Festival Reports
I am in a very hot Las Vegas for this year’s Punk Rock Bowling Festival. This year there has been much fan discussion about the line-up and lack of big names, but this doesn’t seem to have affected the fan turnout, there are still a lot of people here. Punk Rock Bowling isn’t just about the music, it is about the people you meet, the friends you make and the experiences you have in this weird and wonderful place! It is not for the fainthearted, the days are long and hot (the sun can really take a toll on you), if you take in the aftershows you can be out until the early hours, then try to grab a couple of hours sleep before getting up for a pool party and starting all over again.
Viva Las Vegas!
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Black Box Mikkeli is a festival curated and organized by the Finnish melodeath act on the rise Bloodred Hourglass. So when they invited us to go to the already third edition of the fest, and looking at the solid lineup, we didn’t hesitate to make the long trip to Mikkeli for the second day of the event that had a promising collection of bands with Lastout, I Am Your God, Balance Breach, Gaerea, Insomnium, and of course Bloodred Hourglass themselves as the crowning act!
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This being the first ever edition of Hellsinki Metal Festival, they immediately impressed with a very interesting line-up which featured many bands that have never come to Finland or rarely get to the country, combined with some of Finland’s finest (underground) metal acts. And with its location being so close to the Helsinki city center, it feels like it’s giving Tuska Festival a run for its money… The event of course had its child diseases with it being the first time taking place, but overall, this felt like a really solid addition to the Finnish live event scene, and definitely one to stay! Since it was the very first edition, we thought it to be interesting to gather some of our impressions on what was really good, and what could be better in the future here:
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So here we are, the last day of the festival. Today I have no set programme and have decided to see whatever takes my fancy at any specific time, should be an interesting day!
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Graspop Metal Meeting, or GMM for short, is the first festival of the summer for many of us. As always, I was looking forward to being back at the holy grounds this year. While I was working at the festival, I checked out as many bands as possible. Let me take you along to GMM 2023!
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Waking up on Saturday morning, we open the curtains to discover it is pouring with rain, welcome to another great British summer in a seaside town! With our trusty umbrellas at hand, we make the short walk up to the Winter Gardens in the expectation of seeing some really good bands today.
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Alcatraz Festival has quickly become one of Belgium’s favorite metal and rock festivals, and the biggest heavy music event of the country after Graspop Metal Meeting. And not just for Belgians, with tons of people travelling from all over the world to join the 3 days of festivities. And with a great organization, a more cozy atmosphere despite the size and every year a stellar line-up, it doesn’t really come as a big surprise. Somehow they manage to satisfy anyone’s needs, whether you’re into more accessible metal/rock, extreme metal or hardcore and punk, and often they know to group these bands somewhat together on the same day or even the same stage, so you definitely know where to go! Every year, in contrary to some other bigger festivals, they also have a great appreciation for the local acts, booking quite a chunk of the line-up to be Belgian. So to highlight some of the great acts we saw there this year, we collected as many as we could in this “Under One Flag” edition of our Alcatraz 2023 festival report series…
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Alcatraz Festival has quickly become one of Belgium’s favorite metal and rock festivals, and the biggest heavy music event of the country after Graspop Metal Meeting. And not just for Belgians, with tons of people travelling from all over the world to join the 3 days of festivities. And with a great organization, a more cozy atmosphere despite the size and every year a stellar line-up, it doesn’t really come as a big surprise. Somehow they manage to satisfy anyone’s needs, whether you’re into more accessible metal/rock, extreme metal or hardcore and punk, and often they know to group these bands somewhat together on the same day or even the same stage, so you definitely know where to go! For this edition, they’ve released a handful of genre specific line-up posters, and based on those we’ve picked out some of the more memorable shows we caught from the offering of over 100 bands!
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This being the first ever edition of Hellsinki Metal Festival, they immediately impressed with a very interesting line-up which featured many bands that have never come to Finland or rarely get to the country, combined with some of Finland’s finest (underground) metal acts. And with its location being so close to the Helsinki city center, it feels like it’s giving Tuska Festival a run for its money… The event of course had its child diseases with it being the first time taking place, but overall, this felt like a really solid addition to the Finnish live event scene, and definitely one to stay! After a pretty epic first day, here are some of our most memorable performances of the second day:
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Alcatraz Festival has quickly become one of Belgium’s favorite metal and rock festivals, and the biggest heavy music event of the country after Graspop Metal Meeting. And not just for Belgians, with tons of people travelling from all over the world to join the 3 days of festivities. And with a great organization, a more cozy atmosphere despite the size and every year a stellar line-up, it doesn’t really come as a big surprise. Somehow they manage to satisfy anyone’s needs, whether you’re into more accessible metal/rock, extreme metal or hardcore and punk, and often they know to group these bands somewhat together on the same day or even the same stage, so you definitely know where to go! For this edition, they’ve released a handful of genre specific line-up posters, and based on those we’ve picked out some of the more memorable shows we caught from the offering of over 100 bands!
Read More >
