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

Agents Of Abhorrence - "Earth.Water.Sun" Album Review

You know that feeling you get when you find an album that you think is truly great? It's a sensation that encompasses your whole body, like you're made out of warm jelly. It's something that doesn't happen often, for me at least, but when I do find an album that can give me that feeling, I just want to jump with joy an ecstasy. The latest album to do so is "Earth.Water.Sun", the magnum opus from the Australian grind power-trio, Agents Of Abhorrence. Now, this is by no means a current release. In fact, this was released in 2007. However, I feel that this band doesn't get talked about enough, and I'm going to try and do what I can to get as many people as possible to listen to this band. That being the case, this review might be, hell, it will be me ranting like a fanboy. This is probably going to be a long one. Deal wit it.

"Earth.Water.Sun" starts of very low-key with brief (very brief) ambient, untitled intro track. The calm before the storm. After a very short build-up, barely enough time for the listener to prepare for the onslaught, the band erupts into a pulsing, cymbal crashing, and discordant riff attack on the(almost) title track "Salt and Earth". Everything that is great about this release can be heard in this single song; excellent, razor sharp, discordant riffs, untouchable 1-2-1-2 blastbeat drumming, tasteful breakdowns for breathing room, and a vocalist that has one of the best voices I've heard, who can dish out both brutality and the memorable vocal patterns. I really should talk about the vocals more, because honestly they're one of my favorite things about this release. The delivery from vocalist, Grant Jones, is absolutely perfect for this band. It's a higher register, screechy scream. It reminds me of Jacob Bannon from Converge, if he has a little better enunciation. For the most part, he keeps this delivery throughout the release, occasionally going to a subtly different mid-range "growl" of sorts, but he knows just when to change it up to keep things interesting. He unfortunately is not in the band anymore, which is a real shame, since he really does fit the band perfectly.

 Every song on this release is top notch, no bullshit here. Save for the questionable six second track, "The Audacity of You", there is absolutely no filler here. Clocking in at a mere 9 minutes, there really isn't enough time on here for AoA to fuck around. They only deliver their best, going right for the throat of the listener. I guess I should mention at this point though that AoA is not an average sounding grindcore band. Guitarist, Ben Andrews also belongs to the math rock band, My Disco. He keeps the same twangy, skronky, bright, crunching sounding guitar tone and riffs in AoA, but translates them into  grind beautifully. I don't think he plays a single, ordinary chord throughout this entire record. Of course, comparisons to bands like Discordance Axis are unavoidable.

I really, truly, can't say anything band about "Earth.Water.Sun". It is a perfect serving of grindcore heaven, with everything being on point. Production, riffs, drums, vocals, energy, album length, everything. Yes, 9 minutes is an excellent length for a grind release. Grind bands should have no reason releasing a 30+ minute album, it overstays the welcome. I don't know what else I can say except listen to this record, listen to Agents of Abhorrence, and be sure not to miss them at Maryland Deathfest, and when they play in Brooklyn on May 29th with Needful Things (I'll be there, come on down!).

Rating: 10/10

~VII

Nasum Added to Maryland Deathfest 2012 Line-up

The latest addition to the already stupidly awesome line-up of next years Maryland Deathfest(including Napalm Death, Needful Things, Brujeria, Nausea, Backslider and Nashgul among maaaaany others), is the recently "reunited" Nasum! Wish come true right? I totally/sorta called this in my last Nasum post. The band, who will be fronted by Rotten Sound's Keijo Niinimaa, has been added to Fridays line-up. Tickets are on sale now, which can be purchased here.

~VII