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Last Minute Earth Ticket Give Away

Earth at the Rock & Roll Hotel

Friday, November 9th, that’s TOMORROW, is Earth Day! Ok, not the real Earth Day where musicians fly around the world putting on lavish concerts in praise of their appearance of environmentalism. However you can see Earth play at the Rock & Roll Hotel with Eagle Twin and Stebmo. This is a special ticket contest for those of you who pay attention to this site regularly so it is only running for 24 hours and will end at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning. To enter just leave a comment below telling me why you want to see Earth. I’ll pick a winner at random (using Random.org) when the contest ends to win the pair of tickets. If you can’t make it to the concert then don’t enter! I want the winner to actually go to the show. Be sure to enter with an email address you check regularly so I’ll be able to contact you if you win. As always, I won’t add you to any email lists or anything like that, I hate spam too. If you enter more than once then all of your entries will be disqualified. If you can’t wait to find out if you’ve won (then you’re really damn impatient!) or if the contest is already over when see this, you can get tickets for $14 from Ticket Alternative here.

Earth is basically the father of drone bands like Sunn O))). They formed in Seattle in 1990 in the midst of the grunge movement, although they don’t play that style of music. In fact Dylan Carlson, Earth’s main songwriter, was the best man at Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s wedding. As bonus trivia, it is said that he gave the shotgun to Kurt Cobain that he later ended up killing himself with. Crazy. Anyways, Earth is instrumental, mellow, somewhat abstract ambient and pretty damn awesome. There aren’t any big metal shows this weekend so you’d be smart to come out to this one. Direct support comes from Eagle Twin, a doomy sludge band from Salt Lake City that should be a great warm up for Earth. The opening act, which goes on at 9pm, is Stembo, the solo project of Steve Moore. He is most known for being in the band Zombi but he has also worked with Sunn O))) in the past. In all that’s a pretty cool line up and I’m excited to give a chance to win some free tickets to this show to you regular readers of DCHM! Now check out these songs by each of the bands as you enter the contest below.

November 8, 2012
Categories: Contests, Drone, Rock And Roll Hotel . Tags: Contest, Eagle Twin, Earth, Free TIckets, Rock And Roll Hotel, Stebmo, Ticket Contest, Washington DC . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 8 Comments

Election Day Playlist

Since this blog is based in the Washington DC area and today is election day I figured I should at least post something. If you “like” DCHeavyMetal.com on Facebook (page is here) then you probably saw me posting metal songs all day relating to voting and elections. Now I’ve conveniently posted them all below as a big playlist so give these songs a listen as you watch the election coverage, or just avoid it all together, and decide for yourself which is the best metal election day song. And of course if you know any that I missed feel free to post them in the comment section at the bottom.

Let Pepper Keenan remind you what today is about.

Corrosion Of Conformity – Vote With A Bullet – 1991 Blind

Here’s another election day themed music video. This one is from the Ministry album Relapse which came out in March of this year (2012).

Ministry – Git Up Get Out ‘n Vote – 2012 Relapse

Oh you didn’t think this would stop with Ministry did you? Here’s the instrumental track “Election Day” by the Hammers Of Misfortune.

The Hammers Of Misfortune – Election Day – 2006 The Locust Years

Swan Song isn’t exactly my favorite Carcass album but this one fits for today.

Carcass – Rock The Vote – 1996 Swansong

Anyone up for some grind from Pretty Little Flower today? It’s a short but to the point grind song.

P.L.F. – Bullshit At The Ballot Box – 2002 Swarming Industrial Cancer

Here’s one from Nux Vomica, a Portland based band with Baltimore ties. Intro by Chris Rock!

Nux Vomica – The Final Election In A Crumbling Empire – 2007 A Civilized World

I couldn’t find this one on YouTube, but it’s the old school death metal band Master playing “Cast One Vote” from their 2002 album Let’s Start A War.

Master – Cast One Vote – 2002 Let’s Start A War

Here’s an old one: Alice Cooper’s “Elected” from 1972.

Alice Cooper – Elected – 1973 Billion Dollar Babies

This Czech band played at MDF in 2011. I have no idea what they’re actually saying here so I’m just going by the song’s title.

Malignant Tumour – Vote For Death – 2000 split with Unholy Grave

Now for a softer song, the Swedish band Tiamat’s song “Vote For Love.”

Tiamat – Vote For Love – 2002 Judas Christ

And now for something a bit heavier. Louisiana’s Thou ask you not to vote at all.

Thou – Don’t Vote – 2009 split with Mohoram Atta

Ok here’s the last one for the day. You didn’t think you were getting out of this without some crazy Dave Mustaine ramblings did you? This song isn’t really about elections directly but how many times have you heard a local politician who is running their first campaign for a seat at congress say “Washington Is Next?”

Megadeth – Washington Is Next – 2007 United Abominations

November 6, 2012
Categories: Playlists . Tags: Day, Election, Playlist, Vote . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 3 Comments

Municipal Waste and Napalm Death at Empire

Friday the 26th of October 2012 was one hell of a fun night. Municipal Waste and Napalm Death were kicking off their co-headlining tour with Exhumed and Vektor at Empire (formerly Jaxx) in Springfield, Virginia that night and you just knew a line up like that was going to result in an awesome night. Apparently a lot of you had the same idea as the place was pretty packed. It was probably the best turn out I’ve seen at Empire since the new management took over back in January.

There were a couple of local openers to start the show off but I didn’t get there until Vektor was just beginning their set. They play a futuristic tech-thrash that is pretty damn fun to watch live. Their songs are long but they go all over the place so you never feel bored listening to them. The crowd surfers were already starting during their set. I had seen Vektor headline a show in mid September (ready my review of that show here) and while they didn’t play as long of a set, it was still cool seeing them on a proper stage. Also, guitarist David DiSanto was playing a new guitar this time. After Vektor played it was time for Exhumed to unleash their gory death metal on the crowd. They were as fast and brutal as ever and they’re the kind of band you can tell is having a lot of fun on stage. They had their crazy chainsaw surgeon guy come out on stage a few times with his real chain saw that he was waving over the audience and they even had blood splatter onto some of the people up close when he pulled out a decapitated head. Exhumed opened their set with several songs off their latest album, All Guts, No Glory, but started playing older songs midway through their set. They ended their set with their classic The Matter Of Splatter which really had people going nuts in the pit. Two bands in and this show was already kicking some serious ass!

Napalm Death was the next band to take the stage. They’re one of the fathers of grindcore and have consistently put out good material since they formed 31 years ago (although none of the current members have been in the band prior to 1987). In addition to that they’re also known for being one of the best live bands in extreme metal. As they opened their set they showed that their age was not slowing them down a bit. I had seen them in May at Maryland Deathfest X but this time the audience was much closer up to the band and the setting was definitely more in your face. Hell, I even saw a guy in a banana costume stage dive during their set (photo of that below). Napalm Death’s vocalist, Barney Greenway, was as spastic as ever on stage, pacing back and forth between bursts of vocal rage and showing that he’s still one of the most ferocious live vocalists in metal. Their set contained mostly material from the past 10 years or so but they did sprinkle in some key tracks from older albums throughout the set. For some reason the band played their infamous Guinness World Record holding one second track You Suffer two times during their set, that was a new one. I didn’t love their latest release, Utilitarian, because a Napalm Death album with clean vocal parts just doesn’t sound right to me. Even so, when they played The Wolf I Feed, a song from that album, it still fit in well with the rest of the songs they played despite the clean back up singing. Napalm Death played a thoroughly brutal set from start to finish and the audience seemed to love every minute of it, myself included.

The final band of the night was Richmond, Virginia’s Municipal Waste. They’re a party thrash metal band and they’re known for having a totally wild live show. Most of the band’s songs revolve around binge drinking and partying and they readily encourage stage divers. However if you stay on stage too long you’ll get an atomic wedgie, which vocalist Tony Foresta explained by making an example of one lingering stage diver during the show. They got the crowd going from the start with their songs Headbanger Face Rip and Mind Eraser. Tony said that since the band had toured so much lately they wanted to change up the set list some. This included playing A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Destroyer) for the first time ever live as well as playing the first song Municipal Waste ever wrote, Thrashin’s My Business… And Business Is Good. You can see the full set list here. The band was a bit sloppy but it didn’t matter, they’re more about having fun than playing perfectly. Guitarist Ryan Waste was sporting a new custom guitar that had a body shaped like a big M and W. At one point Tony mentioned that he didn’t like most modern thrash bands, but that he definitely approved of Vektor. An odd opinion since Municipal Waste is one of the biggest modern thrash bands. The shred-fest went on for over an hour and the mosh pit went crazy all night. Crowd surfers and stage divers were a constant presence and I’m sure a lot of people were nursing bruises afterwards, but they were well worth it to be in the middle of all the fun. As usual, you can see my photos of the bands I was there for below. I didn’t get shots of all of the band members throughout the night because it was hard to move around the wild audience that close to the stage and I was not trying to damage my camera with all the crowd surfers over head either. I have some video footage of Municipal Waste as well but due to complications from Hurricane Sandy I haven’t been able to upload those yet. I hope to add them to the end of this post in a day or two. It was great to see such a good turn out for a metal show at Empire and I hope to see more of you out at metal shows soon to help support the scene you’re a part of!

Vektor:

Exhumed:

Napalm Death:

Municipal Waste:

November 1, 2012
Categories: Concert Reviews, Death Metal, Empire, Grind, Thrash Metal . Tags: Concert Review, Concert Reviews, Empire, Exhumed, Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Vektor . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 6 Comments

Pig Destroyer at the Ottobar

On Friday the 19th of October 2012 I headed up to the Ottobar in Baltimore to see Pig Destroyer perform at their album release show. Their new album, Book Burner, is their first full length release in over 5 years and anticipation for the album has been high not only in the DC area, which the band is from, but in the overall world of metal fandom. I missed the opening act, Wargames, though they’re a Baltimore based hardcore band so they’ll probably be playing in the area again soon. Royal Thunder was the first band I saw play. They’re a slow paced hard rock/metal band from Atlanta and while I didn’t think they were all that bad, they were certainly out of place on this bill. The crowd who showed up to see a spastic grindcore band wasn’t really interested in seeing a drowsy southern rock band with clean vocals. Royal Thunder, along with Pig Destroyer, is signed to Relapse. I guess they were just trying to get Royal Thunder more exposure by adding them to this line up but they really sucked the energy out of the place. Luckily the next band, Baltimore natives Necropsy, came to the rescue with their set and got the mosh pits started. They play some catchy death/thrash and they are really fun to watch live. They’re all pretty young, I’m not sure if any of them are over 21, but they are certainly worth checking out if you haven’t seen them yet. They’ll be opening the first day of Maryland Deathfest next May. The next band to play was Washington DC’s own Ilsa. I’ve seen them a ton of times and as always they brought the heavy, chugging riffage doused in crusty filth. They started their performance off by throwing stripper glitter on the people standing close to the stage and I have to say that was rather unexpected. Just when you think you’ve seen it all at a metal concert… Anyways, Ilsa was in really good form, mostly playing songs from their upcoming album Intoxicantations which is due out on Black Friday (Nov 23rd) from A389 Records. I’ve got the set list posted here if you’d like to see it. They didn’t play the song Frostthrower, a personal favorite of mine, but it didn’t matter, they’ve got a lot of great songs and you could tell the audience agreed. They were loving the weight of the band’s sound and I’m sure Ilsa won some new fans with their performance.

After Ilsa’s killer set it was time for Pig Destroyer. They don’t play a lot of shows in the area and there was a good sized crowd out for this rare appearance by the local grindcore legends. Vocalist JR Hayes (who I recently interviewed here) was rather jovial between songs then like a light switch he would just turn on his pent up rage and funnel it through his throat. He was like a caged wild animal suddenly set free into the confusing world with his microphone as his only weapon. Guitarist Scott Hull stayed pretty cool on the left side of the stage, grinding out his bizarrely unique riffs as the songs jarringly started and stopped. This was the first time I had seen Pig Destroyer with with their new drummer, Adam Jarvis (also of Misery Index) and apparently it was his birthday as well. Even after taking birthday whiskey shots on stage he still ripped through those crazy Pig Destroyer songs with total precision. The band doesn’t have a bass player but they do have Blake Harrison who basically “plays” some sort of DJ console making noises and adding clips and samples to their songs. Since a lot of what Blake does is basically prerecorded he spends a lot of time on stage essentially acting as a hype man by helping pump up the crowd and keep them into the show. There were also a few guest appearances during the set. Kat Katz (vocalist for the now defunct DC doom band Salome) performed vox on a few songs and the Grindfather, aka Richard Johnson of Drugs Of Faith, did some guest vocals as well. Pig Destroyer’s set list didn’t include a whole lot from the new album though they did play a cover of a Void song. You can see their full set list here. Overall it was a great performance by one of DC’s biggest bands and it was awesome to see them in a local venue. During Pig Destroyer’s set I was up front trying to get some photos and videos and, unsurprisingly, the crowd was wild, hyper and just violent overall. I’m lucky I didn’t damage my camera but I think it was worth it to get some straight on, close up shots from this rare show. The videos are all the way at the end, I hope you enjoy them. Until next time, stay metal everyone and support the scene you’re a part of!

Royal Thunder:

Necropsy:

Ilsa:

Pig Destroyer:

October 25, 2012
Categories: Concert Reviews, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Grind, Local Band Info, Ottobar, Thrash Metal, Washington DC / Maryland / Virginia Metal Scene . Tags: Album Release Show, Book Burner, CD Release Show, Concert Review, Concert Reviews, Grind, Grindcore, Heavy Metal, Ilsa, Necropsy, Pig Destroyer, Royal Thunder . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 2 Comments

Win A King Giant Prize Pack

As Halloween draws closer there’s still more treats to give out to you readers of DCHeavyMetal.com! The local southern metal band King Giant has a show on Saturday, November 3rd, 2012 at Empire (formerly Jaxx) in Springfield, Virginia, their first area appearance since back in January. To mark this occasion I’m going to give one of you a free pair of tickets to this show! However I really want to stuff you pillowcase this time so in addition to the tickets the winner will also get this show’s limited edition concert poster with artwork by Laurie Lipton (seen at right) signed by the entire band. But wait, there’s more! The winner will also get both a sticker and a t-shirt featuring the new King Giant torch artwork by Jess Zadlo (seen below)! To enter just tell me what your favorite zombie movie of all time is by leaving a comment on the bottom of this post. The winner of this awesome prize pack will be chosen at 5pm EST on Halloween (that’s Oct 31st) at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries. If I don’t hear from you in 24 hours then I’ll pick another winner to get the tickets so be sure to use an email address you check regularly so you’ll be able to claim your prize. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any email lists or anything like that, I hate spam too. If you enter more than once then all of your entries will be disqualified. And if you cannot make it to the show please don’t enter because the prizes will be awarded at the show. If you simply can’t wait to find out if you have won or not, or the contest is already over, you can buy tickets to the show for $10 from Amped & Alive here. The posters, stickers and shirts will all be available at the merch booth at the show as well.

Due to an injury in the band King Giant didn’t play for a while but now they have risen again and they are ready to ~~eat your brains~~ rock out on stage once more! They always put on a great show so you won’t want to miss this. Also playing this show will be Philadelphia’s Kingsnake, another southern styled metal band who should be a perfect support band for this show. The show will be opened by Richmond’s Fire Faithful. They might not be kings but you can consider them your ace up the sleeve to get the beer and whiskey drinking started right. Be sure to check out this zombie infested music video for King Giant’s song Appomattox while you think of your answer (things like Frankenstein, Evil Dead and I Am Legend all count. I’ll even accept the Walking Dead!). Good luck everyone, and happy halloween from DCHeavyMetal.com!

October 24, 2012
Categories: Contests, Doom Metal, Empire, Local Band Info, Stoner, Washington DC / Maryland / Virginia Metal Scene . Tags: Contest, Contests, Empire, Fire Faithful, King Giant, Kingsnake . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 16 Comments

Dethklok ticket give away

If you’re a metal head and you’ve got a TV then you’ve probably seen Metalocalypse on the Cartoon Network‘s Adult Swim. The humorous show is about the fictitious metal band Dethklok which Brendon Small, the show’s creator and song writer, brings to life using animated back drops behind live musicians (including the legendary Gene Hoglan on drums!) playing the Dethklok tunes. Well Dethklok has just put out a new release, Dethalbum III, and so they’re hitting the road again. On Friday the 2nd of November 2012 they’ll be playing at the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland and DCHeavyMetal.com wants to give you a free pair of tickets to this show! To enter just tell me who your favorite member of Dethklok is and why by leaving a comment on this post. Just to help remind you, the members are: Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, Toki Wartooth, William Murderface and Pickles. On Friday, October 26th at 5pm EST one lucky winner will be picked at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to win a pair of tickets to the show. If I don’t hear from you in 24 hours then I’ll pick another winner to get the tickets so be sure to use an email address you check regularly so you’ll be able to claim your prize. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any email lists or anything like that, I hate spam too. If you enter more than once then all of your entries will be disqualified. And if you cannot make it to the show please don’t enter because I want people who can actually attend to get the tickets! If you simply can’t wait to find out if you have won or not, or the contest is already over, you can buy tickets to the show for $35 from Live Nation here.

Dethklok is the headliner but don’t think they’re the only band worth seeing on this tour because there are some killer support acts as well. Direct support comes from Boston’s All That Remains. Their new album, A War You Cannot Win comes out on November 6th and I’m betting you’ll be able to hear some of those new songs live at this show before it is even released! Machine Head will also be playing and these Bay Area shredders will be sure to bring the heavy. Be sure to get there early to check out opening act The Black Dahlia Murder as this Michigan band plays some of the songs from their latest album, Ritual, live for the first time in this area. Still not convinced this show is going to kick ass? Then check out the music videos below, one by each band, and enter the contest while you’re getting your headbang on!