A Plea For Purging are a real hardcore band, in the purest sense. Always connecting with fans, touring hard, and releasing a new album year after year, the band just continue to mature and grow with each release. Now, their upcoming album, The Life and Death of A Plea For Purging is on the horizon (with a November 8th release date), but despite the title, A Plea For Purging are not slowing down anytime soon. Below is our conversation with guitarist/clean vocalist Blake Martin, which took place at this year's iMatter Festival, where we discussed the new album, touring, and why the band aren't done yet, despite the new album's title. (Interview took place on September 3rd, 2011)

 Interview with Blake of A Plea For Purging (Pt. 1) by Christian Rock Rocks 


 Interview with Blake of A Plea For Purging (Pt. 2) by Christian Rock Rocks 

One of the summer festivals' best kept secrets may just be iMatter Festival, now in its fourth year, held at Eldridge Park in Elmira, New York. This year's festival is being held this weekend, September 2-4, and is looking to be the biggest and best one yet, with three days of music, speakers, and a message of hope and love. For more information on the festival, and to purchase tickets, check out the iMatter website. Below are some things that you can be looking forward to at each of iMatter's three days.

Friday, September 2nd


Friday night will be the start of this year's iMatter Festival, and will be kicked off with worship from Oceans and Vessels and The Ember Days. After that, there will be a night of hip-hop, provided by Benjah, Flame, and the night's headliner, Reach Records' Trip Lee. Joey Furjanic will also be speaking as well.


Saturday, September 3rd


Saturday will be iMatter's main day, and will be full of heavy music. As Hell Retreats will be starting out the day at 10 AM, and will be followed by some up and coming hardcore bands, such as My Heart To Fear, Gideon, To Speak Of Wolves, and Hundredth. Life In Your Way will be playing their third show back as a band this year, and A Plea For Purging will be playing their second show back after recording their upcoming album. The day will be headlined by August Burns Red, along with Emery. Throughout the day, Jake Luhrs of August Burns Red will be speaking, as well as Chad Johnson, founder of Come&Live!. There will also be a Come&Live! tent, in which bands will be doing interviews throughout the day in. To end the night, The Ember Days will be playing their second set of the festival.


Sunday, September 4th


Sunday is the last day of iMatter, but will be free. Speaker Joey Furjanic will be talking again, and The Ember Days will be leading worship to close out iMatter Festival 2011.

Life In Your Way have posted an album teaser, for their upcoming album Kingdoms, which will be releasing as a full length album in late October, and also as three EPs over the next few months for free, through Come&Live!. The teaser can be listened to here. Life In Your Way will be playing iMatter Festival this weekend, their third show back as a band, and if you can't make it to the show, you can check out their merch site.

Oceans and Vessels are an indie worship band out of Elmira, NY, with a passion to lead others in worshiping our Creator. They released a new EP, The Wrecked, earlier this year, which is now available on iTunes. The band will also be leading worship at iMatter Festival on Friday, September 2nd, alongside The Ember Days, Trip Lee, Flame, and Benjah. For more information on Oceans and Vessels, you can visit their website.

The annual Elmira, NY music festival, iMatter, has announced their lineup for this year. The festival will take place on Labor Day weekend, September 2nd-4th, and will feature a great lineup of 12 bands, who are listed below. For more information on iMatter 2011, check out the festival's Facebook page.

iMatter Festival 2011 Lineup:

August Burns Red
Emery
The Ember Days
Impending Doom
Texas In July
A Plea For Purging
Life In Your Way
Hundredth
I, The Breather
The Great Commission
My Heart To Fear
Gideon
To Speak of Wolves