Death Angel is a band hailing from Daly City which, if you don’t know where it is, is right below San Francisco. Originally formed in the 80s they were one of the cornerstones of Bay Area thrash metal accompanied by names like Exodus and Testament. Speaking of Testament and Exodus they’ll be touring Europe alongside Death Angel on the aptly named “The Bay Strikes Back” tour next year.

This is part of the Humanicide tour and is actually marked as their Christmas shows.

Their latest album, Humanicide, was released earlier this year in May. If you’re looking for some solid thrash goodness give it a whirl. There’s some good grooves going on too with songs like “Revelation Song” and “The Day I Walked Away.”

Here’s the dates for the whole tour including past dates. If you’re not in San Francisco take a look; you might be in luck.

11/16 Seattle, WA – Club Sur
11/17 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
11/18 Vancouver, BC (CA) – Rickshaw Theater
11/19 Edmoton, AB (CA) – Starlite
11/20 Calgary, AB (CA) – Dickens
11/21 Regina, SK (CA) – Saskatchewan
11/22 Winnipeg, MB (CA) – Pyramids
11/23 St Paul, MN (CA) – The Amsterdam
11/25 London, ON (CA) – London Music Hall
11/26 Toronto, ON (CA) – Lee’s Place
11/27 Montreal, QC (CA) – Fousfounes Electriques
11/28 Ottawa, ON (CA) – Brass Monkey
11/29 Quebec City, QC (CA) – L’Anti Bar & Spectacles
11/30 Brooklyn, NY – Saint Vitus

12/1 New Bedford, MA – Vault @ Greasy Luck
12/3 Lancaster, PA – Chameleon
12/4 Baltimore, MD – Otto Bar
12/5 Richmond, VA – Canal Club
12/6 Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
12/7 Tampa, FL – Brass Mug
12/8 Orlando, FL – Shovelhead Live
12/10 Lafayette, LA – Grant Street
12/11 Houston, TX – Scout Bar
12/12 Austin, TX – Come and Take It Live
12/13 Dallas, TX – Tree’s
12/14 Tulsa, OK – The Shrine
12/15 Enid, OK 927 – Event Center
12/17 Albuquerque, NM – Launch Pad
12/18 Mesa, AZ – Club Red
12/19 West Hollywood, CA – The Whisky

12/20 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
12/21 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s

Demons and Wizards just uploaded the music video for “Diabolic” off the new album. Take a look.

The main attractions for me are the concerts for Roselia and Raise a Suilen from BanG Dream. If you aren’t into the parent company, Bushiroad, or their other franchises you can probably skip showing up until late in the day. The concerts are each day at 6pm so get there by 5pm and you should be good to go. CharaExpo as a whole will be open from 10am onwards so if you’re into burning some time looking at new things feel free to show up earlier. It’s standing room only if you don’t buy a bunch of merch but knowing idol fans you’d have to get there at a ridiculous time like midnight if you want a shot.

CharaExpo takes place on 12/7-8

Tickets go on sale on Friday. Chicago is at 8am PST and LA at 10am PST. Set your clocks!

Sadly they still haven’t played in America but if you’re in Europe you’ve had plenty of luck. They just finished up a tour in support of Dragonforce where they gained quite a bit of attention and they deserve it.

Look forward to it and our upcoming review!

It might seem a little crazy for some to fly somewhere just for a concert but I’ve been doing that quite a bit in America and being that Love Live Festival is for the ninth anniversary it’ll be another nine before this come around again and that assumes the Love Live project is still going by then.

Packages are now more limited and you can apply for the two day full course, day one only, or day two only.  For the two day package solo it’s a little north of $800 which is the tickets for two days and 3 days of hotel arrangements.

The application period is open until 10/28/19.  Please visit https://entame.knt.co.jp/tour/2020/01/lovelivefes/en/ for details and to apply.

You’re in luck because Amon Amarth is coming to San Francisco. They’re touring alongside Arch Enemy, At the Gates, and Grand Magus.

This is their Berserker World Tour and they’ll be stopping by San Francisco on 10/25 which is the second to last show of the tour (Los Angeles on 10/26 being the finale). The tour is in support of the album of the same name which was released back in May this year. If you’ve been listening to Amon Amarth for a while then this should be right up your alley. If you haven’t just think death metal but with Vikings which are naturally metal as fuck.  The Warfield is one of the best venues in San Francisco and while it has a very limited floor GA section it has a great view from the top balcony.

I’ve seen Arch Enemy quite a few times (even got my car stolen at one of their shows a few years back) so both Amon Amarth and Arch Enemy are the draws of this tour for me.

9/26 Seattle, WA – Showbox Sodo
9/27 Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
9/28 Vancouver, BC (CA) – PNE Forum
9/30 Edmonton, AB (CA) – Edmonton Convention Center
10/1 Calgary, AB (CA) – Grey Eagle
10/3 Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
10/4 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
10/6 Minneapolis, MN – Skyway Theater
10/7 Chicago, IL – The Riviera Theatre
10/9 Toronto, ON (CA) – Rebel
10/10 Montreal, QC (CA) – M-Telus
10/12 New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
10/13 Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore
10/15 Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore
10/16 Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
10/18 New Orleans, LA – The Fillmore
10/19 Houston, TX – House of Blues
10/20 San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theater
10/22 Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
10/23 Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
10/25 San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
10/26 Los Angeles, CA – The Palladium

If for whatever reason you’ve never heard of Sabaton, they are a band that sings about battles. Why battles? Because as Joakim once said long ago (and I’m paraphrasing), “if we’re going to sing about war, we might as well sing about real events.” To be clear, Sabaton should not be thought of glorifying war. It is more that these are things that should not be forgotten. To date they have mainly stuck the events of the past coming as recent as the Vietnam War. There’s been a few forays into the modern era as in Desert Storm but nothing closer than that. There will be plenty of stories to tell when that time comes and I’d be surprised if we didn’t see anything involving the horse soldiers of Task Force Dagger or the story of John Chapman amongst many others.

I’ve seen Sabaton in tiny venues like Thee Parkside and bigger ones like The Warfield and the UC Theater and they have never disappointed me. I’m looking forward to participating in the first-song ritual of “Ghost Divison.”

In April the band released a collaboration song between the video games World of Warships and Azur Lane called “Bismarck” which is about the titular German battleship Bismarck of World War II. The song was released as a standalone single.

Their latest album, The Great War, was released earlier this year in July. Check out my thoughts here.

As the tour is named “The Great Tour” expect a number of songs from this album plus many others from previous albums. Sabaton also has plenty of staple songs that it will be surprising to not hear 40:1, Night Witches, Shiroyama, Winged Hussars, Carolus Rex, or Primo Victoria.

If you’ve seen Sabaton you know what to expect. If you haven’t this is a great chance for you to see what everyone’s talking about. Sabaton’s live shows are high-energy affairs where everyone around you seems to know the words (and in many cases that’s accurate). You’ll be swept up by the emotion of the crowd. Learning about history accompanied by metal is as good a way to do things as I can think of. For the current generations who sometimes forget what has come before it’s to their benefit to listen to this band.

Here’s the full tour listing:

10/4 Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
10/5 Tampa, FL – Janus Landing
10/6 Atlanta, GA – Center Stage
10/8 Dallas, TX – House of Blues
10/10 Phoenix, AZ – Van Buren
10/11 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
10/12 San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom
10/14 Portland, OR – Roseland Ballroom
10/15 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
10/16 Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theater
10/18 Edmonton, AB – Union Hall
10/19 Calgary, AB – The Palace Theater
10/21 Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
10/23 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
10/25 Minneapolis, MN – Skyway Theater
10/26 Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
10/27 Cleveland, OH – The Agora Ballroom
10/29 Toronto, ON – The Danforth Music Hall
10/30 Montreal, QC – M Telus
11/1 Worcester, MA – Palladium
11/2 New York, NY – PlayStation Theater
11/3 Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore

Guilty pleasure? I don’t know about guilty but definitely a pleasure.

I was lucky enough to take part in the Aqours 4th Live foreigner lottery and the latest lottery kicks off tomorrow – October 2nd. It runs through the 15th. Winners are announced on the 18th. They’re moving fast which hopefully bodes well for the Love Live Festival getting a lottery because that’s what I’m really gunning for. The reason why a foreigner lottery is beneficial is because the competition is much, much less. You’re only vying for tickets versus other non-Japanese nationals which makes the pool much, much smaller. Said foreigners also need to be able to actually, you know, fly to Japan, which for a lot of them they don’t have the money to swing $1000 flights on top of everything else you’d do on a trip. Even rarer are the fabled eventers who go to Japan just for an event before flying back home.

They’ve followed feedback and it’s a little more worth it than when I first went. You got two nights, one concert in the past. Now you get three nights and both concerts.

Check out http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/nijigasaki/news8.php for more information.

Don’t forget: the SF show is on 10/4. Tickets are still available.