Four guys living in the heart of the city of Chicago looking to write some nasty riffs and fuck shit up!!!|

We are Smash Potater from the desolate wastelands of Aurora, Illinois. We attempt to write memorable music tailored for moshing and prefer to mock typical thrash cliches rather than embrace them. We have conquered the small rural area known as Chicago and are now setting our sites on the rest of the world. Fire up the grills and bust out the Arizona because shit’s about to get real. Aww here it goes…..

Hailing from Indiana, TESTIMONY was formed in late 2009 by drummer Taylor Lambacher who later went on to draft guitarist Michael Gawel, his older brother Derek Lambacher on bass and vocalist Adrian Harris. With their line-up cemented, TESTIMONY set out to create complex, challenging metal music that, while rooted in tradition, has a quality and sound all its own.

With influences that range from musical genres like jazz and funk to legendary metal bands such as Death, Voivod, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Megadeth, TESTIMONY combines elements of thrash and progressive metal, yielding a sort of spacey travel through time that rips like any other band from the ‘80s, but has an artistic flair of its own. In January 2012, TESTIMONY released their debut EP, Transcending Reality. The six track album puts a twist on the classic thrash sound that came out of the 1980s with its dazzling and sometimes drawn out technical performances that truly capture the minds of listeners.

Transcending Reality was a hit and almost overnight the name TESTIMONY began to spread like wild fire amongst the legions of underground thrashers around the world. The album’s success opened new doors for TESTIMONY and soon after Transcending Reality was released TESTIMONY went on to share the stage with national acts like D.R.I., Lazarus AD, Vektor and Revocation. While TESTIMONY was enjoying their new found success the band never once lost focus or let things go to their head, instead TESTIMONY remained hungry, diligently taking notes and learning as much as they could from bands that were on the “next level” while constantly looking to improve on every single song, riff, fill and solo.

In late 2013, nearly two years after the release of Transcending Reality, TESTIMONY announced they would be releasing a brand new EP entitled “The Beast That Prays” in 2014. Following the success of Transcending Reality, TESTIMONY is more motivated than ever before and looks to put the progress in progressive with The Beast That Prays by creating an album that is more complex, better thought out, and heavier than its predecessor.

Look for The Beast That Prays to be released on Tuesday, September 16th.

Split Heaven is one of the most important upcoming promises Heavy Metal has to show to the world. They combine thundering speed, ’80s metal riffs (we all miss), battles of solos and high pitched vocals to create a vicious monster ready to bite, infect and spread the word of Heavy Metal. These five amigos from Mexico are ready to make you scream.

Pedro Zelbohr and Tomas Roitman formed the band in 2005. After one year, now with two new members: Eli Valenzuela & Carlo “Taii” Hernández, Split Heaven recorded a demo called R.I.P, which gave life to this Mexican heavy metal act.