Enter Torche, the four-pronged Floridian Riff Colossus that has steamrolled its way across the international underground. Led by vocalist/guitarist Steve Brooks (formerly of doom dropouts Floor) and featuring the myriad talents of drummer Rick Smith, bassist Jonathan Nuñez and guitarist Juan Montoya, Torche unfurled their self-titled debut in 2005 via Richmond, Virginia’s Robotic Empire. The glorious half-hour of blissed-out power-grooves, triumphant vocal harmonies and cosmic resonance within was variously hailed as “stoner pop,” “thunder rock,” and “doom pop,” but a consensus was quickly reached within the Fourth Estate: Both the underground and mainstream press had their hands halfway down their pants just thinking about listening to Torche. The band was immediately lauded as giants among men, leaders among sheep, and powerbrokers of a deadly new sonic idiom founded upon Brooks’ signature “bomb-string” detonation-detune. As Decibel magazine so righteously pointed out in May of 2005, Torche “carries on in the dizzying Sabbathian tradition of Floor, only potentially more bottomless and epic.” Seven months later, the same publication would declare Torche as the # 7 album of the year in its annual top 40.

KEN mode is a Juno award winning noise rock influenced metallic hardcore band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada that was formed in Sept, 1999.

Born out of a combination of dirty rock and roll, stale beer and an unhealthy obsession with "Big Trouble In Little China," Columbus's Lo-Pan have been tearing up the club circuit since 2005. Lo-Pan burst onto the local scene with their locally released self-titled album back in 2006. The local buzz gave way to more national attention as bands told bands and Lo-Pan began gracing venues big and small with names like Red Giant, Devil To Pay, Torche, the Sword, Saviours, Year Long Disaster, Red Fang, Valkyrie, & the Atomic Bitchwax (just to name a few). Fast forward five years and there's hardly a band worth playing with that they haven't shared a stage with.