Back before their show at the Ritz last year, we interviewed lead singer Vincent Bennett just as the Massachusetts based Acacia Strain was road testing material for their new album. That album ended up becoming Continent. Released back in August, it is the band's fourth full length, and best selling, record to date. Continent reached #2 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart (#105 overall) and the band has been touring extensively since.

The album is another step in a brutal and violent sounding direction that the metal band has forged since debuting in 2002. The tracks on the new record seem to have a nod to 80s action movie culture, with tracks titled “Skynet” and “Balboa Towers,” in which crushing riffs and singer Bennett’s vocals take center stage. Finishing the record is perhaps the band’s most challenging and technical track, titled “The Behemoth,” which sounds like nothing else on the record.

The band is currently preparing their first live DVD, which will chronicle the band on the road and their exploits. The DVD is due out sometime later in the year. But before the DVD comes out, the Acacia Strain is out on a major tour with Bleeding Through which will run through April 5^th. After that is a European tour run that will have them overseas until June. But before all of that, the band will hit Detroit with Bleeding Through when they come to the Majestic Theatre this Tuesday, March 17^th. Yep, instead of listening to ol’ Irish folk at one of the sure to be busy watering holes around town, do St. Patrick Day’s metal style, with the Acacia Strain destroying the stage before Bleeding Through.

The Acacia Strain will open for Bleeding Through this Tuesday, March 17^th at the Majestic Theatre. Tickets are $15 and are available at www.ticketmaster.com. Additional dates can be found at www.myspace.com/theacaciastrain.

Following the success of their 2006 album, Still Searching, the New Jersey based band Senses Fail toured relentlessly behind that album. Being the hardworking band that they are, the boys in Senses Fail can’t stay off the road for too long. The band spent most of 2008 writing and recording their new album Life Is Not A Waiting Room.
October 2008 brought the release of that new album, and picked up right where Still Searching left off on the album charts. Life debuted at #18 on the Billboard charts and continues the success of the previous record. Much like with the chart debut, Life keeps a similar vibe to Still Searching in lyrical content and musicianship. Tracks like “Family Tradition” and the hard charging “Wolves at the Door” show off strong riffs from guitarists Garrett Zablocki and Heath Saraceno. Lead singer Buddy Nielsen’s voice continues to be the heart and soul of the band, with his sometimes heart wrenching lyrics adding the emotional kick the album delivers.
Life is the debut for bassist Jason Black from the band Black Water Music, who replaces bassist Mike Glita, who went to form his own band last year. After a fall tour with Dance Gavin Dance, Senses Fail is now out on a more high profile tour with Hollywood Undead and Haste the Day. The “Saints and Sinners” tour may deliver a slightly unusual bill, but all three bands share many fans and should mesh very well together. But as Hollywood Undead are just starting on their days on the road, they can learn some things from the road warriors in Senses Fail as they bring their blend of punk and hardcore on tour near you.

Senses Fail plays on the Saints and Sinners Tour, coming to Clutch Cargo’s on Sunday, March 15^th. Tickets are $20 and are available at www.ticketmaster.com. Additional dates can be found at www.sensesfail.com.

2008 was just the beginning of successes that the L.A. based hard rock outfit Hollywood Undead had. Their debut record, Swan Songs debuted at #22 and is surging back towards its previous high, with the album sneaking back into the Top 40 right after the first of the year. The band is gearing up as major headliners with the “Saints and Sinners Tour” with Senses Fail that kicked off in February. I had a chance to interview Da Kurlzz from Hollywood Undead and discussed the origins of the songs on Swan Songs and how iTunes has helped push sales of the record. Here’s my interview with Da Kurlzz:

MyCityBuzz: Swan Songs has been out since September, has it met your expectations at this point?

Da Kurlzz: Not yet, I think it’s still to be decided at this point. We feel things are going well and we have met other people’s expectations. But I think we still have a ways to go before if we know if we met our own expectations or not. When we started the band in June of 2005, J. Dog & Deuce (founders of HU) put this thing together. We just decided to run with and see what happened and its gotten us to this point.

MCB: Was there a particular moment in the band’s evolution that spawned the track “Undead?”

DK: I don’t think there was one single moment that inspired the song. J. Dog & Deuce were the primary writers of the song and when the song was written, I think the guys were just trying to figure out what was going on with the band, and what this band was going to become. There was a lot of uncertainty going on during that time, people being broke and it frustrated us. I think the lyrics in the song explain the mood very well.

MCB: With the songs “No. 5” and “Everywhere I Go”, it sounds like you guys are taking tongue in cheek shots at the silliness of the L.A. scene- am I safe to assume that?

As I was making my way back from Pittsburgh, I had to pull off to the side of the road for an interview with New York rapper Ill Bill. After years of doing his solo thing, Bill is joining with his old friends, Everlast, Danny Boy and DJ Lethal (yes, House of Pain) to form a new group called La Coka Nostra. Before their album is released and their tour with the Kottonmouth Kings started, I had a chance to talk with Bill and discuss how the idea for LCN came up, their place in the hip-hop world and ways how to record an album more effectively. Here’s my interview with Ill Bill:

MyCityBuzz: How did you end up hooking up with the former House of Pain guys for the new project?

Ill Bill: We’ve been mutual friends for a long time and we figured it was just a matter of time before we did something together. We started recording with the idea of maybe doing a song for a mixtape or compilation type of thing, but the momentum kept building. It went from a song to a few songs to a full album, so it's been good to see it build up like that.

MCB: How well do you think your flow and style mixes with the other guys?

IB: I think it’s a pretty easy going style overall. In the way we spit out rhymes and vocals, the styles are very distinct and own type of way in which we express ourselves, but we mesh pretty well with each other.

MCB: Were there any topics you needed to get out on this record?

A few days ago, just as he was about to head out to a gig, I had a chance to chat with up and coming singer/songwriter Justin Nozuka. The 20-year-old Toronto native has been starting to make some noise with his debut album Holly and is now cruising around the U.S., alongside Missy Higgins, in support of the record. Justin and I discussed finding success at a young age, not getting involved with a major label and his unusual musical journey. Here’s my interview with Justin:

MyCityBuzz: Have you been surprised at the initial reaction to the touring and success of the album?
Justin Nozuka: You know, I’ve been working on this album for three years- so it’s been a bit long term and spread out, but it's been good. In that time, I’ve been able to put together a group of guys in a band that I’m comfortable with and fortunate to be in the position that I’m in right now.

MCB: Being younger and in the industry, do you find it difficult to keep grounded?

The Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour has always been a way for fans of punk and hardcore music to get a chance to see their favorite bands during the late winter/early spring months, avoiding having to wait until the Warped Tour comes around during the summer. The last couple of years, the tour has sold pretty well locally in its shows at Cobo Arena in Detroit, but organizers knew with the collapse of the economy that the tour had to scale back in order to survive. This year the tour has moved back into clubs, but is still giving fans a healthy dose of bands on the rise. Here are the bands that will be hitting the stage at St. Andrew’s this upcoming Tuesday (March 10^th) as part of the Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour 2009:

Thursday: As the guys in the New Jersey based Thursday are pushing the age of 30, they’ll probably be considered the old timers on the bill. One of the quintessential and first emo bands, Thursday scored some major success with their 2004 album War All The Time when the album reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Album Chart. After a turbulent recording deal with Island Records, the band has moved to Epitaph Records for the release of their new record Common Existence. The new album was released back on February 17^th and is widely considered to find the roots of the band that has influenced many of the bands on this year’s bill.
Four Year Strong: The Massachusetts based band is currently working on some new material and should have the follow-up to 2007's Rise Or Die Trying sometime later this year.
Bring Me The Horizon: Supposedly stealing their band name from something Johnny Depp said in Pirates of the Caribbean, these young Brits are starting to make some noise in the metal circuit. Their single for “The Comedown” is all over satellite radio and the band has spent considerable time here in the States since the September 2008 release of Suicide Season.
Pierce The Veil: This long time San Diego band hardcore band has been on the circuit a while now and plans on releasing their follow up to their 2007 record during the summer. The band is also planned to be out on the Warped Tour later this summer.
Cancer Bats: If I could vote for one band to go see on this tour- this is it. The Toronto based punk/metal fusion came out with the insane Hail Destroyer record last year. The band can go through all out thrash moments, to groove/stoner rock all within moments on the record. Definitely an album and band worth checking out.
The Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour hits St. Andrew’s Hall this Tuesday (March 10^th). Tickets are $21.50 and are available at www.livenation.com. Additional dates can be found at www.tasteofchaos.com.

When the Nashville based band Framing Hanley’s album The Moment came out in 2007, the band received some airplay, but was stuck in the sea of up and coming hard rock bands trying to make it big. What a difference a re-release of the album and a quite surprising cover of a major hip-hop song will do for a band?
With their cover of Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop,” the band has stormed the charts for the first time. Their superior cover over the original (yes, wasn’t crazy about the original) gave the band their first Top 100 Pop and Top 20 Modern Rock hit and began to get them on most rock fans radar. The song and its hook up heavy video helped catapult the album into the Top 200 Albums for the first time and has hung out in the upper reaches Heatseekers Chart on Billboard for the past 4 months.

But now that “Lollipop” has peaked, it's time to check out other songs from The Moment that may burn up radio as well. Songs like “Count Me In” and “Wave Goodbye” showcase lead singer Ken Nixon’s growing and soaring vocals, with the occasional furious wails that give the album a bit of variety.

The band is making its way through Michigan this week on a tour that seems endless at this point, which takes them from at least April. The band plays the Machine Shop in Flint before a Friday night (March 6^th) at the Crofoot Ballroom. Framing Hanley is quickly becoming road warriors of the hard rock circuit and there’s no better time than now to see one of the up and comers in the rock scene.

Framing Hanley plays the Crofoot Ballroom this Friday (March 6^th). Tickets are $9.89 and are available at www.ticketweb.com. Additional dates can be found at www.myspace.com/framinghanley.

Now that the Austin based band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead is free from their contract with Interscope Records, they wasted no time in releasing their new record, The Century of Self, back on February 17^th. After a stellar debut album Source, Tags and Codes back in 2004, the art rock band received so-so reviews for their next two records and fans of the debut records thought the releases seemed a bit polished and overproduced at times. With The Century of Self, the band aimed to get back to their roots in a sense. For the first time since Source, the band learned to play the tracks live and recorded it that way, without the luxury of overdubs and other studio magic.

The effort the band put into the new record shows Tracks like “Far Pavilions” and “Ascending” show the fury and raw power that Trail of Dead showed in their debut. The artsier moments on the record show a pensive side of the band on cuts like “Bells of Creation” and “Pictures of an Only Child.” It is a back to basics return for a band that showed a lot of promise on their debut.

The band is feverishly moving across the country in support of the new record. The band is using lead singer Conrad Keely’s visual elements and artwork as backdrops for the set as well. Trail of Dead’s tour wraps on March 24^th, and then its off to Europe from nearly two months worth of dates there. But before that, the band hits Pontiac as it plays the ever intimate Pike Room at the Crofoot on Thursday, March 5^th. It will be a great chance to check out the resurgence of this great band.

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead play at the Pike Room at the Crofoot on Thursday, March 5^th. Tickets are $15 and are available at www.ticketweb.com. Additional dates can be found at www.myspace.com/trailofdead.

As we all know, the city of Seattle has offered more than its fair share of musical history over the past 20 years. The early and mid 90s offered up plenty of bands from the Emerald City and hundreds of bands copying the Seattle style. But a new breed of bands have come out of the area and carry the fire and passion of those artists but deliver a far more raw approach to their music than those 90s bands did at their peak of success.

One of those bands is the prog-hardcore band These Arms Are Snakes. Since their debut in 2003 out of the ashes of the fellow hardcore group Botch, TAAS has developed a sound that varies between atmospheric prog-metal and all out edgy punk. Lead by Steve Snere, the band has leaned in an even more raw direction with their new album “Tail Swallower and Dove.” With the production value of drummer Chris Common bringing a far more direct and in your face approach to the music, TAAS may have put out their most complete work to date. With tracks like “Red Line Season” and “Prince Squid,” TAAS has developed an eerie yet intricate styling that gives the album a bit more urgency than past recordings.
These Arms Are Snakes are currently out on the road in support of the Tail Swallower album. The extensive headlining tour ends at the end of March, and even includes a mid-March stop in Austin for the South by Southwest Festival. But a few weeks before that, the band heads to Detroit, when it headlines a March 2^nd show at the Magic Stick. It’s gonna be a good chance to see the new and fierce music coming out of Seattle these days.

These Arms Are Snakes are headlining at the Magic Stick on Monday, March 2^nd. Tickets are $8 and are available at www.ticketmaster.com. Additional dates can be found at www.myspace.com/thesearmsaresnakes.

Not many bands can say that their first tour was on the main stage at OzzFest, but for Miami based band Black Tide , they can proudly say they were christened by the beer drinkers and hell raisers and lived to tell about it. At the time (Ozzfest 2007), the teenagers ranged from 14 to 18 years old and put together riffs and vocals well beyond their years.
A few years have gone by and the guys in the band are getting a bit older and moved beyond the initial shock of performing with bands twice their age (and in some cases, older than that) and have seen themselves become more comfortable with their stage presence on each tour.
Lead by 16-year-old Gabriel Garcia, Black Tide is out in support of their Light From Above album , released last March. The riffs and the attitude on the songs are far more vivid and mature than most of the high school kids that start hard rock bands. Precision riffs on cuts like the hit rock track “Shockwave” and “Warriors Of Time” prove that the band is ready to carry the hard rock flag for the foreseeable future.
On Light From Above, the band pays homage to metal legends Metallica with a very faithful cover of “Hit The Lights.” And hearing the band live, you can hear lead singer Garcia’s voice growing much stronger and confident with every tour.
After a high profile stint at the Rock on the Range festival last May, the band is back out on the road in support of the album. They are currently on tour with Las Vegas band Escape the Fate through the middle of March, before heading to Japan to open shows for Trivium. But before that, the band will be at the Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac this Saturday (February 28^th) with Escape The Fate. Most of the kids in the crowd can learn a lesson, or a riff or two from watching Black Tide shred out this weekend.

Black Tide will open for Escape the Fate at the Crofoot Ballroom this Saturday, February 28^th. Tickets are $15 and are available at www.ticketweb.com. Additional dates can be found at www.blacktidemusic.com.