Sound Obsession

Black Breath Date:  May 21, 2014 Venue:  Ottobar, Baltimore, MD The twelfth annual Maryland Deathfest (aka "MDF"), apparently the largest metal festival of its kind in North American, officially kicked off in Baltimore yesterday, but any black denim and leather clad longhair who wanted to get a jump on the four day festivities had their chance at the sold out "pre-fest party" at Ottobar this past Wednesday evening - featuring New York veterans Immolation, Baltimore's Misery Index and Noisem, and Seattle's Black Breath.* Black Breath (left to right - Jamie Byrum, Eric Wallace, Elijah Nelson, Neil McAdams, and Mark Palm)  I've had a lot of fun navigating the metal scene at large with its plethora of sub-genres, over the last decade or so, but death metal (and its close cousin grindcore) has been a final frontier of sorts for me.  Like black metal, with its sordid history of violence and controversial politics, death metal isn't entirely

Mastodon, Gojira, Kvelertak Date:  May 13, 2014 Venue:  9:30 Club, Washington, DC Last Tuesday was the hottest day of the year so far in DC so it was only appropriate that DC's 9:30 Club host a sold out evening for the most scorching metal tour of the year so far - Mastodon with Gojira and Kvelertak supporting. Mastodon (Brent Hinds and Troy Sanders) Norway's top purveyors of beer soaked black n' roll, Kvelertak, hit the stage first.  This band's sophomore album Meir made my top ten list last year and I was lucky to catch them crush an awesome set at the tiny Rock & Roll Hotel too.  It's a tough proposition for a boisterous six-piece, whose amped-up party rock works best after guzzling a few brews, to capture a crowd that's still trickling in off the sidewalk - but Kvelertak had everyone in a stranglehold in short order. Kvelertak (Marvin Nygaard, Erlend Hjelvik, and Kjetil Gjermundrod) Lead screamer Erlend Hjelvik emerged with a s

Beck:   Morning Phase Label:  Capitol Records Released:  February 25, 2014 7/10 Beck is one of the pivotal artists of my adolescence.  I distinctly remember seeing him on MTV's late night alternative-rock show "120 Minutes" in late winter of 1994, interviewed by that already legendary pillar of cool - Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.  Along with the Beastie Boys' Ill Communication ( plugged on that same broadcast) Beck's major label debut Mellow Gold was my soundtrack of the summer.  Kurt Cobain had just committed suicide and for me, previously a grunge fanatic, that gesture put a bookend on the sanctimonious purism and unhealthy gloom that enveloped rock music at the time.  I was ready for something new - something brighter and more fun.   Mellow Gold 's hodgepodge of punk, noise, folk, and hip-hop was exactly that and Beck has remained an indispensable fixture in my musical world ever since. So here we are, twenty years on from Beck's improbab