Koluna Sets Cafe 611 Ablaze

Six metal band ticket rocks the house in Fredrick 

It’s 7 pm on a Friday night and North Market Street is aglow with both their gorgeous illuminated trees and the excitement of a hardcore evening to come. Metal is on the menu tonight at Cafe 611. 

This intimate little restaurant is set up with a classy little bar and a neat, rustic vibe stage area. Cafe 611 regularly hosts artists of all types but tonight it’s time to rock the house, there are six bands on the ticket tonight and the crowd is a little sparse at the beginning but astir nonetheless. 

Metanoia is up to bat first, they’re a DC-based prog-rock band that formed as a result of two other bands breaking up. They’re a five-man group and right away my eyes are drawn directly to their bassist, he’s wearing a Joe Dirt-style mullet wig that’s hard to miss. 

Their set starts and I’m pleasantly surprised, their vocalist has a touch of that rasp I like as he sings. Then, I’m even more pleasantly surprised, because the first part of the song is pretty tame as far as vocals go and then there’s a loud, throaty scream accompanied by some shredding guitar. Hell yeah. 

The crowd is a little stiff, but that’s no fault of the band. After all, it is pretty cold and rainy out, and the party’s just getting started. 

Metanoia just released a new album earlier this month called “Ghost Notes”. You can give it a listen here. 

Up next is Cannon Hill, a hard rock band based out of West Virginia. This band is near and dear to my heart, as I’ve photographed them several times and attended most of their shows. These guys always bring the heat and they’re kind of a big deal. I mean, they played the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood supporting Quiet Riot not too long ago. Impressive, right? 

This band goes hard. Frontman Trent is always jumping around, whipping his shoulder-length blonde hair around as he croons while Michael, lead guitarist, shreds away beside him. Drummer Takoda and Bassist Jeff have killer energy and their concentration is evident by their expressions. 

Cannon Hill does an awesome cover of “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica that always gets the crowd moving. The boys most recently put out a single called “Next Stop”, which you can stream here. 

Now it’s time for Audioburn to go on, this is a new band for me and I’m nodding my head along to their music immediately. Audioburn is a 4 man band formed all the way back in 2011 hailing from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. By now, the crowd is awake and grooving along as Audioburn rocks out. There’s even a little bit of moshing going on, which is a real treat. 

Audioburn’s set seems to fly by, which is unfortunate because I was really feeling their music. Time flies when you’re having fun. The boys just put out a single in February, called “Every Now & Then”. There’s a lyric video with a kick-ass visual that you can check out here

Cursor’s set is next and I’m stoked. I last saw these guys in June of 2022 at a local rock fest and they had an insane stage presence. This four-piece dude band was born out of Virginia and has had a great number of shows lately, but tonight lands them at Cafe 611.

My second time seeing them and they raised the bar even more. Vocalist Lucas serenaded the audience from behind his curly brunette locks while the band carried him through each song with perfection. 

Their drummer, Stefan, is always a delight to watch because the guy has boundless energy behind his drum set. Lots of moshing and dancing going on at this point, there’s even a circle pit at one point. If I didn’t have my camera on me I probably would have joined in, Cursor put on a hell of a show. I fully encourage you to check this band out, you can stream their latest EP called “Pharos” right here. 

Heartbent goes on stage next and I’m so ready. This is also my second time seeing them perform and I was truly impressed the first time, so I can’t wait to see what they bring to the table tonight. 

Heartbent is a 4 part emo band from Maryland and they really bring that emo aesthetic. Dudes with ear-length skater boy hair, black clothes, and a lovely female bassist with a nose piercing. 

They start their set with a bang and keep it going all the way through their set. There are several times that guitarist Neel has a good portion of the crowd literally on their knees bowing down as he burns the house down with his lengthy guitar licks. This dude can PLAY and he’s not shy about it either. The crowd is enjoying the show just as much as I am, the entire floor has become a circle pit. We did have a couple of trips and falls but not to worry, the metal community is known for picking up fallen moshers and each person that falls is swiftly scooped up so they can continue flailing about. 

Heartbent concludes their set by asking the crowd for a group photo, and then requesting that everyone chants “Heartbent sucks” for a video. The crowd collectively chuckles and then obliged. 

The evening is coming to a close but not before Koluna puts a cap on things. I’m a frequent show go-er when it comes to these guys, besides being total sweethearts off stage, the minute they get on stage they take control of the room. Koluna is a heavy metal band formed during the pandemic out of Martinsburg, West Virginia. 

Made up of five dudes, they have a lot to show for their time creating music together. I mean, I got to see them open for Attila last year in Baltimore. Talk about an insane show. 

The crowd is feral at this point, there’s not one damn person holding still. Guitarist Chris is all over the stage, shredding as he goes. Frontman David is throwing around his signature long copper hair as he screams away. A trend throughout the night has been bands supporting bands. Every band is in the crowd and sometimes jumping and singing along right in the front row as their brothers in music perform. It’s really heartwarming to see. What’s really sticking out to me during Koluna’s set is Trent from Cannon Hill giving it his all in support of the band while they play, shouting along with David and jumping in the air as far as he can as Koluna totally kills it. 

Koluna wraps up their set with “The Awakening”, which is a crowd favorite. This song goes so hard, it’s really difficult to put into words. The twangy guitar plays throughout the song are haunting and really stick out to me. This song has a short instrumental intermission, which is accompanied by Chris pumping his fist and chanting “AYE, AYE, AYE” as the crowd follows suit. Then there’s a massive and H E A V Y drop that you can feel in your chest and god damn, it makes you wanna punch things. Koluna’s set concludes and I swear you can cut through the energy in the room with a knife. 

I have it on good authority that Koluna is releasing their second EP, Obelisk pretty soon. Until then, you can listen to their absolute banger of an instrumental track, “Zenith”. 

It took a little bit of work from all the bands, but the crowd got rough and rowdy tonight and delivered on being an audience any band would want at their show. Each band totally kicked ass and I left with my ears ringing and a smile on my face. Another great night of local music in the books. 

Click Here for the Full Gallery of the Evening!

If you happened to capture any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see. 

Metanoia 

Cannon Hill

Audioburn

Cursor

Heartbent

Koluna