TRESPASS AMERICA: MAKING A STATEMENT
Today’s hottest names in metal gathered at The Key Club in Los Angeles this Tuesday afternoon to announce what is sure to be one of this summer’s biggest music festivals. Of course they found the least subtle way to do it. Before the press conference armed military men escorted the press into the nightclub, which had been transformed into a mock war zone. With blaring helicopter noises, fake bunkers and videos of soldiers, the entire event quickly took a turn for the surreal.From outside an armed sergeant and his troop yelled at a group of men in hoods to follow him into the club. One by one the hooded prisoners made their way to the stage. After what seemed like minutes of awkward silence and pure confusion on the part of the audience, the soldiers were ordered to take off the hoods of the men, one by one. It was a mystery worth waiting for, underneath lay representatives from all the bands playing this year’s Trespass America Festival.
“Everyone on stage right now is at the forefront of metal in some way,” explained Finger Finger Death Punch singer Ivan Moody. “We’ve always given 110 percent in everything we do so to have these bands here now is truly monumental.”
“The Trespass America Festival was created to bring together people from all over the country with a passion for the metal scene and turn their love of music into a real community,” said Metal Hammer’s editor Alexander Milas during the conference. “By bringing the festival to North America we’re not only promoting the music we believe in, we’re investing in it. We’re doing now in America what we’ve done for years in the Europe and the U.K.”
The goal of the festival is to make it not just a concert but an experience for the audience. The festival will be playing indoor only venues so that each of the bands can bring as much production value to their set as possible. “I know we’ve all played the Noon set at a festival and haven’t had the chance to give the audience the show they deserve,” notes Moody. “ With this set-up we make sure that every band can bring their entire production with them to every show.”
It doesn’t matter how good a festival’s production is unless there are quality bands to back them up. The Trespass America lineup has managed to tap into some of the best and names in current metal. Leading the charge is Five Finger Death Punch, a melodic heavy metal band filled with the kind of raw aggression fans feed on at a show.
Also in the lineup is the fan-favorite Killswitch Engage with the band’s original singer Jesse Leach. The Grammy nominated band is considered one of the most important bands of the new millennium metal revival. Rounding out the fest is Pop Evil, Emmure, Trivium, God Forbid and newcomer Battlecross.
Trespass was created to not only give fans a truly unique concert going experience but to send a message to them as well. “We will carry the flag into mainstream territory, we will trespass on their turf all across America,” says Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory, who helped put the festival together. “All these bands enable us to make a statement, a really loud one. Heavy music wants its place back in the limelight, so get ready, because we are coming, and we are coming in numbers.”
