Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
The festival Welcome To Rockville has taken place this weekend, with lots of interesting and some unfortunate events. Let’s start with the bad news first. Poppy‘s performance on May 8th ended before it had even started, as per theprp. Due to a severe weather warning, festival organisers cancelled her performance halfway through her “have you had enough?” opening line. Fans were instructed from the stage to take cover in the grandstands, their cars, or their camping arrangements. Poppy‘s set was unable to continue after the weather warning had passed due to the intricate structure of festival reservations and the several performers involved.
But there were also some interesting and crazy moments during the festival… Breaking Benjamin gave a slightly vague hint last week that “Something Wicked” would be released this weekend. The multi-platinum hard rock band did end their mysterious countdown timer, but there was no digital reward, so Ray Bradbury fans were finally out of luck. Rather, the major announcement coincided with the band’s performance yesterday, May 9, at the “Welcome To Rockville” event in Daytona Beach, Florida.
During that performance, they released a brand-new song called “Something Wicked.” This was against the group’s policy, as they have so far opted to wait to perform new songs until they are available to fans. Nevertheless, a pre-save of the song may be found at this link, and a studio version is on the way.
Additionally, the evening was the group’s first performance with their new drummer, Brian Medeiros (Ex-RED/Otherwise). James Cassells of Asking Alexandria, who temporarily filled in behind the drum kit last year, is replaced by Medeiros. In addition to the previously reported new song and a recurrent cameo by Halo‘s Master Chief, Breaking Benjamin and Flyleaf’s Lacey Sturm performed their previous joint single, “Dear Agony,” during yesterday night’s performance.
This week, Ice Nine Kills’ “Scream 7” song “Twisting The Knife” made its live debut with emerging talent MAPHRA. On May 7, that coupling took place. The portions on “Twisting The Knife,” which were initially performed by “Scream 7” actress Mckenna Grace, were taken over by MAPHRA, who has been making waves on social media with her versions of numerous metalcore songs and even hitting the charts. She reportedly made her live debut with this performance. In the meantime, the band released “Hell Or High Slaughter,” a recent “Grave Diggler” single, for the first time. It was made available in conjunction with the new horror/thriller “Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come.”
When Nonpoint performed at “Welcome To Rockville” on May 8th, they had a throwback planned for their audience. The band performed “Bullet With A Name,” their most well-known song to date, live with their former bassist Ken MacMillan. MacMillan was one of the band’s original members and played bass and backing vocals with them from 1997 until 2011. That song was the lead single off their fifth studio album, “To The Pain,” which came out in 2005.
Look who got to join us on stage today! For the first time in over 15 years, our very first bass player Ken aka KB joined us during ‘Bullet With a Name‘. It was like yesterday we were just jamming in a room together. It was a long time coming. But today overall was a good time with our family at ‘Welcome To Rockville‘ we can’t say thank you enough to the fans and the staff here not only working but watching our backs gotta say Big thank you to you. And to @welcometorockville and the city of Daytona THANK YOU for giving us so much love and an unmatched energy from this monumental moment. Can’t wait to grace your stages again. Thank you for all that you are and what you do for the Rock community..
