Long post for a long weekend of metal.
Maryland Death Fest XVII
Date: Thursday May 23rd to May 26th, 2019
Venues: Rams Head Live and Soundstage in Baltimore, Maryland
Here's the schedule of bands for anyone interested:
So the Maryland Death Fest has been something I’ve wanted to do for years but just never did. When tickets went on sale last June I was in a really euphoric, good place so I said “f*** it, it’s time” and bought a four-day pass to both venues. As bands got announced over the next year not too much got me that excited. Revenge, Mortician and Anaal Nathrakh were all that really appealed to me. The rest were all bands that I had only just heard of and lots that I hadn’t even heard of. But it didn’t matter. I was happy to be going just for the experience.
ThursdayI got there midway through Thursday and met up with Internet BFF Nate and we immediately headed over to Soundstage because they had the more brutaller death bands that day. We showed up midway through
Outre-Tombe and they weren’t bad. They sounded like pretty much every other tech death band from Quebec. I think we went to eat after that because I don’t remember seeing
Malignancy. But I know we saw
Regurgitation. I’d started drinking a lot by then so I don’t really remember anything about them.
Guttural Secrete were really awesome though. They were slam death or grindcore or something. There were a lot of violent stage divers and I wasn’t paying attention to them and one pretty much took my head off, then the same guy took Nate’s knee out. But it was so awesome neither of us cared.
Immolation went on last and they destroyed everything. I’ve seen them live a couple of times before and they always crush everything but their set that night was a whole other level. I was focused on Robert Vigna the whole time. Watching him play guitar is mesmerizing. He is the coolest guy in the room. I have no idea what they played but I know they played the
Distorted Light and closed their set with
When the Jackals Come and played a bunch from Kingdom of Conspiracy that I recognized. The only bummer was they didn’t play the title track from Majesty and Decay, my favourite song of theirs.
FridayGetting up Friday was not good but waking up is never good for me. We spent two hours waiting for a meal at the worst Cheesecake Factory ever and didn’t get to the shows until 3pm or something. We had to bounce around between venues so we started at Rams Head Live and saw the end of
Obliteration. I honestly don’t remember them. The then we watched
Zemial to pacify another friend who couldn’t make it. They were okay musically but what really killed it for me was the vocalists stage getup. He used a cordless headset and skulked around the stage singing and it looked really stupid. And he was wearing a shoulder cape. If you’ve ever played the Dragon Quest video games you may remember an enemy called ‘Dancing Devils’. That’s what he looked like and that was all I could see their whole set. We tried but we had to leave midway. So we went to Soundstage to watch
Tomb Mold. I saw them last weekend and they were okay but they sounded much better here. I still think they sound like a million other bands but whatever.
We spent the rest of Friday at Rams Head Live. The beer there was less shit than Soundstage. We showed up towards the end of
Disharmonic Orchestras set and they weren’t very good. After them was
Anaal Nathrakh and I was pretty happy. I’ve been listening to them for ten plus years but I’ve never seen them live, plus they’re on a bit of a roll on album right now. Sadly their bass player was unable to make the show and their sound suffered from a serious lack of low-end. The volume was way too low too. I wanted to be destroyed by a wall-of-sound and was not. The mic cut out for almost all of
Forward! and that was a real suck too, one of their best songs. That said they were still awesome. They pulled everything off spot on and had great stage presence. They’re the only band that I bothered to keep track of what they were playing.
Anaal Nathrakh(intro) I Wish I Could Vomit On You…People
1. Obscene As Cancer
2. Monstrum in Animo
3. Depravity Favours the Bold
4. Hold Your Children Close and Pray For Oblivion
5. Forward!
6. In the Constellation of the Black Widow
7. ? (I’m not sure but I heard “avia contra”)
8. Forging Towards the Sunset
9. Glorified in Blood
10. The Joystream
We went and ate then caught the end of
Naglfar. I’ve been familiar with their name for a long time and they played songs that I don’t remember. Vomitory were supposed to play next but they got held up at the boarder and had to cancel, so
Immolation filled in... which was great news if you ask me. They crushed it again. I can’t say they were better because I wasn’t drunk enough but they were worth seeing two days in a row. After than was
Pestilence; another band who I’ve heard of for years but never bothered with. I knew they were tech-Death and I hate tech-death so I wasn’t excited but decided to give them a chance. Turns out I really enjoyed their set. Then I found out their singer is a raging racist and was like, “goddamn it”. But I can separate a persons real life assholeness from their work so I can still say I liked them and may just check out that album where the guy has ants all over his face.
Tormentor closed the night and I really didn’t like them. Attila was a beast on vocals but I was ready to leave and to see Carnivore A.D. play at Soundstage until Nate and Jackson told me they had started an hour ago and were long done. My heart was a little crushed but my morals stood proud.
SaturdayI felt way better getting up on Saturday. We started out at Soundstage for
Neckbeard Deathcamp, who I was told were the closest to war metal at the whole fest (aside from Revenge). We missed the beginning of their set but what we did catch was exactly what I needed to set the pace for the day. They were absolute chaos with a dose of tongue-in-cheek humour. I loved them. We stuck around for
Coffin Dust and they were okay. To me they sounded just like every other Entombed-core band but maybe a little drippier.
I don’t know what possessed us to make our way over to Rams Head Live but it may have been the best decision we made all weekend. When
Blood got on we groaned because they are old, so we were like
“great, another crummy death band that were around from 1982-1990 then got back together in 2016 to ride some wave”. Then they puked out some f***ing insane death-grind that reminded me of Harmony Corruption-era Napalm Death but more Extreme Noise Terror. They were f***ing awesome. They were so happy to be playing too that it made their set even more fun. Plus when we checked them out online we found out they’ve been around since 1986 but never broke up, have been releasing albums regularly and have pretty much always had the same line-up. They were far and away the greatest surprise and discovery I made all weekend.
Things are getting hazy now but I think we went to eat and made it back to Rams Head and caught the end of
Brutality. They were that boring old death metal band we were afraid Blood were going to be.
Scour was next and we really only wanted to see them for the same reason everyone else in the place wanted to: Phil Anselmo is in the band and they were going to play Panf***ingtera songs. First we had to make it through their songs (which were okay) and the worst tease of the weekend when Phil announced they were going to play a cover of something and it ended up being a Bathory song before they finally played
Strength Beyond Strength. Totally unexpected and not my favourite Panf***ingtera song but incredible all the same.
We went back to Soundstage because I wanted to see
G.O.D., only because they’re from my hometown of Oshawa, Ontario. I have no idea how they ended up on this festival? They probably played to the smallest crowd we saw all weekend but they were good. We went back to Rams Head and caught
Benediction and I only know that because that’s the order of the pictures in my phone.
It all fell apart after that. We saw
Revenge (who I was really excited to see) and it was chaos. We ended up on the edge of the pit and my beer kept getting knocked out of my hand. Then we went back to Soundstage and caught the end of
Devourment, who were probably awesome. Then it was time for the mighty
Mortician; who I’m a fan of and not because of irony. They were one of the first death metal bands I ever listened to in the mid/late-1990’s. We got right up front and got absolutely pulverized. I don’t even know what they were playing. Then I had to pee so we ended up out of the pit area (which was still crazy) and got further violated. I know they closed their set with
Zombie Apocalypse (my favourite song of theirs) and
Rabid. Hands down they were the best band all weekend and the most fun I’ve ever had at a metal show ever.
Then we somehow ended up back at Rams Head and saw
Deicide play a song we didn’t recognize then
Sacrificial Suicide and
Homage for Satan.
SundaySunday was pretty much what we expected: the dead were walking the earth. Everyone looked like they’d been run over by a bus and I had a pretty good hangover myself. I was waking up too early though. I’m a 3pm to 6am kinda guy. 6am until 3pm can kiss my ass.
We decided to spend the entire day at Rams Head because Soundstage was playing a lot of hardcore and neither of us really cares about that kind of music. We showed up midway through
Tchornobogs set and I do really wish I’d seen all of. Jackson told us their singer started the set by puking up black stuff and they had some wicked backstory about the singer being possessed by “Tchornobog”. They sounded like something right up my alley and they’re one of the bands I saw this weekend that I’m going to look more into. There was just something wrong about them playing at 3pm on a big stage and it still being light outside. They’re a 1am kinda band. After them were
Lich King, who were some fun crossover but their songs were just way too long. Crossover songs shouldn’t top two minutes. Ever.
Then we went outside and met up with some friends from an old online forum for a photo. They were all nice kids and it was cool to finally see them in person.
We made it back to Soundstage for
Merrimack but it was “bleacher time”. We sat and played on our phones struggling to stay awake. Not my thing. But then it was time for
Abyssal, who were only added to the event a few weeks ago when some other band cancelled. If you ask me it’s the greatest replacement in the history of our sport. I love that band and I didn’t think he even did shows period (I’m pretty sure it’s a one-man band) let alone come over to North America to play. They were spot-on awesome visually and musically. They played a short set and that was honestly perfect for me. The only downer is they played their best song
the Cornucopian second and that peaked their set. It was all 9/10 after that though. I can’t say they exceeded my expectations because I never expected to see them live. But they were only topped by Mortician over the weekend. It was hilarious to watch this kid we’d met on Saturday absolutely lose his shit during their set and have pretty much everyone around him laughing their asses off at him.
Everything else for the rest of the weekend was just there, which was too bad because I was finally coming alive.
Mortuary sounded like every other Latin American Death-thrash band but a little worse for some reason.
Fleshcrawl were okay but the crowd was just empathy by this point. Everyone was really stoked to see
the Chasm and I didn’t get it. Musically they were really good and they had some good riffs here and there but their songs just went on FOREVER.
Messiah was boring as hell and had a song called
the Dentist.
Unleashed were really good but by 1:30 in the morning it was time to say goodbye.
It was a wicked weekend though. I was kinda surprised it wasn’t a zoo but I’m honestly glad it wasn’t. There weren’t too many times I was uncomfortably sweaty in either venue. There really wasn’t a time when two bands I wanted to see overlapped so I can say that I saw pretty much everything I wanted to see. I would have liked to have seen Voivod on Thursday but I’ve seen them before and they still tour a lot. There were a couple times we wished we were at the opposite venue of where we were at but who cares? Some more brutal death or crazy war metal would’ve been nice but it is what it is. The positives way outweigh the negatives. Saturday was far and away “the day” but Thursday wasn’t too far behind it. I see a lot of shows but I usually have to drive home afterwards and I have to hold back. But here I was able to just Homer Simpson it up. AND I managed to not puke! It was something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and something I hope to do again.
The five best bands I saw were:
1. Mortician
2. Abyssal
3. Revenge
4. Blood
5. Immolation
With honourable mentions to Regurgitation, Guttural Secrete, Anaal Nathrakh, Pestilence, Neckbeard Deathcamp, Scour doing a Panf***ingtera song, G.O.D., Devourment, Tchornobog, that guy standing on the island at Light Street and East Pratt Street singing smooth R&B songs out of a karaoke machine with a broken microphone and IHOPs cannoli pancakes.
Immolation
Neckbeard Deathcamp
Blood
Abyssal
group shot (Zach, Jackson, Courtney, Robert, me, Nate, Dan, some guy)
