Despite the title, this post is only halfway about the opening reception of Killer Angels: Faces of American Death Metal. It’s mainly a post about Future Islands, who we’re going to go see at Metro Gallery tomorrow. Naturally, it’s been a while since we’ve seen these guys since we’ve been busy On the Water. (Ha!) We weren’t sure we’d get the chance soon, because Future Islands often travels, and since the release of their last record in 2011 each member of this trio has spent increasing amounts of time on their various side-projects.

There’s Peals, of course, which we told you about last week, in addition to synth-man Gerrit Welmers’ Moss of Aura. Both of these are about what you’d expect, although frontman Sam Herring’s Hemlock Ernst is straight up hip hop, and he’s surprisingly good at it. One wouldn’t expect those kind of lyrical skills from someone who’s not immersed a little more deeply in hip-hop culture, but according to this video Sam says he ‘started whippin rhymes’ in 1999 after buying his first De La Soul tape, and that influence definitely shows up here.

So tomorrow’s show kind of took us by surprise. Literally. It took everyone by surprise since it was only announced a week ago and only took a day or two to sell out entirely. If you missed your chance at tickets- too bad, so sad. Perhaps you should sign up for the Future Islands mailing list so you won’t be fooled again.

Killer Angels opens at Windup Space tomorrow. 6 pm-???

But if you can’t get into the Metro Gallery tomorrow (or even if you can), take heart. You can still enjoy the opening reception of JM Giordano’s new show of photography Killer Angels: Faces of American Death Metal at the Windup Space.

You know JMG. Even if you don’t know him, you know him because there’s a 100% chance you’ve seen his work before if you live in Baltimore. In addition to being responsible for most of the images in the now-defunct Urbanite as their staff photographer, he’s also a regular contributor to the Baltimore Sun and City Paper. You may have even seen his Big Girls installation of large-scale dressed/undressed women hanging from buildings in Station North during Artscape.

A preview of the show is available at jmgiordanophotography.com as well as representations of much of Giordano’s other work, which ranges from cupcakes and Pop-Tarts to transgendered prostitutes.

Killer Angels arrives just in time for the merriest and most holly-jolly season of the year. Maryland Death Fest begins on Thursday and runs until Sunday. The show features monochromatic shots of metalheads captured in their natural environment, the metal show. At 30 x 40″ these works are also nearly life-size.

And if nearly life sized isn’t good enough for you, stick around after 8:30 for some death metal bands that actually are life sized. Philadelphia’s Coffin Dust pair with Marylanders Part Death to round out the night with two sets of their most festive Deathmas carols.

Fa la la la la, la la la Death.