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.
The legendary Paradise Lost is coming to Baltimore Soundstage on Tuesday, October 2nd, along with Sólstafir and The Atlas Moth. Their dark style of doom metal is perfect for this season where the weather starts to turn so we’re giving away a pair of tickets to this show to a lucky one of you DCHM readers. To enter: leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite metal band to listen to in the Autumn months. Then on Friday, September 28th at 5pm EST the contest will close and a winner will be chosen at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries. The winner will get two free tickets the show! Be sure to enter using an email address 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, I hate spam too. If I haven’t heard back from the winner in 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random. 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 Ticket Master for $27.50 here.
Paradise Lost formed in Halifax, England, in the late 80’s and is one of the Peaceville Three, along with Anathema and My Dying Bride, who all formed a much darker take to doom metal in the early 90s while all signed to Peaceville Records. In fact it was Paradise Lost’s sophomore album, Gothic, that the genre of gothic metal gets its name from. They’ve influenced countless bands yet somehow Paradise Lost, who still features all their original members aside from the drummer, manage to put out solid material. This isn’t an old band that just plays their old classics, they still put out solid material, including their 2017 album Medusa, which was #1 on Decibel Magazine’s top 40 albums of 2017. In addition to the rare chance to see Paradise Lost in the US the tour has some excellent support acts. Sólstafir from Iceland blends post rock with viking metal, adds a pinch of country western and a heavy dose of melancholy. The opening band is The Atlas Moth, a post metal band from Chicago that has been getting better and better with every album. Now check out these videos of the bands below and leave a comment letting me know what your favorite metal band to listen to in the Autumn is.
Thanksgiving has come and gone and the holiday season is officially upon us. That means it’s the perfect time for a church burning ticket give away! Let the notorious Norwegian black metal legends Mayhem darken your holidays this Friday, December 1st, when they play the Baltimore Soundstage with Immolation and Black Anvil. We know you’ve got presents to buy on top of bills to pay so we’re going to give away a free pair of tickets to this show to one of you lucky readers. To enter: just leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite black metal song is. Then this Wednesday, Nov 29th at 5pm EST the contest will close and a winner will be chosen at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries. Be sure to enter using an email address 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 I haven’t heard back from the winner in 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random. 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 Ticket Fly for $23 here.
Mayhem is one of the original bands from the infamous second wave of black metal that arose out of Norway in the early 90s. On this tour they’ll be performing their classic 1994 album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas in its entirety along with some of their other songs too. Also performing will be Immolation, a death metal band from New York that has managed to keep their sound intense without getting stale over the 30 years of their existence. New York City based black thrashers Black Anvil will open the show. Now check out these videos from the bands performing and let me know your favorite black metal song in the comments!
Tampa took on San Francisco when the Battle of The Bays Tour came to Baltimore last weekend. DCHM contributor Metal Nick was there and he wrote this review of the show and shot all the photos and videos posted here as well.
On Saturday September 16th, 2017, the Battle Of The Bays Tour came through Baltimore, Maryland, at the Baltimore Soundstage. Power Trip, Obituary and Exodus make up the tour’s line up. Dust Bolt were scheduled to open the tour but, according to their statement, they were forced to cancel the first few shows due to Hurricane Irma delaying the German band’s travel plans.
First up was crossover rising stars Power Trip who are based out of Dallas, Texas. They are are currently supporting their latest album Nightmare Logic which came out in February of this year on Southern Lord Records. This is a great tour for these guys because, as they stated numerous times on stage during their set, they are huge fans of both Obituary and Exodus. They opened with the new record’s first track “Soul Sacrifice.” They played several older songs as well. When the breakdown during “Heretic’s Fork” hit the crowd certainly reacted in a good way for them. The band themselves had a lot of stage energy and their performance was on point. Right before Power Trip played their final song of the night, “Manifest Decimation,” you could tell that they had won over this Baltimore crowd already as a “POWER TRIP” chant had started up. This set was much better than the last time they played Baltimore Soundstage back in March during their headlining tour, mostly because their sound was lot better this time around.
Next up was Tampa Bay death metal legends Obituary. This was my fifth time seeing Obituary live and I must say, I feel they have revived their career over the last two albums they have released. On this tour Obituary is supporting their self titled release that came out on Relapse Records back in March. They opened their set with “Brave” the first track off that album. There was a lot of energy coming from the crowd as soon as Obituary started to play which made it easier for them to perform. Most of Obituary’s set consisted of songs of the self titled album, but as soon as they started to play “Chopped in Half” the pit opened up and there were bodies flying around. I felt that they have never sounded so good live. Maybe it is because Joe Cincotta was doing sound for them. Joe has done live sound for bands like Suffocation and Body Count and runs Full Force Studios. You know you are in for a good show if you see Joe doing sound. The crowd roared when Obituary started to play “Slowly We Rot” and a very large smile came across the face of vocalist John Tardy. All in all I feel this was the best performance I have seen from Obituary. I can’t wait to catch them on a headlining tour. Hopefully they will play more Cause of Death songs next time.
Last up was San Francisco Bay area legends Exodus. Drummer Tom Hunting hit the stage wearing a Golden State Warriors Kevin Durant jersey. Tom quickly stood on both his bass drums hyping the crowd up before the rest of the band took the stage. Much to my surprise Gary Holt took the stage next. I know sometimes he has to skip Exodus tours due to his latest gig in Slayer, but it was great to see him with the band he started. One by one the other members took the stage and the band kicked right into “The Ballad Of Leonard And Charles” off their album Exhibit B: The Human Condition. The Baltimore crowd greeted Exodus with loud roars and plenty of head banging and crowd surfing. The crowd did not hold back at all from showing their love and support for Exodus on this night. When the the song “Blood In, Blood Out” was being played the crowd was singing along for the entire chorus of the song. I love to hear stuff like that at a metal show. It shows that metal is still alive and well in our scene. This was only my second time seeing Exodus live so I am not sure if they play this song often, but they played “War Is My Shepherd” and that was another tune that the Baltimore audience was really into. The second to last song they played was one of my favorites, “The Toxic Waltz.” When I was a kid I would see that video on Headbanger’s Ball and I always remember the scene where a fan did an inverted stage dive. Unfortunately there was a barrier up tonight so no stage dives. When the bridge to the chorus of “The Toxic Waltz” came up the crowd was at their loudest singing every word with frontman Steve “Zetro” Souza. My only complaint about their set was that they did not play “Piranha” which is easily my favorite Exodus song, but I guess they can’t play them all. Their sound was great, I feel like they didn’t hold back at all for this rowdy Baltimore crowd. I loved their performance and wish I could catch this tour every night.
This was an amazing tour package. You had three bands that each had a different sound ranging from hardcore/crossover thrash, death metal and thrash metal. I had a great time at this show. It is very rare that I leave a show and say that all three bands sounded and performed great, but last night was definitely one of those times.
Power Trip – Crucifixation
Power Trip – Conditioned To Death and Heretic’s Fork
September marks the seven year anniversary for DCHeavyMetal.com so we’ve been giving away tickets to tons of shows. We’ve still got one more give away this month and that is for a pair of tickets to see the Mexican gangsters in Brujeria at the Baltimore Soundstage this Saturday, October 1st of 2016! To enter: leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite metal band that originates from any country outside of the US. Then at 12pm EST this Friday, September 30th, the contest will close and I’ll pick a winner at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to win the tickets. Please don’t enter if you can’t go, there’s not a lot of time between the end of the contest and the show. 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 Ticket Fly for $22 here.
Brujeria is the Spanish word for witchcraft and the band keeps the identities of its members a secret. There have been members of Fear Factory, Faith No More, Carcass, Napalm Death and many others all rumored to be members though, and if you’re at the show you can try to peek under their bandanas and figure out their identities, at your own risk of course! Brujeria isn’t a band to be fucked with! Also on the bill is the vegetarian death metal band Cattle Decapitation, a band who keeps putting out solid death metal albums regularly. The tour opener is Piñata Protest, a punk band from San Antonio, Texas and local support is provided by the grind band Ampallang Infection. Now check out these videos by the bands playing and let me know what your favorite metal band is that comes from another country!
Brujeria – Plata O Plomo
Cattle Decapitation – Forced Gender Reassignment
Piñata Protest – Vato Perron
Ampallang Infection – Colostomy Bag Piñata / Breaking Character With Shotguns
On Wednesday, April 1st of 2015, UK based stoner/doom metal band Electric Wizard played to a sold out crowd at the Baltimore Soundstage. The place was crowded, I’ve never seen it so packed before, but the band put on great show and played those super fuzzy riffs for about an hour and a half. The band had a video projection behind them for the entire show, which mostly showed clips from old exploitation films of nude blond women dancing around with psychedelic patterns superimposed. I didn’t get there in time to shoot locals Satan’s Satyrs, who are opening for the entire tour, but it was cool getting to see their bass player, Clayton Burgess, perform with Electric Wizard. The last time Electric Wizard played the US was also in Baltimore when they headlined Maryland Deathfest in 2012, and they didn’t tour the US around that show, it was a one off performance. Combine that with the fact that Electric Wizard hadn’t played in the US for many years prior to MDF due to problems getting visas, and people were hungry to see these guys in action. Considering that, it isn’t much surprise that their merch sold out very quickly, only a few Electric Wizard tote bags and black light posters remained by the end of their set and all of the t-shirts were long gone. They played a lot of their classics that night, like “Dopesmoker” and “Satanic Rites Of Drugula” and I think most people left pleased with the set list overall (you can see the entire thing here). Whether you got to attend this epic show or not, I hope you enjoy the photos I shot below. If you’d like to see more of them just go here.
The Scumdogs of the Universe known as Gwar are currently touring the world searching for their missing leader Oderus Urungus! On Saturday, December 13th they will be at the Baltimore Soundstageslaughtering recruiting new slaves and to help them with this task DCHM is giving away a free pair of tickets to this show! To enter just leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to see Gwar at this show. At 5pm EST this Friday, November 14th, a winner will be chosen at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to win the tickets. Be sure to enter using 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 I haven’t heard back from the winner in 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random. 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 Ticket Fly for $17 here.
If you’ve never seen Gwar live before then get ready for a truly religious experience! Our alien masters are known for putting on the goriest live show in the universe and you’ll be covered in blood, bile and worse by the time it’s over, a truly epic baptism by mosh pit. And while Oderus may be missing, we will get to see new Gwar members Blothar and Vulvatron in action for this final show of the tour. Before Gwar even takes the stage though there will be sets by other bands as well. Corrosion Of Conformity is a southern sludge band from North Carolina and they’re supporting their latest album, IX, with this tour. American Sharks is a high energy punk rock band from Austin that mostly writes songs about beer and partying. Now check out these awesome music videos by the bands playing the show, leave your comment letting me know why you want to go, and fear Vulvatron’s boob spew!
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