Yeah, I should have written this post several hours (or days) ago, but it's been a pretty busy evening up here.

Anyway, there are (were) two big metal-themed events in Midtown tonight:

* The Hi-Tone's "Rock and Roll Drive-In" installment featuring a 1985 concert film of Venom, Slayer and Exodus. Eric "The Hook Up" has been putting this night together the past few weeks, showing films featuring Kraut-rockers Can, the Rolling Stones, Judas Priest, and others. Because of some glitches involving the promotional materials for this weekly, there is something of a running joke about dudes showing up at the Hi-Tone at 7 p.m. saying they drove all the way from Jonesboro to see Judas Priest for free, only to find out it's just a film!

* An actual live metal show at Murphy's, featuring Byzantine, Serapis and Cremains. I don't know much about any of these bands as I haven't listened to metal since puberty, but engineer Leo Goff has been working on the Cremains studio recording sessions, and describes them as "loud."

P.S. I'm listening to the tracks on the Cremains MySpace page, and my head is about to fall off.

I'm starting to feel that there is something of a metal resurgence going on, what with shows like these, and bands like Evil Army and Adios Gringo doing their thing. Am I on to something, or have I been listening to jazz for too long?