Artist

Fresh off the road from this summer's Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, Suicide Silence recently kicked off their co-headlining tour with The Black Dahlia Murder, Chelsea Grin, and AlterBeast. As the band continues to tour in support of their latest album, 'You Can't Stop Me,' which was released via Nuclear Blast, they will be blogging about their experiences for Revolver. Watch their video for "You Can't Stop Me" at the bottom of the post.

Entry by Mark Heylmun and live photos by Brian Puninske.

Well, hello everybody! Today is the 5th day of this co-headlining run with The Black Dahlia Murder and we are setting up in Montreal. I have a huge pile of French fries, gravy, and cheese curd, more commonly known as poutine, in front of me. I wouldn't normally eat this kind of slop, but when a tour is slaying this hard I feel like I deserve a celebratory pile of slop shoveled into my gullet. So fuck it.

Supporting us and Dahlia is the one and only Chelsea Grin and a band that I am just getting turned onto, AlterBeast. From their start, I knew those dudes were chillers. I met all of them in Chicago (Day 1) and by the time the show was over in Cleveland (Day 2), all of their band and crew for was up on our bus partying. When I say partying, I mean metal DJing 101. Everything from NIN to Behemoth and then I think the end of the night someone was like, "Is Sigur Ros playing subtly on the speakers?" We got a little weird and those dudes are fuckin' cool as hell and their band is slamming as fuck. So get out early and pay attention but don't forget to lose your goddamn minds!

Chelsea Grin are super rad, too. I love it when I watch a band slay and then I ask 'em how the show was and they just want it to be better. True pros and masters of what they are doing and all around nice guys. Alex (singer for Chelsea) stayed with us last night in Toronto for the after party. I had a long night prior so I was in movie mode in my bunk watching a wild flick called 'The Congress'—which if you guys wanna get your mind blown, watch it, but don't watch a trailer for it because you'll prolly ruin it. Actually, if you can avoid watching previews all together for movies, do that—they fuckin' ruin shit. Anyway, Chelsea Grin dudes rule and it's great to have this package pillaging across North America.

Another badass thing on this tour is the VIP meet and greets. I am not the biggest fan of organized meet and greets because I think I am pretty available and personable if you wanna try and find me, buuuuut these are going great and I am digging meeting everyone who has been coming out to them. I've already met some of the most diehard fans ever. I'm wearing a friendship bracelet that an awesome kid named Brandon gave me. I really just want these fans to feel like they got an experience worth the fee they paid. So I'm just gonna say thank you to all of the diehards who could afford to spend some of their hard-earned money on meeting us schmucks and VIP exclusive merch.

So fuckin' A, partners! Shows are sick and the bands are fuckin' badass so we are stoked! Keep on coming out and keeping this shit real. Can't wait to play tonight in Montreal and so on and so on. Party on, Wayne's and Waynettes!!! I'm out and I'll be checking in soon!

You can check out Suicide Silence's tour dates here and get 'You Can't Stop Me' on iTunes.
 

Finch recently kicked off their tour with Maps & Atlases, Wounds and Helen Earth Band. As the band continues to tour in support of their latest album, 'Back to Oblivion,' which was released via Razor & Tie, they will be blogging about their experiences for Revolver. Watch their video for "Two Guns to the Temple" at the bottom of the post.

Entry by guitarist Alex Linares and photos by manager Andy Harris.

First day of tour and we're kicking it off with a special show at the Casbah in San Diego, CA. I've been a spectator at this venue a dozen times, but this is the first show Finch has ever played on this stage. It's a tiny, dingy, old, and wholly unremarkable building. But loads of San Diego royalty from Jehu to Pinback have played here over the last several decades, which lends to the venues legendary status. It's truly a unique privilege to launch the next era Finch from here.

This is a massive day for us. 'Back to Oblivion' is OUT! Available to the masses. The first full length Finch album in nine years. NINE YEARS! (It was necessary to repeat it for dramatic effect) I have no idea what took so long. But like a fine wine, we have matured and ripened with age. And I think this collection of songs reflects this. I really hope you all enjoy it!

I was actually pretty nervous for tonight's show (this is unusual). Before today, we hadn't included more than one or two new songs in the set. But tonight we smashed through six 'Oblivion' tracks ("Back to Oblivion," "Two Guns," "Anywhere but Here," "Further from the Few," "Picasso Trigger," and "Play Dead"). It may have been a lot to ask of an audience, to sit through so much unfamiliar material. But I caught more than a few people singing along, and the rest seemed totally engrossed in the new material. A better reaction than I could have hoped for.

Thank you to all the fans, family, and friends that came out to the show tonight and to the crew of the Casbah. We'll see you again in a few weeks.

You can check out Finch's tour dates on their website and get 'Back to Oblivion' on iTunes.
 

Hard-rock outfit Wilson are shitter aficionados. They've been rating toilets on the road for a while on their own blog, and now they're bringing their expertise to RevolverMag.com. Here, singer Chad Nicefield drops blog No. 8.

Hello, Revolver Magazine readers on the World Wide Web. I got too drunk and totally forgot to take a shit for like a whole month on this p​ast tour—if only I could explain to you the pressure that was occurring in my rectal and scrotal area as of late. I had no idea why this was happening to me, until I stopped drinking bourbon and started drinking coffee when I got home for the Mega Deaf tour. As I clenched my bathroom sink and spewed out a 40 pound infant burrito, it was clear I had to give you all the "official" RE-CRAP from the past stint in ol' Betty Ford (that's our what we call our beloved shitbox of a van). I apologize for the "turdiness."

Take a look as this inglorious bastard of a cloakroom! To be honest, I have no idea where this gnarly fucker even lives...I think I tried to give an update from the road, but then blacked out and forgot about it. So what I'm gonna do here, is give you the turd stained, whitey-tighties of the truth...this is what 95% of EVERY toilet I shat in over the past 35 days pretty much looked like (I think) and kind of also incarnates the essence and spirit of this past tour with He Is Legend, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and Wilson.

This looks like the stall you used to hold you best friend's beer in while they pissed out of their mouths for 30 minutes at 3 a.m. in the morning. This looks like the place you would pass out in when you were 19-23 going to college, or pretending to go to college. This looks like the epitome of the best night of your life...that you lived OVER AND OVER AGAIN for more nights than you would like to admit. This toilet, to me, does not represent the shitty situations us bands in van guys deal with every day and night on the road. It does not remind me of the 40 stairs you have to load your gear up, the 8 blocks away from the venue you would have to park your van with the fear that you would walk back to that van and see it screeching away with your entire life in a 8x10 box behind it. It does not remind me of the 30 days of hangovers, the lose of relationships, the debt a band accumulates. It definitely does not remind me of terrible PA systems, angry promoters, security guards who found out that day their dick was too small. No, it does not remind me of ANY of those things. In fact it reminds me of all the reasons we, as grissled up doods, put up with all the above. It reminds me of best friends, best times, best people, the best faces I've ever seen in a crowd. It reminds me why I wanted to do this in the first place—what I have been working for for the past 16 years. It reminds me of love.

I loved every minute of feeling my own blood sore through the caverns of my veins out the hole in my ass and into the water below me in every town, every night for the past 35 days.

This is an 11 out of 10.

P.S. That bathroom TOTALLY sucked.

Chiodos recently kicked off their Crowd Surf America co-headlining tour with Blessthefall and special guests I Killed The Prom Queen and Capture the Crown. Later this fall they will head out with A Day to Remember and Bring Me the Horizon. As the band continues to tour in support of its newest album, 'Devil,' which was released earlier this year via Razor & Tie, they will be blogging about their experiences for Revolver. Watch the video for "Ole Fishlips is Dead Now" at the bottom of the post.

Three weeks in on the Crowd Surf America tour and we already want to go home. Just kidding! So we continued our adventure through the South of the U.S. into some territories that we don't normally hit. First stop was Corpus Christi, Texas. This city has quickly become one of my favorite stops on tour. The crowd was amazing to the point where I wanted to take them on the road with us and play to them every night! It was outdoors and it was an extremely hot one. Fortunately, the owner of the venue who owned a water park and let us have access some awesome water slides afterwards!

Next stop was Mobile, Alabama. A few of us woke up early and decided to go to the YMCA to get some basketball in (basketball has become a heavy theme on this tour, if you haven't noticed). I'm pretty sure we had never played there before, so to see how awesome the crowd was to us was very refreshing! Post show, a lot of people from the tour went to a bar around the corner and sang some karaoke. Some treats were definitely sung! Karaoke is one of my favorite past times, so of course I sang a couple ditties as well.

Moving on to Knoxville, Tennessee—we showed up and the venue was a bit larger than most of the venues on the tour, so of course we asked if we could set up our basketball hoop inside! The security guards joined us post show and we ended up playing ball 'till the wee hours of night.

Heading through the mountains we ended up in North Carolina next. It was more of an intimate setting than a lot of the spots, so this show was definitely one of my favorites of the tour. The southern hospitality was prevalent and the crowd was rowdy! It's always a good night when it ends in acoustic sing-alongs of the bands you listened to growing up on a sidewalk at 3 a.m.

Traveling up the East Coast now, we landed in Silver Springs, Maryland, where I woke up to an abundance of awesome restaurants around. If you've never heard of Nando's, you are missing out! It's like a classier Buffalo Wild Wings from the UK, and boy, is their Peri Peri Sauce delicious! There are only a few in our country so it's always a pleasure to run into. The show was awesome—though I was bummed RG3 didn't come out.

Finally we ended up in New Jersey. Not only was I stoked because I finally got to see my girlfriend, but there's something about New Jersey and their music scene that always causes an exciting day and show. A lot of bands we grew up listening to are from there, so it is kind of surreal to play there even to this day. It turned out to be the biggest crowd of the tour so far and the energy in the room was absolutely amazing.

That wraps up week 4—a week and a half left! Be sure to come out and join in the rowdiness!
- Brad

UPDATE: The band has cancelled the rest of the remaining dates from Rochester, New York through Columbia, Missouri. The following statement was provided from the band: "We are sorry to our fans as well as the bands on the tour Blessthefall, I Killed the Prom Queen and Capture the Crown. Our guitarist Thomas Erak has had a reoccurring medical emergency that needs immediate attention and we want to support him in his recovery. We plan to make up these dates this year. We appreciate our fans continued support and look forward to seeing everyone on the upcoming Parks and Devastation tour with A Day To Remember, Bring Me the Horizon, and Motionless in White."

You can check out Chiodos' tour dates on their website and get 'Devil' on iTunes.

Chiodos recently kicked off their Crowd Surf America co-headlining tour with Blessthefall and special guests I Killed The Prom Queen and Capture the Crown. Later this fall they will head out with A Day to Remember and Bring Me the Horizon. As the band continues to tour in support of its newest album, 'Devil,' which was released earlier this year via Razor & Tie, they will be blogging about their experiences for Revolver. Watch the video for "Ole Fishlips is Dead Now" at the bottom of the post.

What a week it's been here out here for us on Crowd Surf America! This tour has seen its fair share of ups and downs, and we're only just now nearing the halfway point.

First off though—let me preface this entire tour diary with a personal pat on the back. You see readers—our tour bus A/C has been broken for the past week, and we have been in the South...in the summer. Yes, this means sleeping on a tour bus with no A/C in temperatures consistently over 100 degrees. Waking up dehydrated in your own sweat will cause even the quietest of band members to turn serial killer in a split second (as we saw yesterday). However, the pat on the back isn't just because we survived a hellacious week of sweat and stink, no, it's because somehow, someway, a choice few of us have remained optimistic during this challenging time. And optimistic this tour diary shall stay.

We kick things off on Wednesday in Tulsa, OK. Each morning when the bus stops, I B-line for the nearest local coffee shop. Now, in my head, I wasn't thinking of descriptive words like "hip" or "artsy" when venturing out into Tulsa, OK, but boy was I wrong! Less than a mile from the venue, next to the violin repair shop (where classy gentlemen were fixing different stringed instruments in the window for all to see) was an amazing local coffee / vegan eatery called Chimera (I pronounce this eatery like the awesome metal band Chiamara) that I had the pleasure of dining at. The service was great, and the food was even better. I will be attending Chimera the next time that we are in beautiful Tulsa. After my coffee excursion, I headed back stage to find a whole slew of goodies for band dudes, like myself. If you have spent any time around band guys, you know that no matter how scary looking, crass, or how many face tattoos… THEY ALL LOVE TOYS. Ping pong, fuss ball, and corn hole tournaments took place, and feelings were hurt. Before I knew it, it was stage time and we were ready to rock! Walking out on stage was an overwhelming feeling, as Tulsa won me over with their passion and enthusiasm for music. Truly leaving me inspired, and all smiles. After the show, there were some fans waiting out by the bus, who I then spent some time with, thanking them for the inspiration, and the smile that they had provided by caring so much about something dear to me.

The tour continued, and we played for some awesome and overly enthusiastic fans in Odessa, TX where I saw oil rigs in backyards. I could go on a rant about the titans of the oil industry, the future of energy and how our planet is dying—but I'll save you the preaching. You want rock n roll, don't ya readers?! Well, this strip club turned rock club, in the middle of a strip mall, had lots of it that Thursday night. Here are the photos to prove it.

The next night we combine tours with some of our friends on the Mayhem Festival, Miss May I and Asking Alexandria in Austin, TX. Both bands full of upstanding young gentlemen. I got to catch up with the ever so charming Danny Warsnop, and his awesome dog Cowboy, and as always it was a pleasure. Before the shows each night, we do meet and greets, which allows us to look in the eyes of our fans and thank them for supporting us, and basically allowing us to continue living out our dreams. Here are a few of my favorite meet and greeters, whom I know all by name. Afterwards, it was show time. We walked out on that stage, sweat through every piece of clothing on our body, and rocked Austin to the ground that night. I can only assume that it will never be the same...

—Craig Owens

You can check out Chiodos' tour dates on their website and get 'Devil' on iTunes.

Islander recently released their debut full-length, 'Violence & Destruction,' and are currently rocking stages across this great nation as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. While they are out on that tour, the band's vocalist, Mikey Carvajal, will be providing us with updates and photos from the road.

Tomorrow is the last day of Mayhem Festival. It's crazy to think that it has come and gone already. Sometimes when we are in the middle of a tour, it feels like it will never end, and once we are here at the end of one, it feels like we are just getting started.

I think life is a lot like that in general. We've met so many amazing fans and friends on this tour. We've been inspired by the passion that so many people still have for heavy music. My hope is to use that inspiration to inspire more people to be inspired as well.

See YOU on the road! -Mikey

Chiodos recently kicked off their Crowd Surf America co-headlining tour with Blessthefall and special guests I Killed The Prom Queen and Capture the Crown. Later this fall they will head out with A Day to Remember and Bring Me the Horizon. As the band continues to tour in support of its newest album, 'Devil,' which was released earlier this year via Razor & Tie, they will be blogging about their experiences for Revolver. Watch the video for "Ole Fishlips is Dead Now" at the bottom of the post.

This last week on the Crowd Surf America Tour was a fun one. When we showed up in Reno, there was a car show going on right in front of our bus—so we were serenaded but the sweet sounds of a golden oldies cover band. We hadn't played in Reno in years so the show was a ton of fun.

The next day we ended up in Las Vegas, my personal favorite city in the country. None of us lost TOO much money, so it was moderately successful. The crowd went nuts there, but unfortunately we had to leave early because of our next drive. That brought us to a couple California shows and California always knows how to party, so those shows were great as well.

Highlight of the week was getting our music video back for "3 AM." It turned out amazing and we're all super excited about it, which is different for us haha. We're looking forward to releasing that and seeing the rest of you on the road coming up!!!

-Brad

You can check out Chiodos' tour dates on their website and get 'Devil' on iTunes.

Islander recently released their debut full-length, 'Violence & Destruction,' and are currently rocking stages across this great nation as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. While they are out on that tour, the band's vocalist, Mikey Carvajal, will be providing us with updates and photos from the road.

This week in Islander land was incredible. To jump right into it, this week I rode my first upside down roller coaster. I know it sounds silly, but it's been something that has freaked me out since I was a kid. I'm grateful for my wife and friends that laughed and supported me through it.

We had the opportunity to see a lot of family this week as well. We hung out with Andrew's dad this week and then we saw some of my family in Queens, N.Y. The family came out to one of the Avenged Sevenfold/Korn off-dates to hang out and then they cooked for us and gave us place to rest.

We visited the old MTV/TRL studios in Times Square and reminisced about how it was once a channel for music (hint hint MTV). After visiting the MTV graveyard, we had some New York pizza and got some sleep. We were also able to visit the site where the photo for cover for our EP, 'Pains,' was taken—so that was a special experience for us.

I like to keep these short and sweet but I would like to take this moment to say that the fans we've been meeting on the road are amazing. It's wonderful to know that the music we create is impacting you guys just as much as it has us. Even without a TV station promoting music exclusively, it's nice and refreshing to see that music is still impacting people's lives. Thank you.

Much Love. - Mikey

Hard-rock outfit Wilson are shitter aficionados. They've been rating toilets on the road for a while on their own blog, and now they're bringing their expertise to RevolverMag.com. The band is currently crossing the country with He is Legend and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, from whence they will be educating us on their various bathroom encounters. Here, singer Chad Nicefield drops blog No. 7.

Click here for a chance to win a "King of the Thrones" prize pack!

Ever wanted to Eiffel Tower a turd with your best buddy before? Ya?! Well, then Birmingham, AL has just the tools you are looking for.

I initially wanted this review to include a 'special guest hole' where myself and one of the other 17 of us on the Mega Deaf Tour would shit simultaneously and share our thoughts in a brief tutorial called "Everyone Poops....Together," but my bowels were the only ones grumpy enough to make the move at the time. So here I shit alone, with no hand to hold. Even in the bathroom, tour gets lonely....but let's get to this.

Check it out, this venue manged to not only create one 'Gummo-esq' mongoloid of a toilet bowl out of abandoned dumpster finds, but TWO! Yes, TWO toilets pieced together from parts people shat on from what looks to be the prohibition era...can you say whiskey shits?? The boxes they made for tanks look like they were crafted using lumber from the woods of the rape scene in the original 'I Spit On Your Grave'...and just as brutal to sit against.​

With the lack of a plunger and almost ALL necessary amenities, on top of the Sloth-style toilets I want to give this place a 0 out 10...however, because of their obvious ingenuity, humor and the fact they created a Buddy System I have yet to see...I'm gunna slap 'em with a 3 out of 10.

Chiodos recently kicked off their Crowd Surf America co-headlining tour with Blessthefall and special guests I Killed The Prom Queen and Capture the Crown. Later this fall they will head out with A Day to Remember and Bring Me the Horizon. As the band continues to tour in support of its newest album, 'Devil,' which was released earlier this year via Razor & Tie, they will be blogging about their experiences for Revolver. Watch the video for "Ole Fishlips is Dead Now" at the bottom of the post.

After having a decent amount of time at home, finally Chiodos is back in the bus. Being that we all are from different places around the country, we all collectively travel a lot with each other and alone. We rehearsed where we wrote much of 'Devil' in Michigan, then in no time we were off to Springfield, M.O. for our first show. The kids were amazing, and man, it was HOT in that venue. The dedication of people to stick it out in those conditions is very flattering.

Then we were off AGAIN as usual to meet up with co-horts Blessthefall in Oklahoma City. The venue was gigantic and we had a blast playing. Up next, New Mexico... I like the Sunshine Theatre and the people that attend the shows there as well. It was a great show. That brings us up to Denver yesterday, which is one of my personally favorite cities in the US. The elevation will get you if you aren't careful! That brings us to a day off today in SLC, Utah! I have a good group of friends from here so I will be in good company, and probably good spirits. But, that's pretty much all for now folks, come check out a show and our new record 'Devil' if you haven't yet.

Don't be late to the game ;)!

—-Thomas Erak

You can check out Chiodos' tour dates on their website and get 'Devil' on iTunes.