Front Line Assembly Forced To Cancel U.S. Tour

Metropolis recording artists FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY (FLA) regretfully are being forced to cancel their planned U.S. tour this Fall. “We have had too many problems putting the tour together, and the bottom line is if we can’t put on a good show for you the fans, then it’s just not worth it. We apologise to all of you,” says keyboardist/vocalist Bill Leeb.
fla masks Front Line Assembly Forced To Cancel U.S. Tour
Planned to begin on Oct. 31st and proceed straight through to the end of November, the tour would have been their first since 2007. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen and problematic issues, the band has instead opted to look forward and plan for 2011 to tour the U.S. in support their critically-hailed album Improvised. Electronic. Device.
Adds keyboardist Jeremy Inkel, “We are sorry to all the fans and promoters and we will do everything we can to make it happen next year.” The European tour is unaffected and will continue as planned.

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The Birthday Massacre Co-Headline Tour With Black Veil Brides

Hollywood’s standout theatrical rockers, Black Veil Brides and Toronto’s most visually stunning and musically exciting band, The Birthday Massacre (review HERE), will team up to melt faces across the United States on a twenty city co-headlining tour this fall. They’ll be making stops in Atlanta, Houston, Anaheim and Seattle. Currently headlining shows throughout the US on their “Entertainment or Death” tour, the Black Veil Brides are riding high on the success of their chart topping debut album, We Stitch These Wounds, which came in at #36 on the Billboard Top 200 and #1 on the Billboard Independent at the time of album’s release. Currently headlining a UK tour as well as a coming off a successful East Coast sweep, The Birthday Massacre have been reaping heaps of critical praise for their recently released fourth album Pins and Needles on Metropolis Records which debuted at #5 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart. Supporting acts on the tour will be Dommin and Aural Vampire.
Black Veil Brides was formed in 2006 when 15-year-old vocalist, Andy Six, began seeking players to create a vision of a modern day heavy metal band, combining the theatrics and passion of Misfits, Motley Crue, and Kiss, with lyrical content that pertains to the downtrodden outcasts of society. With a goal of bringing back the community and passion that was once so prevalent in rock and roll, he moved to LA in 2009 recruiting Ashley Purdy (bass), Jinxx (guitar), Jake Pitts (lead guitar), and Christian Coma (drums). With passionate hook-laden instrumentals and lyrics of hope and strength, Black Veil Brides quickly gained a dedicated following of fans averaging over 10,000 plays a day on the band’s MySpace and 13 million views of their first video for their single, “Knives and Pens”.

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Front Line Assembly Announce U.S. Tour

Metropolis recording artists FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY (FLA) are gearing up for a national tour, their first since 2007, to promote their critically-hailed new album IMPROVISED. ELECTRONIC. DEVICE. “We always look forward to a US tour,” says keyboardist Jeremy Inkel. “We consider North America our homeland, so to us, it’s very important to represent ourselves as best as we can. In consideration, all our musical aspiration’s were born over here, this is where we got our start.” Kicking off in Seattle, WA on October 31st, FLA will be circling around the continent with ANGELSPIT, Raggedy Angry and Unter Null supporting (tour dates below). “We’re quite excited [to tour],” adds keyboardist/vocalist Bill Leeb. “We feel we have grown as a band over the last four years. We really feel this new album will sound great live and can’t wait to get out there and be creative with it!”
Riding high on a crest of applause, the new album (often shortened to “I.E.D.”) has been described by Outburn Magazine as, “a collection of cohesive and adrenaline charged songs that maintains the complexities of the band’s best material.” FearNet says, “Through the years, there’s always been a memorable hook and infectious beat lurking in FLA’s dark textured atmospheres, like a sinister prize in every box… and this record is no exception.” NBC-TV chimed, “Pounding beats. Brooding and extremely dark lyrics. Metal guitars and some of the best production out there in the industrial genre. This is Front Line Assembly at the top of their collective game.”

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Album Review: The Birthday Massacre ‘Pins and Needles’

There are those that think some music falls under the category of ‘guilty pleasure listening’. I personally believe that NO music should be a guilty pleasure! Plant your feet, square your shoulders and let it be known that what you enjoy listening to is what you enjoy listening to, no excuses or reasons. I’m going to go public right now and say that I still blast out Aqua on occasion. Yes, the ‘Barbie Girl’ group. Am I ashamed? NOPE! Not at all! 
tbmpancover Album Review: The Birthday Massacre Pins and Needles
The reason for this diatribe is that I can easily see someone saying, in hushed whispers, that they listen to The Birthday Massacre. Well, if you check out my review after the jump, you’ll see if those hushed tones are necessary or not.

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The Birthday Massacre Debut Video For ‘In The Dark’

Undoubtedly one of the most visually stunning and musically exciting bands to grace the scene in a long time, THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE have unleashed the video for the first single “In The Dark” from their upcoming album Pins And Needles (release date: September 14, 2010 via Metropolis Records). Independently produced, directed, filmed and everything else needed to bring their unique, singular vision to the screen by the band, members of Rue Morgue, and their friends, the epically arresting video premiered at Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear that took place last weekend in Toronto. 

‘I LOVE this song. I love it, I love it, I love it,” says vocalist Chibi of the song. “The chorus gets inside my head and plays over and over. I love some of the bitterness of the lyrics here, but to such a pretty melody. To me this song is about how fragile we all are, and how callous some people can be, about how even if you’re with someone and technically you aren’t alone – that can still be one of the loneliest places.’

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Combichrist Announce ‘Monsters On Tour’

With the release of their fifth studio album Making Monsters coming on September 28, 2010, Metropolis recording artists Combichrist have announced dates for Monsters on Tour with support from Aesthetic Perfection and Ivardensphere. Tickets for the tour go on sale this weekend (tour dates below).
combichrist2 Combichrist Announce Monsters On Tour
Kicking off on November 3rd in New Orleans and circling around the States, this is the band’s first tour of the US after four months on the road supporting Rammstein in Europe. Combichrist’s much lauded and respected live shows are, as Crypt Magazine describes, “known for tons of energy, blood, and a rock n’ roll attitude.” BlogCritics also warns it’s “not for the faint of heart – you wouldn’t bring your grandmother to this show.”

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Combichrist Releasing ‘Making Monsters’ Sept. 28th

Metropolis recording artists Combichrist are gearing up for the release of Making Monsters on September 28, 2010. Recorded in Totprod Studios in Atlanta, GA and produced by Andy LaPlegua (also the mastermind behind the band), their fifth studio album takes the band beyond the aggressive techno and electro rhythms and propels them into much more primal and raw territory. “It’s beyond my personal demons, and extremely honest,” says LaPlegua.
combichristband Combichrist Releasing Making Monsters Sept. 28th
Kicking off with the ominous and foreboding “Declamation”, Making Monsters is a journey deep within the reaches of the mind of LaPlegua, who spent the last year, deep in introspection, as he toured four full months in Europe with Rammstein in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Diving deep into the darkest corners of his mind, he’s created an album devoid of pretension and conscious thought. Fueled by expressions of lust, anger, pain and hate, Making Monsters is the sound of LaPlegua ripping out his heart and plugging its still-beating deathkicks into his music, rife with hook-heavy choruses, speaker-crushing beats, and dark aggressive vocals. The first single “Never Surrender” is bound to rule the dance floors along with other floor stompers “They” and “Throat Full of Glass”. The baretoothed aggression of “Follow the Trail of Blood” (featuring Brendan Schiepatti of Bleeding Through) will immediately become a crowd favorite while the brooding “Through These Eyes of Pain” takes a much subtler approach and shows us another side of Combichrist, that of the man inside the monster.

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Electric Six To Release ‘Zodiac’ Sept. 28th

There are many things ELECTRIC SIX is known for: awesome singles (“Danger (High Voltage)”, “Gay Bar”, “Down At McDonnelzz”, “Formula 409″), awesome videos (“Body Shot”, “Synthesizer”), and a new album every September. And this year, Electric Six will not disappoint. Their seventh studio album “Zodiac” is due out on September 28, 2010 on Metropolis Records and marks a huge evolutionary step for the band. “I think Zodiac is the byproduct of putting out one record per year,” says vocalist Dick Valentine. “I think we keep ourselves so busy that we don’t spend a lot of time overanalyzing what we do. So when we happen to make a record that hits on all cylinders like this one, it’s immediately noticeable that we’ve taken a step forward.”
Without losing any of its trademark sardonic sense of humor and funk/dance rock core, Electric Six have crafted an album whose cohesion is evident from the first listen and one of which the band is especially proud. “Creating this album was a little different in that we consciously tried to go for the ‘Neil Diamond’ approach on a couple of the songs,” Dick explains, in reference to their songwriting, especially “Table and Chairs” and “I Am a Song”. “I think the rest of the album didn’t really veer from the methodology we have been using lately to make albums. It should be said that [lead guitarist] Johnny Na$hinal and Smogasbord wrote some of the best tracks on this record.”

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Veil Veil Vanish Announce Mini-East Coast Tour

San Francisco’s VEIL VEIL VANISH will be launching a quick East Coast tour to showcase tunes from their recently released and critically-acclaimed full-length debut, Change in the Neon Light on Metropolis Records. Named as one of Radio Free Silverlake’s ‘Bands to Watch in 2010′, the band blend atmospheric darkwave-tinged rock with grand pop hooks that make for an enthralling live experience. The band is also prepping the unveiling of their new video for the single “Change in the Neon Light” which will be in the next few weeks (more info soon!).
VVV Groupshot 2 Color Veil Veil Vanish Announce Mini East Coast Tour
Currently playing assorted dates on the West Coast, Veil Veil Vanish will be embarking for the East Coast, with a DJ set at NYC’s Home Sweet Home on June 16th to ease into their live shows, which begin the next day at Brooklyn’s Coco 66.

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Electric Six Announce New Album ‘Zodiac’

Okay, I have to say this right now: I love Electric Six. These guys are so much fun and are so catchy, I have trouble understanding those who can’t enjoy it. Plus, the video below is absolutely hilarious to me. Check it out and lemme know what you think!
Currently wrapping up production on their upcoming album titled ‘Zodiac’ (details forthcoming) slated for September 2010 release on Metropolis Recordings, Electric Six will be hitting the road this Summer, first with a handful of East Coast dates in July, including Hoboken’s Maxwell’s (July 14th) and NYC’s Rocks Off Concert Cruises (July 15th) and then launching their full-scale national routing in mid-September at Grand Rapids, MI’s The Intersection (Sept. 15th). Full tour dates are below.
Electric Six’s previous album ‘Kill’ enjoyed critical acclaim, including UK’s SPHERE Magazine (“[KILL] sounds like what would happen if Jamiroquai had a baby with Turbonegro and it was adopted by Chris Cornell, Mika and The Talking Heads”) to SPIN (“[KILL] crams Tenacious D, Prince, and 80′s metal into the same sweaty club”) to Rolling Stone (“… a saxed up, disco-metal epic”) and is one of Electric Six’s best records to date. PopShifter sums it up best when they opined, “you’ll be dancing your ass off from the first notes.”

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