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Like a shark patrolling the ocean or a bus with Keanu Reeves on it, Corey Taylor simply cannot be stopped. You get the sense he’s got so many irons in the proverbial fire because, simply put, Taylor needs a creative outlet at all times.

So when he finishes an extended tour with Slipknot and everyone else is ready for some well-earned rest and relaxation, Taylor turns his attention to Stone Sour. And if/when the same thing happens with Stone Sour, the pride of Des Moines, Iowa happily focuses on his solo music.

With Slipknot set to headline several massive music festivals this summer — to include Welcome to Rockville, Inkcarceration Festival, Rock Fest and Download Festival — Taylor embarked on a brief five-stop tour as a tune-up for his soon-to-be hectic summer. The first stop of this abbreviated road trip was Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, where we had the pleasure of seeing Taylor, along with stunt/dance troupe Cherry Bombs, starring his wife, Alicia.

Anyone expecting the front man to take to the stage with a custom mask, prison jumpsuit and eight of his closest friends was in for a rude awakening. Instead, this was Taylor in a much more relaxed environment and mindset.

Taylor and friends kicked off their set with “HWY 666,” the lead track from his debut solo album, CMFT. Up next was “On The Dark Side,” a cover of John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band’s 1983 hit followed by another Taylor original, “Samantha’s Gone.” Reading, Pennsylvania was also treated to the first-ever live performance of “Beyond,” the soon-to-be-released single from the forthcoming CMF2. According to Taylor, the band just recently recorded a video for the track and the single could be released as soon as May 15th.

By this point, the show felt less like a concert and more like a garage band jam session as the five gentlemen on stage bounced around from old stuff to new stuff and everything in between. And yet, halfway through the set Taylor informed the enthusiastic crowd, “We decided we don’t play enough Slipknot on our solo set, so we’re busting out some stuff just for you tonight.” To remedy the situation, Taylor and the rest of his band — drummer “Diamond” Dustin Robert, bassist Eliot Lorango, guitarists Christian Martucci and Zach Throne — launched into “Before I Forget” and then the 2008 stripped down single, “Snuff.”

“We’re not up here with tracks. Not with computers. We’re just five dudes. And look, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just not for us,” Taylor said during a brief moment that allowed the band, as well as the audience, to catch its breath.

Later in the set they circled back to a few more Slipknot hits, “Duality” and “Wait And Bleed,” which represented one of the highlights of the night. In response and as a token of appreciation, a pit formed as the crowd clearly fed off of the high-energy performance.

“You might be excited. But we’re up here shitting ourselves,” Taylor said with a laugh.

Add in a handful of Stone Sour tracks — including “Absolute Zero,” “Bother” and “Through Glass” — if for no other reason than to prove that Taylor loves both of his children equally and what started out as a cold and rainy Tuesday night ended as a instant classic for those in attendance.

“I’ve been doing this since I was 13,” Taylor started. “I have played to no one and I have played to everyone. The one thing that remains the same — I will give you everything.”

“As long as you’re with me. I will never stop coming here to play for you motherfuckers,” he added.

Because all good things must eventually come to an end, Taylor closed the night with “CMFT Must Be Stopped,” which is completely fitting for a performer who seems incapable of slowing down without some sort of outside intervention.

With Slipknot set to headline several massive music festivals this summer — to include Welcome to Rockville, Inkcarceration Festival, Rock Fest and Download Festival — frontman Corey Taylor embarked on a brief five-stop tour as a tune-up for his soon-to-be hectic summer. The first stop of this abbreviated road trip was Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, where we had the pleasure of seeing Taylor, along with stunt/dance troupe Cherry Bombs, starring his wife, Alicia.

The Cherry Bombs have carved out a fascinating home for themselves somewhere between macabre and cabaret, with a show fittingly titled, “Macabaret.” They are a hard rock dance troupe that utilizes fire, aerials and various other daredevil arts to captivate audiences to such hits as:

“Highway 666” by Corey Taylor
“Cold Heart Bitch” by Jet
“More Human Than Human” by White Zombie
“Renegades of Funk” by Rage Against The Machine
“Du Hast” by Rammstein
“Wherever I May Roam” by Metallica

One moment these amazingly-talent ladies are performing fast-paced dance choreography. The next they’re dangling from the venue’s ceiling. With such an enjoyable playlist and eye-catching visuals, the show is unlike anything else in the genre of music. The entire performance is an absolute credit to Alicia and the rest of her supremely talented “girl gang.”

On the week when “Dead Don’t Die” became their 20th number-one Active Rock single, Shinedown stormed into the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania, and delivered a performance that showed exactly why they’re one of the most accomplished bands in rock music today.

Within seconds of taking the stage, it was evident that singer Brent Smith, guitarist Zach Myers, bassist Eric Bass and drummer Barry Kerch were a well-oiled machine. After appearing from within a giant futuristic-looking video board, the quartet displayed a commanding stage presence made all the more impressive by the sheer size of the massive stage itself.

When Smith sang “the story is just beginning” during the chorus of “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom),” the band’s opener for the evening, it served as not-so-subtle message of what was to come for the roughly 15,000 fans in attendance. At various points throughout the nearly two-hour spectacle, sparklers cascaded down from the rafters like a waterfall. Plumes of fire erupted from the catwalk. Pyrotechnics featured early and often. As someone experiencing Shinedown in person for the first time, it’s safe to say the visuals absolutely lived up to the exceptional soundtrack of the evening.

State College marked the fourth stop of the “Revolutions Live Tour,” with the Jacksonville, Florida, based band performing 21 shows across the country in support of their latest album, 2022’s Planet Zero. While this particular tour is new, the band and their particular brand of music is well established. All seven of their studio albums have earned platinum or gold certification, along with 15 platinum and gold singles, providing an abundance of quality music to choose from on the road.

For their second track of this particular show, Shinedown dove into another uptempo track, the aforementioned “Dead Don’t Die” before slowing things down with a beautiful rendition of “I’ll Follow You” that featured Bass on a neon piano that was lowered from the ceiling.

With more than 6.5 billion global streams and 10 million albums sold, Shinedown’s body of work speaks for itself — which is just fine with the band. They’ve got much more important things on their mind than patting themselves on the back. For this tour, Shinedown has partnered with the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention to donate one dollar for every ticket sold.

As Smith said during the show, they’re not shy about talking about mental health. They’ve been ambassadors for suicide prevention for more than a decade to bring out awareness and lesson the fear of the topic.

“A lot of people don’t want to talk about people who have suicidal thoughts. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Give them reassurance. Give them love. You can potentially save someone’s life,” Smith said before diving into the band’s next single, “Symptom of Being Human” roughly halfway into their extensive set.

May 27th will be the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Leave A Whisper. In honor of that impending occasion, Smith and friends took it all the way back to the beginning with an inspired performance of “45” which had the entire building swaying and singing along. Another joyous sing-along moment came when the front man was off stage, taking a well-deserved break while the rest of the band delivered an acoustic rendition of “Don’t Look Back In Anger” by Oasis that would make the dynamic duo of Smith & Myers proud.

As the show began to wind down, the boys once again embraced the softer side of rock, with a medley of “Daylight/Get Up” followed by “Simple Man.” As the band paid homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s smash hit, Smith’s powerful voice reverberating throughout the venue, accompanied only by Myers on an acoustic guitar. They then closed out the show with “Monsters” and “Cut The Cord.” After 20 songs over an hour and 45 minutes, Shinedown ended the way they began — with fireworks, flames and explosions — literally and figuratively leaving it all on stage.

Let’s not beat around the proverbial bush, an Ice Nine Kills show can absolutely be hazardous to the health of the uninitiated. That’s because the Boston-based band has a bit of an obsession with horror movies, so it’s commonplace to see a butcher knife, chainsaw or an outright massacre during their set. Consider this a disclaimer that “graphic” images are involved any time a camera is pointed in the general direction of an Ice Nine Kills performance.

Frontman Spencer Charnas and the gang began their set by paying a gory tribute to feature films such as Steven King’s Pet Sematary, Eli Roth’s torture-heavy Hostel and Mary Herron’s American Psycho with their opening three songs, which meant unsuspecting concert-goers might have looked up as the lead singer took to the stage with a microphone in one hand and a bloody shovel in the other and immediately had a question or two.

By the time Charnas assumed the role of Patrick Bateman, the investment banker-turned-serial killer portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2000 cult classic, it was readily apparent that no one has more fun on stage than the well-dressed gentlemen of Ice Nine Kills. Over the years they have carved out a unique niche for themselves and are simply slaying it these days.

Their full 50-minute set featured a fun mix of tracks from their 2018 album, The Silver Scream, and 2021’s The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, and included crowd favorites such as “Stabbing in the Dark,” “The Shower Scene” and “A Grave Mistake.”

Ice Nine Kills setlist // inspirational movies

Funeral Derangements // Pet Sematary
Wurst Vacation // Hostel
Hip to Be Scared // American Psycho
Ex-Mørtis // The Evil Dead
IT Is the End // It Chapter One
Stabbing in the Dark // Halloween
The Shower Scene // Psycho
A Grave Mistake // The Crow
Farewell II Flesh // Candyman
The American Nightmare // A Nightmare on Elm Street

Like an iconic movie franchise, the Trinity of Terror tour was destined to be immortalized as a trilogy.

Three of hard rock’s heaviest hitters have been performing together for close to a year now and are showing no signs of slowing down. Co-headliners Black Veil Brides, Ice Nine Kills and Motionless In White rolled into Baltimore, in the midst of the third leg of the aptly named Trinity Of Terror tour, and put on one helluva show for those who braved a cold and dreary evening to get to Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.

Regardless of the order, all three acts command a stage as if they’re the headliner so in spite of the early start time, Motionless In White immediately sent the sellout crowd into a frenzy as soon as lead singer Chris Motionless implored those in attendance to “Get up! Get up!” with the opening line of “Disguise.”

For the next 50 minutes, the pride of Scranton, Pennsylvania, had the entire building eating out of their proverbial hands as they performed tracks such as “Werewolf,” their smash-hit “Masterpiece” and their unique rendition of The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me.”

According to the band, which was formed in 2005, their name is derived from a song called “Motionless and White” by Eighteen Visions. Regardless of their initial inspiration, they are a well-oiled machine at this stage of their musical careers. And, after seeing Motionless In White live for the first time, it makes perfect sense why they would lend one of their tracks to World Wrestling Entertainment for Rhea Ripley’s entrance music. Chris Motionless and friends have a similar charisma and stage presence to those world-class entertainers, so the pairing is an all-time no-brainer. As soon as their set came to a close, concert-goers could be heard already looking forward to the next time they would be able to see Motionless In White in concert again.

In Roman Catholic terminology, a “black veil bride” is a woman who marries into the church and gives up all the pleasures of life in devotion to God. If that’s the case with the Hollywood-based band of the same name, they’re doing a splendid job of hiding it these days. The look, feel and sound of Black Veil Brides has changed since they initially formed back in 2006, but throughout that time they’ve always put on an entertaining live show that is anything but devoid of pleasure.

During their Baltimore show, Black Veil Brides captivated Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena with an 11-song set that spanned seven different albums. Lead singer Andy Biersack, who looks like a cross between Cobra Kai actor Tanner Buchanan and international soccer star Christiano Ronaldo, moves about the stage and sings with an ease and confidence that is very Mick Jagger-esque.

While “Scarlet Cross,” “Fallen Angels” and “In the End” got the biggest pop from those in attendance, Black Veil Brides put on a highly-enjoyable showing that absolutely sent everyone happy. And probably exhausted. But definitely fulfilled.

My first chance to cover Atreyu came when they visited Baltimore in November of 2021. My second chance to cover Atreyu came when they visited Baltimore in November of 2022, as the opening act for the Trinity of Terror tour.

It’s always a tough task to walk onto a cold and quiet stage as the opener, but Atreyu did a phenomenal job of setting the tone for the evening with a high-energy set that included several of the band’s biggest tracks and even a guest appearance from Zero 9:36, who joined the Orange County, California-based band on stage to perform their hit collaboration “Warrior.” And just when you thought you’d see it all, Atreyu decided to throw a curveball and play a little gag on the unsuspecting audience.

The band had a little fun with the crowd as they temporarily dove into Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” before lead singer Brandon Saller killed the bit and reminded everyone they were still at a heavy metal show. Atreyu then finished their portion of the evening with “Blow,” a fun throwback of a track that seemed like the perfect ending to an enjoyable set.

If this is now an annual event, I absolutely look forward to covering Atreyu for the third time when they visit Baltimore in November of 2023.