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70,000 Tons Of Metal 2024 (Day Three)

Day three is always the day when you arrive at your destination port during the 70,000 Tons Of Metal festival. Most survivors (the festival’s nomenclature for festival attendees) choose to debark the ship and enjoy the local beaches, shops, and restaurants. There are also excursions that you can sign up for beforehand that include members of the festival’s bands. These are at an additional cost and consist of activities such as ziplining, snorkeling, boat excursions and even playing with the local monkeys.

Puerto Plata

This year’s destination port city was Puerto Plata located in the northwestern coast of the Dominican Republic. This touristy cruise ship port (Taino Bay) was very modern and chock full of shops, bars, and eateries. Like most Caribbean cruise ship ports, I describe Taino Bay as a sprawling Margaritaville, at least a football field length long. My wife and I are more of the adventurous types so we made our way through the plethora of friendly yet persistent vendors and walked through traffic laden streets for about 5 minutes before arriving in the colonial and cultural heart of Puerto Plata.

Umbrella Street

As far as Caribbean port cities are concerned, I give it a 7 out of 10. There are a couple of photogenic areas like Umbrella Street, and the Pink Alley. If you’re a “grammer” type, these areas are your jam. There were plenty of cute shops and cheap cafes all over the area. However, we had to hunt down a restaurant that serves local Dominican fare. We ended up at a place called Kelvin y Patricia Bar Restaurant. It’s located at the entrance of Umbrella Street and Calle San Felipe. This place rocked. We noticed that the platters were large, so we ordered a couple of beers and a plate of chicharrones de cerdo with some mofongo and platanos on the side. Everything was incredibly delicious. I highly recommend this place if you ever find yourself in Puerto Plata.

Chicharrones and Mofungo

After lunch, we wanted to get a head start back to the ship to take advantage of some quiet time on the ship, i.e., jacuzzi/libations, before the masses of “survivors” returned. After a couple of hours unwinding, it was time to start getting ready for the third night of bands. It was a tricky schedule because we picked to see Warkings, Nanowar of Steel, Saor and Blind Guardian back-to-back at the front part of tonight’s line-up and then we planned to take a nap to catch Infected Rain and Crypta in the early morning hours of the next day. More...

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Cult Leader Premiere New Single & Music Video

Cult Leader premiere a new single titled “Learn To Love It” in anticipation of their European tour next month. The hardcore metal outfit recorded this song during the sessions for their 2022 split with END, titled “Gather & Mourn.”

The band shared their thoughts on the single, stating: More...

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