Chimaira, Machine Head & Trivium Crank Peavey on 'Road Rage' Tour

Peavey Int'l. Headquarters—With an arsenal of Peavey gear on stage at Ozzfest and Warped Tour, rock, punk and metal fans can't go far this summer without hearing Peavey. Now, another batch of top Peavey artists has landed yet another major summer tour: Road Rage, which runs through August 30 in Tempe, Ariz. Peavey artists Chimaira and Machine Head are co-headlining the tour, with fellow Peavey band Trivium in support.

Chimaira is touring in support of its latest album, The Impossibility of Reason, and will soon release its debut DVD, The Dehumanizing Process—which includes a remastered version of its long out-of-print debut EP, This Present Darkness. Guitarist Matt DeVries describes the band's latest as an homage to old-school metal bands Slayer, Metallica and Pantera. "The press dubbed us the 'New Wave of American Heavy Metal,' and I think that's true," he says. "Bands like us, Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage are trying to bring it back."

DeVries and co-guitarist Rob Arnold use Peavey 5150® amplifiers exclusively to create their dark thrash sound. "The whole album is just my 5150 II and Rob's 5150 combined," he says. "We scooped out the mids on my sound to get the rhythm crunch, but Rob's sound is set up for soloing, with a lot more mids. We don't use any effects—we just plug straight in."

Machine Head released its fifth studio album, Through the Ashes of Empires, in April, marking a return to Roadrunner Records after two years away. The band issued four studio CDs and one live disc through Roadrunner in before departing the label in 2002. "This is a very exciting time for Machine Head," says guitarist/vocalist and 5150 endorser Robert Flynn. "It's about building a new future, and we feel that Roadrunner is the right label for us to do just that."

Florida-based melodic deathcore band Trivium has toured extensively over the past two years and is finally seeing dividends: Victory Records will re-release the band's latest album, Ember to Inferno, and a new album on Roadrunner Records will appear in 2005. Guitarist Matt Heafy uses Triple XXX® and 5150 amps.