Carnival of Madness

Shinedown will bring its sound of madness to the Carnival of Madness descending upon the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids on Sunday night.

The hard rockers from Jacksonville, Fla., also will bring their more hopeful sounds, spinning out of a decade on the music scene.

"We've grown as musicians. I'm a better player now than I was 10 years ago. I think we all are," drummer Barry Kerch, 37, says by phone from a recent tour stop in St. John, Canada. "(Co-founder Brent Smith) is a better lyricist than he was 10 years ago.

"We still have a fire and a hunger to do it, though, and having the addition of Eric and Zach on 'Amaryllis' -- the first record they really recorded with Shinedown -- adds a whole new dimension. They have different inputs, different ideas. They're different artists. It's great -- and it's still evolving," he says of the band's sound.

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