Happy New Year everyone! As we look forward to another great year of metal be sure to read about the most “metal” moments of 2015 in the words of 11 of the DMV area’s biggest metal heads.

Blake Harrison is the knob twister and hype man for Pig Destroyer and the bird brainiac behind Hatebeak
Favorite album of 2015: Qliphoth by Cloud Rat
So I’d been laid off most of 2015 and because of said “paid vacation” courtesy of the state of Maryland, I had more then enough time to see plenty of shows. Seeing Wake three times this summer was pretty awesome, I saw Maruta and ACxDC twice, but the thing that sticks out the most was Agoraphobic Nosebleed‘s live debut at Maryland Death Fest. Playing to a sold out club (you couldn’t stack another body in there), the excitement was high and from the first note the crowd exploded into a frenzy adding to the overall experience. Definitely one of my favorite bands absolutely slaying their first live performance.

Dominique Cytryn Promoter for Nova Metal Booking and editor/graphic designer for Hallowed Pages Zine
Favorite album of 2015: Songs from the North by Swallow The Sun
Most Metal Moment of 2015: This year has been very generous to me. I started booking and promoting shows earlier this year in April and so far it’s been a very interesting experience. At first I never thought I would ever end up putting together shows or doing much of anything at all this year, but the severe lack of music in the NoVA area really started to bug me. I love our scene and the people in it; I’ve met many wonderful friends and seen a lot of cool bands, but I’d say my defining moment was the last show of this year this December on the 12th. It seemed like everything was going wrong that night- two of the bands I had booked had decided to drop off (one of them the night of) and I was freaking out. Luckily all of the members of Croatoan just happened to be at the show and they offered to play a set. Everyone who played that night was truly amazing and despite what happened it was one of the best shows I have put on. I’m grateful for the wonderful people in our community and the talented musicians and artists that inhabit it. All the people that came out and the bands that did their job really made that show special.

Steve Jones is the brewer at Oliver Ales
Favorite album of 2015: Vænir by Monolord
Most Metal Moment of 2015: Its been a great year with Oliver Ales finally transitioning to the new brewery. Once again I’ve managed to brew several batches inspired by/named after the music that I listen to in the brewery. Shortly before we left the brewpub forever I got a message from Steve of the doom band Destroyer Of Light asking about the beer I’d made in tribute to fellow Texan rockers Mothership and Wo Fat. Seemed like an opportunity too good to pass on, especially as their tour with Godhunter was bringing them to Baltimore so after a few emails it was decided, I would brew “Destroyer of Light.” The best fucking beer name in my humble opinion! I made a black (and yeah, I’m talking BLACK) smoked ale. Destroyer of Light (the band) rolled into town, came and hung out at the Pratt Street Ale House and drank Destroyer of Light before heading up Charles Street to shred at the Depot. Beer! Metal! Metal Beer! Awesome evening, metal as fuck!

Steve (2nd from left) with Destroyer Of Light

Kim Dylla runs the metal clothing business Kylla Custom Rock Wear
Favorite album of 2015: Exercises in Futility by Mgła
Most Metal Moment of 2015: My most metal moment of 2015 would have to be watching Demoncy and Tsjuder live at Maryland Deathfest this year. The MDF lineups just keeps getting better and better. I’m not sure how Evan and Ryan do it, but they manage to top themselves each year. This year I was lucky enough to host one of my favorite Norwegian black metal bands, Tsjuder, before the festival. If you haven’t heard their 2004 album Desert Northern Hell, you need to. Their new album Antiliv is equally heavy hitting, and to watch them deliver some of the best black metal out there live on the big stage at Rams Head Live was an incredible experience. Honorable mention goes to “Anti (Auntie) Christian” for managing to pull off the mad scientist hair with corpsepaint. Adding to that evening was watching Demoncy’s amazing performance prior to Tsjuder’s set. I have been following Demoncy’s music since the days when I listened to nothing but underground black metal demos, and their sound retains that cult and satanic intensity that originally drew me in. Ixithra’s stage presence really left a lasting impression on me as well.

Matthew “Buke” Buchan is co-hosts the WeAreMetalheads.com podcast
Favorite album of 2015: Sleep at the Edge of the Earth by Wilderun
Most Metal Moment of 2015: After 2014 where I had an extremely hard time trying to come up with a year-end list 2015 was full of amazing music and events top to bottom. In May I attended my first Maryland Deathfest that I now regret missing years prior where over two days I was able to see bands like Primordial, Blood Red Throne, Serpentine Path and Amorphis. But my highlight of the year was being lucky enough to be able to cover the GwarBQ for the Metal Heads podcast with Brewer Will and my cohost George Washburn. We arrived in Richmond around 9:30am and had our first interview with the band Troglodyte. For those who aren’t familiar think bigfoot lore meets Cannibal Corpse. Sounds bad ass I know! After Troglodyte I spent the rest of the day chugging back beers and interviewing members from Municipal Waste, Mutoid Man and Goatwhore. When I thought the day couldn’t get any better I rounded a corner and ran into Phil Anselmo. Phil, through his work in Pantera, is who I credit getting me into metal. So the 15 minutes I spent talking football with Phil was the thrill of a life time. George, Will, and I capped off a fun GWARBQ with an interview with Beefcake the Mighty if Gwar. It was the weirdest interview we had ever conducted but we laughed the whole way through it and I’m still not sure we got a question answered.

James “Balor” Barile plays guitar in the band Khaotika
Favorite album of 2015: Exercises in Futility by Mgła
Most Metal Moment of 2015: To me the most metal moment of 2015 was witnessing the return of Black Metal Militia tour to the Baltimore Soundstage and finally with fucking Mayhem! Due to visa issues they couldn’t enter the US for the last tour with Watain. This time the tour had Rotting Christ tagging along too. Seeing these three tyrants together back to back was one of the most surreal experiences I could’ve hoped for.

Renee “Lusty Corpse” Tapia runs LCnK Promotions which puts on local metal radio shows and metal events
Favorite album of 2015: Methods of Disposal by Bound By The Grave
Most Metal Moment of 2015: 2015, the year of the goat, was a very metal year. Insane concert line ups, wild mosh pits and I met many great friends who became family to me. But my most memorable metal moment happened to be a metal gathering my partner Kaos and I threw in an attempt to bring our metal community even closer. We had this idea to do the first DMV metal community gathering and we pulled this off in just two weeks. We saved up every penny to buy food and beer. The outcome of the party amazed us, way more people came then we expected! And they brought in more food and alcohol! We had metal heads of all ages come through and the love was so strong. Every one had a great time, the music was great, we had a mosh pit with a bonfire close by on one side and a deep ditch on the other, luckily no one got seriously hurt in this killer pit of doom. This party was in a residential area so cops did show, but did not complain that we made noise past noise curfew or had pyrotechnic bottle rockets shooting off our homemade stage. Can’t wait to do it again in 2016

Renee (front row, 2nd from right) at the DMV metal gathering

Will Cook is a brewer for Fairwinds Brewing and co-host of the Brutality At The Brewery metal nights we hold there.
Favorite album of 2015: Psychic Warfare by Clutch
Most Metal Moment of 2015: When Gwar and Battlecross, two bands that I love, played the 9:30 Club in November a new friend Shannon got me on the guest list and then backstage to hang out with Battlecross. I’d met them years ago but I was pleasantly surprised they remembered hanging out at my previous brewery. The next day the band came to my new brewery and hung out for several hours drinking beer, eating mac n’ cheese pizza (yes that is a real thing), playing disk golf and corn hole (Gumby and I won!) and generating calamity. I have to say that the dudes in Battlecross, and their staff are the most down to Earth and humble metal guys. It was a great time and very metal.

Lauri Lindqvist is better known as DC Heavy Metal album reviewer Tal around here although you can read more of his writing on his blog In My Winter Castle.
Favorite album of 2015: Under the Red Cloud by Amorphis
Most Metal Moment of 2015: There were a lot of cool moments this year. I finally saw Nightwish live after being a fan for 12 years. I finally got to mosh to Ensiferum‘s “Into Battle.” I got a photo with Jonas Ekdahl of Evergrey which made my girlfriend squeal. But the most metal moment of all was when I got to take my seven-year-old daughter to see Russian folk metal band Arkona at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore. Arkona is my daughter’s favorite band after Hevisaurus and Sekengard, and one of my all-time favorite bands. Arkona’s vocalist Masha Scream is one of my metal idols. I was a little sad that I couldn’t mosh for her since I had to stick by my kid, but it was more than worth it. Unfortunately Arkona went on so late that my kid was exhausted by the time they came on – but she was rocking out in the first row to Helsott right before them, so I know I have a little folk metal fan in the making. She stayed awake long enough to pump her fist for Arkona’s first few songs, and then spent the rest of their set asleep on my shoulder – in the fifth row!

Yaniv Kaufmann is DC Heavy Metal album reviewer that goes by Buzzo Jr despite his hair being rather short these days.
Favorite album of 2015: Psychic Warfare by Clutch
Most Metal Moment of 2015: My most metal moment of 2015, and probably one of my most memorable moments of the year overall was definitely seeing Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s first ever live performance at Maryland Deathfest. I’m a major grindcore freak so I had been waiting for this moment ever since it was first announced that they would be headlining the Baltimore Soundstage at Deathfest. I also met up with Chris Penrod, the Chicken Man, beforehand and we decided to each drop a tab of acid. Funnily enough, the set began with an audio sample of Hunter S. Thompson describing his affinity for the chemical compound. The show was one of the craziest events I had been to in a while. The pit was absolutely insane, stage divers were flying left and right, and the multi-colored strobe lights combined with ANb’s music all made for one hell of a trip. Also, someone in the crowd had somehow managed to bring in a 5 foot tall inflatable dick that people were throwing all over the venue much to everyone’s amusement. It eventually ended up finding its way onstage; hitting Richard “Grindfather” Johnson in the face, and it was pretty entertaining to see Rich hold it up above his head and shout “Shove it up your ass!” before throwing it back into the crowd. Between having one of the most terrifying/exhilarating acid trips I can recall, and seeing one of my favorite bands play their first live set, I can say that this was hands down one of the most metal moments of the year for me.

Metal Chris is the guy that runs this website!
Favorite album of 2015: Shadows by Valkyrie
Most Metal Moment of 2015: I’ve gotten to do some pretty awesome stuff because of this website but this year getting to interview Tom G. Warrior of Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Triptykon was particularly stand out. Most of the interviews I do on DC Heavy Metal are recorded over the phone but since Triptykon was in town I got to interview Tom in person. I met him at the hotel he was staying at the day after Triptykon played MDF and his manager had reserved the office that is usually for business meetings. The manager left us alone and I conducted the interview in a small, windowless 8×8 room with just a table, Tom, myself and my recorder between us. You can’t ask for better conditions to conduct an interview under. Tom was very forthcoming and answered any of my questions, nothing was off limits, and the chance to talk to him about everything from heavy metal to his relationship with HR Giger to the protests in Baltimore around that time resulted in one of my best interviews yet and is something that I’ll never forget.

January 1, 2016
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: 2015, Best Of 2015, Heavy Metal . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: Leave a comment

Every year here on DCHM we put together a year end post but instead of making silly lists attempting to linearly “rank” art I like to ask a bunch of the people involved in the Washington DC, Baltimore and Northern Virginia area’s metal scene two questions: what was your most metal moment of 2014? and, what was your favorite album of the year? The answers are as varied and diverse as the people that make up our scene. This is one of my favorite posts every year and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. As we look forward to more incredible metal moments in 2015 take a few minutes to read about some of the best of 2014, and of course feel free to add your own in the comment section.

Kim Dylla runs the metal clothing business Kylla Custom Rock Wear but is probably best known now as Vulvatron, the new female member of GWAR.
Favorite album of 2014: Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry by Blut Aus Nord
Most metal moment of 2014: My most metal moment of 2014 would probably be breaking my rib on stage at the Baltimore Soundstage when GWAR played the last show of the GWAR Eternal Tour there on December 13th. It has been an insane honor for me to be a part of GWAR, a band that has meant a lot to me and are very close friends of mine, as well as this general area for many years. After a 52 date tour we got to close the adventure with this show in Baltimore and I was very excited because so many of my friends from the DC metal scene would be there. It was my first time performing in front of them in many years since the demise of my old band, and what a thrill to perform with GWAR! At the end of our set I battle Mr. Perfect and we defeat and dismember him. Some of his parts are soft and made of foam, others are structural stilts and made of hard fiberglass. I usually elbow drop and leg drop these parts for theatrical purposes, and let’s just say I aimed improperly with full force. I still had to sing one more song and somehow managed to power through it without much stage movement. When I finally went to the doctor and explained how I broke the rib I realized it was pretty fucking metal. Ironically he was a GWAR fan as well!

Kim Dylla performing as Vulvatron on Dec 13th in Baltimore

Aaron Deal is the bass player for one of Washington DC’s biggest metal bands, Darkest Hour.
Favorite album of 2014: Once More ‘Round the Sun by Mastodon
Most metal moment of 2014: I got lucky this year and got to play some of the biggest, best, and most metal venues in the DC area… Jiffy Lube Live, 9:30 Club, and Empire, in that order. I had never played Jiffy Lube Live before we did this summer on the Mayhem Fest tour, and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to play a venue with a name like that? But what made it especially metal for me personally was my bass. I got a couple of new basses from ESP during the tour, a sunburst one and a black one. I can’t really get into black guitars so I sent it off to a friend to have it repainted my favorite color, pink. When we got into town on August 3rd, the day of the Virginia show, I came home to pick up the bass from my house and played it that day and everyday since then. It has quickly become my favorite bass, but that show at Jiffy Lube Live was the first day I ever played it!

Chicken Man, aka Chris Penrod, is the guy you see at many of our area’s metal shows wearing a full body chicken suit while he crowd surfs and destroys the mosh pit.
Favorite album of 2014: Miserable by Bongripper
Most metal moment of 2014: My most metal moment of 2014 was seeing Eyehategod at the Pinch in DC on July 10th when Iron Reagan opened up for them. It was hot as ballsack with easily 200 people crammed in there. I knew it was metal as fuck when I went to crowd surf and as soon as I went up, I kicked the ceiling.

Sean Saley is the drummer for the legendary doom metal band Pentagram.
Favorite album of 2014: For Those Which Are Asleep by The Skull
Most metal moment of 2014: This is a tough one. One standout moment was how metal it got when all the punk kids came out. Pentagram played a show at American University in DC on to around 400 people on April 19th and, though it was a booze-free, all-ages show that was heavily promoted in the punk community, we could not have asked for a better reception and a crazier crowd. The front row was pushed halfway onto the (low sitting) stage, it was all beautifully intimate, and seldom have I ever seen heads bang harder. Truly a great show…
…But, honestly, I think my most metal moment for 2014 actually came very late in 2013. It was just so damned metal that the impression lasted well into ’14. My girl Annie and I headed to Baltimore in November to see Sweden’s In Solitude, who were opening for legendary black metal band Watain. After In Solitude’s set, Annie and I wandered over to the far end of the bar, an area that is separated from the backstage area by a heavy curtain. As we’re moving in to order drinks, a rank smell hits our noses like a brass knuckled fist. We looked at each other like, “What the fuck is that smell?” It, quite literally, smelled like everyone surrounding us simultaneously shit their pants. Just putrid. After a few minutes of wondering whether sewage was flowing from the bar taps, Watain took the stage and, mystery solved, as they brought two huge, ripe, well-past-their-expiration-date pig heads and splorched them down onto inverted crosses at either end of the stage- where they continued reeking up the whole place. After speaking with Sean “Pellet” Pelletier, US manager for In Solitude (and Pentagram), I learned that Watain had been carrying the two pig heads in their equipment trailer for two weeks and that show was the last night of the tour. He also told me that the smell helps them play better and enjoy the show more. Now that is fucking metal.

Blake Harrison is the knob twister and hype man for Pig Destroyer as well as the unofficial mayor of Baltimore.
Favorite album of 2014: Longhena by Gridlink
Most metal moment of 2014: My most metal moment this year was probably Gwar-B-Q and after the passing of Gwar vocalist Dave Brockie, we all knew this would be a special one. I picked up my beautiful traveling companion (whom I was courting) and we headed south, looking forward to the fun ahead. There happened to be an accident approximately every mile on 95 South, so weaving off and on between 95 and Route 1, we slowly picked our way towards Richmond. Finally, after 5 hours, we got to the Red Roof Inn that Pig Destroyer had stayed the previous year when we played, called some peeps and headed into Richmond proper to do some drinking and catching up. At Ipenema we ran into Rob and Frank from Metal Injection, Tony from Iron Regan/Municipal Waste/JRS (for all you old school heads), my buddy Mark and Jason from Suppression. After a couple more cocktails we piled in Mark’s car and headed to a house party where the main event was everyone drinking moonshine from a mason jar. After too much of this behavior, we called it a night and headed home to rest.
Arriving at Hadad’s Lake the next day, August 16th, I had one goal in mind: Meet Ice T. Nothing, I mean nothing, could deter me from that goal. I met up with friends, started hanging and drinking all the free beer we could, when a couple I had just met said “you want to meet Ice T? Come with me.” I had heard that Ice T was a Pig Destroyer fan, and after many failed attempts on security’s part to eject us, we photobomb-ed him and his crew and I said “Yo Ice, you ever heard of the band Pig Destroyer?” He looked up at me, and thought for a second and said “No, that’s a dope name though.” There was so much else going on that weekend, to list it all would be a boring read to most, but I got to see some killer bands, meet Tesco Vee and Dez Cadena, hung with Juan Garcia from Evil Dead, and other great friends, Travis, Jim, Tony, Jason, Rob, Ken, Jeanna, Ashley, Brett, Tannin, Dave (I still have the red mark where you slapped my chest… Fucker), Mark, Will, Rich, Alex, Andrew, and I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting, and last but not least Lindsey. What a great time, but fuck… Meeting Ice T? Now that’s metal.

Bobbie Dickerson is the promoter for Black Rose Metal Heart Promotions and co-founder of the Flight of the Valkyries metal festival.
Favorite album of 2014: Karma Sown by Iris Divine
Most metal moment of 2014: It feels like 2014 has been one incredible metal moment after the next. I dubbed the Iced Earth, Sabaton, ReVamp, and A Sound Of Thunder show at Empire on April 21st the “Holy Shit Everyone Is Here” show. The bar was packed with literally everyone from our local scene and I was constantly running into friends every time I turned around. Every band on the bill was incredible! Plus I got the opportunity to rock out watching Iced Earth from the green room upstairs overlooking the whole bar. May 30th brought one of the best attended shows I put on this year, the Face Melting Friday: Drink Your Face Off edition with Sekengard, Dogs & Day Drinkers, Testosteroso, Cab Ride Home and Ralph wasn’t just a show, it was a full on party! On October 14th I brought Betrayer F.T.M. (from Colombia) to Baltimore. Despite it being a Tuesday night (notoriously the worst night of the week for shows), the turnout was really good and the camaraderie among Betrayer F.T.M., Visceral Violation, Metanium and Gateway To Hell made the night all the more memorable! The guys from Betrayer were having such a great time, they signed the door to the Sidebar in silver sharpie before departing. Finally winning tickets to and meeting Devin Townsend at Ram’s in December was a huge metal fangirl moment for me and definitely a highlight for 2014. That man is just amazing! Too many great memories this year to pick just one!

Steve Jones is the brewer at Baltimore’s Oliver Brewery which makes, among other tasty beers, the officially licensed beers for the doom band The Sword including Winter’s Wolves and Sea Of Spears.
Favorite album of 2014: The Conjuring by Wo Fat
Most metal moment of 2014: 2014 was a great year… I got to see some great gigs including childhood heroes such as Judas Priest, Kiss and Raven. Hooked up with the amazing Wo Fat and brewed The Black Code and Noche del Chupacabra in their honor and of course continued our relationship with The Sword. If I had to choose one “event” it’d be the sold out show by The Sword at the Rock and Roll Hotel on February 21st which we jointly “sponsored” with our friends at DC Brau. The Sword were the band that got me back into metal when I caught them live at Ottobar in 2006. Nothing gives me as big of a thrill as having “Winter’s Wolves” pouring at a Sword show. I got to the venue early to set up and got to hang with the band and watch the soundcheck. The whole pre-show vibe was great, so many of my friends were meeting up before the gig. The show was an ass kicker… I was down in front sweating my ass off and seriously, nothing beats having a pint of Winter’s Wolves in hand when the first chord of that song rips your face off! Magic!

Steve Jones (right) with Kyle Shutt of The Sword

Richard Johnson, aka The Grindfather, is the main man of the Northern Virginia based grindcore band Drugs Of Faith and he also runs the ‘zine turned blog Disposable Underground.
Favorite album of 2014: Longhena by Gridlink
Most metal moment of 2014: I’ll go with the experience of folks appreciating a Godflesh cover my band did for a tribute compilation. This was before the new Godflesh full-length album (which has appeared on several best-of-2014 lists) hit the shelves, but the song we picked was off the last record Godflesh did before they broke up, Hymns. We only played it live twice, once in Baltimore, MD, and once in Richmond, VA. A person at each gig came up to me after we played and said, “Cool Godflesh cover.” It’s a cliché, but that made rehearsing the song and playing it live worth it. Although the boys in Godflesh distance themselves from being categorized as metal, I’ll call this my most “metal”
moment of 2014!

Matt Rice is the frontman of the local metal band Yesterday’s Saints.
Favorite album of 2014: The Satanist by Behemoth
Most metal moment of 2014: Mayhem Fest seems to be an annual staple for me and this year the band my friend Andrew Grevey plays bass in, Wretched, was on the tour. I was talking to Andrew on my way to Mayhem Fest’s Jiffy Lube Live stop on August 3rd and he asked me to help them set up the official after party that Wretched was responsible for throwing that night. I went into scramble mode to help them get a Karaoke DJ for the “White Trash Karaoke Party” and with literally minutes to spare I secured “Super Dave” from Manassas to come do it. The party went on as a great success and despite bearing witness to Lonestar of Darkest Hour singing “Mr. Roboto” cross-dressed up as a drunk and pregnant trailer hooker was quite a spectacle, the most metal moment came as the party was winding down. I was talking to George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, vocalist of Cannibal Corpse, about singing Karaoke. I had been given heads up that George likes singing Hank Williams III songs and I tried to get Super Dave to bring some for George to belt out. George told me that would have been great but he also would have enjoyed doing some John Denver too. Then George began to sing, with a clean baritone voice, a John Denver song to the few of us still there. He really has a nice, clear, powerful (yeah imagine that) voice. That was pretty amazing and my most metal moment of the year: Corpsegrinder singing a John Denver song.

Lauri Lindqvist is better known as DCHM album reviewer Tal around here although you can read more of his writing on his blog In My Winter Castle.
Favorite album of 2014: Hymns for the Broken by Evergrey
Most metal moment of 2014: This year, I came out as trans, started using a different name, and asked people to start calling me “he” instead of “she.” One of the first places where I transitioned socially was within the metal scene, because that was one of the places where I felt most at home and most comfortable in my masculinity, and also because as a trans guy with waist length hair, it’s pretty much the only place I can pass easily.
On October 7th I went to see Within Temptation at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore. I was there with another trans person who was soon to become very important in my life. I had considered WT’s 2014 album, Hydra, a transition soundtrack of sorts because so many of the songs spoke to the fears and triumphs of someone taking the risk of really being their true self, and so headbanging to those songs in a live setting with a transgendered friend at my side was incredibly meaningful. But then, Sharon den Adel (WT’s vocalist) made the night, when in introducing “Stand My Ground,” she came out in support of LGBT rights. She talked about how things are changing in the world and then said that people should be whoever they want to be, “gay or straight or whatever you are, whatever religion…” It gives me chills even now thinking about it – it was such an empowering moment. It may well have been the first time a major international band took a stand on the stage in support of LGBT rights – it was certainly the first time I heard such a thing. Not only that but as vague as “whatever you are” is, it is also open-ended and inclusive. The variety of sexual orientations and gender identities only starts at gay, straight, and trans – there are infinite variations, and I like to think that Sharon’s words were intended to include and support all of us, whatever we may be, however we may identify.
Maybe best of all, the place broke out in wild cheers at her words. It was so amazing to know that the metal scene – here, and in international bands like WT – has got my back, and those of all my LGBT friends and family.
Hydra was tied with the album above as my pick for album of the year, and I could just as well have told the story that goes with Hymns for the Broken as my most metal moment. But I decided WT’s story was a bit better, and that the other album that spoke deeply to me and got me through some tough times should be honored as my favorite album of the year.

Metal Chris is, well, me! I’m the main writer, editor, calendar updater and dark beer drinker of this very website, DCHeavyMetal.com
Favorite album of 2014: The Living Ever Mourn by Nightfell
Most metal moment of 2014: I’m not one to get star struck too often but when the opportunity arose to interview original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward for DCHeavyMetal.com I’ll admit I was taken aback a bit. Not only did Black Sabbath birth heavy metal but they’re also my favorite band. On May 9th and 10th Bill Ward came to Annapolis, Maryland to exhibit an art project he was involved with, one that incorporated his drumming but in a visual medium. In addition to being a metal head I’m also a big fan of artwork so this was the perfect opportunity for me to land the interview to help promote the project to the area’s metal heads. I did a ton of prep work, carefully crafted tons of questions, recorded the interview and did a massive amount of editing to remove all the ums and stutters we both made. In the end it all paid off, the interview was my best to date and it was picked up by several major heavy metal news outlets like Blabbermouth and Loudwire. All of that was great and all but the best part was getting to meet Bill Ward at the art exhibit and somehow convince him to wear a DCHeavyMetal.com shirt, the one that parodies the Black Sabbath Vol. 4 album cover. Not only was this my most metal moment of 2014, but probably the most metal moment of my life! I’m not sure how I’m ever going to top that one!

That’s me (right) with Bill Ward of Black Sabbath

December 31, 2014
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: 2014, Best Of 2014, Heavy Metal . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 2 Comments