Brutality At The Brewery

Brutality At The Brewery

I’m teaming up again with Brewer Will to do another metal night, this time dubbed Brutality At The Brewery, on Friday, May 8th, 2015! We used to hold metal nights at Port City but Will is now working for Fair Winds Brewing in Lorton, Virginia and we’d like to continue the tradition at his new nautical themed brewery of employ. The place is right off I-95 at the Fairfax County Parkway exit and takes about the same time to reach as Empire/Jaxx does since you don’t have to drive down Old Keene Mill with all the stoplights. And the tasting room where we’ll be holding this event is brand new and really nice! We’ll be playing metal tunes all night (as usual you can send in requests or even your own band’s music) and giving away prizes like concert tickets and band merch. What more could you want? Well how about a sneak preview of the new King Giant album Black Ocean Waves for starters! That’s right, you’ll be able to hear the new King Giant album first at our Brutality At The Brewery event! Also, since Empire is closing earlier that same week there will be a special discount for all of their employees that have suddenly lost their jobs.

You can get more information on the Facebook event page here and you can send your song requests to Will by posting them there or sending them to him via Twitter at @BrewMetalWill. So come hang out with us and a bunch of the area’s metal heads as we talk metal, drink some great beers and listen to heavy metal all night, and who knows, you may win something too!

April 27, 2015
Categories: Shameless Promotion . Tags: , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: Leave a comment

Metal Show Of The Week: Repulsion

Who? Repulsion
When? Saturday, April 25th
Where? MGC Tavern (on the American University campus) (map)
How much? $25 at the door (online ticket sales now closed)

This is one hell of a show that’s coming to the Mary Graydon Center Tavern at American University. Repulsion, along with Napalm Death and Terrorizer, is one of the founding pillars of grindcore. While they’ve played at Maryland Deathfest a few times over the years this will be their first show in Washington DC ever! Repulsion is also credited with the invention of the blast beat and their 1989 album Horrified is a classic of the genre. While they’ve gone through drummers over the years guitarist Matt Olivo and vocalist/bass player Scott Carlson are still with the band (and both were briefly members of Death back in the 80s). This Michigan based grind band is still destroying ear drums and DC area fans of extreme heavy metal do not want to miss this chance to see them here in a small venue.

If all that wasn’t enough to convince you to come out, maybe the incredible line up of local support will! Direct support will be DC/Baltimore’s own Pig Destroyer, the biggest name in grindcore in our region (but you probably already knew that). If you missed their wild, sold out show at Hardywood Brewery in Richmond then you gotta see them with Repulsion! There will also be a set by DC’s masters of crusty death/doom, Ilsa. They’ve got a new album coming out May 5th, titled The Felon’s Claw, but they’ll have CD copies of it for sale early at this show (they won’t have vinyl yet though). There’s also going to be a set by Ilsa’s A389 label mates Noisem, a young, high energy, early 90s death/thrash throwback band that also has a new album coming out soon. The opening act, Left Cross, is one I’m not too familiar with. I know they’re from Richmond but that’s about it, so it should be interesting checking them out.

The fun starts when doors open at 7pm and the first band begins at 8pm. This is a dry show so no alcohol will be served nor permitted (don’t worry, there will still be other nights to drink). If you’d like more info you can go to the official Facebook event page here. The American University Independent Arts Collective has really put together a high quality, and very rare, DIY line up for this one, don’t be a sucker and miss it! Now give a listen to these tunes below by bands that will be playing.

Repulsion – Black Breath / Maggots In Your Coffin:

Pig Destroyer – The Diplomat:

Ilsa – Frostthrower:

Noisem – Split From The Inside Out:

April 23, 2015
Categories: Grind, Metal Show Of The Week . Tags: , , , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 1 Comment

Testament and Exodus ticket give away

Testament and Exodus at the Fillmore Silver Spring

Thrash metal fans cannot miss the Dark Roots Of Thrash II Tour when it brings both Testament and Exodus to the Fillmore Silver Spring on Tuesday, April 28th of 2015! We’re so psyched that we want to get as many people out to this show as possible so this week we’re giving away a free pair of tickets to one of you lucky DCHM readers. To enter just leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite thrash metal band is. You can go old school Bay Area like Testament and Exodus themselves, or Big Four like Anthrax and Slayer, or maybe new school like Municipal Waste and Warbringer or even go with a crossover band for you DRI and Power Trip fans! At 5pm EST this Friday, April 24th, a winner will be chosen at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to win the tickets. Be sure to enter using a valid email you check regularly so I can contact you if you win. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any spam lists or sell your info or anything sleazy like that. If I haven’t heard back from the winner within 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random. If you can’t wait to see if you win or the contest is already over when you read this, then you can get tickets from Live Nation for $35.50 here.

On this tour Testament will be playing a set mostly consisting of material from their first three albums, The Legacy, The New Order and Practice What You Preach, so fans of the band’s classic older material are in for a hell of a show. And you may have heard that Exodus has brought back Steve Souza to front the band so you can expect to hear songs from their new album with him, Blood In Blood Out, as well as classic older material from when he was with the band in the 80s and 90s. The opening act for this show is going to be Shattered Sun, a Texas based band that is having their debut full length album, Hope Within Hatred, released this very week on Victory Records. Now to get you in the headbanging, crowd surfing, mosh pit shoving mood check out these videos by each band below and tell me what your favorite thrash metal band is in the comments!

Testament – Rise Up

Exodus – Blood In, Blood Out

Shattered Sun – Hope Within Hatred

April 20, 2015
Categories: Bay Area Thrash, Contests, Fillmore Silver Spring, Thrash Metal . Tags: , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 36 Comments

Live photos of Electric Wizard

On Wednesday, April 1st of 2015, UK based stoner/doom metal band Electric Wizard played to a sold out crowd at the Baltimore Soundstage. The place was crowded, I’ve never seen it so packed before, but the band put on great show and played those super fuzzy riffs for about an hour and a half. The band had a video projection behind them for the entire show, which mostly showed clips from old exploitation films of nude blond women dancing around with psychedelic patterns superimposed. I didn’t get there in time to shoot locals Satan’s Satyrs, who are opening for the entire tour, but it was cool getting to see their bass player, Clayton Burgess, perform with Electric Wizard. The last time Electric Wizard played the US was also in Baltimore when they headlined Maryland Deathfest in 2012, and they didn’t tour the US around that show, it was a one off performance. Combine that with the fact that Electric Wizard hadn’t played in the US for many years prior to MDF due to problems getting visas, and people were hungry to see these guys in action. Considering that, it isn’t much surprise that their merch sold out very quickly, only a few Electric Wizard tote bags and black light posters remained by the end of their set and all of the t-shirts were long gone. They played a lot of their classics that night, like “Dopesmoker” and “Satanic Rites Of Drugula” and I think most people left pleased with the set list overall (you can see the entire thing here). Whether you got to attend this epic show or not, I hope you enjoy the photos I shot below. If you’d like to see more of them just go here.

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

Electric Wizard at the Baltimore Soundstage

April 9, 2015
Categories: Baltimore Soundstage, Concert Reviews, Doom Metal, Stoner . Tags: , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: Leave a comment

Inter Arma ticket give away

Inter Arma at DC9

One of Richmond’s sickest bands, Inter Arma, is playing DC9 on Monday, April 13th and we’re so psyched about this show that we’re going to give away a free pair of tickets to it to one of you lucky readers! To enter: just leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite band from Virginia, Maryland or DC is (it can even be your own band you self promoters). At 5pm this Friday, April 10th, a winner will be chosen at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to win the tickets. Be sure to enter using a valid email you check regularly so I can contact you if you win. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any spam lists or sell your info or anything sleazy like that, I hate spam too. If I haven’t heard back from the winner within 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random. If the contest is already over when you read this, or you just can’t wait to see if you win, you can buy them from Ticket Fly for $10 here.

Inter Arma, who are currently signed to Relapse Records, is a hard band to pin a subgenre on. The best thing I have been able to come up with to describe them is to say they sound like a really pissed off Neurosis. Their live shows are always intense so don’t skip this one. Also on the tour with Inter Arma is Yautja, a Tennessee based sludge/grind band that is named after the species of alien in the Predator movies. The local support on this bill comes from the excellent Drugs Of Faith. The band has developed a sound known as grind n roll that is just as angry, but quite a bit more catchy, than your standard grind band. This is a pretty awesome bill and you’re not going to want to miss any of these bands so get there early! Now give a listen to these tracks by the bands below as you leave your comment telling me your favorite area band from VA, MD or DC!

Inter Arma – ‘sblood

Yautja – Denihilist

Drugs Of Faith – Insanity

April 7, 2015
Categories: Contests, DC9 . Tags: , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 19 Comments

Review of Foehammer by Foehammer

Band: Foehammer
Album: Foehammer
Release Date: 7 April 2015
Record Label: Grimoire Records
Buy digital or CD ($7) or cassette ($6) on Bandcamp: Here
Buy vinyl ($15) from Australopithecus: Here

Cover of Foehammer by Foehammer

This post is the debut piece from new DCHM contributor Buzzo Jr. Those of you that already know him can back me up that this guy is really passionate about his metal, and I think that he’ll do just fine here. In this post he’s writing about Foehammer, a new band in our area, though the members have been active in our metal scene for some time. Some of you may remember that they were the opening act at the DCHM Holiday Party last December at the Pinch. So take a few minutes to read his words about Foehammer’s debut and of course be sure to stream some of the tunes at the bottom of the post too.

One of the many things the DMV area is well known for is its fantastic doom metal scene. There is no short supply of bands worshipping at the altar of Tony Iommi with fuzz-fueled riffs in the area. One of the newest releases to do so is the self-titled EP from Foehammer, hailing from Annandale, Virginia. With only three songs on the album, each surpassing nine minutes and the final track at a whopping 14, these guys really know the meaning of slow, heavy doom.

First and foremost, the most important thing in all of doom is you’ve got to have solid riffs. And boy do Foehammer deliver. While very simple in structure, every single riff from Joe Cox’s guitar comes at you with full force, lingering on and setting the stage for the next. At some points the riffs sound almost trance-like, and influenced by drone bands such as Sunn O))). The basslines on the record are equally heavy, providing even more distortion to the already low and deep guitar tone. Many funeral doom acts tend to over-distort the bass in order to add to the overall “heaviness,” but end up sounding way too muddy. Foehammer fortunately avoids this misstep and keeps the bass at a perfect level of fuzz, the result being basslines that are clear and audible, but not overpowering the rest of the instruments. Another thing that sets Foehammer apart from other doom bands playing right now would be the vocals. Jay Cardinell’s vocals are not your typical doom vocals in the realm of Wino or Bobby Liebling, but are more reminiscent of death metal bands such as Incantation. The gurgling, low growls at times invoke images of a demonic cauldron, bubbling with an ominous mixture inside. Quite fitting for a band that takes its name from Gandalf’s sword from the “Lord of the Rings” series. Finally, Ben Blanton’s drumming on this record adds the final much needed element to the mix. Each time one of his sticks hit down they hit hard, creating a pounding procession of tribal-like grooves.

The songs, while limited in number, are all slow, heavy, and relentless; hardly ever straying from the set path of full on distortion-laden riffs and pounding drums. The only time the album does quiet down is during the halfway point of the song “Final Grail,” when a beautiful acoustic passage suddenly comes in. The contrast with the acoustic section demonstrates how crushingly heavy Foehammer’s sound actually is once the riffs come roaring back. A minor gripe I have with the album is that while the songs are great, the acoustic section in the first song is the only time the band seems to mix it up, with the rest of the songs not showing much variety in their structure or sound. Apart from that small issue, the album still delivers on what it intended to, and if you’re a fan of incredibly heavy doom in the realm of Samothrace, Conan, Buried At Sea, or even more melodic acts like Pallbearer, then I highly recommend this album.

Foehammer’s self titled debut is a great offering of slow, fuzzy funeral doom that’s bound to shake your speakers and probably your skeleton as well. You can pick it up on April 7 on CD, cassette, or digital download through Baltimore based record label Grimoire Records, or on vinyl through Australopithecus Records.

April 6, 2015
Categories: Album Reviews, Doom Metal . Tags: , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: Leave a comment