Are You Metal?

Ah Spring is in the air and this past Saturday was a gorgeous day under Carolina blue skies with temps in the 70’s. Perfect weather and an equally awesome private outdoor venue in the countryside was host to a mélange of metal bands from all over North Carolina. The bands that performed at the Jamestock Spring Metal Fest turned up the heat even higher with scorching rock tunes and prepared us for some serious face melting. It was a good crowd attending the holiest of heavy metal communions and everyone seemed to have a great time. Whether you just like the older metal bands, or the newer ones doesn’t matter. To be a metal head, all you have to do is love metal music. That’s it. Saturdays mix of bands provided a Molotov cocktail of ass kicking. High volumes and heavy fuzz along with a trifecta of speed, power, and precision all the bands gave their best punch and grind effort.

TOXIC ~

Toxic is a hard rock/metal band based out of Raleigh, North Carolina. They cover fast paced, in your face rock songs from the early 00s to today such as Stone Sour, Shinedown, Bullet for My Valentine, and Killswitch Engaged. Despite Covid set backs, they have been an established band for about 2 years. They have played a few gigs in the area, including a pre-Valentine’s Day show at the Maywood in Raleigh, NC with tribute bands such as Neon Knights, and Bloody Sabbath. They look forward to providing a kick ass experience to their loyal fan-base, and gaining new fans on the journey ahead! Look forward to seeing Toxic playing out again soon.

Daniel Teitell – Lead Vocals

Dan Rachlin – Drums/Backing Vocals

Rick Pierpont – Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals

Seth Morgan – Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals

Anthony Cook – Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/ToxicTheBandRaleigh

https://www.instagram.com/toxicthebandraleigh/

BREAKIN THE LAW ~

Breakin The What?

Breakin The Law…

Formed on Friday, June 17th, 2011 at the Lincoln Theater in Raleigh, North Carolina, this tribute to the masters of metal, Judas Priest plays music from every decade of the band from the 1970s to today. Always great to hear Priest songs and Breakin the Law executed them effortlessly.

https://www.facebook.com/breakinthelaw.nc

http://www.reverbnation.com/breakinthelaw

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCefWo1Z1fcdt7UjjPeUNtbw

http://www.twitter.com/breakinthelawnc

LOUDER ~

A Rock Band.

A Loud Rock Band.

The loudness is designed to “sweep the listener into the sound” and to provide a “shot of youthful vitality.” Hailing from Greensboro, North Carolina their awesome set-list consisted of tunes such as UFO’s Doctor Doctor, Van Halen’s D.O.A., Kiss songs Deuce and Cold Gin, Megadeth’s Reckoning Day, Metallica’s Fuel and Black Sabbath’s Supernaut and Children of the Grave as well as others. Louder had a great stage performance and performed a really blistering set.

https://www.facebook.com/loudernc

DOGBANE ~

Established in 2010 Dogbane released their debut album “Residual Alcatraz” during December of 2011 on Heaven and Hell Records. From Greensboro, North Carolina, the band is a combination of Traditional/NWOBHM inspired Heavy Metal with a touch of Doom. Dogbane played an excellent set.

Vocals – Jeff Neal

Guitar – Elio Romero

Guitar- Jeff Rinehart

Bass – Kevin Davis

Drums – Jerry Cloer

Dogbane’s new album “Idylls Of Woe” available now, go to https://dogbane1.bandcamp.com/ for more

https://www.facebook.com/Dogbane

https://www.reverbnation.com/dogbane

dogbaneband.com

PREPPEN BARIUM ~

Hard Rock injected with Metal. Formed in 2018 from a diverse & unified palette of musical backgrounds, Preppen Barium seamlessly stitches together both hard rock and heavy metal. Aggressive & melodic vocals, killer riffs with searing leads, deep bass lines, and murderous beats that create music for your dark heart. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Preppen Barium officially welcomed the newest member, Austin Travis who recently played his first live show as the drummer at the Bleeding Hearts Ball in Greensboro, NC. I had the pleasure of speaking with the members of the band after their set and they were all very personable and really care about the scene and want to get out there and play. This band is gaining a following and their hard work and passion will help them with the furtherance of their music. This was my second time seeing Preppen Barium and it won’t be my last.

Matt Tolle • Lead Vocals ~ Lead Guitar

Kyle Harvey • Rhythm Guitar ~ Backing Vocals

Austin Travis • Drums

Dylan Deadman • Bass Guitar ~ Backing Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/PreppenBarium

https://preppenbarium.com/

January 4, 2020 – Preppen Barium released their self-titled, debut album. The independent release “Preppen Barium” is available everywhere for your streaming pleasure.

PIECE OF TIME ~

Piece of Time is one of many outstanding Iron Maiden Tributes in the world. From Raleigh, North Carolina, the bands bio states that what sets them apart is a fundamental understanding of what is necessary to effectively perform Iron Maiden songs with respect and humility for the greatest metal band of all time. Conceived in 1997, Piece of Time works tirelessly to make sure that every song in the repertoire is up to the standards of every Iron Maiden fan. Every classic hit and obscure favorite is hand picked and voted on by all band members to assure that everyone has the same passion to get it right. We do not dress as caricatures of the actual band, as we feel like that is disrespectful to Maiden. We aim to honor and pay tribute to Iron Maiden, not to parody them. We take hundreds of painstaking hours preparing each song as its own unique story. All care is given to authentically reproduce every note, with just enough improvisation to let each band member shine. All band members are committed to delivering their individual talents and combine them to comprise the American Iron Maiden Tribute. And we are prepared to back it up. I chatted with the lead singer Doug Chambers and I could tell he was a fervent promoter of the bands musicianship. Doug use to be a drummer but switched to singing when he joined his current band. I’ll be attending more performances of Piece of Time.

Doug Chambers – Lead Vocals

Frank Karchar – Bass, Vocals

Daniel Heckel – Drums

Jon Brown – Guitar

Paul Mossey – Guitar

https://www.facebook.com/PieceOfTime

https://www.pieceoftime.us/

I would also like to give a special thank you to Mark from LionsMane Sound & Light who did an excellent job keeping the bands sounding great and looking good with the super lighting display. https://www.facebook.com/LionsmaneSound

A big thank you to James Jones, you sir are a Rock Star!!