Dance Club Massacre Plays Jennie's in Asbury Park on March 19th (Metal Blade/Blackmarket Activities)

It seems like there is something seriously wrong when a number of touring metal bands are skipping over NYC.

Dance Club Massacre are playing Jennie's (a southern soul food restaurant???) in Asbury Park with The Agonist (Century Media) on Thursday, March 19th. According to Dance Club Massacre's MySpace profile, the show starts at 5PM. Given the early show time (which is somewhat surprising for a weekday show) and the traffic on the Parkway at that hour, this will probably end up being a "locals only" show.

The Agonist are coming back through the area for a show in Brooklyn at Club Europa on April 14th with Woe of Tyrants (Metal Blade) and Salt the Wound (Rotten Records).

Dance Club Massacre are touring behind their second CD, Circle of Death, which was released toward the end of last year. With this release, Dance Club Massacre establish themselves firmly in the symphonic black metal territory. Gone are the grindcore flailings of the band's previous release and this has been replaced with melodic riffs and horror-movie keyboards and synthesizers. Points of comparison are bands like SOTHIS and Abigal Williamms.

The band doesn't break any new ground with this release but they do appear to have an offbeat sense of humor (which is somewhat unusual in this genre). Some of the songs titles from the new CD include "Brewtality", "Deuces Shoeless vs the Double Dribbles" and "Risk Is My Business... and Business Is Risky?. The capstone for the band's beer, horror movie, party humor is an almost 30 minute death metal version of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" (which is the "hidden track" that closes the CD).

With Circle of Death, Dance Club Massacre have made a major step forward with their sound. The band's next CD will be something to watch for.

Here is the official video for "Shenanigans" (from Circle of Death)


Links:
Dance Club Massacre's MySpace Profile

The Following are Playing with Flogging Molly Next Saturday @ Stone Pony

I have known Sam (Napolitano - Guitar/Vocals) for a while but never checked out his band. I am really into his band's new CD and the band is playing with Flogging Molly next Saturday in Asbury Park. It looks like a great show and tickets are $28. This is an early show which starts at 2:30PM.


What is really cool is that The Following posted their new CD as a free download. Here is the message that the band posted on their MySpace page:



HEY EVERYONE!!!

We are very excited to finally have our new album in our hands and we are now releasing it for FREE!!!!

Does this mean you can't share it with your friends? OF COURSE NOT!! We encourage you to share it, in fact point your friends to the link below and have them tell all their friends about it. We want our music passed around and we are counting on you to do it.

This album will always be available online for free. WHY? Because we believe that music should be free, now we still need to make money... so we are still selling the CD online and in stores, but, we would rather have 10,000 people own it then 100... So, if you want to support us, buy tickets to our shows and come out to rock with us, or buy some merch. Ifyou just want to sit at home and enjoy it, thats cool too.

Thanks for all of your continued support and we look forward to playing a show near you soon!!

Without further ado we are proud to present to you Liars, Thieves, Killers, Saints.

Copy and paste this into your address bar.

http://www.thefollowing.net/LTKS/The_Following_LTKS.zip

Just unzip and enjoy! Hope you all like it

Love,
The Following

Come on out and support the band -- after the show at the Pony, here are the band's upcoming shows:

Sep 22 2007 2:00P Cagney’s Pub Parlin, New Jersey
Sep 28 2007 9:00P Championship Trenton, New Jersey
Oct 13 2007 8:00P Lebanon Fairgrounds(toys for tots fundraiser) Lebanon, Pennsylvania

Links:
The Following's MySpace page

Kittie Cancel Show in Asbury Park

I didn't know Asbury Park was that dangerous a place put Kittie just released the following announcement:

"We regret to inform all of you hoping to attend the [February 11] Asbury Park, New Jersey show at the Fastlane that the show has been cancelled. We were advised by the promoter to cancel the show after an increase in gang violence and a recent drive-by shooting in the area. We apologize for the inconvienence but our safety as well as your own is in all of our best interests! We'd hope that any of you wanting to attend that show would head to B.B. King's in [New York City] on February 12th, or The Crocodile Rock on Valentine's Day!"