WESTFEST 2015 2nd line-up announcement   5 Dec 2014

ODR Productions, The Rock & Coup De Main proudly present ‘The Monster Energy Westfest ’15, an annual music festival that every rock, metal & punk fan will be sure not to miss! If the success of the inaugural WestFest is anything to go by, 2015’s event is going to be bigger and better, creating a must do, on all calendars.

Shortly after announcing their huge line up and brand new venue ‘The Monster Energy Westfest’ 15’ experienced a greater public interest than anticipated and will upgrade the venue to ‘Mount Smart Stadium’ – All tickets purchased previously are still valid and tickets purchased through layby will continue as per usual.

New additions to the festival can now be announced … ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for … Fall Out Boy, Lamb Of God, All Time Low, Papa Roach, Antemasque, Fear Factory, The Devil Wears Prada, Escape The Fate, Animals As Leaders, Lagwagon, Frenzal Rhomb, The Wonder Years, Crown The Empire, 8 Foot Sativa, & Kitsch

WESTFEST 2015
Tuesday 3rd March
Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland NZ
Tickets on sale now from TICKETMASTER

Soundgarden, Faith No More, Judas Priest, Fall Out Boy, Lamb Of God, All Time Low, Papa Roach, Antemasque, Fear Factory, The Devil Wears Prada, Escape The Fate, Animals As Leaders, Lagwagon, Frenzal Rhomb, The Wonder Years and Crown the Empire, 8 Foot Sativa, Kitsch and more to be announced.

Soundgarden, like the iconic rock bands who inspired them, redefined rock music for a whole generation and have had a revolutionary impact on the course of musical history. Forming in 1984, their punk ethos, coupled with a metal sound, compelling lyrics and vocalist Chris Cornell’s ravenous roar, soon seduced audiences hungry for something new. 1991’s platinum album ‘Bad Motorfinger’ attracted worldwide acclaim. However, mainstream success came with the 1994 release of ‘Superunknown’ their popularity grew faster than anyone could have expected. After a dozen years, 5 pioneering albums, 10 Grammy nominations and a slew of singles including‘Blackhole Sun’, Soundgarden disbanded in 1997 to follow personal musical projects.

Reforming in 2010, they announced a new beginning, paying homage to the mid 90’s. Soundgarden celebrate their triumphant return to the live stage celebrating the bands legacy and introducing their greatest work to a new generation. With a perfect blend of vintage and modern, they are back and ready to blow their New Zealand fans away.

With their fusion of heavy metal, funk, hip hop and progressive rock, Faith No More have earned a substantial cult following worldwide. With many line up changes throughout their earlier years, they found commercial success with new vocalist Mike Patton. Along with adding a new vocalist, the band had tightened it’s attack, and the result was the genre bending hit single ‘Epic’, which established them as a major hard rock act. Faith No More followed their break through success with 1992’s ‘Angel Dust’, one of the more complex and confounding records ever released by a major label, selling over 3 million copies worldwide.

After the supporting tour of Faith No More’s 1997 album ‘Album of the Year’ they announced that they would be disbanding. All remaining members went on to join other bands and create a different path for their retrospective musical talents. However in February 2009, after 11 years of dissolution, they decided to reform the band, and have officially embarked on a new path as the new and improved Faith No More; eager to show the WestFest stage just how groundbreaking they really are.

Judas Priest was one of the most influential heavy metal bands of the 70’s, spearheading the new wave of British Heavy Metal, late in the decade. Decked out in leather and chains the band has fused gothic doom, riffs, and speed; as well as adding a vicious two-lead guitar attack. 1978’s ‘Stained Class’ and 1979’s ‘Hell Bent for Leather’ established them as in international force in metal. The band's seventh album, 1980's ‘British Steel’, was its first U.S. Top 40 entry, and a heavy metal landmark, featuring songs, ”Living After Midnight" and "Breaking the Law”. Over the years Judas Priest became increasingly known for their extravagant live show, which featured Vocalist, Rob Halford, in his trademark S&M gear, thundering onstage. With the 40th anniversary of Judas Priest they released ‘Redeemer of Souls’ in July 2014, satisfying the ears of both old and new fans. Judas Priest were influential in the 70’s and are now incomparable.

Fall Out Boy rose to the forefront of emo pop in the mid-2000s, selling more than four million albums thanks to the band's tabloid-grabbing bassist, able-voiced frontman, and handful of Top 40 hits. The group's four members first came together in suburban Wilmette, a bedroom community just 14 miles north of Chicago, around 2001. Vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley, and guitarist Joe Trohman had all taken part in various bands connected to Chicago's underground hardcore scene. Most notably, Hurley drummed for Racetraitor, the furiously political metalcore outfit whose brief output was both a rallying point and sticking point within the hardcore community. Now some 13 years later the band is rallying the troops once more for a worldwide invasion with their latest album American Beauty // American Psycho set to be released on January 20.

A new breed of modern American metal was erected in the 2000s, with Lamb of God serving as an architect, designing the blueprint that would become the standard by which bands that came after them would be judged. So often, the European metal scene has set the tone and established the creative high watermark of the global metal scene, providing the template that their American brethren would follow. Then Lamb of God came along and all bets were off. It was Lamb of God who rewrote the rules, devised a new playbook and raised the standard. The genre was forever and irrefutably changed by what the band has done. With a new album talked about for early 2015 there is no reason to miss the massacre that is a Lamb of God live set!

Formed in 2003 in the suburbs of Baltimore, All Time Low, started out as a high school cover band before morphing into the energetic pop punk outfit that we are now accustomed with. 2012 saw the release of the huge album ‘Don’t Panic’ - which debuted in the top five on the NZ iTunes Album Chart securing them a sold-out show at the Powerstation in 2013, but they are back and ready to reinforce their loveable antics on their New Zealand fans with a few hints at new material too!

A new album, a new world tour and blistering live performance, the 23rd of Januray marks the release of F.E.A.R Papa Roach’s greatest effort yet, and March 3rd marks the date New Zealand fans will be set loose to mosh, pit and scream along to this iconic bands anthems, from Scars to Last Resort, you best believe Papa Roach have what it takes to leave you shirtless and begging for more.

American rock band Antemasque formed in 2014 by former members of At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Their first album featured Red Hot Chili Peppers's Flea on bass and Dave Elitch on drums. Their new self-titled release has taken rock fans by storm and scored reviews as huge as the entourage involved in erecting such an exciting new act.
In the early '90s, many years before Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall started combining strangled growls with catchy vocal melodies, and Static-X and Rammstein began blended pounding staccato riffs and jackhammer beats with electronic samples, Los Angeles future-thinkers Fear Factory were reinventing both death metal and industrial rock with an arsenal of sonic styles. After releasing four critically acclaimed albums and two industrial remix EPs, selling over a million albums in the process.

The Devil Wears Prada, formed in 2005 in Dayton, Ohio, started out riding high on Rise Records, releasing Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord which scanned over 50,000 copies and Plagues which has sold over 100,000 copies. Now in 2015 The Devil Wears Prada are ready to stake their claim as the biggest Christian Metalcore band to grace the stage.

Escape The Fate are one of the rare acts that can push on and become more rounded and respected after loosing a front-man, especially one of such notability. But despite their challenges and line up changes Escape The Fate are back in New Zealand and Craig Mabbitt plans on holding the band higher on his shoulders than they ever have before!

After playing for a few years in the "straight" music world as a member of the uniquely virtuosic Washington, D.C.-based metalcore band Reflux, seven- and eight-string guitar wizard Tosin Abasi was asked to record a solo album by the group's then record label, Prosthetic Records, once the group disbanded. At first, Abasi declined on the grounds that to do so would be "egotistical," but he eventually relented and thus Animals As Leaderswere born.

Santa Barbara’s pride and joy, Lagwagon have been belting ‘em out since 1988. Their catchy brand of punk is an infectious blend of pop and hardcore, lyrically tackling an array of personal political beliefs, and after a nine year lag, it’s time to get back on the wagon with the powerful and long-awaited album ‘Hang’ the boys are back on New Zealand soil, gearing up to show us their new material.

Mention Frenzal Rhomb, and you will be certain to elicit a meaningful response, informed by the great depth of interest and emotional connection that punk fans throughout the world have for the best punk band in the world. A band not often touring, but a band not to miss when they are! Iconic and still legitimate… A feat not often accomplished within the punk scene.

After unfortunately having to cancel their first appearance in New Zealand, The Wonder Years, couldn’t be happier to announce their relentless pop punk show is coming back to deliver on old promises, and what better way to do so than on the WestFest stage. With four full-length albums, two eps and countless alternative releases, they are no newbies on the scene, and are famous for putting on an energetic performance.

American based band, Crown the Empire, make music on a level rarely seen now a days, combining visual aesthetics, theatrical sonic textures and thought provoking lyrics for an audio experience that takes the listener on a wild ride of epic proportions, and Crown the Empire are ready to unleash this unique experience on the WestFest crowd.

8 Foot Sativa … "Hate Re Made Me" is the new album release by 8 Foot Sativa.

Their newest release HATE RE MADE ME is a complete re write of their 2002 gold release "Hate Made Me" this recording was sculptured under the scrutiny of Clint Murphy from Modern World Studios in the UK. Sativa relocated Clint to Earthquake stricken Christchurch in 2013 to revisit their groundbreaking 2002 album

8 Foot Sativa mastermind Gary Smith states "Hate Made Me, was great fun to do and was a great start for the band but I have always thought we could have done it better, now we have"

8 Foot Sativa will be release "HATE RE-MADE ME" on Tuesday March 3rd at the 2015 Westfest Festival.

Smashing out pop rock sensibility with a punk rock attitude. It is with pleasure we announce Kitsch’s return to a big stage with an appearance at Westfest!

Tickets on sale now at www.ticketmaster.co.nz

http://westfest.co.nz
http://soundgardenworld.com/
http://www.fnm.com/
http://judaspriest.com/
http://www.alltimelow.com/
http://lagwagon.com/
http://thewonderyearsband.com/
https://facebook.com/CrownTheEmpire
www.falloutboy.com/

http://www.lamb-of-god.com/
http://www.paparoach.com/
http://antemasque.com/
http://fearfactory.com/
http://www.tdwpband.com/
http://www.escapethefate.com/
http://www.animalsasleaders.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FrenzalRhomb
http://www.8footsativa.co.nz/
http://www.muzic.net.nz/artists/258/kitsch

ENDS

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