The band has toured extensively over the years with just about anyone in the metal scene and has hopped on the Warped Tour a few times as well. The new tour could end up being one of the group’s most high profile gigs (outside of Warped) to date with the always mysterious Dir En Grey. The Human Abstract will be the

But Conquer delivers some major guest spots in the metal world, with Throwdown’s Dave Peters delivering his Cavalera-influenced vocals on “Unleash” and Morbid Angel’s David Vincent on the opening track “Blood Fire War Hate.” The album brings a lot of the frenetic energy of earlier records on tracks like “For Those About to Rot,” among others. Cavalera’s voice sounds as heavy as ever, and guitarist Marc Rizzo proves once again that he may be one of the most underrated guitarists of the genre.

Soulfly is criss-crossing America in the month of November, with the tour finishing in their home state of Arizona on November 29^th. Meanwhile, the band makes an appearance north of Detroit at the always wild Machine Shop in Flint on November 19^th. Bleed the

But now that the single has exposed the group to tons of fans, and Vesely wants you to know there’s more to the group than just one hit single. The group’s sophomore release, A Twist In My Story came out last February and shows off that there’s more sensitive ballads and upbeat numbers where that came from. The album features teenage and young adult approved tracks like “Your Call” and “Goodbye.”

For Secondhand Serenade, the buzz started in 2006, as the band turned themselves into a MySpace darling and had success selling the material strictly through iTunes, before the group signed with Glass Note Music.

Vesely has been touring through 2008 behind the release and has seen him come from playing intimate venues like the Magic Stick in Detroit to the biggest gig he’s had to date here in the Detroit area when Secondhand Serenade co-headlines a show with the oddly titled Cute Is What We Aim For on Sunday, November 16^th at Clutch Cargo’s. This is sure to be a chance to see how far Secondhand Serenade has come in the past year. It will be the last tour as Vesely prepares to work on new material, probably due out in 2009.

Secondhand Serenade plays at Clutch Cargo’s on Sunday, November 16^th. Tickets are $18.50 and are available at www.ticketmaster.com. Additional dates can be found at www.myspace.com/secondhandserenade

The band’s first single, “Ready To Roll,” has made some noise on the rock charts, and it encapsulates the band’s sound the best. A charging riff and nowhere near a ballad, JBS would be smart to have some songs like this in the future. They received a decently strong reaction from the crowd, most of whom just wanted to see a couple songs from each of the following bands and go on in their drunken Halloween festivities.With one of their first major tours now in books, I get a feeling this won't be the last time you hear from Jet Black Stare. Keep an eye on them as 2009 progresses.

Check out www.jetblackstare.com for additional dates in the future. Their album, “In This Life” is out now.

The Whigs open for Kings of Leon at the Fillmore Detroit on Saturday, November 8^th. Tickets are $30.50 and are available at www.ticketmaster.com. Additional dates can be found at www.thewhigs.com.

Role Models

Most days, I wake up feeling like Danny Donahue (Paul Rudd). Hating his place in life, spouting off some nasty remarks to some unassuming people and treating kids with even more disdain. In the course of the day that sets the pace of this movie, Danny drinks about 20 Minotaur energy drinks, proposes to his girlfriend and gets rejected and then in the midst of getting his truck towed, drives up on a school statue.Instead of serving 30 days in jail, Danny along with womanizing friend Wheeler (Scott) have to serve 150 hours at Sturdy Wings, a Big Brother/Big Sisters type place where the two co-workers have to deal with kids that they normally wouldn’t deal with- or serve the jail time.

Danny has to play mentor to Dungeons and Dragons style disciple Augie (Mintz-Plasse a.k.a.'McLovin' from Superbad), while Wheeler deals with the foul mouthed, breast obsessed Ronnie (Bobb’e Thompson). Both of them have their 150 hours cut out for them, and the guys plow through the time with some cringing, but some hilarious results.

The band worked with Slipknot’s Corey Taylor to produce a mostly acoustic EP entitled Redemption which came out in April. This whet the appetite for the band’s full length record, The American Dream, which came soon thereafter in late July. The new record moves out of the standard hardcore realm in which the band had been toying around in since their re-formation in 2003 and heads in more of a traditional metal route. Tiny, but furious, lead singer Candace Kucsulain goes off on the title track, which is a condemnation of the current state of affairs in the country and may not be suitable for some red-blooded Americans. The roar and passion of her voice can be heard on tracks like “Feeding Frenzy” and “Night of Thousand Torches.” Perhaps some of those harsh winters and an even harsher economic climate fuels the band’s fire for a intense and incendiary record.

The band is just hitting their stride out after being out on the Mayhem Tour, where they pounded the pavement with fans all summer and shared the stage with Airbourne and Machine Head. The band is out now on tour with OTEP and Ill Nino and will be on that tour through November 30^th in Los Angeles. But for now, the band will have a semi-hometown stand at the Hayloft in Mt. Clemens on November 9th with those bands. So, the American Dream may be shaky right now, and Walls of Jericho will have absolutely no problem telling you their views on the subject.

Walls of Jericho opens for OTEP and Ill Nino at the Hayloft in Mt. Clemens on Sunday, November 9^th. Tickets are $15 and are available at www.ticketmaster.com. Additional dates can be found at www.myspace.com/wallsofjericho.

The new record debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts, marking a personal best of the band. The Kings have always been critical darlings through their first three records, but it now seems that the public is catching up to one of the better up and coming groups in the past half decade or so. On Only By The Night, it seems to be a major progression in the band’s music, but also throwing in a few tricks not seen by the band

On the current tour: “We’re only a few shows into the tour so far, but it's exciting because its our most extensive headlining tour of the States since we got started. We toured with the Tragically Hip on a pretty long tour a while back, but this might mean more. It’s an interesting time touring the States because of everything going on with the election coming up.”

On the evolution of the band over the past couple of years: “With the new album, I think the band got a bit more serious. Because of touring, the new record took almost 2 years to record but take it as lightly as possible. Initially, we never had the