Review of Cynic gig at Rock And Roll Hotel

Wow, this was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in a while. Sunday the 8th of August 2010 was a hot day, and while I know lots of people were down at Jiffy Lube Live for the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, I decided to stay cool and head over to the Rock And Roll Hotel for a killer line up of progressive metal. I’m really glad I did, this concert was just great. Cynic was the headliner, but I wanted to check out the opening acts, Intronaut and Dysrhythmia also so I got there a bit early.

I got there a couple minutes after 7:30 and the opening band, Dysrhythmia was already playing their first song. They were great when I saw them play at the Velvet Lounge in February 2009 so I knew I wanted to get to the Rock & Roll Hotel in time to catch their set. If you’ve never heard them before, they’re an instrumental three piece from New York City that just shreds live. The bass player, Colin Marston is a member of the band Krallice and he also plays in the current version of Gorguts with Dysrhythmia’s guitarist, Kevin Hufnagel. Dysrhythmia’s songs twist and turn all over the place and rarely do they come back to playing the same riff again, instead their songs are constantly moving forward and evolving. That combined with the fast tempos that makes the music just really fun to listen to live. There are no words and really none are necessary as the music is totally engaging on it’s own. Really my biggest complaint with their set was the short length, but they were the first of three bands so it wasn’t really that surprising. They were a great way to start off this concert though.

Next up was Intronaut. They’re a band from LA that I’m not as familiar with as the other two bands. I’ve heard their 2008 album Prehistorisms and while I do enjoy it, I wouldn’t call it life changing progressive metal. They have a new album coming out soon and they played a couple songs from that live. They aren’t bad live and their rhythm section really kept the songs moving with groovy beats you don’t always get so much of in this metal sub genre. I was certainly impressed by their drummer, Danny Walker, in the live setting too, he really killed it back there. While their music is pretty interesting, they were pretty laid back on stage. Towards the end of their set the lead singer/guitarist, Sacha Dunable, asked the audience if anyone had any weed or whiskey before the Cynic set started. At the end of the song someone had brought shots to the stage for them, haha. Their final song of the night, Any Port, saw the other guitarist, Dave Timnick, put down his guitar at the beginning of the song to pick up a couple of mallets and pound on some upright (conga?) drums. He slung his guitar back on and continued to play the bulk of the song until he joined in at the end for the song’s drum solo. The rest of the band walked off the stage while he and Danny put on a rhythmic drum show that sort of reminded me of that old Sepultura song Kiowas, tho not so tribal sounding. It was a cool way to close out a good set, and I’m definitely going to check out their new album when it comes out. They certainly had left the audience warmed up and ready for the main act who was due up next, Cynic.

When I came from the downstairs bar to watch Cynic the stage looked different. They had their backdrop lit up and they put up a couple of circle shaped screens. They started projecting trippy videos onto these and they turned on some funky lights. One could have mistaken it for a Pink Floyd cover band setting up, but this was much better than that. I’d never seen Cynic before, but everyone has told me they’re good live. They weren’t kidding, what followed was a fantastic set. Definitely one the best concerts I’ve seen in a long time, maybe the best show I’ve seen this year in fact. Cynic formed in Florida in the late 80s during the time the state’s legendary death metal scene was forming. Due to delays caused by two of the members touring with Death and then hurricane Andrew destroying their practice space as well as most of the state, the band only ever released one full length album, the classic Focus, before breaking up in 1994. One of the draws of this tour is that Cynic would be playing that album in its entirety. Since reforming they’ve put out another full length album and an EP, both of which I also highly recommend. For a band that started over 20 years ago they have a very small catalog of songs, which in their case I think worked as an advantage here. Since they have so many really good songs on those releases, the audience was treated to hearing most of Cynic’s songs live, instead of the standard “pick a song or two from each album” approach most older bands must do for their live shows. They started the show off with Veil Of Maya and continued through the excellent Focus album in almost top form. Guitarist Tymon Kruidenier apologized that he had lost his voice earlier that day so was having trouble keeping up with some of the growling. Luckily it’s heavy metal and the vocals are generally not the most important aspect of the music, certainly not in Cynic’s case. On top of that all the clean vocals (sung through a vocoder) were done by Paul Masvidal. Otherwise, the band was spot on. They obviously had played these songs enough to have completely mastered them for the live setting, guitars, bass and drums. Added with the cool light effects, this show was just mesmerizing. After playing Focus straight through, the rest of the band left the stage as Paul pulled out a nylon string acoustic guitar and played the song Integral off their latest EP, Re-Traced. This was a nice little interlude for the fans and a good divider for the rest of the show. When the band returned they played a nice mix of their newer material, and they even threw into the setlist the song Cosmos, which was un-released until it became a bonus track on the 2004 reissue of Focus. You couldn’t have asked for a better setlist for this show, and if you had a favorite song you were hoping they would play, they probably did. At one point Paul had everyone in the audience do a yoga stretch. A bit new age but I’ve got to admit that’s something I never thought I’d see at a metal show, everyone doing yoga. Overall Cynic put on a dazzling display of technical progressive heavy metal and showed that not only are they one of the genre’s older influential bands, but they’re also one of the current leading bands of the genre, even if they took off a dozen years.

I really had a great time at this show. I talked with a fan of this blog, Josh, for a bit between sets which is always cool. It always surprises me when people come up to me and recognize me from the site, I’m glad some of you seem to be enjoying it. I also pulled a promo poster off the wall that I got all of the guys in Cynic to sign for me after the show. I’m not usually a big fan of autographs but I wanted something to remember the show by that was a bit more distinct than a t-shirt (I did buy the sticker pack too). This show was just what I needed, after a few let downs (the cancellation of the Enthroned concert last week as well as the mediocre Iron Maiden show last month) this show really hit the spot. All three bands were excellent and I’m glad I got to be there. Now on to the videos. They’re a bit dark but the sound is decent in them. The first is Dysrhythmia, the next two are Intronaut and the rest are Cynic, enjoy.

August 10, 2010
Categories: Concert Reviews, Progressive Metal, Rock And Roll Hotel . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 1 Comment

Review of King Giant gig at the 9:30 Club

On Saturday the 31st of July 2010 I went to the 9:30 Club for my second metal concert of the weekend. While I went to the Black Cat the night before to check out a few touring black metal bands (you read that review here) this concert was not very similar at all, for several reasons. There were three local bands playing, though I only saw the headliner, King Giant. That’s right, a local metal act was headlining the 9:30 Club, a rare event indeed. These guys are a sort of southern sounding sludge band, I guess. It’s hard to explain their sound perfectly, though I could easily see them opening a tour with bands like Baroness or Down.

Before I even stepped into the venue you could see a row of motorcycles outside, as well as a very strong police presence. I’m not sure if there was a problem there before I arrived, but it was a bit offsetting. Once inside I saw there was a pretty good turn out for a show of local acts. The place wasn’t full by any means, the upper level had only a handful of people, but the floor level was mostly full. I got there about 10 minutes before the show started and easily walked right up to the front of the stage. I’d asked what the camera policy for the night was at the door and they said there wasn’t one, video and pics were all ok. Perfect! I ended up getting what I’d call my best pictures ever at the 9:30 Club. This was a good thing as these guys were very memorable and fun to watch on stage. I can’t remember the last time I saw a band live that had members wearing cowboy hats, but it was a vastly different audience than had been at the Black Cat the night before! They didn’t have much else on stage besides their instruments and amps, tho they did have a bottle of Jack up there as well as some rather randomly placed taxidermy of small woodland creatures. The band’s lead singer, Dave Hammerly, was very engaging on the stage, throwing his hands up in the air, pumping his fists, occasionally headbanging a bit and just generally walking around on the stage like he owned the place. He did a great job of keeping the audience engaged between songs. For example, this concert was on the birthday of their bass player, Floyd Walters, and at one point in the set they poured him a shot on stage and instructed everyone to take a birthday toast with him. Dave even went so far as to apologize to the women and children in attendance before playing the song Mississippi River. This song was the song I had wanted to see them play the most live, and I certainly wasn’t the only one as it got a great reaction from the audience, to which Dave quipped that it was funny how the songs about killing people get the best responses. But this is a band that has quite a few good songs, which is really saying something considering they only have one full length album out. Their music isn’t super complex, but it’s very well polished, especially for a local act, both in the studio and live. The lyrics tend to be very dark and sometimes quite personal, often dealing with personal and inner struggles. I enjoyed the entire set though the songs Burning Regrets and Solace, as well as the above mentioned Mississippi River, really stood out to me in the live setting.

I really didn’t find a single song they played all night to be boring at all, it was really entertaining the entire way through and I could see these guys getting noticed outside of the area. They’ve got some music for download at this location (some is free, some you have to pay for) if you’d like to check them out. The pictures I shot of King Giant that night can be seen here, and below I’ve posted the videos I shot. The volume of the vocals isn’t great on the ones I shot close to the stage, though the Mississippi River song has much better sound since I shot it from the upper level. Unfortunately it has the worst visuals as the lighting didn’t show up as well up there. After all this if you want to see these guys play live (and you really should), you’ve got a great chance coming up on Friday 20 August 2010. King Giant is one of the bands playing at the State Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia for their first ever metal night. I’ve got more info on that, including how to buy tickets, posted here. It should be a great night of metal, and if it’s half as good of a show as this was, it’ll be worth the price of admission. Now here’s the videos, enjoy!

August 2, 2010
Categories: Concert Reviews, Local Band Info, Nightclub 9:30, Sludge Metal, Washington DC / Maryland / Virginia Metal Scene . Tags: , , , , , , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 1 Comment

The State Theatre To Host Their First Metal Night

The State Theatre in Falls Church will host its first ever Metal Night on Friday 20 August 2010. The concert will feature four local metal acts of various heavy metal sub genres, all sharing the stage for a night of metal. The bands that will play this epic local concert are Timelord, King Giant, Invader and Croatoan. Each band will have tickets for sale for $10. You will also be able to get tickets directly from the venue, but there will be some service fees depending on how you pay. The State Theatre box office will have tickets starting at $10 advance and $12 the day of the show, but buying them at the door will incur a $1 service fee, over the internet will be a $4 service fee and over the phone will be a $6 service fee. The State Theatre also has a $3 security fee for people ages 18 thru 20. You can buy tickets from the State Theatre online here or call the box office directly at (703) 237-0300 from noon to 6pm Mon-Sat (or noon to 11:30pm days there is a show). Remember, you can get tickets directly from the bands themselves for just $10 with no fees so I highly recommend that. You can buy tickets from Timelord by emailing them at TimeLordMetal@Yahoo.com (they will accept Paypal) and you can buy tickets from Croatoan by emailing them at CroatoanMetal@Gmail.com and you can contact Invader for tickets by messaging them through their MySpace page here. If the event does well financially for the venue, they plan on making it a monthly event, so lets show them the Northern Virginia metal scene isn’t dead!

The event will be 18+ though it can be all ages if accompanied by your parent (it must be your parent, not an older brother, uncle, friend’s parent, etc…). There will be a full service bar and food will be available too, selling standard wings, burgers, fries and the like. As per the State Theatre’s policy, all unattended beverages will be thrown away with no refunds to help prevent under age drinking. The venue has an outdoor smoking section as well (and they do allow re-entry from the smoking area) and you can bring your drink with you so there’s no reason to leave one unattended anyway. The event will have doors open at 7pm and the first band will probably be on at around 8pm. Bands will have merch for sale at the venue, so bring some cash to pick up a shirt or a demo or something if you particularly enjoy some of the acts. This kind of event should be a great way to check out some of the best metal acts in the area as well as hang out with fellow metal heads, network, and help build the metal community in Northern Virginia. Again, if it does well this event could become monthly and will feature different bands every month, so if you’d like your band to play on this stage at some point, help get people out to this event! We can build the community here in Northern Virginia and get more and more bands exposure, but only if people actually, ya know, come out and watch some bands play.

The whole event got started when Alan Margazano, a metal head employee of the State Theatre, had an idea for a metal night at the historic venue in Falls Church. He started a Facebook page to see if people were interested in the idea at all and there was a positive response backed with a rapid viral spreading of the Facebook page. After the group swelled to over 500 members in under a week, Alan proposed the idea to the management at the venue and got the green light. You can join the group by going here and he has also created an event page on Facebook you can join/send to your friends here. The bands have now been assembled and the first metal night should be a fun event catering to fans of various sub genres of metal. Timelord and Croatoan are thrash based acts while King Giant has a sort of southern sludge sound along the lines of bands like Down and Baroness and Invader has a more old school vibe I could see fans of NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden really getting into. You can listen to these bands on their MySpace pages by clicking their names above. Timelord has tickets for sale via Paypal if you send $10 to the band’s email address: TimeLordBand@Yahoo.com If you don’t have a Paypal account you can purchase tickets from them in person in Springfield by contacting them with that same email address. If you’d like to purchase tickets from Croatoan just email CroatoanMetal@Gmail.com. You can purchase tickets from Invader by messaging them on their MySpace page here. I will have info on how to purchase tickets from the other bands soon. You can see the State Theatre’s event page on their website here. I’m hoping this goes well and we’ll get to see more metal bands of all sorts of genres at the State Theatre in the coming months.

Again, you can buy tickets online from the State Theatre here, and if you’d like to help spread the link to this page around on the internet, you can use this short link: http://wp.me/pDCET-qn

July 26, 2010
Categories: Local Band Info, Shameless Promotion, State Theatre, Washington DC / Maryland / Virginia Metal Scene . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: Leave a comment

Review of Iron Maiden gig at Jiffy Lube Live

This is a review of their 2010 concert at Jiffy Lube Live, for the 2012 concert review go here.

Whenever Iron Maiden comes to town you can bet most of the metal heads in the area are going to find their way to that concert. Tuesday the 20th of July 2010 was no exception when Iron Maiden played the horribly named Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia. The concert was fun as always, though there were several problems with it too. Also of note, it was the final show of the US leg of the Final Frontier Tour. I totally missed the opening act Dream Theater. This was partly because of the weather, partly because of some minor navigational issues getting to the venue, and partly because (or so I was told) they played a short set.

When we got to Jiffy Lube Live (formerly known as Nissan Pavilion) it was pouring rain, though by the time we actually got the car parked it had mostly let up. The rain never got that bad again, but it was still a damp and humid night, and the lawn area had a lot of mud on it that only seemed to get more slick as the night wore on. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a large venue concert like this one. Part of that is because there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of bands that play arenas and amphitheaters that I actually want to see, and part of it is because the experience kind of sucks. Sure seeing the band is fun, but paying $11 for a can of beer that would cost me $2 at a 7-11 is ridiculous. Leaving the venue is always horrible too, and Jiffy Lube Live is known for being one of the worst. Things like finding your friends can be tough in such large places, and of course these outdoor shows leave you vulnerable to the elements. On top of it all, the ticket prices are astronomical if you want to be anywhere halfway close to the stage. Now I understand the whole supply and demand part of it, but I’m sorry I’m just not willing to pay a few hundred bucks to see a band one night, I don’t care who it is. This concert expectedly had all the same problems, at no fault to Iron Maiden, though I suppose they could make tickets a bit cheaper if they wanted, but they were pretty typical in price. They did have a rather elaborate setup on the stage, and I like how they have a backdrop that changes for just about every song, and that stuff costs money to do. At one point they brought out some guy in a full body costume of the newest space alien version of the band’s mascot, Eddie. Kinda goofy and a bit Gwar-ish I suppose, but entertaining none the less. The band’s singer, Bruce Dickenson, is always entertaining on stage, jumping around and climbing on the elaborate stage sets as well as getting everyone to sing along with him on those classic chorus lines Iron Maiden is known for. At one point between songs he asked the audience who was there for their first ever Iron Maiden show. I don’t know if people weren’t paying attention and going along with the herd, or if they were all just n00bz or whatever, but most of the audience put up their hands and yelled. Bruce didn’t seem to believe it and made a comment about how this can’t be EVERYONE’s first Maiden gig. He also dedicated the song Blood Brothers to the late Ronnie James Dio which also pleased the crowd. The three guitarist attack of Iron Maiden is pretty fun to witness too, the guys really know how to make solos fun to watch AND listen to at the same time. If you’re not up close it can sometimes be hard to tell which of the 3 guitarists is playing the solo, especially when they start switching off, but that’s part of the fun of watching an Iron Maiden show. The stage was set up to look like the inside of a space ship along the lines of something you see in the Aliens movies. It had a door that Bruce would occasionally duck into to let the focus of the audience stay on the rest of the band for certain parts of songs, such as the aforementioned guitar solos. He’d later appear on top of the set materials above the band or run back out the door just before his next line. The showmanship was great and all, and the concert was really awesome except for one thing, the setlist…

Iron Maiden Setlist Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow, VA, USA 2010, The Final Frontier Tour

The setlist was not what I had been hoping for, and I’d imagine many of the people in attendance would agree. If you’re a big fan of Iron Maiden’s material from the year 2000 on, you were in luck. If you wanted to hear lots of their old classics and maybe a few newer songs sprinkled in for good measure? Well, this wasn’t your night. Do you know how many people went to this concert hoping to get a chance to hear The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg instead of The Trooper? Zero. You’ll notice in the setlist posted above which was actually played though. This was the biggest problem with this show. Yeah, it was Iron Maiden and they are damn fun to see live, but where were all the songs? No Wasted Years? No Powerslave? They didn’t even play Run To The Hills and I thought for sure they’d play that one. They played ten songs that were released in the years 2000 to 2010, including the new single El Dorado which was expected, but come on! They played just one song released between the years 1983 and 1999, Fear Of The Dark. That’s a huge part of their discography that was completely ignored. They only played one song from 1980 to 1982 until they closed the show with four straight songs from that era, three of which were part of the planned encore. Those songs were great to watch live, don’t get me wrong, but aside from Wrathchild being played early, where the hell were these classic tunes during the first hour or so of the concert? When I last saw Iron Maiden, in 2003 at Merriweather Post Pavilion, they basically played their best hits CD live. That was an awesome experience, everyone knew all the songs and everyone sang them like they were in the shower or driving in their car alone. People were playing air guitar to songs they’d learned to play when they were growing up and banged their heads to beats they have loved for many years. That nostalgia, that’s what everyone (well, at least me!) wanted at this concert too, but unless you’d been following their more recent material, you didn’t really get that experience. As I said above, it’s always fun seeing Iron Maiden, but the set list really left me feeling glad I hadn’t decided to fork over a few hundred dollars for a spot up close. I did get to shoot a couple videos while there, and you can see them below. They’re a little shakey as I was doing my best to hide the fact that I was shooting video, though midway through The Number Of The Beast I grew some balls and tried to keep the camera steady. I hope you enjoy them! I know a lot of people who will read this were there, feel free to tell me about your experience at the concert in the comments below.

July 22, 2010
Categories: Classic Metal, Concert Reviews, Jiffy Lube Live, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Power Metal . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 20 Comments

Album Review of Heirs To Thievery by Misery Index

Well, this is my first music review blog post. I doubt I’ll do these as regularly as my concert reviews but they will probably show up from time to time. Just for future reference, I’m only going to review material by local bands or bands that at least have some sort of tie to the area, in this case the new album Misery Index just put out May 11th, Heirs To Thievery. If you’re in a local band and want me to check out your stuff for possible review here, you can send me an email with a download link at DCHeavyMetal@Gmail.com Now I’ll get started with the review here, but first some background…

Misery Index was originally formed when most of Dying Fetus left that band, I suppose due to a falling out of some sort, and Jason Netherton, Sparky Voyles and Kevin Talley started a new band. Jason and Sparky are still in the band but Kevin has gone on to be in Dååth, and you may have seen the video of his audition for Slayer floating around on the net several years ago too. Now I have to say when I first heard that Kevin had left I was rather worried because I think he’s just a fucking fun drummer to listen to play. The first time I saw Misery Index after he left I was unsure how a new drummer would fill in those shoes, but Adam Jarvis totally blew me away to the point that he wasn’t just replacing Kevin, he was surpassing him! He really brings the drumming intensity to another level for the band. They’ve also had a few other guitarists go in and out the door too, but their line up seems pretty stable now with the inclusion of Mark Kloeppel several years ago. This album is a good example of how they are moving forward with this line up. Now on to the music on the album itself…

The album starts off with a quick song, Embracing Extinction, and it’s relentless. It’s under 2 minutes long and really sets the tone for the album. Fast, aggressive, brutal and short. The whole album is under 35 minutes long, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A full hour of this sort of intensity can get monotonous and I think they did a good job of giving the album enough variation that it doesn’t get stale and ending it before it does. While some of their previous work had some slower, I guess groovier parts and riffs, there isn’t as much of that on this one. Even one of the slower tempo songs, Carrion Creed, still has a nice rolling drum beat in the back that makes you want to step on the gas petal. There’s certainly a good mix of death, grind and punk in this album, as would be expected in a Misery Index album. And while they will probably always draw comparisons to Dying Fetus, they certainly have more of a punk edge than Dying Fetus does. While that may be so, this is by no means a crossover album, and I think there’s less of a ‘core sound in there than on their previous album, Traitors. This album seems more aggressive than that one too. One thing I don’t particularly like about this album is the way the vocals sound. I don’t know if Jason is using some weird distortion with reverb or a layering effect or what, but sometimes it comes out pretty weird. If you listen to the chorus in The Spectator you’ll hear what I’m saying. Maybe it’s one of the other guys helping out on backup vocals, but combined with the awkward tone the leads have on this one, it’s sort of distracting. The final song on the album, Day Of The Dead, has part of it’s chorus in Spanish and the vocal sound combined with the repetitive lyrics in the chorus kind of ruin that song for me. But this isn’t American Idol music here, the vocals aren’t the main attraction and great songs like You Lose and the title track more than make up for it on this solid album. I really can’t wait to hear some of this material live. I missed their last area concert when they kicked off the Facemelter Tour with Dying Fetus at Sonar in Baltimore this month, but maybe I’ll get to see them play the Ottobar on Friday 11 June 2010 with Goatwhore and Revocation. You can get more info on that on my Upcoming Concerts page.

I’m not particularly big on reading lyrics to metal songs, I tend to like deciphering what I can for the most part on my own through listening, but for this review I looked at them a bit. I think a good way to get a general idea of what an album is really about is to check out the title track’s lyrics. On Heirs To Thievery the title track seems to be a Chomsky inspired critique about how much of what is in the history books taught to us in school is propaganda, particularly in how the US was stolen from the natives. Thus, we who are living in the US now are the heirs to the theft of their land/culture. Well, that’s what I get from it at least, and you can see this in the album cover art too. I particularly liked the line: “Eliminate the natives (and leave them a museum!)” If you’ve ever seen the National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian museum on the National Mall in Washington DC from the outside, you’ll know it looks like modern European abstract architecture, but it’s covered in yellow stucco (or something). I guess the yellow stucco is representative of native american culture? The song’s lyrics sort of remind me of the Iron Maiden song Run To The Hills in that sense, but also because it’s kind of odd hearing that point of view from a band of white guys. In this song they also mention how the expansion of the US was built on slavery. Much of the other songs’ lyrics on the album are pretty typical political death/grind fare, though there is nothing wrong with that. This post is long enough already so you’ll have to find them yourself if you want to know the details. I actually like reading Jason’s blog Demockery, you can check that out here, which will probably give you a better idea of his views which are nothing if not well thought out.

Overall, I wouldn’t call this the best Misery Index album ever, but it’s still damn good and certainly worth getting, especially if you like any of their stuff already because you’ll certainly enjoy this one too. It still has that classic Misery Index sound but they keep progressing as a band too, enough to keep it from getting stale. Fans of bands like Nasum, modern Napalm Death and Brutal Truth will love this, but even if you’re just looking for something to simply bang your head to, their trademark combination of catchy riffs and sheer brutality will definitely do the trick.

May 21, 2010
Categories: Album Reviews, Death Metal, Grind, Local Band Info, Washington DC / Maryland / Virginia Metal Scene . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 1 Comment

February 2010 has not been my month

Well, this month has been pretty shitty for me here. First it just kept fucking snowing more and more killing most plans for anything. Then Nile decided to play Jaxx on Valentines Day, and even though it got bumped to an early hour, I still couldn’t see them without having to sleep on the couch for a month. So I missed that, fine, at least I was going to get to see Skeletonwitch the 21st at the Red and the Black, right? I’d finally have some new pics and a nice gig to review for my blog which has been silent all month. Nope, I got some virus and basically became useless for a week. Now I’m feeling mostly back to normal but the month has all but slipped past and I haven’t posted anything new recently. Sucks! I always try to see, at the very least, 1 live metal concert every month, not because of the blog but because I love going to metal shows. I haven’t seen anything this whole calendar month now and that blows. Now I haven’t stopped caring about the blog, and I’m not one of those people who likes making excuses for why they haven’t posted to my site, I’m pretty pissed about having to do this.

Regardless of my concert going and blog posting set backs, in this month I have been trying to make the site better and better. The Venues page on the site has gotten a big update, all venues now have a logo for them (if I could find one at least) making it easier to just skim and find the venue you want info on, a link to their location on Google Maps, their phone number, and I’ve done my very best to hunt down every venue’s entire web presence, including all official MySpace, Facebook and Twitter pages as well as their Yelp pages which have helpful reviews from people who have been there before. I’m trying to make my Venues page the best place in the DC area for people to find info on any of the venues they may see mentioned on this site.

I’ve also been working on my site’s most popular page, the Upcoming Concerts page. I’ve moved the posters to just before each listing instead of after, and for events I haven’t been able to hunt down a flyer or poster for, I’ve added the headliner’s logo. Again, this is to make it easier to scroll down the page and find the listing you want at a glance. I’ve started listing more info for each show, such as ticket prices including the price of the ticket before and after all the fees and shipping costs. I also include direct links to buy the tickets from the appropriate ticket vendor. I don’t make any commission off that, I just did it to make things easier for you who read this. I still recommend buying tickets at the venue pre-sale as soon as you can if possible. Most places charge you less for buying tickets at least a day early in cash, and they usually drop all fees when you do, making tickets much cheaper, especially when buying multiple. If you can’t do that because you’re out of the area or something, well, that’s what the links are for. I’ve also decided to start including more of the metal shows of sub-genres I don’t particularly like. For now that mostly means more power metal and metalcore (and variations on those sub genres) but I might expand it more if people seem to like it. I haven’t done a whole lot of this yet because when I was starting to I became ill, but expect to see more shows added soon (like in the rest of this week). I will not add any hair metal/glam rock at any point to the calendar, no matter what. That said, I do want this calendar to be the ultimate metal concert calendar for the DC and Baltimore area. I always stretch the rules for local bands, so I’ll add a local band of just about any metal genre to the calendar. If your band is playing a show somewhere, even at someone’s basement or whatever, let me know and I’ll add it to the Upcoming Concerts page.

Well, that’s it for this post which is basically a “sorry I haven’t updated in a while” thing, which I HATE seeing on other websites, even worse I now have one on my own. I really am not giving up on this site any time soon and I still have a lot of energy and ideas to put into it. I’m thinking about doing some interviews as posts, not sure if that will be audio, text or what yet. We’ll see if I do any at all. I updated my post with the running order for Maryland Deathfest VIII too. If you’re wondering who that N2k2 or N2002 band is that’s been added, it’s really an old Swedish death metal band named Nirvana 2002 that is reforming to play MDF. I guess nobody is allowed to use their real name due to some IP law bullshit but I don’t care about that. There have been some other adjustments to the line up also, mostly effecting Sunday/day 3’s line up. I have also added the recently leaked Burzum album Belus to the Downloads page, I highly recommend it. His screams are gone but that classic minimalist sound that hypnotizes with it’s repetition is still there. I plan on attending the Kreator show at Jaxx on March 3rd and should have photos and a review of that up afterwards too. As always, I love feedback from people reading this, so if you have any ideas or suggestions for DC Heavy Metal dot Com let me know in the comments or via Twitter or however else ya want. Now I’ve got to go take my car to the repair shop… Seriously, is it March yet?

February 23, 2010
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 1 Comment

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