Sounds of the Underground

If you are a metal band in today's times you strive to play Ozzfest.  It's the tour that launched the careers of bands like Slipknot and System of a Down. 

Say you get invited to play Ozzfest and you have a great run. Then what happens? Do you go back to playing clubs?  

To answer this question a group of industry agents and promoters got together and created the Sounds of the Underground Tour.  A summer festival where metal and hardcore preside and bands that have had some success but not necessarily mainstream per se can get together and play for the summer.     

The Sounds of the Underground tour features a variety of bands.  Acts like Trivium, Cannibal Corpse and everyone's favorite space aliens GWARmake up a mere portion of the bill.    Also included in this year's line-up are headliners As I Lay Dying and some of Europe's finest metal acts, In Flames and Behemoth.

The Review got to talk with Paul Mazurkiewicz of Cannibal Corpse just before the tour started in July.  He says that Cannibal Corpse is looking forward to broadening their fan base on this tour and that it I an honor for them to be asked to do a tour of this magnitude since death metal acts rarely are asked t do tours as big as this one.

This tour will also be the first time the band has played cuts off their new album KILL on American soil.    He said he is looking forward to hanging out and seeing the other bands like Behemoth play. 

The headliner on this years Sounds of the Underground tour is As I Lay Dying.  No stranger to big tours, AILD played Ozzfest on 2005.  They have enjoyed great success with their most recent album Shadows are Security.  Also on the bill is hard-core act Terror, Through the eyes of the Dead, The Chariot and for the Detroit show Machine Head.

 This is easily going to be one of the shows of the summer.  If you are a hard core or heavy metal fan don't miss your chance to see this show.  If nothing else, GWAR should be all the entertainment one should need.

"What better act to embody the spirit of underground than GWAR", says organizer Tim Borror. "One of the main goals of SOTU is to put on a big metal/hard core festival but maintain the underground feeling many of these bands are accustomed to."

If you need proof that this idea works just look at the second stage of this years Ozzfest.  Over half of the acts were a part of last years SOTU.  Acts like Norma Jean and Unearth are SOTU alumni along with Lamb of God,who is one of the featured acts on the Unholy Alliance tour.

This is going to be a great summer for metal and it all wraps up with theSounds of the Underground.  Don’t miss your chance to be a part of the next revolution of metal. 

The Sounds of the Underground tour is invading the parking lot at DTE Energy Music Theater on August 3rd.