BURBANK, CA. (Top40 Charts/ ROCKSTAR ENERGY MAYHEM FESTIVAL) - In what's sure to be the hottest concert ticket of the summer, multi-platinum rock acts SLIPKNOT and DISTURBED will lead the first-ever ROCKSTAR ENERGY MAYHEM FESTIVAL, a riotous road show packed with some of hard music's most influential artists and a plethora of the genre's most exciting young voices. The tour is set to kick off July 9th at the White River Amphitheatre in Seattle and will hit 30 cities in the U.S. and Canada between early July and late August (a full itinerary will be announced in the coming weeks).
Joining Slipknot and Disturbed on the main stage will be DRAGONFORCE and MASTODON. In addition, the tour will have two second stages: one sponsored by Jagermeister and featuring SEVENDUST, AIRBOURNE, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, 36 CRAZY FISTS and the Jagermeister Battle of The Bands Winner. An additional second stage will feature MACHINE HEAD, BLACK TIDE, SUICIDE SILENCE, THE RED CHORD and WALLS OF JERICHO.
"This summer we are truly bringing Mayhem," says Corey Taylor from SLIPKNOT, who will close each show. "SLIPKNOT is excited to be a part of it, and to be able to bring the new chapter of our history to the masses. We are already working, building and designing a new show. We cannot wait. We cannot lose. Get ready for Mayhem!"
"We're really looking forward to being on the first Mayhem tour," adds DISTURBED vocalist David Draiman. "It's a great lineup, which should set a new standard for rock tours and we're excited to be a part of it!"
Adds Clown from SLIPKNOT, "The question is, are you ready for things to be real again?"
The Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival brings together the creative team that has founded many music tours including the highly successful Vans Warped Tour and the Worldwide Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour. Kevin Lyman, John Reese and CAA's Darryl Eaton have partnered again to bring fans the next great music festival juggernaut, which will be MAYHEM! Following the proven model of utilizing sponsorship to deliver a lower ticket price and an enhanced concert experience the tour organizers have joined forces again with ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK as the Title sponsor.
Live Nation is set to promote the festival nationally.
Jason Garner, Live Nation's CEO of North American Music said, "Kevin, John and Darryl are the undisputed experts in creating fan friendly touring festivals that break new bands. So it's very exciting for us to be working closely with them to build a new touring brand that can not only be a great attraction for hard music fans, but also a launching pad for new bands as well."
"We wanted to create a traveling hard music festival that puts the fans first," says Lyman. "We're offering attendees an incredible value, one that features great bands, a plethora of music-related activities and a full day of fun at a very reasonable price of entry."
Adds Reese, "The Vans Warped Tour and Rockstar Taste of Chaos tours have proven that fans will come in droves if you give them quality entertainment at a fair price. The bands on this Festival all kick major ass! We want attendees to go home and say, 'We can't wait for next year!'"
In addition to catching their favorite bands live, fans can take part in a number of festival activities, including playing the newest video games, perusing vendors, attending autograph signing sessions and a slew of other interactive activities that will add to the festival experience.
ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK will be sampling their products and providing great surprises for attendees. Additional sponsors include Jagermeister, HOT TOPIC and The DiNGSTORE.com (Device Personalization Company).
FUSE Television and Revolver Magazine (who will produce the Official Tour Program) have signed on as official Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival media partners. Additional sponsors will be announced soon.
"This festival will be our marquee music presentation for years to come," says Rockstar Energy Drink Marketing Director Mike Kelso. "We at Rockstar are excited to team up with our partners from Rockstar Taste of Chaos to launch an all-out summer tour that will blow you away!"
Adds Jagermeister Director of Strategic Marketing Rick Zeiler, "Jagermeister has long been looking for a tour like Mayhem. We have this beautiful new million-dollar Jagermeister Mobile Stage and see no better place to roll it out than Mayhem with some of the biggest rock and metal bands in the world. This tour has integrity, value and most importantly...loyalty! Working with Kevin Lyman and John Reese has been great."
Specific dates, cities and the tour's Internet pre-sale will be announced in the coming weeks. Fans can go to https://www.mayhemfest.com to keep up with details as they are released.
SLIPKNOT
Uncompromising. Intense. Chaotic. Unforgiving. Cathartic. Destructive. Dominant. These words barely scratch the surface in describing the multi-platinum, Grammy-Award winning hard rock enigma known as Slipknot. This groundbreaking nine-piece, born out of the desolate landscape of Des Moines, IA, have sold in excess of 10 million albums worldwide over the course of 3 studio albums. Their last studio album Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) was released in May 2004, debuting at No 2 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart and has sold over 1.5 million copies in the U.S. to date. The album broke new ground for the band, spawning a string of hit singles including "Duality," "Vermilion" and "Before I Forget." December 2006 saw the release of the DVD Voliminal: Inside the 9. Certified double-platinum, it's a vivid, brutally honest glimpse of the world inside the 'Knot. Slipknot, along with their maggots, has forged their own path on their own terms.
This isn't a band. This is a way of life.
DISTURBED
Known for their punishingly powerful music and socially conscious lyrics, Disturbed has sold a collective 9 million copies worldwide of their three albums - 2000's RIAA-certified triple-platinum The Sickness, 2002's Billboard album chart-topper Believe, and in 2005 their second consecutive number one debut on the Billboard charts, Ten Thousand Fists - since forming in Chicago in 1996. The band, which is singer David Draiman, guitarist Dan Donegan, drummer Mike Wengren and bassist John Moyer, will release their self-produced forthcoming album titled Indestructible on Reprise Records in May. Get ready for what the band calls "a little bit darker, really complex and furiously paced record."
DRAGONFORCE
DragonForce are the next generation of guitar heroes. The lead single, "Through The Fire And Flames," is the massively popular breakout track from Guitar Hero III. Thanks to the superhuman guitar wizardry and soaring vocals on their most recent album, the jaw-dropping Inhuman Rampage, the DragonForce buzz has erupted from the underground and has escalated to a deafening roar. Headline tours always sell out. Heads are consistently turned. New fans are immediately made. Radio reacts. Sales continue to go up. The appetite for DragonForce is insatiable, and so is the band's desire to dominate the US tour market. Guitar virtuoso Herman Li says, "It's great for us to be back after a 16 month absence from touring the U.S. The demand from fans for DragonForce to return has been overwhelming, so we're very excited to be part of the biggest tour of the summer. Get ready for some serious Mayhem on and off stage. Don't blink or you'll miss something!" It's time to experience all that DragonForce have to offer!
MASTODON
Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Mastodon have been critically acclaimed by almost every publication in the US and UK. "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" took note of this and put them on his show, which set a precedent and paved the way for more metal acts to be considered on NBC. Their Grammy nominated album, Blood Mountain, the group's third release, isn't just unconventional, it's surreal, progressive and unrepentantly heavy. Mastodon combined their favorite musical styles, including thrash, doom, prog and psychedelic metal to concoct something utterly original, undeniably devastating and irrefutably entrancing. The band might as well be from Texas as you don't want to mess with them!
MACHINE HEAD
With virtually no mainstream radio or video play whatsoever the San Francisco Bay Area's 2nd biggest metal band Machine Head have become one of the most credible and influential metal bands of all time, and their unique brand of bludgeoning metal has gone on to sell over 1.8 million records throughout the world. Recently nominated for a Grammy, Machine Head's latest album The Blackening was in the No 1 or top 5 "Album of the Year" spot in nearly every single metal magazine throughout the world, and shocked the mainstream press at the 2007 Kerrang! Awards ceremonies, where The Blackening was named "Album Of The Year" over My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy.
SEVENDUST
Sevendust are set to release their seventh studio album, Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow, April 1st, 2008. Hope & Sorrow was produced by Sean Groove, Morgan Rose & John Connolly in Atlanta, GA, at Tree Sounds Studios. The release will be their second on the band's wholly owned record label, 7Bros. Records through Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group. For the first time since Animosity (2001), the band has collaborated with outside artists. As the record gets finalized over the next few weeks, identities of the guest appearances will surface - Sevendust felt bringing in some outside friends added a healthy dynamic for the project. Additionally, the band has signed on new management and feels like is a fresh new beginning for 2008!
BLACK TIDE
Fresh off their now legendary Ozzfest stint, Avenged Sevenfold dates and a forthcoming tour with All That Remains, Black Tide are set to take the world by storm with their debut album Light From Above, produced by Johnny K (Disturbed, Staind). Revolver Magazine dubbed them the "Future of Metal" and Spin called them "a combination of Megadeth riffage, Metallica brutality, and Guns N' Roses melodicism." They not only embrace the charisma, character and unwavering attitude of those who shredded before them, but they do so in a manner that would make the virtuosos that inspired them proud. Black Tide is not only bringing music back from the dead, but they're returning the power to metal. The meltdown is long overdue.
WALLS OF JERICHO
Detroit's hardest, Walls Of Jericho, have been described as "Murderous Metal-core" by Alternative Press in their recent feature for the "Most Anticipated 2008" issue. With Candace Kucsulain, who is arguably the most energetic and courageous front-woman in all of metal and a twin guitar attack, Walls Of Jericho have won over audiences worldwide. WOJ have an EP due out Spring 2008 produced by and featuring Corey Taylor (Slipknot), and a new album due Summer 2008. Other recent touring credits include Ozzfest 2006, Family Values 2006 as well as Devil Driver, Stone Sour, Unearth, Bullet For My Valentine, and Mastodon.
36 CRAZYFISTS
After three critically acclaimed records, 36 Crazyfists switches labels to Ferret Music for their new album, The Tide and Its' Takers due out April 29th, 2008. Still the only hard rock band to build a career from Alaska, 36 Crazyfists has built an international following by doing extensive touring around the world from appearing on the mainstage of UK's Download Festival, to a sold-out European/UK and Australian tour with co-headliners Atreyu. 36 Crazyfists is poised to finally break the US market with the new album produced by guitarist Steve Holt and mixed by legendary hard rock mixer Andy Sneep.
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH
Five Finger Death Punch has been pummeling audiences since the release of their critically acclaimed debut album, The Way of the Fist. With their hit single "The Bleeding" pulverizing the Active rock charts and MTV2's Headbanger's Ball, the album has been called a "Cowboys from Hell for this millennium (Outburn)." The band has already toured with the likes of Korn, Hellyeah, Flyleaf, Trivium, and Atreyu in the short time since their album debuted in the Billboard Top 200. Five Finger Death Punch features an all-star gang of musicians, including vocalist Ivan Moody (formerly of Motograter), Darrel Roberts (W.A.S.P.) and Zoltan Bathory (UPO). This summer audiences will see why Metal Edge calls Five Finger Death Punch "the sound of violent exhilaration, giving contemporary metal a belligerent shove in an exciting direction."
SUICIDE SILENCE
Suicide Silence's rise through the ranks of extreme metal saw them headline full-scale tours in both the US & UK in the Summer/Fall of 2006 while still an unsigned band. Upon finally finding a home with Century Media Records, the band's debut full-length impacted the Billboard 200 at No 94 cementing them as the highest selling debut artist in Century Media history. According to Revolver Magazine, "The Cleansing was well worth the wait" and as the band continues to shatter the boundaries of conventionality with a uniquely devastating live show & rigorous commitment to touring, it comes as no surprise that Suicide Silence has been cited by Alternative Press as one of the 100 bands you need to know about in 2008.
AIRBOURNE
"Stand Up For Rock n' Roll."
It is as clear a statement of intent as you're ever likely to hear. One verse that says everything you need to know about Melbourne, AU four piece Airbourne and their debut album, Runnin' Wild: forget your worries, get down to the front of the stage and lose your mind to some ear-bleeding, sweat-soaked rock 'n'roll. Or, as the song continues, "Drink your beer/Drink your wine/Let's have a good time." Stand up for rock n' roll indeed. From the album's fist-pumping title track to the anthemic "What's Eatin' You" and the self-explanatory rock explosions of "Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast" and "Diamond In The Rough," Runnin' Wild is an exercise in booze-and-sweat soaked rock n' roll that isn't looking to change the world by abolishing Free Trade, but simply provide the ultimate soundtrack to the biggest all-night rock party there is.
THE RED CHORD
The Red Chord have been crafting intriguing heavy music since their independent debut Fused Together in Revolving Doors in 2002. Combining elements of grindcore, death metal and hardcore, that release established them as one of the premier Massachusetts extreme metal acts. In 2005, Metal Blade released the follow-up Clients, a tortured concept album about mental patients, drug addicts, the homeless, the desperate and downtrodden. While they decimated crowds worldwide touring with the likes of Gwar, High On Fire, Unearth, Every Time I Die and Hatebreed, as well as stints on Ozzfest 2006 and Sounds of the Underground 2005, Clients established The Red Chord as innovators in the burgeoning underground metal scene. By staying away from the cliche trappings that crippled some of their contemporaries, 2007's Prey For Eyes hit Metal Maniacs' "Critics Picks" Top 10 Albums of 2007, Revolver's Top 20 Albums of 2007 and Decibel's Top 40 Albums of 2007, further solidifying The Red Chord as a force at the top of their game.
