Hooded Menaces, Cancellations and So Many Bootlegs: The First Days at Maryland Deathfest 2014

At The Gates

It's that time of year again, when Baltimore becomes known for something other than delicious crab, the basis for your shitty The Wire jokes, and meddling with alt-weeklies. Maryland Death Fest, the premier metal gathering of the United States, is now twelve years old, which means it's in the coveted “tween” demographic. It's in a couple different locations now – The Edison Lot, just up the street from Sonar, the home of the festival for over a decade, serves as the main area, with shows happening later at Rams Head Live and Baltimore Soundstage. Sonar did not take this well, throwing a competing event called “Maryland Deathscape” with free beer, cut-rate metalcore, and an overwhelming amount of pettiness. (Did I go in for an investigation? No. Noisey needs to give me health insurance for that.) Still, the throngs of longhairs rocking “fuck you, aesthetics” patch jackets, working class heshers and punks, and victims of awful carnival food came out in full force for the real thing. Even if it is a hub for bootleg shirts, arguably the most important thing about metal besides Marshall amps and social anxiety, Deathfest has no equal.

Thursday and Friday were both strong days, even with a few setbacks.

THURSDAY

Cancellations are to be expected when you're bringing in a number of foreign bands, but they don't sting any less when they're announced. MDF had two headliners cancel – Ulver early on due to medical concerns, and earlier in the week, Triptykon pulled out in order for band leader Thomas Gabriel Fischer to assist H.R. Giger's widow with the planning of the late artist's funeral. Thursday night brought two more cancellations, with Aeternus facing visa issues (despite assurances from the promoters than all visa issues were taken care of), and Mitocondrion were denied entry at the border. Torche's lackluster set wasn't a balm for these cancellation woes. When they're on, they're one of the most energetic, and dare I say posi, metal bands around. This was not the case. Steve Brooks was experiencing issues with feedback, and it really got to him. He wasn't dancing onstage like he normally was, and his expressions were more dour. While the band has a new album coming out on Relapse, Torche mainly played from their self-titled album and their breakthrough Meanderthal. Granted, given their poppy leanings, they're not exactly a “Deathfest” band – Brooks' other, more metal-oriented, band Floor might have been a better fit.

Castevet

Coffins erased the bad vibes of Torche (there's a string of words I'd never thought I'd write) by flooding everyone with pummeling death-doom. With plenty of bass wah, even the drunks felt high. Therein lies the conundrum with Rams Head Live: it's a venue with a House of Blues vibe, but with a sound system perfectly attuned to cult doom bands. A buddy once told me he saw Coffins play some Deathfests ago at a warehouse t 5 in the morning, and crusties were sleeping behind the amps. How that's possible…well, crusties aren't quite human. Crowbar took the role of headliner for Thursday night, and Kirk Windstein and company took hold with their timeless crushing sludge. Even with a terrifically unforgiving sound that comes from their despair and commitment to the riff, the night was not without incident. An unlucky dude decided to bum rush the stage during “Planets Collide” and was quickly tackled by a security guard. Windstein was not happy about the would-be Crowbar crasher and stopped their set to go on a rant about respecting the band on stage, making reference to Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe's legal saga over the death of a fan he pushed off stage in the Czech Republic. Crowbar did just come from a long drive from New Orleans, and yeah, that stage-rusher should have known what he was getting into – this isn't a hardcore show – but it was awkward to watch Windstein ramble with words and not riffs. At the same time, the incident may have given Crowbar an adrenaline boost. “All I Had (I Gave),” on a normal run, is an intense song about depleting all your mental resources. This time, the song felt faster and heavier, like Windstein's demons were making their rounds through the venue. After a slow start to the evening, Crowbar validated the night, even with the interruption. Fuck the Black Keys, they're the real American blues band of this day and age.

FRIDAY

Even on just the first day, the Edison lot has proven to be quite more manageable than the setup at Sonar last year. Bottlenecks and sound bleeds were not unheard of last year, and if you were late for one of the headliners, forget about even getting a semblance of what was going on. Hustling over from one side to the other is a lot easier at Edison. New York black metal band Castevet were the first band to grace the Edison Lot. A healthy crowd came out for them, and even with an overly bassy sound, their unorthodox take on black metal came through. Polish black metal band Mgla were one of the most anticipated acts of day, and they were not intimidated by their 3:45 set time. Even if you're not into black metal, you have to respect them for their “fuck summer” swag, with all the members cloaked in black pants, black hoodies, black leather jackets, and shrouds covering their faces. They looked like a serious version of Midnight, and their entrancing black metal woke up the crowd not ready to rage for Castevet. Few bands can command such attention – no stange banter, just an intimidating presence and sound. If these are the four horsemen with gleaming Les Pauls, goodbye world!

MGLA

Veteran Norwegian black metal band Taake made their first US apperance ever on Friday, and even without a recreation of mainman Hoest's literal cock rock shot, they were one of the most enthralling and confounding bands of the day. Their music twisted Maiden melodies into blackened hymns, and there was one point where they were about to go straight Armour. Hoest was dressed in a raggedy robe and sometimes burst out into David Lee Roth-esque high kicks. His band all wore corpse paint and shirts with Taake's shield logo, making them resemble a less jokey version of Ghost. It was over-the-top, but not corny. Crowbar is cool and all, but these are the type of shows – from bands that rarely play and/or have never made it to the States before – that make MDF what it is. The ubiquity of the performances from Taake and Mgla sort of took away from the magic of Agalloch and At the Gates. Agalloch are always ace performers, and last night was no exception, but they're not a rarity either. They also didn't delve deep into their catalog – understandable given time constraints, but many folks are quite attached to Pale Folklore and The Mantle. At the Gates suffered some technical difficulties early on the set, which put a drag on the band's momentum. Nonetheless, fans ate up “The Burning Darkness,” “Terminal Spirit Disease,” and other classics from At the Gates' catalog. They got a healthy energy from the crowd, even after a long day of headbanging and boozing, and the mutual respect for fan and performer is what everyone wanted. Tomas Lindberg's bit about “We don't like death metal…WE LOVE OLD SCHOOL DEATH METAL” and the cheering that came from it were a little hokey, but it's not metal if it's not at least somewhat ridiculous. Some of us may not be self-aware, but it's the reactions to lines like that where metal's diehard fanbase can't be denied.

Let's see how we hold up for the next two days. Will we go broke from booze and bootleg shirts? Will someone cast a spell on the bar and serve us unspeakable concoctions? Will funnel cakes form something from an Artificial Brain album and kill us all?