What a difference a year makes: last December, Swedish death metal icons In Flames were blown off the stage by their opening band (Gojira) in Baltimore; last May, North Carolinian prog-metallers Between the Buried and Me played to a disinterested audience of Dream Theater fans at DAR Constitution Hall. On Monday at a packed 9:30 [...]

There was some classic melodic death metal—Arlington's Deceased—happening closer to home last Friday night, but the presence of French band Gojira on the bill with Swedish pioneers In Flames (pictured above) was enough to get me to make the longer trek up I-95 to Ram's Head Live in Baltimore. In Flames are deserved legends, essentially [...]