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Necrolust, Tour de Force

RITES OF DARKNESS III LINEUP ANNOUNCED, KIM’S PANTIES DROP

 Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 at 4:30pm by

We North American metallers are used to getting boned when it comes to metal festivals. Yeah, we’ve got a handful of great fests, but the events are almost always pretty small and localized (barring the mighty Maryland Death Fest, which routinely attracts diehards from all over the world). The North American idea of a “metal fest” has, on a mainstream level at least, devolved into lumbering advertisements for metalcore albums and hoary old dinosaurs’ reunion tours. Wacken has rapidly become something similar, but this year’s edition still has Morbid Angel, Sodom, and Tsjuder on the bill. What do we get? Vince and Axl will scold me if I name any names, but there are a staggering array of shitty mega-shows coming up this summer – and they sure as hell won’t be booking Mayhem. We don’t have a Wacken, a Hellfest, a Roadburn; hell, we can barely manage one killer large-scale multi-day fest a year, but as always, the devil’s in the details, and what we lack in quantity, we’re rapidly starting to atone for in quality.

Case in point: this year’s Rites of Darkness III fest. Past years have welcomed the likes of Impiety, Diocletian, Blasphemophagher Cruciamentum, and Morbosidad to our cursed shores, and this year’s lineup is shaping up to be an absolute massacre of a weekend.

An incredible lineup of bands from as far away as Japan and Australia will be overtaking the White Rabbit in San Antonio, TX on December 9-10, 2011, and you bet your ass I’ll be there.

I’ve seen a handful of these in various countries, and can attest to the absolute devastation that Mournful Congregation, Evoken, Hour of 12, Mortuary Drape, and Adorior shall wreak. Also, having the chance to see fucking Sargeist on US soil is a dream come true!

TOTAL DEATH.

RITES OF DARKNESS III – Confirmed lineup as of 8/3/11:

ZEMIAL (First and only ever North American performance)
DEMIGOD (Finland)
MORTUARY DRAPE (Italy)
MOURNFUL CONGREGATION (Australia)
SARGEIST (Finland)
URFAUST (Netherlands)
IGNIVOMOUS (Australia)
INTERMENT (Sweden)
EVOKEN (NJ)
ANATOMIA (Japan)
WEAPON (Canada)
FUNEBRARUM (NJ)
CIANIDE (IL)
IMPETUOUS RITUAL (Australia)
HOUR OF 13 (NC)
MITOCHONDRION (Canada)
DEMONICAL (Sweden)
GRAVE UPHEAVAL (Australia)
DIVINE EVE (TX)
ADVERSARIAL (Canada)
ALDEBARAN (OR)
ANHEDONIST (WA)
ILSA (DC)
BIRTH A.D. (TX)
GRAVE RITUAL (GA)
P.L.F. (TX)
WARMASTER (TX)
ADORIOR (England)
LOSS (TE)
VASAELETH (GA)
BLASPHERIAN (TX)

-KK

Kim Kelly (or Grim Kim, if we’re being formal) scribbles for a number of sweet metal publications (Terrorizer, Brooklyn Vegan, Invisible Oranges, Hails & Horns, and tons more), promotes wicked records with Catharsis PR, and road dogs for your favorite bands. Keep up with her exploits & numerous band recommendations on Twitter, or peep her blog Ravishing Grimness.

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  • Strapping Young Lad

    woah, I feel like such a noobie! I don’t think I know one of these bands! well… better get started… myspace, here we come!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Guzmn/570745539 Daniel Guzmán

    The only band I know from this lineup is Weapon :(

  • SP420

    Zemial, wow. Other than them and Weapon, too many obscure bands to give a shit. At least have to hand it to the promoters for going to such lengths to compile such a lineup and an audience willing to go.

    • Scourge441

      If Demigod and Mournful Congregation are obscure to you, you need to educate yourself better. At the very least checkout Demigod, because Slumber of Sullen Eyes is a pretty damn important album.

      • http://www.last.fm/user/evokenrules The Lightbearer

        Very much agreed…

    • Void Eater

      Basically, you don’t care about bands because they’re not popular? Wow…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brandon-MXickman/502613553 Brandon MXickman

    i’ve heard of hour of 13 and evoken.

  • Strahalov

    Woah! I really liked Demigod’s old stuff, and ‘Shadow Mechanics’ as well.. never saw them live though. Urfaust and Sargeist are also pretty fucking yummy. It would be sooo much fun to see them but I won’t be in the States by then so this kinda sucks.. :(((

  • skeeter

    Demigod absolutely kills. Go check out “Slumber of Sullen Eyes” — chunky finnish death metal from the glory days.

  • Rob M

    This whole lineup fucking crushes…even MDF 2011 pales next to this. How often are people going to get to see Demigods “Slumber of Sullen Eyes” lineup as they perform the album live.

    Add bands like Evoken, Anatomia, Weapon, Interment, Cianide and Funebrarum and this will be the festival of the year in the U.S.

    • Deth

      To say legends like Coroner, Nuclear Assault, Voivod, and Exhorder pale in comparison to a band nobody knows, like Demigods, is a pretty ballsy statement. It may be true for a small amount of the US metal crowd but I’d venture to say MDF’s lineup far outweighs a festival with bands most people don’t know.

      I’m not knocking this fest, I know about half the bands, but if you dangled this and MDF in front of a group of metal fans I guarantee MDF would be the choice for a majority. Not because the bands listed here are lesser known but because the MDF lineup is pretty stellar and has a lot more variety.

      • colbow

        poser alert

      • Rob M

        Slumber of Sullen Eyes is considered one of the single greatest death metal albums ever made. Saying nobody knows who Demigod is says more about your personal taste than anything else.

        Im not knocking the MDF lineup..its got some great bands, and I plan to be there.
        Unfortunaely for every band like Hail of Bullets there’s some no-name hardcore/grindcore band playing. Rites of Darkness has a much stronger lineup top to bottom.

        • Deth

          My comment about Demigod comes from 25 years of listening to the genre and holding jobs in the metal industry. You mention them and Exhorder to metal heads and see which one they’ve listened to. Again, not a knock nor am I saying popularity is everything – I’m simply stating that a festival full of virtually unknown bands isn’t going to trump what has become one of the best metal festivals in the states. It speaks volumes alone that so few people have even posted on this story while those about MDF have several times more. It’s all personal taste (I do know Demigod BTW) but MDF is catering to a much broader crowd with bigger bands than this. To me there is just no comparison.

          • Rob M

            Its speaks volumes about the interests of this website that so few people have commented on this story (which isnt any kind of jab, but with the exception of Kim, this board dosnt seem tapped all that deep into the underground). I hear the name Demigod come up far more often in discussion than Exhorder, unless someone is talking about Pantera.

            I disagree, if we’re removing name recognition from the argument like your saying…then this is the better festival. While these bands arent as widely known, most of them are getting lots of buzz (and Im actually aware of about 9/10ths of these bands). Like I said before, from top to bottom this lineup is solid.

            Meanwhile MDF has big names late in the day, but because the coordinators are such big grind fans, they saturate the early times of the festival with those kinds of bands. Half of the bands on thursday alone are grind bands. Thats not exactly a balanced lineup

            So just to clarify MDF has a good lineup, I by no means think it sucks and will be giving them my money, but musically I do not think its as strong as Rites of Darkness

          • Deth

            We’ll just agree to disagree then. It all comes down to personal tastes anyway. In my travels around the country and all the shows I’ve been to I’ve not heard a plethora of discussion on Demigod. They’re good and will make a mark, no doubt, but I hear a lot more talk about MDF. That’s just me, of course.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brandon-MXickman/502613553 Brandon MXickman

        +1 though the mighty Goatsnake just cancelled

    • Ziltoid

      Glad to see all the Demigod love going on here. Slumber of Sullen Eyes is an exceptional album, and this most certainly does crush MDF, even though that looks pretty damn awesome this year as well.

  • Cryptosis

    Impetuous Ritual and Mitochondrian, hell yea! Profound Lore represents.

  • Ben Alexander

    Holy shit, this is in San Antonio?! I’ll be there.

  • Isaac

    I’d go just for the sake of seeing Grave Ritual (drool) and Cianide (orgasm), but I know most of the other bands on there kick ass as well.
    Unfortunately, I am in high school and can’t go. Fuck.

    • Grim Kim

      Go anyway! Get an older friend with a debit card to buy the plane ticket for you and tell yer Ma you’re crashing at a friend’s house for the weekend or something. I did that kind of shit all the time in high school.

      • http://satanicpowerpop.tumblr.com Isaac

        It’s unfortunate that I wouldn’t be able to get away with that. They’re lamentably too strict.

  • Aghast

    URFAUSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Alex_P

    Demigod alone make me want to go, and the other bands (with some exceptions) range from “never listened, been meaning to check out” to “holy hell they probably slay live”. Too bad it’s in Texas. We need something like this in Montreal.

  • Joe

    This > MDF

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jt-Gilmore/538202538 Jt Gilmore

    omg that lineup looks like my ipod! fapfapfapfap.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Roshin-Wolfson/557092638 Dan Roshin Wolfson

    wait metalsucks is posting good shit lately, wtf is going on

    less gossip, more music please

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brad-Barmherzig/1520996897 Brad Barmherzig

    This lineup makes MDF look like a bitch. Anybody who says otherwise has no fucking clue about metal.

    I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE ADORIOR.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sara-Roth/22622051 Sara Roth

    Grave Ritual is from Alabama, not GA. But yeah, considering going to this one…

  • pishcage

    these “uknowns” (by Metalsucks readers) are the best metal has to offer, so stop downloading djent and core bands and start checking these bands!!

  • yetzer hara

    impetuous ritual and mitochondrion alone make this worth going. i’ll be at MDF this summer, but i’ll definitely be making my way to tx in the winter time.

  • Matt

    Once again, I am awe-struck by the overall obscurity of the bands that have drenched Kim’s underpants. That’s fine, as now I have a whole list of bands to pursue at my local record shoppe. That being said, I’m completely not okay with being struck blind by said list and hiding under my desk from the disharmonic madness of a swarm of raging locusts. FUCK.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jj-Freeman/100000190047677 J.j. Freeman

    Blaspherian are a great band from Houston, their new album is just fucking killer. To see Demigod would be just crazy I still listen to Slumber of Sullen Eyes to this day. and having Cianide , Grave Ritual .IIlsa and Sargeist on the same stage with the other two bands is worth the price of admission alone.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Zach-Gates/14209777 Zach Gates

    Y’know there’s a big line between a festival that isn’t beholden to mainstream bullshit and one that just has a bunch of bands almost no one has heard of.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested, but the fact that the entire lineup has TWO bands I know (Mournful Congregation and Mitochondrian) tells me that this isn’t exactly set to be the next Summer Slaughter or Wacken. It’s just a small-time event with a lot of obscure bands.

    • Rob M

      No..this is a festival to spotlight a bunch of amazing young bands as well as bring a few lesser known established bands to a wider audience. Depending on how far you dig into the underground these bands are pretty well known

    • Void Eater

      This is way better than those two. Especially Summer Slaughter, which is now nothing more then a night for scene kids to hardcore dance to an endless stream of awful breakdowns. It’s nice to see a festival with actual underground bands.

  • Grim Kim

    These bands aren’t really that obscure if you’re into underground metal. It just depends on what your definition of “underground” is.
    If you think the new Devildriver record is super underhyped, if you think Cloudkicker is too obscure, if you think Altar of Plagues are unheard of, or if you think Gyibaaw deserve more attention, it’s all the same – a matter of perspective based on your interests, tastes, and level of involvement in the metal scene in general.
    I don’t know the first fucking thing about Sumeriancore or djent or deathcore or whatever, and would give a festival lineup comprised of those kinds of bands the same “buh?” look a few of you gave this one.

    AND THAT’S FINE! If we were all the same, metal would legitimately suck.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Roshin-Wolfson/557092638 Dan Roshin Wolfson

      I love you

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tommy-Smith/536128956 Tommy Smith

    Sargeist made of of the best albums of 2010!

  • WowWee!

    Confirmed lineup as of 8/3/11. Grim Kim can look into the future! I knew she was special!

    • Grim Kim

      Balls. I just got back from Europe and got used to the way they write dates (all wonky-like).

      Confirmed lineup as of MARCH 8, 2011 ;)

  • HWHB

    Luckly I live in SA, TX. So I wont be missing this ;)

  • SourDeez

    Evoken is the only band I know. The whole thing looks like 2 months worth of “Precious Metal” showcases at the Lit Lounge.

  • Utmu

    Is that the Blaspherian that No Clean Singing posted about like last week?

    • Utmu

      Well it seems I got off my ass and answered it myself. It seems that is the same Blaspherian, unless there’s another metal band from Texas named Blaspherian. Also, it was about 2 and a half weeks ago when the Blaspherian article was posted.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shane-Tallent/100000411561578 Shane Tallent

    why does florida never get blessed with such things, even if a known band does come around orlando its some shit mainstream band

  • Jeff Ficklin

    recently added bands include: Wodensthrone, Onskapt, Oak, Hellvetron, Midnight, Plutocracy, Cruciamentum and Stargazer.

    It is pretty safe to say that this fest is better than MDF now and still more announcements will be coming. Plus the fest is now officially 4 days long. I will be doing a lot of promotion for this once the line-up has been finalized.

  • LD

    I’ll fucking be there, and I’ll fight anyone of you that want to fight me. FUCK OFF AND DIE