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Voivod ticket give away

Voivod at the Black Cat

This Saturday, February 13th, thrash fans are in for something special when Voivod and Vektor take over the main stage of the Black Cat. After that awesome Exodus show at the Black Cat in November you know this one is gonna be a rager too! In fact, we’re so excited about this show that we’re giving away a free pair of tickets to one of you lucky DCHM readers. To enter: just leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite sci-fi themed band or album is. It doesn’t have to be metal, anything from Ziggy Stardust to Fear Factory to John Williams’ scores for Star Wars are fair game. At 5pm EST on Thursday, February 11th, 2016, the contest will end I’ll pick a winner at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to win the tickets. 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 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 just $20 here.

Voivod is thrash band that formed in 1981 in Quebec, Canada. They made a name for themselves by combining a more technical style of playing with thrash metal and have continued to innovate throughout their career. Vektor is a modern trash band from Philly that also dabbles with science fiction themes and some pretty technical guitar playing. You may remember that they headlined the DCHM 4th Anniversary Show at the Fillmore a few years back. Anyways, they always put on a great show and they should be a perfect support band for Voivod. Opening act Eight Bells is an experimental metal band from Portland. The band features three women and combines many different metal elements to create a unique atmosphere with their music. Now check out these songs below by each of the bands playing and let me know what your favorite sci-fi themed music is!

Voivod – We Are Connected

Vektor – Ultimate Artificer

Eight Bells – Hold My Breath

February 8, 2016
Categories: Black Cat, Contests, Thrash Metal . Tags: Black Cat, Eight Bells, Vektor, Voivod . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 17 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

Municipal Waste and Napalm Death ticket give away

Municipal Waste and Napalm Death are co-headlining a tour that will be at Empire (formerly known as Jaxx) in Springfield, Virginia on Friday the 26th of October 2012 and since it sounds so damn fun DCHeavyMetal.com is giving away a free pair of tickets to one lucky reader of the site. All you’ve got to do to enter is tell me your favorite Halloween themed song (metal or otherwise) by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post. On Wednesday, October 24th at 5pm EST I’ll pick a winner at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to get the free pair of tickets to the show. Be sure to enter with a valid email address you check regularly so I can contact you if you win. If I don’t hear from you in 24 hours then I’ll pick another winner to get the tickets. 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. If you simply can’t wait to see if you win the contest you can get tickets from Amped & Alive here for $16.

Richmond thrashers Municipal Waste are among the leaders in the modern wave of thrash metal and if they do anything better than shred it’s party. They’re known for putting on crazy wild shows and you can bet this Friday night show will get crazy. If you’re looking for an excuse to wear your Halloween costume in a mosh pit this year then this is it! Napalm Death is a legendary UK band most known for pioneering the grindcore genre and in case you didn’t know they put on intense live performances. The band still keeps it heavy after all these years while also bringing attention to important social issues. California’s masters of gory death metal Exhumed will also be playing this show, which is perfect leading up to Halloween. Expect to see blood, guts, and a maybe even a real chainsaw on stage during their set. Philadelphia based Vektor is a futuristic tech-thrash band that is paving the way for the future of thrash metal and they’ll melt your damn face off while they’re at it. You will also be able to catch March To Victory from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and NoVA locals Krass Judgement opening this concert. This Friday night metal gig is jam packed with so much awesome that you’d be crazy to miss it. Now check out some of these creepy videos and songs by the bands playing and go enter a the bottom of the page!

October 17, 2012
Categories: Contests, Death Metal, Empire, Grind, Thrash Metal . Tags: Contest, Contests, Death Metal, Empire, Exhumed, Grindcore, Krass Judgement, March To Victory, Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Thrash Metal, Vektor . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 63 Comments

Vektor and Battlemaster at RAS Hall

So last Sunday, the 16th of September 2012, the Philadelphia based thrash band Vektor was finishing up their tour with an afternoon matinee show at the RAS Hall in Washington DC. People often mistakenly call the venue an Ethiopian restaurant however it is actually Jamaican, or more specifically, Rastafarian. Their religion believes that former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie was the second coming of Christ and that is why his image was plastered all over the interior. Anyways, there was a good turn out even though the early show was competing with the Redskins game. Luckily they had some TV’s over the bar that showed the game. The music began with a Chicago based grind band called Worn Out that I didn’t hear but from outside of the venue. They seemed a bit out of place for this show’s line up. The next band up was Midnight Eye, a great local metal band that really started the riff fest that the rest of this show would be. The band’s frontman/guitarist, Simon, is a friend of mine and he set up this show, along with many others around the area. If you want to keep up with the awesome DIY metal shows he puts on you can join his Metal Squad Party Force group on Facebook (here) to be sure you get invited to them all. I don’t have photos of Midnight Eye from Sunday because I hung out at the bar to watch the Skins game while Midnight Eye played and I’ve shot them several times before anyways. However you can see older photos I’ve shot of them here. They were good and it looks like they’re starting to get a more consistent line up now. After they played the Richmond based Battlemaster slayed the place with their Dungeons & Dragons themed thrash metal. Their songs were about things like displacer beasts and cursed boots of perpetual dancing which might have been a bit too nerdy for most in attendance to understand (however I did play some 2nd Edition AD&D back in the day and I got most of their references I think). Regardless of their lyrical content the band can really shred and they were really fun to watch play. You may recognize their vocalist, Andy Horn, as being the recently departed original frontman of another Richmond band, Cannabis Corpse. You could tell he was having fun up there and it was a good show for the band’s first time in DC in about 5 years. Battlemaster’s set was a good lead in for the final band of the evening, Vektor.

I’d never seen Vektor live before and while they are coming to Empire in late October, they’ll be playing a shorter set I’m sure since they will have three bigger bands playing after them (more info on that show here). So that meant the chance to catch them do a full headlining set was a don’t miss opportunity. The band’s main man, David DiSanto, looks like Morbid Angel‘s Trey Azagthoth circa 1990. He was even wearing a cut off Morbid Saint shirt! He also had various metal parts and what seemed like a grate and a circuit board on his guitar which totally fit with the band’s futuristic lyrical imagery. Did I mention they totally killed the place? Vektor has some awesome riffs and the shred factor was off the scale at this show. I like their recorded music but hearing it live just added another whole level of energy and excitement to the songs. They didn’t have a set list for the show so after a few songs they just took requests from people in the audience for what to play next, a sure fire way to please any crowd. I really can’t say enough about how good they were live, just total face melting thrash! If you’re into thrash metal and you missed this show then you fucked up big time. However there’s another great thrash show happening this weekend: The area’s wildest live thrash band, Warchild, will be chugging beers and thrashing people’s faces off Saturday the 22nd at DC9. You can get more info on that show here or give the band a listen here (I recommend the song Every Position, that song rules!). It’s great to see such quality bands playing the area so be sure to get out to some of these great metal shows and support the scene you’re a part of!

Battlemaster: