Request For Proposals

Are you a fan of heavy metal? DC Rock Club is planning a return trip to Jaxx, and no offense to Kix, but this time we're looking to forgo the Hostess Twinkie bullshit hair metal and see some REAL METAL. Like Black Metal or somesuch.

To these ends we solicited help from our friend Stutts, who knows a guy who knows metal. This friend of Stutts's, who we'll call Tor Eckman, sent us the epic missive posted below. It pretty much gives us everything we want to know but if you, gentle reader, have further recommendations, let's hear them.

Now, from the desk of Tor Eckman:

hey old man's child looking for old grandad are ye? here's what i see that i would go see, or at least wouldn't miss:

well, i'm maybe seeing Kreator May 9th here in st. pete. i've never seen them. they're one of the original German thrash metal bands i heard as a teen barely out of high school. i lost interest and they changed line-ups so who knows if i'll care about anything but their first few albums. Exodus is another band from that generation i've never seen but has the rep and cred for that genre. Belphegor is blackened death metal from Austria--i know, you're tired of all the Austrian metal that you hear on the radio. there's only one other Austrian band i know of, which is not one to miss, Abigor. song titles such as Sexdictator Lucifer and Bondage Goat Zombie should carry you through the door without much trouble. basically anything from Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia, don't miss.

http://www.myspace.com/belphegor

Dragonforce is a teen metal head favorite. they are, like, the fastest speed metal band in the universe, duh. kind of like prog metal on serious speed. i'm not into that for more than a song or two. but it can be amazing to watch.

Absu (Texas, US) and Glorior Belli (France) i won't miss. basically, don't ever miss anything from France. (Deathspell Omega, Blut Au Nord, Malveillance, S.V.E.S.T., god don't get me started on the French scene.) Absu manages to bridge thrash and black styles effortlessly with their own weird lyrical mythos by the amazing drummer Proscriptor. plus it's an American rarity. Glorior Belli is on Southern Lord if that means anything (and it should). they will resemble the Scandinavian style more than any of the bands mentioned so far. there's an unmistakable buzz present, an almost ambience or drone, with odd chord progression as well as dark melody with all kinds of prog like tempo changes. you can listen to their entire album here:

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.artistalbums&artistid=15104566&ap=0&albumid=9625370

Atheist, down the road, literally from Sarasota--one of the origins of the so-called Florida Death Metal scene. with Psyopus (super fast grindcore experimental from NY) on the bill. could fix your technical death metal appetite. or make you laugh your ass off. some fanatics like to call this death jazz. my money is on Psyopus. you will scratch your head more than you will scratch your friend's ass.

let me know how things turn out

"grow some heretical hemlock for your representatives. serve it on a
revenue platter. then cut them down." -m'cpei