Steel Panther is an American glam metal band from Los Angeles, California, mostly known for their profane and humorous lyrics, as well as their exaggerated on-stage personae that reenact the stereotypical "glam metal" lifestyle.

Sons of Texas is an American heavy metal band formed in 2013. They released their debut album Baptized In The Rio Grande in 2015.

BRANDON YEAGLEY - LEAD VOCAL, HARMONICA

CHRIS BISHOP - GUITAR, VOCALS

JAKE FIGUEROA - BASS

PAUL FIGUEROA - DRUMS



There was a time when rock radio was dominated by great riffs. From Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water” and Derek And The Dominoes’ “Layla” to Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” and Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name Of” it was all about that unmistakable guitar sound that instantly identified a band or song.

The four members of Crobot -- Brandon Yeagley (lead vocals), Chris Bishop (guitar), Jake Figueroa (bass) and Paul Figueroa (drums) -- have united to bring that back.

Blending funk, blues, metal and good old-fashioned rock and roll into a howling vortex of Yeagley’s vocals, Bishop’s guitar and the Figueroa’s backbone, Crobot have crafted an album of endless good time rock hooks that sound as inspired today as they would have on AOR radio in 1974.

“We grew up with the same riff rock and it’s seemingly lacking in today’s music. We really seem to like the rock of old and felt that was missing,” Yeagley says.

“It seems like once we started jamming we didn’t try to find a certain sound or didn’t try to write a certain style, that’s just the stuff that came out cause that’s the shit that we like, the stuff that we listen to. It was much more of a subconscious effort. Crobot defined itself,” Jake adds.

That seamless chemistry between the quartet is evident throughout their eponymous four-song EP, which serves as an introduction to the band’s upcoming Something Supernatural album, due out this October. Before getting to the, well, mystical bond, first a little back story: Yeagley and Bishop were playing together in Crobot with two other members, while Jake and Paul were in other bands. “We played shows together and we realized we wanted Jake and Paul in the band for it to work and we got them,” Bishop says. “Just jamming together it was natural and clicked right off the bat. With Jake and Paul we were on the same train going the same direction, from the beginning.”

With the Figueroa brothers in the fold, Crobot found its voice. “Once Jake and Paul came into the band a little over a year ago everything started coming a lot easier just because they were already in a band that was similar to Crobot,” Bishop says. “We all played on shows together so it was nice to have an idea and then someone to expand off of that idea. So once that started happening we realized, ‘This is what Crobot is.’”

Crobot is a band that can rock at all tempos. Whether it’s the slow-building groove of “Skull Of Geronimo,” a methodical sludge-rocker that calls to mind Soundgarden in the chorus or the more up-tempo funkified “Nowhere To Hide,” a track that sounds like the Black Crowes driving a Camaro, Crobot display stellar musicianship and lyrical depth.

For example, on “Queen Of The Light,” the powerful closing track of Something Supernatural, Yeagley sings the story of a girl yearning for a new life. “She lives the darkest life/but all she wants to be is the queen of the light,” he sings against the plaintive wailing of the slow-moving melody. It’s one of the songs destined to strike a deep chord with fans in the same way the single “Nowhere To Hide” has become a good-time anthem.

“’Nowhere To Hide,’ was another one of the first songs we had written. We were jamming ideas and pulling ideas from other songs that we had jammed on and it came together,” Paul says. “It was organic.”

“Nowhere To Hide” is one of the songs Yeagley cites as getting his feet wiggling. And he promises that on Something Supernatural there will be plenty more grooves to get fans moving, as those who’ve experienced Crobot live have already seen.

“’Night Of The Sacrifice’ is one that’s coming out off the full length and that always gets me excited to play,” he says. “It’s usually the introduction to the funkier side of what we do in our set, it’s usually the first funky track that we play. So it’s really exciting to switch that mode from more riff based stuff towards to the classic metal sounding stuff with the heavier side of things and to flip flop and see people’s reactions when we totally hit the other end of the spectrum with the funky stuff.”

Musically, “Skull Of Geronimo” is one Yeagley sees as being undeniably representative of Crobot. “That’s a little on the heavier end of the spectrum, but it’s still got that funkiness to it,” he says. And lyrically, “Wizards” might be the Crobot statement song.

“It’s an epic tale of two wizards. One is on the side of wizardry and technology while the other is the side of natural spiritual wizardry and it’s a clash of funkiness and classic metal too in the same sense. So it’s a battle of epic proportions on all sides,” he says. “It’s just a song that fulfills all the ends of the spectrum of what Crobot is.”

Then there is the storytelling ability they show on a song like “La Mano De Lucifer,” a Biblical tale that starts off, “A failed rebellion/against the one creator/exiled to the fire.”



To show all sides of Crobot takes a lot. This is a band that displays their pot-smoking proudly, like on the humorous Twitter post, “Warning, Crobot’s music has been known to turn you to stoned.”

As another side of the band, Yeagley is a devout sci-fi buff. Asked what one film Crobot does the score for, he replies without hesitation, “2001: A Space Odyssey. That movie has its own special place amongst the sci-fi world.” And for contemporary sci-fi he picks Ender’s Game. “I’m such a huge fan of that series and to see that come to life on film was really cool. It’s got battles of epic proportions and everything you love about sci-fi, just nails it,” he says.

In a recent interview with a popular Chicago website the band was asked about the four-song CROBOT EP first, then waiting on the album. Their response: “We are gentlemen so we wanted to ease the tip in first.”

And asked if they were born in the wrong era musically Jake nailed it. “I thought about it but then I realized the weed is WAYYYY better now.”

A modern rock band with a sense of humor, as well as their own hot sauce, CROBOT has already been making their mark among peers with their wild live performances. But for Crobot, at the end of the day, it is all about the sound.

“All I care about is that people walk away after hearing the album thinking, ‘Man, Crobot is the funkiest, heaviest band I’ve ever heard,’” Bishop says.

Mission accomplished.

Projected is an American rock supergroup project consisting of Sevendust members John Connolly and Vinnie Hornsby, Alter Bridge and Creed drummer Scott Phillips, and former Submersed and current Tremonti guitarist Eric Friedman. The band released their album, Human, in June 2012, before falling into inactivity as members returned to their respective bands in late 2012. The band released their second studio album, the double album, Ignite My Insanity, in July 2017.

These days, it's ironic that rock music is as fueled as it is felled by gimmicks. Rare is the band that simply shuts up and shows up to play, sans pretense, without overthinking it and with undeniable soul. California-based band Kyng is one of those bands. Their latest album, Breathe in the Water, is frontloaded with the type of impassioned vocals that erupt from the depths of the gut, unforgettable blues-soaked riffs, and pulverizing rhythmic clap. Breathe in the Water, a follow up to 2014's well-received Burn the Serum, is heavy, both sonically and lyrically, without having to scream in your face to get the point across. That's what makes it a fully actualized piece of art and the band's definitive statement to date.

It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for the genre-defying SHVPES, but in 2018, the band have truly arrived. After taking their beginnings as tech-metal upstarts and joining forces with enigmatic frontman Griffin Dickinson on vocals for their highly-praised 2016 debut ‘Pain. Joy. Ecstasy. Despair.’, SHVPES rode the wave of acclaim that rapidly attached itself to their name. Armed with a refreshingly ambitious and daringly experimental brand of schizophrenic noise, they stood out from the infinite crowd of carbon-copy metallers like a sore thumb. And in no time at all, the Birmingham-based five-piece – completed by guitarist/vocalist Ryan Hamilton, guitarist Youssef Ashraf, bassist Grant Leo Knight and drummer Harry Jennings – found themselves sprawled across the pages of rock’s most prestigious magazines, accumulating thousands of views on their electrifying videos, and supporting their favourite bands on the road. <> wanted a piece of the action.



Despite the jaw-dropping hype that surrounded the budding SHVPES in these two years, though, the group found themselves struck with the realisation that they hadn’t fully unlocked their true potential. “I remember there being a dawning point,” the multitalented Griffin explains of the lightbulb moment they experienced following the release of ‘Pain. Joy. Ecstasy. Despair.’. “It just felt like we had something missing. We were saying: ‘That doesn’t represent our talent.’ We weren’t as proud of it as we wanted to be.”



And so, rather than coasting on the external triumph of ‘Pain. Joy. Ecstasy. Despair.’, SHVPES put their heads down with a newfound determination, and set to work on the full-length’s follow-up. “Straight away, it was like, ‘We need to make a better album – this obviously hasn’t hit the spot,’” Griffin remembers. “We want to make something that we’re over the moon with.” The band assembled in the picturesque surroundings of Snowdonia, Wales, and this is where they began forming their greatest songs to date.



As is the way when you’re encompassed by a group of highly-skilled musicians, the quintet weren’t short of crisp concepts for the tunes that would go on to mark the next era of SHVPES. “We had <> many musical ideas,” Griffin smiles proudly. “And we had a bunch of songs that we were like, ‘Let’s not try and turn something that’s 70 per cent good into something that’s amazing; let’s go with something that’s 100 per cent good and build on it.’” Taking inspiration from iconic hip-hop duo Run The Jewels, hardcore-meets-soul mob THE FEVER 333, legendary rap-rockers Limp Bizkit and everything in-between, SHVPES then united once more with producer Jim Pinder to nail down a more musically cohesive – but no less breath-taking – iteration of their sound.



Thematically, too, SHVPES’ brains were working overtime when they rolled up to the Treehouse Studios in Chesterfield to start recording album number two. Having collectively dealt with enough hardships to last an entire lifetime over the past couple of years – robberies, infidelities, violence, addiction, anxiety and depression – they bravely opened up in a way few would dare to. “We wanted to shine an honest and authentic look at how we dealt with it all, even if that meant it was an imperfect example of things,” Griffin reveals.



The perfect example of the band’s fearless candour comes in the form of ‘Someone Else’, a scathing insight “inside the mind of someone who’s been cheated on”. Not only does the track come wrapped up in the kind of rage you’d expect from The Incredible Hulk, it also sees SHVPES proving that honesty really is the best policy. “We wanted to give an example of real thoughts,” Griffin states. “It’s got all that anger and resentment that goes into your mind when you’re that pissed off. It’s cutthroat, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. It was one of the most brutal things to go through in life.”



The same can be said of the fiery ‘Counterfeit’, too. An uncompromising barrage of rapping, monstrous riffs and a chorus that even the most established of songwriters would envy, it shines a vivid light on the personal difficulties SHVPES have faced. “It’s a very personal song about being robbed,” Griffin sighs. “It’s very angry, but it’s almost delivered with a smile. It’s trying to make the best out of a bad situation.” Needless to say, equipped with such a belligerent retaliation to these thieves, SHVPES are having the last laugh.



Combine SHVPES’ formidable attitude with their mind-blowing fusion of hip-hop, metal, alternative rock and urban elements (as well four beautiful vocal cameos from Rosanne Hamilton, Ryan’s sister), and you’ve got colossal bangers like ‘Two Wrongs, No Rights’, lead single ‘Undertones’, ‘Renegades’ and the explosive ‘Calloused Hands’. It’s music for those who aren’t afraid of embracing a little eccentricity, and SHVPES know it probably won’t be for those with vanilla tastes. “What we’ve done is somewhat bold, but I’m not worried about people getting pissed off – they can take it or leave it. A lot of people are going to absolutely love it,” Griffin says with total poise.



And for the through-and-through metalheads, there’s still plenty to hold on to. Namely: a genius collaboration with one of SHVPES’ biggest inspirations, Matt Heafy of Trivium, on the song ‘Rain’. “It was cool to stick him on the most metal track, but put him completely out of his comfort zone on a rap section,” Griffin grins. “That just seemed like the perfect part, because we didn’t want to give him a screamy-shouty verse, we wanted to do something a bit different. We put about 10 takes of him on there, so we’ve got this vocal gang monster!”



A release overflowing with such ambition deserves a title to match, then. That’s why the band have opted for the symbol for ‘greater than’; not only because the figure itself plays off the old-school mixtape vibe SHVPES are working towards aesthetically, but because this album is surely set to take the band to the next level. “We realised that if we put out another album that was only a bit better than the last one, it would probably be the end,” Griffin admits of the release, which will, in a brilliantly unconventional way, be dropping in the form of three separate mixtapes throughout 2018, before collating itself into a full record. “We’d be maybe touring the UK once or twice a year, and playing some small club shows, and I don’t want to do that. I want this to be my life.”



Griffin needn’t worry. What SHVPES have created will catapult them into the elite leagues they’ve been preparing themselves for since the very start. And not only will ‘>’ consume their lives in this fearless new chapter; it could well take over your life, too.

WAYLAND is a four piece, blue-collar American band from Wayland, Michigan who began selling out venues all across the midwest in 2010 before relentlessly traveling the United States over 300 days per year for the past five years.

Committed to their roots and their songwriting, you cannot pigeonhole their sound into a genre, as every verse is penned from their heart telling tales of their stage to stage gypsy lifestyle. Comprised of Mitch Arnold on vocals, Phillip Vilenski on lead guitar, Dean Pizzazz on bass, and Nigel Dupree on drums, WAYLAND is a modern take on their vintage influences.

Audiotopsy is an American heavy metal band from Peoria, Illinois, formed in 2015. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Billy Keeton, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Greg Tribbett, bassist and backing vocalist Perry Stern, and drummer Matthew McDonough.

Burn Halo is a hard rock band, originating from Orange County, California and Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was formed by James Hart, lead singer of Orange County metalcore band Eighteen Visions although he left in 2016 and rejoined Eighteen Visions in 2017.

A hard-driving Southern rock unit based out of Palestine, Texas, Blacktop Mojo's fiery blend of post-grunge, classic rock, and metal falls somewhere between Soundgarden, Black Stone Cherry, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Founded in 2012 by frontman Matt James and drummer Nathan Gillis, the band eventually morphed into a five-piece with the additions of bass player Matt Curtis and guitarists Ryan Kiefer and Kenneth Irwin. They released their debut album, I Am, in 2014, followed by a heavy bout of touring that saw the group sharing the stage with a wide array of heavy hitters, including Bon Jovi, Sammy Hagar, Candlebox, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Shaman’s Harvest, Pop Evil, Puddle of Mudd, and Drowning Pool.

In 2017, the band teamed up with Muscle Shoals producer Jimmy Johnson for their highly anticipated sophomore outing Burn the Ships. The album was released via the band’s label, Cuhmon Records, in March of that year to critical acclaim, and it’s first single, “Where The Wind Blows” reached #27 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, while the band was on its first U.S. tour that fall. Through that tour, they landed a slot on 2018’s Rock Fest, featuring headliners, Disturbed, Incubus, and Godsmack, among many other industry leading hard rock acts.

At the beginning of 2018, the band has started work on its third full length release, as well as touring to support the second radio single from, “Burn The Ships”.