Maryland Deathfest XI: My Five Favorite Sets

Well, another Maryland Deathfest has come and gone. This was my humble 2nd time going, after missing on the stupidly awesome 10 year anniversary line-up, there was no way I was missing this one. And it was a real treat celebrating all forms of extreme music with thousands of like-minded people, even if it was in the ass-crack of Baltimore. I got to meet a lot of awesome really cool people, make some righteous friends (shouts out to my NC bros), and of course, see an epic amount of awesome bands. The inclusion of the Soundstage venue, a space highlighting more of the hardcore and grind bands, was a great addition (though I have some mixed feelings about it), and made seeing a lot of these bands a lot more enjoyable. I narrowed everything down to five though, here were my favorite shows I saw this past weekend.


Infest: Y'all shouldn't be surprised. Ff course this show was going to be amazing, and was by far my favorite set of the entire festival. I knew this show was going to be rowdy, but goddamn if this wasn't the craziest show I've ever been too. The soundstage was packed, and everybody was ready to go nuts. Joe even started the show off by telling the audience that he told the security guards to prepare for the craziness that was about to ensue. Bodies were flying everywhere (apparently I stage dived a total of 5 times, according to my friend. I only remember 3), bodies were smashed against one another, and of course, the whole band was absolutely perfect. The inclusion of Bob Kastiz from Lack of Interest and Chris Dodge were great, and Joe is an absolutely killer frontman. Staring down into the audience, built like a brick house, and that awesome, commanding, classic hardcore bark. They played all the classics, and of course ended with "Where's The Unity". It was certainly found that night!

Melvins: The Melvins, by far, one of my biggest musical inspirations. Basically growing up with them, after I found a copy of "Houdini" in my car while I was riding with my mom, and immediately being captivated by the hypnotic crushing rhythm of "Hooch". Consider them on of my, "bucket list" bands. I knew this was going to be incredible the moment I found out that they did in fact, come with the Big Business guys in tow! Yes, this 4 piece Melvins was absolutely incredible. Coming on stage dressed in extravagant costumes, and plowing though crushing track after crushing track, with Dale Crover and Coady Willis's jaw dropping synchronized drum solos. Every second of this set was hard hitting, loud, and impactful. Buzz's voice hasn't aged a day. Hell, it might have gotten even more powerful!! The band wonderfully chose to play a lot of classic older track, including many near and dear to my heart, like "Honey Bucket", "Revolve", and my beloved "Hooch". Mind blowing set.

Full Of Hell: Truth be told, FoH was one of the bands I was most looking forward to seeing. After completely winning me over with their new record, one that I am still crushing on hard, I knew that their set was going to be something not to miss. Though I almost did after getting painfully lost trying to get to the Soundstage venue (note to the MDF: staff for next year, please include some obvious instructions on how to get to the venue next time. Thaaaanks)!!!! But fortunately, I was able to catch it all, and man, it was scary intense. This set was just evil!! With the dark lighting, the harsh noise transitions between songs, and their amazing frontman, who wins my personal "Best Frontman Of MDF" award. An absolute force on stage, brutal as fuck locals, and throat shredding high vocals. This set still has me pumped.

Pig Destroyer: I was fanboygasming for this whole entire experience. Another "bucket list band" for me, and I was not disappointed in the slightest. They started the set off with some choice cuts from "Book Burner", even having Kat come out on a couple songs! But thankfully, they evened out the set with tons of choice cuts from almost all of their albums, including a few of my personal favorites (they played "Thumbsucker"!!). The real highlights were the tracks from "Prowler...", they pulled out "Junkyard God", leading into "Piss Angel", and the "Jennifer" intro track. They even played "Naked Trees"! Closing out with "The Diplomat" with Jason Netherton on vocals was a great way to end the set, and I definitely got a serious bangover when it was done. Only problem, they didn't play "The Machete Twins". C'mon guys!

Disciples of Christ: Little known fact; these guys and Triac released my favorite record of the year with their untouchable split 12". So seeing these guys was absolutely mandatory. I even got my nocturnal ass out of bed before 11 AM to get ready to see these guys. That's giving a shit. And of course, their set was amazing. After some pretty hilarious banter between the sound guy and the band, D.O.C. busted into a crushing 8 minute set (boo-ya). Opening with one of my favorite tracks of the previously mentioned split, "Hosed", and not letting up until their time was over. They even played some new tracks in the middle of their set, which were fucking great. Very excited for their new record to come out. Get wise to this band and listen to that goddamn split!!!

Hope you all had a good MDF. See you next year, maybe.

~VII

Vinyl Record Of The Week: False Light - "S/T" 7"

Three cheers to the good people at Headfirst! and Dead Chemists Records for bringing us a gorgeous vinyl edition of False Light's debut self-titled EP. For those who are still living under a rock, this EP burst forth from the murky depths of the underground and crippled almost everything else I had heard that year. A vinyl release seemed only appropriate, and more than justified, and it seems like a lot of you agree. I've heard that this first pressing is almost sold out from both labels.

(All photo's by VII)

I've already talked endlessly about this record, so I won't take the time to regurgitate past praises. I mainly want to use this new article series to talk about presentation, and packaging, and quality, and hopefully I'll influence a couple people to pick up the record. Rest assured, the two labels responsible did an incredible job with the presentation. All new cover art is plastered all over both sides of the barn-door style sleeve, with a silkscreened obi-strip and murky, marbled vinyl.

I'm kind of glad that they distanced the aesthetic of this record away from the digital version, to give it it's own identity in a way. That being said, this art is pretty curious, and pretty abstract. The grimness of the old cover art was definitely well suited, but this is just as cool. Kind of reminds me of Feeding's art, or Rudimentary Peni.

The closing slow track, "///", is also absent from this record. A bit of a disappointment, since we aren't really getting the whole EP here, but I can understand why they did it, given a 7" record's time limit per side. 

Great record though, very happy with the release. I believe the band still has copies, and you can pick it up from distro's like To Live A Lie and Diseased Audio. False Light will also have a track appear on the EPIC "To Live A Lie Vol. II" 12" compilation, and should have another new record come out in the future. 

~VII

Bandcamp Artist Of The Week: Flesh Police

Have I given it up for Australia recently? I'm not so sure I have, but you can be rest assured that the big, beautiful continent is still spawning as many awesome bands as their are poisonous snakes in that country (for those uneducated, that means there's a whole lot of them). The newest venomous offering comes in the form of a new brutal powerviolence outfit called Flesh Police. Not much is known about this band, other then that they are a 4-piece, and come from the powerviolence capital of Australia; Perth! The same home to a little band you may know called Extortion. This new EP/demo is 14 tracks, about 10 minutes, of chunky, heavy, blasting intensity. Great recording, maintaining a raw sound but still keeping enough clarity to make the riffs really punch out. I really dig how non-stop this EP is. From song one, it's just go! They throw in a few slow parts here and there, of course, but then throw in some fake out endings, heading right back into blasting grind parts instead of going the tired sludge route. That's right, no slow song at the end! It just stops, leaving you wondering what the hell just happened. Love it. This should be released on cassette sometime in the future.

~VII

New +HIRS+ Songs!! (You Should Know What I'm Going To Say About Them)

The day I run out of good things to say about +HIRS+ is the day I start listening to Korn and Slipknot again and try eating my own feet out of sheer ignorance. It's been a bit of a quiet year for them so far, but the gal's are back and rolling in deep into 2013 with a shit ton of new releases and even more new tracks. And just...goddamn. +HIRS+ just keep getting better and better. This time they have the power of an actual studio recording on there side, and the results are even more crushing than before! They sound loud, pissed, and fucking huge!! Not only that, but the drum programming has become ridiculously insanely great. I honestly thought that they got a real drummer when I first heard it, it's that good. +HIRS+ have without a doubt perfected their craft, and if you doubt me, check out the new songs coming from their upcoming split 7" with Water Torture (!!!!!) and split VHS (you heard right) with Bubonic Bear. Hail Dog, Worship Satan.

~VII

Bandcamp Artists Of The Week: Prison Violence / Self

Double bandcamp helping coming attcha this week! Both bands coming from my favorite scenes ever too! Prison Violence from Squamish, Canada, and Self from Los Angeles.

Prison Violence (or PrisonxViolence, though I doubt there's any straight edge business going on with this group) came to my attention from a recent post on the Obacha facebook page, as this band shares members with them. Totally fast, totally crushing, totally Canadian. It also sounds like they're a drum/bass band too, which delights me to no end. Compared to Obacha, they're definitely less fastcore oriented, with a lot more slow parts, and a bit better sounding recording. They have new tracks up, from an upcoming split with some band, and older tracks from a 4-way split with Skuff, Violent Gorge and Selfish Beings that I NEED! Dig it.

Shout out to my buddy Alex for showing me this band. Self are a relatively new band on the west coast, and they play crustcore. I don't really ever post crust stuff on here, because honestly, crust bores the shit out of me. But throw some blast beats in the mix, and voilá, it becomes pretty damn good! The songs on this "Divine Intervention 2013" demo/ep are ragers, and are sure to turn a crowd into a flailing frenzy at live shows. Pretty killer stuff, can't wait to hear more!

~VII

New Music Round-up: Suffering Mind, ACxDC, To The Point

People who haven't "liked" the Suffering Mind Facebook page should seriously stop what they're doing and do that right now. If you're like me, an über-fan, getting updates from their page every day about what new split they're working on, or recording, is like Christmas every day. The bands latest gifts to the grind world are 4 new songs, coming from their upcoming split 7"s with N.I.B.I.R.U. and Archagathus. I knew about the N.I.B.I.R.U. split (which I think was originally going to be on an 8" record, and is now coming out on Haunted Hotel Records), but the Archagathus split has seemingly come out of nowhere, and I couldn't be more excited to have these two bands paired up. Solid songs from both splits, give em a listen. And check their facebook page for daily updates.

Next up is a brand new track from westcoast violence grinders, ACxDC, from their upcoming split with To The Point! I say pretty often that that their are "best splits of the year" when I hear about them, and you can definitely add this one to the list, because this split will be fucking incredible. They've put two songs from their split on their bandcamp page, entitled "Fiction Monger" and  Bone Claw". Each one keeps their super sharp sound, but the grindcore influence has taken a step back for a more direct powerviolence attack. Longer slower parts, and a more shouted vocal delivery. Maybe due to who their splitting with? Who knows. Who cares? These songs rock.

And speaking of To The Point, they also have just put up a new song from their split with ACxDC! Neato, right? This track that the cavemen have grunted out to pleasure our ears takes a stab at the curious phenomenon of people taking photo's of their food. The track's title; "Photos Of My Food". Brilliant. The track is short and sweet, and knowing them, there will probably be about 8 more tracks to round everything out. Unstoppable band, as you all should know by now (they did release one of the best records of 2012 after all. Fact).

Learn how to get your music noticed at ReverbNation.com

~VII

Afgrund - "Corporatocracy" Review

Oh jeez, way to sneak up on me, you sneaky Swedes (and Finns and Austrians). It looks like HM-2 pedal abusers, Afgrund, are back again with a brand new EP, several months after the release of their excellent full length, "The Age Of Dumb". An album that I think was dreadfully overlooked in 2012 (I'm kicking myself for not putting it on my Best of 2012 list). "Corporatocracy" features about 15 minutes of new material, capped off with 3 covers featured on previously released compilations. Continuing their unsubtle-as-fuck aesthetic against the modern corporate world, Afgrund again waste no time getting right to the meat of their assault (the thing opens with a sample of Henry Rollins spewing punk rock hatred against McDonalds). If you were at all a fan of "Age Of Dumb", you're pretty much guaranteed to get a good amount of enjoyment out of this EP. Hell, I'd bet that these were recorded in the same session as that album. Furious grindcore done in that good ol' Swede/Nasum way; excellent musicianship, and tons of excellent crunchy riffs with some great floor stomping grooves thrown in. I am glad that they made the guitar tone a little more trebly this time around though, the attack is a lot mess muddy than on "Age Of Dumb", which was one of my only complaints about that album. There's not much more to say, other than they do a totally righteous cover of Nasum's "Shadows" at the end. Rock solid EP, get into it.

Rating: 8.5/10

~VII