Decibel Magazine 2013 Tour Preview

A few years back, underground metal magazine Decibel created their own package tour for fans of extreme metal music. The first Decibel Tour bypassed Detroit, but the magazine is making up for lost time with their latest addition of the tour.

This year’s Decibel Tour will bring one of death metal’s all time greatest to the stage as Cannibal Corpse headlines the festivities. Cannibal Corpse has a few reasons to get back on the road, after their album “Torture” was released last year. Not only are they still supporting that album, but the band recently released a box set entitled “Dead Human Collection: 25 Years Of Death Metal”. This box set is required listening for any hardcore Cannibal Corpse, as all 14 discs throughout the band’s career are represented here. It’s a good way to do some catching up on all the big cuts, as well as the ones that may not get the love they deserve.

If you haven’t checked out “Torture” yet, you’re gonna hear a killer batch of throwback Corpse tracks. With artist Vincent Locke doing the band’s grisly cover art and the music like “Demented Aggression” and “Encased in Concrete” (those were two of the friendlier song titles on the album), it looks like Cannibal is on a hellbent mission to make non-believers a little queasy these days.

Also on the bill as a co-headliner are Napalm Death, who haven’t done much in the way of touring since the release of last year’s killer album, “Utilitarian”, as well as New York death metallers Immolation. The three bands are currently out on the road and end up on June 7^th in Cleveland. But Detroit will get a chance to see the bands when they head to Harpo’s, when they play a rare weekday show at the venue on Wednesday, May 29^th. If you wanna see Harpo’s the wild ways it was intended to be, or used to be- hit up Cannibal Corpse and be prepared to go home with some bruises or a black eye.

Cannibal Corpse headline the “Decibel Magazine Tour” at Harpo’s on Wednesday, May 29^th. Tickets are $18 and are available at ticketweb.com. Additional tour dates and band info can be found at www.cannibalcorpse.com.

Rival Sons' Heads Are Up

When listening to bands like Los Angeles’ Rival Sons, you get a real idea of the passion and love the quartet has for classic rock. Taking a sound that harkens back to the 60’s and 70’s world of rock music, Rival Sons leaves the modern trappings of rock music behind for an entertaining flashback sound.

Forming in 2008, the band was quickly snapped up by Atlantic Records, only to leave there shortly after. The band self-released their debut “Before The Fire”  in 2009 before signing with death metal label Earache shortly after that. Even though the music on the band’s latest album, 2012’s “Head Down” doesn’t sound like much on the Earache label, it’s always good to have a little diversity on your label. With the release of “Head Down”, the band has broken out overseas, seeing the album get near the top of the charts in England, Finland and Sweden- where the band cracked the Top 10 Albums there. However, Stateside success has remained elusive for the most part up to this point. This is something that the band is trying to change. Now that American fans have had a chance to digest songs like “Until The Sun Comes” and “Wild Animal”, Rival Sons will be hitting the pavement hard in their home country and show newcomers why most of Europe are hot for these guys.

Rival Sons plays dates here in the States through the beginning of June, before they head out to the always busy European festival season. One of the band’s tour dates brings them to Saint Andrews Hall when they play Detroit on Friday, May 31^st. Who knows, this could be one of those shows that you tell everybody about several years down the road when the band are playing arenas and you can rub it in that you saw them early.

Rival Sons play at St. Andrew’s Hall on Friday, May 31^st. Tickets are $10 and are available at livenation.com. Additional tour dates and band info can be found at www.rivalsons.com.

Wilson Goes Full Blast

If you’ve been to any metal shows in Detroit or around Michigan, Wilson is just one of those names you can’t escape. If there’s a busy club show, or summer local hard rock/metal festival, Wilson is usually more than happy to play for you.  The boys from Lansing are one of the biggest fixtures in the metal scene in this area, and always bring their good time crazy party ways to the stage.

But after a few years of toiling around the Midwest with dates, Wilson looks like they’re ready to make a move towards the next step of their career. The band is preparing to release their full length debut on July 9^th called “Full Blast F—ery”. The colorful album title is fitting for the fun, yet take no prisoners style of metal that the band plays. If you havent’s checked out the band’s single, “Viking P---ies F—k Off”, it’s a prime example of the powderkeg that is Wilson and getting ready to explode. Also, long time alt-rock station 89X just started playing one of the tracks, entitled “College Gangbang”.  Kudos to 89X for not going with the usual Three Days Grace and snorers like that and trying something a little different, and with a title the parents would cringe a bit at.

2013 is the year that has seen Wilson graduate from local Michigan shows, and have hopped a few national tours. The first tour was earlier in the year as Wilson opened for the craziness that is a Gwar tour. Now, Wilson is making the rounds with former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted’s new band, simply entitled Newsted. Wilson appears on a week or so worth of dates, with the band rolling into a familiar spot when they hit the Crofoot Ballroom on Friday, May 17^th. It’ll be a chance to see Wilson on what will most likely be sample into the band’s new album and to watch the wildness that will ensure.

Wilson opens for Newsted at the Crofoot Ballroom on Friday, May 17^th. Tickets are $22 and are available at ticketweb.com. Additional tour dates and band info can be found at www.facebook.com/wilsonparties.

Devour The Day Seize The Moment

After a decade of touring and putting out two albums, the Tennessee based band Egypt Central called it a day late in 2012. Egypt Central’s end was due to lead singer John Falls and guitarist Jeff James did not wish to continue with the band, leaving guitarist/bassist Joey “Chicago” Waller and drummer Blake Allison without a project. Instead of moping around and wallowing as to why Egypt Central was no more, Waller and Allison started work on something fresh, according to Waller: “When we first started this, I was writing more therapeutically instead of trying to write something out of necessity”.

Waller & Allison’s tinkering around became the musical skeleton for what would become their next project, Devour the Day. The inactivity of touring gave the band plenty of time to sit down and work on things: “We ended up writing most of the material for about six to seven months. It was a fairly long time versus Egypt Central- where I think we wrote and recorded our album in five weeks. We didn’t want to rush anything, so it took about eight or nine months altogether”.

Even with Waller & Allison being writing the majority of the Egypt Central music, the experiences behind writing for the Devour The Day couldn’t have been any different than the former band, according to Waller: “Blake is an ex-producer, and we recorded about 85 percent of the album in Little Rock at my home. It was unbelievable and there was an intensity that we hadn’t had before. We finished up the last 15 percent with Skidd (Mills- producer) to round out the rest of the record. With Egypt Central; 100 percent was done in the studio”.

With the recording out of the way, it gave Waller and Allison time to think about something they’re never done: being out in front, which was a little weird at first: “There was a lot of hesitation about it. After a decade, things became comfortable. This time around though, it was such a wonderful artistic experience and much more rewarding now. But at the same time, we’re nervous about it. Everyone who thinks they know it will be a success is full of crap (laughs)”.

Devour The Day’s first single, “Good Man”, is already starting to take off at radio and Weller is excited to see people take to the song. As the song takes off, the band is preparing for their first tour and Waller is being for his first jaunt of being out in front and describes what to expect live this way: “One of the points of pride with Egypt Central was that we had a very energetic live show. The blood, sweat and tears we put into that will continue, with a lot of the same energy. But with Devour the Day, they’re will be a lot more word play there because of having more experience. It’s all about making a connection with the people who support you”. Fans can expect more similar aspects of Waller’s past with Devour The Day, but as he explains the differences in an instrumentation sense, “We’re gonna do things to make it different, we’ve never used double bass pedals before, an acoustic part of the set as well as some reggae thrown in there.”

But Michigan gets the first crack at Devour The Day, as the band’s first ever show takes place at the Machine Shop in Flint on May 11^th. For Waller, the day can’t come soon enough: “We couldn’t be more excited. Flint is one of our favorite places to play. The Zink Brothers (owners of the Machine Shop) have been so good to us over the years. It’s a long time coming.”

Devour The Day play at the Machine Shop in Flint on Saturday, May 11st. Tickets are $5 and are available at etix.com. Additional tour dates and band info can be found at www.devourtheday.com.

Airborne Toxic Event Gets Hot Blooded

Even though the LA band the Airborne Toxic Event had a major hit several years ago with “Sometime Around Midnight”, it was 2011’s “All At Once” that became a breakout hit for the band. Debuting inside the Top 20 of the Billboard Album Charts, it was an overwhelming success for the band. It was a huge period of exposure and saw the band continue the success of their first single.

With “All At Once” now in the rearview, the band commenced work on their third album last summer.  Moving away from their usual studio experience, the band hooked up with producer Jacquire King, who has produced Kings of Leon and others and after a huge show at Red Rocks back in the fall, the band came into the studio and chipped away at their latest. Released back on April 30^th, “Such Hot Blood” seems to find a band who had honed their talent and the sound comes off a bit more polished and efficient on tracks like “Timeless” and “Safe”. Reviews on the album have been mostly positive so far, so any issues people might have had with the change in producers is minimal at best.

Knowing that the band did several residency dates leading up to the release of “All At Once”, things are a bit simpler this time as the band gets the word out about “Such Hot Blood”. The Airborne Toxic Event get back on the road for festival and headlining dates through mid to late June and keep busy here in North America. The band heads to midtown when they play the Majestic Theatre on Wednesday, May 15^th. If you missed them the last time around, or just want to hear what the buzz is all about, if you hit the Majestic May 15^th, you’ll get what you’re looking for.

The Airborne Toxic Event plays at the Majestic Theatre on Wednesday, May 15^th. Tickets are $20 and are available at ticketweb.com. Additional tour dates and band info can be found at www.theairbornetoxicevent.com.