It's that time of year again. Maryland Deathfest: "America's biggest metal party." It's slogan is true, but it's also a four-day test of one's endurance for metal, Baltimore heat/humidity, and drunken heshers.
Tickets for Thursday sold out quickly, so Friday was the first day I attended. I planned on seeing the first band of the day Castevet, but I missed them due to some ticket confusion. Bummer. After catching up with some old friends, the first band I saw was Creepsylvania's Ghoul. Replete with giant Robo-battles and fake blood flowing, their set was fun as always. Ghoul is absolutely all about the live show; they have some solid thrash metal records but live is where the magic happens.
After Ghoul I saw Today is the Day. Their sound was botched by an extreme over-abundance of sub-bass frequencies, but their set was fantastic nonetheless. Frontman Steve Austin always puts 100% into each performance, even with the sound issues and breaking guitar strings. After that was British grind OGs Napalm Death. Most of my enjoyment of their set was rendered null by their atrocious sound. The thing about metal/hardcore/whatever is one needs to hear the guitar riffs to recognize and enjoy the songs. Napalm Death's sound was mostly bass drum, vocals, and sub-bass; the guitar was an indiscernable, high-frequency mess. I know playing outside isn't ideal, but I've never seen such a good band sound so bad. I decided to stop recording them 20 minutes in to save space for Godflesh and Unsane.
Godflesh immediately followed Napalm Death. I was looking forward to seeing them more than any band at the festival, so I was pretty concerned about the sound issue. Luckily, there is much less to mess up with them seeing as they are a two piece with a drum machine. They really delivered, opening with "Like Rats" and crushing everyone in attendance with those massive riffs. Justin Broadrick was intense as he ever was in the early days of the band. They kind of blew their load early with a bunch of songs from Streetcleaner, but I was beyond stoked to be seeing them at all.
Right after Godflesh inside was NYC noise rock legends Unsane. They actually had good sound, and played a nice, varied set. The material from their new album, Wreck, sounded great. They ended their set with a cover of Flipper's "Ha Ha Ha." Not being a big fan of the last band Nasum, I left after Unsane to get some sleep for day two.
-Ben
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