MDF BLOG BREAK (PART 4)

 Concert Reviews  13 Responses »
May 262015
 


None of these people is me.

I’m seriously considering a legal change of my name to include the words “Ass Backwards” in it. I mean, I’m not fooling anyone anyway, so I might as well be up-front about it.

Case-in-point: Instead of writing a chronologically oriented and comprehensive review of the recently concluded Maryland Deathfest XIII, I just started tossing out random collections of photos over the last three days, mainly as a way of explaining why I wasn’t doing much of anything else for the site. And now, rather than starting over with something that actually looks like a thoughtful report on an amazing event, I’m going to continue with what I started and fill in the gaps I left, working my way backward to the pre-fest show last Wednesday.

Once again, there will be more of my photos in the continuation of this series than my words, which may come as a continuing relief to many. Continue reading »

MDF BLOG BREAK (PART 3)

 Concert Reviews  18 Responses »
May 252015
 

 

Alas, our revels now are ended. Maryland Deathfest XIII is over and in the history books, and it was an amazing experience. I’ve got to pack up and vacate my hotel room soon, and I don’t have nearly enough time at the moment to say everything I want to say. For now, I’ll show you some photos I took from the first three performances I saw yesterday (the last day of the festival), with a few words about each of those first bands I saw on Sunday. More pics and words will come in the next few days.

 

PRIMORDIAL

 I arrived late to the Edison Lot and missed the first four bands of the day, but caught all of Primordial’s set — which floored me. Alan Averill is an amazingly intense and charismatic front man, and his voice is an instrument of incredible power and passion. In the category of clean vocals, he probably took the prize for the fest, though ICS Vortex performing with Arcturus the night before was a very close second. Continue reading »

MDF BLOG BREAK (PART 2)

 Concert Reviews  12 Responses »
May 242015
 

 

I guess I’m not strictly taking a blog break, because I’m writing this post. I just wanted to say hello and tell you that I’m having a wonderful time at Maryland Deathfest and wish you were here. I know just reading those words will make your whole day, and probably even your whole week.

Saturday was amazing, even though my traveling companions and I missed some awesome bands because our visit to the National Aquarium lasted longer than we planned, and because we were compelled to make some difficult choices between bands whose set times conflicted with each other.

But these bands I did see were just fucking fantastic:  Arcturus (pictured above), Triptykon, Antigama, Adversarial, Wolfbrigade, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Continue reading »

MDF BLOG BREAK

 Mosh Pit  11 Responses »
May 232015
 

 

That photo up there was taken shortly before Vallenfyre began their set at Maryland Deathfest XIII yesterday, with Waltteri Vayrynen perched behind the drum kit. Later, the band’s frontman Greg Mackintosh growled during a break in the action: “When we formed this band in 2010, we had a dream that someday we would perform in a parking lot in Baltimore. And now, praise be, we are living the dream, in a Baltimore parking lot.”

One of the better stage lines delivered during the fest so far, but some truth in it too, at least for me. For the second year in a row I’m having a hell of a time at this festival — deafened, sleep-deprived, with sore feet and an aching back — but living the dream. And the fest is only half-done. Continue reading »

FESTivities: UPDATES FOR MDF XIII AND HELLS HEADBASH PART 2

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Apr 072015
 

 

I spied a couple of festival-related things this morning that I thought were worth sharing. Big metal festivals are a dime-a-dozen for people in Europe, but for metalheads in the U.S. (and seemingly everywhere else in the world) they’re like gold bars discovered in your sock drawer. Okay, maybe not quite that rare an occurrence, but you know what I mean. Also, I’m trying to deflect my own jealousy over Andy Synn’s recent escapades at the Inferno Festival by attempting to make him jealous.

MARYLAND DEATHFEST XIII

This morning the organizers of MDF XIII unveiled the official festival poster for this year’s edition of North America’s best metal festival. Gaze upon it above (and click the image to enlarge it). It features the artwork of Lucas Ruggiero. 250 copies will be printed and will soon be available for pre-order at the MDF web site. That line-up still makes me drool (correction: it makes me drool more than usual). Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES THE THIRD AND FINAL ROUND OF BANDS CONFIRMED FOR MDF XIII

 Metal News  9 Responses »
Aug 182014
 

Minutes ago the organizers of Maryland Deathfest XIII announced the third and final round of confirmed bands for next year’s event (whose names have now been added to the flyer you see above). Without further ado, here’s the list, as copied from MDF’s Facebook page:

ADVERSARIAL (Canada)
AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED – First ever live performance!
AMORPHIS (Finland) – Playing the ‘Tales from the Thousand Lakes’ album in its entirety. Exclusive US appearance!
ANTIGAMA (Poland)
ARTIFICIAL BRAIN
BACKSLIDER
BEVAR SEA (India)
BLOODBATH (Sweden) – First time in the US and first live performance in 5 years! Exclusive US appearance!
CEPHALIC CARNAGE – Playing songs from the first 3 albums!
CHAINSAW TO THE FACE
CIANIDE
CIBORIUM
COKE BUST
CONAN (UK) – Exclusive US appearance!
DEVOURMENT Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES THE SECOND ROUND OF BANDS FOR 2015

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Jul 252014
 

About a week ago the organizers of Maryland Deathfest XIII announced the first wave of more than 30 confirmed bands for the 2015 edition of this mighty festival (you can see that initial list here). And just a few minutes ago they revealed a second list of confirmed bands. This list isn’t as lengthy as the first one, but it’s still stunningly impressive (Demilich!!!):

Sodom (Germany) – Exclusive US appearance!
Demilich (Finland) – Exclusive US appearance!
Napalm Death (UK) – Headlining one of the nights at Soundstage.
Anaal Nathrakh (UK) – Exclusive US appearance!
Primordial (Ireland) – Most likely an exclusive US appearance. If not, MDF will be one of only a few US shows.
Martyrdöd (Sweden)
P.L.F.
Noxa (Indonesia)
Water Torture
Early Graves
Fulgora
Mother Brain
Pizzahifive Continue reading »

BREAKING NEWS: MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES INITIAL WAVE OF CONFIRMED BANDS FOR 2015

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Jul 152014
 

 

Are you sitting down? Because you should probably sit down so you don’t fall over when you see the initial list of bands whose appearance at Maryland Deathfest XIII (May 21-24, 2015) has just been confirmed by the event’s organizers. Here it is (the starred names will be making their exclusive U.S. appearances at MDF XIII; the list continues after the jump):

Aeternus (Norway) *
Arcturus (Norway) *
Aura Noir (Norway) *
Bulldozer (Italy) *
Darkened Nocturne Slaughtercult (Germany)
Demoncy
Dragged into Sunlight (UK)
D.R.I.
Einherjer (Norway) *
Funebrarum
Goatsnake
Impetuous Ritual (Australia) *
Lock Up * Continue reading »

MDF XIII: MARK YOUR CALENDARS

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Jun 102014
 

A metal friend of mine from Denmark e-mailed me recently that “Reading your MDF travelogues were a joy because they were so non jaded, they kinda read like the experience of a child in a candy store :).”  I think that pretty accurately nailed the way I felt about attending Maryland Deathfest XII. It was not only my first MDF experience, it was my first-ever metal festival of any kind, and it could hardly have been more perfect.

How do you improve on perfection? I guess, by definition, you can’t. But you can achieve something equally wonderful, but also different. And so I’m already excited about the 13th edition of this festival, the dates of which have now been announced: May 21-24, 2015. And the first round of bands, plus info about early-bird ticket sales, will be announced by August 1.

I’m well aware that for a great many people this festival is out of reach — too far away, too expensive to attend, falling on dates that don’t work. I’m not even sure I can go again. But I’m already fantasizing about it.

Part of the fantasizing involves wishful thinking about the bands who might attend next year. There’s an event page for the festival on Facebook that’s filled with people’s wish lists. Reading them (at least the serious ones) makes me salivate — in part because it really does seem possible that anything you wish for could actually come to pass.  Given MDF’s track record, you don’t even have to limit yourself to bands who are still active; even bands who’ve been dead for decades could come back to life for one last hurrah in Baltimore. Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST: A TRAVELOGUE (Part 5)

 Mosh Pit  22 Responses »
May 292014
 

I’ve been reliving my experience at Maryland Deathfest XII through these “travelogue” posts. Maybe “extending my experience” would be a better way to say it, because I really didn’t want it to end and still don’t. But I need to move back to what I usually do at the site (as soon as I remember what that is), and so this will be the final installment.

When I left off yesterday I was in the middle of giving a round of applause to the bands I saw at the Rams Head venue during the course of MDF who made the biggest impact on me. To be clear, I enjoyed the performances of every band I heard at MDF, but the ones I’ve mentioned in these posts were the highlights. I’ll wrap up my thoughts about the performances at Rams Head next, and then turn to the bands who were at Edison Lot.

Saturday night after Bölzer finished their set and I finished waiting in line at their merch table to throw money at them, I caught the last half of the set by Finland’s Hooded Menace, a band I like a lot. They were hooded and they were menacing, boulder-sized doom chords falling down like slow rain (if it were raining boulders) and bleak (but entrancing) guitar melodies rising up like graveyard mist. Continue reading »

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