This was the best show I've gotten seriously injured at on this continent. Actually, the seriousness is debatable, because it was only a finger that got broken, and just the end of it, really, but the awesomeness of the performance was not.
I plugged along at work a little too late, at least as I thought, got stuck in traffic due to large portions of 93 being closed, and then managed to hike over to the venue with time to spare regardless. Once inside, I drank some beer, got shit from Raphael and others for cutting off the Sodom backpatch in favor of a DIYed Revocation badge (pics of assembly sequence maybe coming), and waited around a bit occasionally getting quizzed on Euro-festival stuff; pretty much the usual.
After some grousing about "punk rock standard time" (also pretty much the usual), the bands got rolling, and the result was a pretty epic time only a little dinged up by injury.
Deathgod Messiah [5.5/7]
I hadn't seen these guys together before (but, of course, all of the members separately in various local black/thrash bands such as CNV, Deathamphetamine, and Witch Tomb), and the first three bands were backlined with the Martyrvore/Panzerbastard kit, so I was a little confused that it wasn't Martyrvore opening. Once the band actually started, though, the confusion was gone, blown away by a roiling tide of primitive first-wave black metal. Best comparisons are probably to Sarcofago and Hellhammer, but angrier and more focused. Though this was a good set, it also felt kind of short, which is par for the course when a new band shows up (not much material written, and as discussed on Bone Ritual's debut a while back, a general disinclination to play covers), but still hurts. In truth, all the sets this night felt a little short, even Summoning Hate at the end when I was waiting for them to finish so I could go to the doctor; maybe it's just not enough shows lately. Good stuff, and if they had demos I missed them, but a band this good and aggressive is going to show up again on DIY shows, and I'll get another chance.
Witch Tomb [7/7]
You never know with Witch Tomb; some nights you just get a great show, and others you get something completely awesome. This was one of the latter; the band has an excellent history, but this was one of the real true highlights, at least as I've seen so far. They did a lot of stuff old and new, and all with that complete conquering presence that you really only get from a good black metal band at the top of their game. There are a lot of good black metal bands in this area, enough that it's realistic to talk about NEBM as largely or completely independent of USBM as it is today, but when they're putting up a performance like this, it's hard to think of Witch Tomb as anything but the top of that heap. The environment at that '07 outing supporting Watain was maybe a little more special, but the music here was definitely better.
Martyrvore [6/7]
Before these guys started, Seth (Anal Cunt, duh) Putnam had a couple words into the mic lauding the fact that the Boston underground is still going, still producing quality extreme metal and still putting up quality shows like this gig and these bands. Martyrvore basically took it from there, putting out an intense barrage of violent blackened death metal in their expected no-prisoners fashion. I was able to hear more of their set than the last time I caught them -- potentially one of the last times they've played out, but that's really neither here nor there -- due to generally better sound, and the result was a solidly better impression. If you're looking for a quick look into NEBM, you won't do much better than their split with Witch Tomb. As noted, there are a lot of bands from here, but this sort of raw, dirty violence is the dominant strain, and these two bands do it pretty goddamned well.
This show was the end of the line for the cowskull that Martyrvore has had for a while, and brought out corpsepainted. It got slammed into the stage rather hard on numerous occasions, and by the end of their set, Paul had carpeted the stage and front of the floor in bone shrapnel. OH SNAP FORESHADOWING. Another attendee took this Symbolfoto of it sometime before it became completely destroyed; that's no a half-bad desktop background for anyone into DIY metal. I managed to pick up a tooth from it that so far has not been successful as a ritual focus for the Merseburg Charm, but expecting effectiveness out of old Germanic magic is probably asking too much.
Summoning Hate [6/7]
Though I spent about half the set distracted by violent pains in the middle of my right hand, this was still an intense and awesome set from the least black metal band on the bill. Summoning Hate turned in, like usual lately, a nice thick set of pounding thrash-death that sounded a little crisper than the last few times I've seen them, maybe due to the good venue sound. They also got people moving with this music, which is the reason that this score ought to come with that infamous "includes adjustments for injury" tag.
About halfway through Summoning Hate's set, one of their guys got pitched backward in the pit. I stretched out a hand to try and keep him from busting his head open on the edge of one of Martyrvore's cabs, which they'd cleared off the stage after their set but not yet out to their van/truck. This was a partial success; the guy wasn't injured, but his head caught the last digit on my right middle finger right on the fucking edge of the cab, and as it turned out, neatly broke the bone. This hurt like a fucking bastard, but I've gotten banged up before, so with the help of a couple trips to the O'B's bathroom sink to ice it down, I got through the end of the show.
The finger was swelling up and looking bad, and I didn't do any favors on the long walk back to Cambridge by not elevating it and also jimmying the digit around to see if it would bend in a way that wasn't consistent with a single piece of bone between the nail and the first knuckle. I got one of those results, and by the time I got back to my town, the finger was large and purple and worth a trip to the ER rather than just going to the pharmacy next door to my apartment buying some athletic tape.
Since this was kind of a pussy injury as ER cases go -- even in a small town like this, there are issues, like the patient brought in euphemistically described by the EMTs as "significant lower GI bleed" and more candidly by the nursing staff as "gouts of blood pouring from the anus" -- I got to sit around with an icepack for three hours while the doctors took care of the people with real problems, and contemplate the staff, the sounds of other people under heavier treatment, and the bed in the waiting room, and with it the reality that I, like some of the heavier cases, would likely find myself on a similar contraption sometime in the next fifty years, at which point I would stop being an alive human being and turn into a corpse. Pussy injury or no pussy injury, medical gore and forced contemplation of your own mortality is pretty fucking death metal.
In the end, I got what I was after -- a splint and confirmation that the damn finger was broken and I hadn't wasted three hours -- then went home and went to sleep instead of going to work. An outbreak of egregious drunkenness kind of killed off the rest of the weekend, but I'm on the mend now, in fine condition apart from that one damn digit, and will be in prime shape for Revocation's CD release this week.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Coelem now 33% less kvlt
The prime criterion of black metal in too many people's minds is and has been kvltness; in short, how hard it is to get a bands releases, coupled with how inaccessible they are musically and how few other people like them. As of today, my one-man ambient/black metal project Coelem is 33% less kvlt, because any schlub can now get on the internet and get the entire Tenebral Presence single, which originally came out in a run of like 5 CDRs, from the official Coelem page. The Vexilla regis prodeunt infernii (original run: about 5 hand-dubbed cassettes) and Tendrils of Burnt Flesh Ensnare the Feeble-Willed (not actually ever issued) demos are still super-kvlt, though; I have the masters and eventually will probably be able to read from them someday, but that day is not today, and if you think you have either release, you are probably either confused or deluded.
Also, dig the snazzy new cover art, consisting of that shot of the moon from Party.San, some cheap fonts, and a mistake in my image-editing process. A lot better than the weird gray fractals that were on the cover the last time this was available -- and if you have that version, you probably have way more True Points than I do.
Also, dig the snazzy new cover art, consisting of that shot of the moon from Party.San, some cheap fonts, and a mistake in my image-editing process. A lot better than the weird gray fractals that were on the cover the last time this was available -- and if you have that version, you probably have way more True Points than I do.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Every Shirt CLVI: Running Wild - Under Jolly Roger
shirt: Running Wild - Under Jolly Roger longsleeve
size: XL (EU)
vintage: 2007
provenance: festival
The last shirt in the pile, this is at the bottom by chance, but it might as well have ended up here by intent. This is probably my least favorite even among longsleeves, and will probably remain so even if I can continue to get less fat: the problem isn't the gut but the sleeves, which barely fit my forearms, which are even now composed almost entirely of bone and muscle. Even when I got it at Wacken, it was suboptimal, but for a long time it was the only piece of Running Wild gear that I could get my grubby paws on, which made it worth sticking with.
That's it; after nearly six months, this stupid excursion is done and over with. There are some good shows coming this week that should get written up, but the real point is that there will never be another of these. Once through this pile is quite enough.
Every Shirt CLV: St. Pauli
shirt: St. Pauli field-style
size: 2XL (EU)
vintage: 2009
provenance: calalog
Ordered with my first attempt at getting this year's Wacken shirt -- which ended up getting lost or stolen out of the badly mutilated box that arrived containing only this and the last two years' DVDs, which I'm still kind of steamed about -- this isn't quite their field top, but a lot closer than the "zweitklassig" shirt that showed up a while back. It's interesting to look at this shirt and wonder; of course St. Pauli, being who they are and where they're from, would be against Nazis regardless, but would they be so passionate about it if the fascists weren't trying to jack their club colors?
Every Shirt CLIV: GWAR
shirt: GWAR
size: 2XL (US)
vintage: 2007
provenance: festival/band
From the Sounds of the Underground stop that I ended up missing almost all of (and, admittedly, not really regretting), this is a decent if basic shirt that will likely see extensive service again once I can pick out my own shirts. Unfortunately, I haven't seen GWAR since; their set was pretty awesome, and one of my few regrets from this summer's round was that I couldn't stay up to see their set at Wacken.
Every Shirt CLIII: Woods of Ypres
shirt: Woods of Ypres
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: festival
In retrospect, and even at the time I felt kind of bad about badgering this shirt out of Jeremy at the NEMHF. It's decent, but would see more use if it was heavier-weight and I could find a way to stop dropping Chinese food on it every time I wear it. However, over the intervening years, I'm pretty sure that I've dropped nearly enough cash at various Oak Knoll tables to make up any loss.
Every Shirt CLII: Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black
shirt: Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2001
provenance: catalog
For a long while this was my basic utility shirt, and it's got the wear to show it from almost a decade of carcass-covering. Even when I got it, it was a little small, but the record it's from being so damned good has a significant redeeming effect. With this project finally concluding this week, it's likely to go back into heavy use in the future.
Every Shirt CLI: Testament
shirt: Testament - Damnation Vacation
size: 2XL (US)
vintage: 2008
provenance: band
Acquired from their permanent hearing damage show last summer, this is a decent shirt that's improved by not being associated with me having to get hearing aids (yet....). I've missed Testament's more recent tours due to other commitments, which needs to be rectified -- this was a good show with the obligatory classic lineup, but I'm not sure there's such a thing as enough of a good band.
Every Shirt CL: Bifrost
shirt: Bifrost
size: XL (EU)
vintage: 2006
provenance: festival
This one was picked up at Wacken in 2006, after some awkward attempts to confirm, in both English and German (the vendor was, in retrospect, probably Dutch), that it was for real and actually for sale. It's since gone on to be about the one longsleeve that I actually wear on a semi-regular basis, as the band involved is hopelessly kvlt (and was quite good, without which there would have been no point). Seriously, if you can somehow find their Mythistory disc (the cover of which forms the basis for this design), you need to pick it up.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Every Shirt CXLIX: Blind Guardian - saw/skull longsleeve
shirt: Blind Guardian - "sawblade" longsleeve
size: XL (EU)
vintage: 2005
provenance: catalog
Ordered while I was still in Germany, this documents a tour I wasn't able to make it to because a) they didn't do any gigs in the East, and b) I was, like I said, in Germany, so I wasn't able to make it up to Montreal. It's a hell of a design, but like most of my Euro shirts in this size class, a little tight. I'm working on that, but this is still a longsleeve, so it's probably not going to enter the casual rotation any time soon.
Every Shirt CXLVIII: Random Acts of Violence
shirt: Random Acts of Violence
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: band
I probably got this one off the band at this show at the end of 2006, but in truth, there are a lot fewer possibilities on that than there ought to be. My younger brother, who's not particularly active in the scene, has maybe seen them more times than I have, as during the heyday of their activity (between 2003 and this point) I tended to spend a lot of time in Michigan or Germany. As might be inferred, this band isn't together any more, but if you like hardcore-driven thrash metal with melodic leads, they're worth digging up, either for the Cathartes Aura EP this shirt is from, or the earlier full-length that I keep forgetting the name of.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Every Shirt CXLVII: Necrophagist - Ignominious & Pale
shirt: Necrophagist - Ignominious and Pale
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2008
provenance: band
One of the more salient things learned from this project (in addition to the very obvious "I have too many goddamned shirts" angle), is that I actually have three Necrophagist shirts, but two of them kind of blend together because the front designs are undifferentiated and blurry. I like this one mostly for the song referenced, though the back design is cool as well. Hopefully, when Muhammad brings out that third full-length, Willowtip will do them up some more differentiated merchandise.
Every Shirt CXLVI: Edguy
shirt: Edguy - 2008 US tour
size: XL (EU)
vintage: 2008
provenance: band
Not acquired this Tuesday -- I was on call and thus couldn't go -- but rather the last time they were around, this is a shirt with a fairly timeless design, but one that has aged poorly, because Tinnitus Sanctus didn't come out until afterwards. This record is not, in my opinion, very good, and breaks up the hot streak that Edguy had been riding since Hellfire Club. This is kind of a casual hazard of being a power metal band, especially one that does so much hair stuff; best to accept that once in a while, bands in this style are going to make a retreaded or subpar record and continue to listen to their good work.
Every Shirt CXLV: Zircon
shirt: Zircon
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2007
provenance: band
Picked up sometime in early 2007, when Zircon was at their most recent most active, this is a utilitarian DIY-style shirt (back: New England Black Fucking Metal in blackletter) that doesn't need much further explanation or introduction. Unfortunately, the band may; while members have since gone on to make major contributions to Vital Remains, Belphegor, and the running of Metal Thursday, Zircon has been kind of quiet as a band for the last year or two. In their heyday, though, they annoyed some people by seemingly getting on every show ever, and to everyone else, consistently provided killer black-death metal at a level that, obviously, got Scott and Anthony called up for those bands, respectively. Such is the scene; time ebbs and flows, and even good bands pass from the earth.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Every Shirt CXLIV: Dying Fetus
shirt: Dying Fetus
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2008
provenance: band
This is from that oddest of all possible bills gig back in October of last year, though from the band that really should have been headlining. It's a flat awesome design, but for some reason keeps migrating to the bottom of piles; it'd been a while since I wore this when I started this ridiculous project up in March, and each successive move of the pile has seen it go from near the top to right at the bottom. Fortunately, though, this means this long and pointless march is nearly over.
I'm probably not going to Edguy this week since I'm on call (and their last album wasn't the greatest); something else may appear here in that show's place tomorrow. This was also the reason I regrettably missed Ravage's CD release last night.
Every Shirt CXLIII: Wacken 2005
shirt: Wacken:Open:Air 2005
size: XL (EU)
vintage: 2005
provenance: festival
This shirt was a latter choice at this festival; I'd gotten my brothers other shirts, but wanted one with the full lineup, and by the time I got around to it (back in the day, there were fewer people, but no on-site ATMs; you had to go into the village and fight off the flies to get your cash out -- with a stick! -- and then hike back -- uphill both ways! wi' only a handful of gravel tae eat!) this was about all there was left. Like my other Euro longsleeves in this size, it's a little tight, and that coupled with the sleeves contributes to it not getting worn a lot, which is just all right; the less wear, the longer I'm able to dredge this out, point at the back, and say "yes, I did see Dissection on this fest, and Sentenced doing one of their last shows ever".
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Every Shirt CXLII: Amon Amarth - Viking Horde LS
shirt: Amon Amarth - Viking Horde
size: 2XL (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: band
Probably picked up at the Sounds of the Underground date that I didn't see the band on due to getting out of work late, this, like my other longsleeves, has a tendency to not get worn due to said sleeves. It's a little difficult to wear a longsleeve metal shirt underneath a short-sleeved workshirt, so I can't really wear it as an undershirt midweek, leaving two days a week as possibilities. The end of this project means I have to get through them now; thankfully this one is a little larger than the others and doesn't pinch my arms as much. That's the other reason I don't wear longsleeves much: I hate long sleeves and push the sleeves up on these, roll up anything that comes with cuffs. Cool sleeve designs are SOL; my forearms need to breathe.
Every Shirt CXLI: Revocation - Existence is Futile
shirt: Revocation - Existence Is Futile
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2009
provenance: festival
As mentioned on the festival report, I got this one (and another that is going to be showing up in a different form here shortly) from the Relapse table instead of the band. I've gotten a lot of stuff directly off Revocation over the years, and will going forward (unless they become Wicked Huge Rockstars, in which case I'll probably be stuck getting just Hot On The Heels/Composted stuff off the members directly), so while I still felt a little bad about it, it makes sense to support the label as well and convince them that they can make money off these guys, if only they give them proper tour support and get them out in front of as many wallets as possible. At the end of their next contract, Revocation will be big enough to tell the labels to pound sand and go DIY again; for now, though, Relapse is their key to the other coast and across the pond.
Every Shirt CXL: New England Deathfest 2009
shirt: New England Deathfest 2009
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2009
provenance: festival
One of only fifty made and sold on-site (there was a second run done post-festival for those who missed out), this is a cool shirt as well as a worthy memento of this year's fest alongside the super-professionally-turned-out program booklet. You can see the festival report for who on the back of this shirt I didn't see -- in addition to Retch, Atrocious Abnormality and Covenance, who dropped too late to be cut from the shirt, who nobody saw on this fest -- but what this doesn't tell you is the band I saw that may not be on this shirt after a few washes. Digested Flesh definitely showed up, but on my shirt at least, their logo isn't clear enough to be immediately decipherable; probably not enough ink got through this part of the press, and it'll probably be the first to disappear. However, given the ridiculous number of shirts on hand, this probably isn't going to be for another couple years -- at which point I hope to have a couple more shirts from this festival in my closet.
Friday, September 04, 2009
New England Deathfest 2009 [Club Hell & Jerky's, Providence, 8/29/2009 - 8/30/2009]
The festival season, at least for me, comes to a successful conclusion again this year with this festival. With a strong step up in quality and a smaller but significant step up in attendance -- and quite a few absolutely epic sets that will increase that going forward as people see the pics and read the writeups and bang their heads against walls and desks and tables for not going this time around -- it's hard to see how this festival won't keep going and continue from strength to strength.
day 1 - 8/29
With some cancellations pushing back the start time (Retch, Atrocious Abnormality, Covenance, and Behead the Lamb -- who are kind of becoming the Bennie Joppru of this festival, hope they can make it next year -- had to cancel from the original billing), I had the luxury of waiting a little to see if the rain would let up; it didn't, and I made my way down to the PVD through the rain and the traffic rubbernecking at the people waiting for the Kennedy motorcade to come by in the other lane. I cairned my crap at the hotel, stretched out a bit, and somehow managed to make my way through Providence's awkward mess of partially-one-way-streets over to the venue without wrecking my vehicle, and in time to see most of Pathogenic's set after getting banded.
Pathogenic [5/7]
Looking at my running order/notes sheet, these guys were the sole deathcore band on the bill, but were worth the while regardless. They were kind of limited, but the argument can be made that the style itself is kind of limited, a thread that will show up again looking at some of the slam bands later on. They played a decent, solid, opening set, and if the crowd wasn't as super into them as the bands that would come on later, they did at least have a full house, which would be consistent for the midday bands throughout the festival. People were intent on getting the most out of their $25/$30 per day, and Blue et al did an excellent job of getting bands that were worth it.
Here I attempted to go up to Jerky's (first set, and all other 'odd' sets until Quo Vadis at the end, were downstairs in Club Hell) using the street entrance, but the door was locked. Two of the guys in ExCx (see below) were also trying to go up to, like, get ready for their set, and also hadn't been informed that we had to go up the back alley staircase. This was a good decision from an organizational perspective -- saves the need for checking this door until Hell closes (see further down) -- but they could have done with a "NEDF - No Entry This Door Till 10:30" sign at the bottom of the stairs, rather than the door into Jerky's itself.
On getting upstairs, I got a beer, ran into the usual and expected coterie of scene stalwarts, and thoroughly assed up my acquisition of one of the few festival shirts. If Drew never stops giving me shit about this, it will be too soon. Said festival shirts are wicked cool, and if they didn't sell out, there is something wrong with the attendees -- a run of 50 should have been gone by the end of the first day, and hopefully this will lead on to a bigger run next year.
EDIT: Said shirts did sell out, and Blue actually did a second run by special order; looks like there will probably be more next year.
Embryonic Cryptopathia [6/7]
I'm not completely sure that they used all of their allotted time, but anyone who was unsatisfied with this set, whether for not running long enough or for some other reason, was probably not even in the building at the time. About the purest grind of the bands that I saw, ExCx absolutely crushed the Jerky's crowd, despite it being this early in the day, in the process of providing one of the better sets of the day. Fucking intense is about the word for it.
Abnormality [5.5/7]
For the first time, I saw Abnormality with a bass player -- Josh (Deconformity, ex-Sexcrement, ex-Neuraxis) Staples, also one of the organizers here -- though the sound downstairs may have held them back a bit. The band's full sound did come off as more complete than when I'd seen them in the past, but maybe not as biting as some previous gigs. The venue sound was, for the most part, really good, but there were a few sags, including this one, that didn't keep the band affected from playing, as in this case, a pretty damn good set of death metal.
Abdicate [5/7]
I hadn't heard these guys before, but was not disappointed; while they didn't stand heads above the rest of the field -- though their gigantic singer did -- they did smash out a bunch of solid music. Just plain old quality death metal and a good time, though there wasn't quite as much motion as they might have wanted. Put that down to being early in the day, or to lack of slam; you can say what you want about the style, but there is a pretty direct relationship between (at least of the bands I observed) slam content and degree of moshing at NEDF.
Polterchrist [6.5/7]
This band, though, thoroughly exceeded expectations; in the middle of the day, from a band you haven't heard of previously (alright, I spend too much time at work and following Celtic among other activities, and put pretty much no effort into following the death metal scene in detail), you're expecting just a solid effort at this festival, but this was a rock-solid killer, intense brutal death flavored with some classic leads, which was a welcome difference from the run of bands leading up to them. Some of this is personal preference, but it's hard to deny that they kicked ass, and the variation in death of all kinds, as Shawn (Insidious Decrepancy/Viral Load) would mention on Sunday, is what makes this fest stronger. Good stuff all the way.
In between here, I spotted someone in a Party.San shirt, and checked a little closer -- this year's! I tapped him on the shoulder about it, and we got to talking about the festival, and the bands, and German festivals and Germany generally. I've got the sneaking suspicion that I saw him around over there -- 10,000 is a pretty small number for three days -- but regardless it was a good time talking with someone else who's been over. Here's hoping that travel prices shake out and more get the opportunity -- and that our increased support of good US festivals will see our experience here growing towards that.
Bloodsoaked [5/7]
While this was going on, Bloodsoaked started up, and though the initial impression was of a stalwart exercise in keeping in time with one's playback, it built up to a decent death metal performance that yes, was still held back by the limitations of being a one-mand-band, but proved to be a good time overall. If you have to sort out the one-man sets of the weekend, yes, this one is on the bottom, but someone has to be, and the two other guys who showed up backed by a drum machine for their sets are really the state of the art in one-man death metal. I don't think anyone was expecting Peter to play them off the stage, but provide a solid set of playback-backed death metal, yes, and he did do that.
Sexcrement [7/7]
The pictures on RTTP, really, say it all when it comes to this set; an avalanche of perfectly balanced gutterslam, transvestites, and Adam in a Queen of Hearts wig. The pit action was enormous, and the tranny go-go dancer a laugh riot, but what really made this was that the music was killer and the sound downstairs absolutely magnificent. After this point, I don't think I saw a single band downstairs that didn't have an exceedingly good treatment from the sound board, though previously things had been inconsistent. Yes, this is in both cases the last three of the night downstairs, and I missed all the 'day' bands on Sunday, but the fact remains. Probably as good a Sexcrement set as I've seen, and while this is not a huge sample, this was also wicked killer enough that it's unlikely to be displaced for quite a while.
Nur in PVD: I go out front after Sexcrement to get some pizza from the shop next door before the last bunch of bands, and the operator of the "spa" next door is haranguing the security about the death metal fest next door, probably concerned that the noise and hordes of black-clad hessians on the sidewalk in the area were discouraging potential customers, and wanted to go in to take a look, no doubt to try and come up with some bullshit reason to call the cops. That got shut down right quick -- no $30 ticket, no admittance; "YOU'd charge US to just come up and take a look!"
On the one hand, this is ridiculous, as the operation is legal in Providence; if someone wants to come and make use of the "spa"'s "resources", they shouldn't be ashamed of being seen by a bunch of death metal heads who don't know them. On the other hand, if she'd seen the billing in advance and looked up some of the bands' lyrics/song titles, she might have a reasonable cause for concern about the safety of her employees; there's an awful lot of material on this fest about killing and dismembering prostitutes.
Malignancy [5/7]
Back upstairs, and back to a good but not exceptional set from Malignancy. While this was still a good, solid, set, it was a bit of a letdown after Sexcrement, and probably, from unreasonable expectations on my part. I hadn't heard anything from them since the Intrauterine Cannibalism disc, but that was ten years and almost total band turnover ago; it makes sense that their sound's changed, and there are a lot of bands that come off flat playing between Sexcrement and Revocation. Good death metal all the same, still.
Revocation [7/7]
Though their sound wasn't quite as huge or the audience quite as nuts as Sexcrement, Revocation still blasted out a characteristically dominating set heavily skewed towards their new material. Well it should be with their debut coming out, and a national (hopefully) tour to promote it; this wasn't the best Revocation set ever, but it was top class and a good sign for what the rest of the country can expect from them opening for Quo Vadis.
I was a little bummed after this set that I'd jumped the gun and gotten my Revocation gear off the Relapse table, as I also wanted to support the band directly. I'll get the new disc off them, though, probably, at their CD release at Church, and for a newly signed band, it also helps to convince the label that they made a good choice in picking them up, and hopefully to give them a hand with tour support. Hopefully, also, the ultimate fate of some of that kit will help with the reaction....
Insidious Decrepancy [6/7]
At this point, despite the good buzz that I'd heard before the Embryonic Devourment tour that Shawn ended up dropping off of, I was not completely sold on the idea of one-man death metal as a live rather than studio endeavor. This set, though, went a substantial way towards turning that around, even if the sound wasn't as good as the downstairs sound for the next two one-man acts. The music was certainly quality, though, and never came off as simple metronome marking; solid brutal death and a fitting East Coast debut.
Putrid Pile [6.5/7]
Downstairs for another one-man band, and wow. Shaun killed it on this set, aided by a hammering sound, and also by a greater slice of slam than the other one-man acts; maybe the PA setup was optimized for it, and maybe people were just taking their last real chance to scrum around. Musically, this was better than I was anticipating, and aided by the huge sound; some people were whining before the fest about how a lot of the out-of-region quality was being made up by one-man bands (being cheaper to fly in); these people obviously missed the two five-member Canadian acts that closed out this night and the Coloradan and Californian ensembles airlifted to headline Sunday, but even if this had actually been the case, Blue sure did a good job of getting good one-man acts that may have been cheaper to book than full bands.
At this point Club Hell closed, at least for us, and transformed itself into a hip-hop/Top 40 dance club. After coming out of the pizza joint, there was already a significant lineup going back almost to the Jerky's door, which inevitably summoned up certain Dropkicks lyrics. BETTER TAKE COVER THERE'S A **** **** ON RICHMOND
Neuraxis [6.5/7]
The band was disappointed with a lack of movement, but this late, at a festival this slammy, you've got to expect as a tech-death band to get this sort of reaction. The music was great, the appreciation also, and with this set in the books, it was rational to ask how the day was going to get still better. Even this class outing, though, would get topped.
Quo Vadis [7/7]
Though they took a while getting set up -- especially in taping up a large banner that did not make it all the way through the set -- this band matched the high expectations I had based on their reputation, and thoroughly crushed the remnants of the crowd; at this point a lot of people were outside for some or most of the set. Those who were missed an epic performance of technical thrash-death; Revocation got a good match for their inaugural major-label tour, but also a bit of a tough draw in that Quo Vadis are one of the very few bands out there that they will not be able to either play off the stage technically or blast flat with heaviness. If this tour comes to your area, do not miss it. Both these bands did stunning sets here, and looked to be a lot more on pace than peaking, so it's likely to be what you'll see as well. Amazing.
After this, I dragged myself out to the car, gunned down some caffeine, and made it back to the hotel with less difficulty than getting over to the venue back in the afternoon. Providence is still laid out weird.
total points, day 1: 78
total bands, day 1: 13
average, day 1: 6
Well, that worked out conveniently; also goes to show that this was a damn good festival.
day 2 - 8/30
Unfortunately for me, I had some stuff to handle back home in the morning, so I drove back, got through it, saw Celtic hold on for the win despite being down a player and the ref trying his mightiest to toss the game the other way, took a nap, and woke up in time to drive back down in significantly better weather and still pretty much no traffic, ending up at the venue just in time to miss the end of Fit For An Autopsy. FUCK.
All told, I missed Living Void, Boarcorpse, Hivesmasher, Goreality, Parasitic Extirpation, Composted, Gutted Out, Dysentery, Short Bus Pileup, and Fit For An Autopsy. That's about two very good gigs' worth of bands that I either slept through or was in transit for -- and among them some pretty epic sets as the rumor goes. This makes the pizza joint around the corner and the sausage wagon out front all the more valuable; you really cannot comfortably take time off from this fest without missing good bands.
So, coming in just as the downstairs band was packing up, I went upstairs, got myself a beer, got ripped on by Mark and Anthony for missing Composted, bought a bunch of merch, eventually found the Onyx patch I'd gotten for Composted and gave that over to Mark, and got several random CDs pushed on me for free by the Sevared guy. Solid.
Digested Flesh [5/7]
A pretty basic but still very solid set, these Jersey guys smashed out a good performance of slammy death metal that was probably right in line with general expectations. Not quite as remarkable as Abacinate last year, but good music regardless, and from a personal standpoint it was a good warmup set to get back into festival mode with...though regardless I managed to pull a neck muscle or something headbanging, and kept having it tweak the rest of the night.
Mucopus [6/7]
The impulse is to start this entry yelling "KENNEDY!!!!", but that has zero resonance for anyone who wasn't actually there; Jason put up as good a set with Mucopus as can be generally expected from him with Skinless, if a little weirder banter-wise and a little more slammy on the musical end. A good time was had by all, though there was less motion, relatively speaking, than for the next largely slammish outing, probably because the stage here wasn't tall enough for Jason to realistically throw himself off of, despite the walking and bantering room that it afforded.
Inherit Disease [6/7]
Midway through the bands that I was going to be able to see, Inherit Disease stepped up and pumped out a flattening set of brutal death metal that thoroughly fulfilled expectations. They filled out their time well and hopefully drove others besides me to go support afterwards, even if some band members did "California" things like playing in flip-flops. (I'm sure I've see some hardcore bands have people playing barefoot at some point in time, but I'm not sure that'd fly generally here up in the Far Far North.) That's kind of the point, though; that while this is the New England Death Fest, it would make no sense to just have bands from New England and immediately surrounding territories play. And as long as the bands that come in "from away" are of the standard we got this time from Cali (and Texas, Wisconsin, Colorado, and by-all-reports-even-though-I-didn't-see-them Michigan and Virginia), we'll be glad to have them.
Viral Load [6/7]
Downstairs, Shawn Whitaker set up as Viral Load with himself, his amp, and a drum machine, and explained that he'd intended to bring his whole live band along, but when they cancelled, he decided to plug on and do a solo Viral Load set, seeing as he was going to be around for Insidious Decrepancy anyways. The result was a truncated (due to preparation constraints) but still precisely finished Viral Load set that thoroughly overcame my initial skepticism that one guy could sound materially different on two successive nights as he and a drum machine attempt to be two separate bands. The separation was definitely there, Viral Load a little simpler and a lot slammier than ID, and the sound was nail-your-feet-through-the-floor massive, which definitely helped the total experience. The result was a unique Viral Load experience; hopefully Shawn'll come back with the full band in a year or three, but this was a hell of a set as it was.
Goratory [7/7]
Speaking of hellish sets....
Southeastern New England. Goratory reunites to headline the slammier day of a slammy festival. The upstairs was flat packed, and as soon as the band started up, the floor exploded with a violence seldom seen even here (yes, I missed the bands earlier in the day where Will (Dysentery) allegedly pushed half a dozen people out the door again and flat destroyed some guy who thought he could mosh hard). They thoroughly justified their legendary status to noobs like me who had never gotten the chance to see them the first time around, and rekindled old fires in the old fans who had been waiting years for this. In the extended time that they had, they crushed through a wide range of slammy and plain-brutal material across the band's entire history, invited Jason (Mucopus) up to do second vocals on "Hang 'em and Bang 'em" (even if his mic was mostly dropped-out for the whole of the song, he was still up there being crazy and diving on top of the pit, inspiring others to do the same), and closed thunderously with "Rice on Suede". Flat amazing. Others have carried on their traditions, and New England is still pretty packed for death metal (seriously, look at the lineups here, about 45% local), but there's still only one Goratory.
Cephalic Carnage [7/7]
Some people might have split; it's late, not everyone could get the day off on Monday (or get into a hotel like I did and have all my work gear in), and there was a reasonable if incredibly naive assumption to be made that Cephalic Carnage might have a hard time topping Goratory. This reckoned without the band, or the fact that, um, they're Cephalic fucking Carnage and have been cleaning up at stellar gigs for a long while. They did, as might be expected, a strong, long, set of highly technical, highly brutal, expertly composed material with strong political and philosophical points between songs, and closed with "Black Metal Sabbath", finishing with humor, strength, and a surprisingly accurate (musically) piss-take on Immortal. Cool stuff, from a band that has been experts at it for quite a while. Few better ways to end this fest, with pure violence upstairs and violently diverse violent diversity down.
Following CC closing up, and after being sure they weren't going to play anything else, I hit the road, sacked out, and managed to get back into work the following morning just after eight. I have no idea how I cycle that fast either.
total points, day 2: 37
total bands, day 2: 6
average, day 2: 6.17
Better on average than day 2 of this year's Party.San, which was the previous high for a festival -- and remember, I missed Goreality, Boarcorpse, Parasitic, and what from all reports was an all-time epic Composted outing. Had I made it for all of day 2, it's conceivable that this could have gone even higher.
What more could you want from this festival? Um, moar? This year took a significant step up in facilities and organization: more vendors in, more bands if I remember right, festival shirts, the signs of a beer partnership (in an indoor setting, you obviously can't get an exclusive beer vendor, but cheap Narragansett was the order of the day), neighboring food shops being open, a sausage truck out front; some of this may have been serendipity, but a lot of it was planned, and a lot of credit has to go to the organizing team, who made a great festival, brought in a ton of killer bands from all across the country, presented a great experience, and probably ended up in the black or at least out of the red. All anyone can rationally want is for the fest to continue; for next year to have more and different non-locals, 'gansett unified on the $2/tallboy price point, and at least as many heads in the building.
Irrationally? Um, move outside 5-10 years ahead of where the fest might do so naturally, and get Katalepsy, Intestine Baalism, and Crackdust? There's a lot of room to be irrational when you've got an organizing team and a festival that is going to deliver the quality at such a high known level. Till next year -- or maybe till the start of next festival season, if the currently half-formed plans to do a black/heathen festival outdoors up in northern New Hampshire floating around in the scene come to anything.
day 1 - 8/29
With some cancellations pushing back the start time (Retch, Atrocious Abnormality, Covenance, and Behead the Lamb -- who are kind of becoming the Bennie Joppru of this festival, hope they can make it next year -- had to cancel from the original billing), I had the luxury of waiting a little to see if the rain would let up; it didn't, and I made my way down to the PVD through the rain and the traffic rubbernecking at the people waiting for the Kennedy motorcade to come by in the other lane. I cairned my crap at the hotel, stretched out a bit, and somehow managed to make my way through Providence's awkward mess of partially-one-way-streets over to the venue without wrecking my vehicle, and in time to see most of Pathogenic's set after getting banded.
Pathogenic [5/7]
Looking at my running order/notes sheet, these guys were the sole deathcore band on the bill, but were worth the while regardless. They were kind of limited, but the argument can be made that the style itself is kind of limited, a thread that will show up again looking at some of the slam bands later on. They played a decent, solid, opening set, and if the crowd wasn't as super into them as the bands that would come on later, they did at least have a full house, which would be consistent for the midday bands throughout the festival. People were intent on getting the most out of their $25/$30 per day, and Blue et al did an excellent job of getting bands that were worth it.
Here I attempted to go up to Jerky's (first set, and all other 'odd' sets until Quo Vadis at the end, were downstairs in Club Hell) using the street entrance, but the door was locked. Two of the guys in ExCx (see below) were also trying to go up to, like, get ready for their set, and also hadn't been informed that we had to go up the back alley staircase. This was a good decision from an organizational perspective -- saves the need for checking this door until Hell closes (see further down) -- but they could have done with a "NEDF - No Entry This Door Till 10:30" sign at the bottom of the stairs, rather than the door into Jerky's itself.
On getting upstairs, I got a beer, ran into the usual and expected coterie of scene stalwarts, and thoroughly assed up my acquisition of one of the few festival shirts. If Drew never stops giving me shit about this, it will be too soon. Said festival shirts are wicked cool, and if they didn't sell out, there is something wrong with the attendees -- a run of 50 should have been gone by the end of the first day, and hopefully this will lead on to a bigger run next year.
EDIT: Said shirts did sell out, and Blue actually did a second run by special order; looks like there will probably be more next year.
Embryonic Cryptopathia [6/7]
I'm not completely sure that they used all of their allotted time, but anyone who was unsatisfied with this set, whether for not running long enough or for some other reason, was probably not even in the building at the time. About the purest grind of the bands that I saw, ExCx absolutely crushed the Jerky's crowd, despite it being this early in the day, in the process of providing one of the better sets of the day. Fucking intense is about the word for it.
Abnormality [5.5/7]
For the first time, I saw Abnormality with a bass player -- Josh (Deconformity, ex-Sexcrement, ex-Neuraxis) Staples, also one of the organizers here -- though the sound downstairs may have held them back a bit. The band's full sound did come off as more complete than when I'd seen them in the past, but maybe not as biting as some previous gigs. The venue sound was, for the most part, really good, but there were a few sags, including this one, that didn't keep the band affected from playing, as in this case, a pretty damn good set of death metal.
Abdicate [5/7]
I hadn't heard these guys before, but was not disappointed; while they didn't stand heads above the rest of the field -- though their gigantic singer did -- they did smash out a bunch of solid music. Just plain old quality death metal and a good time, though there wasn't quite as much motion as they might have wanted. Put that down to being early in the day, or to lack of slam; you can say what you want about the style, but there is a pretty direct relationship between (at least of the bands I observed) slam content and degree of moshing at NEDF.
Polterchrist [6.5/7]
This band, though, thoroughly exceeded expectations; in the middle of the day, from a band you haven't heard of previously (alright, I spend too much time at work and following Celtic among other activities, and put pretty much no effort into following the death metal scene in detail), you're expecting just a solid effort at this festival, but this was a rock-solid killer, intense brutal death flavored with some classic leads, which was a welcome difference from the run of bands leading up to them. Some of this is personal preference, but it's hard to deny that they kicked ass, and the variation in death of all kinds, as Shawn (Insidious Decrepancy/Viral Load) would mention on Sunday, is what makes this fest stronger. Good stuff all the way.
In between here, I spotted someone in a Party.San shirt, and checked a little closer -- this year's! I tapped him on the shoulder about it, and we got to talking about the festival, and the bands, and German festivals and Germany generally. I've got the sneaking suspicion that I saw him around over there -- 10,000 is a pretty small number for three days -- but regardless it was a good time talking with someone else who's been over. Here's hoping that travel prices shake out and more get the opportunity -- and that our increased support of good US festivals will see our experience here growing towards that.
Bloodsoaked [5/7]
While this was going on, Bloodsoaked started up, and though the initial impression was of a stalwart exercise in keeping in time with one's playback, it built up to a decent death metal performance that yes, was still held back by the limitations of being a one-mand-band, but proved to be a good time overall. If you have to sort out the one-man sets of the weekend, yes, this one is on the bottom, but someone has to be, and the two other guys who showed up backed by a drum machine for their sets are really the state of the art in one-man death metal. I don't think anyone was expecting Peter to play them off the stage, but provide a solid set of playback-backed death metal, yes, and he did do that.
Sexcrement [7/7]
The pictures on RTTP, really, say it all when it comes to this set; an avalanche of perfectly balanced gutterslam, transvestites, and Adam in a Queen of Hearts wig. The pit action was enormous, and the tranny go-go dancer a laugh riot, but what really made this was that the music was killer and the sound downstairs absolutely magnificent. After this point, I don't think I saw a single band downstairs that didn't have an exceedingly good treatment from the sound board, though previously things had been inconsistent. Yes, this is in both cases the last three of the night downstairs, and I missed all the 'day' bands on Sunday, but the fact remains. Probably as good a Sexcrement set as I've seen, and while this is not a huge sample, this was also wicked killer enough that it's unlikely to be displaced for quite a while.
Nur in PVD: I go out front after Sexcrement to get some pizza from the shop next door before the last bunch of bands, and the operator of the "spa" next door is haranguing the security about the death metal fest next door, probably concerned that the noise and hordes of black-clad hessians on the sidewalk in the area were discouraging potential customers, and wanted to go in to take a look, no doubt to try and come up with some bullshit reason to call the cops. That got shut down right quick -- no $30 ticket, no admittance; "YOU'd charge US to just come up and take a look!"
On the one hand, this is ridiculous, as the operation is legal in Providence; if someone wants to come and make use of the "spa"'s "resources", they shouldn't be ashamed of being seen by a bunch of death metal heads who don't know them. On the other hand, if she'd seen the billing in advance and looked up some of the bands' lyrics/song titles, she might have a reasonable cause for concern about the safety of her employees; there's an awful lot of material on this fest about killing and dismembering prostitutes.
Malignancy [5/7]
Back upstairs, and back to a good but not exceptional set from Malignancy. While this was still a good, solid, set, it was a bit of a letdown after Sexcrement, and probably, from unreasonable expectations on my part. I hadn't heard anything from them since the Intrauterine Cannibalism disc, but that was ten years and almost total band turnover ago; it makes sense that their sound's changed, and there are a lot of bands that come off flat playing between Sexcrement and Revocation. Good death metal all the same, still.
Revocation [7/7]
Though their sound wasn't quite as huge or the audience quite as nuts as Sexcrement, Revocation still blasted out a characteristically dominating set heavily skewed towards their new material. Well it should be with their debut coming out, and a national (hopefully) tour to promote it; this wasn't the best Revocation set ever, but it was top class and a good sign for what the rest of the country can expect from them opening for Quo Vadis.
I was a little bummed after this set that I'd jumped the gun and gotten my Revocation gear off the Relapse table, as I also wanted to support the band directly. I'll get the new disc off them, though, probably, at their CD release at Church, and for a newly signed band, it also helps to convince the label that they made a good choice in picking them up, and hopefully to give them a hand with tour support. Hopefully, also, the ultimate fate of some of that kit will help with the reaction....
Insidious Decrepancy [6/7]
At this point, despite the good buzz that I'd heard before the Embryonic Devourment tour that Shawn ended up dropping off of, I was not completely sold on the idea of one-man death metal as a live rather than studio endeavor. This set, though, went a substantial way towards turning that around, even if the sound wasn't as good as the downstairs sound for the next two one-man acts. The music was certainly quality, though, and never came off as simple metronome marking; solid brutal death and a fitting East Coast debut.
Putrid Pile [6.5/7]
Downstairs for another one-man band, and wow. Shaun killed it on this set, aided by a hammering sound, and also by a greater slice of slam than the other one-man acts; maybe the PA setup was optimized for it, and maybe people were just taking their last real chance to scrum around. Musically, this was better than I was anticipating, and aided by the huge sound; some people were whining before the fest about how a lot of the out-of-region quality was being made up by one-man bands (being cheaper to fly in); these people obviously missed the two five-member Canadian acts that closed out this night and the Coloradan and Californian ensembles airlifted to headline Sunday, but even if this had actually been the case, Blue sure did a good job of getting good one-man acts that may have been cheaper to book than full bands.
At this point Club Hell closed, at least for us, and transformed itself into a hip-hop/Top 40 dance club. After coming out of the pizza joint, there was already a significant lineup going back almost to the Jerky's door, which inevitably summoned up certain Dropkicks lyrics. BETTER TAKE COVER THERE'S A **** **** ON RICHMOND
Neuraxis [6.5/7]
The band was disappointed with a lack of movement, but this late, at a festival this slammy, you've got to expect as a tech-death band to get this sort of reaction. The music was great, the appreciation also, and with this set in the books, it was rational to ask how the day was going to get still better. Even this class outing, though, would get topped.
Quo Vadis [7/7]
Though they took a while getting set up -- especially in taping up a large banner that did not make it all the way through the set -- this band matched the high expectations I had based on their reputation, and thoroughly crushed the remnants of the crowd; at this point a lot of people were outside for some or most of the set. Those who were missed an epic performance of technical thrash-death; Revocation got a good match for their inaugural major-label tour, but also a bit of a tough draw in that Quo Vadis are one of the very few bands out there that they will not be able to either play off the stage technically or blast flat with heaviness. If this tour comes to your area, do not miss it. Both these bands did stunning sets here, and looked to be a lot more on pace than peaking, so it's likely to be what you'll see as well. Amazing.
After this, I dragged myself out to the car, gunned down some caffeine, and made it back to the hotel with less difficulty than getting over to the venue back in the afternoon. Providence is still laid out weird.
total points, day 1: 78
total bands, day 1: 13
average, day 1: 6
Well, that worked out conveniently; also goes to show that this was a damn good festival.
day 2 - 8/30
Unfortunately for me, I had some stuff to handle back home in the morning, so I drove back, got through it, saw Celtic hold on for the win despite being down a player and the ref trying his mightiest to toss the game the other way, took a nap, and woke up in time to drive back down in significantly better weather and still pretty much no traffic, ending up at the venue just in time to miss the end of Fit For An Autopsy. FUCK.
All told, I missed Living Void, Boarcorpse, Hivesmasher, Goreality, Parasitic Extirpation, Composted, Gutted Out, Dysentery, Short Bus Pileup, and Fit For An Autopsy. That's about two very good gigs' worth of bands that I either slept through or was in transit for -- and among them some pretty epic sets as the rumor goes. This makes the pizza joint around the corner and the sausage wagon out front all the more valuable; you really cannot comfortably take time off from this fest without missing good bands.
So, coming in just as the downstairs band was packing up, I went upstairs, got myself a beer, got ripped on by Mark and Anthony for missing Composted, bought a bunch of merch, eventually found the Onyx patch I'd gotten for Composted and gave that over to Mark, and got several random CDs pushed on me for free by the Sevared guy. Solid.
Digested Flesh [5/7]
A pretty basic but still very solid set, these Jersey guys smashed out a good performance of slammy death metal that was probably right in line with general expectations. Not quite as remarkable as Abacinate last year, but good music regardless, and from a personal standpoint it was a good warmup set to get back into festival mode with...though regardless I managed to pull a neck muscle or something headbanging, and kept having it tweak the rest of the night.
Mucopus [6/7]
The impulse is to start this entry yelling "KENNEDY!!!!", but that has zero resonance for anyone who wasn't actually there; Jason put up as good a set with Mucopus as can be generally expected from him with Skinless, if a little weirder banter-wise and a little more slammy on the musical end. A good time was had by all, though there was less motion, relatively speaking, than for the next largely slammish outing, probably because the stage here wasn't tall enough for Jason to realistically throw himself off of, despite the walking and bantering room that it afforded.
Inherit Disease [6/7]
Midway through the bands that I was going to be able to see, Inherit Disease stepped up and pumped out a flattening set of brutal death metal that thoroughly fulfilled expectations. They filled out their time well and hopefully drove others besides me to go support afterwards, even if some band members did "California" things like playing in flip-flops. (I'm sure I've see some hardcore bands have people playing barefoot at some point in time, but I'm not sure that'd fly generally here up in the Far Far North.) That's kind of the point, though; that while this is the New England Death Fest, it would make no sense to just have bands from New England and immediately surrounding territories play. And as long as the bands that come in "from away" are of the standard we got this time from Cali (and Texas, Wisconsin, Colorado, and by-all-reports-even-though-I-didn't-see-them Michigan and Virginia), we'll be glad to have them.
Viral Load [6/7]
Downstairs, Shawn Whitaker set up as Viral Load with himself, his amp, and a drum machine, and explained that he'd intended to bring his whole live band along, but when they cancelled, he decided to plug on and do a solo Viral Load set, seeing as he was going to be around for Insidious Decrepancy anyways. The result was a truncated (due to preparation constraints) but still precisely finished Viral Load set that thoroughly overcame my initial skepticism that one guy could sound materially different on two successive nights as he and a drum machine attempt to be two separate bands. The separation was definitely there, Viral Load a little simpler and a lot slammier than ID, and the sound was nail-your-feet-through-the-floor massive, which definitely helped the total experience. The result was a unique Viral Load experience; hopefully Shawn'll come back with the full band in a year or three, but this was a hell of a set as it was.
Goratory [7/7]
Speaking of hellish sets....
Southeastern New England. Goratory reunites to headline the slammier day of a slammy festival. The upstairs was flat packed, and as soon as the band started up, the floor exploded with a violence seldom seen even here (yes, I missed the bands earlier in the day where Will (Dysentery) allegedly pushed half a dozen people out the door again and flat destroyed some guy who thought he could mosh hard). They thoroughly justified their legendary status to noobs like me who had never gotten the chance to see them the first time around, and rekindled old fires in the old fans who had been waiting years for this. In the extended time that they had, they crushed through a wide range of slammy and plain-brutal material across the band's entire history, invited Jason (Mucopus) up to do second vocals on "Hang 'em and Bang 'em" (even if his mic was mostly dropped-out for the whole of the song, he was still up there being crazy and diving on top of the pit, inspiring others to do the same), and closed thunderously with "Rice on Suede". Flat amazing. Others have carried on their traditions, and New England is still pretty packed for death metal (seriously, look at the lineups here, about 45% local), but there's still only one Goratory.
Cephalic Carnage [7/7]
Some people might have split; it's late, not everyone could get the day off on Monday (or get into a hotel like I did and have all my work gear in), and there was a reasonable if incredibly naive assumption to be made that Cephalic Carnage might have a hard time topping Goratory. This reckoned without the band, or the fact that, um, they're Cephalic fucking Carnage and have been cleaning up at stellar gigs for a long while. They did, as might be expected, a strong, long, set of highly technical, highly brutal, expertly composed material with strong political and philosophical points between songs, and closed with "Black Metal Sabbath", finishing with humor, strength, and a surprisingly accurate (musically) piss-take on Immortal. Cool stuff, from a band that has been experts at it for quite a while. Few better ways to end this fest, with pure violence upstairs and violently diverse violent diversity down.
Following CC closing up, and after being sure they weren't going to play anything else, I hit the road, sacked out, and managed to get back into work the following morning just after eight. I have no idea how I cycle that fast either.
total points, day 2: 37
total bands, day 2: 6
average, day 2: 6.17
Better on average than day 2 of this year's Party.San, which was the previous high for a festival -- and remember, I missed Goreality, Boarcorpse, Parasitic, and what from all reports was an all-time epic Composted outing. Had I made it for all of day 2, it's conceivable that this could have gone even higher.
What more could you want from this festival? Um, moar? This year took a significant step up in facilities and organization: more vendors in, more bands if I remember right, festival shirts, the signs of a beer partnership (in an indoor setting, you obviously can't get an exclusive beer vendor, but cheap Narragansett was the order of the day), neighboring food shops being open, a sausage truck out front; some of this may have been serendipity, but a lot of it was planned, and a lot of credit has to go to the organizing team, who made a great festival, brought in a ton of killer bands from all across the country, presented a great experience, and probably ended up in the black or at least out of the red. All anyone can rationally want is for the fest to continue; for next year to have more and different non-locals, 'gansett unified on the $2/tallboy price point, and at least as many heads in the building.
Irrationally? Um, move outside 5-10 years ahead of where the fest might do so naturally, and get Katalepsy, Intestine Baalism, and Crackdust? There's a lot of room to be irrational when you've got an organizing team and a festival that is going to deliver the quality at such a high known level. Till next year -- or maybe till the start of next festival season, if the currently half-formed plans to do a black/heathen festival outdoors up in northern New Hampshire floating around in the scene come to anything.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Every Shirt CXXXIX: Viral Load
shirt: Viral Load
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2009
provenance: band/festival
Another NEDF pickup (writeup coming probably tomorrow), this one made the cut as being the most appealing design on Shawn Whittaker's table. After Insidious Decrepancy on Saturday, I knew I was going to be getting something in addition to the normal CD range -- and patch, which will probably hit some jacket or another relatively soon -- and I ended up getting this one just before Viral's set on Sunday. The music eminently justified it, but I got a good deal as well on the EP/shirt combo even if they'd turned up average; more evidence to the fact that Shawn is a good dude and deserves your support, even when he's going it alone, as he ended up doing for Viral as well as Insidious on NEDF.
I'm now caught up and looking forward to staying on pace. There are currently 11 normal shirts and 5 longsleeves left in the pile, which probably means like three weeks left, given that Ravage is doing an eight-band CD release show this weekend, and there is probably more to come from there, and apparently Edguy is on Tuesday. There's also a Metal Thursday or two built into the schedule from here, and as long as nobody in my building steals it, a Wacken package as well. As probably mentioned before, when I run out of shirts, this will just flat stop, not to be revived, but it will run nearly all the way to the end of the month, which will be a span of just less than six months since this thing started. It'll probably be more like five months of different shirts counting the lengthy Euro hiatus in July and August, but five months of never repeating the same shirt is barely less impressive and somewhat-worrying than six.
Every Shirt CXXXVIII: Composted - Fighting Cock
shirt: Composted - Fighting Cock
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2009
provenance: band/festival
This design debuted at the '09 NEDF and was intended to be exclusive there, though there will probably be some still kicking around the band's merch bucket by the NJDF should you see them there. Those wondering why this design of a baby chicken's head on top of a muscular human torso gets tagged as any sort of "cock" have obviously never seen the band live, nor listened to their CD all the way through, nor looked them up on YouTube. Do any of these, and you will understand the associativity that leads Composted to use chicken motifs in designs like these. You'll also laugh yourself stupid and get the reason stuck in your head all day, but thems the breaks.
Every Shirt CXXXVII: Carcass
shirt: Carcass
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2008
provenance: band
One of the few new designs rolled out for their reunion tour, this one got picked up then for mainly that reason, but the insertion of Ken behind the hypodermic really put it heads up above the rest. I'm wary of buying old tour designs reinvented (ok, yes, there are exceptions) in the first place, but here I was also (courtesy of their set earlier that summer) touched by the band incorporating the member they want to have back, but can't, into this revival design. That's pretty cool, and reason enough to get a cool-looking shirt from some all-time greats.
Every Shirt CXXXVI: Master
shirt: Master - Slaves To Society tour
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2008
provenance: band
Coming from one of the purest death metal shows of last year, this ruthlessly underground shirt fittingly came up for the second day of NEDF, as can be seen from the nonstandard backdrop. As this festival was only two days, there wasn't a break in the project....just an annoying backlog that started in advance due to festival prep and packing and has taken a while to finish resolving. In contrast to last year, though, this and yesterday's shirt were both seen on location due to me wearing a kutte that doesn't close in the front. I might be expected to blather on at this point about bringing some old-school brutal balance to the run of slam, but honestly, this is New England as well as NEDF, and people know about Master here already. Just a cool shirt, not a point to be forced.
Every Shirt CXXXV: Rotten Sound
shirt: Rotten Sound - Exit
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2008
provenance: band
Acquired from their merch desk on their painfully underappreciated stop supporting Carcass, this is a cool-looking shirt from a band I dig, based on an album that for some excessively stupid reason I don't own yet. I do have and like Murderworks and Cycles, so it probably comes down to just a lack of presence of mind that keeps me from having Exit as well. Something to remedy going forward.
Every Shirt CXXXIV: Dysentery
shirt: Dysentery - Annihilation Is Salvation
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2009
provenance: band
Picked up, as with several other shirts recently, just before heading over to Europe, this is only one variation on a theme that Dysentery had working here -- and still does, to a lesser extent with their tour having cut down on the now-available selections -- of shirts with unconventional fabric/ink color combinations. This isn't, I don't think, so much to be accessible to the audience that the people who slur them as "wiggerslam" accuse them of trying to reach out to, but a practical commercial consideration in combating Black Shirt Fatigue, which is a significant risk if you're an underground death metal band trying to sell a black shirt with your logo on it in white ink: your target market has several hundred of these already (see, um, this entire series), and if yours does not stand out, it's staying in the bucket. Dysentery do have black shirts, too, and ones with the sick From Past Suffering Comes New Flesh cover art on them, but by having varicolored logo shirts too, they may pick up a few extra bucks along the lines of this purchase.
This shirt saw limited duty in Europe at the end of Wacken and the start of Berlin, and part of the ink on the back got clubbed off by some point in the wash process in Berlin. Still looks cool though.
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