September | 2010 | DCHeavyMetal.com

One Year Anniversary

One year ago I made my first post on this site! I’ve completely changed the layout, gotten a much better logo, and added many more posts and concert listings to the site. This site is constantly evolving, so it’s still not “done” yet. I planned on posting my first interview today to commemorate the day, but it’s been delayed for reasons outside of my control. Hopefully I’ll have it posted next week.

On this first birthday of DCHeavyMetal.com, I’d like to thank all of you who have been supportive of this site. I didn’t know what to expect from people when I started running this, or have any expectations of many people reading it. I’ve gotten an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from you all and it’s been really encouraging for me to keep the site going. Almost every concert I go to now at least someone recognizes me from the site and says hi. That’s always cool, I really never expected so many people to like it so much. I don’t make any money on this at all, it’s a labor of love but I’m glad so many people have enjoyed what I’ve been doing this past year. I hope to continue to make the site better and better. I’m always open to feedback on ways to improve the site so leave a comment or email me at DCHeavyMetal@Gmail.com if you’ve got something to say (or if you want a free bumper sticker with my site’s logo).

I already have some improvements coming to the site, including me possibly getting a nice Nikon DSLR camera. Hopefully I’ll be using that for nicer pictures at the venues that will allow it. I’d also like to have the Downloads section set up the way I want in the next month. For now I’ll give ya the link to Annandale, Virgina based doom trio Salome‘s new song Master Failure. Stream or download it here. It’s a promo their record label put out to promote their upcoming album, Terminal, which should be out in early November.

This site takes a lot of work and a bit of money, but I’m always glad to help the local metal scene. You can too by coming out to see some of our excellent local bands! There’s a show at Jaxx on Friday the 17th of September, Division and Cab Ride Home and probably some other bands too. Check out this Facebook page for more info. The next night, Saturday the 18th, Above The Altar is headlining a local metal show at King’s Court in Leesburg, Virginia. Then there is the second metal night, dubbed Mandatory Metal, coming to the State Theatre on Friday the 8th of October. Excellent local bill of Apothys, Trihexyn, Immortal Decay and Deranged Theory. Check out the Facebook event page for that here. Remember, if they get enough people to come out to these things they’ll keep doing more metal nights. Lastly, on Saturday November 20th local death metal band Loculus is having an EP release show. They’re a great death metal band from the area, and the $5 entrace fee gets you a free copy of their new EP titled Sinew. More info, including other bands playing, is listed here.

September 11, 2010
Categories: Local Band Info, Shameless Promotion, Washington DC / Maryland / Virginia Metal Scene . Tags: Anniversary, Birthday, DCHeavyMetal.com, Heavy Metal, Metal, Music, Washington DC . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 3 Comments

Review of Fu Manchu gig at the Black Cat

Thursday the 2nd of September 2010 I had a bit of a struggle to get to the Black Cat to see Southern California’s Fu Manchu play. Opening act It’s Casual canceled and so the set times were moved up a bit earlier, which didn’t work in my favor. I did make it to the venue though, but I only caught about half of the last song by support act Black Tusk. That kinda sucks because I like their new album and wanted to see them. Not the end of the world though because the real reason I was here was to see headliners Fu Manchu. I’m not sure they count as a metal band, most tend to call them stoner or skater rock, but you’ve got to admit they have some thrashy riffs as well as some heavy distortion laden doom style riffs thrown in there too.

They came out at around 10pm and the audience was ready for them. I think the audience had about doubled in size in the 20 minutes since Black Tusk’s set. They started off playing Squash The Fly and their energy on stage was just great from the start. The crowd got into the show instantly and seemed to cheer louder after each song all night. Unlike some of the stoner and doom bands who are getting back together for reunions these days, Fu Manchu never broke up. This means they have a lot of material to choose from. Their setlist was the ‘best hits’ style spanning their career (as opposed to the play mostly new material style) and they played songs from just about all of the 10 full length studio releases and even a few from their EPs and singles. They did throw in a couple songs from their most recent release, Signs Of Infinite Power, and while I didn’t know them as well as some of their classics like Hell On Wheels and Evil Eye, they fit into the mix perfectly didn’t take away from the show at all like a band’s newer material sometimes can (*cough* Iron Maiden *cough*). I’d seen their setlist on the stage before the show and I’m glad to say not only did they play everything on it, but they added quite a few songs to it also, Ojo Rojo and Superbird notably, as well as a cover of the SSD song Nothing Done.

The whole show guitarist and lead vocalist Scott Hill kept changing location on the stage. Sometimes he’d be headbanging back by the drum kit, sometimes he’d walk up to the very edge of the stage and play to the crowd, and sometimes he’d just be jamming out in front of the mic stand. The whole band seemed very at home on stage and they put on a great performance. These songs are great on their studio albums, but executed live they seemed to be supercharged and maybe part of that was from the crowd’s feedback. The whole thing was rather enjoyable I must say, well except when someone told me to stop shooting video early in the set. That kinda sucked, but I still managed to shoot the final two songs of the night, which you can see below. Aside from that minor issue, I had a great time overall. Even when the mosh pit behind me got out of control and I had beer spilled on my back I didn’t care because it was just that fun of a concert. Early in the set Scott repeated “Baltimore Sucks” into the mic after an audience member said it, but he later apologized when people in the crowd yelled to stop hating on Baltimore and he clarified that he in fact likes Baltimore and enjoyed some of their shows there in the past. Other than that he didn’t say a whole lot between songs, other than to introduce the next tune. Eventually they ended their crowd pleasing show with the song King Of The Road, only to come back a minute or two afterwards and play a request, the song Weird Beard, as their only encore song to finish the night. They played for about 90 minutes straight and their set didn’t get boring for a second. This was a great way to spend a Thursday night in DC and I’m glad I succeeded in getting there. And if you weren’t in attendance or were and just want to remember, here’s the videos of their final two songs they played:

September 3, 2010
Categories: Black Cat, Concert Reviews, Doom Metal . Tags: Band, Black Cat, Concert, Concert Review, Concert Reviews, Fu Manchu, Gig, Heavy Metal, Metal, Skater Metal, Skater Rock, Stoner Metal, Stoner Rock, Washington DC . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 2 Comments

Review Of Hate Eternal gig at Jaxx

Disclaimer: I’ve been rather busy and also gotten sick since this concert happened so I’m not going to do a complete review of the gig, and it’s late getting posted too so deal with it. It was Friday the 27th of August and I went to Jaxx to see Hate Eternal, Cannabis Corpse and Order Of Ennead play. There were some local bands that played first, but I didn’t get there in time to see them. I did hear that a band called the Dead End Kids performed some rap and so many people left the main room because of this that that they were having a problem with crowding in the hallway.

I arrived at the venue a few minutes before Order Of Ennead played, which was good because I certainly wanted to see them again. They’re a Tampa, Florida based death metal band, and their drummer is Steve Asheim of Deicide fame. I’d seen them open for Deicide a while ago, but it was good to see them standing on their own this time. They played a tight set and I liked it more than the first time I saw them. Partly because I caught the entire set, and also because I think they’ve practiced a lot more and gotten their sound really down. I guess I mean their performance just seemed more professional and polished. In all, a brutal way to start of the night, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Next up was Cannabis Corpse, a sort of joke band from Richmond. Their song titles are all parodies of Cannibal Corpse songs, but changed to make them about smoking pot. For example Skull Full Of Maggots becomes Skull Full Of Bong Hits. That said, their songs are not covers or Weird Al style humorous lyric swaps, they’re more thrashy really. You may recognize their bass player, Philip Hall, from the band Municipal Waste, though the stand out on stage was vocalist, Andy Horn. Even though Cannabis Corpse was the band I was least interested in seeing, he was by far the most entertaining person on stage all night. He was almost constantly moving around, making strange and funny expressions and hand gestures, and even doing things like stumbling around like a zombie on stage. He really kept their set entertaining to me, and he was good at getting the pit going too. Going into the show I thought they should be playing before Order Of Ennead but I think they were a good fit between the two Florida death metal bands. They were a nice change of pace and kept the show from getting monotonous. And even though they weren’t headlining, they finished their set with an encore song, the rarely played live Chronolith (video below).

The next band set to play was the headlining act, Hate Eternal. The other Florida death metal act on the bill, this three piece band is technical and relentlessly brutal. Vocalist/guitarist Eric Rutan is probably best known for his time spent in Morbid Angel, but Hate Eternal is his own baby. Most of their songs aren’t particularly catchy, but then you don’t go to death metal shows to grind on sluts all night do ya? No, you go to hear fast, brutal tunes with insane solos and gutteral vocals so you can let off some steam in the mosh pit. Hate Eternal delivered big time this night, and though the crowd wasn’t by any means the biggest I’ve seen at Jaxx, there were enough people there that the place didn’t feel empty. The band didn’t move around a whole lot on stage, tho Eric would walk to the edge of the stage in a few choice spots and get right up in the audience’s face which seemed to get people excited every time. The band was really tight and really crushed it, especially on songs like I, Monarch and King Of All Kings. They were definitely worth seeing and my ears loved the pummeling.

Well, that’s about it for my “short” review which seems to have gotten to a decent length now. The people at Jaxx were cool and didn’t give me any gruff for shooting video this night, so I shot a lot. The guys in Order Of Ennead actually posted links to their MySpace and Twitter feeds of the vids I posted of them, which is cool. Well, on to the videos: