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 king of goth shock rock, Marilyn Manson, is coming to the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland on Tuesday the 1st of May! Support on this show will be by The Pretty Reckless. DCHeavyMetal.com is giving away a free pair of tickets to one lucky reader and all you’ve got to do is post a comment below telling me which song you’d like to hear Marilyn Manson play the most. I’ll pick one lucky winner at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries at 5pm EST on Friday 2 March 2012. Be sure that when you post you use a valid email you check regularly because I’ll need to contact you if you win. And don’t worry, I won’t add you to any annoying email lists or sell your address info or anything annoying like that. I hate spam too! You can only enter once, multiple entries will be disqualified. However, you can get your friends to all enter and have them bring you along if they win.
This will be Marilyn Manson’s first tour to support his upcoming album, Born Villain, which is coming out in May. So I’d imagine you’ll be able to hear some of those songs before the album is even out, pretty sweet! The album is a concept album and Marilyn Manson himself described it as a “suicide death metal” style of music, whatever that means. The opening act is The Pretty Reckless, a goth band fronted by Taylor Momsen who you may recognize as having played Jenny Humphrey on the TV show Gossip Girls. The band has been getting decent reviews and now they’re opening for the entire Marilyn Manson tour as well. If the contest is over when you read this, or you just can’t wait to get tickets, you can buy them online for $58.50 from Live Nation here. Check out this latest Marilyn Manson video, directed by Shia LaBeouf (the guy from the Transformers movies) of all people, below. It’s a trailer for a documentary about the making of the album that Shia shot, but it does have music in it too. Under that is a music video by The Pretty Reckless. And under that, leave a comment to enter!
The new Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland, hasn’t had a metal show since Anthrax and Testament played there in November, but they’ve just announced two killer metal concerts coming there in May. The Heritage Hunter tour with Opeth, Mastodon and Ghost on May 9th and the Ophidian Trek tour with Meshuggah, Baroness and Decapitated on May 22nd. Here at DCHeavyMetal.com we couldn’t pick which concert to give tickets away to, so we’re giving a pair of tickets away to both shows! All you’ve got to do to enter is make a comment at the bottom of this post saying which of these killer metal shows you’d like to enter to win tickets to. You can enter to win both if you’d like, but each concert will have a different winner. The winners will be picked at 4pm EST on Friday the 10th of February. One winner will be chosen at random with Random.org for each concert and they’ll win a pair of tickets to the show of their choice! Be sure you use a real email address you check regularly when you enter so I can contact you when you win, though your email doesn’t have to be in the comment itself. And don’t worry, I won’t add you to any email lists or sell your info to anyone, I hate that crap too. Now, here’s a bit more info on these concerts.
The Heritage Hunter tour has quite a line up! Opeth is Sweden’s premiere progressive metal band and while their last trip through the area saw them playing mostly softer material with a focus on their new album, Heritage, word has it this tour will feature a more “best of” style set list. I suppose we won’t know for sure until they’re actually playing it though. Opeth sold out their last area appearance on November 1st at Rams Head Live in Baltimore. Mastodon is probably the most famous band out of that big Georgia metal scene. Their latest album, The Hunter, looks to make them an even bigger name in the world of metal and you can bet they’ll be playing material from it as well. They also sold out their last area appearance which was at the 9:30 Club on November 27th. The opening act on this tour is Sweden’s mysterious Ghost. The members of the band all cover their faces and hide their identities and so the rumors have swirled around them about who might actually be in the band and what other bands those people are members of. Regardless, their debut album, Opus Eponymous, has won over critics and metal fans alike with their clean vocals and simple but catchy songs, all in the name of Satan of course. And you probably guessed it, but they also sold out their most recent area appearance when they headlined the Rock & Roll Hotel on January 19th. That’s right, this tour is made up of three bands who all sold out their most recent area appearances. If you missed any of them before now is your chance to see them live! If you want to be sure you get tickets before it sells out (which it seems likely to do considering the line up) you can buy tickets online now for $29.50 here.
The other metal show coming to the Fillmore in May is the Ophidian Trek tour with Sweden’s popular tech metal band Meshuggah headlining in support of their new album Koloss. Everyone knows these guys can shred and this will be the area’s first chance to hear any of their new material played live. If that wasn’t good enough for you they’ve also brought along another one of the premiere bands from the Georgia metal scene, Baroness! Baroness should have a new album out this year, hopefully in time for this tour, but even if they don’t the material on their first two albums is fantastic live. I saw them play the Rock & Roll Hotel back in November of 2009 and while that show was excellent, it will be great to see them on a bigger stage. The opening act is Decapitated, a Polish technical death metal band that has reformed with a new line up after a tragic bus accident in 2007 left the drummer dead and the vocalist in a coma. And you know what Meshuggah and Decapitated on the same bill means, you’re pretty much guaranteed to hear both Bleed and Spheres Of Madness played live at the same concert, hell yeah! If you want to get tickets to this show now and not have to worry about it selling out (you know, on the off chance you don’t win this contest) you can go ahead and buy your tickets online for $25 each by going here.
Well, those are your two choices. Check out these classic videos by the headliners and enter to win below!
Here’s a quick contest for you readers who check in regularly here on DCHeavyMetal.com. Florida’s Torche is bringing their thunder pop to DC9 this Thursday. I’m giving away a pair of tickets to one of you on Wednesday 9 November 2011 at 6pm EST. All you’ve got to do to enter is tell me which song you’d like to hear them close their set with in the comments below and I’ll pick a winner at random from all the valid entries using Random.org. Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly so I can contact you if you win. Also, this show is ages 18+ only, so if you are under 18 you are not eligible. Even if you win they won’t let you in the door, so please don’t enter if you are a minor. If you don’t know any of their song titles you can check out the set list I photographed when they played at Jaxx back in March on the right and pick one from there.
Torche plays a sort of stoner metal and rock hyrbid that is full of great riffs, and they are really fun to watch live. This show should be a lot of fun! They’re playing with the London based band Part Chimp, as well as the regional acts Regents and Chumps. Hell, even if you don’t win you should come out to this show, it’s going to be a blast! You can get tickets from Ticket Alternative right now for $12 here, the price goes up to $14 the day of the show.
Legendary 80’s thrashers Anthrax are coming to the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland this Sunday, the 6th of November! Support on this show will be by not one, but two, awesome Bay area metal bands, Testament and Death Angel. I’m giving away a free pair of tickets to one lucky DCHeavyMetal.com reader and all you’ve got to do is post a comment below telling me which of these bands you’re most excited to see play. I’ll pick one lucky winner at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries at 6pm EST on Saturday 5 November 2011. Be sure that when you post you use a valid email you check even on Saturdays because I’ll need to contact you if you win. You can only enter once, multiple entries will be disqualified. However, you can get your friends to all enter and have them bring you along if they win.
Anthrax has been playing with the Big Four a lot lately, but since they were playing first at those mega shows they’ve been playing shorter sets. If you’d like to see them play a full headlining set, this show is for you! Of course Testament is going to kick ass as well and if you haven’t seen the opening act, Death Angel, play live before you should, they’re pretty damn awesome. That’s three thrash bands that will leave you will one hell of a bangover on Monday morning. If you can’t wait to get tickets, or you just end up not winning the contest, you can buy them online for $30 each here.
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