(photo above by Levan Tk; all other photos by Islander)
(Andy Synn journeyed from England to the former proprietary colony of Lord Baltimore to take in his first ever Maryland Deathfest and now provides these reminiscences.)
MDF 2016… what can I say? Five days of drinking, yelling, headbanging, drinking, meeting old friends, making new friends, drinking (starting to see a theme here?), public intoxication, semi-public urination and, above all else, more Metal than you could shake a severed spinal column at.
Here’s the thing though, when I go to festivals it’s usually based on a calculation of if there’s enough bands I really want to see in order to make it worth my while. I go for the music, not to socialise.
But this year was different. This year it truly was the camaraderie and the friendships which made the weekend such a blast. And you can’t teach that…
So, instead of writing up some long-winded review of the whole affair, I thought I’d just pick out and categorise a few of the highlights (and lowlights) for you all.
BEST BANDS OF THE WEEKEND
Crypt Sermon
Goblin
Dragged Into Sunlight
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS
Putrid Pile
Nuclear Assault
Craft
BEST SWEDISH DEATH METAL BAND OF THE WEEKEND
Interment
BIGGEST SURPRISE
The Haunted play a bunch of songs from both rEvolvEr and The Dead Eye
BEST BANTER
Winner: Mika Luttinen (Impaled Nazarene) — “hats off and hats down to them!”
Runner-up: Matt Harvey (Gruesome) — “for those of you still with us, no, we still haven’t turned into Sinister”
BEST DANCE MOVES
Winner: Proscriptor McGovern (Absu)
Runner-up: Sexy dancing Goblin lady
BEST DEATH-WORSHIP
Horrendous / Gruesome (tie)
NUMBER OF BEERS IMBIBED
Incalculable
EARLIEST BEER
09:50am Saturday
NUMBER OF CORN DOGS CONSUMED
1
PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Khold
Secrets of the Moon
Phobocosm
PERSONAL LOWLIGHTS
Missing Rotten Sound
Terrible, ear-gouging music in the Mexican place we stopped to grab some food
Having to come home
FAVOURITE PEOPLE
Islander
Lord David of Baltimore
Social Justice Schafer
The Man Without A Face
The bionic woman
The entire extended Brutalitopia Crew and all my blogging brethren (and lady-brethren)
16 Responses to “MDF 2016: HAZY HIGHLIGHTS AND FUZZY RECOLLECTIONS (BY ANDY SYNN)”
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Bongzilla had great banter. Actually if he had just kept talking instead of playing he would’ve had the best standup set of the weekend.
What didn’t you like about Putrid Pile? The music or that he played to a full backing track?
It was just completely interchangeable with every other one-man Death/Grind outfit I’ve ever seen. Brutal, loud, and utterly unmemorable!
Nuclear Assault…was a disappointment to you?
Andy I love you dude, but I have to ask…Did you take a hard shot to the head during Hirax or something because that set fucking crushed, especially after Exciter let me down so badly
It’s funny because DGR and I said the same thing about your comment on Islander’s MDF piece!
When a band takes FOUR tries to start the same song… it’s not a good set.
Exciter played right before them, didnt have a single false start, and they were bland as hell…no energy at all…and Im speaking as a fan of that band.
Nuclear Assault may have had a couple of false starts, but musically they were right on point…and they were completely feeding off the crowd as well. I’ll take a set like that any day of the week
Oh, don’t worry, I fully agree on Exciter.
But I just found NA to be fairly ramshackle and amateurish on the night I’m afraid. That wasn’t the only song they struggled to get started with, or all come in together on, and the whole performance just felt very rough to me.
Wow..Im legitimately shocked to hear that. Im actually curious to see what others who were there thought
It’s spelled “Schafer” but I love you too brother.
I’m going to fire our editor for not catching that nonsense. (though it’s now corrected)
It’s spelled however I damn well say it’s spelled!
“9:50 AM Saturday”
I think you can do better.
You would think so. However, the fact that Andy woke up at 9:45 makes the 9:50 start more acceptable.
9:46 would’ve been the optimal time then 😉
Well, in that case, we’ll give him a begrudging pass…
Hey, since my normal wake-up time on a Saturday is somewhere between 12:00 and 13:00 I think that’s pretty good!
Slacker…who has time for sleep. If youre not still drinking beers at 4:00am you should just pack up to leave