Through the storm of life’s obstacles the guys successfully continue to raise the flag in honor of the RIOT legacy of music, fallen band mates and the fans who have been demanding RIOT for years. This new onslaught headlined sold out shows in Germany, Greece, Spain and Italy and rocked the prestigious festivals Sweden Rock Festival (Sweden), Rock Fest Barcelona (Spain), Loud Park (Japan), Keep It True, Metal Assault, Headbangers Open Air (Germany), Fall of Summer (Paris), Metal Apocalypse, Bang Your Head with Twisted Sister/Anthrax, Metal Days with Megadeth/Volbeat, two appearances onboard 70,000 Tons of Metal Cruise and top it off with appearances with Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Def Leppard and, Journey to name a few! RIOT V just headlined this years Skulls of Metal Festival (Spain), Blast from the Past Festival (Belgium) and appearances at Bang Your Head 2017 (Germany) and will do one last Europe Tour in early December! 2018 will see RIOT V headline Germany’s Headbangers Open Air as well as appearances at Loud Park 2018 (Japan), Rock Fest Barcelona and Leyendas del Rock 2018 (Spain) a tour of the UK and more tour dates to be announced!

With reissues on Sony, EMI & Metal Blade, RIOT are consitently on radio and metal charts worldwide, as well as being a part of New York City’s Top 20 Most Influential Metal Bands, 100 Best Metal Albums of All Time, 100 Best Metal Bands of All Time and numerous mentions on VH1’s That Metal Show with Eddie Trunk and staff sighting RIOT as one of the innovators of Metal music in America and beyond! RIOT truly are Metal Soldiers and will keep marching and fighting the good fight to bring you the music you’ve come to know, love and expect from RIOT V…..Shine On!

Judas Rising is Joe Martina – vocals: x- Damien Thorne & x-Sin After Sin, Scott Davidson – Drums: Stonehenge, Heaven & Hell, x – Earthen Grave & x Wet Animal, Neven Trifunovich – Guitars: Rival, Cover Dogs, MST & x Sin After Sin, Briant Daniels – Guitars: x Sin After Sin & Kevin Cobleigh – Bass: Wicked Soul & Cover Dogs

Through the wonders of the internet, S.O.A. was formed in March of 2011 by George Lohan. All the other pieces just naturally fell into place after Erik Michael and Jason krieger joined and the sings for the debut wrote themself. After a long search, vocalist David kraus was discovered. After a few lineup changes, the current lineup has remained strong since 2013.

Hailing from Chicago and the UK, CRUSADER is relatively new to the metal scene in Chicago, although they are all veterans of playing live music, having only been officially a band since spring of 2010. Tired of hearing run-of-the-mill corporate produced ‘metal’, CRUSADER decided to raise the flag and rally the troops to their banner.
Raised on classic rock, speed metal and thrash through to doom, and everything in between and beyond, CRUSADER proudly and unashamedly wear their influences on their sleeves.
Early 2011 saw the release of CRUSADER’s self released EP ‘Rise of the Templars’ which has received rave reviews:
‘If you close your eyes, you can picture hundreds of spiked gauntlets, punching the sky, lock step, united in war against poseurs. When the song takes off, it’s a groove thrasher with crooning vocals that reminds me a lot Death Angel’ – American Aftermath Webzine
‘Rise of the Templars’ is one great epic metal release, I do love the bass sound, this is indeed everything I want from a metal release in all fairness right down to the Grave Digger inspired EP cover artwork. The gauntlet is laid down and the challenge is accepted. Setting their stall out to emulate the metal giants (credit vidovic at dhead tech), Crusader makes a good account of themselves and I for one simply love this EP’ – Brutalism Webzine
‘This is prime NWOBHM inspired heavy metal taking you back to the days of Black Axe and Angel Witch…’ – Powerplay UK Magazine
‘Their NWOBHM sound, the epic-driven song titles and the cool performance are enough to guarantee you that you are gonna have great time when these guys are onstage. During their 30 minutes’ performance, I enjoyed “Templar” and “Asgard’s Fire” and the sure thing is that I’m going to dig their EP asap. Just a perfect way to warm up for ANVIL’s invasion, don’t ya think? – Metal Kaoz review – show with ANVIL
2012 will see the band recording their full length album and taking their sound all over the country. Think of a Crusader tank driving over a minefield littered with the skulls of the enemy dead…they’re taking it back to the roots: Drinking beers, throwing the horns and playing metal…