December 10, 2004
For Immediate Release
Victory Records News



Hawthorne Heights Announce National Headlining Tour in January,
Take Action Tour 2005 in February and March.

Hawthorne Heights are excited to announce their first headlining North American tour since the release of their hot album, “The Silence In Black And White”, Victory’s fastest selling debut ever. They have invited label mates The Black Maria and Spitalfield to join them. The Black Maria’s new album, “Lead Us To Reason” hits on January 25th, 2005, and expect the new album from Spitalfield in late spring. Hawthorne Heights’ “Ohio Is For Lovers” will appear on the soundtrack of the new film, “Elektra”, starring Jennifer Garner. The movie is the follow up to “Daredevil” and will be in theaters January 14th. The soundtrack is available January 11th. For dates click here. If you are an AOL user, go to the music pages and check out the Hawthorne Heights video, or just visit www.victoryrecords.com.



Atreyu Announce Headlining Tour in February, March 2005

After a summer spent on Ozzfest and an autumn supporting first The Used, then Taking Back Sunday, Atreyu deserved a break. But, there is no rest for the wicked, so they packed up and headed to the U.K. for a string of dates with The Black Maria in support. All shows were sold out in advance! The band also announced their first tour of 2005, which will launch at House Of Blues Anaheim on February 9th and run through March. On board for the tour are Unearth, Scars of Tomorrow and Norma Jean. For dates, click here.



Bury Your Dead & Premonitions of War On Tour with Walls Of Jericho

in January and February 2005

Bury Your Dead and Premonitions of War will be hitting the road from January 20 through February 26th in support of Walls Of Jericho. Bury Your Dead are winding up their tour with Scars of Tomorrow in support of their new album, “Cover Your Tracks” while Premonitions of War welcome new drummer Corey Grady, formerly of The Black Dahlia Murder. This will be one of the most explosive tours in the New Year, for dates click here.



Catch 22 Tours In Support Of “Live” CD/DVD

Catch 22 are playing select East Coast dates in support of their new CD/DVD, “Live”. Produced by bassist Pat “Mingus”Kays, it contains 21 live tunes recorded at Long Island’s Downtown on the CD. The DVD has amazing archival footage – Humble Beginnings is a favorite, with home movies of their first musical experiences back in the day. Its low price of $12.99 makes it a steal for ska lovers. Shows are here.



Snapcase Calls It Quits, Announces Farewell Show

Frank Vicario had this to say: “It's no mystery that the popularity of the band has been waning over the past few years and it's tough to keep flogging a dead horse when hearts are in other places, whether that be with family, jobs and/or other bands. We reached an impasse where our core fan-base had been dwindling due to disenfranchisement with our newer material and since we were a band who had been around for a while; many people had already pigeonholed what they perceived our sound to be and were reluctant to give us a chance. You know how it is? We sure do.” The band’s farewell show will be at The Sphere, in their hometown of Buffalo, New York, on January 22nd.



Freya/Hoods Split CD On Street Now

Freya and Hoods have a new split EP that is exemplifies the state of the hardcore scene today. This tag team of hardcore muscle and metal rage has never been attempted – a snapshot of the hardcore scene from two of its finest practitioners! Hoods and Freya are old friends, from touring and years as bands in the Victory Records family, the decision to make a record together made perfect sense, with both band’s history in the hardcore scene. This split CD contains six songs from Hoods and four from Freya – it is essential listening, documenting two of hardcore’s essential bands.



Dimebag Darrell R.I.P.

We were all saddened by the tragic loss of Dimebag Darrell. Mike Schleibaum of Darkest Hour had a great story to tell that illustrates what a cool person he was…



“When I was a little kid, and I first got into playing guitar, I liked the classic guitar heroes like Angus Young and Randy Rhodes. Pantera was the first new band I had heard that played heavy music like that! His playing was something I had never heard before, everybody I knew was changed by hearing the way Dimebag played guitar. I really think it changed an entire generation of little dudes. When I was 14, I lied to my parents (told them I was going down the street) and hit the road with a friend to go to a Dimebag guitar clinic that was two hours way. The clinic was amazing – he spent the first ½ hour playing drums - to illustrate that guitar players have to pay attention to what the other instruments are about in a song. That was amazing, totally made an impression on me - that shredding wasn’t the only thing to think about. During the Q&A, I asked him a question about a weird noise he made on one of his songs and he told me I smoked too much weed!



After the clinic was over, our car broke down, so we walked across the street to a hotel and called my parents, who were fucking furious. I was on the phone with my mom, and she was yelling at me, when Dimebag strolled into the hotel with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He walks up, and my friend tells him I am in trouble with my folks and our car is broken down. Dimebag walked over, grabbed the phone and hung it up! He said, “Your mom will be here to pick to you up later, but now we gotta hang out!” I was so, so stoked, I can’t even tell you. So, we hung out in the bar Dime for about an hour and a half, then the hotel staff kicked us out for being, like, 14. When my mom picked me up, there was complete silence the entire ride home, and from then on, whenever I was with her, I literally had to turn my Pantera shirts inside out.”