Richmond metal band GWAR says the Secret Service contacted the group following a recent performance at the Vans Warped Tour in Washington, D.C., that featured the mock execution of a Donald Trump effigy. Video of the performance, which showed band members...
Editor’s Note: This piece was written by a student at Randolph-Macon College as part of a feature writing course. Thank you to the students and to Professor Seth Clabough, Ph.D., for organizing the project. The storage unit smelled of sweat and wood. The garage door was open, gusting wind in from outside. The instruments were piled on top of one...
“‘Pink Pony Club’ is about embracing exile from a boring, shitty world and remaking yourself into whatever you want—be who you are, be who you aren’t, piss people off, we don’t care!” The Berzerker Blöthar Richmond legends GWAR are back on The A.V. Club’s A.V. Undercover for an unprecedented seventh appearance, because of course they are. This...
An unseasonably warm Friday afternoon set the tone for Day 2 of Heart of Winter at The Canal Club, a strange but welcome contrast to the bleak, frostbitten sounds pouring out of the venue. Despite the mild weather, the atmosphere inside was anything but soft. Black metal and doom devotees packed the room early for a sold-out show, battle vests...
Editor’s Note: This article reflects on United Blood’s return back in April 2025 and is a preview of what is in store for 2026. Words and photos by Cristian Espinoza The sleeping giant walks the earth again. After a five-year hiatus, United Blood returned to Richmond, Virginia with a heavy barrage of cutthroat sonics. The once-annual festival was...
After more than a decade in hibernation, one of Richmond’s most revered underground metal gatherings is clawing its way back to life. Heart Of Winter, the black metal and doom-heavy festival that helped define an era of the city’s DIY extreme metal scene, is officially returning January 8–10, is officially returning January 8–10 at The Canal Club...
"When you say something is Haram it is 100 percent forbidden. You will burn in hellfire." - Nader Haram NYC’s Haram might be the most exciting thing in punk rock right now. Or art in general. Blistering, fast, and dangerous, they’re an antidote for the pervasive mediocrity that can pass for music these days. Started in 2015, their music...
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Stiff Little Fingers (SLF) to the development of punk rock. The Clash, Sex Pistols, and SLF can all be mentioned comfortably in the same sentence. Not only did they help define what punk would become, and the culture that grew around it, they did so in the middle of the urban conflict known as "The...
Turnstile returned to Richmond on Wednesday, and it felt like Brown’s Island could barely contain them. The Baltimore hardcore outfit has long since broken past genre borders, crafting songs that reach across generations of music fans. Last night, they looked every bit the arena-level act, and if you were there, it was hard to shake the feeling...
Japanese art-punk trio TsuShiMaMiRe brought their long-running experiment in sound and spectacle to Get Tight Lounge last week. Formed in 1999 in Chiba, Japan, the group has carved out a global cult following with music that darts between jagged punk riffs, bursts of noise, and lyrics that jump from the absurd to the existential. Songs about...
