Maryland Death Fest
May 23-25 2008, The Sonar, Baltimore, MD
By Ryan Starr
Maryland Death Fest, “North America’s biggest underground metal party of the year”, features 3 days of death metal, grind, and other forms of extreme metal. This year’s fest had it all, punishing death metal, hyper speed grind, and even doom and black metal. However, this year’s fest was a bit unbalanced towards grind. Over half the line up was grind and it obviously had an impact on the fest. Many people spent a lot of time wandering outside or at the hotel. But before I get into specifics on the bands and crowd reaction, I want to highlight everything else that happened the show. The vendors, food, and some of the outside antics.
To start off, I must say that the Sonar is a great venue. The main room was a good size, and the extra rooms were a fantastic home for all the vendors. It was like a super market for everything metal. Shirts, CD’s, DVD’s, patches… everything was there. I probably spent close to $300, and I wasn’t the only one taking advantage of the low prices and great deals.
vendors
vendors
Outside the venue was the general gathering ground where you could smoke, buy food, and talk to random people. The food was good with typical event prices; however a few brave souls who wanted to save money walked a few blocks away to the red-light district where you could get fried food, cheap electronics, porn, and even the company of a lady all in the same place. The most entertaining part of the outdoor stuff was definitely the people. Whether it be the crusties trying to get in the show, the random weirdoes, or just your typical metal head there to drink beer and hear some good music. The highlight of all that was definitely the impromptu rap battle. I don’t like rap, but trash talking in rhyme is really funny, and that’s all it was. Now, I know for a fact someone got the entire thing record, and when I can get my hands on it, you all will be the first to know!
rap battle
wtf?
Now let’s get to the bands. So here’s the deal. There were some awesome bands at the fest.
Impaled,
Coffins, A
naal Nathrakh,
Torsofuck… some real quality metal. But I have to be honest. There was way too much grind and most of it wasn’t that great. And since I am writing my opinion here, I sincerely think that was a giant failure for the fest. Who ever books the bands for next year needs to seriously evaluate their selection process. Some grind is ok, but this was just too much. There was a silver lining to this though. It gave many of us some time to relax, get some food, or go back to the hotel and take a nap. I’m sure that isn’t what the organizers want, but it was nice.
But enough negativity, lets talk about some of the great sets. The absolute highlight for me was
Impaled. They without a doubt had the best show of the entire fest and also the best crowd reaction.
Impaled’s other band,
Ghoul, also played a killer set. These guys really know how to put on a great stage show. There was fire, blood, and massive amounts of stage presence. All this left the crowd awestruck.
Impaled's Ross Sewage fire breathing
Ghoul
Behold… The Arctopus was another favorite of mine, mostly because I love abstract technical wankery. And let’s face it, that’s exactly what they are. While a lot of people will tell you their music lacks emotion, I find there is no truth in this. They live and breathe this music and I think everyone in the crowd agreed with me.
Behold... The Arctopus' "bassist" Colin Marston on the Warr guitar
Anaal Nathrakh was a band that sparked some controversy. Some people don’t believe that a black metal band belongs on a death fest (though 347489264 grind bands is ok). But when they came to the stage, I don’t think anyone cared what style they played. Actually, I think everyone was eager for a change in pace! The crowd reaction for them was amazing, and given all the band had to endure to get to the fest, the band really appreciated it and stepped it up a few notches.
Anaal Nathrakh
On of the things that drew me to this fest was the opportunity to check out some new bands. 2 bands that really surprised me were
Coffins and
Infected Malignity.
Coffins has a brutal mix of death metal and doom that reminds me a lot of
Bolt Thrower and
Disembowelment. Once again, a change in pace was appreciated, and doom is obviously a change in pace!
Infected Malignity also gave us something different, death core.
Infected Malignity is proof that there is good death core. The riffs are technical, the breakdowns are miles ahead of any other core band, and the random shredding kept everyone enthralled. I don’t care if you think death core is just another silly scene trend, you need to check out this band. I guarantee you they will change your outlook on that style of music.
Infected Malignity
Lastly, I want to mention some grind bands that didn’t suck:
Squash Bowels,
Waco Jesus,
Fuck… I’m Dead, and
Japanische Kampforspiele. Each of the bands put on a fantastic show. Specifically, I want to highlight
Fuck… I’m Dead. They get the best grind band award.
Fuck... I'm Dead
Well, I think that’s it. Even though there were some obvious flaws this year, overall I had a good time. I saw some good bands, met some cool people, and significantly increased my shirt collection. Although a note to bands: make some patches! Patch vests are coming back and I can support you more often on a patch vest (that I wear to nearly every show) then I can with a shirt.
Dead Bassist Uwe Tripper
Official Maryland Death Fest Website
