'Trespass America' Festival: Photos, Video Footage Of Hollywood Press Conference

Complete with several U.S. military vehicles as well as armed and uniformed troops, the Trespass America Festival was announced yesterday at the Key Club on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, California. The Key Club became a military detention camp, all guests received an ID bracelet and had to pass through a caged security check before entering.

Members from several of the Trespass America support lineup — Kyle "Gumby" Gunther from BATTLECROSS, EMMURE's Frankie Palmeri and Mark Castillo, Matt Heafy from TRIVIUM, and recently rejoined KILLSWITCH ENGAGE vocalist Jesse Leach — all handcuffed and hooded — were marched out onto the stage at the press conference with a military escort. Press conference attendees were then able to view the arrival of headliners FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH on the club's in-house movie screen; a military convoy transported FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH — also handcuffed and hooded — up the Sunset Strip to the Key Club "detention camp." Upon arrival, ten U.S military troops escorted the band through the crowd and onto the stage. Metal Hammer magazine editor Alexander Milas announced the tour and the lineup as the prisoners-cum-musicians were cut out of their handcuffs by the soldiers and pulled of their hoods for the reveal.

Photos of the press conference can be found at this location (all images by Stephanie Cabral). Video footage of the entire event is available below.

Headlined by FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, Trespass America kicks off on July 13 in Broomfield, Colorado, hitting 31 cities before winding down on August 28 in Los Angeles. Ticket sales will begin on Friday (April 27) with more information available at the festival web site. KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, POP EVIL, TRIVIUM, GOD FORBID, EMMURE and BATTLECROSS will round out the lineup of the metal-centric package.

Guitarist Zoltan Bathory said in a statement, "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."

The trek is a joint venture with Europe's Metal Hammer magazine, which is sponsoring a U.S. tour for the first time.

Bathory added that his band wants Trespass America to be a "traveling circus that has all the attraction and excitement that creates an experience ...we want to make Trespass America a theme-park-thrill-ride for metalheads."

The guitarist told The Pulse Of Radio that it's important to make audiences feel like they're part of the show. "You know, the people in the audience watch a show, right?" he said. "It's almost there is no difference than they would watch a TV, because they're watching one static little box, which is the stage, and that's what they're looking at. And I think you have to do better than that — to make the audience become a part of the show and have an experience."

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH is touring behind its third album, "American Capitalist", which came out last fall and looks likely to be the Las Vegas-based act's third consecutive gold album.