There is no denying that Europe has been the heavy metal hotbed on this planet for several decades, particularly when it comes to the traditional forms of the musical style: clean vocals, soaring guitar harmonies, and galloping rhythms. Even though America has proven time and again that it can produce world-class bands in the old-school metal realm and that it has the die-hard fans to support the genre, occurrences of all-out traditional heavy metal festivals have been few and far between, if any. But metalheads can now rejoice, as the beach town of Ventura, California is set to host a festival exactly of this nature on October 17, 2015 at Bombay Bar & Grill, featuring a hefty lineup of scintillating talent from all over America.
The festival will be headlined by Wichita, Kansas veterans, Manilla Road, who shall satiate their legion of followers with a sizable set of selections from their revered catalog. As direct support is a rare, special concert appearance by Tucson, Arizona metal cult heroes, Ashbury, performing their seminal record ‘Endless Skies’ in its entirety. Hometown mainstays, Night Demon, slot in third on this epic bill, summoning the Southern California faithful to get down to the ritual of drinking from their NWOBHM chalice and bask in the old-school righteousness of tunes from their Century Media debut full-length release ‘Curse Of The Damned’ as well as their self-titled EP. Metal Blade recording artists, Visigoth, from Salt Lake City, Utah, will set foot to reconquer these lands once again with musical tales of battle, and female-fronted Louisville, Kentucky-based Savage Master will cast a spell with their occult-themed metal sorcery.
Rounding out the 10-band lineup is BAT (Richmond, VA) featuring Ryan Waste of Municipal Waste, Los Angeles-based Metal Blade Records alumni Steel Prophet with guest vocalist Neil Turbin, Ventura’s fantasy-themed rock ‘n’ roll quartet Gygax, Blade Killer (Los Angeles), Helion Prime (Sacramento, CA) and Wolfcross (Los Angeles, CA). As if this already isn’t reason enough for old-school metalheads to attend, Tim Baker and Robert Garven, members of the mighty, ever-elusive Cirith Ungol, will be doing a meet-n-greet session. To say that this is a must-attend for fans of the genre would be the understatement of the year, and the event is not only expected to draw locals, but is also poised to welcome travelers from all corners of the country and beyond.
To purchase tickets and for more information, visit http://www.frostandfirefest.com.
For out of town guests, we have secured a discount rate at the Clocktower Inn (three blocks from the venue). Just mention the name “Frost and Fire” upon booking to receive a reduced rate for your hotel stay the weekend of the festival.
