KNOTFEST AUSTRALIA Announce Sideshows!

PANTERA
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS KING PARROT
& BLACK RHENOTuesday 19 March – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide

One of the most enduring and influential acts to emerge from the second thrash metal wave in the late 80s and early 90s, heavy groove behemoths PANTERA have eternally remained a force to be reckoned with. Regarded as one of the greatest metal bands of all time, PANTERA rose to massive global success in the 1990s, with multiple gold and platinum albums, sold-out tours, ferocious live performances and four Grammy nominations. From the release of their game-demolishing 1990 album ‘Cowboys from Hell’ through to the 2023 reunion of Rex Brown and Phil Anselmo for their first tour in over two decades, the PANTERA name lives on with a new visage and continues to grow their legacy while spreading everlasting metal madness to the masses. This will be their first Australian show since 1996 and their only Australian headline show!Special guests are Melbourne grindcore experts KING PARROT who are ready to swing their insidious sonic wrecking ball with lashings of angst, absurdity and antics and Sydney’s genre bending heavy groove exponents BLACK RHENO with their blend of stoner, sludge, punk, grind, groove metal into a wild and rollicking good time.

DISTURBED
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS WAGE WARSunday 17 March – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide

Chicago hard rockers DISTURBED return to Australia for the first time in eight years and will be performing their only Australian headline show in Adelaide. Insidious, infectious and a band without comparison, DISTURBED have quietly claimed a place at the forefront of modern rock along with record-breaking success since first emerging out of Chicago at the turn of the century. With two Grammy nominations, millions of record sales and five consecutive #1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200, the latter of which places the quartet in the same rarefied air as Metallica, DISTURBED also wield a bulletproof catalogue that ranges from 2000’s ‘The Sickness’ through to 2018’s ‘Asylum’, 2018’s ‘Evolution’ and the triumph that was ‘Divisive’ in 2022.

Special guests are Florida mainstays WAGE WAR. Through an unwavering dedication to progression, WAGE WAR are ready to sharpen their patented hybrid of heavy pit-starting technicality and their hummable hypnotic melodies.

LAMB OF GOD 
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS BRAND OF SACRIFICE Wednesday 20 March – Northcote Theatre, Melbourne 
Monday 25 March – Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane

Across their career, Grammy Nominated goliath, LAMB OF GOD grew from basement shows and grimy DIY venues to headline arenas. The New Wave of American Heavy Metal architects earned a reverence akin to musical forefathers (and road companions) Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth with Guitar World hailing them as “…simply the most important contemporary metal band in the world.”

A band who have permanently retained their influential status for over two decades with timeless songs like Laid to Rest, Redneck, Walk with Me in Hell, and Now You’ve Got Something to Die For are anthems in the heavy metal songbook adding their most recently ferocious 2022 full length, ‘Omens’.

Special guests are Toronto-based deathcore quintet BRAND OF SACRIFICE have been making an undeniably indelible mark on the heavy music scene since 2018. Dubbed ‘The Branded Ones,’ the group’s fans joined and marched with them as they tore across the globe in support of their sophomore album, ‘Lifeblood’ followed by 2023 EP ‘Between Death and Dreams’. Across their releases to date, BRAND OF SACRIFICE have hit 60 million streams and 13 million YouTube views.

HALESTORM
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS SKINDRED & RELIQAWednesday 20 March – Liberty Music Hall, Sydney 
Tuesday 26 March – Princess Theatre, Brisbane

The absolute charisma rock powerhouse that is HALESTORM is one of the most successful hard rock groups of the early 21st century. They have elicited an emotional, physical, and spiritual reaction from audiences worldwide since it began as a childhood dream of sister and brother Lzzy and Arejay Hale.

The group scored a GRAMMY® Award in the category of “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” for Love Bites (So Do I), became the first female-fronted band to hit #1 on the US Active Rock radio charts, and cumulatively, their songs have racked up north of 1 billion global streams. HALESTORM consistently rise up rougher, stronger, and louder.

With special guests Welsh heavy metal fusion masters SKINDRED who will be bringing their heavy metal, reggae, punk, hip hop and electronic technicolour musical dreamcoat and Sydney quartet RELIQA.

THE HU 

Tuesday 19 March – Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne
Monday 25 March – Liberty Music Hall, Sydney

Wielding the screaming guitars of heavy metal with traditional Mongolian elements, THE HU are one of the most unique and compelling acts on the modern heavy scene. Blending Mongolian instrumentation and throat singing with Western rock, THE HU continue to turn heads across the planet, with their most recent album, 2022’s ‘Rumble of Thunder’, repeatedly listed as one of the most anticipated metal albums of the year.THE HU have sold out venues across globe the world and performed at festivals such as Coachella, Lollapalooza and Download Festival to name a few creating a community of fans from all walks of life.

ASKING ALEXANDRIA + WAGE WAR
(CO-HEADLINE)Wednesday 20 March – Max Watts, Melbourne
Tuesday 26 March – The Triffid, Brisbane

Gold-certified British rock frontrunners ASKING ALEXANDRIA have spent the past 15 years establishing themselves as one of the most important rock groups of this generation with over 1.4 billion streams, #1 albums and years of hard touring. They’ve supporting artists such as Shinedown, Slipknot, Godsmack, and Korn and co-headlining with Black Veil Brides, The HU and headlining multiple head-turning treks. They kicked off the year with brand new EP highlighting the debut single, Dark Void, from their 2023 critically acclaimed album ‘Where  Do We Go From Here?’

Florida hard rock quintet WAGE WAR masterfully strike a delicate and well-crafted balance of grooves, riffs, melodies, and electronic flourishes. After amassing over 300 million streams and receiving widespread acclaim from Billboard, Loudwire, Modern Drummer, American Songwriter, Alternative Press, and more, the group delivered 11 anthems meant to connect through turbulence with their 2021 release, Manic. WAGE WAR has built a diehard audience with their impressive catalogue and relentless touring and bringing their total stream tally past ­a-quarter-of-a-billion.