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.
Metallica: Through The Never is coming to theaters everywhere on September 27th in IMAX 3D (October 4th for regular theaters) but readers of DCHM will be able to go to the advance screening, for free, on Wedneday, September 18th. The showing is at 7:30pm at the Regal Majestic Stadium theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. The movie is rated R so don’t bring the kiddies.
To get your free passes you’ll need to sign up for a free GoFobo account with a valid email address here. Don’t worry, you can turn off their “updates” if you want when you sign up. Once you’ve signed up they’ll send you a confirmation email. Once you confirm your email address go to this link here and enter the promo code: GFBS314
You’ll be sent through a few prompts and then you can print out your tickets! Supply is first come first served, as is the seating. If you’d like more info on the movie you can check out its website here or IMDB page here or simply watch the trailer below. And if you hadn’t noticed yet, DCHM is also giving away a pair of tickets to see Amon Amarth, Enslaved and Skeletonwitch at the Fillmore Silver Spring on 1/31 before they go on sale. Details on that are posted here.
Some of you may have seen me out and about wearing the new prototype for the next DCHeavyMetal.com t-shirt design featuring a parody of the classic Black Sabbath Vol. 4 album cover with Richard Nixon taking Ozzy’s place. From Sleep to Darkest Hour it seems like almost everyone has parodied this design so why not DCHM? I came up with the idea myself but I think we can all agree that RJ Mahoney did a great job executing the artwork and I think it’s another design that screams heavy metal and DC at the same time.
I’m ready to get these out to you guys so starting right now until Monday, Sept 16th we’re going to do a presale for these killer shirts. And you may have heard of this show I’m putting on at the Fillmore on Sept 26th, the DCHM 4th Anniversary Party (details here). If you buy a ticket to the show from DCHM and a shirt with it we’ll have a reduced price for you and the shirt will be available for pick up at the show.
All shirts will be black and the men’s shirts will be Gildan (a common band shirt brand). Women’s will be either Bella or District Threads. They’re all printed by MiNDJACKET Designs who printed my previous shirts. Now, here’s the pricing…
Men’s S-XL and women’s (girly cut) S-XL will be $15 each, shipped.
If you buy a ticket to the DCHM 4th Annivesary Party from us at the same time, the total will be $22. That’s $5 off! This option is only available for shirt pick up at the Fillmore the night of the show (the ticket will be mailed to you). If you’d like to purchase a shirt and multiple tickets, just add $12 per additional ticket.
Add an extra $1 for men’s XXL. Contact me if you need a size larger than that and we’ll work something out. This fee is for both the shipped option or the DCHM 4th Anniversary pick up option.
Add $1.50 per shirt if you are paying via Paypal using a credit/debit card (you do not have to pay the extra $1.50 if you paying with Paypal directly from a bank account). This fee is for both the shipped option or the DCHM 4th Anniversary pick up option.
If you’d like to purchase a ticket and not a shirt you can do that for $12 shipped (you must order the ticket from me by Sept 22nd to guarantee shipping on time).
You don’t have to have a Paypal account to use it to pay. Be sure to include a note in the Message section with whatever address you want the item(s) shipped to and what size you want. If for some reason you don’t send the note properly, just email me from the same email address you made your payment from with the size and shipping info. If you don’t send me the right amount I’m just going to refund your purchase and you’ll have to try again.
I should have a few of the shirts in the new design at the show, but they will be more expensive than I’m selling them for here, will be sold for cash only and will be limited to the quantity at the show. I will also be at the Pinch on Thursday, Sept 12th with tickets for sale. The excellent Corsair is playing there that night and it’s a free show too so stop by if you can. Details are listed here.
I hope you all like this design as much as I do. I’m trying hard to keep costs as low as possible. If you have any questions about any of this feel free to send me an email at DCHeavyMetal@Gmail.com
Band: Grethor Album: Galaxia Infinitum Release Date: 16 August 2013 Buy from Bandcamp for $4:Here
Grimy Grant is back with another album review for DCHeavyMetal.com. This time he’s reviewing the new EP by Northern Virginia death metal band Grethor. Give it a read and be sure to give a listen to one of the songs at the bottom of this post.
Back in college, I took a survey course in Science Fiction. The professor, being an admittedly avid weirdo and Sci-Fi geek, demonstrated how you can split the genre of Sci-Fi into two groups: Star Wars-esque Sci-Fi and Star Trek-esque Sci-Fi. Star Wars refers to all the campy, unbelievable stories that hold only a little grip on reality (Think Predator, Stargate, or any SyFy channel original movie). Star Trek, on the other hand, was a show dedicated to “real” science, even if it meant fringe science. In other words, everything in “hard” Sci-Fi can be defended or explained by your physicist friends. Hard Sci-Fi, then, can be understood to worship logical reasoning above everything else.
My point is, Grethor is Star Trek. Even the name “Grethor” refers to the Star Trek Universe: it’s the Klingon word for Hell (i.e. Gre’Thor). Their new five-track EP, Galaxia Infinitum, solidifies their footing in the science fiction world but also proves that hard sci-fi can be curiously eerie and terrifying at the same time. Space by itself is a frightening concept as brought to mind in the album’s intro where we hear the astrophysicist Neil Dygrasse Tyson talking about “the importance of looking up”:
“Looking up … is the most humbling thing you can do … to contemplate the cosmos”
This is soon followed by the sounds of a spaceship crashing and exploding followed by the roars of some futuristic animal ready to tear us apart. It felt as if Grethor wanted me to learn a bit about the importance of physics and then leave me in the bleak yet gorgeous void as shown on the album art.
That sense of being lost didn’t last long. The first song, “Anomoly X”, set the tone and the message for the rest of the album in my mind. After a slow intro, singer Marcus Lawrence preaches the word of astronomy: “We look to the skies; Inward we look for the vastness of connection”. Marcus begs us to give up the hope of “false exhalations” that mankind comes from godhood. We are simple creatures making vague notions of what is real until we “choose the gift of enlightenment” and become truly free in knowing our part in the universe. It’s definitely a humbling message that repeats back the quote from the intro.
Good death metal often looks under the skin directly into the vilest, goriest, most unspeakable parts of humanity. In Galaxia humans are ugliest when they reject science. “Hypatia,” the fourth track on the album, gives this idea a direct metaphor. One of the first recorded women in science, Hypatia lived during the Roman empire and established many ground-breaking facts about the universe and the way our solar system is constructed. That was up until a group of Christians raped and tore her apart in the streets for publicizing her discoveries. Grethor puts it into lyrics with:
“Men will kill to preserve conformity/ … Men see no profit in peace/For the more rational are weak/In the eyes of their priests”
The point that comes across here in the lyrics is black and white. That Grethor is talking about how “The inferiority of self” coming from learning about the cosmos – or anything bigger than us – causes some in society to take devastating action – even if it’s against the actual greater good. Or as it is poetically growled in the song: “Men arrogantly justify killing one/Who seeks truth, and they call it heresy”.
Guitarists Robert Lute, Andy McComas, and bassist Nick Rothe don’t flex a lot of guitar muscle in this album. Instead, they allow the sound to swell and compress over and over again – going from a black metal-style harmony to crushing, quickened riffs. “Anomoly X” starts with a beautiful and steady rhythm that then dissolves into a slow guitar melody. It made me think back to the cover art featuring the nebula and stars colliding together. Everything in the song “Anomoly X” crashes yet seemingly blends together, which was hard to get into at first but gets me more and more hooked after each listen. “Tenebrous” and “Hypatia” feature elements that I love about the album: symphonic harmony that starts after the end of the song and provides a kind of psychotic break. It serves as a strange pause between “Tenebrous” and the pounding rhythm of “Hypatia”.
Galaxia does suffer from it’s technical issues. It’s mentioned in the liner notes that come with the album that all parts of the album except the last song were mixed in Maryland, while the final song, “Alternate Lexicon,” was done in Virginia. However it happened, the mix on “Anomoly X” as well as “Tenebrous”, seems way too rough. At some points in “Anomoly X” the guitars almost seem to be coming from the back of the room whilst Lawrence is jamming his voice straight into the mic. I’m still able to get into the song but the levels and rough edges of the mix tend to get in the way of really enjoying it sometimes. The mix gets significantly better in “Hypatia”, where the vocals mix well with the rest of the band, coming to the fore right at the moment of the breakdown. As a finale “Alternate Lexicon” weaves together some beautiful guitar work with amazing drums from Anthony Rouse, despite the difference in moving locations for recording. Maybe this all is a result of something that happened organically in the sound mixing booth, but the final product is rough at the beginning which could turn some people off from listening to the rest.
Science fiction is about the fear not only of our future but our present. Galaxia Infinitum dazzles with moments of echoing guitars, drums, and robot voices – all things both future and present. The digital album came with a lyrics sheet of the liner notes, which is something I appreciated. Grethor’s lyrics in this album create a world beyond the expansive noise – something that is better read sometimes than heard. Despite the rough edges, and there are some rough parts, there is a lot of story and great points brought out. Interestingly, I could say the same for Star Trek: rough around the edges but chock full of deadly surprises and decent science worship. But there is no living long and prospering in Galaxia Infinitum; just sharp, precise death metal that chills the soul.
This September DCHeavyMetal.com turns 4 years old and I’m really trying to make it special with all kinds of great things, online and offline, to celebrate. There’s going to be more posts on the site this month, including a few album reviews which are in the works as well as a good old fashioned concert review or two, something I haven’t posted too recently. I’m also working on an app for Android users which will let people pull up the concert calendar on their phones very easily as well as some other features like an interactive map that will use your GPS location data to tell you what concert venues, record stores and other businesses in the area that are metal friendly are near you. This should make traveling to these places much easier if you’ve never been there before. I should also be selling not one but TWO new t-shirt designs this month that I hope you all like as much as I do. I can’t wait to reveal them! Now some details about some of the other things DCHM will be doing to celebrate our 4th anniversary…
To get things started, right now we’re giving away a pair of tickets (before they even go on sale) to see Slayer, Gojira and 4Arm at the Fillmore Silver Spring on 11/19. To enter you just need to send me the title of your favorite Slayer song either on Twitter (send it to @MetalChris) or you can leave a comment on the Facebook post here. The winner will be chosen at 5pm EST on Thursday, Sept 5th so don’t wait!
This Sunday, September 8th, you’ll find me at Port City Brewery in Alexandria as I co-host Metal Night IV there with their metal head brewer Will! The event is free and there won’t be any bands playing but we’ll be playing metal on the speakers all night from a playlist that you guys send in songs for. You can send song requests (limit 2 per person) to Will via Twitter (@PCBCBrewMetal) or via email at Will@PortCityBrewing.com. Since the brewery is releasing their Oktoberfest beer this metal night is having an Oktoberfest theme, meaning think of your favorite metal songs with a German theme or by bands actually from Germany (Blind Guardian, Kreator, Necrophagist, Sodom, etc…) You can send in non-German songs too, and local bands are always welcome on the list. There will be nine beers on tap for Metal Night IV including rare releases such as Deracho, Maniacal (named after the Cannibal Corpse song with that title) and my personal favorite, the smoked porter named Two. In addition to all that, we’ll have lots of prizes to give away, including tickets to upcoming area metal shows like Pelican/Coliseum at DC9, another pair of tickets to Slayer, and tix to several shows coming to Empire. More details and info can be found on the Facebook event page here.
And you may have heard by now that there will be a big DCHeavyMetal.com anniversary show at the Fillmore Silver Spring on Thursday, September 26th! I’ve got some of my favorite local bands, as well as the excellent sci-fi themed thrashers Vektor, playing this show! And these aren’t just any locals on the bill: the beer soaked heavy riffs of Borracho will be sure to please any Sabbath fans (isn’t that all of us?) and the guitar wizardy of Midnight Eye is going to sound great at the Fillmore! The opening act is Asthma Castle, a stoner metal band from Baltimore featuring Adam Jarvis (of Misery Index and Pig Destroyer) on drums. There will be more surprises to be announced about this show as well, so join the Facebook event page (here) and I’ll keep you up to date! I hope a lot of you can come out to this one, if there’s a good turn out I might be able to do more of these, plus it will be cool seeing these bands on such a big stage! You can get tickets for $12 here.
Last but not least a big thank you goes out to everyone who helps make this site, and the area’s metal scene, what it is. Checking out local bands, suggesting new tunes to people, going to concerts big and small all around the area, forming bands, setting up shows and just spreading the metal word any way you know how, it’s all of you who make this area’s metal scene awesome. I wouldn’t be doing this still after 4 years, advertisement free mind you, if this area’s metal scene sucked. I may keep this website alive but it’s all of you metal heads in this area that keep the scene alive here in the DMV and give me something to keep writing about. I hope to have many more reviews, improvements, fun events and of course ticket give aways for many more years to come. Keep it heavy everyone and remember: support the scene you’re a part of!
The French Canadian death metal band Gorguts is coming to Empire (formerly Jaxx) in Springfield, Virginia on Thursday, September 5th! They haven’t played the area since reforming and one of you lucky readers will win a free pair of tickets to the show. To enter just leave a comment on this post telling me which old school metal band you hope reforms to make a come back next and at 5pm EST this Friday, August 30th, a winner will be chosen at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to win the tickets. Be sure to use 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 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 Amped & Alive for $16 here.
In the 90s Gorguts put out some excellent technical, yet very brutal, death metal albums but ended up going on hiatus in the new millennium. They reformed to play a set at Maryland Deathfest in 2010 which was awesome but lacked any new material. Well the new Gorguts album Colored Sands is coming out and I can tell you that having heard an advance copy already, it’s sick. This isn’t a recreation of past glories, this is a modern evolution of the classic Gorguts sound and there’s even some surprises in there too. If getting to see Gorguts play their classic songs plus some of their killer new material live wasn’t great enough there’s also direct support coming from Richmond’s Inter Arma. They released their first album on Relapse earlier this year and have been putting on some outstanding live performances in support of it. Seriously, catch these guys live and you’ll become a fan. There will also be sets by March To Victory from Pennsylvania and locals Acid Deth Kvlt. Now check out these awesome new songs by Gorguts and Inter Arma as you decide which old school metal band you wish would come back next!
Philip Anselmo, the famed vocalist for bands like Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual and others, is coming to the Fillmore Silver Spring on Sunday, August 18th with his new band, Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. And because “Music Media Is My Whore,” the first track off their debut full length Walk Through Exits Only, isn’t just a song title, Philip will be taking over the DCHeavyMetal.com Twitter account to answer fan questions! When Philip has finished dominating our Twitter account he’ll pick whichever question he thinks was the best and the person who asked it will win a pair of tickets to see his band play their original songs as well as some classics from his previous bands at the Fillmore Silver Spring!
So if you haven’t already, get a free Twitter account (here) and on Tuesday, August 13th at 5:30pm EST you can send questions to @MetalChris on Twitter with the hash tag #PhilipAtFillmoreSS. Philip will read your questions and answer them from the @MetalChris account. This won’t be on Facebook or any other social media site, this is an exclusive to the DCHeavyMetal.com Twitter account. If you just want to follow along, with or without a Twitter account, you can do that by going here, but you’ll need an account to be able to ask questions. I’m pretty excited for this exclusive opportunity to let my Twitter account become a mouth for war for Philip Anselmo so start brainstorming some questions for your chance to win those tickets!
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