Sitting on the northwest edge of Fell's Point, away from the Broadway bar crawl, Brass Monkey Saloon is a small, underutilized music venue. It's not the cleanest place in the world, but what rock bar is? There's nothing on tap, but the bar itself is actually very substantial and begs to be ponied up to for a few libations. Brass Monkey is exceptionally friendly to harder sounds, featuring metal on the last Saturday of every month. And it's a good thing for metal bands, because the Monkey has great sound. It's loud, it's clean, and it will blow your face off if you get too close to the PA.

Harford County foursome Anebria were planted between two Eastern Shore leviathans this cold February night. String jockey Jason Valis held it down while vocalist Rick Robinson kept it interesting, ranging his growls from troll-under-the-bridge to cackling mad scientist's lab assistant on "Enslaved Creator".  With a little more experimentation and carrying the yells over a couple measures longer, Anebria might find the vocal fury they need to match the slaughterhouse rhythm section owned by Greg Snyder's slapping bass and Rob Guy's rolling drums.

Hailing from the Eastern Shore's finest city of Salisbury, Goatbag are not only an auditory experience but a mind-bending visual one as well. The truth is, a band can't wear bloody labcoats and blackout masks without having a sound that doesn't get upstaged by the show. And if your keyboardist comes from behind a glowing pentagram with a cloak and what looks like the deformed naughty bits of some unfortunate livestock creature on his head, your band better bring the thunder. Fortunately for Goatbag it was all there. Crushing overdrive riffs, crashing drums, a cover of Green Jello's "Three Little Pigs", and the theme song from Legend of Zelda between songs. All of these things combine for a baffling experience of monster metal and showmanship.

Punishing the crowd the hardest, The Barn came all the way from Delaware to open up the show, get free socks from a street vendor, and put the double-bass pedal to the metal. Death-bringer vocalist Tommy Harrington has a non-stop assault of screams from the depths of the swamp which caused some unbeknowingst bar-hoppers to enter the bar and quickly leave, lest the sweater-vested visitors be thrown into the melee at the front of the room. CJ Reed's Viking axe of a bass guitar dropped the floor-shaking bass, timing opposite the WMD drums of Jake Bertrand, who sounds like he bangs the skins with a ball peen hammer. On top of all this ridiculous blood-letting noise, the dual guitars of Hank West and Jimmy Davis are reminiscent of the insanity of Kerry King/Jeff Hanneman, as West's percussive riffing is the perfect backdrop for Davis' face-melting finger-tapping solos.

Do not sleep on these bands, Baltimore. If you do, you'll have dudes in bloody labcoats with Viking swords and sledgehammers standing over you in your slumber putting the metal in your face. It's probably best for your health if you just cough up the six bucks and check out a show. Note: bring earplugs.

Tags: Anebria, Baltimore, Brass Monkey, concerts, Fell's Point, Goatbag, metal, The Barn