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.

In Flames:

Between the Buried and Me:

3 Inches of Blood:

The Faceless:

Full gallery here.

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.

The highlight of the show for me was Psyopus, whose brutal mathcore was a completely different game from the rest of the bands on the bill, to such an extent that the crowd seemed largely bewildered by them. Psyopus plays the kind of music that inspires criticisms like "that's just complexity for complexity's sake," or, in the more eloquent words of the fan standing next to me, "that wasn't music; that was music getting raped in the ass." Be that as it may, I have a soft spot for twitchy, schizophrenic avant-rock and Pysopus' brand of nerdy metal was hitting that spot repeatedly.

Otherwise, Gnostic was a nice surprise, a new band featuring three Atheist members who are plying their trade in tech-metal that sounds a lot like, well, Atheist, but mixed with some jazzy Cynic-like influences and some modern hardcore vocals. The Agonist, playing Jaxx for the third time in about as many months, had their set sadly mangled by a poor mix that buried singer Alissa White-Gluz's vocals, which are the single aspect of their sound that really sets them apart. The Faceless are one of the better bands in the recent renaissance of young tech-metal bands; they tour seemingly constantly, and it showed both in the number of fans they turned out and in the tight, fun set they reliably deliver.

And now the photos. (More here.)

Atheist:

The Faceless:

Psyopus:

The Agonist:

Gnostic:

Local openers Condemn the Infected:

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.

And indeed they were brutal last Friday at the Recher Theatre in Towson... this is a band that must be experienced live. On record, Meshuggah's mathy, polyrhythmic tendencies and dry, raspy vocals make for a somewhat academic experience. I like their music but can rarely sit through an entire album without getting fatigued. But live, their sheer power combined with the ridiculousness of their musicianship (they were constantly headbanging and I still had no idea what they were counting for most of the songs) is pretty much transfixing. Jens Kidman is not exactly the most dynamic vocalist around, but he's certainly an engaging frontman. My only complaint was that drummer Tomas Haake was placed so far back on the stage that no one could see him, and if there's a drummer who'd be fun to watch, it's this guy.

Of course, this wasn't just about Meshuggah. Cynic (below) was not just any support act, as it was the classic Florida death metal band's first tour since their initial disbanding in 1994. I sure never expected to ever get to see these guys live, and as a prog fan their album Focus—a classic of nerdy heavy music—is one of the first records that got me into extreme metal. Unfortunately, their show disappointed a bit, largely because they were hampered by a very muddy mix. This is a band that needs a clear mix to come across well, as every instrument is key to their sound. I could hear very little but bass and drums where I was, and while getting to hear that rhythm section alone is a treat, some guitars and vocals would have been nice too, thanks very much.

Luckily, word has it that Cynic will continue to play live, and this won't just be a one-off reunion tour. Hopefully next time around they'll not only sound better, they'll also come closer to D.C. than Towson.

First opening band was The Faceless – unfortunately, when I showed up at the venue a little before 9, they were already well into their set, so I have no photos and few impressions of them, other than that they sounded pretty good and looked to be musicians on par with the other two insanely proficient bands on the bill.

Full photoset of Meshuggah and Cynic here, mostly in black & white thanks to some pretty atrocious lighting schemes at the Recher.