BlackDiamondSkye

The huge BlackDiamondSkye tour will be hitting Kansas City at Sandstone on October 2nd. See three legendary bands in their prime!

Alice In Chains
Deftones
Mastodon

Mastodon -- Lawrence, KS -- May 16th, 2010

I have a DVD of Andrew W.K. and it shows a clip of him performing somewhere on Sept. 11, 2002 and he says something about how we shouldn't remember the fallen with a moment of silence, but a moment of the loudest, most raucous noise we can muster up to celebrate their lives and accomplishments. For about 5 hours tonight in a college town in Kansas, Mastodon, Between The Buried And Me, Baroness, Valient Thorr and a ton of fans inside Liberty Hall honored and celebrated the fallen Ronnie James Dio with as much energy and noise as they could produce.

For some reason, I had some apprehensions about seeing Valient Thorr. Dunno if it's the combination of not liking the song of their's on Guitar Hero or being turned off that they have a shtick where they're aliens, but they were really fun and a great way to start off the show. They related what all their songs were about to the passing of Dio and then gave a really positive light on the whole drab situation. To describe Valient Thorr would be to imagine if AC/DC had formed in 2000 or if Motorhead was from Georgia. Equal parts rock and metal, the whole thing was a lot of fun, even if their sound wasn't the greatest.

Baroness got the first real big response of the night, and they blew my expectations away. Undoubtedly the heaviest band of the night, they would sound even better in a bigger place with better sound equipment. I was loving their set a lot. I recognized the songs they played off the Red album and even some from the Blue album, which I am really itching to hear more of now. I can only hope that they'll be back and soon.

1. Bullhead's Psalm
2. The Sweetest Curse
3. Isak
4. Jake Leg
5. Ogeechee Hymnal
6. A Horse Called Golgotha
7. War, Wisdom, and Rhyme
8. Swollen and Halo

Between The Buried And Me (BTBAM) is definitely the odd man out on this tour. Too progressive and too "core" for some in the crowd, but most of the people there loved it. They left a kinda bad taste in my mouth (at least live) after I saw them open for Children of Bodom in 2008, but they were much better this time around. All the members are brilliant musicians, especially the bassist. During Disease, Injury, Madness he had a solo which was just mind-blowing, probably the best bassist I've ever seen live. Would love to see them play a longer set.

1. Fossil Genera – A Feed from Cloud Mountain
2. Prequel to the Sequel
3. Backwards Marathon
4. Disease, Injury, Madness
5. Mordecai

Mastodon comes around these parts often, and the crowd tonight let them know just how much we appreciate it. After weeks of hearing about Brent being too drunk to play and storming off mid-set, leaving some shows to get cut short, he was absolutely brilliant tonight. The Mastodon I saw tonight is a band that deserves every ounce of praise they get and is standing on the edge of bigger and better things. The solo's on The Czar, The Last Baron, and an improvised solo before March Of The Fire Ants showed just what Brent can do, and the rest of the band was insane. They gave so much energy and the crowd gave it right back with crazy pits and tons of crowd surfing. One of the best performances I've heard from them.

At the end of the night, Brann came up to the mic from behind the drumkit to thank the crowd, and the last thing he said was "Rest in Peace, Mr. Ronnie James Dio." The crowd went absolutely nuts one last time, and thus ended the greatest celebration of a fallen legend's life that I've ever been witness to.

1. Oblivion
2. Divinations
3. Quintessence
4. The Czar
5. Ghost of Karelia
6. Crack The Skye
7. The Last Baron
---
8. Crusher Destroyer
9. Crystal Skull
10. I Am Ahab
11. Circle of Cysquatch
12. Iron Tusk
13. March Of The Fire Ants
14. Blood And Thunder

News of OZZFEST to come next week.

Annual (or so) heavy metal/hard rock festival Ozzfest will release news after months of speculation beginning next week.

It has a chance to be amazing, especially considering the weak Mayhem Fest lineup.

Ozzfest has been to Sandstone every year (except 2004/5 with Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath playing) so it's sure to hit here.

Rumored bands:











And lots more.

Dethklok -- Kansas City, MO -- October 12th, 2009

Awesome concert! I thought I was going to miss at least some of High on Fire, but I got there in time to see it all. It was a great experience.

High On Fire was my first concert of 2008, and I'd been jonesing to see them again. While they didn't get a very long set, they left me (again) wanting more. They absolutely slayed and Matt Pike is still a beast on the guitar. He rips through solos like it's as easy as not brushing his teeth and the crowd ate it up completely. Frost Hammer was amazing, and Waste of Tiamat is my favorite live HoF song still. I can't wait to see them again. 9/10

Fury Whip
Blood From Zion
Cometh Down Hessian
Waste of Tiamat
Frost Hammer
Rumors Of War

First things first: there was a huge pit filled with hardcore kiddies fighting invisible ninjas for Converge. But to be honest, they're one of the least worst "core" bands I've seen live. Maybe that's because they honestly don't try to be metal, they are at heart a hardcore/grindcore/mathcore band. But I still don't get it. A lot of times it sounded like they were leading up to a huge moment where they'd kick in and the place would explode, but nine times out of ten, it just never seemed to come. However, when they kicked it in, I really enjoyed it. I guess I was expecting a DEP-esque type of craziness, but Converge wasn't terrible. More grind, less core. 5/10

?
No Heroes
Axe To Fall
Eagles Become Vultures
The Broken Vow
Last Light
Reap What You Sow
Wolves At My Door
Dark Horse
?
?
Concubine

I, at first, thought it was lame that Mastodon was performing all of Crack the Skye still. But as I quickly found out, CtS translate extremely well live and made for a really memorable performance. Sound trouble happened at the beginning of the set, but was fixed by The Czar. Speaking of that song, the 2 songs I liked the best from their set were the longest from CtS, The Czar and The Last Baron. Absolutely chill-inducing when heard live. And the brutality of their pre-CtS material as the encore was amazing. The crowd went insane during Mother Puncher. Awesome show. 9/10

Oblivion
Divinations
Quintessence
The Czar
Ghost of Karelia
Crack The Skye
The Last Baron
--
Circle of Casquatch
Aqua Dementia
Where Strides The Behemoth
Mother Puncher
The Bit

Anyone who still doubts the intentions of Brendon Small and Dethklok just need to attend a show to see what all the fuss is about. The straight up melodic death metal approach from Dethklok really paired well with the prog-attack of Mastodon. I will say that Dethalbum I songs are better than Dethalbum II songs. But the crowd loved it all. Craziest pits I've seen all year. Brendon Small and his band are really, really talented. You can't help but headbang through their set. 9/10

Detheme
Bloodlines
Burn The Earth
Hatredcopter
Black Fire Upon Us
Birthday Dethday
Dethjingle
Dethsupport
Awaken
The Gears
Murmaider
Thunderhorse
Go Into The Water
Fansong
_________

TONS of new shows!

Let's get right into it, then!

Dethklok + Mastodon w/ High On Fire, Converge
Uptown Theater - Kansas City, MO
October 12, 2009

Bane
Jackpot Saloon - Lawrence, KS
October 14, 2009

Moonspell w/ Samael, Book of Black Earth, Secrets of the Moon
Beaumont Club - Kansas City, MO
October 24, 2009

Hatebreed Feat. Cannibal Corpse w/ Unearth, Born of Osiris, Hate Eternal
Beaumont Club - Kansas City, MO
November 22, 2009

Baroness
Riot Room - Kansas City, MO
November 28, 2009

Trivium w/ Chimaira, Whitechapel, Dirge Within
Beaumont Club - Kansas City, MO
December 3, 2009

Megadeth w/ Suicide Silence, Warbringer, Arcanium
Beaumont Club - Kansas City, MO
December 5, 2009

Marduk w/ Nachtmystium, Mantic Ritual, Horde of Hel
Riot Room - Kansas City, MO
December 11, 2009

Nilw w/ Immolation, Krisiun, Abigail Williams, Dreaming Dead
Beaumont Club - Kansas City, MO
January 24, 2010

Blacker than the blackest black, times infinity.

Dethklok
Mastodon
High on Fire
Converge

Holy crap.

Uptown Theater, Oct. 12.

SPLIT YOUR LUNGS WITH BLOOD AND THUNDER

WHITE
WHALE
HOLY
GRAIL

Mastodon w/ Kylesa, Intronaut
The Granada
Lawrence
April 13

Go to this if you can't make it to Goatwhore the same night.

Scion Rock Fest

This might be the best non-underground metal festival in the US.

It's sponsored by Scion.
It's called a "rock fest".
It's in Atlanta.

It can't be that good, can it?

Mastodon
Neurosis
High on Fire
Boris
1349
Cryptopsy
Torche
Nachtmystium
Wolves in the Throne Room
Baroness
Harvey Milk
Kylesa
Zoroaster
Withered
Krallice
Toxic Holocaust
Skeletonwitch
Rwake
A Storm of Light
Warbringer
Salome
Suidakra
Tyr
Alestorm

Wow.

http://www.scion.com/rock/

edit:

And it's free.