Deathfest Lives: @MetalChris on the Metal Beat

When news broke Wednesday that Baltimore performance venue Sonar had suddenly closed, my first thought was, “What about Maryland Deathfest?” My second thought was, “I need to check Metal Chris’ Twitter.”

@MetalChris was immediately on the story, retweeting info to shocked fans, many of whom travel from afar to attend Deathfest — an annual Memorial Day-Weekend-long metal blowout.

Good news: Sonar has reopened and the fest will still be there. But if events change, the pseudonymous Metal Chris, above, will have the details at his site, Dcheavymetal.com, an excellent resource on a genre that tends to get coverage by local music press only when it crosses over into the world of indie rock. Chris is a pure metal fan: From an Ozzy Osbourne stadium concert to a D.C. punk-house show with local band Ilsa, he’s on it.

He recently put together a D.C.-metal playlist for local Radio CPR show Inverted Umlaut, offering a two-hour showcase of the strength and diversity of the area’s heavy-music scene — something Dcheavymetal.com documents daily. (You can download the full podcast at Invertedumlaut.tumblr.com.)

Photo courtesy Metal Chris