SAN ANTONIO GOT GAME

Over the weekend, we ran a guest post from our bro Surgical Brute spotlighting five bands scheduled to appear at the Rites of Darkness 3 festival, which is scheduled to run December 9 -11, 2011 in San Antonio, Texas. We hadn’t heard about this festival before that post, but 41 bands are already scheduled to appear, and it’s one helluva line-up (as you can see at the bottom of Surgical Brute’s post here).

No sooner was the ink dry on that post (figuratively speaking) than we got an e-mail from “Utmu“, another NCS reader/commenter, alerting us to yet another San Antonio festival scheduled for November 18-20 called The Goregrowler’s Ball. We checked the line-up, which Utmu cryptically said might include a few names that would interest us, and . . . holy shit, was he right.

Check out the names of the co-headliners: Suffocation, Aborted, Exhumed. Yeah, that got our attention. But that’s just the start — there are 54 bands confirmed for this festival so far, and the promoters may not be finished yet. The line-up also includes Lair of the Minotaur, Malignancy, Putrid Pile, Noisear, Dreaming Dead, Woods of Ypres, and The Evil Amidst — just to pick out a handful of our favorite names.

San Antonio’s definitely got it goin’ on, metal-wise. Who knew? I dunno, maybe everyone but us. But now we know, and so do you. You can check out the full line-up after the jump. There may be an Alamo-and-River-Walk visit in our future . . .

Here’s the line-up, which includes links to the MySpace pages for each band. And here is the link for the festival web site where you can find more info. Tickets appear to be on sale now.

SUFFOCATION *** (New York, Nuclear Blast Records)

ABORTED *** (Belgium, Century Media)

EXHUMED *** (California, Relapse Records)

DECEASED… (Virginia, Shrieks from the Hearse Records)

MALIGNANCY (New York, Willowtip Records)

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR (Illinois, Southern Lord Records)

PUTRID PILE (Wisconsin, Sevared Records)

NOISEAR (New Mexico, Relapse Records)

NOKTURNEL (Texas, unsigned)

DREAMING DEAD (California, unsigned)

FLESH CONSUMED (California, Unique Leader Records)

GRAVEHILL (California, Ibex Moon Records)

HELLWITCH (Florida, Xtreeme Music)

ROTTENNESS (Mexico, Sevared Records)

SATHANAS (Pennsylvania, Pagan Records)

WOODS OF YPRES (Canada, Earache Records)

VIRAL LOAD (Texas, Sevared Records)

INSIDIOUS DECREPANCY (Texas, Brutal Bands)

DERKETA (Pennsylvania, Necroharmonic Records)

ATROCIOUS ABNORMALITY (North Carolina, Comatose Music)

BLOODSOAKED +++ (North Carolina, Comatose Music)

CARDIAC ARREST (Illinois, Ibex Moon Records)

HOD (Texas, Ibex Moon Records)

SACRIFICIAL SLAUGHTER (California, Crash Records)

THE EVIL AMIDST (Florida, unsigned)

VORE (Arkansas, unsigned)

SEVERANCE (Texas, Sevared Records)

DROGHEDA (Ohio, Goatgrind Records)

DISFIGURED (Texas, Comatose Music)

MEATHOOK (Arizona, Sevared Records)

THE MEATFUCKERS (Mexico, Sex’n’Leather Productions)

FACE OF RUIN (Wisconsin, unsigned)

ENABLER (Minnesota, unsigned)

INFERNAL DAMNATION (California, HPGD Records)

INVIDIOSUS (Minnesota, unsigned)

MOURNING (New Jersey, Ossuary Industries Records)

EXTREMELY ROTTEN (Florida, unsigned)

LOCUSTA (Ohio, unsigned)

ENGAGED IN MUTILATING (Texas, Comatose Music)

EVISCERATED (Texas, Sevared Records)

PROLICIDE (Texas, Ossuary Industries Records)

BARING TEETH (Texas, Willowtip Records)

VAGINAL BEAR TRAP (Texas, Ossuary Industries Records)

GRIEVED (Texas, unsigned)

MALIGNANT CHRIST (Tennessee, unsigned)

VEX (Texas, Horror Pain Gore Death productions)

DESPISE THE SUN (Colorado, Ossuary Industries Records)

PILLCRUSHER (Texas, unsigned)

GOREMATORY (New Jersey, unsigned)

FUNERAL RITES (Texas, unsigned)

EMPERIAL MASSACRE (Texas, unsigned)

BLOWTORCH SODOMY (Florida, unsigned)

*** indicates Headliner.

+++ indicates Special performance: Bloodsoaked will perform as a 3 piece band this year. Peter Hasselbrack (Bloodsoaked, Guitar/Vocals), Mike De Leon (Disfigured/Prolicide, Guitar), Seth Van De Loo (Severe Torture/Nox, Drums). This is a ONE TIME ONLY performance of this line-up!