Since 2006 Taco Bell’s, Feed The Beat program has highlighted over 1,500 bands of all genres ranging from synth pop to death metal, granting them exposure on a massive scale as well as $500 in Taco bell gift cards to use on the road.
Here are the metal bands included in this years class!
Rivers of Nihil is an American technical death metal band from Reading, Pennsylvania. They are currently signed to Metal Blade Records. To date the band has released two EPs and three studio albums. Their most recent release is 2018’s Where Owls Know My Name, which debuted at number 61 on the Billboard 200, selling 2,750 copies in its first week, per Metal Insider. The quintet announced themselves as one of the most promising and forward-thinking metal bands in the world today with their first two releases, The Conscious Seed of Light (2013) and Monarchy (2015). But on March 16th, 2018, they shattered all expectations with their third full-length, Where Owls Know My Name.
Emerging from the Lansing scene in late 2011, TYRANT was formed by brothers Philip and Andrew Winters while just beginning highschool. Sharing a passion for not only metal, but music itself, TYRANT truly came into fruition with their release of their ‘Jaws of Agony’ demo in February of 2012. TYRANT’s live shows include metal that ranges greatly from speedy solos to dark and ominous breakdowns. In 2013, TYRANT participated in numerous shows for the first half of the year but spent the remainder of the year writing and rehearsing material for their August 2014 release the ‘Purge EP’. TYRANT’s ‘Purge EP’ has been streamed on radio stations such as Powerton Radio, Violent Forces Radio and HeadBangers FM. The power trio spent 2015 touring heavily around the region, to great responses at venues such as The Music Factory, The Intersection, The Loft, The Foundry, and The Token Lounge, performing alongside of Battlecross, Deicide, Metal Church and Havok to name a few. While they toured the surrounding area they took inspiration from strange life events and composed material for their most recent CD ‘Black Hand’ that was released March 25th 2016. Following the release of ‘Black Hand’ the group picked up Tony Garza on lead guitar and Cory McLain taking over bass and the new line-up toured the East Coast and Mid-West hitting major cities like NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia and others. TYRANT is currently arranging and writing material for their debut album expected in 2018.
Inferi was formed in 2006 by lead guitarist and vocalist Malcolm Pugh (also of A Loathing Requiem,Diskreet, ex-Enfold Darkness, ex-Entheos) in Nashville, Tennessee. With roots firmly grounded in traditional Melodic Death Metal, members wanted to push their collective playing and songwriting talents to the absolute technical limits and separate themselves from other contemporary Melodic Metal bands of the day. The band strived to merge the classic melodic metal sound with a taste of crushing technicality. After releasing Divinity In War in 2007 and The End Of An Era in 2009, they experienced an overwhelming ripple of hardships, causing the band to lay dormant in an unforeseen state of hibernation. Four years have passed since the band released the excellent The Path of Apotheosis and now, armed with a new lineup comes Revenant, a record that will surely push INFERI to the forefront of progressive and technical death metal.
Inferi sets themselves outside of the generic pack by mixing melodious, yet technical musicianship with virtuosic songwriting rarely since in today’s extreme metal acts.
Wolfheart is a Finnish melodic death metal band from Lahti, formed in 2013 by Tuomas Saukkonen. It began as a solo project after Saukkonen disbanded all of his other bands: Before the Dawn, the Final Harvest, Black Sun Aeon, RoutaSielu and Dawn of Solace; in order to start from scratch. Saukkonen shocked everyone in 2012 with his announcement that he will bury all of his metal music projects at the same time to start anew. Before The Dawn, Black Sun Aeon, Dawn Of Solace and RoutaSielu received their coup de grâce February 23rd 2013 with one last show, in which material from all the projects was played. After years of pouring his creative juices to projects too numerous to count, since the end of 2012 Saukkonen has focused on just one labour of love, Wolfheart – the musical entity and form of expression that finally allows him to siphon all his musical genius to just one outlet. Be the approach melodic and hopeful, acoustic and fragile, harsh black/death metal or atmospheric doom, Wolfheart has it all, in a mix like of which you haven’t heard before.
Three albums into their career, Wolfheart has become a staple in extraordinarily well-crafted melodic death metal. 3rd effort and tour-de-force to date, “Tyhjyys” (”Emptiness”) brings forth a dramatic, cinematic dimension to the music and turns it into an all-encompassing experience. From February 2013 onwards the name Wolfheart has been synonymous with atmospheric yet brutal Winter Metal.
Striker is an Edmonton-based recording and performing heavy metal band that has grown immensely through their years in the industry. A classic mix of heavy metal, hard rock, and 80’s hair metal, their music features powerful, clean vocals, catchy choruses, vocal harmonies, and impressive guitar leads.
Audiences are often floored by the energy of their live show, and their recorded material has been met with fantastic response by both fans and industry across the world. Striker has toured across dozens of countries as headliners as well as support for major metal acts.
Striker is gearing up for the release of their sixth studio album “Play To Win” on October 26th via their independent label Record Breaking Records. Revealing their artwork and track listing, the album features 10 fist pounding shredtacular anthems produced by the band plus mixed and mastered by Hendrik Udd (Firewind, Powerwolf, Hammerfall, Delain). The album follows their 2017 self-titled full length that the band supported with tours across Europe and North America with Sonata Arctica, Dark Tranquility, and Warbringer along with festival appearances at 70,000 Tons of Metal, Bang Your Head Festival (Germany) and more to add to their almost 1000 shows performed in their decade plus career. That fifth studio album also garnered them a nomination from Canada’s JUNO awards, the country’s highest music prize, along with wins at the Edmonton Music Awards and Western Canadian Awards.
Congrats to these guys!
Go out and get yourselves 666 tacos!
