Sublime, Ice Nine Kills, Zakk Wylde, The Warning, Everlast, Ayron Jones, Kurt Deimer, Dario Lorina, Jakob Nowell, Zayno, und Black Label Society

Referencing Kurt Vonnegut’s apocalyptic novel, “Cat’s Cradle,” Ice Nine Kills deliver a brutal, potent brand of metalcore that certainly lives up to the theme of Vonnegut’s classic. Formed in high school in 2006, after preliminary lineup changes, Ice Nine Kills settled on Spencer Charnas (vocals), Justin deBlieck (guitar/vocals), Justin Morrow (guitars/bass) and Conor Sullivan (drums). Their early music looked to pop punk, ska and post hardcore for influence, releasing an early album in 2006, “Last Chance to Make Amends.” After the album, the band reshuffled and forged a more heavier sound, after they settled on their new lineup in 2007.

In 2007, their first EP arrived, titled “The Burning,” on Red Blue Records. The success of this first release landed them several high profile support slots with the likes of As I Lay Dying, A Day to Remember, Thursday and Paramore, shows which took them across North America.

Ice Nine Kills caught the attention of Ferret Records with their experimental metalcore, who signed the band to their roster in 2009. The band soon got to work on their second full-length, “Safe Is Just a Shadow,” which gained positive critical acclaim from a number of media outlets. The band then joined Warped Tour on several dates that year, before embarking on a headline tour in 2011. In 2012, they also gained a place on the All Stars Tour, opening for big names including Suicide Silence, Dance Gavin Dance and Attila.

Ice Nine Kills returned with new music in 2013, after releasing the EP, “The Predator.” The release was a hit, debuting at number nine on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart. After another round on the All Stars Tour with Every Time I Die, they start work on their third album. The result was 2014’s “The Predator Becomes The Prey,” which scored the band their first entry on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, reaching number 153.

Born Jeffrey Phillip Wielandt, the musician began studying music age eight, however didn’t become serious until around the age of 14 and in high school – where he would commonly spend 12 hours playing guitar non-stop before having to go to school again. The guitarist’s musical debut came with the local band Stone Henge, followed a little while later by Zyris. Strongly influenced by the original Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads, Wylde sent a demo tape to Ozzy Osbourne in 1987 and landed to role of lead guitarist. Wylde's debut with the band came on “No Rest for the Wicked” in 1988 and he subsequently played on a number of hit albums. Although Wylde eventually left the group to pursue his own interests, he remained on good terms with Ozzy and the band and returned to play and tour with Ozzy Osbourne after his replacement didn’t work out.

In 1994, the guitarist formed his own power trio Pride & Glory, however earned little attention and disbanded after only one self-titled album. Toying with the idea of joining Guns N’ Roses, Wylde embarked on a solo career instead which resulted in his debut album “Book of Shadows” in 1996.

Two years layer Zakk Wylde formed the heavy metal group Black Label Society and alongside drummer Phil Ondich recorded the band’s debut album “Sonic Brew” in 1998. The guitarist and vocalist has subsequently released an impressive 13 albums with Black Label Society and in 2006 was recognised at the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame for his contribution to rock & roll.

Beginning his rap career at the turn of the 90's, Everlast (real name Erik Francis Schrody) certainly didn't achieve success immediately and his début album “Forever Lasting” failed to get as many sales as expected. But since joining up with Danny Boy and DJ Lethal in the group House Of Pain, he has managed to get respect as their front-man. House Of Pain are most well known for their self-titled album, which went multi-platinum, and also for their most recognisable hit "Jump Around", where Everlast features prominently on vocals.

Erik departed from the band on the same day they released their third and final album "Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again" to continue his work as a solo artist. His second studio album "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" proved to be a massive improvement from his first release, selling over three millions copies and going double platinum in the process.

None of Everlast's following solo albums proved to be as successful as his second, but he did hit the top 50 with the albums "Eat At Whitey's" released in 2000 and the more recent "Songs Of The Ungrateful Living". Everlast once again teamed up with Danny Boy and DJ Lethal in the hip hop supergroup La Coka Nostra alongside Ill Bill and Slaine. They gathered huge respect from the rap community following the online releasing of singles and eventually made an album which featured the likes of Snoop Dogg, Bun B and Immortal Technique.

Erik has now moved away from hip hop since starting his own label Martyr Inc. and has been known to experiment with a more bluesy and relaxed style, shown by some of the releases from his most recent albums.

When Zakk Wylde formed the band after his long run being Ozzy Osbourne’s right hand man, he formed a southern rock band called Pride & Glory… and then Osbourne decided that he wanted to record another album, so he did, in the form of an album called “Ozzmosis”. It was around this time that Wylde was also offered not only the “Ozzmosis” tour with Osbourne but also a slot in the line up of Guns N’ Roses tour in 1995. As neither of those projects materialised, Wylde decided to finally record his solo acoustic album entitled “Book of Shadows” which unfortunately didn’t achieve the commercial success he had hoped.

Out of this phase only came good things when Wylde teamed up with drummer Phil Ondich and formed Black Label Society. It was this then side project that became Zakk Wyldes commercially successful freight train of a band releasing nine studio albums to date, with their two most recent releases, “Order of the Black” released on August 10th 2010 made it to number 4 in the US charts and “Catacombs of the Black Vatican” released on April 8th 2014 went to number 5 in the US charts, securing Black Label Society’s place in the mainstream.