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 [...]

Last Friday night, Jaxx may have been the best place to find the highest concentration of absurdly talented musicians in the D.C. area. Florida legends Atheist, featuring a brand-new guitarist who made his debut at Maryland Deathfest, headlined a show full of technical metal bands and enough fast riffage, blast beats and time changes to [...]

Random fact: for a while last year after Swedish technical death metallers Meshuggah came out with their latest album, ObZen, I used the opening track, "Combustion," to get myself out of bed every morning. It was perfect: a few seconds of quiet, rhythmic guitar as an initial alarm, before the full band kicks in for [...]