Rock on the Range 2018: Lineup Analysis

We are ONE WEEK away from the festival of all festivals. For many of my hard rock and heavy metal bretheren, May represents the beginning of festival season. There are many great festivals all over the country that give fans a great chance to experience a weekend packed full of great shows. The biggest, and arguably the best of any of these is the almighty Rock on the Range, which takes place May 18-20th in Columbus, OH.

We snagged our tickets prior to the lineup announcement, which occurred late in 2017. This will be the tenth consecutive year that we make the trip from Indianapolis to Columbus to take in the weekend, and I have to tell you – I cannot wait.

I know that all of you are like me – you’re having trouble focusing on anything else as you look forward to one of the best weekends of the year. In order to support that obsession, we are releaseing a last minute line-up analysis for Rock on the Range 2018. The analysis below is for people who may not know all the bands in this years lineup and are looking for an opportunity to catch a new band that may become a favorite. However, it’s also for those who know every song of every band, and are just looking for an excuse to think about Rock on the Range for an hour. 🙂

The Rock on the Range 2018 Lineup Analysis below provides a detailed look at the landscape for this year’s ROTR. We provide commentary on what you might expect based on previous experiences, other shows and tours we’ve seen, and the current status of the bands. The bands are grouped by the slot they were given: the headliners, the top-tier bands, and the mid-tier bands. In addition, we include some bands that have something to prove, and suggest some can’t miss shows that may not be on you radar.

Concert Review: Rockstar Mayhem 2014

I look forward to Mayhem each year, because when you live in Indianapolis, it’s your only opportunity for a metal festival. Previous years’ shows have been fantastic, highlighted by an extremely memorable performance by Slipknot in 2012. Mayhem consistently brings a solid lineup of bands across the entire metal spectrum, as well as lots of different flavors of metal, and gives an all around great experience into the current landscape of metal music. This year featured sets from Texas Hippie Coalition, Mushroomhead, Miss May I, and Emmure, and more on three side stages, paired with headlining shows from Trivium, Asking Alexandria, Korn, and the mighty Avenged Sevenfold.

So here goes nothing. Mayhem 2014 – bring it!

Jesse vs. Howard – Killswitch Engage

Disarm the Descent Tour
Bogarts – Cincinnati, OH
6/16/2013

I love Killswitch Engage. I flat out think they are amazing. Not only do they put on really great shows, but I believe they were instrumental in bringing clean vocals into the world of metalcore, which helped create and refine my favorite style of music. So, needless to say, I’m a big fan, and I always have been.

…..BUT. In my head, a BIG part of what made KSE so great was the aforementioned clean vocals by Howard Jones. His booming, powerful vocals just really drew me to their music, and when I found out that he was leaving the band in 2012, I was really bummed. They brought in original lead singer Jesse Leach, and so I was intrigued to find out how he would do. There were several early signs that he might be great – first was a side project called Times of Grace, where he released an album with Adam D that was really good. Next came the latest KSE release, called Disarm the Descent, which came out this April. But the tell all would be their live show. I had to know – was KSE better or worse off by swapping tried and true Howard for the original, refined Jesse. As always, Bogarts got a bid on the Disarm the Descent tour. KSE – lets do this.