Bullet For My Valentine

The organisers of Europe’s biggest rock and metal festival, Download, have earned a reputation for booking seemingly impossible bands in the past. After bringing Guns n Roses back from the dead, getting the ominous and elusive Tool to headline on two separate occasions and catching Dillinger Escape Plan on their farewell tour, Download has built a solid reputation in its near 20 year lifespan. But, the organisers are finding themselves under mounting pressure with every passing year due to a seeming rinse and repeat attitude towards the main headliners. 

Download Festival - Photo credit, Myung Jung Kim, PA Images.

Download Festival is now a global franchise which has extended its influence to France, Spain, Australia and several other nations, but the sacred ground of Donnington remains its spiritual home. Given the setting and size of this event, Download should have the power to attract almost any rock band in the world. Yet, they repeatedly fall back on the same old bands such as Kiss, System of a Down, Slipknot, Rammstein, Def Leppard, Ozzy Osborne and Iron maiden to fill their headliner slots, while simultaneously blocking newer acts from proving to the world that rock isn’t dead. 

Continue reading: Download Festival: 10 Bands That Are Ready To Headline

With the three headliners already announced, the first of the remaining line-up of acts have now been announced for Download Festival 2018, with Marilyn Manson leading the new announcements at next summer's Donington Park spectacle. Don't forget to grab tickets while you can because we expect they'll sell out quickly.

Marilyn Manson at the 'King Arthur' premiere

Download returns to Leicestershire, UK once again on June 8th 2018 for three days of the best rock 'n' roll in the world. It's now been revealed that joining stellar headliners Avenged Sevenfold, Guns N' Roses and Ozzy Osbourne are the likes of shock rocker Marilyn Manson, Bullet For My Valentine and Parkway Drive.

Continue reading: Marilyn Manson And Bullet For My Valentine Join Download Festival 2018 Line-Up

A Week In Albums... Vampire Weekend have been getting some much deserved props for their comeback LP, Modern Vampires Of The City and our man Jim Pusey was more than happy to join in the chorus of praise. Marking the group's second US Billboard number one charting album to-date - not to mention their best selling first week effort - Modern Vampires... looks like it's only going to set the indie rockers onto greater things. Pusey commented: "While it's an album that may struggle to repeat the phenomenal commercial success of Vampire Weekend's debut, I'd argue in the long run there's more to love on Modern Vampires. It's not just because the band's affection for New York seeps through every pore of the record, but also because sonically it's a far more interesting album. If this is indeed the end to a trilogy of records, Vampire Weekend have set themselves an extremely high bar to reach for the next chapter of their career."

Collaborator-happy party bringers Major Lazer have returned with a new album in the form of Free The Universe. A record that does little to change the act's sound, it doesn't necessarily need to, says Andy Peterson, with the array of people brought on board, including - there he is again - Ezra from Vampire Weekend, Peaches and Wyclef Jean, meant to enhance the party not the sound evolution. Peterson writes, "At times it's fair criticism that the formula isn't saying anything new, but the main objective here is far less about innovation but instead about being what it is; a no-nonsense party record made to be turned up to eleven and put on after twelve. Righteous."

Continue reading: A Week In Music - Vampire Weekend Album Is Tops, Daft Punk Break Records, Kelly Rowland Breaks Down

Teen rockers the world over will be overjoyed to learn that Bullet For My Valentine are releasing their fourth studio album. The Welsh band are arguably one of the most successful metal bands of their generation, though they may not be winning over too many new fans with Temper Temper. The band decided to write the album in the recording studio, rather than taking pre-written songs with them, as they had done before. The result, however, has fallen flat, for many critics. It seems that the rage and fiery emotion you’d expect (especially with song titles such as ‘Breaking Point’ and ‘Riot’) isn’t quite as prominent as we have come to expect.

Their last two albums, Scream Aim Fire (2008) and Fever (2010) were both top five hits in the US and in the UK and its likely that the band’s fiercely loyal, young contingent of fans will stand by them, regardless of the opinions printed in UK papers such as The Guardian.

Watch Bullet For My Valentine discussing Temper Temper

Continue reading: Out Now - US Album Releases - Bullet For My Valentine Fall Short With Temper Temper, Is Darwin Deez Trying Too Hard? P*ssed Jeans Return With Brutal Fourth Release

Holy Fire is the third album from Foals and if the lead single ‘Inhaler’ is anything to go by, it will almost inevitably build the fanbase that they have cemented for themselves with their first two albums, Antidotes and Total Life Forever. The Oxford-born band have retained their experimental, post-rock tendencies, yet their songs now have a serious air of ambition about them.

Reviews thus far have been positive, with The Guardian’s Michael Hann describing it as “an album by a British guitar band who want to win a huge audience without writing chantalongs for the drinkers’ crowd, or lowest-emotional-common-denominator piano ballads.” High praise indeed and backed up by a solid 9/10 from NME’s reviewer, who gives Yannis’ new ‘feelings laid bare’ approach a thumbs up.

Watch the video for 'Inhaler' by Foals

Continue reading: Out Now - UK Albums Releases - Foals Get Ambitious With 'Holy Fire,' Richard Thompson Gets 'Electric' And Bullet For My Valentine Fail To Deliver On 'Temper Temper'