MUSICBLOGR – Music Video Blog

France’s Hellfest Open Air Festival has become a really big deal in only a few short years, and it just became even bigger: Slayer and Venom were added as headliners to the already stunning bill. Venom will headline night 1 of the festival, while Helloween and Gamma Ray will coheadline night 2, and Slayer and Motörhead will coheadline night 3.

Slayer

Venom

The rest of the lineup is absolutely absurd in its quality, perhaps even besting the Wacken Festival. Other notable bands amongst the 80+ playing the three day festival include Cavalera Conspiracy, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir, Carcass, Ministry, Iced Earth, Opeth, Morbid Angel, Testament and At The Gates.

There are representatives of every major subgenre of metal on the bill (i.e. black, death, thrash, power, doom, gothic, industrial, traditional) as well as some punk, hardcore, and progressive rock bands thrown in for good measure. Indeed there is a little something for everyone on this bill. Well, maybe not emos. The full lineup can be found on this flyer:

Click the flyer to view a larger version

The rising singer/songwriter recently opened up to Buzznet about the Warped Tour, the unavoidable comparisons to Hayley Williams from Paramore and more. Her answers will surprise you …

Finnish power metallers Stratovarius have called it quits again. The pioneering and influential band had been together since 1984, and was one of the very first progenitors of the power metal genre. They previously broke up once in late 2003, but reunited just over a year later to release another full-length.

Stratovarius

This time it appears that the band is done for good. Timo Tolkki, the band’s talented guitarist and songwriter, revealed the reasons behind the breakup in a LONG post on his official Web site. I will attempt to sum it all up:

Timo explains that there had been tensions between members of the band for a long time behind the scenes, especially between drummer Jörg Michael and vocalist Timo Kotipelto. Once the band got back together in 2005, the tensions were worse than ever, and everything felt very businesslike. The band had essentially lost its passion for the music. Timo came to the grave realization that the only reason he was keeping the band together was for the money.

“We did have 8 festival shows during 2007 and it was then, when I was standing on stage in Wacken, Germany before 45,000 metalheads when I fully realized that this band is over. I remember clearly playing those same old songs we had played so many times before and a feeling came to me that told me: this band has no soul anymore. I looked around and I felt like I am part of a play that has a script or machine and that there is nothing fresh and exciting happening anymore. The band sounds awful. Nobody’s heart was in it. It was just the same old song,” wrote Timo.

Timo Tolkki

Timo is going to be taking all of the unused songs that he has written for Stratovarius and rolling them into a new project called Revolution Renaissance. The album will be released on 6/6. As a longtime fan, I am sorry to hear that Strato is done, but am excited to hear what the future holds for these amazing musicians.

Great news Nightwish fans! The symphonic metallers will be weaving their web of wonderous melody in the U.S. with two separate tours this year, according to Blabbermouth. The band has revealed new North American tour dates for the fall, and for the trek the Finnish metallers will be ably supported by fellow countrymen Sonata Arctica. These dates are in addition to a previously announced tour in May.

Here are all of their scheduled dates for North America:

5.5: Sayerville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
5.6: Hartford, CT @ Webster Theater
5.7: Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance
5.9: Quebec, QUE @ Centre du Foire
5.11: London, ONT @ Cowboy’s Ranch
5.14: Winnipeg, MB @ Garrick Centre
5.15: Regina, SAS @ The Drink
5.16: Edmonton, ALB @ Starlite Room
5.17: Calgary, ALB @ McEwan Hall
5.19: Victoria, BC @ Sugar Nightclub
5.20: Vancouver, BC @ Croatian Cultural Centre
5.22: Orangevale, CA @ Boardwalk
5.23: San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
5.24: Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
5.26: Denver, CO @ Ogden Theater
5.27: Lawrence, KS @ Granada
5.28: Sauget, IL @ Pop’s
5.30: Louisville, KY @ Headliner’s
5.31: Mokena, IL @ The Pearl Room

(w/ Sonata Arctica)
8.29: Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero
8.30: Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
9.4: Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater
9.5: Detroit, MI @ Harpo’s
9.9: Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
9.10: Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
9.12: San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
9.13: Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
9.14: Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee Theater
9.16: Dallas, TX @ Palladium Ballroom
9.17: Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa
9.19: Houston, TX @ The Meridian
9.20: New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues
9.21: St Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Landing
9.23: Knoxville, TN @ The Valarium
9.24: Charlotte, NC @ Tremont Music Hall
9.26: Baltimore, MD @ Ram’s Head Live!