Heavy Metal!!

[MrWhippy]

Yes!  MDF week is finally here.      

Really excited about all four days, but I think the end of Thursday night with Cobalt into Bolt Thrower is the thing I'm most psyched about.

[manonthemoon]

Yes!  MDF week is finally here.      

Really excited about all four days, but I think the end of Thursday night with Cobalt into Bolt Thrower is the thing I'm most psyched about.

Plus you get Pallbearer which is always excellent on Thursday.

I am guessing Stage 1 is the big stage and stage 3 is labeled inside so I wonder if they are actually opening up Sonar for this?

[MrWhippy]

I am guessing Stage 1 is the big stage and stage 3 is labeled inside so I wonder if they are actually opening up Sonar for this?

Apparently they are not having any music inside what used to be Sonar (and is now a nightclub called Paparazzi or something) as there is no longer a stage in there.  The stage labeled as "inside" is actually going to just be a tent set up outside.  Strange setup.  I will be interested to see how this all works. 

[Tired Eyes]

I'm planning to drive down on Sunday and buy a ticket at the door for the former Sonar Compound.  Here is what I am planning to see starting at 5 pm.

Pagan Altar
Sacred Reich
Manilla Road
Sleep
Pentagram
Venom
Carpathian Forest

If anyone has recommendations for the pre-5 pm bands on Sunday, I'm listening.
Look forward to seeing some of you there.

[MrWhippy]

Hey Bill!

Sounds like Brett and I will see you Sunday!

Hope you were not too set on seeing Carpathian Forest because they cancelled due to having visa problems and not being able to get into the country.

My buddy and I were talking about possibly arriving around 5 on Sunday, as we haven't been too drawn in by what we've heard from the bands playing early that day.  So I can't help you with recommendations.

MDF Day 1 was great, though missed most of Pallbearer due to getting caught in really bad traffic on the way to Baltimore.

So, we saw three full sets:

Abigail was a pretty run of the mill metal band from Japan, not real memorable.

Cobalt was one of the more interesting and awesome metal bands I've ever seen.

Bolt Thrower destroyed everything in their path.

Onward to Day 2 (with Ruckus!)

[Fully]

I would think with a name like Bolt Thrower you would be ducking for cover all night as they did indeed destroy everything in their path! Have fun!

[MrWhippy]

MDF Day 2 report:

Ambassador Gun - Decent grindcore band from the US.  Nice way to start the day but nothing too memorable.

Abumado Granujo - Grindcore band from the Czech Republic.  This set was just bizarre.  The band was not very good, and I don't know whoever thought it was a good idea to have long pre-recorded techno intros to grindcore songs, but I never want to hear something like that again.  Someone brought in tons of glowsticks and inflatable beachballs, and both were so hilariously out of place for this set.  Also, the mosh pit featured DC's famous metal chicken man, people dressed up as both ketchup and mustard, someone in a leather bondage mask, and someone dressed up as the devil.  It was more entertaining to watch than the band.

Convulse - Death metal band from Finland who has not really been active since putting out some records in the 90's.  Very solid and enjoyable set with some great guitar work.

Ingrowing - My buddy and I left Convulse a bit early to catch this band from the Czech Republic, and I'm so glad we did.  This set was fantastic.  Just a perfect set of somewhere at the intersection of death metal and grindcore.  The energy exploded when they ended their set with a Napalm Death cover, which was cool as well.

Benediction - Very old school British death metal.  This set was fine and kept me interested, but was pretty repetitive and ultimately pretty flat.  One of the lower points of the day.

Pig Destroyer - Typically awesome Pig Destroyer set.  I love these guys so much, and they never disappoint.  Grade A grindcore.

Repulsion - This set was awesome and probably the biggest surprise of the day.  I had seen these guys back in January at the Decibel 100th issue show, and they were good, but you could tell that they were a band that was being dusted off and was not a currently active unit (their first and only album came out in the late 80's).  Well, they must have practiced quite a bit in the interim, because they were so much more powerful and forceful this time. 

Righteous Pigs - This was a very obscure reunion of a metal/hardcore band that was where Napalm Death's current guitarist got his start.  He's an amazing guitarist and it was great to see him, but this was a very strange set.  The singer of this band is an like the embodiment of every bad metal cliche.  As great as the music was, the singer really kept this from gelling into something great.

Carcass - This set was just incredible, and one of the best sets of metal I have ever seen.  I feel like this set was heavier beyond something I could have even imagined.  Mind = blown.   

Pelican - I've been wanting to see these guys for a long time, so I'm so psyched that I finally got to.  Killer instrumental post-metal, and a great way to end the night.

Hanging out with Ruckus and Ms. Ruckus - Awesome.

Meeting Alienlanes - Fucking awesome.

Onward to Day 3 with manonthemoon.

[alienlanes]

I too am at MDF and am loving the music even if the weather has been awfully mixed. It was also great to meet my first fellow forum members yesterday, when Mr. Whippy came by the booth I was working at. It was really great to meet him and he also introduced me to Ruckus and his wife. I am hoping I will get to hang out with them all again later this weekend!

As for the music, here are my incredibly quick recaps for Thursday and Friday...

Thursday: First band of the weekend for me was Deiphago from the Phillipines. On album they sound like being in the middle of a hurricane and, unsurprisingly, their live performance was the same. Up next was Pallbearer, who was a mixed bag for me personally. While I loved the music, the vocals were really out of key/tune and kinda ruined it for me. I had been looking forward to seeing Japan's Abgail, who were next and loved their riff filled 80s thrash/NWOBHM stylings. I missed seeing Cobalt, as i actually couldn't get into the tent because of the rain, but I made sure I was inside for Bolt thrower, who were fucking amazing!

Friday: I spent a good part of the day working at the tent I am helping with for the weekend, so I didn't see as many acts as I would have liked. the first act I took in was Finland's Convulse, an old school death metal outfit which was right up my alley. the same can be said for Benediction, the next band I watched. It was their first time in the US since 1994 and while their style was simplistic I enjoyed it. I spent the rest of the night at the tent I was working, which thankfully was straight on to stage #1, so I had a great viewpoint for Repulsion (best I have seen them in the 3 times I have seen them) and Carcass (who ruled with the new line up)! After meeting Ruckus and hearing how excited he and his wife were to see Pelican I ventured into the tent to watch Pelican and really dug it. The band seems reinvigorated with their new guitarist.

Alright, let's see what Saturday brings!

[Ruckus]

It was great to meet you alienlanes.  Hope you enjoy the last two days.  I'm gonna look into Sacrifice.

Always good to frolic with the Whipster

We had a frickin' blast!  Convulse and Benediction were so so and the sound for Evoken in the tent was awful.  But Carcass was just unbelievable and it was a tough decision to skip out early to get a spot all the way up front for Pelican.  It was worth it.  They blew us away.

[MrWhippy]

MDF Day 3 report:

Kommandant - This was just crazy and awesome.  All band members wearing gas masks, singer up on a podium fully masked and covered in white powder.  The music was heavy doom which fit the aesthetic perfectly.  Hopefully this picture does it a bit of justice:



Anhedonist - Heavy doom metal and a really great set from this young Seattle band.

Loss - Another heavy doom set, but not as musically interesting as the bands the came before and a little too slow.  Being on a bit of doom overload at this point, we left halfway through to check out something else.

Iniquity - Complex, technical death metal from Denmark.  Good but nothing too thrilling.

Weedeater - Heavy Southern sludge metal.  This set was awesome.  Dave Collins is such an insane human and so fun to watch.  He also gets such as amazing, heavy bass tone that really drives their sound.  He also pounded an insane amount of whiskey during this set.

The Obsessed - I'm not a big fan of Wino in other projects I've heard of his, so I didn't have much expectations for this reunion show of his first band The Obsessed.  This was my favorite thing I've heard from Wino, but still just not up my alley.  He's a good guitar player, but I'm just not that drawn in by him.  I know others really dug this set though, so they must see something I don't.

Aosoth - Killer French black metal.  Really great set.  Completely held my attention throughout.

Melvins - I've seen these guys many times over the years, dating back to 1993 or so.  I've always been impressed with their sets, but was super impressed with them this time.  They had the two drummer format they have been doing for the last few years, and unlike other bands that seem to have two drummers for absolutely no reason (Floating Action, Bright Eyes, etc.), the two drummers really adds something here.  Also King Buzzo is an insanely good guitar player.  This felt like the heaviest I've ever seen the Melvins, and it was great.

Revenge - I was not previously familiar with this band from Canada.  My buddy came up with a good description for their sound - "hate metal."  This was just incredibly abrasive and aggressive and I really enjoyed it, but not something I would want to revisit often, or maybe ever again.

Down - I was only casually familiar with Down, and was impressed with them.  Phil Anselmo is a great frontman and his band is top notch.  Glad I saw what I did of this, but left about halfway through to catch the second half of Vinterland.

Vinterland - Really excellent Swedish black metal.  More melodic than average for a black metal band, but still very heavy.  Great set. 

Antaues - Another French black metal band that has some of the same members as Aosoth.  This was my favorite set of the day and probably my favorite set of straight ahead black metal I've ever seen.  It didn't really deviate from the black metal format, but they just nailed it. 

Hung out with manonthemoon much of the day for his first visit to MDF.  Always a great time.

[MrWhippy]

Not sure if these MDF reviews are interesting to many people, but might as well follow through with Day 4. 

My MDF buddy and I enjoy the more extreme/experimental stuff, so we skipped many of the more traditional/straight ahead things today like Pagan Altar, Pentagram, and Venom in favor of other stuff.  Hopefully others can chime in on how those bands were.

Midnight - Very old school and not that interesting to me.  The black executioner masks the band all wore and the crowd member dressed as Jesus crowd surfing during the set were nice touches, though.

Gride - Czech Republic band that plays a really fun mash up of metal and hardcore sung in their native language.  Great set.

Iron Lung - We went over to the Baltimore Soundstage, MDF's indoor venue that hosted punk/hardcore bands all weekend, for this set.  Iron Lung is a guitar/drum duo that play a chaotic mix of hardcore and other styles all jumbled together.  Really enjoyable set.

Sleep - We skipped out on the bands playing in the slot before this to secure good spots for Sleep.  It was well worth it, as we got elevated spots on a curb in front of the soundboard and had a perfect sound and an unobstructed view for the best set of the whole festival.  Sleep absolutely killed it.  This band has  such a narrow range of what they do, but it is perfect as the just pummel that one thing like nothing else.  I was very surprised that they played a new song, and it was great.  I hope that means we will see more from these guys in the future, and that Matt Pike will take time away from High on Fire to keep Sleep going.

Ascension - Black metal band from Germany.  I loved this set.  They reminded me of a more aggressive version of Agalloch, with complex, suite-like songs. 

Citizens Arrest - We headed back over to the indoor venue, and saw this band mostly due to wanting to get good spots for Converge who came on after them.  This was my least favorite set of the whole festival.  Boring, unoriginal, straight ahead punk.  It also didn't help that, after finishing their soundcheck on time, they came on 30 minutes late for no apparent reason.  This really seemed to suck the energy out of the set, as the crowd was really not engaged or responsive for their set.  Luckily, they didn't play for very long.

Converge - I love this band so much.  Besides always bringing an insane amount of energy, their skill and musicianship just blows me away.  Their set time got compressed a bit thanks to the stupid previous band going on so late, but it just served to ramp up the energy of their set and caused them to cut out some of the talking between songs.  Great ending to an amazing weekend.

[Fully]

I've enjoyed reading your MDF recaps, Whips of Death! So wish I could have seen that Sleep set.

[APR]

I've enjoyed reading your MDF recaps, Whips of Death! So wish I could have seen that Sleep set.

I too like the recaps even though I haven't heard of a single one of these bands. 

I'm hoping for a 'Roo recap along these lines in June.

I gotta go look up what a Grindcore band is.

[manonthemoon]

Great Recaps Jon, was awesome hanging out with you and Michael on Saturday, just wish that the lines hadn't been so crazy on Sunday so I could of caught a couple of more bands.  It was also good to meet Alienlanes and I hope you were able to see decently from the tents during the Stage1 sets.

Overall I really enjoyed Anhedonist with their really great Doom sound, by far one of my favorites of the early going.

Weedeater was good old southern sludge/stoner metal at its best, plus the Duke did drink enough whiskey to kill a normal drunk.  I'm not sure how much of that JD handle he drank, but at the end of the Down set it was down to 1/4 of a bottle and the crazy part was he had 2 other bottles with him on stage.  Pepper from Down came out for a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover as well.

Melvins were really good, never been a huge fan, but their live show with the double drummers was awesome.  Plus they are good entertainers and know how to work a crowd.

Down was by far the best I have ever seen them, they were on fire.  Played pretty much all of their big ones from the first two albums with a couple from the newer stuff.  Eyes of the South and Bury me in Smoke were just epic.  Plus Phil was in a good mood and feeling pretty good as I have seen him in the past when his back was killing him and those weren't the best of shows.  He was really playing to the crowd trying to get everyone into it even, I think the years he has been doing this have really made him a mellow guy.  I was up front at the one back from the rail and everyone up close was into it.

I only caught two shows on Sunday, but they were both great.

Sacred Reich was more thrash/traditional metal, but the dudes were funny and knew how to work the crowd.  He tried to get the pit to be massive and at one point it was probably 40 feet long or so, the largest I have seen since Mastodon's a year back, even these two huge security guards joined in.  Really suprised at how much I liked this set.

Then Sleep hit the stage and it was F'ing amazing.  Was one back from the rail in front of Pike and those guys killed it.  The crowd was so into this, I have never seen so much crowd surfing going on.  This was by far the best concert experience I have had in a while, probably back to the 2nd time I saw Red Fang at Sonar, the crowd was just so into it and the energy was amazing.  So much headbanging, I now officially know what it is to have a bangover.  It was so funny that al was asking the crowd to smoke more to help the band.  The new song was really good, murky and a really nice riff from Pike going on toward the end as well.  Really hope this means that they might do another album and a tour at some point.  Was also stoked that they played an extra ten minutes as every other band got cut off when they ran over, but I guess the organizers knew better than to cut them off considering the crowd.

I heard they had problems with Venom at the end of their set due to them running over and that the police were called, but i had left right after Sleep as my body was done at that point, plus black metal isn't a big draw for me.

I will say this, most of the crowd was great, no issues anywere and I've said it before even a mediocre metal show or one that I don't like as it is not my style can still be awesome just based on the crowd energy.  I wish all music crowds were like these ones.   

[MrWhippy]

So much headbanging, I now officially know what it is to have a bangover. 

Ha!  I learned that one, too.  I woke up with a neckache several mornings due to too much headbanging the night before. 

[MrWhippy]

Here's a cool photo I found that was taken from the stage during the Sleep set.

I see my male pattern bald head right in front of the soundboard.  Brett, I was looking for you in this, too, but can't see you.

[Fully]

Here's a cool photo I found that was taken from the stage during the Sleep set.

I see my male pattern bald head right in front of the soundboard.  Brett, I was looking for you in this, too, but can't see you.

Tramp stamp on a guy - so metal.

[Penny Lane]

So what about Pentagram? I thought Tired Eyes saw them, anyone else? I just watched that documentary...

[Tired Eyes]

I went to MDF on Sunday.  It was my first time attending MDF and I hope to return next year for at least 3 if not all 4 days.

I got there a bit before 5 and checked out some merch indoors.  I didn't buy anything then (a mistake...more on that later).  I then saw Mr Whippy and we talked for a bit before I went over to see Pagan Altar.  Unfortunately I missed seeing manonthemoon and never got to meet alienlanes.

Pagan Altar was a very good UK doom act.  They were doing their music many years ago but I think it has only been issued/reissued fairly recently. 

I then went to see Sacred Reich.  While I have seen many thrash acts before, this was my first time seeing them.  While they were good, I left their set a bit early as I wanted to try to get a tshirt or two before heading back for Manilla Road on stage 2.  I waited in a line at a vendor that had lots of good shirts.  The line moved fairly quickly until this one couple who treated merch buying like it was a new car purchase...they took forever!  As a result I had to leave the line to go catch Manilla Road.

Manilla Road are a band from Wichita, KS (which happens to be my mom's hometown) that started in 1977.  They play power/traditional metal and they are excellent.  I really enjoyed their set.

Then I was hungry so waited in line for a pulled pork sandwich and birch beer at Zombie Barbecue's stand.  The line moved slowly and MDF has very short setbreaks (sometimes none at all between stages 1 and 2) so Sleep started while I was waiting in line.  Luckily they were so loud that I could hear them.  I went over and watched them and loved their set.  This was my 2nd time seeing them as I saw them at the Masonic Temple in Brooklyn back in 2010.  I went back to stage 2 and listened to the end of their set from there since I didn't want to be late for Pentagram.

Pentagram is a legendary doom band from the Baltimore/DC area that (as singer Bobby Liebling mentioned during their set) first started in 1970.  They were really good.  I only have 2 of their CDs thus far so didn't know all the songs they played.  I will be picking up more of their catalog.

I then went back to stage 1 for my last band of the festival, Venom.  Venom named their 2nd album Black Metal but they were really more of an influence on early thrash than early black metal.  While they were alright, I doubt I would go see one of their own headlining shows.  They are a trio from the UK and I kept comparing them to Motorhead (who I've seen twice).  Venom just doesn't compare to Motorhead in either songwriting or overall sound.  The early thrash bands also blew Venom away in terms of force and energy.  Venom was running long and there was much grumbling when the power was cut during the last song.  I was rather indifferent as I wanted to try to get a tshirt before driving to Philly (my place to sleep on Sunday night). 

I went back to the same vendor from before.  I kept naming bands and he was out of my size.  Thanks a lot, slow couple!     Finally I asked him for a Hellhammer shirt in my size and he said it was the last one.  Phew.
Oh yeah...they were giving out free copies of Decibel magazine in the same building.  I had picked one up before Pagan Altar and had carried it around with me all day.  Then I set it down and forget it when I'm buying my tshirt.

I noticed one person all day wearing a band tshirt of a non-metal band.  It was a shirt from a 2011 Pogues tour.  The tshirt vendor that I mentioned had mostly metal shirts (and a bit of hardcore like Minor Threat).  He also had Johnny Cash which goes to show that The Man In Black has extensive cross-genre appeal.

There were major issues with getting out of the festival.  They didn't open enough gates for some time so it was really slow going to get out.  Then when they finally opened more space, we were streaming out and all of a sudden there's an altercation between a woman and a security guy.  Someone accidentally ran into my my left arm as they rushed over to get involved.  I don't know what precipitated the confrontation but I think that's why the police were called.  I walked away and back to my car to leave Baltimore.

[manonthemoon]

Here's a cool photo I found that was taken from the stage during the Sleep set.

I see my male pattern bald head right in front of the soundboard.  Brett, I was looking for you in this, too, but can't see you.

I was right near the curly haired guy right in front of the speakers on the left, probably blocked from that angle.