Times of Grace Announce Touring Lineup
Times of Grace are excited to announce that they have solidified the touring lineup for their forthcoming debut tour this February. The core of the band is Jesse Leach on vocals and Adam Dutkiewicz on guitars/vocals, and they will be supported by guitarist Joel Stroetzel, bassist Daniel Struble and drummer Dan Gluszak. Stroetzel is a familiar name to Times of Grace fans, as he is also guitarist for Killswitch Engage, alongside Adam D., and is an original member who played with Leach while he was singing in KsE. Stroetzel’s involvement in Times of Grace was a happy accident, as he assisted his former and current bandmates when they recorded acoustic performances for iTunes and SiriusXM’s Liquid Metal late last year. Times of Grace were on the hunt for a live guitarist and Stroetzel just clicked, so he decided to once again pitch in for his friends and act as their touring guitarist. Struble is the former singer of Five Pointe O, a long ago labelmate of KsE, while Gluszak is the former drummer of Envy on the Coast. “I am honored to work with such quality people and solid musicians and I can already see the synergy developing and it is very exciting. I truly feel blessed,” Leach said about the touring lineup. Times of Grace will embark on their first tour on February 1st in Baltimore and wrap on February 27th in Boston.
Tour Dates:
2/1 Baltimore, MD
2/2 Atlanta, GA
2/4 Dallas, TX
2/5 Austin, TX
2/7 Phoenix, AZ
2/8 Los Angeles, CA
2/9 San Francisco, CA
2/11 Seattle, WA
2/12 Portland, OR
2/14 Salt Lake City, UT
2/15 Denver, CO
2/17 Minneapolis, MN
2/18 Chicago, IL
2/19 Detroit, MI
2/20 Cleveland, OH
2/21 Toronto, ON
2/22 New York, NY
2/24 West Chester, PA
2/25 Pittsburgh, PA
2/26 Poughkeepsie, NY
2/27 Boston, MA
ABR Gear Up For New Album
Genre giants AUGUST BURNS RED have solidified plans to enter the studio February 14th to record their currently untitled fourth album. The band will re-team with metal mastermind Jason Suecof at his Audio Hammer Studios outside of Orlando, FL. Suecof is no stranger to ABR’s highly influential brand of metalcore, as he was the man behind the board for Constellations, the band’s 2009 breakout hit that made waves when it landed at #24 on the Billboard Top 200. The band’s third album – whose sales have soared past 90,000 – established in no uncertain terms that AUGUST BURNS RED was a leader of its genre, a band that was quietly outselling, outdrawing and garnering more praise than peers who’ve been gracing magazine covers for years. Only suddenly, it wasn’t so quiet anymore. The fans and critics have spoken – loudly. “We can’t wait to get back to Florida to start recording with Suecof,” says guitarist and principle songwriter JB Brubaker. “We’re just about finished writing and it’s shaping up to be a huge sounding album. I can’t ever recall feeling this excited to get started when getting ready for past albums.” The currently untitled album is set for release this summer, details to be announced.
Tour Dates:
5/30 – Moscow, Russia
5/31 – St. Petersburg, Russia
6/1 – Helsinki, Finland
6/2 – Hassleholm, Sweden
6/7 – Athens, Greece
6/8 – Istanbul, Turkey
Onward to Olympas Post New Track
Onward to Olympas have posted the title track from their sophomore Facedown release at their Facebook profile. The new album The War Within Us will be available March 15. Onward to Olympas have meticulously cultivated their sound, blending progressive metal, straight hardcore, and elements of death metal. Once again they enlisted the help of Jamie King (For Today, Between The Buried And Me) to engineer their new record and that, combined with the matured direction of their writing make for an even more seasoned, technical and ear catching release.
Red Post Behind-The-Scenes Video
Red, the Nashville-based hard rock outfit, has released a behind-the-scenes video for its fans. Filmed during the recording process of its February 1 release, Until We Have Faces, the video gives you a window into the band’s studio and practice space to see how the album was made. Until We Have Faces‘ overarching theme is a search for true identity, inspired by a number of sources, including author C.S. Lewis’ book of similar title, Till We Have Faces. Paired again with award-winning producer Rob Graves, Until We Have Faces features Red in its most musically intense place to date – “a combination of our first two records, but on steroids,” lead vocalist Michael Barnes notes – daring both Red and its fans to catapult into new rock territories. Fans in Dallas, Tx. will have an opportunity to see the band perform a special acoustic set on Feb. 2. After the performance fans can meet the band and get CD’s autographed. See below for time and store location.
Where: Best Buy (LBJ Shopping Center)
4255 Lyndon B Johnson Fwy Midway
Farmers Branch, TX 75244
Time: 7-9 PM
Underoath To Release Vinyl Version Of Latest Album
The million-selling, globally successful and acclaimed heavy rock group UNDEROATH– now in the midst of headlining nationwide tour–are releasing two vinyl versions of their new full-length offering Ø (Disambiguation (Solid State/Tooth & Nail). The album–their sixth full-length overall–will be self-released via two special vinyl editions:
* Deluxe: Includes a gatefold 12” LP Picture Disc, with full sized eight page 16 panel booklet featuring exclusive artwork and a limited pressing of 1,000.
* Standard: Includes a clear 12” LP limited pressing limited to 400.
In addition, UNDEROATH will team with Hot Topic for an exclusive Gold edition vinyl pressing which will hit stores in early March. In other news, UNDEROATH have united with current tour-mates Thursday to release a split 7” featuring their melodic new single “Paper Lung” and a new song from Thursday titled “Past and Future Ruins” from their forthcoming album, title TBA. The split 7” sold out already online, but a limited number of copies will be available at the band’s remaining U.S. shows beginning February 3.
For more information, visit:
underoathmerch.com
Call To Preserve Announce The End
Call To Preserve have been a long time member of the Facedown Family, so it is sad for us to report that CTP have announced that they are in the final stages of touring and will soon be dissolving the band. Please read the band’s official statement for information on where you’ll be able to see them live one last time”
“After eight years, three full-lengths and countless tours all over, Call to Preserve is calling it quits. For the past year or so we’ve done our best to keeping functioning as a band despite losing members and having remaining members cut back their involvement. Now all of us are being pulled in different directions and our aspirations for our future have expanded much further than being on tour all the time. With some of us moving away, going back to school or starting careers, we just can’t sacrifice our time to this band like we used to. It would be a disservice to ourselves to do CTP half heartedly, so instead we want to go out on a high note and enjoy our last few months as a band. We want to do our best to make sure those who want to can come see us for the last time. This April we’ll be playing our last west coast show at Facedown Fest 2011 and in the coming months we’ll be announcing our last tour dates, which will include a stop at Cornerstone Festival. Our last show will be near the end of July this summer in Melbourne, Florida. More details will be announced soon. In these final months we’ll also be working on a few new songs that will be on a 7” coming out this summer on Facedown Records. We’ve wanted to put out vinyl for years and felt we had a few more things to say before we go, so this seemed like the perfect time and place to put out a 7”. We never thought that this band would get as far as it did. We never thought we’d have the chance to travel so much and tour with some of our favorite bands and make such amazing friends from all over the world. We are eternally grateful for the chance we were given to play music and actually have people listen. We want to thank Jason Dunn and Facedown Records for standing behind us for the past five years, being some of the easiest people to work with and for just being great friends. We want to thank all the bands we’ve met and toured with who have become some of our best friends and we will miss the shows and the hangouts dearly. Finally we want to thank everyone who has supported us by coming to a show, buying a shirt, letting us sleep on your floor or feeding us. We are more thankful than you’ll ever know. Thanks for listening and see you soon.”
The Famine Posts “A Fragile Peace”
The Famine, North Texas’s rising technical death metal act, has posted a fourth song from the upcoming full-length, The Architects of Guilt, on the band’s official MySpace page. “A Fragile Peace” joins the already revealed, “Ad Mortem”, “VII The Fraudulent”, and “The New Hell”, as the first songs to be previewed from the February 15th Solid State Records release. The Famine vocalist, Nick Nowell, explains, “’A Fragile Peace’ is about the glass walls we build, but more importantly, how easily they come down.”
Cage Release DVD
San Diego metalers CAGE are proud to announce the worldwide release of their first ever DVD, CAGE – THE RISE TO POWER. The package is a 2 disc DVD set packed full of material and will be released on March 15th 2011 in Europe through Music Buy Mail and through HEAVY METAL MEDIA for North America and the rest of the world. The DVD is available for pre-order on the official CAGE website and will ship 2 weeks before release date to those who preorder on the site. In April, a Blu-Ray version will also be available. Disc 1 features their entire performance at Progpower X in Atlanta Georgia, USA. Disc 2 features footage from various festivals and performances around the world as well as backstage and on tour clips. Also on disc 2, are 5 unreleased audio tracks including one off of their upcoming brand new CD. CAGE is currently in the studio finishing their follow up to SCIENCE OF ANNIHILATION which is due out 2nd quarter 2011. CAGE is currently booking dates to tour Europe in May 2011 in support of the DVD and upcoming new CD release. Guitarist STEVEN BROGDEN and Bassist PETE STONE have recently joined to help form their most vicious lineup yet.
Check out the promo video for the DVD here:
youtube.com/watch?v=SZ8an-YXjNw
Under Command Signs To Intense Millennium
More than a band, the continuing musical journey of Wayne and Julie Johnson strives ahead. At the heart a ministry that isnt held in place by titles of was is or what should be or this is what is. Acoustic praise and worship, all out metal crush to solo speaking or musical appearances, its all the same deal: GOD To be glorified. So begins the story….. A LOVE OF GOOD MUSIC – Just one of the things that make up the Maryland based heavy rock band UNDER COMMAND. Starting around November ..98, drummer Steve Songy and guitarist Wayne Johnson jammed in a 5×5 storage shed. Enduring the change of seasons and temperatures they created the ten songs that would become their debut release, the 1999 hard rocking CD, SECRET PLACE OF THUNDER.
Playing concerts over the mid-Atlantic area out to the mid-west and as far as California, they come out hitting hard and heavy. An unmistakable sound and energetic live show make Under Command a crowd favorite sharing the stage with such great bands as Disciple, Skillet, Seventh Day Slumber, Kutless, Stryper and Pillar. At this time, the group was featured on several compilation CDs, all of which became international sellouts.
At the end of 2001, the band teamed up with the on-line record label, Fight Cloud. They released a project called DAMAGE CONTROL. It featured ten songs of over an hour of music, a thing that the group would become known for. By early the next year Fight Cloud closed it’s doors, ending DAMAGE CONTROL’s availability.
In 2002, Under Command released its second CD SEEING RED, a more aggressive project that featured thick guitars, chunky grooves and more harmony vocals. Lyrics described as real, positive and spiritual speak to the listener in an honest way. With the Seeing Red sessions 90% done, they started a third project, A.E. THE ACOUSTIC EXPERIENCE. An idea that originally was to be an all-acoustic EP turned into a full-length 12-song release. Using a different writing formula, they created stripped down songs with few guitar solos and more sonic texture. Acoustic Experience became the calm to Seeing Reds storm. This sister CD was released a year later. 2003 saw Under Command participate on another compilation CD, this one being for Compassion International, an outreach that helps sponsor needy children all over the world. The compilation CD, Together with Compassion, is a double CD with all sale proceeds going to the outreach program, and can be purchased at all Under Command concerts. The Band returned to the studio after several years of constant touring and personnel changes. Julie Johnson moved from just background vocals to the bass guitarist slot with Nathan Johnson taking over the drum throne. They started a project called UNDERCOVER an eight song release with 4 original songs and 4 cover tunes, hence the cd name. Before the release of that project talks began with the start up label and that prompted the band to reenter the studio and begin work on the new all original project BACK IN THE THICK in 2008. The heaviest most aggressive project to date with a backbone of riff and groove. Now it’s 2011, and Under Command is ready to rock once again with a brand new full length album, and the full support of Intense Millennium Records. In January the band released their first single from the yet titled upcoming album titled, “My Madness”. The band is currently in the studio finishing up the album, expect it’s release mid-2011. UNDER COMMAND is the second officially active band to be announced as signing to Intense Millennium Records. Intense Millennium Records is the partnered label to Frontline Records, and is distributed nationwide via Infinity Distribution.
Roxx Records Signs Jump Ship Quick!
Roxx Records goes Punk? That’s right, Roxx Records is proud to announce their first signing of 2011 in the way of the punk outfit, Jump Ship Quick! Jump Ship Quick is a brand new outfit featuring former members of Focused and Ultimatum! Jump Ship Quick are ready to take the punk world by storm this year unleashing their debut CD upon the world this spring. Fans of bands like NOFX and The Crucified are going to love their approach to the old school vibe reviving that classic punk sound and attitude and mixing in a little modern day twist that is going to leave their fans wanting more! And Jump Ship Quick are sure not afraid to speak their minds and tell it like it is as you will hear in some of their very politically charged lyrics!
Jump Ship Quick consists of Harry (Vox and Rhythm Guitar), Jeff (Lead Guitar), Greg (Bass) and ‘J’ (Drums). Jump Ship Quick actually began about 6 years ago when Jeff and J began putting together a few songs just for fun. They had no singer or bass player at the time and they just wanted to lay down some ideas. As time went on the songs would begin to evolve to what would soon become the signature sound of Jump Ship Quick. Before Jump Ship Quick, there were numerous bands for all of the members most notably Jeff, who was one of the original members of Focused and one of his songs he wrote the music for, “Walk Beside Me” would even make it on to the band’s historical debut album “Bow”. ‘J’ and Greg both have origins in the New Mexico thrash outfit Ultimatum, Greg appeared on Ultimatum’s debut entitled Fatal Delay. During college Jeff and ‘J’ came together to form a Ska core band and have been playing together ever since. Harry has been in several rock and punk bands that have been featured on various compilations and full length CD’s receiving recognition and praise by critics throughout the Vancouver area. Jump Ship Quick’s debut CD will also receive some help from famed Five Iron Frenzy saxophonist ‘Jeff ‘ the girl! (aka Leanor Inez Ortega Till) who will be handling the production of this new release!
Degarmo & Key Inducted Into Gospel Music Hall Of Fame
The GMA Foundation (GMAF) inducted Bill “Hoss” Allen, Johnny Cash, DeGarmo & Key and the Golden Gate Quartet as the newest members into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame on Monday, January 24 during a ceremony filled with music, family, friends, and fellow Hall of Fame members at Trinity Music City in Hendersonville, TN. Those honoring the careers of the new Hall of Fame members were: Trace Adkins, Jeremy Camp, The Fairfield Four, Larry Gatlin, Bobby Jones, Babbie Mason, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Rambos, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, Russ Taff, TobyMac, and Lee Williams & The Spiritual QC’s . The evening was hosted by Larry Gatlin and Chonda Pierce. The GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony was produced by the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame committee: Tom Long chairman, Charles Dorris, Ken Harding, Ed Harper, Roger Holmes, Jody Mainello, Brian Mason, Stacy Merida, Judy Nelon, Diane Pearson, Gregory E.l Seneff, and Rick Goodman, executive producer. The ceremony was taped by Trinity Broadcasting Network for future broadcast.
Luminate Releases Full Length
Tyler, Texas-based pop/rock band Luminate releases its first full-length national debut, Come Home, today from Sparrow Records. Already receiving widespread acclaim, the band may best be described as passionate, stirring and worshipful as Luminate’s songs express hope and encourage listeners to seek the redemptive purpose of God in their lives. Produced by Paul Moak, Ed Cash and Ben Glover, the band’s Come Home opens with the compelling lead radio single and title track that has received significant national and regional airplay, and includes “Healing In Your Arms,” which releases to radio Feb. 18. “This song focuses on my personal fear of failure; the fear of imperfection,” says Luminate lead vocalist Sam Hancock. “We are all created for a specific purpose and can’t let our regret or bitterness keep us from that purpose. No matter what we are struggling with or how the enemy tries to manipulate and attacks us, Christ can deliver us from any addiction, struggle, or sickness as we pursue our purpose in Him with a passion. There is healing in the arms of Christ.” The album continues with a set of worshipful, emotion-filled songs that draw from personal journeys of overcoming fear (“Hope Is Rising”), fighting apathy (“Innocent”) and finding hope, peace and purpose in Christ (“New Beginnings”). Formed organically in 2005, Luminate (meaning, to shine light into darkness) began non-stop touring with its first appearance at Cornerstone Festival in 2006. In 2007, the band met an A&R representative from Sparrow Records at the festival, which eventually led to Luminate signing with the label in March 2009. Having toured the country with well-established acts like Superchick and Sanctus Real, Luminate is gearing up for a spring 2011 tour with Big Daddy Weave and Chris Sligh.
©2011 HM Magazine All Rights Reserved
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