Concert Review - Midnight Eye, Exar Kun, Thrain - 8/8/13 at The Pinch, Washington, DC

Although I'd already been to two concerts in the past seven days (and I was only supposed to go to two per month), I wanted to get out to support Midnight Eye, so I waited till my kid was in bed and headed out. By that time, I thought I'd be lucky to get to The Pinch before Midnight Eye started - certainly not in time to have some of the restaurant's insane duck bacon BBQ cheese loaded waffle fries. Well, the intent was to go for the music anyway, right?

After the quest for parking (we passed several good spots, but got greedy and went on thinking we could get closer to the venue, but no such luck, we had to turn around and go back up 14th Street almost to where we were before) we got to the venue right around 10pm. It turned out that only the first band, experimental/black metal band Thrain, had played so far. I was thrilled, cause that meant we could get the awesome fries; I didn't really think about the implications for timing. I do want to see Thrain sometime - their demo is quite heavy and technically proficient for a local band, and combines some plodding doomy segments, cleaner vocals and melancholy melodic moments with the base black metal sound.

A few minutes after we got to the venue Exar Kun started up in the basement, so we headed down. They are, as a friend put it, two bassists and a computer. They provided some heavy background music, but did not really catch my interest. The two high points were when they did start to play something almost riffy; and when they sampled Lordi's "Would You Love a Monsterman."

After they finished, I went to look at Midnight Eye's merch and acquired a turquoise shirt (first ever turquoise metal shirt?), and then our amazing fries arrived.

 Yes, we ate all that between the two of us. Someone was hungry.

It was after 11pm when Midnight Eye finally came on, and they were immediately plagued by sound problems, for at least the first two songs of their set. They played (not necessarily in this order) the three songs from their new EP, Nightmonger (which you can still stream here); a cover of something I didn't recognize, but which they said was by a DC band; "Virtuous" and maybe one other song from their first album, Sign; and a new song with the working title "Weed Helmet." Their guitars were excellent as I expected. The thrashy and black metal parts sounded best on the spartan sound system, but the heavy metal riffs and solos sounded good, too. The vocals were very rough, though; scratchy and little off compared to the albums. I tried to start a pit for the frenzied thrash part near the end of the first song, "Alarm," but no one seemed interested in moshing except for Grimy Grant. The black metal segments of "Outsider" were amazing, so thick and heavy, although the melody was a little lost in the low noise. The new song also sounded very promising, starting off with energetic heavy metal riffs, just thrashy enough to mosh to - I pushed Grant and this time three or four other people joined in, yes! - with another thick, atmospheric black metal segment in the middle of the song, followed by some very heavy noodling that slowed down into a droning segment at the end. It was cool, but would have been more impressive on a better sound system where the low distorted notes would have made the building and everyone in it tremble. Needless to say, hoping to see these guys again soon and looking forward to more releases from them.

Next show: Not sure. There a couple local metal shows in Baltimore on Saturday, but I don't think I will be able to go so far from home. So the next thing might be Face Melting Friday at the end of August. In the meantime, there will be some book reviews!

Wintersun, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Arsis, Starkill, Fallen Martyr, March to Victory - 8/6/2013 at Soundstage, Baltimore, MD

This was probably my most anticipated show of the summer. As a fan of all sorts of melodic metal, Wintersun is of course one of my top bands - Jari Mäenpää is the king of epic, sweeping guitar riffs. Their tour in support of Eluveitie last winter - their first North American tour - skipped the DC area. We did go see them in Pittsburgh, but it was still exciting to see them come back and headline. And what a line-up they brought! Fleshgod Apocalypse, with their classical piano woven into fast and brutal death metal, is one of my favorite melodic/symphonic acts, and Arsis, another speedy and melodic band, are also highly enjoyable. And I was super stoked to see Starkill on the bill. When I first heard them, I could not believe something so epic and melodic was made in the USA (although, I guess we do have Dethklok). I figured they would tour sooner or later. My hopes were raised and then dashed when they toured with Krisiun - but not in my area. And then I heard that they were going to tour with no less than Wintersun. It was like a dream come true.

We got to Soundstage early - on time, rather - to catch the first opener, but it turned out the show was running about 15 minutes late - unfortunate for such a long line-up, but not the worst delay we've experienced. So we had time to check out the merch. There were plenty of Wintersun shirts and other items such as shorts, underwear, cap, koozie, patch, button...Fleshgod Apocalypse had shirts and their new album Labyrinth which doesn't come out till August 20 in the US (!!), Starkill was selling shirts and CD's, and Arsis had...donuts. Their merch was delayed, again.

Lancaster, PA death metal band March to Victory started the night with a solid set. Most of their songs were full of nice headbangable grooves, also the second song, "Soulless," had some pounding jackhammer moments, and the unusually named song "Funeral of the Lizard Beast" (did I hear that right?) was rather complex. Like last time we saw them, they covered Death's "Crystal Mountain," quite well - Danielle does high-pitched Chuck Schuldiner well. She mostly sings in a high rasp, but can produce some nice low growls, too. They were going to play a cover of "The Philosopher" as well, but got cut off. Danielle did not talk to crowd much besides to tell us what each song was - she's new to the band, so perhaps she's still finding her feet onstage. I wish she had called for a mosh pit, though, cause I would have loved to push people around to the thundering fast parts, but was too shy to start a pit in such a large venue.
Setlist: Deadly Venom. Soulless. Funeral of the Lizard Beast. Crystal Mountain (Death cover). Consumption. The Philosopher (Death cover, cut off before they played it).

The next local opener was Fallen Martyr, a sort of melodic fusion of different things. We've seen them a couple times before, but this was the first time I saw them with a good sound system. (Cafe 611 does have a decent system, but it's usually tuned to rumble, which means some of the higher tones get drowned out.) So this was the first time I really got to appreciate their guitar work in a live setting. The guitars are really good - some groovy death metal moments, some blasting black metal moments, some nice solos. The vocals..well, during the first song, I thought I might finally be getting used to them. There were moments when the singer's vocals meshed nicely with the music, and altogether they painted an image of desperate yearning - I imagined a drowning person struggling for air. But as the set went on, the whininess started to get to me again. They're not overly whiny - they're kind of like Muse's vocals, just whiny enough to be a little irritating. And his screams took it right out of the ballpark for me. Some people may like screamo, but it's not for me. Frankly, the singer ranting, "You will all bow" at the end of the set was kind of ridiculous. I've seen him do that before, and it always sounds and looks like a petulant teenager. So, I've given them several tries and still can't get into the vocals. But hey, I did really enjoy listening to their guitars.

An then it was time for Starkill. They take melodic death metal to a new level epic power metal solos and film score-based symphonics, besides throwing in some black metal or other influences at times. I was really looking forward to these guys, so I was disappointed that they started out weak. At first, they were too quiet - then the vocals were too loud and lead guitar so low that I could hardly hear it - not all whenever Parker was singing. It was frustrating to the point that I thought of shouting, "Turn up the lead guitar!" but I didn't, for fear it might throw the band off. Fortunately, the sound was corrected during the solo of their second song, "Immortal Hunt." After that, they sounded much better, although still a bit quiet compared retrospectively to the acts that followed. Their sound has a strong resemblance to Dethklok at times, especially the song "Below the Darkest Depths." There was a decent pit for most songs - if there wasn't, I might have felt compelled to help out, but as it was I decided to just headbang to their epic grooves. They played a good selection of songs from their new album, Fires of Life, although I didn't think "Wash Away the Blood with Rain" was a good choice to end on, not being one of their stronger songs. I would have preferred to hear "Sword, Spear, Blood, Fire" or "This is Our Battle, This is Our Day." But oh well - that leaves something to look forward to when they come around again.
Setlist: New Infernal Rebirth. Immortal Hunt. Fires of Life. Below the Darkest Depths. Wash Away the Blood with Rain.

Starkill used be known as Massakren and released a self-titled EP under that name, so after the show I screwed my courage to the sticking plate and asked one of the band members about their name change. He said they changed the name, as well as cleaned off their corpse paint, in order to better represent their sound. Apparently Massakren kept getting labeled as a black metal band, even though there is so much to their sound than that, so they wanted to get away from that - to have a fresh start, I suppose.

Their image is a bit mixed, though. Their clean-cut looks fits with the epic, melodic metal vibe, but the skinny jeans they wear make me think of the throwback thrash scene - and thrash is one thing that doesn't appear in their sound at all. (I dunno, maybe that's just the way people dress these days, though.) Their album cover with its warrior on a mountaintop and lightning or lasers flying everywhere, makes me think of Manowar, while their T-shirt designs are rather dark and ghoulish, in the vein of death metal or deathcore bands. But hey, it's their band. They can do pretty much anything, as long as they keep making that sweet epic melodic metal goodness.

After Starkill were Virginia natives Arsis. While not one of my top bands, I can get behind their very fast and melodic style of technical death metal. Their songs all sound rather similar to me; I can't really tell them apart (aside from a few singles like "Forced to Rock" or "We Are The Nightmare"), but there's enough variation within the songs that I don't get bored. We were very near the front for their set, perhaps in the fifth row, but off to the left of the stage. Yet the sound level was bearable without earplugs, so perhaps they weren't very loud either. They sounded great even way off to the side, a barrage of furious riffs punctuated by the James Malone's raspy vocals. I was trying to headbang with a drink in my hand and wondering whether or not I'd be too drunk to go in the pit for Fleshgod Apocalypse. They played a short set, but a fun one.
Setlist: Handbook for the Recently Deceased. A Diamond For Disease (first few minutes). Seven Whispers Fell Silent. Unwelcome. Carve My Cross. Face of My Innocence. (Thanks to XcKyle93 on M-A for filling in my gaps :) )

Fleshgod Apocalypse had the second slot, of which I was glad, since after Wintersun and Starkill, I most wanted to see more of them and go crazy to their fast, brutal sound with its tidbits of classical piano. Actually, it seems the piano plays a larger role than I thought, because they had an actual piano on stage during this show, with a guy playing constantly - I don't remember if they had that last time. I still couldn't hear it much of the time, though, and I feel like their symphonic backing track was pretty low, too. Their sound was much bigger this time; I don't know whether that has to do with the difference between Soundstage and Empire's sound equipment, or their own gear/sound guy. They played a couple songs from their new album: "Minotaur (The Wrath of Poseidon)" and "The Elegy," both of which had a good death metal groove going on and utilized more operatic backing vocals, compared to the sporadic line or two of agonized cries on most songs on the previous album, Agony. They had a female singer in a feathered mask standing at the back right, doing the operatic vocals. Besides the new songs, they only played songs from Agony. That was all right with me since that's the album of theirs I know best, and I got to hear some of my favorite songs. I wanted to go in the pit for "The Violation," the pit was too fast and brutal; I thought I'd better stay out. They were good - solid, headbangable guitars and crushing vocals - but when am I going to get to hear the symphonics and piano live, hm?
Setlist: The Temptation (intro). The Hypocrisy. Minotaur (The Wrath of Poseidon). The Deceit. The Violation. The Egoism. Elegy. The Forsaking. (Thanks to Dave_o_rama on M-A for id'ing the first song.)

And then, it didn't seem long at all before the ethereal strains of "Time Fades Away" wafted over the audience, and we grabbed a spot and waited for Wintersun to come out. They emerged at the climax of the intro, Jari second after the drummer, and launched right into "Sons of Winter and Stars." There is nothing quite like belting out that chorus along with a hundred odd other metalheads while the epic strains of Jari and co surround you. It was an awesome experience all the way through. The sound seemed fuller than when we saw them supporting Eluveitie, but that's probably because this was a bigger venue than the "metal church" where we saw them before. Fantastically epic riffs contrasted with heartwrenching sorrowful moments - I actually teared up at end of "Land of Snow and Sorrow" and "Time" (although maybe just because I associate them with the sad moments of a certain novel). I was stoked to hear "Beautiful Death," a charging fast song that made up for the lack of a certain other fast song. There was an enormous pit for "Beyond the Dark Sun" - I've only seen pits that large at thrash shows. Their "new" song, "The Way of the Fire," was another fast one, though with slower choruses. At some point there was a solo from Teemu, showing that he's a great guitarist in his own right (I mean, he was in Imperanon after all). They finished the set with the epic "Starchild."

There was all sorts of talk beforehand about what they were and weren't going to play - well, they played all of Time I (though in separate chunks), the new song, and all but three songs from Wintersun. I know several people were upset that they dropped "Battle Against Time," but I was pretty happy with their set. They played a solid set - an hour and a half - and didn't take up much time talking (come to think of it, none of the bands did).
Setlist: When Time Fades Away. Sons of Winter and Stars. Land of Snow and Sorrow. Beautiful Death. Darkness and Frost (Time intro). Time. Death and the Healing. Winter Madness. Beyond the Dark Sun. The Way of the Fire. Starchild.

All in all, it was an epic night, well worth being up till nearly 2 in the morning.

Next show: Midnight Eye's release party - tonight! Check out my review of their new EP, and stream all 3 songs from it, here. :)

Concert Review - Black Sabbath - 8/2/13 at Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow, VA

I was a little hesitant about going to see Black Sabbath, since the clips I'd seen of Ozzy's performances in recent years were kind of sad. Up till the week of the show, I was undecided whether to go, and when I finally did decide to go, it was more because I wanted to spend a relaxing evening with S rather than because of Sabbath.

We were a little late to the show because we took a detour to pick up some chicken on the way. We parked around 8:30, just as Sabbath was starting. We missed Andrew W.K.'s DJ set entirely. It might have been nice to be there a little earlier to find a seat and start eating our dinner before the show started, but I didn't mind too much. We still got a decent spot on the lawn, about halfway down. I sat for most of the show, and except for a couple songs where people were standing right in front of us, I could see the giant onstage screen just fine, and could make out the real people on the stage as well.

Sabbath and Ozzy actually sounded pretty good, to my surprise. The musicianship was top notch, and the overall sound was much louder and heavier than I had expected from what I considered a low-key, slow-tempo 70's band. Ozzy sounded fairly strong for most songs, although he did falter a bit on the last song before the drum solo/break for everyone besides the drummer. He was more lively and mobile than in the videos I'd seen, but his movements were still kind of flacid, and he looked rather silly limply waving his arms about. Tony Iommi seemed to be in good form, with sharp movements and a strong, clear voice when he said a few words to the crowd. The cameras didn't focus too much on Geezer Butler, but in the few shots they showed, he looked like he was in good shape, too. Tommy Clufetos (of Ozzy's solo band) on drums was very into it, banging on the drums with big dramatic motions - befitting the grand scope of this show, I suppose.

It was pretty amazing to see Black Sabbath perform "Black Sabbath." The thunder and tolling bell in the intro were chilling, and the whole song was very heavy and spooky. Ozzy screamed, "No, no, please no" in a stronger voice than I'd ever have thought him capable of in his current condition. After that, I most enjoyed "Fairies Wear Boots," which is my favorite Sabbath-with-Ozzy song anyway. The visuals for this song were pretty modern, with an industrial/horror feel - an industrial-looking fairy in leather and clunky boots (I didn't know the song was about that kind of boots), women in tiny cages, people hanging from meathooks. (The screen on the stage mostly showed shots of the band, but a couple songs, like "Fairies" and "Dirty Women," had a video to go with them. Also, there were a few neat shots where the cameras would line up a performer with their image on the screen, creating an infinite series of receding images.) The songs from the new album ("Methademic" and "The End of the Beginning" are the titles I can remember) sounded pretty good. Most had that slow, doomy feel of Sabbath songs, but Methademic was a little faster and groovier, so I think I liked that one best of the new songs.

We left as the encore ("Paranoid," which I would have liked to hear) started, because since we arrived so late, we were parked at the ass end of the parking lot. In spite of taking the wrong stairs and walking a little extra way, we got to the car and out of the lot before the mass exodus started. In total, Sabbath probably played for about an hour and a half, although it didn't seem that long. I was glad I got to see them. Obviously I could not have seen the original line-up in their prime, and while this was probably a longshot from what the seeing the band was like in the 1970's, it was a pretty good retrospective.

Next show: Wintersun, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Arsis and Starkill on Tuesday! Gonna be a long night cause we're getting there early to see local death metal band March to Victory start the show \m/

Concert Review - The Agonist, Fallen Martyr, Demiz, March to Victory, Area 52, Iris Divine - 7/19/13 at Cafe 611, Frederick, MD

This show was the day after we trekked up to PA to see Amaranthe, but we decided to go anyway since it was so close by. I also felt like I was getting a cold, but thought I could power through the evening. I'm not a huge fan of The Agonist - I feel like their music lacks intensity somehow - but I was interested in seeing the long line-up of local bands opening for them.

We wanted to see Iris Divine, but left too late and missed them. We got there just before Area 52 started. They sounded like they might have some promise, but it was hard to tell. The mix was off, so they sounded like a lot of bass noise punctuated by way too loud (and slow and repetitive) drums. The guitar player did (mostly) clean vocals, and the bass player harsh vocals, but I could hardly hear them (from my seat at the bar). They had some promising moments, like when the bass and drums were obviously doing something thrashy, but I couldn't hear the guitar. They called for a mosh pit and the crowd actually obliged, which doesn't always happen with the local acts at Cafe 611.

Gettysburg, PA death metal band March to Victory was on next, and they sounded really good. They had a different vocalist than the last time we saw them - they had a male vocalist previously, but this time the vocalist was a woman (with fake(?) blood smeared on her face and neck). I liked her vocals more than the previous guy - I still couldn't make out what she was saying, but it sounded more like words than the former vocalist's unintelligible growls. Overall their sound was much clearer and groovier than last time. I headbanged a lot and would have pushed people around if I wasn't sick and wanting to save my seat for later.

Next was Demiz (pronounced like "demise"), who also sounded good. They played mainly fast, fierce black metal in the vein of Marduk, very loud and energetic. They had a song about Vikings, which sounded rather Viking-y. I think they need to work on their image though - the guy in a red Subway shirt and the singer's plug earlobe piercings really threw things off. They would look much more like a professional black metal band if they had a more unified image. The guitarist (who looked rather more black metal with his dark hair and clothing and crosses painted on his face) jumped on the speakers a couple times. I did enjoy their sound.

After that was Fallen Martyr, who also sounded better than last time we saw a whole set of theirs (opening for Blackguard). They collected a good crowd and had a very professional demeanor and sound. The guitars and drums were nice and heavy, and pretty well mixed, although I couldn't hear much of the guitar melodies. Still, they are not quite to my taste, mainly because of the vocals. The singer sang with a lot of gusto this time (lack of which was one of my gripes before) but I was not digging the anguished sound of most of his vocals. There were some moments where he sang with more aggressive punch to his voice, kind of like Halford's vocals, which I thought were good, but overall things tended a little too much toward emo for me.

By the time The Agonist came on, I was feeling rather weak. They sounded pretty good, loud and riffy (this is another venue whose sound system seems generally tuned to rumble), and I headbanged a bit when I was able to pay attention. There seemed to be something lacking, though; they didn't inspire me as much as March to Victory and Demiz. It may also have been that I was sick and tired, because I literally passed out on S's shoulder by the end of the set.

Next show - Mayhem Fest on Wednesday!

Concert Review - Amaranthe, Kobra and the Lotus, Shattered Sanctity - 7/18/13 at The Note, West Chester, PA

When we saw that the power metal/metalcore/synthpop fusion act Amaranthe were embarking on a headline US tour, and the closest date, while out of state, was right during our summer vacation, we knew we had to go see them. So, after a short vacation on the beach, we trekked up (through four states) to West Chester, PA to see their show, not sure whether we should be more prepared to mosh or to dance.

The Note turned out to be a tiny venue, with a stage at the far end of a long rectangular room, and a bar on the right near the door. There were a good number of a people on the floor when we got there, and the whole place filled up by the time Amaranthe came on.

We were curious to see the local opener, Shattered Sanctity, after reading that they might appeal to fans of Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius. But the show started early, so even though we got there right on the advertised show time (8pm), we only caught the last song or so. We were stuck at the bar socializing and drinking, so I only caught snatches of some shredding and a couple wails, but not enough for a distinct impression. From the bar, they did not sound as fabulous as we hoped.

Touring with Amaranthe was Canadian band Kobra and the Lotus. I hadn't really heard of them before; a friend said they are pretty much straight ahead heavy metal, with a deep-voiced female singer. I was in the bathroom when they started, and if I hadn't known singer was a woman, I would have sworn it was a man, she had such a deep voice. Even then I doubted it for a moment. They were very good - solid NWOBHM metal riffs, verging on thrashy in one song, and the singer's rich, powerful vocals were a feast to the ears. They were quite thunderous for such a small place - it seemed the sound system was tuned to rumble.

After a rather longer wait than the first set change, Amaranthe emerged. You may know them for their single "Hunger" or the fact that their female singer has done backing vocals for Kamelot - up till a month ago that was pretty much what I knew of them. Once we decided we were going to this show, I listened to them more, and got pumped to see them. Their sound defies genres - clean power metal vocals from the female and male singers, Gothenburg-esque death growls from a third singer, riffs that range from pounding metalcore to In Flames like melodeath, and danceable synth melodies. It seemed like it should be one of the funnest shows I've been to. Unfortunately, they started out weak - the vocals were all right, but the instruments were off, even out of tune, and the synth inaudible for the first couple of songs. Guess they should have sound checked! (I didn't notice them doing so during that long break between sets.) Then they got it together, and sounded pretty good for the rest of the show. The synth was still a little low, but the vocals were very clear, and the guitar sounded good. The venue was full, and full of super-fans to boot. People I would never have pegged for knowing the lyrics to Amaranthe's "Amaranthine" were singing along to every word (here's a video). There was even a small pit for a few songs. Throughout the show, Elize, the female vocalist, profusely expressed the band's gratitude for everyone coming out to support them. So far, their first US tour seems to be a success, and I look forward to seeing them again sometime!

Next show - we went to The Agonist and co the following night.

Concert Review - "Kalmyk and Tuvan Music from Russia" and Heveder Band - 7/5/13 at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, National Mall, Washington, DC

What first drew my interest to the evening concerts at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival was the fact that pretty much every night there was a "social dance party," which I figured was something like line dancing where everyone dances as a group while someone tells you what to do, meaning you don't actually have to know how to dance and it's a ton of fun.

And then I realized that there was a concert of Tuvan and Kalmyk music on July 5, and I was hardly going to miss that.

The title of the concert is a little misleading, since even though Tuva and Kalmykia are both within the borders of the Russian Federation now, the Tuvan and Kalmyk people are actually part of the Mongol family of languages/cultures. Actually, my idea of what "Mongolian" folk music sounds like was formed (several years ago) by the Tuvan group Huun-Huur-Tu. So this wasn't what one would think of as Russian music - instead it featured a lot of the two-stringed string instruments, gallop-like rhythms and unique vocals one would associate with Mongolian music.

I met my friend M at the Tavern, and we headed to the Voices of the World stage around 6:15, getting there just as the 16-year-old boy from the Tuvan ensemble was leaving the stage after a solo performance. In contrast to the earlier Kalmyk and Tuvan concert I saw, this time, the two ensembles alternated every few songs. I don't think I would have been bored anyway, but the movement and variety helped to hold interest during the soporifically hot and humid DC summer evening. (The performers must have been dying in their costumes, which seemed more suited to a colder climate.)

We saw:

The elderly members of the Kalmyk ensemble. The MC didn't specify how old they are, but implied that they are very old, and that they can still be so energetic and make music is quite impressive.

The Tuvan ensemble (which is known as Alash) played a song in praise of the Bai Mountain, or Bai Taiga, or something like that. It was a rather slow, mournful-sounding song.

The Kalmyk gents played/sang several songs, including a piece of an epic known as Jangar, which was much more low key than I would have expected for an epic story; a song about mother, or mother and father, I don't remember which, which was, by contrast, quite energetic and got the crowd clapping; and another whose theme I don't remember. There was some throat singing involved, done by the guy in white, I think.

Throat-singing demonstration by a member of the Tuvan group. He demonstrated three different styles: xöömei, which has a medium-pitched, wavering sound; sygyt, which is predominantly a high whistling sound (the Tuvan word for it is actually related to the Tuvan word "to whistle); and kargyraa, which is the lowest style, is made using the false vocal folds, and which the MC compared to the mountains - they're all connected at the bottom, but their upper contour goes up and down. This style was dominated by a low undertone, with a medium-pitched, oboe- or jew's-harp-like sound undulating in the middle, and sometimes very faint high notes. I've greatly admired throat-singing for some time now, so it was great to see the different styles demonstrated and explained. (Note: For the styles of throat-singing, I've used the spellings that are used on Alash's website, but there are several alternate spellings for these words in English. That page also has a wealth of information about throat-singing and its connections to nature.)

Performance by one of the Orgaeva Sisters, part of the Kalmyk group. The MC explained the themes of the songs as "a boy who likes a certain girl" and "a girl singing about all the nice things her man does for her." I kind of snickered at that, but perhaps it's unfair to judge a traditional culture by modern standards. These were energetic songs that got the crowd clapping. Overall the crowd was very involved and appreciative.

Then other members of the Kalmyk ensemble joined her, and they performed a song about "a prince and a princess falling in love in the moonlight," and about a Kalmyk national hero of the early twentieth century. During the second song, the Orgaeva sisters danced a bit while singing - taking small quick steps with their feet and making flowing motions with their arms - and the older woman musician came out and a couple other women from the audience, who looked like they might be Kalmykian, started to dance as well.

The Tuvan ensemble came out one last time. They played a song of the Tuvan camel caravan herders, which the MC compared to songs of the American cowboys - a song that could go on for weeks and weeks but never repeat a verse, mostly about how much the camel herder/cowboy misses home and "just wants to leave the camels on a mountain and go back to his wife." After that, they encouraged the audience to sing along as they played "Aa-Shuu Dekei-Oo." This song is on one of the Huun-Huur-Tu cd's I have and is probably my favorite Tuvan song, so I was stoked to hear it live. Alash's version was a little thinner and more hollow-sounding than Huun-Huur-Tu's recording, which may have to do with the instruments used. The vocals, being done by a woman in this case, were also a little cleaner and less throaty than Huun-Huur-Tu's male vocals. It was still great to hear and sing along though. And I found out that in Tuvan, "Aa-shuu dekei-oo" means... "Aa-shuu dekei-oo" XD It doesn't mean anything, actually, it's just scat singing. As for the rest of the song, the MC said it was about "pretty women and fast horses." :P

To finish the concert, the Kalmyk group came out and invited the audience to dance while they played a song that "no Kalmyk person can hear without getting up and dancing." The song was about the wedding of a famous woman - the MC noted that in Kalmyk culture, every event gets recorded in song. I think this song was also sung by the Orgaeva sisters the first time I saw them, and is the one where I complained of the poor explanation by the translator (different guy than this one). Actually, I thought I ought to snap a picture of "Mr. Explaining Guy" as well, so there he is in the shot as the Kalmyk group prepares for their last song. Research reveals that he is Sean Quirk, the only foreign member of the Tuvan National Orchestra, and interpreter for Alash. He is actually capable of throat-singing himself, but didn't perform at this event.

The wedding song did indeed get people up and dancing. Near us, a woman who looked Indian got up and danced in a way that looked pretty similar to what the Kalmyk women were doing, and a man came out of the backstage area and started dancing with her, his hands at his belt and his feet doing little kicks and hops. I was so entertained watching that I didn't really want to get up and dance myself.

Overall, I found this concert a lot more enjoyable than the last Kalmyk and Tuvan performance I went to at the Folklife Festival. It flowed much more smoothly, and the introductions of the performers and songs were more informative and engrossing. Having more context made the songs more enjoyable, although there were still places, such as the spoken parts of the Jangar piece, where I thought I really was missing a lot by not understanding the language. (Not much that could be done to remedy that with this set-up on the Mall, though; they hardly have the budget or support to set up sub- or supertitles, I think.) The music itself was superb, showcasing the variety of musical styles in the Mongolian family. This time, much of the focus was on vocals, so I didn't spend a lot of time imagining riding horseback across the steppe to the tune of galloping strings - the impression was more of epic tales and human connections, of the vast power of nature and the emotions of people journeying across it.

After that highly enjoyable performance, M and I wandered a bit and got frozen yogurt, and then returned to the mall in time for that night's dance concert, which featured the Transylvanian band Heveder. At the beginning I listened to the music enough to notice the rough, scratchy sound of the strings - a lot of pressure on the bow! - but I spent most of the performance trying to master the dance steps, so I have little further impression of the music other than the rhythm - da, da, dit-dit-da. (This seems to be basic dance rhythm across that region, because the other dance tutorial I took part in with my daughter several days before used the same rhythm.) There was lots of spinning and twirling, and we only halfway got the steps by the end of the concert, but it was a fun time. I wish I had listened to the music a little more, but what can you do; I went to dance, and mostly accomplished that goal.

Overall, it was a fun night. In particular, I feel like I would really have been missing out on experiencing Hungarian culture if I hadn't gotten to go to one of the dance nights. After language, music (and the dance that goes with it) is a pretty integral part of culture, and it was really neat not just to see this part of Hungarian culture, but to actually bodily experience it.

Book Review - The Traitor's Daughter by Paula Brandon

Finally, a book review! I don't have much time for reading these days, and even less for writing reviews, but here's one I jotted down while on the train to DC a few days ago.

I picked up The Traitor's Daughter, intrigued by the fact that it was billed as "fantasy romance." I didn't know that was a genre! And since it's the genre I would write in, if it existed, I figured I ought to do some research and read the novel, seeing as the synopsis and review soundbites made it sound halfway interesting - kidnapping, revolution, ominous magical signs, all taking place somewhere called the Veiled Isles.

Well, for a couple days after I finished reading, I wished I was still reading it. That's a good sign, right? It wasn't just that the characters became real to me and the plot was pageturning. They were really likable characters in an intriguing world, and I enjoyed spending time with them and finding out about their world.

The story centers on teenaged Jianna, a nobleman's daughter who is kidnapped by rebels en route to her arranged marriage. Although she is indeed spoiled, she's far from an annoying brat - she is actually intelligent and witty, adapts quickly to her new situation, and turns her mental acuities to escape rather than wasting time whining.

Even the "bad guys" arouse the reader's admiration and sympathy. (**spoilers**) Aureste Belandor, Jianna's father, is a cutthroat schemer who betrayed both his family and his people to hold onto his title and fortune, yet one can't help feeling for him as he wages everything to get his daughter back. Yvenza Belandor, Jianna's captor, is similarly ruthless, but touches of affection toward her adopted son, of sorts, bring nuance to her character. It is also nice to see a strong female character who is not sexualized at all. (**end spoilers**)

In addition, beyond the fact that most readers will probably root unconditionally for Jianna, it's rather unclear who the good guys and bad guys are. From an objective viewpoint, Yvenza's cause has at least as much, if not more, merit than Aureste's and Jianna's. Add some subplots and a looming magical disaster that threatens to wipe out the whole society, and the story quickly becomes much more complicated than the standard romance novel.

As far as worldbuilding goes, the world is carefully constructed. It has the hallmarks of many fantasy worlds - nobility, magic, sword-fighting - but with enough novel elements to make it intriguing. The author has invented new titles such as "Magnifico" and "Magnifica" to replace the commonplace "Lord" and "Lady," and the characters' names show a strong Italian influence alongside the usual Celtic sound. The magic is more developed than in many fantasy novels, involving devices and learned techniques along with innate talent and magic spells, making it more reminiscent of alchemy or steampunk tinkering than the usual magic. Several other elements - such as amphibian creatures, the rebellion and a zombie-creating plague - also bring something fresh to the genre, although I have to admit I'm still on the fence about the amphibians and zombies. While they are skilfully worked in, their significance hasn't been revealed yet, which makes their unusual presence feel a little haphazard. I'm sure the zombies, at least, will be addressed in the rest of the trilogy.

The book is not without larger weaknesses, either. I actually found the romance to be one of the weakest points. Although I knew it was coming, I was kept guessing for a while - until a certain character was introduced, and I knew immediately from the special attention the author gave him that he was the one Jianna would fall for. (This was in stark contrast to the previous romance novel I read, where things were well advanced before I was sure who the lucky guy was.) Jianna's eventual feelings also quickly became clear in the way that she thought about him, even if by the end of the book, they still weren't clear to her. Perhaps this is conventional in romance, but everything else in the book lifts it above the limitations of that genre, so why should the romantic relationship be predictable, when none of the rest of it is? Sadly, it struck me as the way an amateur slash writer would write romance. But Paula Brandon is not an amateur writer - she's actually Paula Volsky, an established fantasy writer (albeit one whose books I've never read).

Still, I did enjoy the book enough and got enough connected to the characters that I plan to, and look forward to, reading the next installment in the trilogy. Just that I won't bother holding my breath about whether Jianna gets her man, no matter how suspenseful the ending to this first book was.

Next review: I'm about halfway through Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey (sequel to Leviathan Wakes) so that should be next!

Smithsonian Folklife Festival - Kalmyk and Tuvan Ensembles - 6/26/13 at the National Mall, Washington, DC

On Wednesday, I went down to the National Mall to get a glimpse of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival without a whiny kid (or a whiny adult getting bored by the talks I wanted to attend). I was lucky enough to catch a couple of groups performing Mongolian folk music, which is one of my favorite types of folk music. I snapped a few photos with my cell phone, but its camera kind of sucks, so hopefully I can replace them with better ones this weekend or next. There was so much to see at the Folklife Festival - so many talks on endangered languages that I wanted to listen to, so many performances to see, and so many booths of cool stuff from all over the world. Not to mention the intricate structures being built for the Hungarian Heritage section of the festival.

I'm not sure what that is, but it looks like some sort of horse. I hope I can find out more about it next time I go. I didn't actually go in the Hungarian area at all, just walked around it before the festival opened. I only had a few hours there that day and spent them all in the "One World, Many Voices" area which focuses on endangered languages.

I thought there was supposed to be a talk at 11, but when they finally let people into the area, there was nothing happening at the "Talk Story" stage. That was perhaps for the best, because I was drawn to some ornately dressed women who were singing and playing in a small pavilion with an airy, burlap-like ceiling that looks pretty cool in the photos, methinks.

The guy with the flute is just a picture on a backdrop. 

The three people at left in the front are also Kalmyk musicians, I saw them perform later.

Their translator was nervous or unprepared and didn't do a very good job introducing them, so I didn't find out until I hunted down their cd in the marketplace that they're the Orgaeva Sisters. The translator did explain a little about their background - they're Kalmyk (Khalmag), which are a Mongolian people that live in the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation. They're the only Buddhist culture in Europe. I looked up a bit about the Kalmyks and man, they have had it rough. The entire people were deported and dispersed all over Russia after World War II for having been "German sympathizers." Since then they've been allowed to return to their homes but I can imagine their culture might be a bit fragmented :( So it is especially encouraging to see this ensemble performing in their traditional language.

A guy joined them to play the lute so the sisters could sing a duet. It was a very lively song with a bit of dancing. I love listening to Mongolian and its linguistic relations, but I did wish there was some explanation of the content of the songs - that might have made the experience richer. (Someone did ask what this particular song was about, and the translator summed up the several sentences of explanation from one of the singers as, "A wedding. Marriage." >.<)

Then I did actually attend a panel on endangered languages, and found out a bit about the current situation of Welsh, Hawaiian and Passamaquoddy. Welsh seems to be doing quite well, with schools and TV programs and pretty much everybody in Wales (according to this guy) opting to speak Welsh first. Hawaiian sounds like it's doing ok - the Hawaiian representative on the panel didn't speak English very well and they didn't bother asking anyone to translate for her till close to the end of the panel, but it seemed Hawaiian is also taking off, with immersion schools for young children and classes up to the college level. Passamaquoddy's situation is more dire; its elders are dying off and I don't think anyone learns it as a first language anymore, although there are now after-school classes for children. The whole thing made me think about how stupid the Official English movement is - these people were here first, so why the fuck should the country's official language be English?

Anyway, back to things that other people actually care about. After the panel, I wandered about a bit, learned what Garifuna are (a people descended from Carib, Arawak and West African peoples, that now live mainly on the Caribbean coast of Central America), and saw kids trying to make an ax head and hollow out a piece of wood at the Hawaii exhibit. There was an actual adze for chipping away at the wood, and a guy was letting his 5 year old try it O.o He was supervising the kid pretty closely though.

Then I heard someone throat-singing and thought, "I must find the source of that sound!" I tracked it to a stage under a tent, where another Mongolian-looking ensemble was sitting and a middle aged man was demonstrating different types of throat singing. (I didn't even know there were different types of throat singing!) For those that don't know, throat singing is a vocal style where the singer can produce two or more notes at once, usually associated with Central Asian music. The one I think of first is always the style with a very low undertone and a high whistling tone floating over it - neither of which sounds like a sound that a human should be able to produce - but there are other styles as well, as I found out.

This is where the crappiness of the photos really starts to show.

I tried to get as close as I could without being obnoxious :/

This group turned out be Tuvan, which is another Mongol group, also living within Russia, but situated in the east, in southern Siberia. Their history (at least in the twentieth century) is less tumultuous than the Kalmyks, and their language and culture seems to be consolidating. Tuva is a very isolated place, and the number of Russians living there has steadily been declining, while Tuvan remains the first language for many people there. I'm not sure what this means for their economic situation, though.

I only caught the last couple of styles that the throat-singing gentleman demonstrated, but after that, the young man next to him (I think the translator said it was the guy's son?) who is sixteen, performed a throat-singing song, accompanying it on a lute-like instrument (which might have been a doshpuluur, it sounded something like that).

After that there was a performance on a fiddle by the woman who is the director of the Tuvan National Orchestra (at left in the photos below). Like the Mongolian horsehead fiddle and the Chinese erhu (which was borrowed from the Mongols anyway) the bowstrings actually go under the fiddle's strings. What was unusual was that this fiddle had a much larger soundbox than most fiddles of that type that I've seen.

After that, the man on the right performed a song with intense, mournful vocals (man, could he wail) accompanied by a different sort of fiddle.

Then the Tuvans were whisked off the stage, and the Kalmyks came on. They started with a song performed together as an ensemble, and one of the sisters from earlier sang and danced with a white scarf.

Later on, when both of the sisters were dancing during another song, I noticed that both their vocals and dancing have the faintest Bollywood vibe, and I wonder if this is due to mixing with Indian traditions at some point in the culture's journey across Asia.

After that, there was an old folks' duet.

The old guy who is singing and dancing looked rather dazed, but his voice sounded pretty good. And I really should not have turned my phone upright for this picture cause having to rotate it made it even worse :(

Lastly, there was a string duet.

I wish I could have gotten a better photo of the horsehead fiddle, which is what the guy in white is playing. I believe this piece was some sort of story, cause the guy would stop singing and narrate at times, and there were sudden shifts in mood and tempo, such as a speedy segment at the end, like a horse suddenly galloping off.

There were some other songs as well, I think, but I could not take a lot of photos as I was running out of space on my phone (like always!)

My favorite pieces were those where the stringed instruments characterize galloping over the steppe on horseback, but I also enjoyed the slower pieces where the instruments and vocals gave the impression of rolling hills, or the vastness of nature. And I love the sound of the languages, a little bit rough and earthy, but also capable of fluid beauty. Heck, I am just addicted to Mongolian-style music. I have spent the days since going to the festival listening to Huun-Huur-Tu and Tengger Cavalry XD

Things I found:
You can actually hear a recording of part of the second Kalmyk performance I saw, with intro from their translator, who is apparently an acclaimed linguist. (Maybe public speaking is just not his thing.) And also see a better picture of the old folks.
I tried to find a similar audio page for the Tuvan group, but no luck yet - though I did find this page with  some videos of Tuvan music performances.
And the Tuvan group is apparently called Alash. I am gonna have to look into them, they could join Huun-Huur-Tu as one of my favorite folk music groups.

Edit: I have added a review of a later Tuvan and Kalmyk concert with better photos.

Concert Review - Lamb of God, Decapitated, The Acacia Strain - 6/19/13 at Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, MD

So, to make up for the kind of lame night of metalcore the week before last, here's a review of a solid night of killer metal (and metalcore). Although none of these are among my favorite bands, I knew that Lamb of God would put on an intense show, and both the openers had things going for them that made me curious to see them, so this promised to be a solid night.

I thought the Ram's Head website said Decapitated was going on first, so we were surprised to see The Acacia Strain come out out just a few minutes after we got to the venue (they started 15 minutes late, though). I had been hoping to see them live for some time, cause they are quite heavy and brutal (and that's pretty much all they are.) Their sound was very low and heavy, a churning maelstrom. The first song was basically like one long breakdown, slow, crushingly heavy, the vocals kind of in the background. The vocals were utterly incomprehensible anyway (which I don't mind; I read some of their song lyrics a year or two ago and then decided I didn't want to know what their songs are about). Every couple of songs, the singer would go on a half-intelligible rant, telling us things like, "Don't hate yourself; hate everyone else," and "There's too much positivity going on in music today." I thought they were good as an opener - a nice heavy start to the evening - but I don't think they would have held my interest for a headline-length set. I started to get bored of the plodding heavy parts where they weren't doing anything besides being really heavy. They had a very few different moments like a few seconds of melodic guitar (omg, a solo?!) or increased tempo, but mostly it was just constant breakdown (ironically, a guy near us in a shirt that said "No breakdowns...no karate..." etc was bobbing his head during the breakdowniness).

So Polish technical death metal band Decapitated had the second slot, of which I was glad - I would much rather hear more of them than TAS. My first introduction to Decapitated was hearing "404" on the radio about a year ago, and I did not dig it at all. But I mean, they're from Poland, the land of Behemoth and Unsun, so I figured I must be missing something, and got intrigued at the prospect of seeing them live. Turned out they were great. Their guitar work and drumming was very complex, but still groovy enough for headbanging. I am pretty picky about drumming, but I enjoyed the unpredictable drum rhythms in their songs (the thing I hate most in metal is nonstop banging on the same drum over and over). Even "404" sounded good (I didn't realize what song it was at first because the singer called it "Four hundred and four" and I didn't hear the last word clearly; I've always thought of it as "four-oh-four"). The strange rhythms and guitar squeals that I found so grating when I first heard it were not as prominent. Overall, their sound was a thick, nonstop barrage peppered with fast rhythms, so it was a good thing they paused every few songs and we got a breather. I didn't really notice any solos, except for one short one that was rather slow and atmospheric. The singer was stalking about the stage, throwing about his Chris Barnes-esque dreads, and sometimes doing a repeated cobra-like motion that made me think he was spitting on the crowd. Obviously, I never saw the original Decapitated live, so I can't say how they compare to that, but they certainly sounded heavy and technically capable. And since I've seen Lamb of God before, Decapitated was the gem of the night - the performance that really made it worth it.

After an "intermission" where decades-old movie theater commercials for popcorn and corn dogs were shown on screens on the stage, Lamb of God came out thundering. They also delivered a solid set - I realized that I actually know a lot of their songs, at least the popular ones. Their guitar riffs are aggressive yet accessible, like a cleaned up version of thrash riffs, and Randy's low vocals and the thundering bass bring a bit of death metal brutality. We got much closer this time than last time at the Fillmore - we were about five rows back, but off to the left, off the actual floor and nearer the bar. Which was fine - we could still see great, and didn't get caught in the meatgrinder that was the jam-packed floor (if the show wasn't sold out, it was pretty damn close - B market be damned). Randy called for moshing a couple times and seemed impressed by the crowd-surfing wheelchair guy, which cued us in that he wasn't the one behind the "No moshing" and "No crowdsurfing" signs at the venue. The venue didn't seem to intend on enforcing this policy either, because wheelchair guy crowdsurfed to the front no less than three times.

They put on an intense show, delivering a fine-tuned aggressive sound, with great energy - Randy was running around the stage - and with strong, roving lights and videos on the aforementioned screens adding to the effect. Some of the videos seemed familiar from last time, such as the animated one for "Ghost Walking," but some seemed new, such as the one for "Now You've got Something to Die For," which showed photos of their fans in the armed forces (of course they dedicated that song to servicemembers like usual). During the encore, the drummer from Decapitated (they called him "Polish Pauly" and kept flashing the image of his face on the screens in front of a Polish flag) played a song with them.

I think I enjoyed seeing them even more this time than last. The sound was better - we could hear the vocals more clearly - and being closer to the stage, we could see the band a lot better. S discovered later that they actually played the same setlist as in the fall, and we found out later that their tour last year hit the "A" markets, since they were not sure how long they would have Randy, and now that he's back they did a tour of the "B" markets. Nice to know that bands consider Washington, DC an important market - now if only tours like Helloween and Godflesh would hit it up!

Next show: Maybe Holy Grail on 7/1 or maybe Amaranthe on 7/18. We shall see.

Concert Review - Killswitch Engage, Miss May I, Darkest Hour, Affiance - 6/12/13 at Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD

Killswitch Engage has been through this area a couple times in the past few years, but somehow I've never managed to get out to see them. They're the only mainstream metalcore band that I consider to be a truly good band, and not just "pretty good for a metalcore band." Their sweet guitar melodies and the heartfelt nature of their clean vocals (as opposed to annoying whiny clean vocals from most metalcore bands) make them foremost in my mind in American melodic metal. 

On this tour, they were supposed to be supported by As I Lay Dying, one of those bands that I consider "pretty good for a metalcore band" (PGFAMB?). They're both decent sounding and unmemorable - I don't know how many times I heard "Paralyzed" on the radio, thought, "Hey, this guitar part is pretty good," checked the info and went, "Oh. These guys again." So I was a little interested in seeing how they would sound live. But then that whole thing with Tim Lambesis trying to have his wife killed happened, and they dropped off the tour.

They were replaced by Darkest Hour, another PGFAMB. Darkest Hour, originally from DC, has some really good melodic guitar parts, but the rest of their songs don't really live up to promise of those guitar parts, generally turning into a repetitive mash of screams and banging drums that bury the guitar. I saw them last year opening for Machine Head and was not too impressed. Still, I thought I'd give them another chance, so I ambled over to the venue around their start time (leaving S to settle the bill at the Irish pub where we were waiting out the less acceptable openers, haha. He arrived two songs after I did.) They sounded much better this time than last time. They seemed louder and heavier than at Ram's Head (maybe more to do with the sound system than the band). In some songs, the bass was too loud, or there was not enough going on with guitars, but for about half their songs (that is, three out of a six song set) the guitars were fairly prominent and melodic. Also, I couldn't fault the vocalist's screams - they were delivered with metal ferocity, even deepening into death metal territory at times (such as in the last song, "Sadist Nation"). The guitar was pretty prominent in that song as well. I was pleased that I got there to see most of their set, and would probably see them again, with the hope that they keep sounding better.

I had never heard of the next support act, Miss May I. They started out very promising, high energy, the singer jumping about on stage and wearing an actual metal shirt (Sylosis), and the long-haired guitarist windmilling his hair. Their sound was certainly a sonic assault, loud and fast, with intense screams. But they had too much going on at once, which gave them a confused sound. Every now and then a melodic guitar part would sing out, but mostly the guitar was relegated to a background instrument, and everything was dominated by the hammering bass. Whenever things would calm down enough to hear the guitar, the bassist would come in with some cringe-worthy overly emo clean vocals. There were a few good parts where everything was together, and a nice thundering breakdown in the second to last song, but mostly I found them kind of a mess.

Fortunately, Killswitch Engage made the night worth it. As I said, I like them mostly for their sweet guitar melodies, so I was surprised to find they were much more hardcore-oriented live - thundering bass, tank tops and short/shaved hair, and an aggressive stage manner. Of course, any band will sound heavier live, but for Killswitch Engage the shift to a hammering-bass hardcore sound totally changed the character of their music. The guitar was still perfectly audible, though, and many songs were quite guitar driven ("Life to Lifeless," "Rose of Sharyn") or melody driven (slow songs like "The Arms of Sorrow"). "My Curse" was a good combination of bass, guitar and melody - it started out thundering, but with the guitar gamely riffing away, and then softened for a melodic chorus. For the whole set, Jesse Leach's vocals were intense, in keeping with the hardcore spirit. The clean vocals were full of feeling, real feeling, not emo whininess. Jesse hardly talked besides to say "The next song is.." a couple times. Guitarist Adam D did most of the talking, including joking with the audience (inviting fans to suck his tits, calling for a "circle pit of love" ie. holding hands, and claiming he could smell someone menstruating - he had to be cut off by Jesse at that point). I also thought it was amusing that, being quite tall and decently muscled, he looked so out of proportion to his guitar that it looked like a toy. I enjoyed their set even though I didn't know most songs, which is unusual for me. There was enough energy with the powerful bass and their lively stage presence to keep me pumped, and enough guitar going on to keep me interested and headbanging. I will have to learn the choruses of some songs for next time though.

Next show: Tomorrow! Lamb of God, Decapitated and The Acacia Strain.

There should also be a book review at some point, because I finished a book a few weeks ago. I have been so focused on my own novel-writing that I haven't had much time for reviews, and that's why the concert reviews have been so slow! But things should calm down toward the end of June.

Concert Review - A Sound of Thunder, King Giant, Blood Corps, Sons of Eddie - 6/8/13 at Empire, Springfield, VA

A Sound of Thunder is hands down my favorite local band, so I try to get out to support them whenever they can. They have a kickass vocalist with a powerful voice, lyrics that delve into all kinds of fantastic and dark corners of the imagination, a really talented guitarist, and best of all, they live up to their name and shake the walls when they play live. I missed their last cd release party and a lot of their recent shows opening for awesome acts like Doro, so I was determined to get out to support them this time.

When the show was first announced, I was about equally excited to see Terracide open for them. I got their demo a month or two ago at a show, and was stupefied by the epic melodic metal assault that assailed my ears. Sadly, they dropped off the show, and were replaced by an Iron Maiden cover band, Sons of Eddie. S wanted to see them, but we did not get there in time. (Although we did get from Arbutus to Springfield in less than an hour, as promised, using my secret route, so it's not my fault!)

Fairfax, VA band Blood Corps was on next. We didn't have time to check them out ahead of time, so we had no idea what to expect. When I heard them sound checking, the guitars sounded all right, but I heard the vocalist doing metalcore screams and started to get worried. But once they started, I actually really liked the clean vocals. On most songs, they had a bit of an old rock and roll feel, like Volbeat has, with touches of Iced Earth or Disturbed on a couple songs. The metalcore screams were bearable (it's mostly the emo-sounding clean metalcore vocals that I can't stand, and they only used those on one song, "Drawn Together"). The guitars were solid, heavy and kind of groovy, but also kind of slow paced and bland. Maybe it was the sound mix, though - I caught some hints of something more interesting going on. The band seemed to have co-leading guitars - there was a girl guitarist and guy guitarist, and they appeared to be switching off taking the lead. Their best song was definitely the last song, "Rockstar Mafia," which was faster and very groovy, and thundering when the drums picked up.The band held my interest, but didn't quite hook me - perhaps if there had been more going on with the guitars.

Next was King Giant from Arlington, VA. We had looked into them ahead of time and got the impression that they're a southern metal band, there's a bit of twang to their sound. They were more polished than Blood Corps, but not my type of thing. They did have some interesting guitar hooks, but mainly had a droning stoner feel, with a bit of country twang, and I didn't like something about the vocals. I spent a good deal of their set trying to figure out what it was and couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something along the lines that the vocals were neither clean or harsh, but kind of gritty. And for some reason that didn't do it for me. I did like the gravelly vocals at the start of "Appomatox," though. They seemed very popular with the crowd, but I couldn't get into them.

Not too long after, A Sound of Thunder came on. I was looking forward to hearing them play a headline set, and hoping to hear a bunch of songs from all their releases. Unfortunately, I was kind of disappointed in their set and their sound overall. They started out with "Queen of Hell," a charging, fist-pumping type of song, but Nina's vocals were too low, and so the song didn't sound as impressive as it could be. The vocals were fixed a few songs in, but the band was plagued with sound problems throughout the set. They played a lot of songs from the new album, which was perhaps to be expected at a cd release party, but I had hoped they would spend a little more time on their "classics." They played a few from the second album Out of the Darkness, and only "Blood Vomit" from their first full-length, Metal Renaissance (although, if I had to choose only one song that album to hear live, that would be the one!). They didn't play any from their demo, which was unfortunate because that has awesome songs like "Walls" and "Archangel" (Metal Wings/Wings of Steel) that sound great live (the other two songs on the demo are good, too, of course). A lot of the songs they chose had long instrumentals which dragged, although the solos were great - Josh can really shred. Overall the new songs seemed slower paced and more low-key, and with post-drunk tiredness kicking in, it started to get hard for me to keep focused. "Power Play" and "Reign of the Hawklords" were my favorites among the new songs, because they were the most energetic, with something of a power metal sound. But none of new songs (besides "Queen of Hell," if it had been louder) had the thundering power of songs like "Blood Vomit" and "A Sound Of Thunder" which made me fall in love with band. The new songs sounded better on the album though, partly because I could actually hear vocals and follow the story in songs like "I'll Walk With You" where that really counts.

There were probably about a hundred odd people there when King Giant went on, and most of them still hanging about when A Sound of Thunder started, but by the time they finished the crowd had thinned to about thirty or forty. Not sure why the crowd diminished so, but I felt bad for the band. Usually they put on a really killer show, but this time it seemed a little slow and dragging.

Next show: Killswitch Engage, Darkest Hour, and some other bands, on 6/12.

Concert Review - Mago de Oz, Metanium - 5/22/13 at Howard Theatre, Washington, DC

Step aside Alestorm - the title of best folk pit now belongs to Mago de Oz. What an amazing show, and amazing energy from the band and the crowd.

That said, there were definitely some downers at this show, the biggest one being that it started over an hour late. We got there a little early, around 7, for a start time of 8. But the opening band didn't go on till about 9:30, so for two hours we had not much to do besides stand around saving at spot at the rail between the bar and the sound booth. Drinks were so heftily priced that I didn't drink at all ($10 for a rum and coke? I don't think I could drink $10 worth of rum in one sitting without passing out) and since it was a Heineken sponsored event, the only beer they were selling - at first - was Heineken. That is, until they ran out, in spite of the ridiculous price of $7-8 for a beer.

Finally the opener, local Hispanic heavy metal band Metanium, came on around 9:30. They seemed to be well known to the sizeable crowd that had gathered by then, with a lot of people jumping during their first song, and small pits thereafter. They played fast-paced NWOBHM or early power metal style heavy metal, a little reminiscent of Iron Maiden and Helloween. Their riffs were energetic and groovy, but their strongest point was their singer, who was capable of both powerful singing and lasting screams. He pulled off Helloween's "I Want Out" as easy as breathing. Overall, they were more interesting than I expected.

After short break, Spanish folk metal band Mago de Oz emerged. In my opinion, they put on a great show. Every song was filled with catchy folk melodies, jump inspiring power metal riffs and anthemic choruses. The energy never stopped; even the ballads cast a spell on audience. Well, there was some down time before "Finisterra" which killed the energy a little, and that song itself was a bit long and wandering. Other than that, they kept things going for their whole set. The crowd was very lively - the pit even took over most of the floor on a couple songs (and we're talking about a floor about a hundred feet across). Even in its most brutal moments, though, it wasn't a very brutal pit; mainly people were jumping, jigging, skipping around in pairs, forming big circles or knots of people with their arms over each other's shoulders. It looked like so much fun, I really regretted wearing a skirt (this always happens when I wear a skirt to shows!). If it weren't for the fact that people were throwing their drinks everywhere and the floor was like a huge slip and slide, I would have gone in anyway. It would have been amusing to see how the Hispanic dudes reacted to a girl in pit, since it didn't seem like something that really happens in the Hispanic metal crowd - although a female friend who did go in the pit said we got grabbed more than at any other show :/

Afterward S. raised the question of why there wasn't any crossover between this crowd and folk metal crowd for acts like Ensiferum and Korpiklaani. I figure it has something do with the language - the crowd for Mago de Oz was almost entirely Hispanic. Also, the style of music is different - Mago de Oz has more of a power metal sound rather than Viking metal, which might explain why more of the typical folk metal crowd isn't drawn to it. I found them through a power metal playlist, and didn't immediately associate them with folk metal. A friend called them "the Spanish version of Iron Maiden" in that most every Hispanic metalhead she talked to in her travels seemed to know this band.

They certainly lived up their reputation, and I'm glad I got to see this great performance by a band outside my usual metal circle.

Next show: A Sound of Thunder's CD release party, June 8

Concert Review - M3 Rock Festival 2013 (Day 2) - 5/4/13 at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

So, this year I actually paid enough attention at M3 Fest to write a real review :P Last year it was a spur of the moment thing, something fun to do on a day off. This year I actually planned to go on the second day, and made S. make me a CD of all the bands so that I could be at least a little familiar with them XD I still went largely because S. was going, and since M3 Fest is near our anniversary, it's kinda become part of our anniversary celebrations..but I was definitely much more into it this year.

We got there a little before Steelheart came on. S. was very excited about seeing them; I couldn't really remember any of their songs. They were loud, especially the guitars - maybe even too loud; there was some feedback which made the guitars indistinct. The singer had a strong voice and was jumping around, and the bassist (an old bald guy) was also spinning around and doing other antics. They sounded great for a band near the bottom of the bill - good vocals and heavy guitars with strong metal riffs.

There was a little break, with no one on the "Festival" stage, and then Trixter came on the main stage. They had clearer guitars than Steelheart, but did not sound as metal. The backing vocals, done by band members, were horrible (I'm not exaggerating - they were off key and unpolished), and the singer himself was just all right. Their hit "One in a Million" sounded pretty good (minus terrible backing vocals), but otherwise I found them unremarkable.

The next band on the Festival stage, Tuff, was a little better. They had some metal guitar parts (heavy, riffy) such as on "Good Guys Wear Black" and "American Haircore" - I mean, "American Hair Band" - but most of the guitars were bland. The backing vocals were much better than Trixter's (not a difficult feat of course) - maybe because they consisted more of punk-like shouting than singing. I thought the vocals were strong overall. Aside from "American Hair Band," though, the songs were not very interesting.

After that was JSRG (formed by members of Vixen) on the main stage. They were excellent, with great guitar work and strong vocals. I especially liked the vocals, which were a little bit deep and rough, and very powerful. For some reason I was not very familiar with Vixen songs, so I don't recall any specifics about their songs, but I enjoyed their set.

Great White was next on the festival stage. They were good technically - I can't fault their musicianship or vocalist - but they weren't very interesting to me. Their sound leaned more toward the rock end of the hair band spectrum - slow and mellow, not very heavy - which is not really my thing. I dig heavy guitars.

The band I was probably looking forward to most was Japanese metal band Loudness, who played on the main stage. They were (of course) ten times heavier than any of the other bands at M3 Fest. They had great heavy guitars, but like Steelheart, the guitars were a little too loud again. They drowned out the vocals sometimes, or made the vocals and guitars sound mismatched. Still, I enjoyed their performance.

After Loudness, we took a dinner break while King's X played, since S. was not interested in them. I could see why - the bits we heard were pretty generic, fine for background music, not worth not sitting on the lawn though.

Our dinner break ended when hair metal parody band Steel Panther came on the main stage. As I hoped, they were hilarious, and also sounded great. Their ridiculous talk (mostly making fun of each other or making statements like "the heaviest singer at this festival on this stage in this time slot") and over-the-top songs were very entertaining. And if one looked (listened?) past their ludicrous lyrics about getting some in all kinds of comically exaggerated ways, their guitar work and vocals were very good. S.'s friend T. commented that it was a shame they were so far higher on the bill than "the bands they're making fun of," but I thought it was with good reason - they gave one of the most polished, entertaining and technically spot on performances of the day. Unfortunately, we missed their last two songs ("17 Girls in a Row" and "Death to All but Metal") because Firehouse started on the festival stage.

Coming straight from Steel Panther's bombastic performance, Firehouse seemed a little plain at first, but they sounded good. They played a lot of songs from their first album, which I was most familiar with - "All She Wrote," "Overnight Sensation," "Love of a Lifetime," "Don't Treat Me Bad." Besides that, they only played one or two other songs (I know "When I Look Into Your Eyes" was one of them) - it seemed like a rather short set, at least for so far along in the day. Still, I was stoked to have heard "Love of a Lifetime," my favorite song of theirs. T wanted to pick S up on his shoulders during "Don't Treat Me Bad," but S. refused, so I got him to pick me up instead \m/

Me making T hate his life during Firehouse's set

After that was Twisted Sister on the main stage - the last band at M3 Fest that I was actually looking forward to seeing. I'm not a huge fan of them, but they're one of those iconic bands that I wouldn't want to miss given the chance to see them. Hearing them play "We're Not Gonna Take It" was one of those experiences every metalhead needs to have at least once in a lifetime. I was pretty pleased with their performance overall - Dee Snider's voice still sounds good, his hair looks about the same as in the 80's, and he was running all over the stage. The rest of the band sounded good, too, but it was Dee's energy and presence that carried it. He talked too much, though, going on about shows in other countries and how America has to sing "I Wanna Rock" the loudest, which made the set drag at points.

After Twisted Sister, it was back to the festival stage to see Jackyl. S. and T. were pumped, but I couldn't wait for their set to be over. I find the singer's voice annoying, and his songs and talk crude and not funny. They killed the energy for me; I was ready to leave when they finished.

S. and T. wanted to stay and hear a bit of Bret Michaels, though - even though T. in particular had spent most of the day dissing him. Bret sounded good, but he played too many covers of non-metal songs (such as "Sweet Home Alabama") instead of Poison songs. By that time, it was very cold, and in my opinion, even Poison is not worth standing out in the cold. In addition, he also talked too much, which made it even more boring. I dragged S. and T. away about 3/4 through the set, just before he played "Every Rose Has Its Thorns" (we heard it as we were walking out of Merriweather).

I enjoyed M3 Fest a lot more this year than last year - maybe it was the line-up, the fact that I got familiar with the bands ahead of time, or that I was able to stay the whole day. Whatever the reason, I'm pretty sure I'll go again next year, as long as S. and T. don't mind me tagging along.

S. wrote a review of Day 1 of M3 Fest as well as Day 2, and posted some photos.

Next concert: Mago de Oz, 5/22