Didn't Detect That One Coming: Baltimore club Sonar, a hangout for lovers of alternative dance music and death metal, abruptly shut down yesterday following a dispute between its owners. Sonar staff made the announcement on Facebook: "We here at Sonar regret to inform you that we are no longer able to operate as a venue. [...]

Last weekend, literally thousands of metalheads from around the world descended on Baltimore for the annual Maryland Deathfest, which just seems to keep getting bigger each year. For the 2010 version, there were two outdoor stages in addition to the main inside stage. While I was only able to make Friday of this year's three-day [...]

Doom metal supergroup Shrinebuilder played their second show ever on at club stage at Sonar in Baltimore last Friday night to a packed house. They didn't disappoint: the songs from the album came off more powerful live, and some bits of new material sounded intriguing as well. As far as supergroups go, this one's for [...]

Categorizing Sunn O))) as drone/doom metal is only really appropriate when the duo are at the peak of their Earth-tribute mode. This was very much in evidence last night at Sonar, where at least half the band's 90-minute set was more like avant-garde noise played really, really loud. Sunn O))) can be a bit inscrutable, [...]

Alright, that's it for this year. Saturday might have been the big draw at Maryland Deathfest 2009, but Sunday was no disappointment either, unless you were a Pestilence fan. Pestilence cancelled due to visa issues and were replaced by a second set of Bolt Thrower, who played the same set as Saturday in a different [...]

So this belongs pretty clearly in the Better Late Than Never department, but those of us who attended Maryland Deathfest this year are already looking forward to next year's installment, so consider this, uh, a preview of MDF VIII. Yeah.
Between photography and sheer metal overload, I saw a number of bands about which I couldn't [...]

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

I don't really have many true "favorites" when it comes to music, simply because there's too much good stuff out there to single out particular bands or albums. That said, Despised Icon is far and away my favorite metalcore band. I'm only slowly coming around to the mixing of extreme metal and hardcore, but DI [...]