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