This blog specializes in heavy metal music and how it relates to Washington DC and the surrounding area. Featuring info on upcoming metal concerts in Washington DC, Baltimore and Virginia, as well as info on local bands, area concert venues, reviews of live gigs, and lots of give aways.
On Saturday, September 20th, 2014, I went to the Rock & Roll Hotel at about 5pm to catch a free show by the Kentucky punk rock band Coliseum. This was part of the H Street Festival’s festivities, which had the street shut down for the day. Standing in line just to have my ID checked I was a bit worried that the place would be really packed. The sidewalks outside all the bars had little temporary fences that were packed shoulder to shoulder with hipsters drinking cheap beer as they screamed in each others faces trying to talk over each other. I guess drinking on the sidewalk in a pen is really fucking exciting to some people, but I was here to see Coliseum, a great band I’d seen play a sold out DC9 show with Pelican last November. I had no problem making my way to the front as the main show room was almost empty, except for the people in line to talk to the bartenders. The place did fill up, somewhat, when they started playing. They played for about 45 minutes and their set included a few new songs. It was a lot of fun and you can’t complain about seeing a great band for free. There were several other bands playing that day but after Coliseum played I headed over to Little Miss Whiskey’s to talk to the DC Brau folks (always a fun time).
Coliseum:
Later the same night I grabbed dinner and then picked up a six pack (which turned into a 4 pack due to the cardboard handle breaking in the parking lot of the store I had just bought it at) and I went to another show. This was a house show at a place called the Dougout in Northeast DC. I’d never been there before but it was pretty nice for a house venue, especially one that was hosting grind bands. I missed local death/grind band Genocide Pact, which sucks cause they’re good, but I’m sure I’ll get the chance to see them again at least. The first band I did see was Nervous Mothers, a powerviolence band all the way from Belgium. I’m not sure how it’s financially possible to fly all the way over from Europe to play a bunch of gigs in basements but they actually were pretty good. However next up was the band I really came to see, Cloud Rat. The grind trio is from Michigan and they released Moksha, one of my favorite grind albums of 2013 (click the name to give it a listen). They combine brutal riffs and sheer intensity perfectly and their frontwoman, Madison Marshall, has a voice that just drips frustration. In all it was a really great show at a cool DIY venue, I hope they get some more brutal bands there in the future.
On Saturday, July 26th I made it up to the first Grimscape at the Sidebar in Baltimore. The place isn’t very big, I think the max capacity is around 100 people, and most of the walls and pipes in the place are covered in the stickers of bands that have played there in the past. The stage is only a few inches tall and the lighting isn’t anything worth bragging about, but it’s a great spot for DIY punk and metal shows. This evening the Sidebar was hosting the inaugural Grimscape that will apparently become an annual event. It collected a bunch of mostly local black metal bands with the headliner, Pact, coming down from Erie, Pennsylvania, to play. Apparently Helgardh was supposed to be on the bill but for whatever reason they dropped off and were replaced by a band called Hex Temple. This was apparently Hex Temple’s first live show but I didn’t get there in time to see them. I did however get to see the next band, Antikosmos, who were also making their live debut at this show. They were entertaining for sure. Frontwoman Victoria Atkins commands the audience’s attention with her striking blonde hair and wild facial expressions, though she was standing on the stage behind a couple of the band members who were on the floor which obscured her from view at times. They played a Watain cover and a Bathory cover as well as a pair of originals. They’re still figuring out their own sound, which is mostly dominated by their influences, but that’s to be expected from any young band really. There was quite a large crowd there while they played and I think a lot of people came just to see their friends in Antikosmos perform for the first time.
After Antikosmos played Inverted Trifixion was set to play next. I was hungry though, and the Sidebar doesn’t serve food, so I ran out for a bite to eat at Joe Squared, hoping to make it back in time to catch the end of Inverted Trifixion’s set. Unfortunately I didn’t make it back that quickly as Dispellment was setting up when I returned. Dispellment is a three piece black metal band from Northern Virginia and they’re pretty damn good. Their style is fast and energetic and reminds me of something similar to Taake mixed with older Marduk. The band is well rehearsed and performs together as a tight unit. Although their songs are often punishing they do have room in there for some catchy riffs even a moderate black metal fan can appreciate. Their stage set up with deer antlers and various tree branches in addition to their messy corpse paint is pretty entertaining, and their bass player often walked right into the audience with a menacing look on his face making sure you couldn’t simply ignore Dispellment’s performance.
Finally it was time for the headliner, Pact. Unfortunately most of the audience that had been there earlier in the night had left by this point and it was a shame cause these guys were pretty sick. Their vocalist came out wearing a black robe with a big hood on it and some sort of bandage on his right hand. One of the guitar players had some crazy looking custom guitar that looked like the cover to Morbid Angel’s Altars Of Madness covered in a sickly ashen bile. These guys were also very well practiced and tight, you could tell they knew their material inside and out. Pact was the most aggressive sounding band that I saw at Grimscape combining a raw intensity with some unholy riffage that oddly reminded me of mid-90s era Dark Funeral at times. Their vocalist did a lot of hand gestures to the crowd and sometimes it almost seemed like he was practicing some sort of martial arts moves with his hands.
In all it was a great DIY black metal show and a great time over all. Thanks to Mary Spiro of Metallomusikum (and the curator of the Black Metal Baltimore group on Facebook) for getting the bands to come out, the turn out seemed pretty good so I’m betting there will be a second installment in 2015. Let’s hope more people (including members of the bands earlier on the bill) stay next time cause the later bands were great! I’ve posted some of my favorite photos that I shot Saturday below, but you can see all of them, and in full size, on Flickr here. Keep it metal everyone and keep on supporting the scene that you’re a part of!
Part 2 of my Maryland Deathfest XII recap will cover the final two days of the festival, Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th of May 2014. You can read part 1 here where I cover what happened on Thursday and Friday of the fest. If you’d like to see more of my MDF photos you can do that here.
If Friday was the black metal day of the fest I think Saturday was the thrash metal day with performances by Sacrifice, Tankard, Sarke and Dark Angel all on the schedule. However I decided to get start the third day of Maryland Deathfest with helpings of grindcore and whiskey shots at the Baltimore SoundStage. I caught the Czech band БУТ perform first and they were pretty good. Their set was short, as grind sets tend to be, but they were fun. The next band I saw was Sick/Tired from Chicago. These guys were impressive with how terrifying their sound was. The audience wasn’t exactly huge yet at the SoundStage at 3:30 in the afternoon but they still brought it anyways. After they played I took a short boozing break before heading over to see Nocturnus AD at the main grounds of the Edison Lot.
Nocturnus AD is a spin off band of a now defunct death metal band from the early Tampa Bay, Florida scene known simply as Nocturnus. I remember these guys mostly for an album their classic 1990 album The Key. Apparently a few Nocturnus members secretly copyrighted the name Nocturnus then kicked out drummer/lead vocalist Mike Browning, the only founding member left in the band. Mike Browning then formed a band called After Death and together with the members of this band they performed for us at MDF as Nocturnus AD. It appears that they knew most people wanted to hear them play songs from The Key and they played the album from start to finish then closed their set with a crowd pleasing cover of the Morbid Angel classic “Chapel Of Ghouls.”
The next band to play was the German thrash band Tankard. These guys had a lot of energy on stage and musically they are beer fueled party thrash, basically the old school version of Municipal Waste. The audience reacted well and if nothing else Tankard gave us a good excuse to cool down with a few beers during their set.
Tankard:
Sacrifice was the next band to play and I was excited to see them. This was the Toronto thrash band’s first show in the US since 1993! They had their entire line up back together and they didn’t disappoint. Sacrifice expertly played their aggressive songs and I thought that this was the show that Coroner should have given us when they performed a rather lackluster headlining set at Maryland Deathfest in 2011.
Sacrifice:
The next band to play the Edison lot was Sarke. Originally started as an eponymous solo project by the band’s bass player, they’re more known for being fronted by Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone fame. Sarke is called black/thrash but they aren’t really as fast as bands like Aura Noir and Abigail. Their sound is pretty straight forward and cold. The band didn’t play the full amount of time they were allotted but I don’t think most people minded since for their final song, after covering Celtic Frost, they did what everyone watching the show hoped they do: cover a Darkthrone song. For those who don’t know, Darkthrone refuses to play live so Nocturno Culto performing “Too Old, Too Cold” with Sarke at Maryland Deathfest is about the closest any of us will come to seeing Darkthrone live.
Sarke:
It was getting ominously dark by the time Unleashed hit the stage. One of the first death metal bands from Sweden was called Nihilist and after a few legendary demos they parted ways with Johnny Hedlund and reformed as the band Entombed. Johnny Hedlund didn’t disappear though, he quickly formed Unleashed, a death metal band that over the years has gotten more and more into viking history and mythology. I tend to think of modern Unleashed as the more authentic version of Amon Amarth. It’s not every day you get to see one of the founding Swedish death metal bands play in America and while Unleashed’s set was pretty damn good, they didn’t play anything off of their legendary debut album Where No Life Dwells, which was a bit of a bummer. I realize they want to get people into their more modern material, and it actually is really good stuff overall, but some fans only know that album and even just a one or two WNLD tunes in the set list would have been nice.
Unleashed:
Next up was Saturday’s headliner, the long awaited return of Dark Angel. The band appeared with their complete Leave Scars line up, including the Atomic Clock, Gene Hoglan behind the kit. Their set list was a good mix of songs from each of their four albums. Dark Angel really put on a great show, despite the dim stage lighting and light rain that began midway through their set. Ron Rinehart’s voice was in good form and he did well on the Don Doty era songs too. They had a lot of energy, especially for an older band, and I think they really fed off the strong audience reaction. They ripped through their final song of the night, “Perish In Flames” and I could have watched them for another hour if they’d have played that long. Dark Angel was definitely my favorite performance of Day 3 of Deathfest.
Dark Angel:
After Dark Angel played I headed over to Rams Head Live to see Schirenc. They’re named after Martin Schirenc who is also known as Don Cochino, guitarist/vocalist of the Austrian band Pungent Stench. Originally billed as The Church Of Pungent Stench they were apparently forced to change the band’s name due to a court order by other former members of Pungent Stench. Regardless, Schirenc played a set consisting solely of old Pungent Stench material. I enjoy their bizarre take on death metal which has a macabre sense of humor to it, and I recognized several songs in their set list, but with only one member there it just wasn’t the same and it felt about as authentic as watching a modern “Guns ‘N’ Roses” concert.
Pungent Stench:
I walked the block over to the Baltimore SoundStage to catch their headliner, Excruciating Terror, a grindcore band from Los Angeles. This was something of a reunion show for the band which released all of their material in the 90s. They’re also noted for being the first band that Fear Factory and Divine Heresy guitarist Dino Cazares was in, though he was not part of the line up this night. Simply put, Excruciating Terror lived up to their name. Their songs, while short, were intense and ferocious bursts of grind and their energy level was through the roof. The audience went crazy of course and after their performance I was a sweaty mess as I walked back to Rams Head Live.
Excruciating Terror:
The final band to play Maryland Deathfest XII on day three was Asphyx. They’re a death/doom metal band from The Netherlands fronted by the legendary Martin van Drunen. Their old school approach to death metal combined with their muddy riffs and Martin’s on stage charisma was a hit with the Deathfest fans. Their set list covered crowd pleasers like “We Doom You To Death” and “Death The Brutal Way” but I think the highlight for me was hearing them play their crushing song “The Rack,” an old favorite of mine. As they finished I headed back to the hotel knowing that Sunday was going to be a marathon of excellent metal that I would need my rest to make it through. We can’t have the guy who writes the MDF Survival Guide not surviving can we?
Asphyx:
I arrived at the Edison lot early enough on Sunday to catch the first band of the day, Windhand. They’re a female fronted doom metal band from Richmond that I’ve been a fan of since their days of playing basement shows. It was just awesome seeing them on that big outdoor stage with all that power behind their ultra heavy riffs. They’re definitely one of my favorite rising bands these days and their performance was one of my top favorites of all of this year’s Deathfest.
Windhand:
The next band to play was Bongripper, and instrumental band from Chicago that plays, you guessed it, stoner metal. I wasn’t really familiar with them going in but they were really great live, definitely a surprise find for me as I tend to avoid bands with names focused on drug use. They played a solid thirty minute set that didn’t seem to have any downtime between songs and Ronald Petzke’s aluminum necked EGC bass guitar really brought the heavy to their songs. At one point the Chicken Man was held up high in the crowd holding a banner that read Hippie Killer, the title of one of Bongripper’s albums.
Bongripper:
Back on stage B of the Edison lot the Portland based sludge metal band Graves At Sea took the stage. I didn’t love these guys as much as the previous two bands, they were tough acts to follow though. I didn’t think they were bad, just nothing outstanding I guess. Some people were really into them though. I ended up wandering off to buy more merch midway through their set.
Graves At Sea:
The next band to play the Edison lot was Maryland’s very own Misery Index. The local death/grind band was the first high speed band of the day and they really woke up the audience. It was great to see Jason Netherton playing with the band again, the sole founding member was absent the last time I had seen Misery Index play. He seems to have turned over much of the vocal duties to Mark Kloeppel but the band was still really tight live and as usual, very fun to watch.
Misery Index:
Next the Maryland Deathfest audience was treated with a rare appearance by Pseudogod, a blackened death metal band all the way from Perm, Russia (although Impurath of Black Witchery was filling in on bass). They took the stage covered in blood and really brought the brutality. Their set was an unforgiving aural beating which seemed extra intense in the sun’s unrelenting heat. Their devastating set closed with a cover of “Blood War III” by French black metal band Antaeus (who happened to play Maryland Deathfest in 2013).
Pseudogod:
After Pseudogod played it was time for Wrathprayer, a blacked death metal band from Chile. They were ok I guess but didn’t stand out to me that much after the intense set by Pseudogod. The three piece didn’t seem accustomed to performing on a big stage either as they didn’t move around much up there and seemed a bit awkward. I think they would have been better on a smaller stage. After four or five songs I figured I had gotten the gist of what they do and I decided to hang out in the back more and get some cold beer.
Wrathprayer:
The next band to play was the two piece black metal band Inquisition. Originally from Colombia they are now based in Seattle and they’ve become pretty popular in the past few years. However there’s a bit of controversy around them of late for possibly being racists and honestly it’s a bit ambiguous whether they are or aren’t. They have some catchy songs and the crowd seemed really into them but I hung out in the shaded picnic table area after I finished shooting them cause I’m not clear if they’re bigots and it’s really not worth my time figuring it out when I can just move on to something else.
Inquisition:
Soilent Green took the stage next and this was something of a reunion show for the band who hadn’t played together in several years. Based in New Orleans, several of their members have moved onto more famous bands such as Eyehategod, Crowbar and Goatwhore. They play a mix between sludge and death metal that comes across much more catchy than you’d probably expect that to sound. The audience went crazy for them and you could tell the band really fed off that energy.
Soilent Green:
After Soilent Green played I made one of those tough decisions you’re sometimes faced with at Deathfest. I decided to skip seeing Gorguts, who I had just seen with Carcass a month prior, in favor of heading over to the Baltimore SoundStage to see Death Toll 80k. They’re a grind band from Finland and while I didn’t really know what to expect of them I figured this was my one chance to ever see them live. My gamble payed off, they were fucking great live! Intense, brutal and fun is how I’d describe them. They were probably my favorite band of those that I saw at the SoundStage during MDF and though my feet were sore walking back to the Edison lot after their set there was no doubt in my mind that the pain was worth it.
Death Toll 80k:
It was a total shift in gears when then next band I saw was Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats from England. They play a very catchy, and fuzzy, style of 70s inspired stoner metal. This was their first US show and a lot of people had come just for the chance to see them. They were really fun live, full of energy on stage and those infectious riffs sounded great booming out of those big speakers. Even Deathfest needs a bit of down time to let everyone catch their breath and Uncle Acid was the best chill out music you could ask for.
Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats:
Next up was the Swedish band Candlemass. I’ll admit I’ve never been a fan of their gothy doom sound which often has power metal elements to it. They were pretty entertaining on stage though and their new vocalist Mats Levén seemed to be a hit with the fans who were getting their first chance in years to see Candlemass perform live in the US. I ended up leaving early to try to catch Australian grind band Pneumatic Slaughter at the Sidebar. Unfortunately we were told at the door that they had dropped off the bill (I later caught up with their vocalist, who is also the vocalist of Whitehorse, and asked why they pulled out and he said they had told the MDF promoters several weeks prior that some of the members wouldn’t be able to play). A bit of a bummer but not the end of the world. I wasn’t very excited to see the doom metal turned goth band My Dying Bride headline, even if it was their first US appearance since 1997, so I headed over to Rams Head Live early.
Candlemass:
After a bit of down time New York City based Mutilation Rites played a short but sick set of black metal. The audience was pretty sparse but they still brought the heavy for the entire time they were allotted. If you missed them don’t worry, they’re playing at the Pinch in Washington DC on July 14th (more info on that here). The band was pretty tight live and handled the big stage at Rams Head Live well.
Mutilation Rites:
Next up was the first of two bands from New Zealand that I’d see this night. Diocletian plays very aggressive blackened death metal and uses a lot of medieval military style imagery as well. This band wasn’t fucking around though, they brought the punishing riffs with almost nonstop rage. Diocletian also played at the Edison lot early on Saturday before I arrived but they were given this set as a bonus because Mitochondrion couldn’t get into the country. Both of Diocletian’s guitar players were wearing Mitochondrion shirts on stage in recognition. Anyways, I ended up leaving a little early because I wanted to catch a bit of the headliner a block over at the Baltimore SoundStage.
Diocletian:
Over at the Baltimore SoundStage the legendary Brazilian thrash/hardcore band Ratos de Porão was causing a ruckus by the time I walked in! People were going crazy stage diving, crowd surfing and just losing their shit. Formed in the early 80s the band, whose name translates to Basement Rats, still has two members from those days with them, and the drummer has been there for over 20 years now too. I first became aware of this band when I was in high school because Sepultura covered their song “Crucificados Pelo Sistema” but I never figured I’d actually get the chance to see them live. While I didn’t really know most of their material it didn’t matter because it was just damn fun watching the band and the audience just go crazy together. At one point between songs their bass player requested the audience boycott the World Cup (which is taking place in Brazil right now) stating that it is just a big scam for the rich to make more money while ignoring the country’s poor. He’s probably right but this is America, we’re already boycotting soccer with our apathy toward the sport.
Ratos de Porão:
After leaving the sweaty Baltimore SoundStage with a big grin on my face I returned to Rams Head Live to see Ulcerate. The New Zealand based three piece tech death band puts out some great albums but they’re simply incredible live. Their drummer, Jamie Saint Merat, steals the show and rightly so, he very well may be the best drummer in all of metal right now. I didn’t mind missing part of their set because I had just seen them at Empire the night before Deathfest started, but even so their performance was no less jaw dropping the second time around.
Ulcerate:
Next it was time for the final band of Maryland Deathfest XII, Immolation. I felt bad for them having to play after Ulcerate, there was no way they were going to top that. The old school New York Death Metal band had a very influential album in 1991 called Dawn Of Possession and the highlight of their set for me was when they played “Those Left Behind” off of it. It seemed like the band didn’t want Deathfest to end any more than the audience did as they played right up to the 2am cut off time. Finally Maryland Deathfest XII had come to a close.
Immolation:
I can’t stress enough how much fun this year’s Maryland Deathfest was. As usual there were tons of great bands as well as metal brothers and sisters to watch them all with. Security was excellent this year, they treating fans with respect while also not escalating situations. They all deserve high fives for their good work this year. The MDF organizers will be announcing the bands for next year’s festival soon so keep your fingers crossed that your unrealistic metal concert wish list will become a reality.
Maryland Deathfest XII spanned from Thursday, May 22nd to Sunday, May 25th of 2014 and as usual it brought all kinds of metal bands to Baltimore. Each year attendees get to see metal bands not only from exotic locales all over the world but also witness reunion shows and check out some smaller up and coming bands too. Last year there were quite a few snags in the event which I won’t really get into here (you can read my interview with MDF co-founder Evan Harting where I asked him about issues with last year’s fest here). This year went much smoother and while there were a few issues, I think the biggest being a lack of free water for attendees at the main festival grounds, overall the problems of last year were pretty much all solved. I think the change in location for the main grounds really helped this year. So here’s a recounting of the bands I saw at Maryland Deathfest XII on the first two days of the fest, part two will cover Saturday and Sunday. All of the below photos and videos were shot by myself. I have many more photos on Flickr that you can see here if you’re interested.
The first day of Maryland Deathfest always seems like a bit of a warm up. This year Rams Head Live was the only venue to host bands on the first day and while the line up was pretty good, unfortunately the headliner, Triptykon, had dropped off due to Tom G. Warrior’s involvement in H.R. Giger’s funeral (read his statement about this here). This gave some of the other Thursday bands extended set times at least. The first band to play was the LA based sludge band Seven Sisters Of Sleep who started things off pretty well but the next band, Australian doom metal band Whitehorse, was just incredible. I had seen them before at Golden West Cafe in 2012 but the big stage at Rams Head Live with a real sound system made their slow motion doom riffs just sound great. They showed that they are masters of the slow build up with huge heavy riffs as the payoff. I missed most of Sourvein and Torche as I went to get food and catch up with friends arriving for the weekend. I made sure to catch all of Japanese death/doom band Coffins though. They were really good and I enjoyed every second of their set. The last band to play was Crowbar from New Orleans, one of the oldest sludge bands around. At one point a fan ran on stage and after security dealt with him Kirk Windstein ranted about how fans shouldn’t do that kind of thing especially after what Randy Blythe had to go through. This wasn’t my first time seeing Crowbar though and they’ve never been a favorite of mine so I left before the set was over to get some rest for day 2, the first day that would have the main festival grounds open. I don’t have any photos from Thursday except this shot of the infamous Chicken Man and his cow comrade in front of the fountain outside Rams Head Live. You haven’t really arrived at Deathfest until you’ve had a Chicken Man sighting.
Friday was the second day of Maryland Deathfest and the one I had been anticipating the most. While there are bands of many genres spread out throughout MDF each year, I tend to notice that each day has a main genre “theme” and Friday was the black metal day by my account. This started off with the Polish band Mgła making their first US performance. While some of the bands coming to Deathfest have their best years behind them this is not the case for Mgła, these guys are in their prime right now. They did not disappoint live and while they must have been very hot under all of their black leather, hoods and masks, their material is very strong and the audience in general seemed to love them. It’s always a bit weird seeing a black metal band in the daylight, particularly one whose name translates to “fog,” but sometimes that’s what happens at Maryland Deathfest and you gotta just roll with it.
Mgła:
Immediately after Mgła finished the next band started on the other outdoor stage. The Ruins Of Beverast is a German black metal band with only one member, though obviously Alexander von Meilenwald gets other musicians to fill the line up for live performances. Unfortunately their set was plagued with poor sound and it made the performance rather forgettable to me. The next band to play was Necros Christos, another German black metal band. These guys sounded much better and their set was great! They have a fairly stripped down sound with some weird riffs that are also catchy and they make it work.
Necros Christos:
The next band to play was quite a contrast from the previous three. Sólstafir is from Iceland and it’s pretty hard to genre classify their sound. They have elements of folk and black metal and even post rock too. While certainly less aggressive than the previous bands of the day, Sólstafir’s set was very moving. As you can see in the video below, the wind really started picking up during their performance and it seemed to fit with the drama of their set. I’m sure the trve elitists weren’t impressed but I enjoyed their emotional set immensely.
Sólstafir:
Then the incredible black metal continued Friday when Norway’s Taake, which also translates to fog, hit the stage. Let me start off by saying there was no one wearing a swastika on stage, no one exposing their penis while performing and no sick banjo solos either. Due to Taake vocalist Hoest’s legal issues it was something of a miracle that the MDF organizers even got the band into the country to play at all. Taake did not disappoint in their long awaited US debut as they really brought the energy to the stage. Hoest looked like some sort of black metal Sith lord with a hooded cape, corpse paint and white contact lenses in his eyes. He was probably the most entertaining front man I saw all weekend as he ran around the stage throwing menacing looks at the crowd from every angle. The band sounded awesome and even though they didn’t play my favorite song of theirs it was still an excellent performance.
Taake:
The next band to play was UK based old school death/thrash band Cancer, playing their first US show since 1993. Being only somewhat familiar with the band’s back catalog I decided this would be a good time to run my newly acquired merch back to the hotel and grab dinner. When I returned to the Edison lot Agalloch was just finishing up their set. They’re also playing Empire on June 28th (details here) so if you missed them you’ve still got another chance. After they played it was time for the night’s headliner, At The Gates. ATG is probably the most influential band out of the classic Gothenburg, Sweden scene that developed their own trademark style of melodic death metal in the 90s. At The Gates has also been blamed by many an elitist over the years for causing the rise in popularity of metalcore however they aren’t a metalcore band (though ATG’s riffs are often ripped off by those bands). Their first two songs were plagued by poor audio as the lead guitars were not very loud which was very obvious when you couldn’t hear the solo over the rhythm guitar in “World Of Lies.” Then the band stopped for 10 minutes or so while the sound crew got the situation fixed and when they finally got everything working again it did sound much better. Unfortunately I wasn’t planning on staying for the entire set so I didn’t see a whole lot more of them. You might wonder why I left a chance to see one of the legends of metal make a rare live appearance in our area and it’s because of this: when given the option of seeing an old band reforming for the first time or getting to see a new band in its prime for the first time, I’ll always take the chance with the new band. Reunions come and go (and with At The Gates already announcing a new album in the works, they’ll surely be back once that drops) but a band is only in their prime once and when that time passes it doesn’t ever come back. So I left the Edison Lot and started my walk to Rams Head Live while “Under The Serpent Sun” faded into the distance.
The reason I left early was to see the Swiss two piece Bölzer perform. Bölzer also played the following night but they were added to the Friday line up at Rams Head Live at the last minute when Aeternus was refused entry to the US. Bölzer is a very new black/death band with only a three song demo and another three song EP released so far, though they’ve got another EP arriving soon. If you haven’t checked them out you I highly recommend you listen to this stream right now. Bölzer put on a hell of a performance Friday night at Rams Head Live and it was definitely worth leaving At The Gates early to see them. It was simply amazing to see how much sound just these two people could create and their intensity live was even better than on their recordings. Their songs are loaded with heavy, sometimes weird, but catchy riffs. There was a decent sized crowd there considering a headliner was playing at the main location and the place erupted when they played the opening riff to the excellent “Entranced By The Wolfshook.” It’s not every day you get to witness a performance like this by a band just hitting their stride but that’s part of the awesomeness that is Maryland Deathfest. I didn’t catch Bölzer’s second set the following night but I can only assume it was pretty much the same since they only have so many songs.
Bölzer:
After Bölzer played Enthroned took the stage at Rams Head Live. They’re a black metal band from Belgium and while I’m somewhat familiar with their material their songs started sounding pretty much all the same to me so midway through their set I left. I hadn’t seen any of the bands playing at the Baltimore SoundStage yet and since it was on the next block over from Rams Head the walk was easy even on my sore feet. I got there just before the venue’s final band of the night, Impaled, took the stage. As soon as they took the stage, before they even started playing, the audience was already going crazy. Neon glow sticks and rolls of toilet paper were thrown at the stage and the mosh pit erupted immediately, all before they even played one note! Impaled is a gore obsessed death metal band from the San Francisco Bay Area with a sound reminiscent of old school Carcass (that’s pre-Heartwork material) and they share a few members with the band Ghoul. They’re a fun band to watch and the audience agreed as stage diving and crowd surfing was constant while they played. At one point they had to briefly stop their set because someone was injured in the pit but things quickly resumed once he was pulled to safety. After Impaled I headed over to see Pennsylvanian death metal gods Incantation back at Rams Head Live. Incantation is one of the old school death metal bands that helped truly define the “death metal sound” we all know today. They’re heavy, brutal and have some kick ass riffs. That all said, they were the final band of day two and my feet were tired so I was sitting for a bit of their set. Then I heard them start playing “Shadows Of The Ancient Empire” and I had to get up and push my way to the front, my feet be damned. I’m glad I got off my ass because the set was fun and I love me some classic old school death metal. Thus concluded day two of my Maryland Deathfest XII adventure. Be sure to check out my next post as I recap days 3 & 4.
So after a miscommunication about my photo pass on Sunday, May 4th, 2014, I finally got to photograph the final band of the Revolver Golden Gods Tour’s stop at the Fillmore Silver Spring. I’m not going to do a whole review of the show here, though it was pretty fun. Guitar solos and pinch harmonics (those high pitch squeals you hear) were in high abundance but the band slowed it down some for a few songs as well. “In This River,” a tribute to Dimebag Darrell that had Zakk Wylde putting down his guitar and playing a piano that was brought on stage, was a nice lull in the energy that most of the other songs had. I’ve always been a much bigger fan of Zakk’s work with Ozzy Osbourne, but regardless of who he’s playing with the man can shred live, as evidenced by the extended guitar solo that lasted so long you could have chugged a beer between its start and finish. And did I mention the excellent lighting? What a fun band to not only photograph but just see lit up so well on stage. In all it was a really fun show, I just wish I had gotten into the venue early enough to catch Down, but that was beyond my control, unfortunately. You can check out some of my favorite photos that I shot at the show below, click on them to see them larger if you’d like, or just click here to view the entire set.
The set list that Black Label Society played was:
Intro———————————————-
My Dying Time
Godspeed Hell Bound
Destruction Overdrive
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The Rose Petalled Garden
Heart Of Darkness
Intro———————————————-
Overlord
Damn The Flood
-solo-
Parade Of The Dead
Fields Of Unforgiveness
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Angel Of Mercy
In This River
Intro———————————————-
The Blessed Hellride
Suicide Messiah
Intro———————————————-
Concrete Jungle
Stillborn
Sunday the 13th of April 2014 marked the final night of the 2014 Decibel Magazine Tour and it was at the Fillmore Silver Spring. The headliner was Carcass, making their first DC appearance since reuniting in 2008, though they have played Baltimore twice since then. Each stop on the tour had a local opener and for this show it was Coke Bust, a straight edge hardcore band. I got there in time to see them but there was a problem with my photo pass at the box office and I didn’t get the pass in hand until Coke Bust had finished their set. A shame since I’ve seen them before but never on such a big stage. The second band to play was Noisem, a band of very young guys from Baltimore. I don’t think any of them are even old enough to drink yet. Noisem wasn’t another local opener though, they were on the entire tour, and as such they’ve certainly been getting a lot of exposure outside the area as well. They play a rather catchy style of death/thrash that’s a throwback to the 90s. Their vocalist Tyler Carnes was pretty high energy on stage, at least when he wasn’t fighting with the mic chord that was wrapped around the stage monitors. He jumped down into the photo pit area several times during his set, you may have seen me trying to avoid running into him while photographing him down there, and he ran up to people and would scream lyrics at them. This must have been pretty cool to people close up but for anyone not right in front, well, they probably had no idea what he was doing. Their set was good though and the band looked good on the Fillmore’s nice, big stage. A cover of Terrorizer‘s “Fear Of Napalm” with guest bass by Alejandro Corredor of Nausea was fun and gave Noisem’s regular bass player the opportunity to stage dive.
The next band to play was technical death metal band Gorguts. The Canadian band only has one member from its pre-reunion days, guitarist/vocalist Luc Lemay, but the band was always really his to begin with. For some reason he was off to the left of the stage most of the time, an odd place for a lead vocalist even if he was also playing guitar. Two members of the techy instrumental band Dysrhythmia, a personal favorite band of mine, are in Gorguts so I’m definitely a fan of the current line up. They were absolutely crushing on Sunday at the Fillmore. They are probably the most brutal band to ever play there and while Gorguts only played five songs, each one was performed expertly. They closed out their set with their classic song “Obscura” which was punishing. This is the band I was most excited to see at this show and they did not disappoint! Luc Lemay was manning the band’s merch table most of the night and was very friendly with fans, shaking hands and taking photos with them. If you missed their incredible set don’t worry, they’re playing the final day of Maryland Deathfest this year, Sunday, May 25th, and they’re playing on one of the big outdoor stages so tickets won’t sell out.
The next band to play was The Black Dahlia Murder, a melodic death metal band from Michigan that, I’ll admit, I’ve never really been a fan of. I’ve seen them several times over the years since they tend to play with bands I like but I’m not really familiar with their music. A lot of people seemed to really dig their performance but I just wasn’t one of them so this part of the show was, for me, used to talk to various people I knew that were there. This isn’t to say that their set was particularly bad, though I could have done without the “big titties” comment from vocalist Trevor Strnad, it just wasn’t my kind of music and it wouldn’t really be fair of me to judge their overall performance.
The next band to play was the headliner, Carcass. They played Maryland Deathfest last May as one of the headliners, but that was before they released their new album, last year’s Surgical Steel. Sunday night’s set list (see it here) was fairly similar to the one they played at Maryland Deathfest, except a few older songs had been removed to make room for several new songs. While Surgical Steel seems to have been well received by most fans, I didn’t like it at all so the loss of older songs in the set list for newer ones was a bummer for me. Overall the audience didn’t seem to mind and I suppose if you’re really into the new material this was your first chance to hear it live. The new song “Captive Bolt Pistol” certainly got a bigger mosh pit than “Exhume To Consume” did, and only hearing three songs from Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious was a bummer to me, but overall I got what I expected, mostly songs from Heartwork and Surgical Steel. I thought Carcass’ performance was much better here than at Maryland Deathfest where they seemed a bit rusty. Part of this might be due to the band having played so many more shows recently. Bill Steer and Mike Amott replacement not Bill Steer Ben Ash traded solos seamlessly and the band just seemed tighter overall this time. Jeff Walker sure talked a lot between songs and speaking with people after the show there seemed to be two sets of thought on this: some people loved it and found it very entertaining while others found it rambling and annoying. Sometimes he had some interesting or funny things to say about the band’s origins or the Chicken Man, but sometimes he said things that had me wondering why he was still talking. Like when he made a comment about how being vegetarian or vegan is a choice like being gay is (what?) and how the last time the band was in DC his only memory was of how confused he was by an overweight, black, lesbian Neo-Nazi at the 9:30 Club (again, what?). It didn’t take away from the show too much I guess but I certainly don’t remember him talking that much the last couple times I’ve seen them live. Anyways, even if this Carcass show wasn’t my ideal show, they did play material from every era of the band to at least have something in there for every Carcass fan. Plus a show like this brings out a lot of people and it’s always awesome running into so many familiar faces. Be sure to check out my photos and videos from the show below and feel free to leave a comment telling me about your experience at the biggest metal tour to come through our area this April.
DCHeavyMetal.com 