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 the new episode of the Metal Embassy podcast, Metal Chris talks to Rubayet Hussain, stage named Katatonic, the man behind the black metal band Brajangngana. The band focuses on Hindu mythology and blends South Asian influences with black metal to create a unique sound unlike anything else I’ve ever heard.
I wanted to do a light hearted episode this time and what could be better for that than talking to Jono Colliver of Dr. Colossus, a stoner/doom metal band from Australia that is dedicated to the Simpsons TV show. They just released a new album in May titled, “I’m a Stupid Moron With an Ugly Face and A Big Butt and my Butt Smells and I Like to Kiss My Own Butt” and as you’ll quickly be able to tell by listening to the track “Pickabar” at the end of the episode, unlike most funny theme bands, they’ve actually got some sick riffs!
On this episode Metal Chris interviews Rodrigo Salguero of the Salvadorian death/thrash metal band Apes of God. The band’s vocalist was murdered on stage during a performance in 2019 and Rodrigo explains how the band managed to overcome this tragedy and continue on, even recording a new full length album that was just released in April. For some reason this story was never really covered much in the English press, until now!
May is AAPI Heritage Month so who better to interview on the Metal Embassy podcast than Kaiser Kuo? He is a founding member of the first heavy metal band in China, Tang Dynasty (唐朝), as well as his later band Spring and Autumn (春秋), both of which blend Chinese music traditions with heavy metal. In this episode Metal Chris talks with Kaiser about the early days of heavy metal in China and his instrumental role in bringing heavy metal to the country in the late 1980s. Since I usually try to keep my episodes at about half an hour in length I made a shorter and longer version of this particular episode, both of which can be streamed below. First is the longer version with an extra ~12 minutes of interview with Kaiser, and below that you can stream the shorter version that clocks in around 35 minutes. And if that still isn’t enough, you can listen to the first time I interviewed him, on The Bridge with John St. Augustine podcast, back in November here. You can also follow the Metal Embassy podcast in most podcast apps (listed/linked here).
Amir Jacob is the man behind the Palestinian black metal band Zalaam and this episode’s interview with Metal Chris is Amir’s first interview about his band. Amir gives insight into how his environment influences the music of Zalaam and of course we listen to a song by the band at the end of the episode as well.
Happy 4/20 everyone! First I’d like to mention that a few metal shows have been announced and so the DCHM upcoming concert calendar is back in order and you can see it here. Also, the fourth episode of the Metal Embassy podcast is now live and if I’d thought about this with a bit of foresight I’d probably have gotten a stoner band for the interview. Instead I did an interview with George Gabrielyan of the one man black metal band Gloosh that is based out of Siberia, Russia. This interview is my first to use an interpreter and I cannot thank Alexi Khalchenia enough for coming to my studio and doing the translation work. George first turned down the interview because his English is not good enough but he changed his mind when I offered to find an interpreter so this episode would not have been possible without Alexi’s help. This is George’s first interview using an interpreter and my first as well.
You can listen to this episode on the player below or by searching for Metal Embassy in most podcast apps (such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music/Audible, iHeartRadio and more). I also made an alternate version of this podcast with the interview entirely in Russian (all English parts edited out) and that is only available on the Metal Embassy Bandcamp page here.
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