Sweden’s Opeth and Norway’s Enslaved played to a reverent near-capacity crowd at the 9:30 Club last night. Putting these two bands together was an inspired idea, as both currently play a kind of heavy progressive metal with melodic passages and clean vocals mixed into the downtuned riffs and growls. However, the bands’ backgrounds are different enough (Opeth coming from more thrash/death origins and Enslaved from a pure black metal past) that there was a healthy variety, although another thing both bands have in common is a funny, talkative frontman.

Brief recap and a few photos after the jump. Full gallery here.

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So that was fun. Festival organizers estimated that some 2,700 people attended this year’s (incredibly well-run) Maryland Deathfest. I missed the first day, but will post more about Saturday and Sunday of MDF VII later. For now, here are a few photos and my thoughts in superlative form, after the jump.

Read More “Quick & Dirty Recap: Maryland Deathfest VII” »

Maryland Deathfest is about to kick off its first day in a couple hours, but better late than never, right? I’ll be covering Saturday and Sunday, but for anyone still thinking about heading up to Baltimore (tickets are still available, but not many of them!), here is my absolutely non-comprehensive and subjective preview of select bands I want to see. Keep in mind that my knowledge of classic 90s death metal is limited, and I’m more into the modern grindcore and experimental stuff.

MDF takes place at Sonar, 407 East Saratoga St Baltimore, MD 21202, today through Sunday, on the main stage inside as well as an outdoor stage. Tickets will be available at the door for varying prices depending on the day.

FRIDAY (today!)

• Cattle Decapitation – outside – 6:35-7:10 – Pretty good modern grindcore. Their latest album throws some curveballs, including the inclusion of Jarboe and Grayceon cellist Jackie Perez-Gratz, but I still like their old stuff best (Karma Bloody Karma etc). Listen at Myspace.
• Mayhem – outside – 8:30-9:30 – Mayhem was at the center of the violent early-90s Norwegian black metal circus, with two original members murdered by other musicians in the scene. Somehow they’re still going and still scary. Expect fake human heads impaled on stakes onstage. Listen at Myspace.
• Cephalic Carnage – inside – 12:40-end of night – My favorite song of theirs is indicative: “Black Metal Sabbath,” a tongue-in-cheek spoof of black metal’s tremolo riffing and screeching vocals that then transforms into an equally tongue-in-cheek but totally awesome Sabbathy sludge riff. Listen at Myspace.

Check out my Saturday and Sunday picks after the jump. Photo above of Bolt Thrower (playing Saturday) courtesy their Myspace page.

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Mastodon have been bringing nerdy extreme metal to the masses since signing with Warner Brothers after their second full-length album, the Moby Dick-based concept album Leviathan. But on the Atlanta band’s latest record, Crack the Skye, they drop most of their extreme tendencies in favor of what is basically really heavy prog-rock. Their sold-out show at the 9:30 Club this past Tuesday showcased Crack the Skye in its entirety, plus a second set of older material.

After the jump, lots of photos (full gallery here) and some scattered thoughts about the show, including regarding openers Kylesa and Intronaut.

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Less than two weeks out from the festival’s kick-off on Friday, May 22, Maryland Deathfest organizers have announced that, in order to accommodate higher than expected ticket sales, the fest will have a stage set up outside Sonar, in addition to the Sonar main stage. As of today, tickets are available again for purchase but have gone fast in previous onsale intervals.

The running order for all 54 bands has also been announced. Cephalic Carnage headlines Friday, while, interestingly enough, a pair of black metal bands close out the night on Saturday and Sunday – Wolves in the Throne Room and Sigh, respectively. Check out the festival’s Myspace post for full running order details.

Yours truly will be covering Saturday and Sunday of the fest, so stay tuned for all the gory details (and photos).

Last Saturday, May 2, Jon Blank of Rockville, MD passed away of a suspected drug overdose. Blank was the bassist in Rezin and, most recently, Scott “Wino” Weinrich’s latest project; he played on Wino’s new album Punctuated Equilibrium and is pictured above playing with Wino at the 9:30 Club this past February. Blank was the youngest member of the Wino band and – at least judging from that one show I was able to see – his stage presence, like his playing, was hyperactive and entertaining. He will be missed.

Statements from Blank’s sister and Wino’s label, Southern Lord, are available.

Sweden’s The Haunted made me a new fan on Wednesday night at Jaxx. I had long planned on going to this show despite having no familiarity with this band. A few months ago, the lineup included three other metal bands of which I am a big fan: Nachtmystium, Kylesa and Intronaut. Incredibly, all three of these bands had to drop off the tour for various reasons. I can’t imagine how this made the guys in The Haunted feel; judging from the sparse turnout at Jaxx, all this attrition must have put a huge dent in ticket sales.

That said, the 50 or so fans who were there made up for their small numbers with their passion. If you never thought death metal could inspire sing-alongs, you haven’t been to Jaxx lately, where it’s not uncommon for charismatic frontmen like The Haunted’s Peter Dolving to lean into the crowd and have any number of fans screaming the words into the mic with him. Smiles all around onstage: these guys were having a good time, and it showed.

Photos after the jump and here in this gallery.

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Before the main acts of the Music as a Weapon IV tour kicked off at 1st Mariner Arena last Tuesday, I had the chance to sit down with Cristina Scabbia, frontwoman and one of two lead singers of Italian rockers Lacuna Coil. (She’s pictured above performing a couple hours after our interview – more photos from the show here.) Lacuna Coil are U.S. label Century Media’s top-selling band, and have a new album, Shallow Life, coming out tomorrow. Shallow Life has gotten mixed reactions so far, as the band continues to move away from its gothic metal past into a more straightforward hard-rock mode.

We chatted for about half an hour about Shallow Life, Scabbia’s thoughts on being “the hottest chick in metal,” her involvement with a water-accessibility project in Kenya, how “Japan is like being on Mars,” and more. Die-hard Lacuna Coil fans may want to read the full unedited transcript (PDF), but the highlights are after the jump.

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Hard-rock/metal arena show up in Baltimore on Tuesday: Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil and Chimaira. No words for this one, just the photos, after the jump. I did get a chance to interview Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia before the show, though, the results of which I’ll be posting in the future.

There are also more of my photos over in this gallery.

Read More “Photos: Music as a Weapon IV Tour @ 1st Mariner Arena” »

If you’re a metal fan, check out tonight’s show on H Street, which features three local-ish bands of varying stature in Misery Index, Drugs of Faith and Salome, plus Phoenix grindcore band Landmine Marathon. Should be an interesting mix of slow & heavy (Salome) and fast & brutal (everyone else). This show is a prelude to a big world tour that sees Misery Index hitting Canada, Japan, and a bunch of European summer festivals, in support of last year’s Traitors on Relapse Records.

While this is Misery Index’s show, it will also be a kind of informal release party for the new Agoraphobic Nosebleed record Agorapocalypse, which is out today. Half of ANb will be playing at this show—vocalist/bassist Richard Johnson plays guitar in Drugs of Faith, and vocalist Kat Katz does the screaming for Salome.

At the Rock & Roll Hotel, doors at 8:00, show at 8:30, $10 cover.

Photo of Misery Index above courtesy of their Myspace page.