98ROCK announced 98ROCKFEST with 6 of the best bands in rock music today; Disturbed, Staind, Chevelle, Static X and Hollywood Undead.
At the St. Pete Times Forum Friday, April 10th, the event kicks off with the 98ROCKFEST Preshow Free Show in the Plaza featuring three of the best up and coming bands in the nation. The Plaza Stage starts at 2PM in the vendor village and goes until doors at 6PM. The mainstage begins inside the arena at 6:30PM with Disturbed, Staind, Chevelle, Static X, Saliva and Hollywood Undead.
Nearly a decade after the release of their groundbreaking debut, The Sickness, Disturbed have become one of the most passionate and well-respected bands in the hard-rock universe, a dependable source not only of pummeling riffs and jackhammer beats, but of personal and political insights into our troubled times. Yet success (in the form of three platinum-plus albums, with both Believe and Ten Thousand Fists topping Billboard’s album chart and over nine million albums sold) hasn’t dulled this Chicago-based foursome’s taste for adventure. If anything, Disturbed’s loyal fanbase has pushed the band to newer heights of self-expression.
Staind’s sixth studio album may be titled The Illusion Of Progress, but there’s no mistaking just how far the band has come since the release of their major label debut less than a decade ago. Make no mistake, Lewis still feels the torment and anguish that, in many ways (and often unfairly), became Staind’s trademark as they rose to prominence to become one of the biggest rock bands of the new millennium, but The Illusion Of Progress boasts a lyrical maturity and songwriting aptitude matched only by the band’s musical depth and insatiable desire to get better and better with each release. “When you finish a record, you have to feel like it’s the best job you’ve ever done and they are the best songs you’ve ever written – if you don’t feel that way, then you didn’t do your job and your job isn’t done,” says Mushok. “We think this album is a big step for us. Both lyrically and musically, it’s a little bit of a departure.” Everything you know about Staind isn’t wrong; it’s just been rediscovered. Things are about to get a lot more interesting.
The Loefflers formed Chevelle in Chicago in 1995. After climbing to the top of the local hard rock scene, the band entered the studio with legendary producer Steve Albini and recorded their debut album Point #1 in 1999. After several high profile tours, Chevelle were signed by Epic Records, and in 2001 they entered the studio to record their second album Wonder What's Next. Propelled by the single "Send the Pain Below," which climbed to #1 on the Mainstream and Modern Rock chart, the album quickly went platinum and Chevelle were one of the main stage attractions at that summer's Ozzfest. With VENA SERA, Chevelle has returned stronger and more tightly knit then ever. Not only does the album reveal the band's musical growth, it revels in a renewed sense drive and determination. Chevelle are still an evocative, crushing hard rock band, but they now gleam with solidarity instead of threatening to fall apart at any moment.
Calling Static-X the Terminator of contemporary rock music may seem like an obvious comparison: The band’s blunt-force-trauma melding of industrial rock, thrash metal and futuristic disco is nothing if not cybernetic. But when you look back at Static-X’s 13-year legacy, the comparison goes well beyond the musical: Since the 1999 release of their platinum-certified Warner Bros. debut, Wisconsin Death Trip, the Los Angeles quartet have weathered musical trends, survived lineup shifts, and even severed longtime creative partnerships to emerge as the streamlined metallic machine they are today; and with their fifth studio album, Cannibal, they sound positively indestructible. |
