I think there might be a little bit of a metal underground growing in Omaha, Nebraska. But other than that, Nebraska is much more of a country or pop music state. I lived in Lincoln until I graduated from law school and we had a great radio station that devoted large chunks of time to pure metal until it was bought out and now plays exclusively modern rock. That's how I heard of bands like Sepultura, Celtic Frost, Grave, Cannibal Corpse, Voivod, Paradise Lost, and many other bands I probably would not have heard otherwise.

Now I live in Central Nebraska, there is also a modern rock station out here surprisingly enough, but that's it. The big rock concerts in the area have been Disturbed and P.O.D. so the area is still kind of stuck in the nu metal age.

Man, is there a town anywhere in the world that Disturbed hasn't played?

Well to be fair they haven't played in my town, because it only has a population of about 2,500, but they are playing in the area about 30 miles away.

Wow. That sounds just like where I live.

Berkeley has a metal club called 924 Gilman (the adress). Every Friday and most Saturdays they have a couple of bands play and it's the one of the only places in the Bay Area for metal although there are hella metalheads. They play a variety of metal like doom, death, thrash, and black. THe only problem is that it is pretty small and the bands cannot compare to anything in Germany, Norway, or any othe metal havens.

I hate on our scene all the time. Los Angeles is the internet metal community of US cities. Going to Dark Realm Records and hearing a bunch of wannabe kvlt (they call themselves that) high schoolers and seeing a bunch of kids looking like 1985 all over again. We do get good shows and have some good bands all around the city, I just highly dislike the people. Metalcore/deathcore people are nowhere near as annoying.

Haha I can tell you're from Norcal by your mention of the Gilman and shameless use of "hella". Were you at the recent show with Fog of War, Hatchet, etc? It was pretty fun to hang out with my metal friends, but the actual music was really nothing special. The bands gave solid performances sure, but I cant imagine them really going anywhere because they don't do anything to set themselves apart from the hundreds of other thrash bands in CA. Most of the people at these shows also have the typical 'uniform' of denim vest with patches, and are often very dull or uninteresting in person. Whenever I find a band that is doing something intriguing or especially proficient with their music, I try to find out more about them, get their music, go to their shows as much as possible. One such example is locals Nihlotep, who I just did a show with in Walnut Creek and I must say they put on an incredible show.

yeah, that's what I've heard about Pueblo...

you're lucky though, cause your next to the springs. There's plenty of good bands there.

From my experience, Denver does have a ok scene. Most of the bands seem to be Death/grind, which can get rather old. But we have our share of great black and Death metal (Scalafrea, Cobalt, Spoken in Fire)

Pennsylvania and New York.

Check out shows hosted by NYDM, they are always good.

Cleveland has a pretty good scene. You wouldn't think so until there's a show in town, which we have a good bit of. I saw Obituary in October and I get to see Destruction in March, and Kreator in April. That's when all us freaks come out to play.

I can't really go to many shows because I'm usually broke, and I'm 13.

Yeah, but being 15, without a car or license, and anybody to take me to Springs, its useless.

Denver is even worse. Plus alot of the time the shows in Denver [from what I've heard] are 16/18/21+ shows.

How did you like Spoken In Fire? I was proud to have my first gig with Scalafrea and Spoken In Fire. Fucking awesome.

I go up to Cleveland occasionally (last time was for Paganfest in February) and I found myself going at the people in the crowd. Kinda wish Cleveland wasn't 4 hours away, you guys get a lot of great shows.

This is true. There are a lot of irritating children in the scene that bring it down for the rest of us. They're all have a Myspace (I do too ) and just got into metal 2 years ago. There are a lot of old school guys though who I tend to gravitate towards (Hatewar, Nokturne guys, Sadistic Intent, etc.).

I'm in Madison and the scene here is okay. We have a metal store downtown called Earwax that has a ton of great stuff. There's also an Earwax is Milwaukee I think...

Minneapolis has a pretty good Black Metal scene. Bands like Teratism, Maledicere, Manetheren, Abberant Path and a few others are from here.

Dude, I live in MD too it sucks balls. At least I live in driving distance of 2 or 3 venues, and MARYLAND FUCKING DEATH FEST. I'm really the only kid I know who listens to real metal at my school.

theres a huge hardcore scene in mchenry illinois where i live. definately a lot of punks and not a lot of metalheads

thats weird. from what i remember the gilman was mainly a punk, ska, and indie venue; and they require you to follow their communist rules or you arent allowed to play.

that being said i live in los angeles which has an over abundance of mexican thrash metal bands, which usually consists of exodus worshipping retro thrash kids(fueled by fire, merciless death, etc) which make the scene embarassing to say the least.

You're right, I agree, but it is only some people. I've run into some real cool poeple at the shows.

I was seeing Obituary, and there was a kid going the whole flail-limb routine in the pit, and some huge bald guy up front fucking dropped him without effort. It was awesome. But yeah, we get those. He was there to see Carnifex.

Also: Just found out Destruction comes in March!!!

I have one too, but who cares about that. They're really bad and since most metal shows here are all-ages you can't avoid it. There aren't that many bands out here I like either, basically the ones you mentioned, and Insision from Pacoima.

I have never been to dark realm, but I will head there soon. I am on the younger side, and have absolutely no idea what you both are talking about in regards to "kvlt kiddies." I also though hardly attend metal events, and I go to Amoeba around two times a year(at most). A little more elaboration?

Where do you reside in MD?

Okay, so I live in Brooklyn, NY and I see a lot of metalheads here... on one end there are the screamo kids sporting Black Dahlia Murder shirts while there is the short muscular tough dude with long curly hair sporting the Danzig shirt. In Brooklyn apparently anyway, we seem to have the metal bar capital in all of NYC which is called Duff's... I'm sure some of you heard that name. So I remember back on page 1, someone mentioned there not being too many metalheads in NYC but in Brooklyn, there are a hell of a lot...

In Queens as well I remember there being a lot of hispanic metalheads there who run their own metal shop... forgot the name of it but fuck, four years ago when I ventured into there, there were like 25 Southern American metalheads packed into one waiting room waiting for their custom bullet belt and tattoo.


On a funny, sort of unrelated sidenote about that Duff's bar, so one of my friends (mind you not into metal at all and wearing a Calvin Klein shirt and dressy shoes) decides to go to Duff's, not realizing that is a total metal/rock bar with everyone either in a band shirt or in black with vests. He apparently met Julia, the "metal mistress" of Fuse's "Uranium" and supposedly got her number and that they had "great conversation" about each other's related childhoods. He's about to give her a ring this weekend to "hook up" but I highly doubt that will happen because she has a local celebrity status and apparently was making out with another chick that night... lucky guy maybe?

I'm going to follow suit with what a few of the Chicagoans up there have mentioned. BardInTheForest and I might end up at a few shows up there this winter depending on roads and courseloads and in the event that we do go, I'll leave a note on FFA the day of a show saying what we'll be wearing if you fancy saying 'hello'. Wouldn't hurt to meet some more like-minded folk in Ohio.

I've been friendly with Jimmy since his NYC Bellevue days. I was at the closing party 2 weeks back for the old Kent location. I'm going next Friday (12/19) to check his new place out. My hanging time is limited due to having 2 kids (and 1 being 4 months old at that!) but I know some of the veterans from the Brooklyn metal scene since the early 90's.

About Juliya, she bartends sometimes over there but I'm not sure if she does anymore...just for special events it was back a year or so ago. I used to go more often before my daughter was born.

Of course. I plan on attending Destruction and Kreator, drop me a PM if you will.

In Arizona, the metal scene is really bad. Most of the kids here either listen to Metalcore, deathcore (mostly because of Job for a cowboy) and nu metal. When a band like Iced Earth comes to Phoenix, the attendance is very low but if Disturbed comes to town, the show sells out really fast. Most of the kids usually wears Lamb of god, Trivium, A7X, Bullet for my valentine, or Hatebreed t shirts. I want to find people who are into old school bands, but when i do they usually are in their 40's and says they don't listen to metal anymore. It's kinda sad really. V___V

Damn. Now if only I can find people like you two. Have fun at those shows!

And if anybody in the CO area is going to Exodus and Kreator in May, drop me a PM as well. I'd like to have a buddy to chat and mosh with.

I'm keen on going to Rotting Christ in January, not sure if that's your cuppa but I'll send you a message around then if I end up going. I doubt I'd forgive myself if I missed Destruction or Kreator. Good chance I'll be at both, coursework be damned.

I need a fake ID......

Kreator/Exodus is 16+. Fuck being 15 years old!!
20 days before my birthday.. fuck that, I have to go.

don't forget veil(even though they are st. paul and don't play live i don't think).

Anyone have the dates for the Kreator tour and (sigh)JFaC and All Shall Perish?

You'll see it in full display there. Usually Bay and Rick are at the store and they're great to talk to, but there's always groups of high-school age kids, acting just like an internet elitist troll would online, with a fanzine going to boot. I've had one guy tell me not to listen to black metal because I wear nice clothes (????), and another guy tell me with the straightest face possible that any music that isn't black metal is "nigger music". Worse yet, you see all these people at BM gigs all the time, most BM gigs are at the Black Castle and that place is just like Dark Realm.

In short: The majority of people care more about the "scene" than the music around here. That shouldn't surprise anyone though, it's Los Angeles

I was thinking about Rotting Christ. I have a queue of bands I still need to check out and they're close to the front of the line.

Also, the old-ass ladies who sell the tickets (it's in a Macy's), if I told them I wanted tickets to Rotting Christ, oh, the looks on their faces.

Tell them you want to see Rotting Chris-t. That should work.

I will hide nothing.

Bump them to the very front! I favor their 90s work in general but they tend to do just about anything quite well. Black, gothic, doesn't matter.

And I get to awkwardly purchase tickets at a Krogers! Ah well, I'm pretty sure they don't know the genre of the bands 9 times out of 10.

I'm definitely not a fan of any Rotting Christ from after 1996, but I really must say, they are very cool guys and put on a fantastic show, so you really shouldn't miss them. THey play a lot of old stuff and even their newer material doesnt' come across too badly. Also, I was impressed by their demeanour and attitude .... they seemed more than happy to play in front of a tiny crowd here in Toronto even though they probably lost money on the tour, and Sakis seems so pleased that my friend and I were talking to him about "Passage to Arcturo" and stuff. Yeah, go see them!

That is funny and sad at the same time. I always make fun of Varg lovers online, but to think that it can transcend the boundaries into the physical world is insane....Next you think that they would say they are more "kvlt" than you....

Well I guess I am not missing out on much...unless dark realm has a good selection of music...