Usually by now we have a general idea as to what bands will be on The Summer Slaughter tour through hints they drop during the year. Being that it’s April, it’s odd to not have any indication as to who we’ll be seeing on the massive extreme metal festival. Finally, the Facebook page for the tour has dropped its first hint at bands we’ll see this year, and it seems to be a bit for everyone.  

Chances are, if you’re into metal, your first love for a band wasn’t Gorgoroth or Suffocation. I’ve met a person or two who went from prog rock into tech death, but in actuality the majority of people in the metal community started with the basics: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and even hard rock bands that influenced the genre, like Van Halen. It’s almost like Metal 101, and everyone has to go through it at some point or another. And whether you enjoy the music or not, you can’t deny the influence on the genre, let alone how it has impacted the world.  

Fresh off a run of dates with Robert DeLong, Florida’s most dynamic alt-electro duo COLOURS is set to tour North America as direct support for Andy Black on “The Homecoming Tour” this summer. Complete tour dates are below.  

Sometimes, when tours get announced, the lineup is just too good to pass up, even if you aren’t entirely familiar with the bands attached. I could argue that I enjoyed Intronaut and Scale the Summit as bands and that they’re great musicians, but improper timing on my behalf never allowed me to give the respective bands as much time as they deserved. I’m familiar with a good deal of their songs, and given the fact that they were all withstanding the staggering amount of music I’ve digested clearly says something about the quality of the bands as a whole.  

ATREYU will embark on a headline tour in May 2016 in recognition and celebration of the 10-year anniversary of their album A Death-Grip on Yesterday.  

Swedish progressive sludge bringers, MOLOKEN, will kick off a string of tour dates next month in support of their 2015 release All Is Left To See out now via Temple of Torturous.  

Baltimore-based Grimoire Records is preparing the upcoming third album by West Virginia stoner/noise metal trio, RHIN, for release in April, with the diverse and damaging Passenger.  

Madison, WI Death Metallers CASKET ROBBERY have released two play-through videos for Evolution of Evil tracks “Pray for Death” and “Asylum“.  

California’s groove metal juggernauts, DevilDriver, have premiered their savage new single, “Daybreak,” today a Loudwire.com. The song is the first released track from the band’s upcoming, 7th studio album, Trust No One, that’s due out on May 13th from Napalm Records. Fans can pre-order the record now at http://www.devildriver.com/.  

New York based hardcore outfit SICK OF IT ALL are proud to announce a series of headlining dates in the U.S. celebrating 30 years together as a band. The group will play eight shows throughout the West Coast to start off April, followed by a few dates on the East Coast in early July. They will be joined by Bl’ast and Old Firm Casuals on the West Coast trek, and Street Dogs, King Ly Chee, and Manipulate for the East Coast shows.  

Fresh off of the release of their critically-acclaimed debut Better Noise Records LP, Day One, FROM ASHES TO NEW are proud to announce that they will be performing all summer long on the destination for the biggest breakout artists, Van’s Warped Tour 2016. Tickets are now available for purchase at http://vanswarpedtour.com/dates/.  

Never one to not being doing something, Devin Townsend took to Twitter to announce that the recording of the new Devin Townsend Project album, Transcendence, would be beginning next week.