That’s because Hammerly and his bandmates have grappled with a series of setbacks in the run-up to Black Ocean Waves. In August 2011, King Giant’s rhythm guitarist, David Kowalski, broke his femur while filming the music video for “Appomattox,” the first track on King Giant’s previous record. That LP, Dismal Hollow, came out in early 2012 — and while Kowalski managed to fight through his pain and play a release show while sitting in a chair, he had to undergo another surgery immediately after the performance.

Then in October 2012, a week before King Giant was scheduled to play another local gig, lead guitarist Todd Ingram fell, breaking both his wrist and fretting hand. That injury — and the multiple surgeries and rehab it required — forced the band to cancel not only that comeback show, but also its entire Dismal Hollow tour.

Out of necessity, King Giant changed course. “For long periods of time we simply couldn’t play live due to the medical issues,” Ingram says. “So we just focused on writing and making a new album.”

Fans got an early listen to that new album in May, when King Giant previewed it at a Metal Night I co-hosted at Fair Winds Brewing. The band had planned to sell Black Ocean Waves during its release show at Springfield, Virginia, venue Empire, until another setback struck: The venue abruptly shut down just weeks before the show.

Despite the string of bad luck, King Giant finally released Black Ocean Waves on June 30 — and fittingly, it’s a gloomy record that still manages to find glimmers of hope amid the darkness.

The LP includes several uptempo — even catchy — tunes, including “Trail of Thorns” and “Requiem for a Drunkard,” suggesting a resolute strength achieved through overcoming hardship. That hardship didn’t just stem from the band’s injuries.

The song “There Were Bells,” Ingram says, “expresses our heartbreak at losing so many friends to addictions, suicide and other tragedies over the past few years. We have had to say goodbye to so many people we care about in such a short amount of time.”

Elsewhere, Black Ocean Waves weaves tales of adventure and mishap, usually led by a tough-as-nails protagonist who busies himself by toppling obstacles, venturing on gruesome killing sprees and — in “Blood of the Lamb” — joining a church of snake handlers.

Hammerly excels at adding a relatable human element to these songs, and despite the often questionable ethics of the characters involved, he’s surprisingly adept at making listeners feel as though they’re walking in the narrator’s shoes.

Take “Red Skies,” which tells the story of a man lured onto a boat to be murdered by the ship’s crew — except the crew has severely underestimated his tenacity, and they’re the ones who end up dead. It’s a macabre scene, but Hammerly doesn’t tell the tale with the alpha-male, tough-guy tone you’d expect. He takes a left turn, focusing on the killer’s ensuing struggle with guilt. (It also leaves the listener questioning if the crew actually intended to kill the narrator or if it was all a figment of his imagination.)

Doom and stoner metal have a long tradition in the Washington, D.C., region. King Giant has built on that tradition, but found an audience beyond typical metalheads. The band harnesses the fuzzy guitars of ‘70s heavy metal and Southern rock and adds the despair of blues and the storytelling of country western, imparting a blue-collar grit to the band’s sound.

From solos bathed in wah-wah to whiskey-soaked tales of hardship, Black Ocean Waves sets a high-water mark for the region’s metal scene this year. But it’s King Giant’s thoughtful songwriting — crafted with an eye toward the band’s own hard-luck experiences — that gives the record its heft.

King Giant’s Black Ocean Waves is available on iTunes and Bandcamp. Preview it below.

“Today, I must tell you with a heavy heart that Empire will be closing it’s [sic] doors May 5th. I have been a promoter in DC/MD/VA for close to 10 years and have had the privilege of owning a successful all ages music venue that has allowed me to work with amazing artists, meet genuine people from all over the world and provide a place where anyone with a passion for underground music could attend and be welcomed with open arms,” Malhoyt wrote in a status update.

Malhoyt and partner Jeff Cohen of promotions group Outerloop took over Jaxx in early 2012 and changed its name to Empire. Under previous owner Jay Nedry, the strip-mall venue was known as one of the region’s most reliable houses for metal. When Malhoyt and Cohen took the reins, they brought in more metalcore, a cousin of metal that traditionalists would hesitate to call “real” metal. The changeover stoked anxiety in the metal scene at the time, as Bandwidth contributor Catherine Lewis reported for TBD.com in 2011.

“The main bummer about Jaxx switching management is that the NoVa heavy metal bands and fans could be losing a major venue for their music scene,” musician and promoter Simon Cohen told Lewis.

Metal fans expressed a similar anxiety on message boards. “I’ll do everything in my power to keep that place alive,” wrote a fan on ultimatemetal.com. “I REFUSE to believe the best place to catch metal in NoVA is f*****g JAMMIN’ JAVA.”

But over the last few years, the new owners managed to retain Jaxx’s legacy as a safe space for “real” metal while also booking metalcore, hip-hop, electronic music and rock.

Reached via email, Malhoyt said he’s selling Empire “to be able to invest my time in other things I have going on in the music business.”

Starting May 5, all shows at Empire will be moved to Canal Club in Richmond, according to Malhoyt’s Facebook post, and tickets will be honored there. But it already looks like some bands are scrambling to find closer alternate venues: Northern Virginia’s King Giant had an album-release show booked at Empire for May 30, and the metal band posted on Facebook about their struggle to relocate the gig.

“Yes, we know about Empire closing. We’ve been trying to rebook the show for the past 48 hours, but it’s not looking good. We are as bummed as you,” King Giant posted. “We will update you all via our FB page once we secure a new date.”

If ticketholders can’t make it down to shows moved to Richmond, refunds will be available via Ticketfly, according to Malhoyt’s Facebook post.

Flickr photo by Bob Mical used under a Creative Commons license.