The last night of the twelfth annual Rock and Shock in Worcester, Massachusetts on Sunday October 18th at the Palladium was dedicated to The Demented Duo, Twiztid, who kick off the Halloween inspired Fright Fest every year at the Palladium, a Horror infused annual tour that wraps up in 2015 on Halloween at the Madison Theatre in Covington, Kentucky. The venue was swarming with Juggalos of every size, shape, and color, and a high percentage of them sported cornrows and corpse paint. As an unusual October snow began to fall, these fans crowded the front door of the Palladium, hyped up and ready to party.
Split Face
The Palladium’s upstairs filled up early for Split Face, Boston’s hardest hitting Hip Hop Horrorcore artist, for his second year at Rock and Shock. His old school sound and ass-beating lyrics had fans crowding the venue floor. As he strutted across the stage in a hooded sweatshirt, he spat rapidfire vocals at his fans, singing his anthem “Fuck Split Face,” chugging the lyrics to “Death and Destiny: Tales of Dizzy McBooger” along with Mulch and Rancid and its sequel, “Return Of Dizzy McBooger,” with help from B’LoCo. Both Mulch and B’LoCo returned to the front of the stage for “Veterans” while “Fuck Her In The Ass” was a solo effort by Split Face himself. Check out Split Face Just Shit Out A Mixtape, a new album available for free download this December.
Mr. Freeze
Waterbury, Connecticut’s Mr. Freeze was up next, along with Xplicit, another Hip-Hop artist recently signed on to Freeze’s own label, Mercy Counts Records, and the third member of his new group, UFO. He also has a two person group with Xplicit called Omerta. Freeze’s rhymes have a throwback feel to them, and his ability to switch tones with each new project is a rare talent indeed. Check out new song, “No Silence,” from Freeze’s fourth album, Red Snow 2, due out on Mercy Counts Records any second now.
Shane Slaughter
Downstairs, the crazy, energetic Shane Slaughter was tearing up the stage. Traveling down South a bit from New Hampshire, Slaughter was bouncing all over the place, both physically and musically. His songs and covers go from a psychedelic, twisted Disco feel to straight up Horrorcore Rap. The set began with a Ragga Twins cover, “Bad Man,” then followed by Slaughter’s version of the Skrillex Remix of GTA’s “Red Lips.” Next were original songs “Scratch Racket” featuring Dot Dot Curve, “The War On Terror” featuring JJ Demon, and “Fleek Beak.” The Flux Pavillion remix of Skrillex’s “Recess” and a cover of Getter’s “Dubstep Is Dead” ended the set. Look for Slaughter when he returns to the Palladium on November 4th to perform with Aiden before taking two months off to work on a new EP. A few shows in January follow before an official tour begins to promote this newest EP. Slaughter has a standout sound that music lovers should check out as soon as possible!
Kissing Candice
If a chainsaw could play music, it would sound like Long Island’s Kissing Candice. Formed just three years ago, this Hardcore Electro Metal band is a sight to behold, with all five members – Vocalist Joey Simpson, Guitarists Tommy “Dreamer” Sciro and Walter Dicristina, Bassist Mike Grippo, and Drummer Michael “Pak-man” Pak – hitting the stage in full sanitarium attire, stumbling around in blood-covered hospital garb and stitched up, Leatherface-like face masks. They did not stay on the stage, though. At least three of the five band members were in the audience at all times, headbanging and whipping their hair against the faces brave enough to stand in the frontlines. They played “Ghosted,” “Slugworth,” “Tusk,” and “Nilbog,” then ended the set with a crowd selfie. Their most recent album, Blind Until We Burn, was released via Victory Records on June 29th of this year. Along with Shane Slaughter, Kissing Candice will return to the Palladium on November 4th to play with Aiden on their The Last Sunrise tour, so fans should keep their eyes peeled for upcoming shows.
Scum
Russian born Gorehop artist Scum came all the way from Colorado to play with the boys and girls of Rock and Shock. His incredibly violent lyrics mixed to a bouncy, Hip Hop beat make him a standout in the genre. This Sunday night, he performed with Insane D, and together they paced the stage like strutting roosters, Scum’s dreads swinging. His heavy voice and thudding delivery rocked the floor, darted through with the Juggalo call “Whoop whoop!” Announcing one song in his set was about a dead body in the trunk, Scum asked the crowd, “Has anybody out there ever had that problem?” Scum has been in the business since the ’90s, and his tenth studio release, titled Snuff HD, was released May 30, 2015 and featured another Rock and Shock band, Boondox, along with the late Geno Cultshit and Damien Quinn of Dark Half, Esham, Q Strange, Liquid Assassin, Smallz One, Insane Poetry, PTB, Donnie Menace, and Dread Skinny. Check him out for a dose of Gorehop.
Wolfpac
Hip Hop Metalcore group Wolfpac brought stripper’s poles, scantily clad dancers, hockey masks, mohawks, toxic drums ,and riot gear to the stage. This huge, eight member crew consists of Daddy Long Legs, Buddha, DJ Grim-X, Genocide, Ban, Terror, AnthrAxx as well as Kitty Kush and formed in 1997 from towns throughout Pennsylvania. Flooded with true Horrorcore lyrics, the speakers blasted out death and destruction over the crowd. The pits were amped, especially when band members threw themselves right into the fray. After announcing that they were happy to be back in Massachusetts before singing original song “Death Becomes Her,” they proceeded with a cover of Naughty By Nature’s “OPP” that they recorded on their Round Hole Square Peg album from 2013. For absolute insanity in music form, grab that album fast.
Prozak
Michigan native Prozak was up next. Although officially part of both Bedlam and Project: Deadman with Mike E. Clark, Prozak, The Hitchcock Of Hip Hop was alone on the bill at Rock and Shock. He has even collaborated on songs with others such as Twiztid, Scum, Tech N9ne, Fury, and Krizz Kaliko. Not one to focus on only music, Prozak, under given name Steven T. Shippy, filmed a movie called Seekers: A Haunting On Hamilton Street, where he, Ghosthunters’ Brian Harnois, and their crew go into reportedly haunted places to look for paranormal evidence. Prozac has an insanely fast rapping ability, and his songs flow with a much more musical melody than the previous groups of the night. Once his set was over, he announced to the crowd that he would give out free VIP autographs in the back of the venue for anyone who wanted to hang out. His most recent album was Black Ink, released October 9, 2015 through Strange Music.
Boondox
Georgia native Boondox, painted from head to toe in corpse paint and wearing the official Boondox Fright Fest 2015 jersey, bounced up onto the stage to the sounds of screaming, whooping fans. The crowd surfing was continuous as people tried to swim their way over to the killer scarecrow. He asked the crowd, “Show the love, make some noise,” and they all responded in kind. If possible, Boondox spit rhymes faster than Prozak before him as he blasted “Lake Of Fire,” “Toast To The Fam,” “Seven,” “Untold/Unwritten,” and “The Sober Truth.” To the delight of Horror fans, the theme music for 1978’s Halloween played to remind all that this was, in fact, Fright Fest. Look for a new album soon by Boondox, although, despite rumors to the contrary, the killer scarecrow is not signed with Majic Ninja Records, nor does he plan to do so at this time.
Blaze Ya Dead Homie
To the crowd chants of “Family, Family,” the intro of the undead gangster Blaze Ya Dead Homie began, intoning, “May he stay dead for good!” Blaze hit the stage in his own orange jersey, corpse paint on his bearded face, screaming, “What the fuck is up, Worcester? Fucking Rock and Shock, I don’t even know. I was here last year, but this is the here and now…” When he began “Real G Shit,” the crowd sang with him a cappella, then went into “Put It Down.” He also gave the audience a taste of his upcoming album, The Casket Factory, with “Ghost,” before going back a bit into the past with “Dead Body Man.” Blaze had power over the crowd, mesmerizing them while at the same time, keeping them revved to full throttle. Be sure to grab The Casket Factory, due out January 15, 2016 through Twiztid’s own Majik Ninja Entertainment.
Twiztid
The sound of clanking chains and little Carol Ann announcing, “They’re here!” introduced Twiztid to the stage. Former members of the group House of Krazees, Monoxide Child and Jamie Madrox got signed to Psychopathic Records, and from there, their careers kicked off as they headed out into the world in 1997 as the newly formed Twiztid. Since then, they have released ten studio albums, seven EPs, a mixtape, and have taken part in seven compilation albums, although A New Nightmare (2013) and The Darkness (2015) came out after their dissolution from Psychopathic, and The Darkness was actually released on their own label, Majic Ninja Entertainment.
They started their first show for their October long Fright Fest 2015 tour with “Nosferatu,” a fitting start. The Demented Duo then rolled right into “Hom Sha Bom” before the crowd helped out with “Serial Killa.” Madrox had a time kicking opened water bottles into the crowd and calling himself a seal at Sea World. This prompted a healthy debate between the two about which side of the crowd was better. With Monoxide on the left and Madrox on the right, they encouraged each side of the crowd to scream, proving that, in fact, the left side was the loudest. Next up was “White Trash Wit Tat-2’s,” “P.S.A.,” “Bad Side,” “Sex, Drugs, Money And Murder” and “We Don’t Die” in between hilarious arguments over chicken nuggets. In between songs, the commercial ditty from Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982) played to the delight of all Horror lovers in the crowd. Then a debate on whether or not Madrox actually wears a shirt while he showers.
The boys called Blaze back out, announcing that he is like Beetlejuice, before talking again about the movie Step Brothers (2008) and how Monoxide put his balls in Madrox’s peanut butter. They sang “4 Those Of You” and “Gimme More” with Blaze. The lighters came out for “This Is Your Anthem” before the boys made fun of people who drink too much, telling the crowd to snap pics of the numb, falling down drunks they see in their travels and tweet it to them with #WhoWantIt. As the set came to a close, Twiztid reminded those in the crowd that the official Fright Fest After Party would take place upstairs on the small stage with Blaze and Boondox and that everyone in the crowd was invited. With that, the lights went down on another successful year at Rock and Shock.
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