According to Bravewords.com, Next year’s Wacken Open Air festival will take place in Wacken, Germany from July 31st – August 2nd, 2014. At the Hamburg Metal Dayz the promoters of Wacken Open Air announced new bands for the 25th edition of the festival. A total of 13 bands were confirmed for the big anniversary in 2014.
The latest acts confirmed are HEAVEN SHALL BURN, J.B.O., DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, SODOM, ONKEL TOM, DECAPITATED, FOR THE IMPERIUM, THE OCEAN, ENDSTILLE, TORMENT, MASTERPLAN, KNORKATOR and A PALE HORSE NAMED DEATH, who join the previously announced acts AMON AMARTH, APOCALYPTICA, ARCH ENEMY, AVANTASIA, BEHEMOTH, CHILDREN OF BODOM, EMPEROR, ICED EARTH, KING DIAMOND, KREATOR, PRONG, and SCHANDMAUL.
The lineup for this summer’s edition of the Graspop Metal Meeting(28-29-30 June 2013) is really shaping up now with the addition of another seven bands. The newcomers are Helloween, W.A.S.P., Prong, All That Remains, Tankard, Newsted and Love And Death.
A small change to our day schedules: Heaven Shall Burn has been moved up from Saturday 29 June to Friday 28 June.
In September 2012, W.A.S.P. celebrated the 30th anniversary of their first ever show in LA by kicking off their ’30 Years of Thunder’ world tour, which will also bring them to Dessel this summer. The band around figurehead Blackie Lawless, now the only remaining founding member, was particularly successful in the early years. Thanks to their self-titled 1984 debut ‘W.A.S.P.’ and the hit single ‘I Wanna Be Somebody’, their career took off like a comet and despite numerous lineup changes the band never lost its drive and identity. The upcoming tour offers an overview of W.A.S.P.’s 30 years in the business and promises to be the greatest W.A.S.P. show ever.
For German metallers Helloween, the release of their brand-new studio ‘Straight Out of Hell’ was the perfect excuse to embark on yet another world tour, entitled ‘Hellish Rock Part II’. The new release is actually one of their top selling albums to date. Helloween has always been extremely popular in mainland Europe and Japan but they are also a crowd favourite at festivals worldwide because they know how to throw one hell of a metal party!
Metallica at Graspop Metal Meeting? Well, no, not this year but who knows? Still, Jason Newsted represents a big chunk of Metallica history and our loyal Graspoppers will be more than happy to get reacquainted. Jason has kept busy since his departure from the biggest band of the Big Four but now he’s back with a new project. The new band is simply called Newsted and their classic metal has that typical Jason touch so expect a pinch of doom, a dash of punk and, above all, raw Newsted vocals. The prodigal son is back so don’t miss it…
Some acts are simply larger than life. Whether it’s personnel changes, declining CD sales or a worldwide economic crisis, nothing gets in the way of true rockers and their calling. A fine example of this dying breed is Tommy Victor, the brains behind Prong. Prong first came to the fore in the late 80s with their excellent debut ‘Force Fed’. Successful bands like Korn and Nine Inch Nails still quote Prong as a major influence on their music. During the 90s, Prong became one of the top acts of the alternative scene.
Eight years ago, Brian ‘Head’ Welch left the American metal band Korn to dedicate himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s kept a low profile ever since but now he’s back with a new project called Love and Death and GMM was quick to invite them over for an introduction. Be sure to check out their debut album, ‘Between Here and Lost’. There’s quite a bit of Korn in there, so if you’re a fan…
Click here for an updated overview of our day schedules.
Metal Army recently conducted an interview with PRONG mainman Tommy Victor. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Metal Army: You have been critical of your own output at times. How does this new album [“Carved Into Stone”] stack up to the history of PRONG?
Tommy: I think it’s one of the best ones, I mean, it doesn’t have the cutting-edge impact that “Cleansing” did where we were going in a new direction for heavy music in general. It isn’t anything groundbreaking, but I think it’s up there in the quality of songs are up there with the best we’ve ever done. That was important for me. I wouldn’t know where to start to try to break any ground anymore, it seems like everything’s been done. So with that in mind, it was a matter of just getting the best songs we could possibly put together in reflection of the previous PRONG records, without going off in a complete different direction like we did with “Scorpio Rising”, for instance. Where I think it failed, it wasn’t the right time. We didn’t work at it as hard. I just had a batch of songs I was just fooling around with. This wasn’t like that. This was much more intense. We put the work in and let the chips fall where they may. I feel this is one of the most hard-working efforts I’ve ever done as far as PRONG goes. As far as anything, really.
Metal Army: Between your work in DANZIG and MINISTRY, would you say one or either have a reverse influence back to your work in PRONG?
Tommy: Not at all! PRONG is a completely different entity, it’s its own mindset. I don’t really listen to a hell of a lot of stuff. It all comes from the heart, really. I’m not out there scouring the charts or delving into countless hardcore metal records to find influences, I don’t have he energy to do that. I’m not being a snob, I just don’t have the time and energy to do that. I don’t want to do that or bring in any other project I’m involved in. I worked on the last two DANZIG records and Glenn has his own way of arranging stuff. Then with Al [Jourgensen], I mentioned with his process, is highly computer-oriented and I didn’t wanna do that either.
Metal Army: Looking back, did you know at the time that “Beg To Differ” and “Prove You Wrong” were going to influence so many other bands?
Tommy: For years I didn’t really see that. People have been saying that for a long time; it’s mainly people in the press. We’ve toured with younger bands. I don’t wanna name names, but the attitude we got was, “Who the fuck are you, guys?” I mean completely unfamiliar with PRONG and didn’t like us. I almost feel like I’ve gotten more of that attitude out there then any congratulations. But on a personal side, I had to re-investigate the early PRONG records recently and I listened to “Beg To Differ”. I haven’t heard it in years! I was like, “Oh my god!” How did this thing come about? It’s bizarre to me. I don’t know how that really came together like that. It’s like that song “Carved Into Stone”. It was something outside myself made that happen. I have not a clue! I wasn’t even really playing guitar that long when PRONG did that record. It’s bizarre to me the things that go down. It wasn’t even calculated. On a personal level, I’m happy with the discography, but it’s not like I go down the street and people are, “Oh, Tommy!” I don’t hear it that much. It’s mainly press people, but other bands, they either don’t recognize it or they don’t know. If anything about the past, like when I was forced to re-investigate “Beg To Differ”, I just kinda of zap it into the void. Like anything in the past, I think everyone needs to do that, it’s like a personal psychotherapy in a way. It’s all good. I don’t have any bitterness towards anything. Maybe at one time I did. It’s been so worn out, I just have a different attitude about that stuff.
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
