Posts Tagged ‘The Faceless’
Photos: In Flames @ 9:30 Club
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 Club, BTBAM satisfied a crowd full of fans screaming, “You guys should headline this tour!” while In Flames more than matched BTBAM, with exponentially more energy than they had at that Baltimore show last winter.
More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.
Photos: Atheist @ Jaxx
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 make any metal nerd happy. Atheist was great, and visibly looser and more confident than their somewhat tentative show at MDF back in May. Their setlist drew from numerous albums in the band’s discography, and other than an unfortunately-timed sound issue that marred “Mother Man” (from the classic Unquestionable Presence), the band was tight and seemingly flawless.
More words and images after the jump; an excessive number of photos can be found at the full gallery.
Photos: Meshuggah and Cynic @ Recher Theatre
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 the real wake-up call. About a minute in, Jens Kidman enters with his harsh vocals, and I would always make sure I was up to turn it off before that. Loud crunching guitars I can handle in the morning, I guess, but not screaming Swedes. Anyway, the point is, I like Meshuggah. And if they’re enough to wake me up in less than 60 seconds, they must be pretty damn brutal.
