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.

Tracklist here:

1. PAGE
2. glory
3. Liberal
4. endless Story
5. Mirage
6. At the drop of a hat
7. Wonderland
8. azure
9. Dilemma
10. Bubble
11. The Dragon Cries
12. flying high
13. カタルシス (Catharsis)
14. Blooming
15. 輪廻 (Rinne)

DIR EN GREY will take a break for about a month before heading to Europe with stops in Russia, Finland, Germany, Poland, the UK, and France.

It’s been a while since their last album, 2018’s “The Insulated World,” but they did release the single The World of Mercy back in September. Their next album has yet to be announced.

We were there for their 2015 show in San Francisco (click here) and all signs point to another killer tour.

Tickets for the Los Angeles stop are already sold out (resale options are available) but if you happen to be in Northern California there’s still some for Sacramento’s Ace of Spades.

Here’s the dates:

12/5 Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater
12/6 Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades
12/8 Denver, CO – Marquis Theater
12/10 Chicago, IL – House of Blues
12/11 Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
12/13 New York, NY – Gramercy Theater
12/16 Dallas, TX – House of Blues
12/17 Houston, TX – House of Blues
12/19 Mexico City, MX – El Plaza Condesa

1/25 Moscow, RU – Glavclub
1/26 St Petersberg, RU – Aurora Club
1/28 Helskin, FI – The Circus
1/29 Munich, DE – Technikum
1/31 Dortmund, DE – FZW
2/1 Berlin, DE – Astra Kulturhaus
2/3 Wroclaw, PL – Concert Center A2
2/5 London, UK – Islington Assembly Hall
2/7 Cenon, FR – Le Rocher de Palmer
2/8 Paris, FR – Elysee Montmartre

If you’re looking for more things to do that weekend here’s a couple of suggestions: Mongolian band The Hu will play in Pomona on 12/6, the day after DIR EN GREY’s Los Angeles show. For those of you who like Bushiroad their annual CharaExpo convention will take place on 12/7 and 12/8 in Anaheim.

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.

Sabaton’s music has spanned the ancient era of Spartans to the jungles of Vietnam and beyond. Their latest album, “The Great War,” focuses upon World War I. Themes include the tank, chemical warfare, and aerial combat, all new elements of warfare in those days. There’s even the titular song Great War which asks “what’s so great about it?” It had been first assumed by Germany that the war would be over by Christmas 1914 but their forces bogged down and eventually, tens of countries were involved in the conflict. Trench warfare stalemated much of the fronts and while it was great in scale it was not great in any other sense of the word.

One of the things that made its debut on this tour is the tank drum riser.  I had previously thought it too big to practically transport from venue to venue overseas and I’m glad I was wrong.  They’re trucking the massive two-ton hunk of metal back and forth across North America and it surprised quite a lot of people when it was unveiled.

Tonight’s concert at San Francisco’s Regency Ballroom starts much like many concerts with the pulse-pounding Ghost Division featuring the Wehrmacht’s 7th Panzer Division. Leading with this song is the equivalent of going 0-60 MPH in two seconds flat. Almost every Sabaton concert I’ve gone to has started with this song and one problem I’ve always had is that I have to decide whether to shoot photos or headbang.

The single Bismarck, a collaboration between Sabaton, World of Warships, and Azur Lane, made its live debut during this tour. This is a song I was looking forward to ever since it was released online. Sabaton is no stranger to collaborations and they’ve lended the sound of other songs like Primo Victoria to other franchises in the past. Also making its debut on this tour is The Attack of the Dead Men which is one of the best songs off of “The Great War.”

The Lion From the North is a song that has caught on somewhat recently (well, within the last tour or two) and even though it comes from the same album as Carolus Rex was absent from sets for quite a while. I thought it was worthy of live performances back when the album was first released. I’m glad they’re playing it more often.

The final three songs would be Primo Victoria, Swedish Pagans, and To Hell and Back. Primo Victoria and Swedish Pagans are mainstays of any Sabaton show and To Hell and Back has cemented a place in the rotation as well.

The San Francisco show happened to coincide with San Francisco’s annual Fleet Week celebration and I saw at least a couple of US Marines show up. Had the show not sold out more than a week beforehand I think there would have been many more. It’s a pity that Devil Dogs wasn’t played because I think they woudl have gotten a kick out of that but I did see them sing along to Bismarck.

This was a great setlist, but to be honest, it’s hard to make a bad setlist out of Sabaton songs. They’ve had so many albums with so many good songs that you could almost throw darts one by one at their catalogue and make a good setlist.

Old staples like Primo Victoria, Ghost Division, Swedish Pagans, and Carolus Rex are met with newer songs like Shiroyama, Night Witches, and The Last Stand not to mention all the songs from the newest album. I think The Attack of the Dead Men will remain on many of Sabaton’s sets to come. We are missing classics like the everpresent 40:1 and Art of War but there’s only so many songs you can put in a set.

One of Sabaton’s greatest strengths is writing catchy lyrics and pairing it with a good musical accompaniment. Joakim’s bombastic voice is one of the main driving forces of Sabaton’s music and it would be hard to imagine the band without him. Paired with founding bassist Par Sundstrom they make for a great duo and almost all of the writing duties have been carried out by the two over the fifteen years of existence.  You know you’ve done something right when almost every concert has sold out before the tour has even begun and it feels like everyone knows the words to each song.  Sabaton fans are very dedicated and the band has hit meteoric heights.  I still remember that one time they played at Thee Parkside back in 2013.  I think my living room is about the same size as Thee Parkside, and my living room is not big by far.

It’s a little early to say this but I’m looking forward to their next album and the next time they arrive in San Francisco.

Setlist:

Ghost Division
Great War
Resist and Bite
Fields of Verdun
The Attack of the Dead Men
The Red Baron
The Price of a Mile
Bismarck
The Lion From the North
Carolus Rex
Shiroyama
Night Witches
The Lost Battalion
The Last Stand
82nd All the Way

Encore:

Primo Victoria
Swedish Pagans
To Hell and Back

The Great Tour – US Leg

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

As mentioned earlier this is the first time I’ve ever been to the Palace of Fine Arts for a concert which also means I had no idea where the entrance is. I actually walked to the backside (aka the exact opposite side from the front doors) and noticed an ongoing sunset photoshoot at the central rotunda. I could hear Battle Beast already emanating from the inside of the venue.

No photos of Battle Beast, unfortunately. A bit of a snafu at the front desk meant that none of the photographers were on the guest list! Alas. I hung out front and thankfully the tour manager appeared and we were on our way. Battle Beast’s setlist featured exclusively songs from their most recent album, “No More Hollywood Endings,” and their previous album “Bringer of Pain.” That division does show the changing of the guard between the old days of Anton at the reigns and the new days of, well, external help, and cements the fact that I will never see any of the Berserk songs live. Thankfully Anton does have a presence over with Beast in Black and continues those Berserk songs.

One of my directions had been “don’t block the front seats” and I thought that would be simple enough. Very rarely do I ever block anything given the size of most stages and my stature. Well, until now, because the stage went up to my waist. I actually had a spat of trouble with an (assumably) drunk concertgoer who decided to block my camera whenever I got near here. Bro, it’s already the third song so I’m be gone in a couple of minutes and you’re taller than me to begin with. Thankfully most people stood and for the ones who didn’t I made sure to get out of the way.

Sonata Arctica is a band that has been around, at this point, for two decades. I started listening to them approximately 15 years ago and they are a band I make an effort to see any time they come out to California. They’ve never disappointed me. It’s actually been three years since I last saw them when they toured with Nightwish and Delain. Their most recent album, “Talviyo,” was released about a month ago on September 6.

Tonight’s set was composed half with their latest album with the remainder taken from previous albums. “Talviyo” was a little different from what I’m used to but Storm the Armada and Who Failed the Most are highlights of the album and they performed both of them tonight. Cold has grown on me quite a bit too. They picked some good songs to round out the set including the classic FullMoon (has there ever been a Sonata Arctica show that hasn’t had this song in it?), Life, and X Marks the Spot. No sign of Don’t Say a Word, sadly; that’s one of my favorites. I did get to see it on their previous tour. It’s a pity they had such a short set because they have way too many good songs to put on an opener set.

Vocalist Tony Kakko is a big advocate of live music and I fully agree. If you’ve ever seen a Sonata Artica show you probably remember seeing the “Keep Live Music Alive” speech and it stands for repeating. Concerts help drive money to the band itself to a greater degree than almost any other avenue and it allows for the band to go out and connect with their fans across the world. I’ve gone to quite a few concerts recently and there’s just something about being able to see something in person and experience the chest-pounding bass while surrounded by a crowd that knows the words to every song. I actually had a coworker ask when the next concert would be and surprise surprise it was in one week.

Kamelot was the main event of the night which makes sense considering this is the Shadow Empire tour. I saw them in 2018 on their Shadow Theory tour so the setlists were similar but that’s not an issue. I see bands solely because I like them and Kamelot is no exception.  Play the good stuff and you’ve got me hooked.  Thomas Youngblood has been at the helm of the band for the entirety of its existence so it’s in his very capable hands and the voice of Tommy Karevik.  This is the first time I’ve seen Alex Landerburg who replaced long-time drummer Casey Grillo behind the set.

Clocking in at a total of fourteen songs meant they had a lot of room for both new songs and old. They actually split the setlist fairly evenly amongst all of their albums with none being favorited; 2015’s “Haven” actually had the most songs of any album played. Tour namesake “The Shadow Theory” was represented by set-leading song Phantom Divine, Burns to Embrace, and Vespertine. Lauren Hart, borrowed from the band Once Human, helped provide harsh vocals for a few of the songs. Noora from Battle Beast also appeared for the song Sacrimony in place of Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz.

I’ve probably mentioned it before but my first exposure to power metal was Nightwish in 2001. Kamelot is another band I’ve been listening for a while going back to that same year. The album that year was Karma and the titular song was part of the setlist today with another Kamelot classic, Forever, also present. There were a lot of fan favorites played including Rule the World, When the Lights Are Down, Forever, and March of Mephisto. The sound of “Haven’s” Liar Liar rounded out the set.

All in all it was a great night for power metal fans. Three great bands in a (for me) new, great venue. It might be a few years until these bands come out again and I’ll be waiting. Side note: my car was intact. I take that as a win any day of the week.