incubus, The Mars Volta, and Killswitch Engage. Formed around the talents of longtime friends Jonny Hawkins, Daniel Oliver, Mark Vollelunga, and Ben Anderson, the band spent years honing their sound and skills, and sharpening their worldview on the road, adopting a strict D.I.Y. ethic and issuing their music independently. In 2013 they inked a deal with the Eleven Seven Label Group, the home of acts like Five Finger Death Punch, Sixx:A.M.., Papa Roach, and HELLYEAH, and released their eponymous debut for the label, along with the fiery first single “This Is the Time (Ballast),” the following year. It proved to be a breakout release for the veteran band, charting well and introducing them to a much wider audience. Led by the single “Go to War,” Nothing More returned with their follow-up, The Stories We Tell Ourselves, in September 2017.

Since the beginning, Fozzy has been about hard work, dedication and delivering great rock n roll to their devoted fans worldwide; reminding them that music is all about invoking dirty, sweaty, jubilation and doing it LOUDLY! However, calling them just “entertainers” would be abridging their talent, as Ward is one of the most versatile riffers in rock n roll and Jericho’s vocal range and passion for music makes him a worthy partner for The Duke. Throw in the powerhouse rock solid drumming of Frank Fontsere, the blazing leads of Billy Grey and youthful virtuosity of Randy Drake and it’s no surprise that Fozzy has skyrocketed into becoming one of the hottest rock acts in years.
But as much success the band had enjoyed, nothing compared to the juggernaut known as “JUDAS”. Released in May 2017, the song spent 6 WEEKS at NUMBER ONE on the highly influential ‘Big Uns Countdown’ on Sirius/XM’s Octane channel, amassed over 40 MILLION views for it’s video on YouTube and cracked the TOP 5 on the US Rock Radio Charts. With that giant hit in their arsenal, Fozzy continued their winning partnership with songwriter & producer Johnny Andrews by entering the TOP 10 twice more with “Painless” & “Nowhere To Run”, as well as gaining another TOP 20 with “Burn Me Out.” The band then embarked on their wildly successful Judas Rising Tour.

The Warning infuse rock music with a much-needed shot of adrenaline. The Monterrey, Mexico trio of sisters—Daniela “Dany” [guitar, lead vocals], Paulina “Pau” [drums, vocals, piano], and Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal [bass, piano, backing vocals]—charge forward with head-spinning riffs, unpredictable rhythms, stadium-size beats, and skyscraping vocals. They stand out as the rare presence equally at home on network television and on stage at Heaven & Hell Festival. After exploding online with one viral moment after another, The Warning parlayed this momentum into a series of independent releases, including Escape the Mind EP [2015], XXI Century Blood [2017], and Queen of the Murder Scene [2019]. They graced a stacked bill at Mother of All Rock Festival as the only Mexican band and opened up two sold out Monterrey shows for The Killers and for Def Leppard in Mexico City and Guadalajara. After quietly amassing over 120 million YouTube views and 30 million+ streams, they’ve already surged to the forefront of hard rock on their LAVA Records debut album ERROR with millions of streams! Catch them LIVE on their Fall Tour 2022 with Halestorm in the US and with Three Days Grace in Canada in November!

Chester Bennington possessed one of the most inimitable, infectious, and instantly identifiable voices in the history of rock music. The moment he screamed, it felt like the heavens themselves burst apart into a torrent of often violent, undeniably vibrant, and always vital emotions. It’s why fans worldwide hung on to every single word he uttered—and ultimately sang along with him forever. His voice lives on in Grey Daze. What started as a pledge to Chester by friends and family has crystallized into an essential extension of his storied legacy. Grey Daze introduced him to the world during a crucial run from 1993 to 1998. It’s where he honed the vocals that ultimately defined Linkin Park. Prior to his passing, he personally broke the news of the band’s return and intention to re-record, re-invent, and re-ignite music they’d started twenty years prior.
In late 2020, Sean Dowdell and Co. turned their attention to the remaining tracks and what would become The Phoenix. They handpicked tracks from 1994 and 1997 and entered the studio with Amends producer Esjay Jones. This time around, she exclusively produced the entire project. They immediately locked into a groove and rallied around Chester’s spirit.
“The Phoenix embodies what Chester was,” he continues. “His soul is rising through our world past his death. It’s his rebirth.”

Born in the Arizona desert and reared on stages across North America, The Black Moods deliver a modern update of a timeless sound, breathing fresh life into a familiar mix of electric guitars, anthemic hooks, and percussive stomp. The Black Moods’ three members — frontman/guitarist Josh Kennedy, drummer Chico Diaz and bassist Jordan Hoffman — aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel. Instead, they’re piling into a vehicle that’s existed for decades, souping up the engine to suit their contemporary needs, and steering those wheels toward their own rock & roll horizon.
The band formed in Tempe, Arizona. Inspired by local heroes like the Gin Blossoms and Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers — both of whom have become champions of the Black Moods, often tapping the group as a high-profile opening act — The Black Moods began building their audience the old-school way: by hitting the road. They toured heavily, promoting albums like their 2012 self-titled debut and 2016’s Medicine with gigs across the country. By the time “Bella Donna” hit the radio airwaves during the summer of 2018, The Black Moods’ fanbase had grown exponentially. The song became a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, paving the way for the band’s biggest shows to date.
Modern-day torchbearers of ageless rock & roll, The Black Moods aren’t shy about nodding to their influences. “Bella Donna” was inspired by the Doors’ slinky strut, while the chorus of “Bad News” points to rockers like the Foo Fighters.

AVATAR Dance Devil Dance Tour at The Van Buren
2023-05-07 19:00 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
The journeyed, eccentric, Gothenburg, Sweden-founded melodic death metal act formed in 2001 and enjoyed major home country success with their fourth and fifth albums, 2009’s Avatar and 2012’s Black Waltz. It was between these releases that Avatar debuted the look which ultimately defined them, with their lead vocalist Johannes Eckerström presenting himself as a cross between the Joker and a ringmaster leading a group of jesters. It was a distinct image and made Avatar well-known internationally. Eckerström maintained this look into the 2020s with the release of 2023’s Dance Devil Dance.
Formed by two kindred musical souls who realized that their previous band was holding them back, Avatar were born when drummer John Alfredsson and guitarist Jonas Jarlsby decided that their positions in Lost Soul were going nowhere, so they left and regrouped under their new moniker. Eventually, Alfredsson and Jarlsby would be introduced to Eckerström, and the core of Avatar would be in place. To round out their membership, bassist Henrik Sandelin and guitarist Simon Andersson joined the fold in 2003, just in time to record the band’s first demo, Personal Observations. While gigging to promote this, Avatar stepped back into the studio to record their debut EP, 2004’s 4 Reasons to Die. Following the EP’s release, Avatar were given the opportunity to tour outside Sweden for the first time. They next entered the studio to work on a debut full-length and scored a deal with Gain Records during the recording process. That album, Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was released in 2006 and followed by two European tours, one with Impaled Nazarene, the other with Evergrey. Their busy year was rounded out with two shows alongside original Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno.
Avatar had an equally busy 2007, starting off as the opening act for major metal band Stone Sour and finishing it with a new album. Schlacht, released in October of that year, was followed by a support slot on the 2008 Obituary tour. The group’s eponymous third studio album was released in 2009, and the next two years found Avatar hitting the tour circuit hard and embarking on their first-ever U.S. jaunt. Two nights before Halloween 2011 — in Helsingborg, Sweden — Eckerström stepped on-stage sporting his unhinged Joker look for the first time.
A couple of months later Andersson left the band and was replaced by the guitarist Tim Öhrström, who also provided backing vocals. Arriving in 2012, the well-received Black Waltz peaked at number 25 in their native Sweden, and 2014’s Hail the Apocalypse became the first Avatar outing to crack the Billboard 200. In 2016, the band issued its sixth studio long-player, Feathers & Flesh, a conceptual piece about an owl who declares war on the world. Their seventh effort, Avatar Country, arrived in early 2018. Produced by Jay Ruston (Stone Sour, Anthrax, Steel Panther), the album featured the singles “A Statue of the King” and “The King Wants You,” as well as Avatar’s spin on the Swedish royal anthem “Glory to Our King.” The following year, the band released their first live outing, The King Live in Paris. 2020 found them returning to the studio with Ruston to record their eighth album. The resulting Hunter Gatherer was issued toward the end of the year. In 2021, they founded their own label, Black Waltz Records, and it was on this imprint that they unveiled 2023’s Dance Devil Dance, featuring a duet with Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

Underneath a maelstrom of polyrhythmic guitars, sweeping vocals, and shuddering beats, Veil of Maya encode a ponderous narrative at the core of their sixth full-length album, False Idol [Sumerian Records]. This time around, a captivating concept drives the quartet—Marc Okubo, Sam Applebaum, Danny Hauser, and Lukas Magyar.
The first single “Overthrow” revs up from a crushing tidal wave of riffing into a soaring and striking clean refrain. It taps into the expansive energy of signature fan favorites, while elevating the group to a new level.
Whether it’s the pulverizing power of “Lull” or knockout send-off of “Tyrant” and “Livestream,” False Idol exorcises an unforgettable narrative in the landscape of Veil of Maya’s most definitive work to date.

ORBIT CULTURE burst out of the underground scene with the release of 2020’s Nija album, which garnered worldwide critical acclaim from critics and metal fans alike. Their latest release, Shaman, sees them further expand upon their dynamic sound, developing a propulsive blend of metallic brilliance. While rooted in the classic Swedish metal genre paved by greats such as At The Gates, In Flames, and Meshuggah, they creatively expand upon it to create a more evolved, modernized sound that is simply undeniable. Shaman delivers on all fronts and showcases the band’s seamless efforts to effectively blend aggression, melody, and technicality.
The band states: “When it comes to the music, Shaman has a bit more flow to be executed more in a live setting, which was one of the goals creating it. We have some songs on Nija that we’d like to play live, but some of them just don’t quite translate as well as we want them to when we play them. We want to be a band able to run around the stage and invite people to the show and connect that way, rather than standing in one place and sweating over weird guitar patterns and whatnot. We think that’s the major difference between Nija to Shaman. We want people to be blown away live and the songs on this EP are constructed for that. Of course, you’ll get what you expect from us, heavy and fast guitars combined with low-tuned drops followed up by sing-along choruses with an exotic twist.”

Placebo at Marquee Theatre
2023-05-10 18:30 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
With their androgynous aesthetic and raw attack, Placebo caused a stir upon their debut in the 1990s, when Brit-pop ruled the charts and grunge was on its way out. Once described as a glam version of Nirvana, the multinational band delivered a potent blend of dark alt-rock with goth and electronic undertones, creating a sound more aligned with Smashing Pumpkins, Depeche Mode, Muse, and Silversun Pickups. Crashing onto the British scene, the then-trio raised eyebrows with their first hit, “Nancy Boy” from 1997’s Placebo, providing a stark alternative to Brit-pop’s lad culture. While they continued to expand their European base, the band had a brief moment in the sun in the United States, scoring modest radio hits with “Pure Morning” from 1998’s Without You I’m Nothing, “Special K” from 2000’s Black Market Music, and “Infra-Red” from 2006’s Meds. Although their output slowed into the 2010s — they released just one official album that decade, 2013’s Loud Like Love — they maintained a strong grip on their core audience, issuing an MTV Unplugged set in 2015 and a series of retrospective B-sides collections from every one of their albums to date. In 2022, nearly a decade after their previous LP was issued, Placebo made a comeback with eighth album Never Let Me Go.
An early incarnation of the band was formed by singer/guitarist Brian Molko (part Scottish and American descent, but raised in England) and Swedish bassist Stefan Olsdal. Both members had previously attended the same school in Luxembourg, but they didn’t cross paths properly until 1994 in London. Briefly called Ashtray Heart and influenced by the likes of Sonic Youth, Pixies, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana, they began filling the vacant drum spot with percussionists like Robert Schultzberg and Steve Hewitt (the latter being the group’s only member of English origin). Although Molko and Olsdal preferred Hewitt as their main man (it was this lineup that recorded several early demos), Hewitt opted to return to his other band at the time, Breed. With Schultzberg back on board instead, Placebo signed a recording contract with Caroline Records and released their self-titled debut in 1996. Placebo was a surprise hit in the U.K., where singles like “Nancy Boy” and “Teenage Angst” became Top 40 hits. Meanwhile, the bandmates themselves became the toast of the British music weeklies and supported their debut by opening for such outfits as the reunited Sex Pistols, U2, and Weezer.
Despite the group’s early success, Schultzberg wasn’t seeing eye to eye with the other bandmembers, who by this point were able to convince Hewitt to rejoin the lineup, prompting Schultzberg’s exit from the band in September 1996. One of Hewitt’s first performances with Placebo upon returning proved to be a big one, as David Bowie — a fan of the band, not to mention an influence on their sound — personally invited the trio to play his 50th birthday bash at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1997. The following year, Placebo switched over to the major-label division of Caroline, Virgin Records, and issued Without You I’m Nothing in November. The album was another big seller in England and initially appeared to be the group’s breakthrough in the U.S., where MTV and rock radio embraced the album’s lead-off single, “Pure Morning.” Subsequent singles failed to match the success of that first song, but Without You I’m Nothing remained popular in England, where it eventually went platinum. Around the same time, Placebo recorded a cover of T. Rex‘s “20th Century Boy” for Velvet Goldmine, a movie in which the trio also appeared.
The relationship between Placebo and Bowie continued to blossom. Bowie made a special on-stage appearance with the band during a tour stop in New York, and both parties united for a re-recording of the title track from Without You I’m Nothing, which was issued as a single in 1999. Placebo’s third release, Black Market Music, added hip-hop and disco elements to the group’s tense rock sound. The album was released in Europe in 2000, followed several months later by a resequenced American version whose track list featured several additions, including the Bowie version of “Without You I’m Nothing” and the band’s cover of Depeche Mode‘s “I Feel You.” The recording spawned additional U.K. hits such as “Taste in Men” and “Slave to the Wage.”
In spring 2003, Placebo showcased a harder edge with the release of their fourth effort, Sleeping with Ghosts. The album cracked the Top Ten in the U.K. and sold over a million copies worldwide. Placebo’s singles collection Once More with Feeling: Singles 1996-2004 was released before the year’s end. The 19-song compilation included their biggest U.K. hits and the new track “Twenty Years.” Frenchman Dimitri Tikovoi (Goldfrapp, the Cranes), who had mixed selected songs on Once More with Feeling, also signed on to produce Placebo’s fifth effort, 2006’s Meds. Topping charts in multiple countries, the album generated a handful of hit singles, including “Infra-Red,” the band’s second charting track in the U.S. The next year, a cover of Kate Bush‘s “Running up That Hill” from their 2003 Covers compilation became a surprise hit in the U.K., Australia, and the U.S. (where it appeared on the hit teen drama The O.C.), and the group capitalized on the exposure by joining Linkin Park‘s Projekt Revolution tour alongside My Chemical Romance. As a primer for new fans, Virgin released the Extended Play ’07 EP as a simple introduction to Placebo’s past decade of music.
Steven Hewitt departed the band in the fall of 2007, and Placebo left their longtime home of EMI/Virgin one year later. With new drummer Steve Forrest now on board, the group recorded Battle for the Sun and released it during the summer of 2009. Produced by David Bottrill (Silverchair, Muse), the effort featured the European hit “For What It’s Worth” and “Ashtray Heart,” a winking nod to their original moniker. A box set of the band’s work for EMI, The Hut Recordings, was released the same day, and an extensive tour kept them busy for another year. For fans who couldn’t make the shows, Placebo also issued a live mini-album, Live at La Cigale, whose songs were taken from a 2006 performance in Paris.
In 2010 Molko and Olsdal announced they had been working on new material, which culminated in the release of the mini-album B3 EP two years later. In 2013 Placebo delivered their seventh studio album, the Adam Noble-produced Loud Like Love, home to “Too Many Friends” and “A Million Little Pieces.”
For their 20th anniversary, Placebo announced a grand two-year retrospective blitz that included the vinyl re-release of their first five albums and respective B-sides collections for each, as well as a recording of MTV Unplugged. Recorded in front of a live audience in London, it featured drastic reworkings of past hits and deep cuts (including the first-ever live performance of “Bosco”), as well as guest appearances by Majke Voss Romme (Broken Twin) and Joan as Police Woman. Forrest departed in 2015, and the following year Placebo released a 36-track retrospective, A Place for Us to Dream, which featured a new single, “Jesus’ Son.” 2017 brought an extensive tour that took in Mexico, Australia, and Europe, and in 2018 they performed at the Robert Smith-curated Meltdown Festival in London.
In mid-2019, the band began work on what would ultimately become their eighth album, the much-delayed 2022 release Never Let Me Go. It was the first full-length that Placebo had recorded as a duo, and featured the singles “Beautiful James,” “Surrounded by Spies,” and “Try Better Next Time.” ~ Greg Prato & Neil Z. Yeung

Janet Jackson at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-06-07 19:30 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Janet Jackson is one of the most influential entertainers of the modern era. Her music has won her 6 GRAMMY® Awards, 2 Emmy Nominations, a Golden Globe Award, a nomination for an Academy Award along with dozens of American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards. She has received accolades as an actress as well including the NAACP Best Supporting Actor award. Janet is a published author, dancer, businessperson, philanthropist and one of the biggest-selling artists in popular music history. With sales of over 160 million records worldwide, Janet Jackson stands as one of the best-selling artists of all time with a string of hits that have left an indelible impression on pop culture. Her music and artistry has opened doors through which other top artists have followed, many acknowledging her impact on their musical perception.
https://youtu.be/yv8LjBBb1bQ

When rap’s Dirty South movement broke nationwide in the late ’90s and early 2000s, Ludacris rode it to immediate widespread popularity, becoming arguably the most commercially successful Southern rapper of the time. The entirety of the aughts found the rapper scoring hit after mainstream hit and selling platinum numbers of records like 2001’s Word of Mouf and 2003’s Chicken -N- Beer. He quickly became a multifaceted superstar, making multiple film and television appearances while staying active in music with consistent guest features on other artists’ tracks and albums of his own like 2015’s Ludaversal.
Born Christopher Bridges on September 11, 1977, in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Atlanta during his high school years and attended Banneker High School there. He then studied at Georgia State University. His entry into the rap industry came via radio; he worked as a disc jockey at Atlanta-based urban station Hot 97.5 (which later became Hot 107.9), where he was known as DJ Chris Lova Lova, and this was how he became acquainted with Timbaland. The producer featured Ludacris (then billed as Ludichris) on the song “Fat Rabbit” from his album Tim’s Bio (1998), and with such a high-profile feature to his credit, the groundwork was laid for the rapper. Ludacris proceeded to record an independent album, Incognegro (1999), which he in turn released regionally himself, on the label Disturbing tha Peace. Ludacris primarily worked with producer Shondrae for the album, though also with Organized Noize, the acclaimed production team behind the early albums of OutKast and Goodie Mob. Incognegro sold well enough to break into the Billboard 200, and Ludacris was approached by Scarface of the Geto Boys, who as a representative of Def Jam was interested in negotiating a recording contract.
In late 2000, Def Jam repackaged Incognegro and released it as Back for the First Time, adding a few new songs: a U.G.K. collaboration (“Stick ‘Em Up”), a Neptunes production (“Southern Hospitality”), and a remix of his previously released song with Timbaland (retitled “Phat Rabbit”). The album’s lead single, “What’s Your Fantasy?,” became a major hit nationally, peaking at number 21 on the Hot 100, and the follow-up single, “Southern Hospitality,” was similarly popular, charting at number 23. This pair of hits helped drive sales of Back for the First Time, which climbed all the way to number four on the Billboard 200. The follow-up album, Word of Mouf (2001), was an even greater success for Ludacris, charting at number three and spawning a series of hit singles that carried over well into 2002: “Area Codes,” “Rollout (My Business),” “Saturday (Oooh Oooh!),” “Welcome to Atlanta,” and “Move Bitch.” After these singles had run their course, a collaborative album, Golden Grain (2002), was released, showcasing the assembly of talent signed to Ludacris’ revived Disturbing tha Peace label, which was now in partnership with Def Jam. The following year was a busy one for Ludacris, as he appeared in the film 2 Fast 2 Furious and released his third album, Chicken -N- Beer, his first to reach number one on the Billboard 200. Chicken -N- Beer brought with it another series of hits, including the Hot 100 number one “Stand Up” and number six “Splash Waterfalls.”
Ludacris continued his output the following year, with The Red Light District (2004), another number one album loaded with hit singles (“Get Back,” “Number One Spot,” “Pimpin’ All Over the World”). Disturbing tha Peace (2005), a second collaborative album featuring the label’s roster of talent, was Ludacris’ only release for the year, and he kept a relatively low profile until the release of Release Therapy (2006), an introspective album on which he vowed that he would be taken more seriously than in the past. Another chart-topper, Release Therapy included only two Hot 100-charting singles, yet both were smashes: “Money Maker” (number one) and “Runaway Love” (number two). In 2007, Ludacris got a lot of airplay as the featured guest on Fergie‘s number one hit “Glamorous.” A year later a mixtape with DJ Drama called The Preview preceded the November release of Theater of the Mind. The long list of guest stars included director Spike Lee and comedian/actor Chris Rock. His 2010 effort, Battle of the Sexes, was originally planned as a joint release with Shawnna, but when the female rapper left the DTP family, it became a solo Ludacris album. In 2014, the rapper announced his ninth album and released the EP Burning Bridges as a preview. Ludaversal followed a year later, with Usher, Miguel, and Big K.R.I.T. on the guest list, along with production from David Guetta, Rico Love, and Cashmere Cat. After adding more acting roles to his résumé, Ludacris returned in 2017 with the singles “Vitamin D” with Ty Dolla $ign and “Vices.” Work toward a tenth studio album stretched out over many years, and in September of 2020, the new single “Found You” arrived featuring a guest spot from Chance the Rapper. ~ Jason Birchmeier & Fred Thomas, Rovi

Garbage & Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-06-11 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Since releasing their eponymous debut album in 1995, Garbage – composed of Shirley Manson, Duke Erikson, Steve Market and Butch Vig – has blazed a distinct sonic trail. With a passel of hits including “Stupid Girl,” “Push It,” “Only Happy When it Rains” and “I Think I’m Paranoid,” they’ve garnered consistent critical acclaim as well as seven Grammy nominations along the way to 17 million albums sold. The band’s ferocious new album No Gods No Masters continues to expand their musical vision. The 11-track collection is by turns brutal and beautiful, a celebration of the sonic maelstrom and a triumph of silence, sometimes within the space of a single song. “This is our seventh record, the significant numerology of which affected the DNA of its content: the seven virtues, the seven sorrows, and the seven deadly sins,” says Manson, the band’s iconic frontwoman. No Gods No Masters is a big, bold and indignant record – overtly political and socially charged in a way that the band has not been before, with songs touching on themes ranging from global unrest and encroaching climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement, sexism and misogyny. The result is the perfect soundtrack for a fraught moment from a band that has been making its unique mark for nearly 30 years – a record that could only have come from the intimate relationship between musicians who have matured and grown together over the course of their careers.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds first emerged in October 2011 with their eponymous album which went double platinum in the UK selling over 2.5 million copies worldwide. In the two decades prior, Noel Gallagher was main songwriter, lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of Oasis, one of the biggest and most loved UK bands. By the time a 2nd album was due for release, NGHFB had already played 150 live shows in 32 countries. ‘Chasing Yesterday’ was released in March 2015, followed by another 122 shows across 28 countries. The 3rd studio album, ‘Who Built The Moon?’, was recorded with renowned producer and composer David Holmes and released in November 2017. The live appearances continued throughout 2019 including tours of the USA and Australia with Smashing Pumpkins and U2 respectively. Noel once again challenged industry norms releasing a series of critically acclaimed multi-genre EP’s throughout 2019 & 2020. June 2021 saw the release of ‘Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021)’ – a Best Of celebrating a decade of the band, curated by Noel. This was NGHFB’s 4th consecutive No.1 album and the 12th across Noel’s career. In Summer 2022, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds completed a nationwide tour of outdoor shows, culminating with an epic set on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage to one of the weekend’s biggest crowds. NGHFB recently released new singles ‘Pretty Boy’, ‘Easy Now’ & ‘Council Skies’ taken from the studio album ‘Council Skies’, out June 2, 2023.

Fall Out Boy + Bring Me The Horizon at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-06-30 18:30 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Fall Out Boy rose to the forefront of emo pop in the mid-2000s, blending power pop-style hooks with soulful vocals and dance-friendly grooves. Rising from the punk underground, the band made their mainstream breakthrough in 2005 with their sophomore set, From Under the Cork Tree, spawning the hits “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” and “Dance, Dance.” Two years later, they topped the Billboard 200 with Infinity on High. Shifting from the Warped Tour crowd to sold-out arenas by the 2010s, they issued a string of chart-topping albums that decade — Save Rock and Roll, American Beauty/American Psycho, M A N I A — all of which found them embracing a wider range of styles, including R&B and electro-pop. Along the way, they continued to score mainstream hits that served the mosh pits as well as sports stadiums. In 2023, they delivered their anthemic eighth album So Much (for) Stardust.
The group’s four members first came together in Wilmette, a bedroom community north of Chicago, around 2001. Vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley, and guitarist Joe Trohman had all taken part in various bands connected to Chicago’s underground hardcore scene. Most notably, Hurley drummed for Racetraitor, the furiously political metalcore outfit. As Fall Out Boy, the quartet used the unbridled intensity of hardcore as a foundation for melody-drenched pop-punk, with a heavy debt to the emo scene. They debuted with a self-released demo in 2001, following it up in May 2002 with a split LP (issued on the Uprising label) that also featured Project Rocket, for which Hurley also drummed. The band remained with the label for the release of a mini-LP, Fall Out Boy’s Evening Out with Your Girl, but a bidding war of sorts was already in full swing.
Fall Out Boy eventually signed a deal with Fueled by Ramen, the Florida-based label co-owned by Less Than Jake drummer Vinnie Fiorello, but also received an advance from Island Records to record a proper debut album. The advance came with a right of first refusal for Island on Fall Out Boy’s next album, but it also financed the recording of Take This to Your Grave, which occurred at Butch Vig‘s Smart Studios compound in Madison, Wisconsin, with producer Sean O’Keefe (Lucky Boys Confusion, Motion City Soundtrack) at the helm. Take This to Your Grave appeared in May 2003 and Fall Out Boy earned positive reviews for subsequent gigs at South by Southwest and various tour appearances. Their breakout album, the ambitious From Under the Cork Tree, followed in spring 2005, quickly reaching the Top Ten of Billboard’s album chart and spawning two Top Ten hits with “Sugar We’re Going Down” and the furiously upbeat “Dance, Dance.” The album went double platinum and earned the musicians a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.
Fall Out Boy’s underground star status — driven by the especially extroverted Wentz, who also gained exposure with his clothing line, his Decaydance record label (an imprint of Fueled by Ramen), and eventually a celebrity relationship with Ashlee Simpson — had boiled over into the mainstream. They toured extensively, supporting the album with international tours, arena shows, TRL visits, late-night television gigs, and music award shows. Without taking a break, the guys then hunkered down to work on their follow-up record with From Under the Cork Tree producer Neil Avron (and, somewhat surprisingly, Babyface). Infinity on High, whose title was taken from a line in one of Van Gogh‘s personal letters, appeared in early February 2007, spearheaded by the hit single “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race.” The album continued Fall Out Boy’s streak, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts and going platinum one month later. Released in early 2008, the CD/DVD package Live in Phoenix documented the band’s strength as a flashy live act, while the full-length studio effort Folie à Deux followed later that year.
Recording sessions for Folie à Deux were tough, prompting the band to take an open-ended hiatus soon after the album’s release. Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley joined a new band, Damned Things, during the interim, while Wentz teamed up with a new vocalist, Bebe Rexha, to form Black Cards. Stump took the opportunity to launch a solo career, ditching his band’s emo pop music in favor of a more electronic, R&B-influenced sound. In 2011, he released his debut solo album, Soul Punk, cracking the top 50 of the Billboard 200. Despite the solo projects, it wasn’t long before rumors of a Fall Out Boy reunion began to swirl. In February 2013, the band confirmed that the rumors were true: they had reunited for a new album called Save Rock and Roll and an accompanying tour. Preceded by the single “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ‘Em Up),” Save Rock and Roll was released in April of 2013 and promptly debuted at number one on the U.S. charts. The band stayed busy during the subsequent year as well, creating a video for each song on the album, recording the punk-inspired EP Pax-Am Days (with production from Ryan Adams), and headlining tours that reached America, Europe, and Australia.
In late 2014, Fall Out Boy premiered a new single, “Centuries,” the first glimpse of their sixth album, American Beauty/American Psycho. Produced in part by J.R. Rotem and SebastiAn, it combined Fall Out Boy’s core punk-pop sound with elements of electronica, R&B, and hip-hop. The album debuted at number one when it was released the following January and it stayed on the charts thanks to the Munsters-sampling single “Uma Thurman,” which was certified platinum. The band released a remix version of the album called Make America Psycho Again in October 2015.
Out Boy revealed that their forthcoming seventh album, M A N I A, would be released later that year. The announcement was accompanied by the album’s first single, “Young and Menace.” Although they released a second single, “Champion,” they felt the album needed more work and headed back into the studio to in the latter half of 2017. This version of M A N I A appeared in January 2018 and debuted at number one on the Billboard charts upon its release. In September 2019, Fall Out Boy collaborated with Wyclef Jean on the single “Dear Future Self (Hands Up),” which appeared on their second anthology, Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2.
In January 2023, the group returned with the singles “Love from the Other Side” and “Heartbreak Feels So Good,” the first tracks released off their eighth studio album, So Much (for) Stardust. That same month, guitarist Trohman revealed he was taking a break from the band to focus on his mental health. Released that March, So Much (for) Stardust featured production by Neal Avron, who had previously helmed Folie à Deux. The album also marked the band’s return to Fueled by Ramen following the end of their contract with Island Records.

English rock band Bring Me the Horizon have made a steady progression from their death metal-inspired grindcore debut to melodic metalcore, maturing into a pop-savvy headline act by the end of their first decade together. With each release — from 2006’s caustic Count Your Blessings to 2013’s mainstream breakthrough Sempiternal — they dialed back the blood-curdling screams and injected more melody until capturing an alt-metal balance on their 2015 international chart-topping effort That’s the Spirit. By 2019’s Amo, they had incorporated elements of electronic and even hip-hop into their edgy, genre-blurring blend. In 2020 Bring Me the Horizon issued Post Human: Survival Horror, the first installment of an ambitious four-part arc of EPs that they followed up in 2021 with DiE4u. They spent much of 2022 collaborating with artists like Ed Sheeran and Machine Gun Kelly, and the single “Lost” appeared in 2023.
The group was formed in 2004 from the ashes of several Sheffield-based outfits, with the 2003 Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean serving as the inspiration for the band’s name. Singer Oliver Sykes, guitarists Lee Malia and Curtis Ward, bassist Matt Kean, and drummer Matt Nicholls initially established their own label, Thirty Days of Night, to release their debut EP, 2005’s This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For. Upon signing to the higher-profile label Visible Noise (whose roster also included Bullet for My Valentine and Lostprophets), they reissued the EP to a wider audience. Bring Me the Horizon’s full-length debut, Count Your Blessings, appeared in October 2006, with an American release following one year later courtesy of Epitaph Records.
With their second album, Suicide Season, Bring Me the Horizon moved in a more accessible direction and wound up cracking the U.K. album charts. Not everyone approved of the new sound, though, and Ward left the band in early 2009. His temporary replacement was Jona Weinhofen, formerly a member of I Killed the Prom Queen. Weinhofen ended up staying with the band as a permanent member, and the group returned to the studio with producer Fredrik Nordström in March 2010 to begin work on a third album. The resulting There Is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It, There Is a Heaven, Let’s Keep It a Secret was released during the latter half of 2010, several months after the band wrapped up their engagement with the Warped Tour.
A fourth album, the critically lauded Sempiternal, arrived on Epitaph in 2013, and peaked at number three on the U.K. albums chart. Bring Me the Horizon’s next effort marked a stark departure from the sound they’d been honing since their debut. Released in 2015, the loosely conceptual That’s the Spirit saw the group dropping some of their metalcore tendencies in lieu of a more melodic, alt-metal approach, capturing mainstream ears with the singles “Happy Song,” “True Friends,” and “Avalanche.” Their highest-performing effort to date, the set topped charts across the globe, peaking in the Top Three in their native England and in the U.S. Riding the success of Spirit, the band staged an ambitious charity concert benefitting the Teenage Cancer Trust. Backed by the Parallax Orchestra and Simon Dobson, the group set their hits to orchestral backing on 2016’s Live at the Royal Albert Hall.
In the summer of 2018, Bring Me the Horizon continued down an increasingly experimental path with the mainstream-ready anthem “Mantra” and the surprisingly poppy “Medicine.” Both tracks landed on their sixth full-length effort, Amo, which was released in early 2019. Their first U.K. chart-topper, Amo incorporated electronic dance elements and trap production, featuring guest appearances by Dani Filth (Cradle of Filth), art-pop singer Grimes, and rapper Rahzel. As the band toured the globe, they joined a stacked roster of artists for the soundtrack to the video game Death Stranding, contributing the track “Ludens.” At the close of 2019, in addition to Amo receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album, the group issued a surprise project titled Music to Listen To…. The experimental foray dabbled in electronic atmospherics, ambient noise, and trip-hop, reimagining tracks from Amo in the process. Guests on the release include Halsey and Theresa Jarvis of Yonaka.
In early 2020, the band quarantined in their home studios during the COVID-19 pandemic to record their next effort, which was heavily influenced by global events. During the summer, they issued “Parasite Eve” and the industrial-tinged “Obey,” a collaboration with English upstart Yungblud. These tracks landed on Post Human: Survival Horror, the first installment of a proposed multi-part EP series. In addition to the previously released singles, the set also included appearances by Babymetal (“Kingslayer”), Nova Twins (“1×1”), and Amy Lee of Evanescence (“One Day…”). Part two, the more melodic and anthemic DiE4u, arrived the following year. A string of high-profile collaborations marked the band’s 2022 output and included featured appearances with Ed Sheeran (“Bad Habits”), Machine Gun Kelly (“Maybe”), and Sigrid (“Bad Life”). They returned with their own single, “Strangers,” in July of that year. Another single, “Lost,” arrived in May 2023.

Pierce The Veil + The Used at Arizona Financial Theatre
2023-07-02 18:30 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Emerging as a voice for the damaged masses in the early-2000s post-hardcore scene, Utah-bred rock group the Used connected to their audience with a potent mixture of feral rage and unabashed vulnerability. Their breakthrough platinum debut, The Used, gained popularity on both radio and MTV, bolstered by hit singles like “The Taste of Ink” and “Buried Myself Alive.” As their presence on the touring circuit increased, they hit a mainstream peak with 2004’s platinum In Love and Death and its follow-up, 2007’s Lies for the Liars. While they remained a respected name in the scene and were a fixture in the Top 20, latter albums were less visible outside of their devoted core fan base. With each set, their sound evolved and bandmembers matured, reaching creative peaks on 2017’s The Canyon, 2020’s Heartwork, and 2023’s Toxic Positivity.
The members of the Used had to overcome poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse, as well as the conservative attitudes of their hometown of Orem, Utah, to bring their screamo-tinged brand of post-hardcore to life. But they persevered and earned a contract with Reprise Records, releasing their self-titled debut album in June 2002. The Used proved to be their major breakthrough, going platinum in the U.S. upon the strength of hit singles “The Taste of Ink,” “Buried Myself Alive,” and “Blue and Yellow.” Having only played a handful of shows around Orem prior to their record’s release, the band — vocalist Bert McCracken, guitarist Quinn Allman, bassist Jeph Howard, and drummer Branden Steineckert — began relentless nationwide touring that quickly saw their fan base multiply. Club dates soon turned into successful stints on larger-scale festival/package tours including the Warped Tour, Ozzfest, and Projekt Revolution alongside Linkin Park and Snoop Dogg. In the summer of 2003, the Used issued the introspective compilation set Maybe Memories, another platinum release that contained unreleased songs, live material, behind-the-scenes footage, and more.
The Used’s official sophomore outing arrived in September 2004. Debuting at number six on the Billboard 200, In Love and Death shot them even further into the public consciousness. The singles “Take It Away” and “All That I’ve Got” were Top Ten U.S. Rock chart hits, and the set was soon certified platinum. Around that time, they also recorded a version of the Queen classic “Under Pressure” with My Chemical Romance to benefit victims of the devastating tsunami of December 2004. Outside of the band, McCracken has also lent his vocals to the punk rock drum troupe Street Drum Corps. As the Used readied their third album, Steineckert parted ways with the group over creative differences in early fall 2006 (he went on to join Rancid).
The live CD/DVD Berth appeared in February 2007 to tide fans over a bit longer until their third proper full-length, Lies for the Liars, came out in May. Though he didn’t perform on the record, drummer Dan Whitesides joined the band as an official member just in time for the supporting tour. The group’s fourth full-length album, Artwork, was produced by Matt Squire (Panic! At the Disco) and released on Reprise in 2009. Arriving in 2012, Vulnerable, the band’s fifth studio outing and first for new label Hopeless, was preceded by the single “I Come Alive.” It was reissued the next year as Vulnerable (II), with a bonus disc stocked with B-sides, remixes, and acoustic tracks. Imaginary Enemy followed in 2014.
Allman and the band amicably parted ways in 2015, and Saosin guitarist Justin Shekoski was recruited as his permanent replacement just in time for a tour in celebration of the group’s 15th anniversary. On each stop of the tour, the Used performed two shows, one for each of their first two LPs. A live album commemorating their acoustic stint at the Palace in Los Angeles was released in April 2016. Live and Acoustic at the Palace was recorded in October 2015 and featured accompaniment by a string quartet, harpist, pianist, and gospel choir.
The band’s seventh studio album, The Canyon, arrived in late 2017. The critically acclaimed set marked an evolution in both style and content, inspired in part by the death of one of McCracken‘s close friends. When touring concluded for the album, Shekoski parted ways with the group and they began work on a follow-up. 2020’s Heartwork, a nostalgic callback to their first three efforts, was another step forward for the Used. Produced by John Feldmann, the LP was the first with guitarist Joey Bradford and featured guests Jason Aalon Butler (Fever 333), Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker (blink-182), and Caleb Shomo (Beartooth). 2022 saw the emo icons issue the combative and celebratory “Fuck You” ahead of the arrival of their ninth long-player. The angsty and anthemic “People Are Vomit” appeared in early 2023, with Toxic Positivity arriving later that May.

Right now, Pierce the Veil are at their most raw, crackling with urgency and immediacy. Never predictable, always engaging, Pierce the Veil continue to soar on the strength of highly potent energy, rich musicality, and a scrappy sense of authentic exuberant ambition that’s frankly unrivaled. Frontman Vic Fuentes, guitarist Tony Perry, and bassist Jaime Preciado put volatile, angsty, confessional emotions into the music, which is why their songs resonate with so many. “No matter where the band performs, fans will show up,” wrote Loudwire. “When you see Pierce The Veil live, you’ll understand why.”
PTV’s evolution from album to album is nothing less than stunning. The early buzz generated by A Flair for the Dramatic (2007) made its follow-up one of the most anticipated albums of 2010. Selfish Machines shot to No.1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. The Chicago Tribune saluted Collide with the Sky for its “post-hardcore punk with more than a few nods to Queen.” They became a true arena act on Misadventures, selling out huge venues without losing the intimate connection with their fans.
Pierce the Veil have long cemented their status as one of the most exciting and relevant acts in their genre — by constantly evolving.

Nickelback at Footprint Center
2023-07-12 18:30 - 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, 85004, United States
Nickelback carried the torch for heavy post-grunge into the 2000s, an era that otherwise didn’t favor their particular brand of pumped-up angst and loud good times. By most measures, the Canadian group were the most popular rockers of the 2000s, ruling rock radio from the moment “How You Remind Me” went to number one in both Canada and the U.S. after its release in 2001. Over the next decade, the group dominated the rock charts, balancing crossover power ballads like “Someday” and “Photograph” with salacious rockers like “Rock Star” and “Something in Your Mouth.” During the band’s reign, Nickelback’s presence seemed outsized thanks to its gruff-voiced leader Chad Kroeger stepping outside the group to record “Hero” for the soundtrack for Sam Raimi’s 2002 theatrical adaptation of Spider-Man, along with appearing on records by Santana and Kroeger‘s then-wife Avril Lavigne — cameos that indicate how the band’s popularity extended beyond die-hard rock audiences. Nevertheless, those were the fans that stayed true to Nickelback, helping the band stay successful through the 2010s and into 2022, when the crunching “San Quentin” became the band’s first American Top Ten Rock hit in nearly a decade.
Chad Kroeger honed his frontman skills by performing with cover bands in Hanna, a small Canadian town 215 kilometers northeast of Calgary. After growing tired of playing other people’s songs, he borrowed money from his stepfather and relocated to Vancouver, where he recorded his first batch of original material. Mike Kroeger, Chad‘s bass-playing sibling, decided to join his brother’s band, as did fellow Vancouver transplants Ryan Peake (a guitarist who had befriended the Kroegers in middle school) and Ryan Vikedal (a drummer from Peake’s hometown of Brooks, Alberta). Nickelback officially took shape in 1995 and quickly set to work, releasing two albums — the Hesher EP and full-length album Curb — in 1996. By 1998, the bandmates were managing themselves; Chad courted radio stations, brother Mike handled distribution, Vikedal booked shows, and Peake maintained the band’s website.
January 2000 saw the arrival of The State, Nickelback’s second independent release. Issued at a time in which Canadian content requirements were increased (and, accordingly, local radio stations had begun to desperately seek out homegrown product), the album fared very well on indie charts. Nickelback toured ceaselessly in support of The State, logging approximately 200 shows while playing alongside other groups of the burgeoning post-grunge genre. Their commercial appeal wasn’t lost on the record industry, either, and The State’s distribution rights were quickly snapped up by Roadrunner Records in the U.S. and EMI in Canada. As the band continued to tour, Kroeger kept writing new songs, many of which were polished in front of live audiences. Much of that material found its way onto Silver Side Up, which was produced by Rick Parashar (who rose to prominence in the early ’90s by helming Pearl Jam‘s Ten, Alice in Chains‘ Sap, and Blind Melon‘s self-titled debut) and recorded at Green House, the same Vancouver studio used for The State’s creation. The combination of Nickelback’s growing popularity and Kroeger‘s focused songwriting propelled Silver Side Up onto album charts across the world, spearheaded by the hit single “How You Remind Me.” Kroeger capitalized on that exposure by producing another Vancouver-based band, Default, and collaborating with Saliva‘s Josey Scott for the Spider-Man soundtrack. The Long Road then arrived in 2003, featuring an increasingly polished sound and another high-charting single, “Someday.” While some listeners criticized the apparent similarities between “Someday” and “How You Remind Me,” The Long Road had little trouble maintaining Nickelback’s wide audience, eventually selling over five million copies worldwide.
In February 2005, Nickelback announced the departure of Vikedal. He was soon replaced by 3 Doors Down‘s former drummer Daniel Adair, and Nickelback returned to Kroeger‘s studio in Vancouver to begin work on another album. ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons and Pantera‘s Dimebag Darrell (who unfortunately died before the album’s release) were guests on the chart-topping All the Right Reasons, which arrived in October 2005. It proved to be Nickelback’s most popular effort to date, remaining in the Billboard Top 30 for over two years and selling over seven million copies in the U.S. alone. It also spawned five Top 20 singles, a feat that attracted the attention of veteran producer (and demonstrated hitmaker) Mutt Lange. Nickelback traveled to Lange‘s home in Switzerland to share songwriting ideas; impressed with the results, they also enlisted him to helm their next album. Recorded in a converted Vancouver barn, Dark Horse marked the band’s sixth studio album upon its release in November 2008. Nickelback’s seventh studio album arrived nearly three years after the multi-platinum-selling Dark Horse. The 11-track Here and Now, which was preceded by the singles “Bottoms Up” and “When We Stand Together,” hit the streets on November 21, 2011.
The following year Kroeger began working on fellow Canadian rock star Avril Lavigne‘s eponymous fifth album. Shortly after their working partnership began, they began dating and eventually married in early 2013. The band put together their first compilation, The Best of Nickelback, Vol. 1, which appeared in November of 2013; the 19-track collection contained no new songs. In 2014, the band’s contract with Roadrunner expired and they decided not to renew, signing instead with Universal Republic for their eighth album, No Fixed Address. The album included a number of departures from Nickelback’s usual fare, including the radio-friendly “What Are You Waiting For?,” the politicized “Edge of a Revolution,” and “Got Me Runnin’ ‘Round,” which featured a horn section and rapper Flo Rida. No Fixed Address appeared in November 2014, debuting at four on Billboard’s Top 200 and generating rock radio hits in “Edge of a Revolution” and “Million Miles an Hour.” As they worked on their ninth album in 2016, Nickelback released a cover of Don Henley‘s “Dirty Laundry” and negotiated a switch from Republic to BMG. Feed the Machine, their first record for BMG, was co-produced by Chris Baseford (Disturbed) and appeared in June 2017. The LP debuted at number five on the U.S. Billboard 200, with its title track reaching 12 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart. A non-LP cover of the Charlie Daniels Band‘s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” featuring guitarist Dave Martone appeared in 2020, as did a 15th anniversary edition of 2005’s multi-platinum-selling All the Right Reasons. Nickelback returned with new material in 2022’s “San Quentin,” the first taste of their tenth studio album, Get Rollin’. Another co-production with Chris Baseford, Get Rollin’ focused on heavy riffs and good times, a combination highlighted on the breezy single “High Time.” ~ Andrew Leahey

With back-to-back PLATINUM albums and a grassroots following millions strong, Brantley Gilbert’s music has been shared, covered and adopted as the soundtrack to Saturday night and Sunday morning by audiences around the world. The Georgia native who started as the defiant life-of-the-party can still go ‘til sunrise also emerged as something far greater: the leader of a massive tribe of hard-working, fun-loving believers for whom electric guitar-shredding, rapping, and twang can go hand-in-hand-in-hand. Seven No. 1 hits punctuate his career: RIAA 6X PLATINUM-certified “Bottoms Up,” 2X PLATINUM “Country Must Be Country Wide,” 2X PLATINUM “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do,” 2X PLATINUM “One Hell of An Amen,” PLATINUM-certified collaboration with Lindsay Ell “What Happens In A Small Town,” and two chart-toppers as a songwriter with CMA Song of the Year nominee “Dirt Road Anthem” and “My Kinda Party.” Earning praise from the New York Times, NPR, American Songwriter, and more, Gilbert has mined a rich vein of conflict between the party and the pew on all of his albums. His latest offering SO HELP ME GOD (DELUXE EDITION) is set for release April 21 via The Valory Music Co. and features chart-climbing single “Heaven By Then” with Blake Shelton featuring Vince Gill. Gilbert joins Nickelback this summer for the GET ROLLIN’ TOUR, featuring 35+ dates across North America.

Echoing the primary themes of country in his pop-rock-infused way, Josh Ross’s take on love, work, and play is often documented through his whirlwind experiences. From moving to Nashville on the night of a tornado, leaving only a month later when a global pandemic arrived, to developing an ever-evolving career amidst the drawbacks of injuries, lockdowns, and conflicting relationships, Josh Ross is a country artist bound by the act of forging past and overcoming restraints. Ross debuted as an artist with his independently released Top 5 chart-topping cathartic ballad on romantic losses, “First Taste Of Gone,” and has since pushed even further in his career with his signing to Universal Music Canada, partnering with Universal Music Group Nashville, and management by The Core Entertainment. Often writing from personal experiences, Josh Ross has delivered versatile lyrics throughout his collection of songs with over 115 million global streams. His bustling catalogue includes “Tall Boys,” his Top 5 Canadian radio hit “On A Different Night,” the introspective “Trouble,” and the latest too-close-to-home emotional track “Red Flags.”

Misfits + AFI at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-07-15 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
From the time of their first gig in 1977, the MISFITS and their iconic imagery went on to become one of the most crucially influential, genre-defying bands to ever emerge from North America deconstructing and redefining rock music. Immortalizing B horror films in their music, they developed a ghoulishly unique persona and rebellion all their own.
After a split with original singer Glenn Danzig in the mid 1980s, The Misfits were resurrected in the 1990s by co-founder Jerry Only, (the only consistent member since the band’s inception in 1977 to present), helming on Bass & Vocals over the course of the decades that followed.
2016 brought The ORIGINAL MISFITS triumphant return, reuniting Original Singer/Songwriter GLENN DANZIG and Original Bassist JERRY ONLY for the first time in over 30 years. Joined by long-time guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein, the Original Misfits have played sold out arenas and stadiums and in 2019, took the crown as the only first wave punk band to ever headline the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden—in a SOLD OUT performance no less.
The MISFITS with Danzig’s anthemic songs and unmistakable voice, Only’s ferocious bass sound, and the band’s melody-induced choruses and authentically bruising musicianship, cemented their importance with all ensuing generations. And now legions of diehard fans from around the world have the opportunity to hear the Original Band that forges a level of intensity unprecedented in the new millennium.

AFI are leaders, not followers. A collective in a perpetual state of creative evolution as fluid as the evocative figures contorting on the cover of Bodies, their newest collection of songs. The record is a snapshot of unrelenting artists in motion, unconcerned with compromise or outside demands.
The band initially summoned a steady subcultural groundswell in the mid-90s, devoid of careerist ambitions. The band first made music as teenaged misfits in an obscure Northern California town, steadily assembling a dense catalog over the years marked by its diversity and authenticity.
The platinum success of Sing the Sorrow blazed a path for a generation of hardcore-punk weaned bands to similarly crossover. 2006’s Decemberunderground upended expectations again and earned AFI a second platinum plaque. Crash Love was another adventurous turn, with expansive and almost optimistic-sounding melodies, glistening with emotion. The haunting Burials arrived four years later, debuting in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. The self-titled follow-up, commonly referred to as “the Blood Album,” became AFI’s second-highest charting album since their inception, debuting at No. 5 in 2017.

3 Doors Down + Candlebox at Arizona Financial Theatre
2023-07-18 19:30 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
A subsidiary of Universal, Republic Records signed the musicians and issued their major-label debut, The Better Life, in early 2000.
The Better Life became one of the biggest-selling albums of 2000, going platinum four times during its first year of release and spawning several singles. The band furthered its success with 2002’s Away from the Sun, which debuted at number eight on the Billboard Top 200 and, like its predecessor, climbed to multi-platinum status. 3 Doors Down toured steadily throughout 2003 and 2004 in support of Away from the Sun, and issued the live EP Another 700 Miles in November 2003 as a holdover between studio efforts. The group returned with a heavier album, Seventeen Days, in early 2005. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and went platinum in its first week of release. A self-titled album, which followed in May 2008, repeated its predecessor’s success when it too debuted at the top of the Billboard 200.
3 Doors Down toured throughout 2009, released a digital-only acoustic holiday album at the end of the year, and began to work on their next album in 2010. With Howard Benson serving as producer, the guys shuttled themselves between L.A. and Tokyo, recording the album in both cities and eventually emerging with 2011’s Time of My Life.

Multi-platinum selling Seattle rock band Candlebox is coming to Phoenix on Tuesday, July 18 at Arizona Financial Theatre supporting 3 Doors Down on their 46-date Away From The Sun amphitheater tour amidst Candlebox’s final tour. Celebrating 30 years of success, Candlebox – whose power anthems “Far Behind,” “You” and “Cover Me” off their 1993 debut, self-titled album exploded onto the charts – recently revealed their final studio album, titled The Long Goodbye, will be released on Friday, August 25th via Round Hill Records. More details on the project coming soon.

Candlebox – Kevin Martin (lead vocals), Adam Kury (bass), Brian Quinn (guitar), Island Styles (guitar), BJ Kerwin (drums) – will be out on the road through early fall crossing the country with fellow rockers 3 Doors Down as well as their own headlining shows as they say their final, and long, goodbye. Visit https://www.candleboxrocks.com/tour for all ticket details.

The Long Goodbye follows the release of Candlebox’s live, acoustic album, Live at The Neptune, set for release on June 23rd via Pavement Records. PRESS HERE more info and to pre-order.

Emerging from Seattle’s burgeoning mid-90s grunge scene, Candlebox quickly found mainstream success with their deep, lyrically-driven melodies and big radio hooks, as evidenced by their massive hits “Far Behind,” “You” and “Cover Me” that propelled their self-titled debut album to sell more than 4 million copies worldwide. Their follow-up album, Lucy, earned a platinum certification and solidified Candlebox as a tour de force in the thriving alt-rock scene. While the commercial success of the first album played a pivotal role in the band’s trajectory to the top, it was their raw and unapologetically honest live performances that ultimately solidified their place among Seattle’s elite. In 1998, Candlebox released Happy Pills, which would be their last album before going on hiatus from 2000 to 2006. In 2008, the band reformed and released their fourth album, Into The Sun, and hit the road for the first time in 10 years, touring extensively and releasing Alive In Seattle, a live album that included tracks from every era of their career. 2016 marked the triumphant return of Candlebox with the release of Disappearing In Airports, a more classic rock-tinged album hailed by many critics and fans as their best work in years. Singles “Vexatious” and “Supernova” drove the album to debut at #9 on the Billboard Charts and spurred multiple U.S. and international tours including major festival appearances at Carolina Rebellion, Welcome To Rockville, and Lollapalooza Chile. While these iconic rockers have been blazing full-steam since, releasing their latest album, Wolves, in 2021, Candlebox is now wrapping up their long and illustrious 30-year career with The Long Goodbye.

Disturbed + Breaking Benjamin & Jinjer at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-07-22 18:30 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Emerging out of Chicago at the turn of the century with an insidious, infectious, and inimitable vision without comparison, Disturbed have quietly dominated hard rock on their own terms. They make the kind of music that pushes you to hold on tighter, fight harder, and persevere forever. It’s why they’ve quietly claimed a place at the forefront of 21st century rock with record-breaking success, sales of over 17 million-plus units, nearly 8 billion streams, and sold out shows around the globe. The two-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated quartet have notched five consecutive #1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200, occupying rarified air alongside Metallica—the only other hard rock group to accomplish this feat. Since their influential 5x-platinum debut The Sickness in 2000, they have built a bulletproof catalog highlighted by a procession of smashes, including the platinum “Stupify,” “Inside The Fire,” and “Land of Confusion,” 2x-platinum “Stricken,” 6x-platinum “Down With The Sickness,” and 7x-platinum “The Sound of Silence,” to name a few. The latter notably received a GRAMMY® Award nomination in the category of “Best Rock Performance” as the band earned “Best Rock Artist” at the 2017 iHeartRadioMusic Awards. Still, Disturbed never stop, igniting their next chapter with their 2022 album Divisive featuring their 15th #1 at Rock Radio “Hey You,”“Unstoppable,” and more.

Pennsylvania hard rock outfit Breaking Benjamin debuted with a brand of metal-tinged alternative that came to define the sound of mainstream rock in the early 2000s. Over the years, multiple lineup changes would impact the sound of the band, which developed into a more arena-friendly act by the late 2000s. Originally indebted to the minor-chord dirges of grunge rockers like Alice in Chains and the menacing darkness of nu-metal acts like Godsmack and Chevelle, Breaking Benjamin became one of the most popular rock groups in the United States, scoring a number one with the single “Breath” in 2007 and topping the Billboard 200 in 2015 with Dark Before Dawn. In addition, three of their albums — 2004’s We Are Not Alone, 2006’s Phobia, and 2009’s Dear Agony — have been certified platinum in the U.S.
In late 2000, after parting ways with the band Lifer, founding guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark Klepaski joined forces with singer Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel to form Breaking Benjamin. When the quartet started playing around their hometown of Wilkes-Barre, they favored a radio-friendly post-grunge approach that was informed by influences like Live, Bush, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Nirvana. Later, they would adopt the downtuned guitar sound of groups such as Korn and Tool.
In 2001, Breaking Benjamin’s Wilkes-Barre gigs caught the attention of a local radio DJ named Freddie Fabbri, who was an on-air personality at alt-rock station WBSX-FM. Fabbri put their song “Polyamorous” in rotation, later financing the recording of their self-titled debut EP. That year, they signed with Hollywood Records, which connected the band with Ulrich Wild (Static-X, Pantera, Slipknot), who served as both producer and engineer on their debut full-length, 2002’s Saturate. The David Bendeth-produced We Are Not Alone followed two years later, complete with a few collaborations with Billy Corgan. The group landed a spot on tour with Evanescence in support of the effort, as three of the album’s singles made their way onto the Billboard charts (“So Cold” and “Sooner or Later” both peaked at number two on the Mainstream Rock Songs list).
Breaking Benjamin issued their third album, Phobia, in August 2006 before heading out on a nationwide headlining trek. The album featured new drummer Chad Szeliga and was spearheaded by the single “The Diary of Jane,” which gained radio airplay and helped the album debut at number two on the Billboard charts. Phobia was reissued that fall with additional bonus tracks, while the band continued touring alongside Godsmack. After the tour, Breaking Benjamin dove back into the studio to begin work on their fourth full-length. The resulting Dear Agony, fueled by first single “I Will Not Bow,” arrived in the summer of 2009. More touring followed, including legs with Three Days Grace and Nickelback, before Burnley announced a hiatus due to persistent health issues. Ensuing legal disputes within the group led to Fink and Klepaski being fired just before a collection, Shallow Bay: The Best of Breaking Benjamin, was released in 2011. Szeliga exited the band in 2013.
The following year, Burnley confirmed that Breaking Benjamin would continue as a quintet, and in June of 2015 they returned with their first album of new material in six years, Dark Before Dawn. The comeback effort featured the lineup of Burnley (who also produced), guitarists Jasen Rauch and Keith Wallen, bassist Aaron Bruch, and drummer Shaun Foist. The lead single, “Failure,” cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number one on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart, and the album became their first American chart-topper. While still touring behind Dark Before Dawn, Breaking Benjamin recorded their sixth effort, Ember, which arrived in 2018. Debuting on the charts at number three, the LP included the hit singles “Red Cold River,” “Feed the Wolf,” and “Blood.” Two years later, Breaking Benjamin returned with Aurora, a collection of reimagined versions of some of their best-known songs featuring a guest list that included Cold frontman Scooter Ward, Saint Asonia vocalist Adam Gontier, and Underøath‘s Spencer Chamberlain.

A versatile, progressive groove metal unit based out of Ukraine, Jinjer have found success both in their Eastern European homeland and abroad with their punitive blend of post-hardcore and death/progressive/nu-metal. Drawing from a wide array of influences, including R&B, soul, hip-hop, and the full spectrum of heavy metal, the band formed in 2009 and features a lineup consisting of Tatiana Shmailyuk (vocals), Roman Ibramkhalilov (guitar), Eugene Abdiukhanov (bass), and Vladislav Ulasevich (drums). Jinjer issued a pair of EPs, 2009’s OIMACTTA and 2012’s Inhale, Do Not Breathe, before breaking big at home with the release of a full-length version of the latter album in 2013. The group’s sophomore long-player, 2014’s Cloud Factory, caught the attention of heavy metal institution Napalm, which signed Jinjer and released their third full-length effort, King of Everything, in 2016. The group toured heavily in support of the LP, hitting the European festival circuit and making their presence known overseas as well. In early 2019, the band returned with the Micro EP, again on Napalm. By the end of the year, its natural counterpoint, Macro, arrived. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Dream Theater + Devin Townsend & Animals As Leaders at Arizona Financial Theatre
2023-07-26 19:00 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Long Island, New York’s Dream Theater are the globally celebrated standard bearers for progressive metal in the 21st century. Their ability to deliver tight, melodic, musically sophisticated songs and thematic concept recordings encompassing elements of hook-based hard rock, riff-fueled metal, syncopated prog, and refined lyrics have made them the act others are measured by. Their second album, 1992’s Images and Words, established their sonic signature, while 1994’s Awake and 1999’s Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory cemented their place in metal’s pantheon. Dream Theater is well known for high-energy concert performances. While they’ve released several 21st century live albums — Live at the Marquee, Live in Japan, and Live Scenes from New York — they remain one of the genre’s most bootlegged bands. For 2016’s The Astonishing, a double-length dystopian sci-fi opera, they were accompanied by the Prague Symphony Orchestra and three choirs. In 2021, the band issued A View from the Top of the World.
Originally named Majesty (from a lyric in “Bastille Day”), the band was founded by Berklee College of Music students guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, and drummer Mike Portnoy; they soon expanded with the addition of keyboard player Kevin Moore and vocalist Chris Collins. Releasing an eight-tune demo, Majesty Demo, as Majesty, the group sold 1,000 copies within six months. The departure of Collins in late 1986 left Majesty without a vocalist, and after a long period of auditioning possible replacements, the group settled on Charlie Dominici in November 1987. They decided to change their name to Dream Theater, inspired by a now-demolished California movie theater. Signing with Mechanic Records, the group began working on their first full-length album. Delays caused by label mismanagement limited the group to performing at small clubs and bars. Frustrated by this experience, Dream Theater finally severed its ties with Mechanic.
This was only one drastic change in the band’s course of action. Firing Dominici, the group spent the next couple years searching for a vocalist. The search ended in late 1991 when a demo tape from Canadian vocalist James LaBrie, formerly of Winter Rose, arrived. After flying to New York to audition, LaBrie was invited to join the band. Signing with Atco Atlantic (which came to be known as East West), Dream Theater released its second album, Images & Words, in 1992. One of three videos based on songs from the album, “Pull Me Under,” became an MTV hit. Although Theater showed considerable growth with their third studio album, Awake, recorded between May and July 1994, the group continued to be hampered by personnel changes. Before the album was mixed, keyboardist Moore left the group to focus on his solo career. Hired as a temporary replacement for the band’s Waking Up the World tour, Derek Sherinian later became a permanent member. His first recording with Dream Theater was a 23-minute epic, “A Change of Seasons,” written in 1989 and released in September 1995 on the album of the same name.
Following a mini tour, Fix for ’96, the members of Dream Theater separated for several months and became involved with a variety of outside projects. Petrucci was the busiest. In addition to joining Portnoy and keyboard player Jordan Rudess in the Liquid Tension Experiment — a group that included influential bassist/stick player Tony Levin — Petrucci played guitar with Trent Gardner’s Explorers Club and made a guest appearance on Shadow Gallery‘s Tyranny album. Myung and Sherinian collaborated with King’s X vocalist Ty Tabor in the band Platypus. LaBrie worked with Mull Muzzler, a group formed with Matt Guillory and Mike Mangini.
Dream Theater experienced yet another change when Rudess was tapped to replace Sherinian, who had been fired in 1999. The band released the progressive rock-heavy Scenes from a Memory that year, a conceptual piece that followed the story of the 1928 murder of a young woman and how a modern man is haunted by the crime. It was followed by Live Scenes from New York in 2001, which suffered from an unintentional bout of controversy when its original cover featuring the city of New York in flames was pulled due to the events of September 11. The group continued in the progressive metal vein in 2002 with Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, followed by the leaner Train of Thought in 2003 and Octavarium in 2005. The live album Score: XOX was released in 2006 and featured the band backed by a 29-piece orchestra. It was followed a year later by the new studio album Systematic Chaos, and in 2009 by Black Clouds & Silver Linings.
Sherinian went on to record as a soloist and to play with a prog and jazz fusion band, Planet X. Petrucci released an eponymously titled solo album in 2003, featuring accompaniment by Dave LaRue of the Dixie Dregs and Boston-based drummer Dave DiCenso. In late 2010, Mike Mangini joined the group, replacing drummer Mike Portnoy, who left the band in September of that year. With a rigorous touring schedule that firmly broke in Mangini, Dream Theater somehow found time to record. They pre-released the track “On the Backs of Angels” on YouTube via their label, Roadrunner, in June of 2011, followed by the CD release of the aptly titled full-length A Dramatic Turn of Events in the fall. After a period of rigorous international touring, the band took a break, though its members continued writing. They reconvened in early 2013 and returned with a self-titled studio album in September — this one with Mangini completely involved in the writing process — followed in November with the concert recording Live at Luna Park on CD and DVD, which was recorded during the Dramatic Turn of Events tour over two nights at the Buenos Aires soccer stadium. Recorded live at the Boston Opera House on March 24, 2014, the concert recording Breaking the Fourth Wall arrived the following year, and in late 2015 the band announced their upcoming 13th studio album, The Astonishing. A completely conceptual sci-fi offering, it was released in January 2016. After a world tour in which they performed the whole of the album, the band took an extended breather. At the end of 2018, Dream Theater released the single and video for “Untethered Angel” in advance of a North American tour. The full-length Distance Over Time was the first album by the band to clock in at less than an hour in length in over a decade. Petrucci credited the more economical running time to a more collaborative writing process that took a mere 18 days to complete, and focused on harder-edged songs than on more recent recordings. Distance Over Time was released by Inside Out in early 2019. Taking the album on the road, Dream Theater played a sold-out show at London’s Apollo, which was recorded for prosperity.
Released in November 2020, Distant Memories: Live in London, not only featured live tracks from the album but a 20th anniversary celebration of their 1999 concept album, Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. In 2021, the band returned with A View from the Top of the World. Its seven extended tracks ranged from just over six to 20 minutes and comprised — for the first time in many years — an aural portrait of the band mapping out prog metal architectures and compositions without a guiding concept or theme. ~ Craig Harris, Rovi

Canadian progressive metal singer and guitarist Devin Townsend has been referred in the rock press as a “multi-everythingist”; in addition to being a celebrated instrumentalist, he is a composer, producer, arranger, and bandleader. While his earliest recorded appearance was as a vocalist with Steve Vai‘s band on Sex & Religion, he also worked with Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy, and led the almost unbearably heavy extreme metal group Strapping Young Lad. His recorded solo work since 1997’s rocking sci-fi opus, Ocean Machine (Biomech), has been hotly debated in extreme music circles. He has recorded more than two dozen solo studio and live albums with a variety of musicians. His undeniably progressive, shape-shifting conceptual outfit the Devin Townsend Project is perhaps the best-known of his outlets; their albums Ki (2009), Ziltoid (Dark Matters) (2015), and Transcendence (2016), reveal Townsend delivering his ambition in unified, accessible, and provocative projects readily embraced by the metal and prog-rock communities. The solo album Empath appeared in 2019. The Puzzle/Snuggles double appeared in 2021 followed by Lightwork in 2022.
Townsend was born May 5, 1972 in Vancouver, British Columbia. After picking up the banjo at age five, he moved to guitar at 12, and within a few years was leading the band Grey Skies, later known as Noisescapes. Sending the group’s demo to the Relativity label, Townsend was not only offered a solo deal but was also tapped to sing on Steve Vai‘s 1993 LP Sex & Religion, a collaboration that further extended to the guitar god’s 1996 effort Fire Garden. In between, Townsend worked on a series of projects with Front Line Assembly, and in 1995 issued the solo Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing under the alias Strapping Young Lad. A stint with the satiric punk band Punky Bruster yielded the Cooked on Phonics LP before Townsend began work on the second Strapping Young Lad album, 1997’s City. In a move away from the industrial and death metal of previous recordings, he next formed Ocean Machine — with J.R. Harder and Marty Chapman — for the accessible Biomech, which was issued later that year.
Townsend’s first solo album to be released under his own name was 1998’s Infinity, and it directly followed a difficult period for the artist, in which he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He would later identify his condition as an explanation for the difference in sound and approach between Strapping Young Lad and Ocean Machine. 2000 saw a mentally stronger Townsend release the sharp, focused, and melodic speed metal album Physicist, while 2001’s Terria channeled an ambient pop sound. February 2003 brought an eponymous Strapping Young Lad record which returned to a traditional death metal template. Sessions for this release took place during the same period as those for the acclaimed first album under the Devin Townsend Band moniker, Accelerated Evolution. This record was issued just a month after the SYL release, and Townsend received praise for creating a modern metal album that wasn’t afraid to nod to ’70s and ’80s arena rock in a post-grunge world. While 2006’s Synchestra didn’t quite reach the same high standard, Townsend continued to keep things fresh by following a straight-up ambient record — The Hummer — with Ziltoid the Omniscient, a rock opera about an alien who travels to Earth in search of “the ultimate cup of coffee.”
In the immediate years that followed Ziltoid, Townsend took a break from the music industry to rest, recharge, and rediscover the cathartic aspect of composition. In March 2009, a shaven-headed, teetotaling Townsend announced an intended four-album sequence from the Devin Townsend Project, billed as an opportunity to show that he could create new music without the assistance of drugs. The strongest of these four releases was November 2009’s Addicted, on which he collaborated with former Gathering vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen. Giersbergen returned for a central role on an unexpected fifth Devin Townsend Project album in 2012, the pop-infused Epicloud. In 2014, Townsend released the ambitious Z², a double album that featured a Devin Townsend Project album, Sky Blue, and a conceptual album, Dark Matters, the latter of which was a sequel to 2007’s Ziltoid the Omniscient. 2015 saw the release of Ziltoid: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, a recording of Townsend’s performance at the prestigious London venue in April of that year. Despite a claim that he was taking a year off, Townsend kept writing and recording. In March of 2016 he announced a new DTP album titled Transcendence. It was released in September, and after a tour, he disbanded the outfit. Over the next several years, Townsend toured selectively with his various shape-shifting bands, issued three separate volumes of his catalog on vinyl, and began writing his most ambitious project. Titled Empath, Townsend prefaced its release with a social media warning to fans: “Some of you won’t like it. Some of you will be very confused by it. Some of you will be alienated by it.” The reason for the statement was that in the past, Townsend always recorded albums to showcase where he was at any given time — even if it meant that he would be showcasing a wide variety of styles on an album. With 2019’s wildly diverse and exotic Empath, he chose to create an offering that would depict, under a single sonic umbrella, every musical space he’d inhabited up to the present time — sometimes within a single track — in order to point his way forward. His guest list for the date included Mike Keneally as his music director, former boss Steve Vai, the Elektra Women’s Choir, Casualties of Cool partner Ché Aimee Dorval, Anneke Van Giersbergen, drummers Morgan Ågren, Anup Sastry, and Samus Paulicelli, and Chad Kroeger — the Nickelback vocalist who convinced Townsend to undertake Empath in the first place. Upon release, the set was greeted by mostly positive reviews, but in true Townsend fashion, he claimed to agree equally with critical and affirmative ones. A live rendition of the album, Order of Magnitude: Empath Live, Vol. 1, arrived in October 2020.
In December 2021, Townsend released The Puzzle/Snuggles, his 19th and 20th albums, simultaneously. The former is “an elaborate and much more chilled out” version of 2004’s Devlab, and “more a collaborative, multimedia internet art project.” The latter was “meant to be something you listen to in order to feel better… Puzzle is chaos, Snuggles is calm.” The entire project was meant to express Townsend’s impression that he felt light at the end of a dark tunnel imposed on the world by the pandemic.
The following November, Townsend issued Lightwork. Assembled from a compendium of material written during quarantine, he enlisted veteran first-call producer Garth Richardson to assist in bringing these more traditional, song-oriented sessions to fruition. Lightwork appeared in several editions: the standard ten-track album was appended by a deluxe version that doubled the track list and included the bonus album companion album Nightwork. ~ Jason Ankeny & James Wilkinson, Rovi

It might sound strange to associate “storytelling” with instrumental music. But ANIMALS AS LEADERS jettisoned the rules, limitations, and boundaries of conventional rock music from the start. Armed with palette-expanding eight-string guitars, rich synths, and pummeling percussive grooves, the trio is beloved by metalheads, aspiring virtuosos, jazz fanatics, and casual listeners alike. As Pitchfork observed, “Animals As Leaders have walked the tightrope between sheer technical virtuosity and actual emotional resonance.” Even without vocals, this is intimate, mythmaking music. Animals As Leaders began as a solo outlet for guitarist Tosin Abasi, whose creative partnership with classically trained guitarist Javier Reyes and Berklee-educated drummer Matt Garstka is built on a shared love of everything from fusion to technical death metal. Garstka graced the cover of Modern Drummer in 2015. In one of his many appearances on their cover, Guitar World named Tosin among the Guitarists of the Decade. Rolling Stone featured him as part of their “Young Guns” series. The Chicago Tribune declared him “the closest thing prog-metal has to an Eddie Van Halen.” Quickly ascending beyond the traditional confines of instrumental rock, Animals As Leaders owe much to their unique blend of precision and feel, both in abundance on album five, PARRHESIA. The trio remain connected to their fiercely engaged audience via captivating shows and projects.

In This Moment + Motionless In White at Pepsi Amphitheater at Fort Tuthill Park
2023-07-29 17:30 - 23:30 | Pepsi Amphitheater at Fort Tuthill Park, Fort Tuthill County Park,, Flagstaff, 86001, United States
Initially conceived as a metalcore counterpart to Evanescence, In This Moment moved into more melodic territory with its fantastical 2008 breakthrough album The Dream. Though capable of throat-scraping screams, vocalist Maria Brink shone brightest on mature and atmospheric material, putting In This Moment in the running as a promising goth rock band. The Los Angeles-based act also widened its exposure by touring with the like-minded Lacuna Coil as well as metal veterans Megadeth and Ozzy Osbourne.
Born of a chance meeting and the innate musical rapport established between vocalist Maria Brink and lead guitarist Chris Howorth, In This Moment quickly grew from local cult favorites performing in Los Angeles clubs to a MySpace phenomenon before landing a deal with Century Media. Along the way, the group was fleshed out by rhythm guitarist Blake Bunzel, bassist Jesse Landry, and drummer Jeff Fabb. In This Moment embarked on several U.S. tours with the likes of Diecast and 36 Crazyfists and gradually honed its melodic metalcore songwriting for their 2007 debut album, Beautiful Tragedy. The band supported it on the Hot Chicks of Metal Tour, featuring Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation, among others. The Dream arrived in 2008 and became their breakthrough as well as their first on the album charts. It was followed by the Top 40 A Star-Crossed Wasteland in 2010.
Multiple changes to the band’s original line-up took place in their earliest years, with Landry leaving the band in 2009, replaced by new bassist Kyle Konkiel. Konkiel only lasted a year before he too left the band and was replaced by Travis Johnson in 2010. One of the largest line-up shifts occurred when founding members Jeff Fabb and Blake Bunzel left in 2011. Their replacements — drummer Tom Hane and guitarist Randy Weitzel — stepped in to complete the recording of electro-charged fourth album Blood in 2012. The album was a Top 20 hit.
The group moved to a major label, Atlantic, for their fifth studio long-player, 2014’s Black Widow, and were rewarded with placement inside the Top 10. In 2016, Hane left the band and former 3 by Design drummer Kent Diimmel took over. In June 2017, the band dropped the single “Roots” in anticipation of the release of sixth full-length Ritual, which arrived in July and hit number 23 on the chart. The following year, recording for their seventh album coincided with a tour, teasing the theme of “mother” in its stage show. The band pushed their sound into heavier territory, including on the single “The In-Between” and the album Mother, which appeared in March 2020. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, Rovi

In 2006, Motionless In White materialized out of Scranton, PA with an inimitable conjuration of sharp metallic rock, industrial, magnetic melodies, and larger-than-life visual imagery. The quintet—Chris Motionless [Vocals], Ricky Olson [Guitar], Ryan Sitkowski [guitar], Vinny Mauro [drums], and Justin Morrow [bass]—quietly clawed their way to the forefront of hard rock, gathering nearly half-a-billion cumulative streams and views to date. Following the success of Creatures [2010] and Infamous [2012], Reincarnate [2014] sunk its teeth into the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200, bowing at #9 and capturing #1 on the Top Rock Albums Chart. Both Graveyard Shift [2017] and Disguise [2019] cracked the Top 5 of the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart and Top Rock Albums Chart. Along the way, they sold out headline tours and supported everyone from Slipknot and Korn to Breaking Benjamin. Not to mention, Motionless In White have collaborated with Jonathan Davis of Korn, Maria Brink of In This Moment, Dani Filth of Cradle Of Filth, Tim Sköld of KMFDM, Caleb Shomo of Beartooth, and more. The five-piece kept busy throughout 2020 with the Deadstream event performance of Creatures for its decade-anniversary, a cover of The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me,” and the standalone single “Creatures X: To The Grave.” Now in 2022, Motionless In White are set to return with their new album Scoring The End of the World which sees them perfecting the poetically pummeling sound they patented.

Trauma and tragedy transfer from one generation to the next. As difficult as it may be, we still possess the power to break the cycle and start anew. Fit For A King ponder the pain of these cycles and the possibility to end them on their seventh full-length offering, The Hell We Create [Solid State]. The Texas quintet—Ryan Kirby [vocals], Bobby Lynge [guitar], Daniel Gailey [guitar], Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary [bass], and Trey Celaya [drums]—explore this ebb and flow with a deft, yet delicate balance of sharp metallic intensity and soaring melodic energy. “The album is a reflection of the events that happened throughout the pandemic,” recalls Ryan. “In short, my wife and I adopted children and had to homeschool them. She almost died from a stroke. The Hell We Create is by far the deepest and most personal record we’ve ever written.” In 2011, Fit For A King emerged out of Texas with a searing signature style rooted in metal and hardcore and uplifted by hypnotic hooks. Following the breakout LP Creation/Destruction [2013], they earned four consecutive Top 5 debuts on both the Billboard Top Christian Albums Chart and the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart with Slave to Nothing [2014], Deathgrip [2016], Dark Skies [2018], and The Path [2020]. The latter marked their first #1 on the Top Christian Albums Chart and Top 10 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart. Plus, the band collaborated with fellow heavy-hitters such as August Burns Red and We Came As Romans.

From Ashes To New utilize their outlier perspective to break boundaries. The Lancaster, PA band consists of—Matt Brandyberry [rap vocals, keys, synths, programming, guitar], Danny Case [clean & unclean vocals], Lance Dowdle [lead guitar], and Mat Madiro [drums]—churn out an anthemic hybrid of hard rock, hip-hop, electronic, and alternative with enough energy to inspire you to get up, move forward, and maybe even, make a change. Since 2013, the group have risen from humble beginnings to the top of the 21st century rock vanguard with hundreds of millions of streams, radio hits, sold out shows across the country, and acclaim from LoudWire, Alternative Press, and more.

NF + Cordae at Desert Diamond Arena
2023-08-04 20:00 - 23:30 | Desert Diamond Arena, 9400 W Maryland Ave, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
NF raps with raw grit and emotional authenticity, born of a lifetime of taking hits and getting back up again. His intimate yet propulsive tracks received two consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 with Perception and The Search. Often silent on self-promotion and social media, NF’s massive achievements come from his music and lyrics resonating with fans.   Nate Feuerstein came of age in Michigan, using music as an escape and expression, a way to channel his pain. Through the years, he’s demonstrated the power of vulnerability on hits like “Let You Down” and “The Search.” In 2015, he signed with Capitol Records; setting the stage to climb to rap dominance beginning with his album, Mansion followed by Therapy Session in 2016 and Perception in 2017, which debuted at No. 1 and eventually went 2x Platinum. In 2019, he dropped The Search, which also hit No. 1 and went Platinum. His 2021 project CLOUDS (THE MIXTAPE) debuted within the top three on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart and Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Chart.   Today, NF has tipped into global dominance having generated 30 billion streams, 39 RIAA certifications,14 Platinum plaques, and 5 multi-Platinum honors and worldwide touring that has sold over half a million tickets. Emerging from a year of no new releases yet remaining one of the most consumed artists in the world, NF releases his fifth studio album, HOPE.

Cordae knows exactly what he wants to say. He chooses his words and phrases carefully. He speaks from a place of truth. That’s why the three-time Grammy Award-nominated platinum-selling Maryland-raised rapper has quietly become one of the modern generation’s most trusted narrators. A remarkable life has given him a lot to say. He went from the trenches and public housing with his mom to stratospheric success. After a series of buzzing singles, he reached critical mass with his 2019 full-length debut, The Lost Boy. It bowed in the Top 15 of the Billboard Top 200 and included four gold-certified singles— “RNP” [feat. Anderson .Paak], “Have Mercy,” “Broke As Fuck,” and “Kung Fu.” Beyond unanimous praise from Billboard, Complex, High Snobiety, New York Times, Pitchfork, and Stereogum, he garnered a pair of Grammy Award nominations in the categories of “Best Rap Album” for The Lost Boy and “Best Rap Song” for “Bad Idea”. He’s the rare artist whose presence can be felt on-screen in a Super Bowl commercial alongside legendary Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese and among XXL’s coveted “Freshman Class.” Along the way, he linked up with Roddy Ricch for “Gifted” as well as joining forces with Eminem for “Killer.” Absorbing wisdom from a life-changing trip to Africa, enduring the loss of a friend gone too soon, and evolving as an artist and a man, he tells this story in widescreen technicolor on his 2022 second full-length offering, From A Bird’s Eye View.

Grupo Frontera & Luis R. Conriquez at Desert Diamond Arena
2023-08-05 20:00 - 23:30 | Desert Diamond Arena, 9400 W Maryland Ave, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
It all started as a hobby which soon became a dream come true.
Formed in the Texas Valley with roots from Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, Grupo Frontera was established in 2022.
This group is characterized by its mix of norteño and cumbia rhythms. Their biggest success so far is in the song No Se Va, which has led the members to become known throughout the United States and the Mexican Republic.
Todo comenzó como un pasatiempo el cual pronto se convirtió en un sueño hecho realidad.
Formado en el Valle de Texas con raíces de Tamaulipas y Nuevo León, Grupo Frontera fue establecido en el 2022.
Esta agrupación se caracteriza por su mezcla de ritmos norteños y cumbias. Su más grande éxito hasta el momento está en la canción No Se Va, la cual ha llevado a los integrantes a darse a conocer en todo Estados Unidos y la República Mexicana.

The Mexican singer and composer of corridos, Luis Roberto Conríquez is his birth name, and his stage name is Luis R.Conriquez. He was born on February 1996 in Caborca, Sonora. The artist was signed by the Kartel Music label since its inception and is now a partner of the company that supports more than 15 artists of various genres.
Kartel Music Hiring to kartelmusic2019@gmail.com
El Cantante y Compositor Mexicano De Corridos, Luis Roberto Conrríquez Es Su Nombre De Nacimiento, y Su Nombre Artístico Es Luis R.Conriquez. Nació Un Febrero De 1996 En Caborca, Sonora. El Artista Fue Firmado Por La Disquera Kartel Music Desde Sus Inicios y Ahora Es Socio De La Compañía Que Apoya A Mas De 15 Artistas De Diversos Generos.
Kartel Music Contrataciones a kartelmusic2019@gmail.com

The Offspring + Simple Plan and Sum 41 at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-08-09 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Legends and innovators of the Southern California punk scene, The Offspring have seen massive global success.
The story began when their punk pop sound became a popular sensation in 1994. The Offspring released their self-titled debut album in 1989. Four years later, their 2nd album, Ignition, became an underground hit, setting the stage for the huge success of their 3rd album 1994’s Smash which paved the way to radio success. The Offspring were played on both alternative and album rock stations, confirming their broad-based appeal.
Five successful gold and platinum albums followed: Ixnay on the Hombre; Americana; Conspiracy of One; Splinter; Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace; and Days Go By. The band’s 10th album was their first in 8 years. But 2021 was the year that SoCal legends released their blistering new album Let the Bad Times Roll. Album highlights include the title track which takes a critical eye at the state of America in recent years, the devastating urgency of The Opioid Diaries, and the horn-fueled skank of “We Never Have Sex Anymore” a song that nods to the band’s cheeky humor.
The Offspring have sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, won countless awards, and have toured consistently, playing more than 500 shows in the last decade alone. The band’s music has had a lasting impact across film, television, and gaming and continues to make its mark on pop culture today.

From their new millennium rise to MTV superstardom through pop-punk’s modern resurgence, SIMPLE PLAN have been an indelible part of pop culture since forming in Montreal in 1999. They’ve sold 10 million albums worldwide, won multiple Juno Awards, performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics – and, most recently, launched the omnipresent #ImJustAKid TikTok challenge that’s spawned more than 3.4 million videos, including clips from Hilary Duff, Ed Sheeran, Usher and Venus and Serena Williams.
HARDER THAN IT LOOKS is the first self-released album from drummer Chuck Comeau, vocalist Pierre Bouvier and guitarists Sébastien Lefebvre and Jeff Stinco. The album respects Simple Plan’s storied career while pushing forward in new ways, with songs like “The Antidote,” “Ruin My Life” (ft. Deryck Whibley), “Congratulations,” “Wake Me Up (When This Nightmare’s Over)” and “Iconic” set to stand as fan favourites for years to come.
“It’s amazingly complex to be in a band for 20-plus years, to keep going, stay relevant and manage all the challenges that come your way,” Bouvier says. “It’s the furthest thing from a ‘simple plan’ – it’s truly a lot harder than it looks. Throughout our career, it’s taken a while to be mature enough to understand that our sound is an asset, not a liability. On this album we said: ‘Let’s just embrace who we are and not be afraid to do what we do best.’ Making a good Simple Plan record is just as hard as making something off the beaten path.

Canadian rock outfit Sum 41 hit the worldwide radar in 1996 after their hometown of Ajax, Ontario, proved unable to fully contain the foursome’s mixture of arena-sized riffing, hip-hop poses, and toilet-bowl humor. Their breakthrough major-label debut, 2001’s All Killer No Filler, featured the chart-topping MTV hit “Fat Lip” and follow-up “In Too Deep.” From there, the band’s mischievous pop-punk style was steadily hardened with darker, world-weary lyrics and a heavier, metal-inspired attack. 2002’s Does This Look Infected? veered in that hardcore direction and still managed to maintain their popularity with singles “The Hell Song” and “Still Waiting.” By the time double-platinum third effort Chuck landed in 2004, Sum 41’s metallic tendencies were at the fore on songs such as “We’re All to Blame.” Despite achieving a chart peak with 2007’s Underclass Hero, the band soon found themselves in decline in the mainstream during the 2010s, due in part to lineup changes and creeping health problems. While Screaming Bloody Murder produced the Grammy-nominated single “Blood in My Eyes,” the album was the band’s lowest-charting effort since their debut. Soon after, frontman Deryck Whibley announced serious health issues that would sideline the band until 2016, when they issued the successful comeback record 13 Voices.
In addition to vocalist/guitarist Whibley, the band also originally included guitarist/vocalist Dave Baksh, bassist Cone McCaslin, and drummer Steve Jocz. Wooed by the boys’ goofy antics and incendiary live show (and excited about the prospect of promoting their very own blink-182), Island put Sum 41 on the payroll in 1999. The Half Hour of Power EP followed, and Warped Tour dates put the word out. They returned in 2000 with the fun-filled full-length All Killer No Filler, and the singles “In Too Deep” and “Fat Lip” became staples of both modern rock radio and Total Request Live. An extensive tour followed, and Sum 41 enjoyed their success the way all near-teenage boys would, with plenty of towel-snapping, groupie-loving, and self-deprecating low-ball humor. In 2002, they returned to wax with Does This Look Infected? While the album was a bit harder-edged, it found the band as excited as ever to mix punk-pop business with sophomoric pleasure: The video for “Hell Song” featured the guys acting out a sort of rock-star debauchery cage match with the aid of a few celebrity action figures. Metallica, Jesus Christ, and the Osbournes all made appearances in the hilarious clip.
It was not all fun and games, however, as Sum 41’s involvement in the charity group War Child Canada had them lending a hand in the making of a 2004 documentary covering the effects of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Five days into filming, fighting and gunfire suddenly erupted around them, and they barely escaped unharmed — these events led to 2004’s slightly more mature and serious effort, Chuck, named for the UN aid worker, Chuck Pelletier, who was instrumental in getting them to safety. The DVD Rocked: Sum 41 in Congo was released at the end of 2005, and the live album Go Chuck Yourself appeared the following March.
Guitarist Dave Baksh left the band during the spring of 2006 due to creative differences, going on to form the metal-punk outfit Brown Brigade. Sum 41 continued as a trio, and their first album as such, Underclass Hero, appeared in July 2007. They eventually returned to being a quartet, replacing Baksh with guitarist Tom Thacker, and began to work on a new album. Screaming Bloody Murder appeared in March 2011. “Blood in My Eyes,” a single from the album, was nominated for a Grammy that year. However, due to a series of back injuries for Whibley (and other issues that would soon come to light), Sum 41 would not return with new material for half a decade, despite their critical success.
During the break, Jocz left the band and was replaced by Street Drum Corps‘ Frank Zummo. Baksh also returned to the fold just in time for Sum 41’s comeback in 2016. The group signed with Hopeless Records and embarked on an international tour that included stops in China and a stint on that summer’s Warped Tour. Their sixth LP, 13 Voices, featured the lead single “Fake My Own Death” and became their third highest-charting release in their native Canada, peaking just outside the Top 20 in the U.S. During promotion for the album, Whibley revealed that he had been in an alcohol-related induced coma during the band’s hiatus in 2014. While recovery included learning to walk and play guitar again, Whibley contributed a large part of his healing to the writing process of 13 Voices. To coincide with the album’s release, the band embarked on an international tour dubbed “Don’t Call It a Sum-Back.”
After setting out on another trek to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their breakthrough, they returned to the studio. Their seventh set, Order in Decline, arrived in the summer of 2019. Intensely political and pulling no punches with their message, the album included the tracks “Out for Blood,” “45 (A Matter of Time),” and “The New Sensation,” borrowing from Linkin Park, Bad Religion, and even Muse on a series of rallying cries aimed at waking up a society on the brink of moral collapse. ~ Johnny Loftus & Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi

DOGSTAR at Crescent Ballroom
2023-08-11 20:00 - 23:30 | Crescent Ballroom, 308 N 2nd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Dogstar – guitarist/vocalist Bret Domrose, drummer Robert Mailhouse and bassist Keanu Reeves – epitomize the quintessential Southern California storytelling rock band they’ve always been in their hearts, making deeply resonant music that literally comes from Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees. Nearly a quarter century after what seemed to be their final album, Happy Ending (released in 2000), Dogstar has reformed and taken a great creative leap forward, establishing an entirely new path. “Our earlier records were almost in the wrong decade,” says Robert Mailhouse. “Looking back, it’s almost like we started a Seventies band that somehow got lost in the Nineties. When everybody else was shouting, we were trying to tell stories because in Bret, we’ve always had a singer-songwriter in the Jackson Browne tradition. But people kept saying `grunge’ because of the times we were in – or maybe because of the clothes we were wearing.” “This music just sounds like us,” says Bret Domrose with a smile. “One of the things I love about this album is the variety of feel,” says Keanu Reeves. “Every song is not the same – you can hear our diverse influences and a lot of different tones here. And I feel like finally on this album, we’ve managed to take all those influences and our passion for playing together and once and for all turned it all into Dogstar.”

Mudvayne The Psychotherapy Tour At Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-08-16 17:30 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Heavy metal quartet Mudvayne formed in Peoria, IL, in 1996, its members adopting the unusual pseudonyms sPaG (M. McDonough) (drums), Gurrg (G. Tribbett) (guitar), and Kud (Chad Gray) (vocals). The group’s original bassist was replaced after two years by Ryknow (Ryan Martinie). During their development, the bandmembers began the practice of applying bizarre makeup. After self-releasing their first album, Kill, I Oughta, they were signed by Epic Records and recorded their major-label debut, L.D. 50, which was released in August 2000 shortly after the end of their first national tour opening for Slipknot. The album later went gold and earned Mudvayne the first-ever MTV2 Video Award at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Mudvayne continued touring and reissued their self-released debut EP, Kill, I Oughta, in November 2001 as The Beginning of All Things to End. A year later the band returned with its official follow-up, The End of All Things to Come, which was recorded at Minneapolis’ Pachyderm Studios with Tool producer David Bottrill. With a new album came new personas, this time as space aliens. The bandmembers changed their names accordingly, taking the new monikers of Chüd (Kud), Güüg (Gurrg), R-üD (Ryknow), and Spüg (sPaG). They embarked on a European tour, arriving back stateside in July to join the Summer Sanitarium shed tour, featuring such heavyweights as Metallica and Linkin Park. In 2005, the band released Lost and Found, their third album for Epic. In September 2007, Mudvayne announced they would allow fans to vote on the band’s website to determine the track selection for the compilation By the People, for the People, released the following month. The all new full-length New Game arrived in November 2008, followed six months later by an eponymous 2009 effort. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

Coal Chamber broke out of the Los Angeles alternative metal scene in 1997 with a sound often compared to Korn, although both bands formed around the same time and are quality representations of the scene’s overall sound — the heavy, detuned guitars of the murkiest Black Sabbath; grungy, noisy textures reminiscent of White Zombie or Tool; the white-knuckle intensity of Pantera and hardcore punk; and perhaps a few hip-hop-influenced beats à la Biohazard.
Coal Chamber were formed in 1994 by vocalist/lyricist B. Dez Fafara and guitarist Miguel “Meegs” Rascon, who met through a classified ad; the two added drummer Mike “Mikee” Cox and bassist Rayna Foss, the latter of whom heard about auditions through her roommate, Fafara’s future wife. A huge local buzz following gigs at the Roxy and the Whisky a Go Go, along with a demo tape championed by Fear Factory‘s Dino Cazares, got the band an opportunity to sign with Roadrunner Records late in 1994, but Fafara suddenly quit due to disagreements with his wife over the band. By the spring of 1995, Fafara changed his mind and returned, a decision that ultimately cost him his marriage, but a renewed sense of energy helped Coal Chamber regain their Roadrunner deal by the end of the year.
Their self-titled debut was released in 1997; Chamber Music followed two years later. The album was a minor success but its mixture of goth rock imagery and nu metal thuggery made for an uneven album. They toured heavily behind it but by the time it came time to record the next album, bassist Rayna Foss-Rose was gone to raise her daughter, leaving the band with Nadja Peulen. Nadja took Foss-Rose’s place during her pregnancy between the first two albums, but she accepted the invitation to come back as a full-time member during the recording of the next record. The resulting album, Dark Days, was released in the spring of 2002.
By May of that same year, the band had begun to fall apart, sparked by an on-stage altercation between Fafara and Rascon. The following year, after issuing a remix and rarities compilation called Giving the Devil His Due, the bandmembers announced that they had officially broken up, with Fafara continuing on with his new band, Devildriver, with whom he would go on to release six studio albums. In 2011 Coal Chamber began hinting at a possible re-formation, and by 2013 they made it official, performing at Download 2013 and hitting the road with Sevendust, Lacuna Coil, and Stolen Babies. Rivals, the band’s first studio recording in 13 years, arrived in early 2015 via Napalm Records. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi

Blood. Spectacle. Lifestyle. Mythology. Costumes. And more blood. When you think of beloved shock-metal outfit GWAR, those words are likely the first that come to mind. And with good reason. At a time when bands have become bland, GWAR stands out for their performances and the intimate connection with their fans. The push-and-pull between GWAR and their fans creates a visceral experience that continues to add to the band’s legend and legacy, one new tour at a time. Few, if any band, can break down a physical barrier with their audience quite like GWAR. Fluids fly, substances spray and the lust for copious amounts of fake blood [and cutting heads off, of course] leaves audiences thirsty for more. The mythological nature of their live shows may be at the forefront of people’s minds, but it is GWAR’s meticulously crafted songs blend (ING) satire, chaos and violence, made them cultural icons.

Masters of, and pioneers in the nu-metal/rap-rock world, Nonpoint has quietly been the biggest and best kept secret of the rock/metal genre. Their songs and renowned performances have had music legends, from all corners of the genre and music industry, standing side stage to revel in the mayhem, to witness magic unfolding and audiences ignited. Hearing the chorus of the crowd as they recite the iconic melodies and lyrics of vocalist and frontman phenom, Elias Soriano. Watching him tentacle his iconic dreadlocks feet from the spinning and flying bodies in front of him and surrounding him onstage. Then with just a look, or wave of his hand, he makes a sea of people transform. Behind Elias, there’s roaring thunder created by co-founder and showman Robb Rivera as he flies through the air just before crashing down with unmatched force into their music. Nonpoint family, rhythm guitarist, vocalist and visual performance master Rasheed Thomas alongside the high-flying, powerhouse on the bass and Adam Woloszyn both bringing force with medusa hair whips and flying guitars; they’ve re-defined the newest incarnation of Nonpoint. Now with the addition of Jason Zeilstra on lead guitar, whose chemistry with the rest of its members has begun to create a concoction that is poised to intoxicate audiences both old and new.

Cementing their spot as metal veterans, Butcher Babies have been crushing stages worldwide with their vicious live performance and explosive energy for nearly 15 blistering years. Their stage presence is a hypnotic spectacle that leaves audiences hungry for more. Frontwomen, Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey, guitarist Henry Flury, drummer Chase Brickenden, and bassist Ricky Bonazza juxtapose brutal, aggressive riffs with beautiful melodies that wail with emotional redemption. With three albums and two EPs under their belt, Butcher Babies have reached a new level of maturity solidifying a triumphant return after a brief creative hiatus to write and rebuild. Rather than sit still throughout the pandemic, they released a barrage of singles followed by several groundbreaking tours celebrating the return to live music. The band is set to release their 4th LP in 2023, reflecting their growth as a band. Butcher Babies are ready to take on new heights while they continue to knock down barriers. Butcher Babies have toured relentlessly among the likes of Megadeth, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Five Finger DeathPunch, In ThisMoment, HollywoodUndead, Cradle of Filth, Black Label Society, etc; played music festivals including Mayhem, Download, Hellfest, Knotfest, Wacken, Soundwave, Hell & Heaven, Rock on The Range, Carolina Rebellion, Louder Than Life, Aftershock, Welcome to Rockville, etc. They have appeared in the film ‘Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival’ & the Netflix horror hit ‘Slasher’

Metallica M72 Tour at State Farm Stadium Night 1
2023-09-01 18:00 - 23:30 | State Farm Stadium, 1 Cardinals Dr, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
Metallica formed in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield and has become one of the most influential and commercially successful rock bands in history, having sold 110 million albums worldwide while playing to millions of fans on literally all seven continents. They have scored several multi-platinum albums, including 1991’s Metallica (commonly referred to as The Black Album), with sales of nearly 17 million copies in the United States alone, making it the best-selling album in the history of Soundscan. Metallica has also garnered numerous awards and accolades, including nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, and multiple MTV Video Music Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009. In December 2013, Metallica made history when they performed a rare concert in Antarctica, becoming the first act to ever play all seven continents all within a year, and earning themselves a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Metallica’s latest studio album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct was released on November 18, 2016 on Metallica’s own Blackened Recordings record label and debuted at No. 1 around the world, selling over 800,000 copies worldwide in its first week.

The preeminent metal band of the early to mid-’90s, Pantera put to rest any and all remnants of the ’80s metal scene, almost single-handedly demolishing any notion that hair metal, speed metal, power metal, et al., were anything but passé. Loathe to admit it, the Texas band had in fact been one of those ’80s metal bands, releasing fairly unsuccessful (and later disowned) glam-inspired music throughout much of the decade. The about-face came with the addition of vocalist Phil Anselmo, and the key turning point was the band’s major-label debut, Cowboys from Hell (1990). Pantera’s mainstream breakthrough came next with Vulgar Display of Power (1992), their second major-label album, which thrust the band to the forefront of the metal scene, alongside such veteran bands as Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax, as well as fellow up-and-comers Sepultura and White Zombie. By the time Pantera unleashed Far Beyond Driven (1994), after two long years of touring, they were the most popular metal band in the land: the new album debuted atop the Billboard Top 200 as its lead single, “I’m Broken,” was getting massive airplay.
At the height of their popularity and influence, Pantera began to self-destruct. Less than two months after the release of The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) — an album ridden with allusions to drug abuse and personal destruction — Anselmo overdosed on heroin after a homecoming concert in Texas, and as tensions rose between him and his fellow bandmembers, he began engaging with a growing list of side projects that kept him away from Pantera. A live album, Official Live: 101 Proof (1997), was compiled for release when it became evident that no new studio album was forthcoming any time soon. One final studio album did result, Reinventing the Steel (2000), but that was more or less it for the briefly reunited Pantera. The bandmembers once again went their separate ways, forming such bands as Damageplan, Down, and Superjoint Ritual.
The end of Pantera then became official on December 8, 2004, when guitarist Dimebag Darrell was murdered on-stage by a deranged fan. This much-publicized murder shone the spotlight back on Pantera for an extended moment, and amid all of the emotional outpouring and tributes, a consensus arose: in retrospect, there was no greater metal band during the early to mid-’90s than Pantera, who inspired a legion of rabid fans and whose oft-termed “groove metal” style bucked all prevailing trends of the day — from hair metal and grunge to nu-metal and rap-metal — and remains singular to this day, as defined by the vocals of Anselmo as it is by the guitar of Dimebag. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi

First impressions last a lifetime. Wolfgang Van Halen has prepared a lifetime to make his first impression with his solo band Mammoth WVH. The songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist worked tirelessly on material that would become his debut album. Playing every instrument and singing each and every note, his music presents a personal and powerful perspective, balancing memorable hooks and tight technicality. As many times as audiences have experienced his talent alongside the likes of Tremonti, Clint Lowery, and of course, Van Halen, Wolfgang prepares to step into the spotlight with his own brand – Mammoth WVH – for the very first time now.
“The name Mammoth is really special to me.” says Wolf. “Not only was it the name of Van Halen before it became Van Halen, but my father was also the lead singer. Ever since my dad told me this, I always thought that when I grew up, I’d call my own band Mammoth, because I loved the name so much. I’m so thankful that my father was able to listen to, and enjoy the music I made. Nothing made me happier than seeing how proud he was that I was continuing the family legacy.”

Metallica M72 Tour at State Farm Stadium Night 2
2023-09-03 18:00 - 23:30 | State Farm Stadium, 1 Cardinals Dr, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
Metallica formed in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield and has become one of the most influential and commercially successful rock bands in history, having sold 110 million albums worldwide while playing to millions of fans on literally all seven continents. They have scored several multi-platinum albums, including 1991’s Metallica (commonly referred to as The Black Album), with sales of nearly 17 million copies in the United States alone, making it the best-selling album in the history of Soundscan. Metallica has also garnered numerous awards and accolades, including nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, and multiple MTV Video Music Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009. In December 2013, Metallica made history when they performed a rare concert in Antarctica, becoming the first act to ever play all seven continents all within a year, and earning themselves a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Metallica’s latest studio album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct was released on November 18, 2016 on Metallica’s own Blackened Recordings record label and debuted at No. 1 around the world, selling over 800,000 copies worldwide in its first week.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH have amassed over 7.6 billion streams and 3 billion video views to date and have sold over 1 million tickets between 2018 and 2020 alone. Signed to Better Noise Music, they’ve garnered 25 top 10 hit singles and 12 #1 singles and are one of the top global streaming acts in the hard rock space. Having become one of the most recognizable names in music, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH frequently play all major festivals and sell out arenas around the world. Since their debut album, The Way of the Fist came out in 2007 the band has released seven consecutive albums that were certified Gold or Platinum by the RIAA, as well as two chart topping Greatest Hits albums. In addition, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH has earned numerous national and international awards and honors over the last decade, such as the prestigious Soldier Appreciation Award by the Association Of The United States Army, an honor bestowed upon only one other recording artist before them: Elvis Presley. Their 2020 album F8 was produced by Kevin Churko and debuted at #1 on Rock charts around the world with Top 10 Mainstream chart debuts in the USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and more. F8 features #1 hit singles “Inside Out”, “A Little Bit Off”, “Living The Dream” and “Darkness Settles In”. The band is currently in the studio finishing their highly anticipated follow-up to F8, to be released in Summer 2022.

Like the undead slashers celebrated in their songs, Ice Nine Kills return with The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood, a sequel of gruesome movie-sized proportion to The Silver Scream. The new album carves out a fresh, bloody homage to the VHS celluloid classics that possessed singer Spencer Charnas at an early age, with a devilish new twist.
Ice Nine Kills make music both timeless and timely, mixing metal, hardcore, and punk, with accessible power. New anthems like “Rainy Day” and “Hip To Be Scared” demonstrate Spencer’s fascination with fright, pop culture obsession, and his expertise with inescapably wicked melodic hooks and clever twists of phrase. Producer Drew Fulk returned for Welcome To Horrorwood which includes cameos from members of Papa Roach, Cannibal Corpse, Atreyu, Fit For A King, and Senses Fail.
Decadent, devious, and fiercely insane, Ice Nine Kills celebrate pop culture’s darkest edges, mining a cinephile library’s worth of iconic horror on The Silver Scream and its sequel. The creative marriage made in hell of music and fiction began in earnest with the Every Trick In The Book, which brought the previous three records’ themes to new levels.
The band’s synergy of music and lifestyle draws favorable comparisons to Slipknot and Rob Zombie. Visionary trailblazers and multimedia raconteurs, INK built a thrilling world for a growing legion of devoted true believers, with theatrical shows, high-concept videos, and inventive band-to-fan communion.

Ghost & Amon Amarth at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-09-08 19:30 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
GHOST continues to elevate & reaffirm its status as one of the world’s most esteemed & celebrated creative forces. Accumulating well over a billion streams, the GRAMMY-winning Swedish theatrical rock band continues to bring the “euphoric spectacle” (ROLLING STONE) of its live shows to ever-growing & increasingly impassioned crowds, headlining arena tours including sold out shows from the New York’s Barclays Center to London’s O2 Arena. In March 2022, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reported that Ghost had “conquered metal & the charts” when its 5th album IMPERA debuted at #1 in a sweep of the US album charts, entering the BILLBOARD 200 at #2 & bowing at #1 in the band’s native Sweden as well as Germany & Finland, while cracking the top 5 in the UK (#2), Netherlands (#2), Belgium (#2) & more. Produced by Klas Åhlund & mixed by Andy Wallace — & feat. “Spillways”—hailed as a “sweetly constructed rock tune” by THE NEW YORK TIMES, the #7 YouTube trending “Call Me Little Sunshine,” & Active Rock #1 radio single “Hunter’s Moon” — IMPERA finds Ghost transported centuries forward from the Black Plague era of its previous album, 2018 Best Rock Album GRAMMY nominee Prequelle—or as ROLLING STONE put it, “Ghost predicted the pandemic, Now the metal band is foretelling the fall of empires.” All in all, the most current & topical Ghost subject matter to date is set against a hypnotic & darkly colorful melodic backdrop making IMPERA a listen like no other, yet unmistakably, quintessentially Ghost.

Formed in 1992, Amon Amarth became modern metal greats the hard way. The Swedes steadily built a formidable reputation as a ferocious live band and, as the years passed, were increasingly recognised for their recorded achievements. Breakthrough releases like 2006’s With Oden On Our Side and 2008’s Twilight Of The Thunder God, cemented their popularity throughout the metal world. Jomsviking (2015) hit the #1 spot in Germany’s official album chart and swiftly became their most successful worldwide release to date. Amon Amarth return to action in 2019, with their biggest, boldest and most bombastic musical statement to date. Amon Amarth – completed by vocalist Johan Hegg, guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg, bassist Ted Lundström and drummer Jocke Wallgren – know that expectations for their next move are at an all-time high. The excellent news is that the band’s 11th studio album, the aptly-named Berserker, is guaranteed to have all discerning metal fans punching the air with joy. Today, Amon Amarth stand tall and unassailable: over 25 years into a career that has seen them evolve from humble origins in the dark, dank rehearsal rooms of their native Tumba to their current status as explosive festival headliners and one of the metal world’s most widely adored bands. All of this and more has been captured in the band’s recent live DVD and documentary, The Pursuit Of Vikings: 25 Years In The Eye Of The Storm.

CAVALERA + Exhumed & Incite at Marquee Theatre
2023-09-15 17:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
Phoenix death/thrash metal act Cavalera Conspiracy, which also operates under the moniker Cavalera, was formed in 2007 by Brazilian metal legends and siblings Max Cavalera (vocals and guitar) and Igor Cavalera (drums), formerly of Sepultura. The group’s sound reflects the punitive, blackened thrash of the brothers’ flagship band, with added hardcore punk and groove metal elements. Between 2008 and 2017, Cavalera Conspiracy issued four studio albums (Inflikted, Blunt Force Trauma, Pandemonium, and Psychosis) before shortening their name ahead of the release of 2023’s re-recording of Sepultura‘s 1986 debut, Morbid Visions.
The formation of Cavalera Conspiracy marked the conclusion of a ten-year feud between the Cavalera brothers, who co-founded Sepultura in their native Brazil in 1984. Rounded out by guitarist Marc Rizzo (Soulfly) and bassist Joe Duplantier (Gojira), the band’s debut for Roadrunner Records, Inflikted, arrived on March 25, 2008. Cavalera Conspiracy took a brief break as Max (Soulfly) and Igor (Nailbomb, Strife) returned to their respective bands, but they regrouped in 2009 for a European tour. The following year, Cavalera Conspiracy went back into the studio to begin work on their follow-up album. In 2011, the brothers released their second blast of groove metal heaviness, the appropriately titled Blunt Force Trauma, with the relentlessly brutal and more grindcore-oriented Pandemonium appearing in 2014. The similarly adrenaline-fueled Psychosis appeared three years later, marking the end of Marc Rizzo‘s tenure with the group. Now operating as a duo, the brothers elected to pare down their name as well, releasing 2023’s Morbid Visions, a muscular re-recording of Sepultura‘s classic though decidedly lo-fi 1984 debut album, under the Cavalera banner. Later that year, the duo issued a re-recording of Sepultura‘s 1985 EP, Bestial Devastation. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Since the early ’90s, San Francisco’s Exhumed have honed their brand of gore-obsessed death metal with a tongue-in-cheek flair and an overall musical approach often reminiscent of Carcass, a band that they have frequently acknowledged as a primary influence. Diligently led by founding guitarist Matt Harvey, they have endured constant lineup changes over the years. Their brutal riffs and horrifically grotesque lyrical themes only intensified as the years went on, resulting in uncompromising efforts like 2003’s Anatomy Is Destiny, 2011’s All Guts, No Glory, and 2022’s To the Dead.
Exhumed formed in 1990 with a lineup consisting of Harvey (guitar, vocals), Col Jones (drums), Derrel Houdashelt (guitar), Jake Giardina (vocals), and Ben Marrs (bass). They made their first recordings in this formation, including the Excreting Innards 7″ for Afterworld Records. Giardina and Marrs left the band within the next few years, with Matt Widener (bass) and Ross Sewage (vocals) brought in as replacements. After recording the Horrific Expulsion of Gore demo (1994), Widener left and Sewage took over bass duties. This lineup eventually recorded a split-LP with the Ohio band Hemdale, In the Name of Gore, which came out on Visceral Productions in 1995 and featured an absolutely revolting album cover.
Soon after, Houdashelt left and was eventually replaced by Mike Beams. With this lineup intact, they signed to Relapse Records and finally released their first official full-length, Gore Metal, in 1998, with guitarist James Murphy (Death, Obituary) at the production helm. Sewage left the band shortly after this record, leaving the trio of Harvey, Beams, and Jones to record the follow-up, Slaughtercult. The album was released on Relapse in 2000 and was enthusiastically received on the death metal scene. Exhumed supported the album with three coast-to-coast American tours and a European one, where they co-headlined the Fuck the Commerce Festival in Germany and the Obscene Extreme Festival in the Czech Republic. In 2003, they recorded the more progressively arranged — and most critically acclaimed — Anatomy Is Destiny, which was released by Relapse. Bassist Bud Burke left the band before their tour and was replaced by Leon del Muerte.
Exhumed experienced another critical blow following their U.S. and European tours with the departure of founding member and drummer Col Jones. Rather than enter the studio without a permanent replacement, they chose instead to release the compilation Platters of Splatter and toured using fill-in drummers. The band also eventually lost guitarist Mike Beams before ax-man Wes Caley and drummer Matt Connell joined the band permanently. This version of Exhumed decided to follow Metallica‘s concept of a covers album and issued Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated in 2005; the band also assembled a concert film before disappearing from the scene for nearly five years.
The quartet of del Muerte, Caley, Connell, and lone founding member Harvey (on guitar and vocals) spent a year writing and emerged with All Guts, No Glory on Relapse in the summer of 2011. Returning two years later in a completely different configuration, Harvey recorded the slow-grooved Necrocracy with a new rhythm section of Rob Babcock (bass) and Mike Hamilton (drums), and a former bassist, Bud Burke, playing guitar. In 2015, with early member Ross Sewage resuming his role as singer and bassist and Burke moving to guitar, Exhumed re-recorded their debut album and issued it under the title Gore Metal: A Necrospective 1998-2015. With the same lineup intact, they produced the band’s seventh effort, 2017’s Death Revenge, again on Relapse. Eighth album Horror arrived two years later. Recorded at the band’s home studio, the effort was raw and less complex than some of their earlier material. Harvey conscripted Mike Beams, Leon del Muerte, Matt Widener, and Bud Burke to help flesh out the gore metal veterans’ unrelenting ninth LP, To the Dead. ~ William York & Thom Jurek, Rovi

Now close to 15-years into a career where everything was earned and nothing was taken for granted, INCITE bridges the gap between multiple crowds across various metal sub-genres. As renegade disciples of trailblazing architects like Pantera, Slayer, Sepultura, and Machine Head, INCITE raise the torch for trend-killing and hipster-smashing metal. INCITE is as much a part of the fabric of the style championed by Lamb Of God as the surge of newer bands like Power Trip. INCITE perfected their signature brand of extreme sounds playing shows with DevilDriver, Crowbar, Brujeria, Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, and Six Feet Under. This is a band who can open for Gorgoroth one night and Cancer Bats the next, converting true-believers out of people who grew up on Deftones or Immortal. The band’s fifth album, Built to Destroy, is a visceral, urgent, voracious distillation of modern metal, with reverence for the past, produced by Steve Evetts (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Suicide Silence) and mastered by Zeuss (Rob Zombie, Hatebreed).

Bruno Major at The Van Buren
2023-09-16 19:00 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Britain’s Bruno Major splices classic singer/songwriter confessionals with sleek modern electronic production, girding the entire enterprise with hints of soul. After building an audience in the mid-2010s with a song-a-month series, he earned international attention with his debut album and its 2020 follow-up, To Let a Good Thing Die. A new single, “We Were Never Really Friends,” appeared in 2023.
Based in Camden, London, Major was trained as a classical guitarist and released a live EP — appropriately called Live EP — in 2014, but he first received attention in 2016 when he set out to release a new song every month for a full year, a project that would extend into 2017 and culminate in the arrival of the full-length A Song for Every Moon. He accompanied this steady stream of digital singles with regular live appearances in London, sometimes opening for Lianne La Havas. By 2018, Major had widened his touring circle to include U.S. appearances (including the Bonnaroo Festival) and a tour of Asia. Throughout 2019 and early 2020, he issued several singles in advance of his second album, To Let a Good Thing Die, which arrived in June of that year. A three-year hiatus preceded the arrival of 2023’s lush and cinematic single “We Were Never Really Friends,” which he followed with a spate of international tour dates.

Eric Church + Jelly Roll & Paul Cauthen at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-09-16 20:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Eric Church’s most recent album, his Heart & Soul three-part project, is available everywhere now. The project features his latest Gold-certified No. 1 “Hell of a View” & recent Top 5 hit “Heart On Fire” as well as brand-new single “Doing Life With Me,” impacting radio now.
He recently wrapped his The Gather Again Tour, visiting arenas for an in-the-round show on the Billboard Music Awards’ Top Country Tour, in addition to a recent headlining spot alongside George Strait & Metallica during the ATLive festival at Mercedes-Benz Stadium & his own headlining stadium shows at Milwaukee’s American Family Field & Minneapolis’s U.S. Bank Stadium. During 2019’s Double Down Tour, he played nights of two unique shows in each market sans opening act. The tour featured a stop at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, where he broke the venue’s concert attendance record with more than 56,000 fans in attendance.
A seven-time ACM Award winner, four-time CMA Award winner & 10-time GRAMMY nominee, Church has amassed a passionate fanbase known as the Church Choir as well as a critically acclaimed catalog of music. His previous project, the Gold-certified Desperate Man, earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album. Prior releases include the Platinum-certified Sinners Like Me, Carolina & Mr. Misunderstood, the Double-Platinum certified The Outsiders & the 3x Platinum-certified Chief, as well as 30 Gold, Platinum & multi-Platinum certified singles.

Outright genre-bending singer/songwriter Jelly Roll has quietly been building a remarkable career, under the radar and on his own terms. Since his days selling his mixtapes out of his car, he has constantly been releasing new music, touring relentlessly, consistently topping various charts, engaging a rabid fanbase & creating videos that have amassed more than 2 Billion views on YouTube. He pairs deeply personal lyrics with music that blends Old-school Rap, Classic Rock, Country and Soul to create music that is therapeutic, raw and tackles the heaviness in life.
His 2020 single “Save Me” — a confessional, vulnerable expression of self-doubt set the stage for his new season of life and took him to new heights, with more than 171 million views on YouTube and Platinum certification from the RIAA. Born and raised in Nashville’s Antioch neighborhood, the former addict and drug dealer released his album Ballads of the Broken in 2021, ahead of his sold-out hometown show at the famous Ryman Auditorium, which sold out in under an hour. Now after a history-making “breakthrough year” (American Songwriter), having just sold-out Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, releasing the riveting anthem “Need A Favor” from his debut country album WHITSITT CHAPEL, plus earning his first 3 CMT Award wins, the reigning No. 1 of Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart for 25 weeks is well on his way to mainstream, multi-genre stardom.

Paul Cauthen kept the fires of old-fashioned outlaw country burning in the 2010s, spiking his sinewy swagger with an undercurrent of gospel balanced by a hefty dose of midnight sleaze. Nicknamed “Big Velvet” due to his smooth baritone, Cauthen may have been resolutely secular, but he telegraphed those spiritual connections in the very title of his 2016 breakthrough, My Gospel, not to mention the testifying implied by the name of its 2018 successor, Have Mercy. Unlike such peers as Sturgill Simpson, Cauthen didn’t bend his country toward psychedelic rock, nor was he a savvy Nashville operator along the lines of Chris Stapleton. He was a Texas outsider, cutting his teeth in the early 2010s with Sons of Fathers before launching his own solo career with My Gospel, an acclaimed debut that showcased his idiosyncratic take on traditional country. Cauthen broadened his horizons on Room 41, the 2019 sophomore set that contained “Cocaine Country Dancing,” a disco-fied single that brought him a wider audience and set him on a path to the satirical “Country as Fuck,” the lead song from Country Coming Down.
A native of East Texas, Paul Cauthen was raised in Tyler, Texas, learning how to sing and play at the hands of his grandfather, a songwriter from Lubbock who associated with that town’s local legends Buddy Holly & the Crickets. As he grew, he was steeped in classic country and rock & roll, but he found his way toward trouble as his adolescence gave way to young adulthood. After a brief stint in jail for marijuana possession and getting kicked out of college, Cauthen turned to songwriting to stabilize himself.
While residing in San Marcos, Texas in 2010, Cauthen ran into David Beck, a singer/songwriter who shared a similar taste and sensibility. They quickly formed a duo called Beck & Cauthen, switching their name to Sons of Fathers after alternative rocker Beck sent a cease-and-desist letter. Relocating to Austin, Sons of Fathers recorded a debut album with producer Lloyd Maines, which appeared in 2011. Sons of Fathers earned good reviews and climbed into Billboard’s Americana Top Ten with both their debut and Burning Days, the sophomore set that appeared in 2013. The success started to chafe at Cauthen and he quit the group following a performance where the duo opened for Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.
Following the split, Cauthen roamed Texas, eventually settling in the Dallas area as he slowly started a solo career, gravitating toward gutsy, soulful country as he wrote and recorded the material featured on My Gospel. Appearing in late 2016 on Lightning Rod Records, the Beau Bedford-produced My Gospel peaked at 50 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart and he worked the album throughout 2017, building up a fan base.
Cauthen recorded Have Mercy — a seven-song collection of originals that was somewhere between an album and EP — with Bedford at Modern Electric Studios in Dallas, supported by the collective of DFW musicians calling themselves the Texas Gentlemen. Have Mercy appeared in June of 2018. Around this time, Cauthen endured a difficult breakup with his girlfriend and moved out of his home to live out of Dallas hotel. Written during this tumultuous, alcohol-fueled period, his next album was titled Room 41 after his temporary home.
Room 41 featured “Cocaine Country Dancing,” a country-disco stomper that steadily racked up plays on streaming services. In 2020, Cauthen teamed up with Orville Peck as the Unrighteous Brothers for a pair of Righteous Brothers covers (“Unchained Melody,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” He also released the solo singles “America” and “Bones” that year. Cauthen used the glitzy sound of “Cocaine Country Dancing” as a touchstone for “Country as Fuck,” a glitzy sideswipe at bro country that provided the first taste of his third album, Country Coming Down.

Rob Zombie + Alice Cooper + Ministry & More at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-09-24 18:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
The longtime frontman for ’90s industrial superstars White Zombie, New England-bred multi-hyphenate Rob Zombie went on to forge a highly successful solo career and later branched off into the world of film. A lover of B-movie camp, horror nostalgia, and psychedelic imagery, his enduring 1998 debut Hellbilly Deluxe set him apart from contemporaries by balancing brutal metal power with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and sexiness that never took itself too seriously. Over the decades, he remained a fixture in the U.S. Top Ten, scoring additional hits with 2001’s The Sinister Urge and 2006’s Educated Horses. As his film career took off, he released cult favorites such as 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses, 2005’s The Devil’s Rejects, and a pair of big-budget reboots for the Halloween series. In 2021, he issued his seventh set, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy, and in 2022 he appeared on the soundtrack for the film The Munsters, which he also wrote and directed.
Born Robert Bartleh Cummings on January 12, 1966, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, his eclectic style was solidified early on: not only was he raised by parents who had worked in a carnival, but he was fascinated with horror movies from a young age. In addition to fostering his creative abilities in art school, he worked as a bike messenger, porn magazine art director, and production assistant for the classic children’s TV series Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Around this time, he founded the band White Zombie with bassist Sean Yseult. They remained an underground act for much of the late ’80s through a series of cult-favorite indie releases. It wasn’t until the success of their 1992 major-label debut, La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1, that Zombie was launched to new prominence within the music industry, allowing him to try his hand at animation (most notably a hallucinatory sequence of the feature film Beavis & Butt-Head Do America) and directing (he was slated to helm a third chapter of The Crow franchise, working from his own screenplay, but the studio eventually pulled out of the deal).
In 1998, three years after the release of White Zombie‘s final studio album Astro-Creep: 2000, Zombie made his solo debut with the album Hellbilly Deluxe. When it sold more copies in its first week of release than any White Zombie record before it, he disbanded the group to move on as a full-time solo act, quickly issuing Hellbilly remix album American Made Music to Strip By in the fall of 1999. Starting his own label, Zombie-a-Go-Go Records, he gave bands like the Ghastly Ones a home while creating demented mix CDs like Halloween Hootenanny. He delivered remixes to a number of soundtracks while recording a new song for the Mission Impossible: 2 soundtrack, and rounded out his first major solo run with a Rob Zombie toy produced by Todd McFarlane.
He began to work on a feature film in April of 2000, funded by Universal Studios after he designed a horror display for their amusement parks. The film, House of 1000 Corpses, was produced and edited, but the studio backed out due to its own corporate standards. Zombie wrangled the rights to the film from the studio while taking out his frustrations on his next solo record, The Sinister Urge. Again working with collaborator Scott Humphrey (who had produced his first record), he drafted in a metal superstar cast including Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer guitarist Kerry King, Mötley Crüe/Methods of Mayhem drummer Tommy Lee, and Limp Bizkit‘s DJ Lethal. The record was another success, leading to a huge Christmas tour with Osbourne at the end of 2001 and another solo tour in the spring of 2002.
Zombie sold House of 1000 Corpses to MGM for a Halloween release, although offers from several smaller studios had to be refused because of the financial loss he would have taken. The film was a cult hit, prompting Zombie to begin work on his next piece of celluloid, 2005’s Devil’s Rejects. He returned to the recording studio in 2006 for Educated Horses, which veered down a more experimental path that included blues guitar, acoustic tracks, and even a sitar. Despite debuting in the Top Ten of the Billboard album charts and receiving a Grammy nomination for “The Lords of Salem,” it was his first album not to receive certification from the RIAA. A pair of best-of collections — including hits from both White Zombie and his solo discography — were released that year.
After a stint as director and co-writer of the 2007 remake of Halloween, Zombie Live, his first live album, was released in October 2007, the same month that he began an arena tour with Ozzy Osbourne. The release of his next studio album was pushed back due to Zombie’s involvement with Halloween II and in 2010, Zombie released Hellbilly Deluxe 2, his first solo album written with the help of his band (which featured John 5 and Piggy D.). Intended as a sequel to his breakout solo debut, it was supported by Zombie’s first world tour in a decade. Another remix album, Mondo Sex Head, arrived in 2012 and included reworkings from his back catalog by producers like Photek and the Bloody Beetroots.
In early 2013, Zombie returned with his fifth studio album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, which would be Zombie’s lowest-selling album to date, despite its Top Ten Billboard debut. Months later, his film The Lords of Salem was released in theaters, accompanied by a soundtrack featuring songs by Zombie, Rush, and the Velvet Underground. In the years that followed, he returned his focus to his horror empire, creating the Great American Nightmare haunted house attraction, which incorporated characters from his cult films. He also began work on another movie, the crowd-funded killer clown flick 31 (which premiered at Sundance in 2016). He also released his first concert film, The Zombie Horror Picture Show, in 2014, followed by his second live album, Spookshow International Live, in 2015.
Zombie’s sixth studio LP, The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser, was released in April 2016. Featuring an abrasive, industrial edge that hadn’t been heard since Sinister Urge, Electric Warlock was produced by Zeuss and recorded at Goathouse Studios by Zombie and his band, which included former Marilyn Manson bandmates John 5 and Ginger Fish, as well as bassist Piggy D. That year, he also released the film 31 and recorded his band’s set from Riot Fest for Astro Creep: 2000 Live, which arrived in 2018. Months later, he reunited with Marilyn Manson for a joint headlining summer tour, which was kicked off by their collaborative cover of “Helter Skelter.” Zombie closed the decade with the final installment of his Firefly family film trilogy, 3 from Hell, which was released in late 2019.
On Halloween weekend 2020, the next album era was launched with “The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition),” the Grammy-nominated single from 2021’s The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy. Issued in March, the album became Zombie’s seventh consecutive Top Ten on the Billboard 200. In 2022, he produced, wrote, and directed the horror comedy film The Munsters and appeared on the soundtrack. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Jason Ankeny, Rovi

The man (and the band) who first brought shock rock to the masses, Alice Cooper became one of the most successful and influential acts of the ’70s with their gritty but anthemic hard rock and a live show that delivered a rock & roll chamber of horrors, thrilling fans and cultivating outrage from authority figures (which made fans love them all the more). The name Alice Cooper originally referred to both the band and its lead singer (born Vincent Furnier), as they played dark, eccentric, psychedelic rock on their first two albums, Pretties for You (1969) and Easy Action (1970). After a spell in Detroit where they soaked up the high-energy influence of the Stooges and the MC5, Alice Cooper scored breakthrough hits in 1971 with “I’m Eighteen” and the album Love It to Death, in which the group finally stumbled upon the formula that made them stars, blending tough, dirty, guitar-fueled hard rock with Cooper’s sneering vocals and lyrics that were by turns relatable (“I’m Eighteen,” “Body”) and willfully spooky (“Black Juju,” “The Ballad of Dwight Frye”). Coupled with a live show that included snakes, electric chairs, fake blood, and mock hangings, Alice Cooper had something to offend everyone, and from 1971’s Killer to 1973’s Billion Dollar Babies, they could seemingly do no wrong. Following the commercial and critical disappointment of 1973’s Muscle of Love, the Alice Cooper band broke up, and Alice went forward as a solo act, delivering a cleaner and more professional variation on the themes of his early ’70s hits, while the band attempted to continue as Billion Dollar Babies, with little success. Cooper’s glossy 1975 solo debut, Welcome to My Nightmare, was a massive hit, and his shows became even more elaborate as he became a regular fixture on television, but subsequent solo releases saw his following dwindle until 1989’s Trash and 1991’s Hey Stoopid, where he blended his trademark sound with hair metal arrangements and production and gained a new audience. Cooper’s dedicated fan base kept him in the game long after his ’70s peak, touring regularly and releasing albums like 2021’s high-spirited Detroit Stories and 2023’s tightly wound, live sounding set Road.
Vincent Furnier formed his first group, the Earwigs, as an Arizona teenager in the early ’60s. Changing the band’s name to the Spiders in 1965, the group was eventually called the Nazz (not to be confused with Todd Rundgren‘s band of the same name). The Spiders and the Nazz both released local singles that were moderately popular. In 1968, after discovering there was another band with the same name, the group changed its name to Alice Cooper. According to band legend, the name came to Furnier during a Ouija board session, where he was told he was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch of the same name. Comprised of vocalist Furnier — who would soon begin calling himself Alice Cooper — guitarist Mike Bruce, guitarist Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith, the group moved to California in 1968. There they met Shep Gordon, who became their manager, and Frank Zappa, who signed Alice Cooper to his Straight Records imprint.
Alice Cooper released their first album, Pretties for You, in 1969. Easy Action followed early in 1970, but failed to chart. The group’s reputation in Los Angeles was slowly shrinking, so the band moved to Furnier’s hometown of Detroit. For the next year, the group refined their bizarre stage show. Late in 1970, the group’s contract was transferred to Straight‘s distributor Warner Bros., and they began recording their third album with producer Bob Ezrin. With Ezrin’s assistance, Alice Cooper developed their classic heavy metal crunch on 1971’s Love It to Death, which featured the number 21 hit single “Eighteen”; the album peaked at number 35 and went gold. The success enabled the group to develop a more impressive, elaborate live show, which made them a highly popular concert attraction across the U.S. and eventually the U.K. Killer, released late in 1971, was another gold album.
Released in the summer of 1972, School’s Out was Alice Cooper’s breakthrough record, peaking at number two and selling over a million copies. The title song became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. and a number one single in the U.K. Billion Dollar Babies, released the following year, was the group’s biggest hit, reaching number one in both America and Britain; the album’s first single, “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” became a Top Ten hit in Britain, peaking at number 25 in the U.S. Muscle of Love appeared late in 1973, yet it failed to capitalize on the success of Billion Dollar Babies. After Muscle of Love, Furnier and the rest of Alice Cooper parted ways to pursue other projects. Having officially changed his name to Alice Cooper, Furnier embarked on a similarly theatrical solo career; the rest of the band released one unsuccessful album under the name Billion Dollar Babies, while Mike Bruce and Neal Smith both recorded solo albums that were never issued. In the fall of 1974, a compilation of Alice Cooper’s five Warner albums, entitled Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits, became a Top Ten hit.
For his first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, Cooper hired Lou Reed‘s backing band from Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal — guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, bassist Prakash John, keyboardist Joseph Chrowski, and drummer Penti Glan — as his supporting group. Released in the spring of 1975, the record was similar to his previous work and became a Top Ten hit in America, launching the hit acoustic ballad “Only Women Bleed.” Its success put an end to any idea of reconvening Alice Cooper the band. Its follow-up, 1976’s Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, was another hit, going gold in the U.S. After that album, Cooper’s career began to slip, partially due to changing trends and partially due to his alcoholism. Cooper entered rehab in 1978, writing an album about his treatment called From the Inside (1978) with Bernie Taupin, Elton John‘s lyricist. During the early ’80s, Cooper continued to release albums and tour, yet he was no longer as popular as he was during his early-’70s heyday.
Cooper made a successful comeback in the late ’80s, sparked by his appearances in horror films and a series of pop-metal bands that paid musical homage to his classic early records and concerts. Constrictor, released in 1986, started his comeback, but it was 1989’s Trash that returned Cooper to the spotlight. Produced by the proven hitmaker Desmond Child, Trash featured guest appearances by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and most of Aerosmith; the record became a Top Ten hit in Britain and peaked at number 20 in the U.S., going platinum. “Poison,” a midtempo rocker featured on the album, became Cooper’s first Top Ten single since 1977. After the release of Trash, he continued to star in the occasional film, tour, and record, although he wasn’t able to retain the audience he’d recaptured with Trash. Still, 1991’s Hey Stoopid and 1994’s The Last Temptation were generally solid, professional efforts that helped Cooper settle into a comfortable cult status without damaging the critical goodwill surrounding his ’70s output. After a live album, 1997’s Fistful of Alice, Cooper returned on the smaller Spitfire label in 2000 with Brutal Planet, and Dragontown a year later. The Eyes of Alice Cooper appeared in 2003 and found Cooper and company playing a more stripped-down brand of near-garage rock. Dirty Diamonds from 2005 was nearly as raw and hit the streets around the same time Cooper premiered his syndicated radio show Nights with Alice Cooper. Three years later he returned with Along Came a Spider, a concept album that told the story of a spider-obsessed serial killer. In 2010, he released the live album Theatre of Death, along with a download-only EP of redone Cooper classics titled Alice Does Alice. 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare, a sequel to his 1975 conceptual classic of the same name (minus the 2), was recorded with longtime co-conspirator Bob Ezrin, and featured 14 brand-new cuts that spanned multiple genres and relied on the talents of a host of previous members of the Alice Cooper band (including Steve Hunter), as well as a guest spot from pop superstar Ke$ha. The same year, he was awarded the Kerrang! Icon Award.
Advancing years didn’t prevent Cooper from maintaining a hectic schedule, and by 2012 he was touring with Iron Maiden and headlining Bloodstock Open Air. Aside from his musical pursuits, he also starred in Tim Burton’s adaptation of Dark Shadows, playing himself alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, and Michelle Pfeiffer. He returned to touring in 2014 as the opening act for Mötley Crüe‘s final tour, and the following year he unveiled a new supergroup called Hollywood Vampires, which included Johnny Depp and Joe Perry. They subsequently released an album of rock covers. He reunited with Ezrin yet again for his 27th studio record. Paranormal was released in 2017, featuring contributions from ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, Deep Purple‘s Roger Glover, and U2‘s Larry Mullen, alongside original bandmembers Smith, Dunaway, and Bruce. The album was also released in a special edition with a bonus disc of live material. Early the following year, an EP was released, centered around Paranormal single “The Sound of A,” which included a handful of live cuts from his 2017 tour. In August 2018, Cooper released A Paranormal Evening at the Olympia Paris, a live album drawn from his European tour in support of the Paranormal album. A 2019 EP, Breadcrumbs, saw Cooper paying tribute to his hometown of Detroit with songs written about his early garage rock heroes. He continued the Detroit homage on his next full length, 2021’s Detroit Stories. In addition to many new songs of his own, the album included covers of Bob Seger, Detroit indie mainstays Outrageous Cherry, and the Velvet Underground‘s “Rock & Roll” presented in the style of Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels‘ 1971 rendition. The LP peaked at number 47 on the Billboard 200 and at number seven on the Top Independent Albums chart. The following year saw the release of the concert album Detroit Stories/Paranormal/A Paranormal Evening with Alice Cooper at The Olympia, Paris. In August of 2023, Cooper released a new album, Road. This set of new, guitar-heavy tunes sought to capture the power his band had in an on-stage setting. In addition to the album’s live sound, Road was held together by the loose conceptual theme of situations unique to the rock and roll touring life. The album came out concurrently with a tour Cooper was booked for supporting Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard, and he had plans for a co-headlining tour with Rob Zombie later in the year. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Mark Deming, Rovi

Born in 1981 in Chicago, Ministry has been the lifetime passion project of founder Al Jourgensen, considered to be the pioneer of industrial music. In its early days, Ministry was identifiable by its heavy synth-pop material in line with the new sounds and technology that were being developed in the ‘80s. Ministry’s output began with four 12” singles on Wax Trax! Records in 1981 before the first LP With Sympathy in 1983 via Arista Records. As time progressed however, so did Ministry, quickly developing a harsher, and more stylized sound that the band soon became infamous for on seminal albums Twitch (1986), The Land of Rape and Honey (1988), and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste (1989). With the release of Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and The Way to Suck Eggs (1992), Ministry hit an all time high in the mainstream musical realm and received its first Grammy nomination. In total, Ministry has been nominated for a Grammy award six times. After an indefinite hiatus in 2013, Ministry’s 2018 album, AmeriKKKant, continued to reflect Jourgensen’s views on the frightening state of society and politics. Ministry’s newest album MORAL HYGIENE is set to be released on October 1st, 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records.

American hard rock outfit Filter crushes caustic, head-rattling aggression into a melodic, electronic-leaning industrial package, bridging the worlds of alternative and metal. Emerging as one of the most popular bands in the mid-’90s post-industrial alternative scene, they evolved from a Nine Inch Nails offshoot into a fully realized entity under the guidance of primary creative force Richard Patrick, who was a part of NIN in their early days. Breaking into the mainstream with their 1995 debut Short Bus, Filter made their contribution to the era with the enduring single “Hey Man, Nice Shot” before expanding their creative scope and incorporating fresh elements for their highest-charting effort to date, Title of Record. That album also spawned their highest-charting single with the surprisingly vulnerable ballad “Take a Picture,” which peaked just shy of the Top Ten on the Hot 100. 2002’s The Amalgamut kept them firmly entrenched as rock radio favorites, but as the landscape shifted into the 2010s, fluctuating chart performance and sales created a lull, with 2013’s The Sun Comes Out Tonight briefly pulling Filter to their best showing on the Billboard 200 in over a decade. At the close of the 2010s, Patrick celebrated Filter’s ’90s peak with deluxe reissues of their first two efforts. Material from sessions intended as a follow-up to one of those albums, Short Bus, would wind up on their eighth album, 2023’s The Algorithm.
Filter came to life in the early ’90s, created by vocalist and primary member Richard Patrick, who had been a guitarist with Nine Inch Nails during that band’s Pretty Hate Machine and Broken eras. In 1993, Patrick decided to leave NIN to form his own band. He met Brian Liesegang through a mutual friend and the pair began to record together. Patrick handled vocals, guitars, bass, programming, and drums, while Liesegang covered programming, guitars, keyboards, and drums. Since they had both experimented with electronics early in their careers, the band’s initial sound was reminiscent of a more-muscular brand of industrial than NIN. In 1995, after signing with Reprise, they released their debut full-length, Short Bus, which was recorded at a small house on the outskirts of Cleveland. The album became a surprise hit and — thanks to the MTV and alternative radio hit “Hey Man, Nice Shot” — was certified gold by the summer. Eventually, Short Bus went platinum. In order to promote the record, the duo recruited guitarist Geno Lenardo, bassist Frank Cavanaugh, and drummer Matt Walker and embarked on tour.
To keep interest stoked, Filter also contributed a prolific string of tracks to cult favorite soundtracks, delivering “Jurassitol” (The Crow: City of Angels), the Crystal Method collaboration “(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do” (Spawn), and “Thanks Bro” and “One” for a pair of X-Files compilations. Despite the band’s burgeoning status, Liesegang departed in 1997 over creative differences. Patrick retained the Filter name for 1999’s sophomore release Title of Record, which was also certified platinum and spawned an even bigger mainstream hit with the crossover Top 20 single “Take a Picture.”
Filter’s third album, The Amalgamut, followed three years later, after which the band went on a short hiatus while Patrick entered rehabilitation for addiction. Around 2005, he announced the formation of a new band, Army of Anyone, which he created with former members of Stone Temple Pilots and David Lee Roth‘s touring band. However, Patrick did not abandon his original group, and Filter returned in 2008 with the emotional Anthems for the Damned, dedicated to a friend who was killed in Iraq. The band’s first greatest-hits compilation, The Very Best Things (1995-2008), followed in 2009.
Filter’s fifth set, 2010’s The Trouble with Angels, marked an unapologetic return to the sound of Short Bus. The Trouble with Angels performed well enough — it debuted at 64 on the Billboard 200, reaching number seven on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart — to attract the attention of the hard rock label Wind-Up, which released the band’s next album, the Bob Marlette-produced The Sun Comes Out Tonight, in June 2013. The album incorporated an updated sound, adding some harmonies and electronic elements close to musical progeny Linkin Park. Sun Comes Out was also their highest-charting album since 2002. While recording a follow-up, Patrick’s supporting band changed again and he was joined by Oumi Kapila (guitar, programming), Ashley Dzerigian (bass), Chris Reeve (drums), and Bobby Miller (keyboards). In January 2016, Filter returned with the single “Take Me to Heaven,” which was included on their seventh LP, Crazy Eyes. While charting modestly on the Billboard 200, the album performed well on the U.S. Alternative and Hard Rock charts.
In 2018, over two decades after Filter’s breakthrough, Patrick reconnected with Liesegang to craft a sequel to Short Bus, which they referred to as “ReBus.” Various setbacks eventually forced Patrick to take another approach, but to celebrate their debut all the same, an expanded edition of Short Bus was released with a handful of remixes. The following year, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Title of Record, Patrick also reissued the album, bundling it with the fan-favorite soundtrack contributions from that era. A smattering of material from those 2018 Short Bus sequel sessions were eventually revived for The Algorithm, the band’s eighth set. Released in August 2023, the LP featured singles “For the Beaten” and Obliteration.” ~ Neil Z. Yeung

Escape The Fate at Marquee Theatre
2023-09-26 17:30 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
In their almost 20 years as a band there have been many changes to the lineup of ESCAPE THE FATE– with vocalist Craig Mabbitt holding down vocals for 15 of them. In preparation for their upcoming album –OUT OF THE SHADOWS– they have reached peak stability and happiness. They may come at the music from different directions, but both Ortiz and Mabbitt agree on the importance of the band’s live presentation. “Whether it is 500 or 50,000 people in the room, we BRING IT,” says Mabbitt. Ortiz agrees and adds “the honor of the ability to do this for a living for our amazing fans is not lost on us. We are really grateful.” Gratitude and humility are the buzzwords for the new ESCAPE THE FATE.
Another thing that is new is the official addition of longtime bassist, Erik Jensen, to the lineup. TJ Bell has been ‘the glue’ that held the chaotic lot together in his nearly 10 years with the band. Matti Hoffman is the coffee-chugging, guitar-solo-writing, high-energy new guitarist taking on his duties while Kevin ‘Thrasher’ Gruft explores the world of production.
Laying themselves bare for the fans, it is a re-invigorated ESCAPE THE FATE on OUT OF THE SHADOWS. New label (Big Noise – run by longtime collaborator producer John Feldmann), new bandmates and a new lease on life for each of them, the only thing that has not changed is ESCAPE THE FATE’s love for their fans and determination to give them the very best of which they are capable.

Post-hardcore band Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.) is back with a new full-length album, ‘DESTROY REBUILD,’ their first release since 2011’s acclaimed self-titled debut album. The new record offers listeners the uniquely nostalgic D.R.U.G.S. sound they have been craving while also exploring new territories making ‘DESTROY REBUILD’ the perfect progression and exciting new chapter. The aggressive melodies are paired with low-tuned guitars and introspective lyrics to create the nostalgic alternative rock sound that we all grew up with and have come to crave.
To capture this sound, Owens connected with A-List producer Howard Benson whose past work with My Chemical Romance and The All American Rejects heavily influenced the modern alternative rock world. Benson’s raw talent for recording helped shape the structures and harmonies of the album. Owens found this collaborative process cathartic and embraced his newfound flow of creativity.
Owens’ knack for creating sincere lyrics shines through while touching on topics like destiny, perspective, and redemption on ‘DESTROY REBUILD.’ It is a physical manifestation of the course he has taken in his musical career and encapsulates each step along the way. It is a bright reflection of one’s life and actions, and it encourages the listener to do the same in their own life.

Point North is a rock band from Los Angeles, California.   Twitter: @pointnorthband Insta: @pointnorthband Facebook: pointnorthband Website: www.pointnorthband.com   Contact: pointnorthband@gmail.com

“Listen to the lyrics, they’re going to make you feel something… ” – Mixi
That something is the essence of Stitched Up Heart – a band built around the strength that comes from realizing we are the only ones that control our lives, and focused on the hope that reminds us there is always light at the end of the darkest tunnel. It’s something heavy and powerful, and it is something undeniable – Mixi’s voice taking flight amidst anthems of self-awareness that bridge the unrelenting confidence of In This Moment’s Maria Brink and the soulful transcendence of Adele.
“When I formed this band I was depressed and going through heartbreak. The name is supposed to give people strength and courage,” professes the frontwoman in a warm and certain tone. “We all go through things that make us think we can’t go further but, especially when times are bad, I want people to see that time will pass and it will get better. The hopeful lyrics on this record are on purpose – I’ve been living in the dark for too long, it’s time to come into the light. You need to pick yourself up because nobody is going to do that for you. There are some sick people out there, but there is beauty in everyone – and you need to love yourself before you can stitch that heart back up.”

Motionless in White at Mesa Amphitheatre
2023-09-27 17:00 - 23:30 | Mesa Amphitheatre, 263 N. Center St, Mesa, 85201, United States
In 2006, Motionless In White materialized out of Scranton, PA with an inimitable conjuration of sharp metallic rock, industrial, magnetic melodies, and larger-than-life visual imagery. The quintet—Chris Motionless [Vocals], Ricky Olson [Guitar], Ryan Sitkowski [guitar], Vinny Mauro [drums], and Justin Morrow [bass]—quietly clawed their way to the forefront of hard rock, gathering nearly half-a-billion cumulative streams and views to date. Following the success of Creatures [2010] and Infamous [2012], Reincarnate [2014] sunk its teeth into the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200, bowing at #9 and capturing #1 on the Top Rock Albums Chart. Both Graveyard Shift [2017] and Disguise [2019] cracked the Top 5 of the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart and Top Rock Albums Chart. Along the way, they sold out headline tours and supported everyone from Slipknot and Korn to Breaking Benjamin. Not to mention, Motionless In White have collaborated with Jonathan Davis of Korn, Maria Brink of In This Moment, Dani Filth of Cradle Of Filth, Tim Sköld of KMFDM, Caleb Shomo of Beartooth, and more. The five-piece kept busy throughout 2020 with the Deadstream event performance of Creatures for its decade-anniversary, a cover of The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me,” and the standalone single “Creatures X: To The Grave.” Now in 2022, Motionless In White are set to return with their new album Scoring The End of the World which sees them perfecting the poetically pummeling sound they patented.

For A Tear in the Fabric of Life, Knocked Loose wanted to do something different. Or they may have been forced to. With quarantine upending their extensive touring schedule — “we’ve kind of been consistently on the road since 2014,” says vocalist Bryan Garris — the group found themselves in early 2020 sequestered near Louisville, in Oldham County, Ky., where they’re from. By June, they were hunkered down in a cabin in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., focused on writing a concept album. By the end of September they had finished recording.
What they came up with is a six song-EP that expands on the narratives hinted at on A Different Shade of Blue, their 2019 full length, and grows beyond them sonically. It’s the band’s most dynamic and contained offering to date, and a balancing act: a mid-length EP with grand ambitions and scope, one full of new sonic elements and a cohesive aesthetic that hangs onto Knocked Loose’s trademark anthemic delivery.

An uninhibited eight-stringed dual barrage of frenetic riffs and dynamic chord progression is exactly what the crushing new AFTER THE BURIAL delivers with pinpoint precision. This highly anticipated new offering is quickly going to raise the bar for all others within the metal genre as this group effectively unleashes a frenzy of jaw-dropping dual guitar dynamics that is backed by a captivating energy and groove resulting in an overall unrelenting output of punishment. ATB is hell-bent on forging their own unique path within the extreme metal genre and they are well on their way to that very goal.
This is an extreme metal hybrid that is a voracious assault on all the senses forcing your brain to fire on all cylinders in order to process the amount of material that is currently being pounded into your ears. This is thinking man’s metal and it’s not for the weak minded.
The tech-wizardry is amped way up, the breakdowns are massive and face-melting and the vocal delivery is the most devastating yet. Already lauded for their technically impressive yet well structured style of songwriting, AFTER THE BURIAL certainly takes things up a notch or two with this newest outing.

Alpha Wolf have spent the past few years growing, learning, understanding. Taking lessons from past mistakes, and accepting that which cannot be changed. 2017’s Mono saw Alpha Wolf instantly which from that small band from Burnie in Tasmania, to a band that was on the lips of heavy music fans the world over. Then their follow up single Black Mamba caught the attention of SharpTone Records, who joined forced with Australian label Greyscale Records to deliver Alpha Wolf to the world with their new EP Fault. Since then, the band has had their first taste of international stages as part of the Impericon Festival tour through Europe alongside new label mates Emmure. Every night the band won over new fans, fans already hungry for the band’s return.
