Wow. Talk about a power packed punch of a tour! Five Finger Death Punch and Volbeat will be teaming up for a tour that puts the summer to bed and leads us into the Fall of 2014 and as a scribe who has seen both of these bands on numerous occasions over the years I can only advise that you get your tickets early since this is going to sell out everywhere. There was a great press release with this one, so I copied that for you to read below the poster. I’ll be back with some views afterward before sending you home so don’t worry. Let’s go.

Press Release:
Global rock heavyweights FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH and VOLBEAT announced today (5/6) on their Facebook pages (5FDP Facebook and Volbeat Facebook) that they’ve joined forces to bring fans one of the biggest rock tours of the year produced by Frank Productions/NS2. Special guests on the tour will be HELLYEAH and NOTHING MORE. Fred Frank, President of FRANK PRODUCTIONS offers: “We are excited to put two of the globally most relevant and hottest bands of the genre into major arenas across the country to bring fans an amazing night with 4 bands on the bill at a great value”. The co-headlining arena tour across North America (itinerary below) will kick off on September 16 at the Maverik Center in Salt Lake City, UT and run through October with the final performance taking place at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 at 10am local time.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, undoubtedly one of the most relevant and successful rock bands globally, dominated 2013 with the releases THE WRONG SIDE OF HEAVEN AND THE RIGHTEOUS SIDE OF HELL ? VOLUME 1 and VOLUME 2. Both volumes debuted on the U.S. Billboard album chart at #2 (more notably, within a four-month period) and in the top ten mainstream charts all across the globe. The two albums feature two #1 radio hit singles (“Lift Me Up” featuring Rob Halford of Judas Priest and “Battle Born”) and have combined sales of over 600,000 units to date. The multi-million selling rock titans’ current single, “The House Of The Rising Sun” is their 13th consecutive top ten hit at Active Rock Radio. USA TODAY proclaimed VOLUME 2 elevates the group “…to the top of its game. Offering more than blind rage, though there’s certainly plenty, the songs live in the tension implied by the album’s title—aware of the implications of lashing out, ready to accept the consequences” (11/19/13). Following Australia’s Soundwave Festival and shows across Japan and South East Asia, the band just concluded a sold out European headlining tour. FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH is Ivan Moody (vocals), Zoltan Bathory (guitar), Jeremy Spencer (guitar), Jason Hook (guitar) and Chris Kael (bass).

VOLBEAT’S OUTLAW GENTLEMEN & SHADY LADIES has sold more than 300,000 copies in the U.S. according to Soundscan, alongside hundreds of thousands of digital singles. The Danish quartet received their first Grammy Nomination in the “Best Metal Performance” category for “Room 24” (Volbeat Featuring King Diamond), and won Germany’s Echo Award for “Best International Alternative Act.” The band’s repertoire has become a staple at Active Rock radio, cementing their relevance with five consecutive #1 singles at the format. Their latest “Dead But Rising” is entrenched in the Top 5, on its way to the peak of the chart. Overseas, OUTLAW GENTLEMEN & SHADY LADIES has been certified platinum in their home country of Denmark, alongside Germany and Austria, with gold sales in Finland.

Since forming in Copenhagen in 2000, Volbeat has released five studio albums, and two live offerings that have turned the band into superstars, collecting platinum discs and prestigious awards making them one of the most talked about bands around the world. OUTLAW GENTLEMEN & SHADY LADIES, debuted at No. 1 in the band’s home country of Denmark alongside Canada, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and Austria. The new release saw a debut at No. 2 in Finland, No. 4 in the Netherlands and Sweden, and No. 9 in The United States. Volbeat is Michael Poulsen (vocals/guitar), Anders Kjølholm (bass) and Jon Larsen (drums), joined by former Anthrax/The Damned Things guitarist Rob Caggiano, who produced the new album with longtime Volbeat co-producer Jacob Hansen. The upcoming tour marks Volbeat’s fifth visit to North American this album cycle. This past year, the band has been one of the largest touring draws on the European continent headlining both festivals and a arena tour, and they appeared at the major Japanese festival Summer Sonic 2013 in both Tokyo and Osaka. Cumulatively, Volbeat has performed for over a million fans since the current album was released.

After roughly eight years, three albums, countless tours as headliners and as participants on “can’t miss” festival bills and hundreds of thousands of albums sold, HELLYEAH is making their biggest and boldest statement yet with BLOOD FOR BLOOD (out 6/10/14). The lineup of Chad Gray (Mudvayne), Vinnie Paul (Pantera), Tom Maxwell (Nothingface) and Kyle Sanders (Bloodsimple) bring the sound their fans have been waiting for with the help of producer, Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment). They’ve exchanged some of the party-centric, good time sounds of past efforts for pure metallic fury and emotional introspection. The single “Sangre Por Sangre (Blood For Blood)” hit the Top 30 after only 2 weeks at rock radio. They pushed themselves to new limits, dared to embrace change and to take risks with their music by just doing what comes naturally.

Hailing from San Antonio, NOTHING MORE is part schizoid System Of A Down weird-isms, part Mars Volta-esque prog rock freak out, part effortless pop nous, they seamlessly barrel from churning headbang to skyscraping chorus and back again in the blink of an eye. They are equally able to dial down their bluster into deft moments of crystalline beauty when the mood takes them. Their self-titled album (out 6/24/14) that includes their Top 10 radio single “This Is The Time (Ballast)”, is a gut-punching blend made all the more powerful by a keen lyrical sophistication and philosophical undertone, which marks them out from their contemporaries.

The Tour Dates:
9/16 Salt Lake City, UT @Maverik Center
9/17 Billings, MT @ Rimrock Auto Arena @ Metrapark
9/18 Bismarck, ND @ Bismarck Civic Center
9/20 Cedar Rapids, IA US @ Cellular Coliseum
9/21 Grand Rapids, MI @ Deltaplex
9/23 Syracuse, NY @ The Oncenter
9/25 Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Arena
9/26 Lowell, MA @ Tsongas Center
9/27 Albany, NY @ Times Union Center
9/28 Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
9/30 Portland, ME @ Cumberland County Civic Center
10/1 Reading, PA @ Santander Arena
10/3 Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
10/7 Ft. Wayne, IN @ Allen County War Memorial
10/10 Huntington, WV @ Big Sandy Superstore Arena
10/11 Duluth, GA @ Gwinnett Arena
10/12 Knoxville, TN @ Knoxville Civic Coliseum
10/14 Orlando, FL @ CFE Arena
10/16 Biloxi, MS @ MS Coast Coliseum
10/17 Little Rock, AR @ Verizon Arena
10/22 Rio Rancho, NM @ Santa Ana Star Center
10/24 Las Vegas, NV The Joint @ Hard Rock

My plan is to hit the Newark, NJ show for the tour at the beautiful Prudential Center or “The Rock” as a lot of people call it now. I’ve seen FFDP here before during a tour and have enjoyed both Iron Maiden and Trans-Siberian Orchestra here as well. It’s a great arena and it sounds awesome as well which is what you want in a Metal and Rock show anyway. During the course of the tour, you fans can keep up with the bands via their Social Networks and Official Pages. I linked the official pages since the other links are there for your consumption on them also. Now before I go I just want to make sure you fans know how important it is to get to an event like this on the early side. I realize that you might only like the headliners but give the opening acts a chance as well. You can always walk around in the crowd during their set to see who else might be there. Just be there because you just might enjoy it. This has happened to me on numerous occasions and I just want to spread that idea with you all. So my area Metal Fiends, see you in Newark?

Official Website: http://www.fivefingerdeathpunch.com/
Official Website: http://www.volbeat.dk/
Official Website: http://www.hellyeahband.com/
Official Website: http://www.nothingmore.net/

Since there are a lot of great albums to enjoy from this pair of headliners I’ve embedded some codes for you to look deeper into the ones that you might not have in your collection just yet. To make this a fair posting and even more useful, I’ve added the lead off bands as well. No thanks are necessary 🙂