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Witnessed
Maryland Deathfest 2010: Day 2
12/07/10 || InquisitorGeneralis
What: The Maryland Deathfest
When: 28th-30th May, 2010
Where: Club Sonar and surrounding streets, Baltimore Maryland
Day 2: Booze, Buds, and Black Metal take over.
Seeing as the first day’s article brought over 55,000,000 hits to Global Domination, I figured the masses needed the four horseman’s thoughts on Day 2 ASAP so here you are loyal dominators. Day 2 was the longest, hottest, and stinkiest of the three and we soaked up almost ten hours of masterful metal. We begin south of the border…
3:25-4:10: The Chasm, Outside Stage.
IG: The Chasm are Mexico’s finest import to the metal world since….have there been any other good metal bands from Mexico? Anywho, these guys were about halfway in to their set when the posse rolled into town. I enjoyed the music greatly but the Chewbacca from Oaxaca on vocals sounded as rough as he looked. The Chasm did rock out an enjoyable mix of melodic and technical death metal. From what I have heard though, the vocals sound even worse on record. Muy Malo Mi Amigos! Anyway, am I the only one who saw them? Or better yet, I am I the only one who remembered? Oh well, maybe I will check out the The Chasm. Or Maybe I will declare war on Huerta and Obregon. Who knows.
*
With hair and fingers flying, The Chasm opened up Day 2 for us!
The Chasm Setlist:
From the Curse, A Scourge
The Omnipotent Codex
Entering a Superior Dimension
I’m the Hateful Raven
Fiery Rebirth
A Portal to Nowhere
4:10-4:45: Sadistic Intent and Possessed Combo, Outside Stage.
D: Pretty fucked up at this point, but I remember these guys being pretty rad in a very 80’s way. Sadistic Intent is the perfect name for ‘em – every song sounded vicious and ripping. Singer’s snarl was exactly to my taste as well. Is anyone a big SI fan? Which album should I pick up? Help me!
*
Sadistic Intent did not lack enthusiasm, that’s for sure!
IG: Agreed with D, at this point the beer and drugs were swirling strongly in our brains. Sadistic Intent played a decent mix of death and thrash metal with their goofy, animated drummer really standing out. I enjoyed the performance a lot. Problem is that when I got home I downloaded some of their music and it sucked on tape. Oh well, the few hazy memories I have will remain. Some dude in a wheelchair came out and Sadistic Intent morphed into Possessed and things got a bit more thrashy. I liked Sadistic Intent much more. The song “Ancient black earth” was pretty awesome. Possessed did not impress. Still, it did seem genuine inspired for that dude to come out and sing so that was cool. It was the festival’s one and only “We are the world” moment.
*
I think I took this shot during the Possessed set, but I can’t remember since the bands were the same bunch of dudes!
T: They had an extremely short set. 2 or 3 songs? They were decent, but nothing spectacular. Just like Possessed’s set, which we gladly walked from at some point. Which would have been Sadistic Intent’s 4th or 5th song.
Sadistic Setlist:
Dark Predictions
Ancient Black Earth
Funerals Obscure
Possessed Setlist:
The Exorcist
March to Die
Pentagram
Tribulation
Burning in Hell
Confessions
Evil Warriors
Seance Play
Holy Hell
My Belief
Beyond The Gates
The Heretic Play
Death Metal
5:10 – 5:55: Incantation, Outside Stage.
Ryan: One of the bands I was excited to see. I must say that didn’t completely rock the house, but I also can’t really complain. One thing you can’t accuse these guys of is being not heavy enough. These guys were heavy. Like, as heavy as our combined four pairs of Global Dominating balls heavy (and trust me, that’s some heavy stuff). While it wasn’t really approaching anything closest to the best show I saw, it was worth seeing, and I’d be happy to give them a second chance live. Again, motherfucking heavy.
Also there was this one guy I thought was either supremely drunk or just really fucked up on drugs that are addictive and destroy your life who kept inching closer and closer to me, and he would just randomly let loose a growl. The more I moved away, the more his fucked up ass moved closer to me. Eventually I managed to evade this fucker, and I saw him getting a little too close and personal to other guys standing near us, while still randomly spewing forth the unholiest of unholy growls. What an asshole right? Personal space, buddy! Respect it! I asked D if he noticed this asshole. D said he did. Turns out the guy was blind. Oh….so I’m the asshole. That paved the way for yet another running joke.
*
Pennslyvania’s finest brought the heat in the heat outside!
D: Big Incantation fan here. Can’t say their set was really that awesome. Wasn’t bad but could not be described as top titties either. Then again, they played “The Ibex Moon”. Hooray. If only they’d kicked out something from “Primordial domination” – then Daemster’s juices would have been flowing like McEntree’s lustrous locks.
T: I was sitting at the side of the main building during this set, away from the others (was tired of standing), close by Mr. van Drunen. I wasn’t listening to Incantation very much, but more staring in awe at the type of girl (hint: not of a slender build) van Drunen had with him. And if I’m not completely mistaken, he was hand-feeding her. Yeah, at that point Incantation’s music was just going in one ear and out the other with no more thought.
IG Slow, doomy death that I surprisingly enjoyed. I doubt I will ever pay money to see them again. Not bad though. They even tossed in a cover of Death’s “Scream bloody gore” with Martin Van Drunen helping out on the chorus which got the crowd going big-time. They also did an entertaining cover of “Mob rules” in honor of the recently departed Mr. Ronnie Jame Dio. However, what does it day when the best songs you play are cover songs with another singer chipping in on one of them? Hmm?
Incantation setlist:
Twisted Sacrilegious Journey Into the Darkest Neurotic Delirium
Scream Bloody Gore (Death cover)
Ibex Moon
Scapegoat
Unnamed New Song
Mob Rules (Black Sabbath cover)
Stargazer (Rainbow cover)
Abolishment of Immaculate Serenity
5:50-6:40: Melechesh, Outside Stage.
D: Most folks know I don’t much care for blvck mvtl, but for some reason this angry bald man with his ridiculous faces and extra-evool bass of fire rocked my boat. They incorporated some sweet Middle Easterny stuff amidst the blasting that added to the experience. On the negative side, they played some fruity ambient intro for like 15 minutes prior to taking the stage. The THC coursing through my veins combined with brain piercing solar rays made the endless swooshy noises even more irritating. That aside, I am deeply disturbed at how much Meloncampsh, Watain, and Crucifist kicked it. Preconceived notions about black metal…breaking down…send…more…paramedics.
*
Melechesh rocked out while Ralph Waldo’s zombie blocked my fucken view!
T: I thought I’d have more to say after the fact about their set, but sadly I do not. It was refreshing to hear yet another band I was unfamiliar with pleasantly surprise me. I’m still interested enough in finding their records and hearing them further. The derka-derka-burka was a little overkill, though. Like we couldn’t tell they were of the sandy lands.
IG: These Israelites did not really strike me as black metal, more like an aggressive Opeth without the folk and the awesomeness. Melechesh definitely had some solid moments but I doubt that any money of mine will be spent on their records. I liked the set though and the band was entertaining. I think they should bring out a replica Ark of the Covenant, blow some horns, and smash it up. That would be much more Black Metal. If they ever get around to recording another album I will check it out…maybe. One thing is for sure, they guitarist who was dressed like a Jawa with a headwrap thingy on rivaled the singer from Pentagram for the most douchebagtastic outfit of the festival.
*
Wow, just wow. That is soo kvlt. Didn’t I just beat this guy in level 4 in Prince of Persia?
Ryan: We didn’t stick around for the whole show, but we saw a good portion of it. These guys are definitely not bad. I’d go so far as to say some of their stuff is really cool. Interesting to see a black metal band that doesn’t get decked out in corpsepaint. D was really annoyed by the ethereal ambiance that was playing before their set. I thought it was kind of amusing how much it repeated, but it either would have been that or silence from the stage while they were setting up. This is another band I’d be willing to check out live again.
Melechesh Setlist:
Of Mercury And Mercury
Apkallu Counsel
Triangular Tattvic Fire
Ladders to Sumeria
Leper Jerusalm
Deluge of Delusional Dreams
6:40 – 7:35: Asphyx, Outside Stage.
D: ‘Twas good to see drunken fat chick banger extraordinaire Martin “Venereal Disease” Drunen and the gang do their thing once again in Maryland. I’m a casual Asphyx consumer and am always pleased to hear the old classics being trotted out. Their performance was certainly better than last year’s. Better sound, less visible intoxication, and funnier incomprehensible between-song banter from MVD. Hearing him do the mic check in that bloodcurdling voice was mega-funny. Of course they played the eternally dominating “Crusher” for my benefit alone. Thank you, Asphyx, thank you for being YOU. May you continue classing up the Baltimore region on Memorial Day Weekend for aeons to come.
*
I wonder if Martin has the same look on his face while pounding a blubbery babe? We know he like ‘em!
Ryan: They had one of the longer sets on Saturday night. I’d never listened to them before. I must say they were… all right. They’re really sloppy actually. But I guess that’s all right, it’s just death metal for fun I think. Can’t say I’m a big fan of van Drunen’s vocals though, but he IS pretty hilarious. The sound check was incredible, D and I were cracking up. “ONE!!! ONEE! ONE TWO!! ONE TWO AAHHHHH!!!!” Oh, Martin. You silly man you. D also almost got murdered by this one lady’s husband because he asked to get a photo with her (because she was kind of old and looked really out of place) but her husband did not approve. That man was staring daggers at D, let me tell you. That same guy was also really angry and just shoving motherfuckers who got too close to him back into the pit. It was pretty sweet.
T: I enjoyed this set, being unfamiliar with 99.997% of their music. I thoroughly enjoyed the guitarist playing ever so sloppily on every single song. At that point it was easy to picture myself up there in his position. No knock on him or anything, but still, it’s not like he was jumping and thrashing around so much to be missing or slurring as many notes as he did.
*
This shot makes me think if “Talk dirty to me” by Poison!
IG: Asphyx now has failed twice to really get the blood flowing into my dick. I got bored about half-way through the set and lost interest. Didn’t I just see this type of shit with Incantation? Maybe I need to get some of the classic Asphyx records but I am sure they will get cast aside quickly. Old, slow death metal is just not doing it for me these days. MVD was an entertaining frontman though and he kept this from being a total borefest. Maybe I will buy “The Rack”. Or just listen to Grave. Either was I was neither repulsed or interested with Aspyhx for the second time in as many years.
Asphyx Setlist:
Vermin
Wasteland of Terror
The Rack
The Krusher
Serenade in Lead
Food for the Ignorant
Asphyx (Forgotten War)
Scorbutics
Eisenbahnmörser
Death…The Brutal Way
Bloodswamp
7:35-8:20: Blood Duster, Inside Stage.
Ryan: We didn’t stick around for long but hey, they played some death metal. As soon as they started playing a hundred glow sticks appeared from the audience, being thrown into the air. And also a bunch of animals blown up with air. Very strange. The first two songs they played seemed pretty cool though. The lead singer was wearing sunglasses, indoors. So, I guess that’s pretty cool too.
IG: Another death/grind band from Australia…oy oy oy! Fuck…I’m Dead was ok last year so maybe there would be some hope for these wallabees. Sadly, after the initial glow-stick party I was not impressed. They had some decent riffs and a few groovin’ sections but overall The Duster got old, fast. The frontman was mildy entertaining but the glare from the lights reflecting off of his bald-ass head gave me a severe headache.
Blood Duster Setlist:
Ha, yeah right.
9:40 – 10:40: Autopsy, Outside Stage
D: Another band I walked over to check out, heard their muffled, unexciting output for about two minutes, and went to get another Naddy Boh. Maybe Autopsy is better on CD? Got me. Sounded like absolute shit live.
Ryan: It was getting late and D and IG had no interest in Autopsy, so we left pretty much immediately. However I was really digging the tiny bit that I heard and wouldn’t have minded sticking around. If I ever get the chance to see them again, I will definitely do so. I think it was this ride home where we went through the bad part of town (well, one of the times we went through the bad part of town) and it looked like madness. There was this dog barking and then a second later it sounded like that dog got hit by a car, saw some dude on a dirtbike riding on the sidewalk….I believe D said it looked like the Dominican Republic if I remember correctly
IG Autopsy sucked. And all the old heads who will get riled up by that can go fuck themselves. Old, sloppy, slow death metal just is not getting the job done for me right now. Maybe one day I will come around to these guys, they certainly are loved, adored, and buttfucked by legions of devoted metalheads out there. I got you the setlist though, at least I did something for you guys!
Since you all want to have his babies, here is Chris Reifert
drumming it up! This photo is courtesy of The Examiner. I was long gone
by this time.
T: Here was a band that I am quite fond of, and never saw live. Contrary to what the others said, they did not suck in the slightest. They were on point with their shit, but I also can maybe see their point of view, if only as being someone unfamiliar hearing it live for the first time in a big retarded crowd. Other than that, they were completely wrong. Nevertheless, I ended up walking out of the Deathfest that night with them. I shall forever regret that decision, to have only heard two songs. Oh, well!
Autopsy Setlist:
Twisted Mass Of Burnt Decay
In the Grip of Winter
Severed Survival
Disembowel
Ridden With Disease
Deathmask Play
Destined to Fester
Human Genocide
Fiend For Blood
Gasping for Air
Death Twitch
Dead
Voices
Spinal Extractions
Slaughterday
Dark Crusade
Horrific Obsession
Embalmed
Charred Remains
Ending Rant from The Inquisitor:
Day 2 was epic, serious, and not fucking around. We saw mysterious masked metallers from the Middle East, glow-stick grind from Down Under, a Danish metal icon hand-feeding meat to a she-grimace, and an epic reunion that only one of us gave a shit about. Oh, and we got more epic tattoos plastered on the back of metal chicks! Here is today’s champ, bow to its awesomeness…
Motörhead didn’t play, but Lemmy was all over the bitches at MDF!
It takes some serious balls, or in this case a labia of steel, to get someone has butt-fucking-ugly as Lemmy tattooed on yer back. I salute you mysterious metal babe, you were my hero on the second day. The third and final revelation will be coming soon, so REPENT ye mortal souls!
