Brightest Young Things

3 Days of Death

All photos Josh Sisk: Full Set Here

Bands and metal devotees from around the globe converged at Sonar in Baltimore this weekend for Maryland Deathfest VII to share their love of extreme brutal music. I went by myself, talked to no one and made zero friends.¹ Extra brutal. This is my story.

I missed MDF last year because I could not convince anyone to go with me. This year I found myself in the same predicament but decided to go anyway. This was not a mistake. I had a great time, and discovered that the experience of being musically sand-blasted in the face while wearing earplugs, head-banging and screaming at the top of your lungs, does not need to be shared with others in order to be enjoyed. I saw a ton of bands but not anything like the complete lineup, although that would have been possible because the organizers utilized the two stages to run bands back to back with minimal overlap (rather than simultaneously) and almost no down time between sets. Here are the highlights of my Deathfest experience, broken down by day.

Thursday, May 21st: Pre-Fest

I was not planning on going to the pre-fest but I am glad I did. I only caught the last act, Ghoul (from ‘Creepsylvania’), but they were worth more than the 10 bucks I paid to get in. Their music is pretty straightforward but good thrash with a Creepsylvanian accent. They performed in burlap-sack masks soaked in blood and disemboweled a huge stuffed road-kill mascot on stage.

Friday, May 22nd

I caught the tail end of Gnostic’s set on the indoor stage. Awesome guitar solos and drums. Gnostic with a different vocalist and bass player equals Atheist, who played Saturday. Gnostic sound heavier than Atheist, but anyone into the kind of progressive tech-metal that Atheist helped pioneer would like Gnostic. Cephalic Carnage, who live up to their name on record, were one of the main draws of the fest for me personally. The difference between other disturbing death metal bands and Cephalic Carnage might be captured by an analogy to a horror movie that creeps you out in a fun way vs. one that actually terrifies and disturbs you in a wrong, the universe is ending deep-down way. Apparently they smoke marijuana: During their set a dude dressed as a huge bud of weed (complete with little purple hairs) came out on stage and dove into the crowd and crowd surfed. Even if you cannot say that last sentence to yourself without feeling dumb, you might be into Cephalic Carnage: Their most recent album ‘Xenosapien’ is beautiful and brutal all at once. Live they lose a little bit of what makes them unique but they killed anyway. Mayhem were one of the ‘bigger’ bands to play MDF this year. Internet-based research might lead one to believe that they are big at least partly because of their notoriety, but their live show was great and everyone went nuts. Along with Asphyx they were the high point of the evening, crowd energy-wise.

Saturday, May 23^rd

The inside and outside areas were packed by the time I arrived at 5:30 or so. I missed Rotten Sound, but picked up their CD outside for cheap. I heard most of Baltimore’s own Misery Index, probably the best sounding of all the bands that I heard playing on the indoor stage. I am not familiar with their albums at all, but they played something that I think had ‘Peace’ in the title and it ruled. I am not a big fan of ironic, tongue-in-cheek metal (to paraphrase a friend I don’t like my metal with a wink and a smile). Sweden’s Birdflesh (along with Ghoul) presents a counterargument to this sentiment at least as far as their live show goes. Birdflesh’s music holds up by itself, but I would see them again based solely on the intros to the songs, most of which were longer than the songs themselves (average song length about 40 seconds). The plot of ‘Flying Penis’ takes at least as long to describe as the song takes to play. Synopsis: A Thai adulterer’s penis is cut off by his wife and tied to a balloon. ‘Organ Smoothie’: “This one is about putting your balls in a blender and makes a smoothie.” Awesome. Atheist is one of a handful of bands that primarily drew me to MDF. I was anticipating killer drums and lots of cool guitar solos and I was not disappointed (typed note in my cell phone reads: f**cking sick ‘On they Slay’). The outside stage sound was awesome throughout the fest.

Pig Destroyer playing inside were probably the most heavy, brutal band of the weekend. During their set I was head-banging by myself at the back of the room when I noticed Mick Barr of Krallice also head-banging by himself at the back of the room. Band members made up a decent percentage of the audience throughout MDF. Saturday night had a lineup of big names, Brutal Truth, Immolation, Napalm Death, and Bolt Thrower. Oh my god, Bolt Thrower. I was not into Bolt Thrower prior to MDF but I am into them now. Everyone went nuts about three seconds into their set and stayed that way, continuous crowd surfing, etc., but the real proof was that immediately after they finished everyone was looking at their friend going ‘Oh my god did you see that?’ Except for me, because I was by myself. But it killed. Overheard: ‘Dude did you see Bolt Thrower? Yeah but you weren’t as close as me!’ I also encountered a slightly intoxicated gentleman in his late 30’s at the front gate who told me a confusing story about sitting on the corner outside, a stranger with a money order, etc. etc., anyway he wound up with thirty bucks and a free ticket. I asked him what he thought of the bands and he said

“Well you know my generation is like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, that sort of thing. Some of these bands I saw people sort of struggling to find the beat you know? Oh, but what was that band that just played?”

“Bolt Thrower?”

“Yeah! Damn, they were good!”

‘Two Hunters’ by Wolves in the Throne Room is on my car stereo and ipod pretty often, and I was psyched to see them live although I did not have high expectations. Their style of black metal uses really loud, layered guitars with lots of subtle harmonies, basically impossible to do live. Overall it sounded ok, but not much of the complexity of their music came across which is too bad. I would see them again, maybe at a smaller venue. The on-stage atmosphere was cool, evoking their most recent album cover with lots of blue smoke and candles.

Sunday, May 24^th

On my way to the fest I crossed paths with a dude who stuck out his hand and said “hey man where you from?” He introduced himself as Dave, the drummer of Richmond, VA’s Municipal Waste, and told me that Pestilence had cancelled, which was a heartbreaker for him and other old-school metal-heads, many of whom came to MDF mainly to see Pestilence. Inside Sonar there was a typed note from Pestilence describing a mix-up with visas and work permits: apparently they were refused entry to the US and sent back home, brutal.

The Red Chord had a great on stage sound like most of the bands that played outside during the weekend. Their style is a weird combination of brutal yet really tight and polished that reminds me a little of bands like Beneath the Massacre. I am sure Carbomb are a great band, but they did me a huge favor by cancelling because it meant I got to see Krallice. Krallice are one of a number of US bands (along with Wolves in the Throne Room and others) that are contributing to cool developments in black metal. It is hard to say what exactly they add that would not already be considered a stable element of black metal, but their music borrows elements from the more experimental projects of guitarist/ vocalist Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Ocrilim) and guitarist Colin Marston (Behold…The Arctopus, Dysrhythmia, Indricothere). As with Wolves, only a fraction of the complexity came across live, but it was awesome to see this kind of music represented at MDF.

Aura Noir describe themselves as ‘the ugliest band in the world’ and their music as ‘black thrash’. Sounded like thrash to me, and it sounded awesome, probably the highlight of the day. They get a crushing sound for a three person line-up. They announced that this was their first time in the US (ditto for Asphyx). Destroyer 666 put on a great show which goes a little over time, they win for presentation (spiked gauntlets). The level of excitement suffered a little because Pestilence was not performing, but Bolt Thrower took over their timeslot. http://www.myspace.com/boltthrower

Verdict:

Awesome. I would go a second year by myself. There was an aura of success in the air and one gets the sense that this was a breakthrough year for MDF and that next year will be even better. You can read about the history of the fest and the two kids who put it together basically by themselves here: http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=18058

Previously in Tangents:

• 12/28: Terrible Boyfriend/ Girlfriend Generator.
• 11/2: PHOTOS: TAXLO Halloween (feat. Chain Gang of 1974)
• 10/10: #OccupyWallStreet
• 8/10: PHOTOS: Lawn Mover Racing, Eastern Seaboard Regionals @ Bowles Farm
• 7/26: Special List: Things the BYGays Want Now That We Can Marry In DC (and NY!)
• 7/20: PHOTOS: Artscape
• 7/19: Miho Hatori's Guide to New York City
• 4/11: Cirque Du Soleil: Totem (A Review)
• 12/29: War, Reenacted
• 12/29: What in Hell is Slaughterama?!?