Strhess Tour, with Darkest Hour, Bleeding Through, Misery Signals, Zao and Fight Paris

The Warped Tour is fine, but it has a littlefiller. The Strhess Tour, on the other hand, boasts only five headliner-quality acts, and they're all hard and heavy.

Topping the bill is Darkest Hour, the Victory Records metalcore band that has pretty much dropped any hardcore trappings on its latest, Undoing Ruin. Strapping Young Lad front man Devin Townsend produced the smelting pot of Swedish-style, get-the-shred-out metal that's being hailed as an instant classic by journals of note from Alternative Press to Decibel. In addition to heavies like Bleeding Through, Misery Signals and Fight Paris, the tour boasts Zao, new-school hardcore favorites who growl like demons but love Jesus, and who rubbed a few fans the wrong way with The Funeral of God, a concept album that imagines an angry God closing heaven and hell.