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.
Richmond’s legendary party thrashers Municipal Waste are kicking off their next tour at the Black Cat on Thursday, February 15th and to say we’re excited here at DCHM would be an understatement! Yesterday was a holiday, today it snowed, that’s all the excuse I need to give away a pair of tickets to this show to a lucky DCHM reader. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite heavy metal album of 2023 was! It’s always hard for me to pick just one but I guess I’d go with The Rime of Memory by Panopticon, or maybe The Enduring Spirit by Tomb Mold, or Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags by Hellripper, or… well it’s so hard to narrow it down. On Friday, January 19th at 5pm Eastern the contest will close and a winner will be selected from all valid entries using Random.org! Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly when you enter 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 the selected winner hasn’t written me back within 24 hours then another winner will be selected. If you can’t wait to see if you win or the contest is already over when you read this, then you can purchase tickets here.
Municipal Waste always puts on a wild show so remember to wear your best crowd surfing shoes for this one! Direct support comes from Creepsylvanian messy thrashers Ghoul. If you’ve ever wondered what a low rent Gwar show would be like look no further than Ghoul! Necrot will be the most brutal band on the bill with their sick death metal riffage and infernal blast beats. Opening the show will be California based crossover thrashers Dead Heat, and up and coming band that will start the intensity off right from the get go. Seriously, that’s one hell of a stacked line up from top to bottom that’s going to make for a romantic night of thrash and death metal! Now check out the below videos by each of the bands and leave a comment telling me what your favorite metal (or metal adjacent even) album of 2023 was!
I went to a few shows last week that were all great and I shot a lot of photos and videos and thought I’d share them here with you all. Mercyful Fate, Katatonia and the Dave Sherman Benefit show were all great experiences, I’m so glad live concerts are back this year.
Mercyful Fate
First up was the return of Mercyful Fate at the Fillmore Silver Spring on Tuesday, November 8th. Teutonic thrash legends Kreator were the first band I saw as it took me 25 minutes (and cost me a bottle opener on my key ring) to get into the venue leading me to miss opener Midnight. King Diamond has toured the US several times since Mercyful Fate’s last US tour in 1999 but fans have long been whispering rumors of a proper Mercyful Fate tour. With a blood moon lunar eclipse in the sky and midterm election results coming in time was standing still as Mercyful Fate took the stage. You never really know if a band as old as Mercyful Fate is going to live up to the hype live but I think it is quite safe to say that this show did. King Diamond’s voice held up well and the band had great energy on stage along with a beautiful stage set up and lighting. They played a set list full of classics and a new song off an upcoming album that is yet to be named. I didn’t have a photo pass for this show, all my shots were from the audience on my phone, but I think I got a few decent ones, and I got video footage of the new song “The Jackal of Salzburg” as well as my personal favorite Mercyful Fate song, “A Dangerous Meeting.”
Click here to see all of my concert videos on YouTube.
Click here to see all of my photos from this concert on Flickr.
Mercyful Fate – The Jackal of Salzburg
Mercyful Fate – A Dangerous Meeting
Kreator – Flag of Hate / Pleasure to Kill
King Diamond of Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate at the Fillmore Silver Spring
Mike Wead and Hank Shermann of Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate at the Fillmore Silver Spring
Mercyful Fate set list 11/8/2022
Katatonia
The next night I found myself at the Black Cat to see Swedish doom band Katatonia along with the German prog band The Ocean. Again I missed the opener, Cellar Darling in this case, and I’m starting to wonder if it is just me or if shows are starting earlier now since the pandemic. This was the first night of the US tour and I wasn’t sure what kind of set list Katatonia would play, mostly newer stuff or and older “best of” style set. They played a pretty good mix with 5 songs off of The Great Cold Distance album and they even played their new song “Atrium” live for the first time ever at this show. Jonas Renkse’s voice sounded great and the band seemed fresh and really into the entire 90 minute show. The lighting has never been stellar at the Black Cat and since I just had my phone with me I didn’t get many decent shots of either band, but I did get some great video footage of Katatonia, which you can peruse below.
Katatonia – Old Heart Falls
Katatonia – Deliberation
Katatonia – Teargas
Katatonia – Leaders
Katatonia – Atrium first time ever played live
Katatonia -Evidence
Katatonia at the Black Cat
Katatonia at the Black Cat
Katatonia set list 11/9/2022
Video clip of The Ocean Collective
Dave Sherman Benefit
The following Saturday, the 12th of November, I headed up to Frederick, Maryland, for the Dave Sherman Benefit show at Cafe 611. The gig was a benefit show for the family of the late, great Dave Sherman. It was also something of a memorial show for the legend of the Maryland doom metal scene after his untimely death in September, but I’ve gotta say it was a pretty uplifting and positive experience. People were happy to see each other and most of the bands played some sort of cover or tribute to Sherm during their sets. The first band went on at 3pm, which was way too early for me to get there, but I did make sure I left in time to catch Victor Griffin and his band Place of Skulls. I guess they took too long setting up because several songs were cut out of their set and they ended abruptly after playing a cover of Pentagram’s “Relentless” (which wasn’t even on their set list). Still, it’s always cool to see Victor Griffin play live. Next up was Foghound and they put on a super high energy set and got everyone in the audience to raise their hands like how Dave Sherman would imitate riding a motorcycle. After they played it was time for another great set by Borracho. The DC based stoner band has been working on some new material and playing some of the songs live here and there and I managed to get video footage of a brand new song the first time they ever played it live that night. They closed their set with a Spirit Caravan cover, one of Dave Sherman’s bands, and I’ve got footage of that below as well. Faith in Jane closed out the show and the crowd was dwindling by the time they took the stage a little before 1am but the people that were there still had some energy! Faith in Jane had some technical difficulties but even so they still somehow seem to get better each time I see them, and this time was no exception. I wish I had been able to catch Pimmit Hills and some of the other earlier bands but I still enjoyed every minute of the sets by the four bands I did catch. I’m not one to believe in any kind of afterlife but I know that Dave Sherman would have been happy and proud to see all the joy in the room and on stage that night because of him.
Place of Skulls – Lost
Foghound – Turn Off the World
Borracho – Architects of Chaos – Part 1 first time ever played live
Katatonia is coming all the way from Sweden to play the Black Cat on Wednesday, November 9th, and they’re bringing The Ocean Collective and Cellar Darling with them! Even better, DCHM is giving away a pair of tickets to this very show! All you need to do to enter: is just tell me your favorite band to listen to when you want to get into the Halloween mood. Then on Halloween, Monday October 31st, at 5pm Eastern the winner will be selected from all valid entries using Random.org. Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly when you enter 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 the selected winner hasn’t written me back within 24 hours another winner will be selected. If you can’t wait to see if you win or the contest is already over when you read this, then you can purchase tickets here.
This show is going to be the first night of the North American tour and Katatonia has a new album coming out in January titled Sky Void of Stars. Hopefully we’ll get to hear some of these new tunes on the tour (and be sure to check their music embedded video below for one of the new songs). Also along on the tour is the German band The Ocean Collective. Their proggy post-metal sound is a perfect compliment to Katatonia, and you should also check out their video embedded below for a song they did that features Katatonia’s vocalist Jonas Renkse. Cellar Darling is an up and coming Swiss band with progressive leanings and all three of the band’s members are former members of Eluveitie. Anyways, go check out the music videos by all three of these great bands and leave a comment telling me what your favorite band to get you into the Halloween mood is!
Katatonia – Atrium
The Ocean – Jurassic | Cretaceous (feat. Jonas Renkse)
Autumn has arrived and it’s the perfect season for occult doom metal. Luckily Windhand is performing at the Black Cat this Sunday, November 14th! It’s no secret that Windhand has long been one of my favorite bands from Virginia so I’m excited to be giving away a pair of tickets to this show to a lucky DCHM reader. To enter: just leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite doom metal album to listen to in the fall is. Thursday, November 11th at 5pm Eastern the winner will be selected from all valid entries using Random.org. Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly when you enter 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 the selected winner hasn’t written me back within 24 hours another winner will be selected. If you can’t wait to see if you win or the contest is already over when you read this, then you can purchase tickets here.
Windhand had a livestream event online back in November of 2020 and a year later they’re finally on tour again! This is the last of four East Coast dates they’re doing this fall which means we’re lucky to even be getting the chance to see them. Don’t blow it and miss this show! The support on this run of shows is by local band Aertex who are a sort of gothy synth pop band (with a great demo here). Now check out these videos of the bands below and leave a comment telling me what your favorite doom metal album to listen to in the Autumn months is.
When the COVID-19 pandemic came to town in March it shut down all of the area’s live shows, including metal shows. However at 7pm this Saturday, September 26th, Darkest Hour will be streaming a performance that was just recorded at the Black Cat! The show itself won’t be live because there are many guest performers involved who had to be recorded playing from their own locations since it isn’t safe to fly them in right now. However there will be a live chat during the stream where fans can interact with the band and guest musicians in real time as everyone watches the stream. The audio has also been professionally mixed and mastered so the sound quality will be closer in quality to a live album than a regular livestream. On top of all that, everyone that buys a ticket will get an invite to the virtual afterparty on Zoom with Darkest Hour members and some of special guests after the performance ends!
Tickets to watch the stream (which includes access to the Zoom afterparty) are available from Veeps.com (here) for $10 or at the same link you can buy a bundle that comes with an exclusive shirt (shown below) made just for this performance for $35.
I spoke with Darkest Hour guitarist and founding member Mike Schleibaum and he told me that this event ties in with the band’s 25th anniversary (which was on Wednesday, 9/23). Along with some of the band’s most popular songs, the setlist will include some of their oldest songs performed with guest appearances by former band members. Other performing guests include Doc Coyle (Bad Wolves, God Forbid), Mark Heylmun (Suicide Silence), Buz McGrath (Unearth), Fella Di Cicco (Dreamshade) and more! Mike Schleibaum went on to say, “all of the Darkest Hour parts were shot on the Black Cat stage with multiple cameras.” When pressed about exactly how much of the ticket price went to the venue, Mike said, “100% of ticket sales go to the Black Cat. So when you buy a $10 ticket they get all of the $10. There’s also going to be a donation feature while the performance is streaming so people watching can also donate that way.”
This isn’t a live stream but it sounds like they’ve really upped the production value for this using multiple cameras, top notch sound quality and out of area guest musicians to make this closer to something you’d see on a band’s live DVD release. And while I’ve watch several band live streams they do kind of all seem like you’re just watching a rehearsal with poor sound quality. This event sounds like a great way to do something bigger for the fans, celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary, and donate to one of Washington DC’s live music institutions. If you can’t watch it when it starts or you just want to replay the show, a ticket purchase will grant you access to it for 24 hours. You can check the event’s Facebook page here for info and once again you can get tickets here.
The Veeps stream layout with the chat shown on the right
Here’s some videos Darkest Hour put out that you can get even more info from:
Napalm Death are one of the fathers of grindcore and they’ll be returning to Washington DC when they play the Black Cat on Sunday, May 3rd, 2020! We’re so excited for this show that we’re going to give away a free pair of tickets to one of our lucky readers. To enter: just leave a comment on this post telling me which of Napalm Death’s 15 albums is your favorite (if you need help remembering them all you can see their discography here). The contest will close at 5pm Eastern this Friday, February 7th. At that time the winner will be selected from all valid entries using Random.org to receive the pair of tickets to the Napalm Death show at the Black Cat. Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly when you enter 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 the selected winner hasn’t written me back within 24 hours another winner will be selected. 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 Eventbrite here.
Napalm Death formed in the early 80’s in Birmingham, England, and helped create the genre of grindcore with their 1987 debut album Scum. Usually older bands in extreme metal have trouble keeping up as they age but not Napalm Death. They still defy expectations by releasing solid studio albums and putting on killer high energy live shows as well. Also playing will be the Belgian death metal band Aborted and Brooklyn based hardcore infused post-metal band Tombs. Do not sleep on South Carolina based death/grind band Wvrm, these guys shred and will be opening the show. Now check out these tunes below by all of the bands on the bill and leave a comment telling me which is your favorite Napalm Death album!
DCHeavyMetal.com 