MARYLAND DEATHFEST: A TRAVELOGUE (Part 4)

 Mosh Pit  16 Responses »
May 282014
 

Diocletian at Rams Head Live — MDF XII

So far I’ve written about two of the venues at Maryland Deathfest XII – The Edison Lot and Soundstage. Today I’ll cover two more and begin discussing more of the bands who provided, for me, the musical highlights of the four-day event.

My two Seattle friends and I arrived in Baltimore in the early evening of last Wednesday after a long cross-country flight to D.C. and then a numbing crawl through rush-hour traffic from there to Baltimore. It was a steady 20 miles per hour all the way, except for the times when it wasn’t moving at all and about 10 minutes when we accelerated all the way up to a blistering 40 mph.

We hooked up with my NCS comrade BadWolf at the hotel (he had driven all the way from Toledo), and since all of us were feeling hungry and sort of beat to shit, we had some food and drinks at the hotel after checking in and before making our way to the Ottobar for the pre-fest show on Wednesday night. Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST: A TRAVELOGUE (Part 3)

 Mosh Pit  33 Responses »
May 272014
 

photo by Kusha of Theories

One of the most striking aspects of Maryland Deathfest XII was something that hit me even harder after I returned home to Seattle: As one of my new MDF acquaintances put it on Facebook today, it was a place “where EVERYTHING in totality, literally, everything in a 360 degree view, was ‘metal’ oriented in some way or another.”

You get that feeling at just about any metal show, but it’s a feeling that usually only lasts a handful of hours and then you’re back in the world. At MDF, it went on for days. Everywhere you looked, at almost all hours of the days and nights, even on the streets of Baltimore, you saw and heard the sights and sounds of metal. And especially at the Edison Lot, it was like being transported to another planet populated solely by metalheads. I’ve never seen so much black (or so many patches) in one place in my life.

People-watching was definitely one of the primary MDF spectator sports, second only to watching the bands on stage. Given that this was like a metal homecoming party (or, as Kim Kelly put it, “metal’s version of Spring Break”), lots of people obviously put a lot of thought and care into their selection of finery — including the dude in the horse-head mask pictured above, just after he had successfully crowd-surfed over the barricade at Edison Lot’s Stage A.  And of course the official mascot of MDF, Chicken Man: Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST: A TRAVELOGUE (Part 2)

 Metal News  11 Responses »
May 262014
 

I’m already experiencing post-coital tristesse (yeah, look it up) after 4+ days of M D Effing.  I’m now sitting in the lobby of my hotel with my two Seattle friends killing time before we drive from Baltimore to D.C. for our flight back home. I thought I might as well take advantage of the lull and bang out some more thoughts about my Maryland Deathfest XII experience.

Although this was my first MDF, I gather from talking to people who had attended many of the previous festivals that the logistics of this one were the best yet. I know I was really impressed with everything. The biggest venue (and the one making its first MDF appearance this year) was the Edison Lot — just a gigantic parking lot in the shadow of an overhead freeway that MDF took over for the last 3 days.

It was more or less a huge rectangular space with two big stages set up at opposite ends. A smaller rectangular space was carved out by a chain link fence that ran the length of the lot, and that area was lined on both sides with small, open-air, tented booths, every one of them offering merch of different kinds — tons of shirts, vinyl records, tapes, CDs, patches, pins, posters, and more. At one end of that space was an even larger tent (which was almost fully enclosed) filled with many more merch tables: Continue reading »

CAN MARYLAND DEATHFEST 2014 GET ANY BETTER? YES, IT JUST DID.

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Nov 222013
 

Even before today, next year’s edition of the Maryland Deathfest had already been shaping up as a truly stunning festival. But about an hour ago MDF announced a slew of additional confirmed appearances that further increase the stun power — and they’re still not finished. Check out the list of bands announced today:

DARK ANGEL (One of only a few US shows)

TRIPTYKON (Switzerland) – (Exclusive US appearance)

INQUISITION

CRIPPLE BASTARDS (Italy)

ANTISECT (UK)

SOURVEIN

LEFT FOR DEAD (Canada) Continue reading »

MDF UPDATE: 30 NEW BANDS CONFIRMED!

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Oct 312013
 

Talk about a Halloween treat: Today the MARYLAND DEATHFEST confirmed the appearance of 30 new bands at next year’s 12th edition of North America’s best extreme metal fest — bringing the total to 63. And even that fairly recent flyer up there is still incomplete. Check out this list of the names announced today:

Aeternus (Norway) – Exclusive US appearance!
Arcagathus (Canada)
Birdflesh (Sweden)
Castevet
Coffins (Japan)
Creative Waste (Saudi Arabia)
Cryptic Slaughter
Dropdead
Enthroned (Belgium) – Exclusive US appearance!
Entrails (Sweden)
Final Conflict
Immolation
Incantation
In Disgust
Mesrine (Canada)
Mitchondrion (Canada)
Mutilation Rites
Necros Christos – Exclusive US appearance! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MARYLAND DEATHFEST, NECROPHOBIC, UNCOFFINED, AND NEOLITHIC VOID

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 262013
 

Here’s a round-up of noteworthy things seen and heard over the last 24 hours.

MARYLAND DEATHFEST

The organizers of MDF XII have been slowly announcing the names of bands who will appear at next year’s edition of the best metal festival in the US. The most recent announcement came earlier this week with four new names: Cancer, from the UK, who will be making their first US appearance since 1993; Sacrifice from Canada, who will be making their first appearance since 1992; Nocturnus (who for legal reasons must call themselves Nocturnus A.D.), who will be playing the entirety of their debut album The Key; Crowbar; and Death Toll 80K from Finland.

I have several friends who are especially hot over the return of Nocturnus, including NCS writer BadWolf, who reviewed The Key in retrospective back in July 2012 (here). There seems to be some uncertainty about which of the band’s original members will be appearing, other than drummer/vocalist Mike Browning. However, Nocturnus performed songs from The Key live in Mexico City last April. Photos of that show can be found here, and videos are on YouTube, too. I wouldn’t recognize the performers, but presumably it will be the same line-up at MDF.

Here’s one of those videos: Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST THE MOVIE III

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Apr 052013
 

What you are looking at above is the just-released poster for Maryland Deathfest the Movie III, with artwork created by Bite Radius Designs of Nottingham, England. May I say that it’s fuckin’ sick? Why yes, I believe I just did.

And yes, there will indeed be an MDF the Movie III, though it will be the last MDF movie (or at least the last one by talented filmmaker David Hall). If you have a long memory, you may recall reading back in 2011 (here, for example) a statement by Hall that his footage of MDF 9 (2011) would never see the light of day, in part because Hall was getting screwed over by an ex-business partner and the partner’s associates who were holding much of the footage hostage.

It doesn’t appear that this situation ever got resolved — Hall stated on the Handshake Inc. Facebook page in January that although he had salvaged film of 8 bands, “the rest of the footage from MDF 9 was irretrievable and thanks to the herpetic piece of human garbage who stole the rest of the footage, neurosis, voivod, orange goblin, in solitude and countless others won’t be in the film.”

However, in addition to the footage that Hall did salvage from MDF 9, it appears the MDF III movie will also include footage of performances from MDF 10 in 2012. Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES FINAL 2013 LINE-UP

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Oct 092012
 

About a half hour ago the organizers of MARYLAND DEATHFEST announced the final line-up for MDF XI, the 2013 edition of the best extreme fest in these United States — except for one band whose name is yet to come.

This line-up is stunning.  I don’t really have anything more to say about it.  Feast your eyes on the new additions and the full line-up, plus some explanatory notes and ticket info from MDF at the end:

DOWN
(the) MELVINS
THE OBSESSED
ASCENSION (Germany) – Exclusive US appearance!
UFOMAMMUT (Italy)
COBALT
DEIPHAGO (Philippines/Costa Rica)
EVOKEN
NECROPSY

Confirmed for Baltimore Soundstage (no barricade shows): Continue reading »

CAN MDF XI GET ANY MORE AWESOME?

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

I know, I’m a grown man and grown men don’t say “awesome”. But I can’t fuckin’ help it. Earlier this morning, the organizers of Maryland Deathfest XI officially announced the addition of 10 more bands to the line-up, including the headliner for Thursday’s event: BOLT THROWER. Here are the latest additions:

BOLT THROWER (UK)
SLEEP
CARPATHIAN FOREST (Norway)
REVENGE (Canada)
ABIGAIL (Japan)
CRUCIAMENTUM (UK)
ANHEDONIST
SPEEDWOLF
AMBASSADOR GUN
ASTHMA CASTLE

Seriously, this festival is reaching nose-bleed heights of ridiculousness. If you want to lose your breath momentarily, take a look at the now-updated line-up (recognizing that it’s still not complete and that the final announcement of bands won’t come until sometime between October 8-10): Continue reading »

WHAT’S IN A NAME (Part 2)?

 Metal News  58 Responses »
Oct 122010
 

About a month ago, we mused about how much a good band name has to do with a band’s success. We considered some ass-kicking bands with ass-kicking names, some ass-kicking bands that have succeeded despite piss-poor names, and some bands whose names are just perplexing — and that led to one of the most interesting comment sessions we’ve ever had at this site.  (The whole post is here.)

Yesterday, we saw the latest line-up of confirmed bands for the 2011 edition of the Maryland Deathfest, and that got us thinking about band names again. Actually, to be brutally honest, it got us laughing like hyenas circling a fresh carcass.

Not that we intend to make fun of the Maryland Deathfest — far from it. That festival is the closest thing in scope to the big European festivals that the U.S. has to offer, and if it weren’t so damned far away from Seattle, we’d be there next May in a heartbeat.

But the line-up of bands includes some names of bands we’ve never heard before that deliciously embody the general middle-finger-giving, batshit-craziness of metal that we love so much. And so, after the jump, we’ll review the current line-up with you, focusing on some of those fucktastic names, and we’ll include a song or two from the band whose name we like the best. Continue reading »

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