Mad About Rock

  IRON MAIDEN’S highly anticipated EDDFEST weekend this summer has just got even bigger with the announcement that Blaze Bayley, who fronted the band from 1994 to 1999, will be headlining the Friday night Maidenville stage. He is the latest name to be revealed, as part of the all-encompassing celebration of IRON MAIDEN’s 50th Anniversary that will be taking place on the iconic Knebworth site. “I’m so excited to be invited to headline Friday night at EDDFEST, celebrating 50 years of Iron Maiden,” says Blaze. “I am so proud of my two albums with the band and I'm really looking forward to playing some of the songs that we recorded together. Can't wait to see you all at the hallowed grounds of Knebworth!” Fans can expect to hear Blaze Bayley and his band deliver a powerful set of songs from The X Factor and Virtual XI, the albums he released during his time as Iron Maiden’s lead singer. Blaze co-wrote some of the songs on those albums with band founder Steve Harris, and Friday ni...

  Following on from last years incredible and sold out (and probably best so far) 10th Anniversary event, the much loved and mighty award winning ARCTANGENT Festival returns this summer, and can today reveal another host of amazing acts for the event. To kick things off we have TWO more headliners for the festival. Firstly playing their first ever ATG are Norwegian band Wardruna, who will be bringing their Norse musical interpretations and traditions to the festival as our Wednesday night headliners. With this incredible band now in place, the Wednesday for this years Arctangent Festival will be its biggest ever, with more stages open to accomodate, but still no clashes! Then we have the brilliant UK prog rock band Tesseract, who will be returning to ATG and headlining the main stage on the Saturday this year, closing out an intense two year touring period of their album 'War Of Being'. Joining them include a group that were supposed to play in 2024 but ended up having to pull ...

  Scarborough, UK; 2.06.24: Agalloch are the first band to be announced for the 2025 edition of Fortress Festival. Taking place on the weekend of 31 May - 1 June 2025 at Scarborough Spa, Fortress Festival will be Agalloch’s first in the UK since the band’s reformation, the first in the UK since 2015 and the only European show for 2025. The first early bird tickets are on sale now and can be purchased via https://www.fortressfestival.co.uk/tickets Following a seven-year hiatus, Agalloch announced their return to live shows in 2023. Since their 1999 debut album, the band’s discography has defined what it means to combine influences from a variety of musical genres into one brooding, colossal, and cinematic sound that provides the soundtrack to existential themes concerning life, nature, loss, and death. One of the first to combine elements from black metal, neo-folk, progressive rock, post-rock, and ambient music, Agalloch have influenced countless of bands in black metal and beyond....

  2000trees Festival previously announced the headliners The Gaslight Anthem, The Chats and Don Broco plus 7 new bands The Sleeping Souls / Tigress / Blanket / The Hara / Mimi Barks / Seán McGowan / Nate Bergman. They have now shared a host of exciting information from Charity partners, the kids schedule, new food stalls, the expansion of the silent disco and more. THE CLASH FINDER IS OUT NOW We would love fans to share their schedules on social media so we can all find some must-see bands. Those sharing will have the chance to win VIP upgrades. 2000trees is the first festival to have a stage dedicated to live band sets via Silent Disco headphones every night to keep the party going late into the night after the headliners have finished. "We’re excited to be the first festival to have a stage dedicated solely to live acts performing via the silent disco every single night. There’s no better setting for it than our Forest Stage with some of the most exciting artists in UK ro...

  Wokingham Festival - Ozric Tentacles announced as headliners for Day 3! They appear alongside a lineup of great artists including That Joe Payne, The Paradox Twin, Amanda Lehmann, Storm Deva & more. Wokingham Festival has announced its three day line up featuring a wide range of musical genres including a showcase of some of the best current progressive music artists. Saturday 24th August to Monday 26th August 2024, Cantley Park, Wokingham, UK Taking place on Saturday, Sunday & Monday of the August Bank Holiday weekend with over 40 artists appearing, the festival has announced that the Monday line up on August 26th, which focuses on the best of prog & rock, will feature one of the most influential bands to emerge from the 1980’s festival scene, Ozric Tentacles as headliners. The band are the creative vision of multi-instrumentalist, Ed Wynne and their uniquely trippy soundscapes connect fans of progressive rock, psychedelia and dance culture. Ozric Tentacles released ...

  Continuing their efforts to LOUDLY COMBAT HOMELESSNESS and raise money for Shelter, UK Thrashers switch things up in 2024, taking a break from the annual compilation album that has so far raised over £6000 for the housing charity, 2024 will see the first Moshin’ The Roof On Festival…or MTROFEST for short! Hosted by The Hairy Dog (Derby) The day will be stacked with some of the best underground thrash talent with 12 bands, on the one main stage with absolutely NO CLASHES at the ridiculous low price of just £12 (plus booking fee) for early bird ticket buyers! TICKET LINK HERE MTROFEST Full Line Up We have already announced our festival headliners at the end of 2023, but for those that missed it Elimination will be bringing our day to a crushing end, with the other 3 bands announced – London 2022 M2TM winners Imperium, Sheffield Blackened Crossover from Sidewinder and London Underground favourites Fracture Point. We can now reveal the other 8 bands making up the HUGE line up... Firs...

  ARCTANGENT FESTIVAL can announce its first 2024 main stage headliner in the shape of the brilliant Meshuggah, who will headline on the Friday night. Also announced today, and joining them on the main stage on Friday night (playing just before them) are the incredible Animals As Leaders. These shows are UK (Meshuggah) and EU (AAL) exclusive to ATG for 2024. Taking place near Bristol between the 14th August and the 17th August, the festival will be celebrating its TENTH year in 2024, and has once again been shortlisted for Best Medium Festival at the Festival Awards (it won best small festival in 2018), and continues to bring together some of the most interesting, diverse, exciting and eclectic bills for any festival, anywhere in the world. From festival booker and organiser James Scarlett - "To celebrate our 10th Birthday we wanted to invite back some of our all-time favourite bands from over the years. We drew up a list of all the bands that have ever played ATG that we’d like ...

  In 2024, the mighty ARCTANGENT FESTIVAL will be celebrating its TENTH year, and today can reveal its first wave of bands for the event next summer, August 2024. Taking place near Bristol between the 14th August and the 17th August, ARCTANGENT FESTIVAL has once again been shortlisted for Best Medium Festival at the Festival Awards (it won best small festival in 2018), and continues to bring together some of the most interesting, diverse, exciting and eclectic bills for any festival, anywhere in the world. To kick things off we have Wednesdays headliner, the magnificent Belfast 4 piece And So I Watch You From Afar, who will be playing a very special, fan voted for set. The band (who incidentally also played the very first ever ARCTANGENT FESTIVAL), are a festival fan favourite, and one of the most requested repeat booking the festival has ever had. More details on how this will work to be announced soon but only 4-Day Ticket holders will be able to vote, so if you want to have you...

  2000trees Festival have announced the first main stage headliners for 2024, the incredible New Jersey-bred rock band THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM. Like so many of the most essential rock bands, THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM have a rare gift for finding glory in the inescapable pain of being alive. The four-piece bring their soulful breed of punk, exploring everything from mortality to mental illness to the more precarious dimensions of human connection. In the tradition of their seminal sophomore album The ’59 Sound, The Gaslight Anthem’s sixth, and forthcoming full-length, 'History Books' ultimately achieves the tremendous feat of hitting every raw nerve while endlessly inspiring wildly triumphant singing-along. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM will headline Thursday 11th July and is a UK Festival Exclusive. From 2000trees Festival booker, James Scarlett - "We’ve tried to book The Gaslight Anthem pretty much every year for the last 10 years, so we’re super stoked to have them joining us at Upcote Farm...

  South Wales based band De’Lour are today proud to share their new single ‘Guarded’. The five piece melodic melancholy band have blended a monumental offering of emotive yet heavy alternative rock with their new single. “We've all been guarded at some point in our lives, especially when the actions of others make you feel manipulated to the point that you hate the way you feel when you're around them. When you look back on these situations, you see the patterns so clearly, you understand the actions and come to the realisation that you'd been duped into being a person different from your true self.” - De’lour. Watch the official music video for ‘Guarded’ right here: To coincide with the release of ‘Guarded’ De’lour will be performing at this years Tech Fest on Thursday 29th June alongside Loathe, Conjurer, Hacktivist, Chelsea Grin and more. ‘Guarded’ follows the bands recent single ‘No One’ which saw De’lour supported by the likes of Planet Rock and Total Rock and saw th...

  With just 46 days to go to BLOODSTOCK, the countdown is ON! Tonight, Tuesday 27th June, sees festival directors Adam Gregory and Vicky Hungerford doing a Live Q&A via the festival’s Facebook and Instagram channels, answering punters' questions about this year’s event. Tune in at 7pm to get all the latest updates and maybe even win some prizes! The Metal 2 The Masses finals are nearly complete and another nine bands, the cream of the crop in each region, win a slot on 2023’s New Blood stage. Grabbing a Friday slot are Essex’s winners ARMS TO OBLIVION . Check out ‘Tequila Blues’ from the Ipswich groove metallers’ latest EP, ‘Defciylion’. Also appearing Friday are Bristol’s MOON REAPER UK , whose blackened death/doom sound is showcased via ‘Overlord’ , which was shot live at their M2TM semi final. Saturday’s bill will feature County Durham’s SWARMS whose fat riffs and heavy breakdowns won over the Newcastle heat’s masses. Watch for yourself via ‘Copperhead’ shot during their...

  With just 73 days left between now and festival weekend, things are hotting up at BLOODSTOCK HQ, especially on the New Blood front! With the Metal 2 The Masses finals well underway around the country, the winning band in each region is locking in and BLOODSTOCK is excited to share nine more lucky developing bands who’ll be performing on the New Blood stage at Catton Park this August. Winning the Leicester heat and grabbing a Friday slot are the progressive tech/death collective, VOIDWALKER . Familiarise yourself by checking out their 2022 track ‘Tar Stained Lips’ over at their Bandcamp page . The Manchester heat victors, the genre-twisting SQUARE WILD , won Prog Magazine’s ‘Best Unsigned Band’ poll last year. Watch their video for ‘Hounds’ and find out why. Also winning a Friday slot are the East Anglia final top dogs, URIDIUM . If you love your old school classic metal sound, these could be one for you. Check out ‘Fire & Lies’ taken from their debut EP, ‘In For The Kill’. ...