FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH Guitarist Explains 'Trespass America' Festival Concept

Introducing Trespass America, a newly-minted music festival set on revitalizing the metal scene with some of the most current and credible bands in hard rock/metal. A co-production with Trespass America and Metal Hammer, the biggest metal magazine in the U.K., the tour kicks off July 13 at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Colorado, and will cover 31 cities in two months between July and August with stops across the United States. Ticket on-sales begin this Friday, April 27; log onto www.trespassamerica.com for complete details.

Opening the show will be newcomers BATTLECROSS, the most-played new band on the SiriusXM channel Liquid Metal. New Jersey monsters GOD FORBID, who just released a brand new album, "Equilibrium", will stir up the circle pits with new songs and hits spanning their long career. Deathcore masters EMMURE are coming out swinging in support of their new album, "Slave To The Game". Michigan's POP EVIL will carry the torch of grassroots hard rock to the crowd, while the melodic guitar thrash of TRIVIUM and the reunited lineup of metalcore legends KILLSWITCH ENGAGE will bring a crushing intensity to Trespass America.

Headlining the power-packed Trespass America Festival is FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, the new heavyweight champs of the metal scene, with nine consecutive Top Ten radio hits, four Golden God awards, two certified-gold records (and a third in the making). Monstrous light shows and sold-out arenas have marked the path of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's meteoric rise. In a few short years, the band knocked down the tightly shut gates of mainstream media and turned the non-believers into believers as they marched to bring a message from the underground.

As FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's Zoltan Bathory, who helped spearhead the festival concept, put it, "We will carry the flag into mainstream territory; we will trespass on their turf all across America. The combined power of Metal Hammer and all these bands enable us to make a statement, a really loud one. Heavy music wants its place back in the limelight, so get ready, because we are coming, and we are coming in numbers."

"By bringing the Trespass Festival to North America," said Metal Hammer's editor Alexander Milas, "we're not only promoting the music we believe in, we're investing in it. We're now doing in America what we've done for years in Europe and the U.K." Indeed, Metal Hammer has a long history of flying the flag for the bands it believes in, and over the course of 25 years, has been involved with a number of events, most recently the Defenders Of The Faith tour that covered the spectrum of metal and helped support the music U.K. scene. Metal Hammer is partners with Bloodstock Open Air and Download Festival and has its very own Hammerfest festivals in the U.K. "It has become increasingly apparent to us that supporters of Metal Hammer stretch well beyond the U.K. Thanks to the iPad, American metal fans can now get the magazine at the same time U.K. fans do, but by taking on this tour, we're moving beyond our physical borders."

The idea for Trespass America came about as a way to bring heavy music to big venues across the country. Bathory explained, "When you walk through the Trespass America gate, you will be in a different territory, a new environment. You're not just coming to see a band. It's going to be a traveling circus that has all the attraction and excitement that creates an experience. We wanted to build the biggest stage we could and make this festival as visually unforgettable as possible, really give fans their money's worth, give them an experience where they will want to say, 'I was there.' We also wanted to play as many indoor venues as possible so all bands on the bill, no matter how early they play, would have a full light show with full production. We want to make Trespass America a theme-park-thrill-ride for metalheads."