Metal music has always drawn on classical music, but it's not often that classical musicians have drawn on metal as their performance style of choice. Two brothers in Oakland did just that, though with their 100% string metal band, Judgement Day.



Anton and Lewis Patzner play violin and cello, respectively, and shred just as hard as anyone in a denim jacket with Slayer patches.





After some time spent busking on the streets in the Bay Area, they started landing gigs as a duo. After picking up drummer Jon Bush, String Metal was born.



The music isn't pushing any musical boundaries, but to see it performed live from the front row is inspiring. If I hadn't seen and heard it myself, I wouldn't belieive that they could make it sound so heavy.



The brothers grew up playing and studying classical, but the call of the dark side was too strong, and they couldn't resist this devil's music for long.



Rob Crow liked it too. That's him in back flashing me a peace sign.



I still can't stop listening to their beautifully packaged CD, "Peacocks/Pink Monsters". Anton wrote some very thoughtful notes in it about the nature of artistic vision and the making of the CD and it's artwork/video. If you see these guys this week at SXSW, make sure to check them out and support them by buying some merch. They're nice guys and extremely talented musicians who are pushing their own envelope.

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Photo geekery:

This set and last night's Hotel St. George set were both excersizes in not using my 17-55 lens, which I normally use 75% of the time. Because of the dark stage and the cello being so far up front to not get illuminated by any of the stage lights, I used my primes of course, but I also tried to make my 11-16 work for me too. The ultra wide angle reduces subject magnification, which has the effect of reducing blur. I figured that I could get at least a half stop slower shutter speed and not add too much more motion blur. I'm not sure if that's really so true since I still ended up with obvious motion in all the shots. But, the wide view does give the eye something unexpected, and I think when used appropriately, that can lessen the annoyance of the motion blur.