Emperor

Emperor headlining Psycho Las Vegas? Psycho Swim lineup also expanded

The Psycho Las Vegas 2020 lineup continues to get better and better. The festival is promising to reveal the full schedule later this month (Mercyful Fate please!), and they’re also saying, “Rumor has it Emperor is headlining Friday night and their visas are APPROVED.” Hopefully this “rumor” that the fest themselves posted is true… would be a pretty amazing one and a Norwegian black metal wet dream with Mayhem, Satyricon, and Ulver (not to mention Sweden’s Watain) all already announced on the Nevada casino fest’s bill.

Emperor just played the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise off the coast of Miami yesterday (pics above and below), and their upcoming dates also include Mexico and South America shows, so they’re already guaranteed to be back in this hemisphere in 2020. But if Psycho really does happen, we’re pretty sure it’ll be the band’s first-announced United States show (on land) since… 2007?

Meanwhile, Emperor frontman Ihsahn (who has a new solo EP coming) plays 70,000 Tons of Metal on Thursday, and he’ll play a 2020 US (on land) “US exclusive” at Atlanta’s ProgPower USA festival, which he also performed at in 2011. He also performed at Maryland Deathfest in 2013.

Here’s Ihsahn talking to Metal Injection in 2017 about why he only rarely plays the US (visa issues, finances), starting around the 8:38 mark:

Previously announced bands for Psycho include Thursday, Warpaint, Cursive, Pinback, Boysetsfire, Brutus, This Will Destroy You, Blue Oyster Cult, Satyricon, At The Gates (Slaughter of the Soul 25th anniversary set), Poison The Well (The Opposite of December 20th anniversary set), Boris, Ty Segall, Mayhem, Blonde Redhead, Ulver, Windhand, Watain, MGLA and more.

Meanwhile, the lineup for the Psycho Swim pre-party — which you can also call Day One of the four-day fest (but requires a separate ticket) — has also been finalized and now includes Blackwater Holylight, Here Lies Man, Death Valley Girls and DJ Scott Seltzer, in addition to previously revealed bands Old Man Gloom, Elder, The Skull, and Polyrhythmics.

Tickets for both the main fest and the pre-party are still available.

And here are some more pics of Emperor at 70,000 Tons of Metal yesterday…

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7C-fPsj_Vh/