Striker offers new album Ultrapower with cool rewards

Canadian shredders Striker have already a while ago decided to take their fate into their own hands and to oversee and finance all band activities on their own.

Of course that's only possible due to the constant support the fans of the band have given them over the years. The time has come now for the band to set sails for the upcoming album "Ultrapower". 

The ULTRAPOWER album cover IRL (53.549618, -113.482956) Artwork by @hasr_oner

This time with Josh Schroeder on the helm the guys decided that it was time for a change and expand things a bit. That's why they opened up a Kickstarter campaign to bring in the cash needed to get the new record to life.

By the time I'm typing these lines the goal has already been reached. But besides the reasonable prices it's still a good idea to join the campaign because a lot of cool stretch goals are still waiting to be unlocked, e.g. to have a physical copy with a bonus tracks packed in a special foil cover. So make sure to spread the word around.

Besides that the main question is: how is the music going to evolve? Well, a first teaser has already been given out with a new video single shot and edited by the band themselves.

It's a raunchy styled new track called "Best of the best of the best" that rocks with a mixture of slightly trashing riffs, cool drums, pumping bass guitars and vocals reminding me of classic days where hall effects were much more common in band performances. I think a lot of you will be very happy to hear this again.   

2017 – Armstrong Metal Fest Band Submissions Now Open (Free 2016 sampler inside)

So the Open Air season is slowly coming towards the end for this year. But what is going to happen in 2017? Well, no one knows for sure except for a few announcements that have been made so far.

What's far more interesting in my eyes is that bands can send submissions for the Armstrong Metal Fest right now. There's a good chance that you'll be chosen to play there if you apply with your music. Why?

69.4% of the total band line up for AMF 2016 was made of bands that had placed a band submission.
58.3% of AMF 2016's line up were bands that had never played the festival before.

Band submissions open September 1, 2016 and end November 1, 2016 11:59pm PST.

Please send submissions to the following email: bandsamf@gmail.com

What should you send?
– BAND NAME
– ONLINE MUSIC (Where can we check out your music example: bandcamp)
– AREA/CITY BANDS FROM
– GENRE/ DESCRIPTION OF WHAT KIND OF BAND YOU ARE
– HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER AS A BAND?
– LAST ALBUM RELEASE DATE/NEXT PLANNED ALBUM RELEASE DATE
– EXPERIENCE/ WHO HAVE YOU SHARED THE STAGE WITH
– CONTACT PERSON/CONTACT EMAIL
– ADDITIONAL INFO/COMMENTS

Don’t worry about sending an EPK right off the start! They are great to have, but not for AMF’s initial submission; once a band is on the roster an EPK may be requested for media outlets.

What exactly is the Armstrong Metal Festival?

Taking influence from Europe’s music festival circuit, Armstrong Metal Fest is a heavy metal celebration that encourages metal heads from across Canada and the globe to mosh and camp with the backdrop of great outdoors of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.

What started as a backyard party in 2009 with nothing but eleven local metal bands such as Terrifier, Xul and Odinfist to name a few, has grown into a a huge success admired by the Western Canadian Metal scene. 2016 was the eighth year of the festival and was its largest year for music and attendance. Previous years of the festival have seen line ups with Cattle Decapitation, Suffocation, Anciients, Bison BC, Striker, Crimson Shadows, Holy Grail, Archspire, Cryptopsy, Unleash The Archers, Divinity, Into Eternity, Ninjaspy, Vesperia, XUL, Odinfist, Death Toll Rising, Gomorrah among many others .

For more info, please visit www.ArmstrongMetalFest.ca

If you want to check out some of the bands of the 2016 edition of the festival try the stream below or better download a free compilation package directly from Bandcamp.