AoniaFest: Our Own Metal Festival!

Aonia is putting on our own all-day metal festival at The Roadhouse, Birmingham.

This is our first festival, showcasing the best rising talent along with established bands from the UK and Europe. Tickets are £10 and are available from The Roadhouse, by clicking here.

They’ll be £12 on the door (if it’s not sold out)!

We are proud to be supporting the S.O.P.H.I.E. charity at this festival.

Bands are:
Blaze Bayley
Aonia
Ravenage
Apparition
Sellsword
Powercake
The Mighty Wraith

Blaze Bayley

Headlining the event is Blaze Bayley, who is kicking off his European Tour at Aoniafest! Blaze is known all over the world as a singer/songwriter for various metal bands. He joined Wolfsbane in 1984, an English band that released 4 studio and 1 live albums in the 80s. He left to join possibly the best heavy metal band in the world, Iron Maiden, which he worked with for two studio albums. After this he formed his own band ‘Blaze’, with which he recorded 3 studio and 1 live album. He then created another album with Wolfsbane, followed by forming a new solo project called ‘Blaze Bayley’ with which he has released four albums.

As well as a prolific songwriter, anyone who has seen Blaze live knows that he puts his heart and soul in his performances. This is a man who has accomplished a great deal in the music world and yet still has a lot to offer. He has a huge amount of passion for the music and is a massive supporter of metal from the top all the way to the bottom.
We are honoured that he will finish off the first Aonia Fest with a bang.

Aonia

The 7-headed, 14-legged creation that is Aonia comprises a dual-wield of ‘sopranos with balls’ as vocalists, along with shredding twin axes, symphonic keys and driving drums and bass – for fans of operatic metal, power metal, progressive metal and NWOBHM. Aonia’s tsunami of sound is a blend of the very old and the very new – a tempered steel in a velvet glove.

Aonia is starting to be climb the ladder of the heavy metal scene, supporting legendary acts such as Martin Walkyier’s Skyclad, as well as Canadian power metallers and Bloodstock veterans Kobra and the Lotus. Most recently, the band has been booked to play the acclaimed ‘Dames of Darkness’ festival in Wolverhampton 9-10 May 2015. Furthermore, Aonia has booked their first show outside of England – supporting the melodic Alwaid in Belgium in July.

On 25/7/14, Aonia released their second EP, ‘Sunchaser’, on July 25th, 2014 to critical acclaim – among other praise, most notably, the EP has been nominated for the TBFM ‘Best EP of 2014’ award, as well as coming ninth in Aii Radio’s Symphonic charts.

Ravenage

Hailing from Hull, England, Ravenage are a six-piece epic Viking metal band famous for their bombastic live show and catchy folk anthems.

Featuring Elliot Vernon of Alestorm, Ravenage have taken the UK by storm with two highly praised appearances at Bloodstock Open Air festival, along with a multitude of unforgettable headlining and support shows and festivals.

Their 2009 EP “Hardrada’s Fall” and 2011’s follow up full-length album Fresh From Fields of Victory have been extremely well received by both national and international press, leading to Ravenage being chosen as the support for such international touring artists as Týr and Negura Bunget. Along with headlining the first Pagan Pride Festival, where they were joined on stage by Martin Walkyier (Sabbat, Skyclad), Ravenage have also performed with Wolfchant, Skyforger, Waylander, Darkest Era, and many others.

Sellsword

Sellsword were founded in the summer of 2013; they style themselves as Mercenary Metal, and are “seriously unserious Power/Heavy Metal from the barren plains of Yorkshire.” Fans of Blind Guardian, Lost Horizon, Sabaton, Dio, Iron Maiden and Rhapsody will do well check them out.

Apparition

Apparition is a female vocal metal project created by David Homer in 1997. They have played live many times supporting some very well known bands such as Delain, Revamp, Sirenia and ex Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen with all shows receiving great reviews.

Powercake

PowerCake as another great addition to Aonia-Fest. For fans of bands like Iron Maiden, Helloween and Blind Guardian, Powercake bring power metal into a new era; they combine hard-hitting riffs and melodic vocal lines with pounding rhythms and fantastical lyric themes to produce a sound that will send your soul soaring.

The Mighty Wraith

The Mighty Wraith is a fantastic addition to an already amazing line-up.
If you don’t know them (you should!), they are a Birmingham-based NWOBHM power-metal band for fans of Iron Maiden, etc. Sporting amazing vocals, melodic and catchy riffs and a thundering rhythm section, they are a great band to see live!

The third of March will be a great day for British metal – fantastic bands, a great venue and a brilliant atmosphere, all in the home of heavy metal. We can’t wait to see you there!