Body Count, Killswitch Engage and Knocked Loose are among the artists announced so far for Blue Ridge Rock Festival, which is scheduled for September 9-12 at Blue Ridge Amphitheater in Danville, Virginia. The event has been revealing their 2021 lineup one artist at a time over the past few weeks.
In the order that they were announced, Blue Ridge Festival’s lineup includes Fozzy, Sevendust, Nonpoint, Another Day Dawns, Fire From the Gods, From Ashes to New, Motionless In White, Wage War, Killswitch Engage, Body Count, Knocked Loose, Five Finger Death Punch, Corrosion of Conformity, Slaves (the CA rock band, not the UK punk duo), Beartooth and Drowning Pool.
Five Finger Death Punch is the first of nine headliners that the festival has planned. The Las Vegas groove metal act put out their latest record F8 last February. As the name suggests, it’s the group’s eighth album since they formed in 2005.
Body Count had a good 2020 critically due to the success of their new album Carnivore. Their single “Bum-Rush” went on to win Grammy, which was their vocalist Ice-T’s first in 30 years. Recently, they shared a new music video for the album’s sociopolitically-relevant closer “The Hate is Real.”
Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach and guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz are set to release new album with their Times of Grace side project this year. Their last album as Killswitch Engage was 2019’s Atonement.
Knocked Loose is set to open for Hatebreed along with Parkway Drive on their tour this summer. It was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic. Knocked Loose is newer metalcore act that has put out two albums thus far, Laugh Tracks (2016) and A Different Shade of Blue (2018).
More information on Blue Ridge Rock Festival is available on their website. The site claims that members of their social media community can vote on their ideal lineup and experience. New artists will continue being announced daily on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.
UPDATE (5/12): Blue Ridge Rock Festival has added a bit of star-power to its 2021 lineup. In addition to the previously-announced artists, Megadeth, Lamb of God, Trivium and In Flames will make the festival one of the stops on their summer 2021 tour dates. Outside of those groups, other noteworthy acts include Spiritbox, Spite, The Hu, Tallah, Atreyu, Testament, The Ghost Inside, Tech N9ne, Shinedown, We Came As Romans, Theory and Islander, among dozens of smaller heavy music bands.
UPDATE (5/27): Blue Ridge Rock Festival has announced another update to its 2021 lineup. New additions for the festival include metal superstars Mastodon, punk band Rise Against, alt-metal band Breaking Benjamin, plus Aryon Jones, 10 Years and Fame on Fire.
Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz
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