One of our staffers is on location and liveblogging this epic and exhausting metal festival which stretches an onslaught of bands over three days. Best to bring your comfy chair and maybe a Kindle so you can sit through the poseur bands.
Day One
Weregoat: noise over a beat. Worthless.
Invocation Spells: melodic speed metal with proto underground, think Merciless mixed with Hellhammer’s faster songs. Songs held together well, which made this enjoyable, even if it did get a bit too vocal lead at times
Infernal War: better understood as angry dance music than metal, beats set the energy for simple stroboscopic two chord riffs at lightning pace contrasted with loping midpaced viking riffs over a rock beat. Body music to the core, did nothing for me.
Crucifier: I’ve always enjoyed these guys a lot more than their affiliated projects. Darkly melodic, energetic without being body only music. Structures are a bit random at times, meaning it won’t stand up to real analysis, but it’s thoroughly enjoyable “in the moment.”
Diocletian: Heavy as Fuck. Playing at the intersection of black metal and noise without being unmusical, monolithic crushing darkness. Bonus points for their bassist’s stage presence, dude is a complete maniac
Demoncy: missed the mark a bit. Joined in Darkness songs but played faster than on album and with the drummer embellishing a bit, which took away quite a bit of their power. It feels like they went for metal show energy instead of the portentousness of the album, to their detriment.
Inquisition are likely to cut into not only Arghoslent’s set but also Graveland’s at the rate they’re going. How a band fucks up so bad so that they eat up all of their set time, all of the band after them, and then that of the headliners after that is beyond me.
Don’t expect an Arghoslent review here — after how bad GBK was, no way am I subjecting my braincells to that
Haha, watching Graveland‘s soundcheck, wasn’t expecting “Raining Blood” to be a favorite riff of those guys!
After taking the stage two hours late for literally no reason, Graveland were great. Set was spread pretty evenly across the pre-Creed of Iron material, and played really professionally. It’s easy to not realize how complex the Following the Voice of Blood songs are, but they played them without a hitch.
Day Two
Invocation Spells, again — because of bands dropping off the bill, we’re getting a second set of this band. Why this one out of all of the possibilities, I have no idea.
Necrowretch: in lieu of a direction, this band randomly combines every style of heavy metal that has ever masqueraded as extreme metal. As bad as the name would make you think.
Ares Kingdom: I’ve always enjoyed these guys live. Epic heavy metal delivered with passion and fury, like “A Fine Day to Die” at Slayer tempos with a monster shredder on guitar.
Adorior: unconvincing. I always liked their second album, but the new one sure does suck, and even the old songs mixed in are being played in the vocals first style of the new one. The soundman burying their rhythm guitarist in the mix isn’t helping.
Usurper: the dumbest stomp riffs Obituary ever wrote apparently weren’t dumb enough for this band, working them into the most brainless call and response songs I’ve ever encountered. Listening to this could probably lower someone’s IQ by 20 points.
Sadistic Intent: if there was ever a platonic form of underground metal, it would be a Sadistic Intent live set. Screaming tremolo melodies conjuring Slayer style evil over racing drums. Unbelievable musicianship and tightness — I could only dream of guitar being as easy for me as it is for Rick Cortez. That’s my fourth time seeing them, and I’m still shocked every time at how excellent they are.
Communion: maybe it’s the come-down after Sadistic Intent, but these guys are boring as shit. The most obvious tremolo picked four note riffs possible repeated into infinity. Very ready for this to end and for Absu to start.
Absu: best set I’ve ever seen from this band. Setlist was The Sun of Tiphareth album + “The Shineth Unto the Cold Cometh” and “Never Blow Out the Eastern Candle,” same as at DTF, but there was just a bit more energy in the air tonight. They followed up with an encore of three Zemial songs, which I enjoyed a lot more than expected; they went surprisingly well with the Absu material, not familiar enough with the originals to say whether they were modified for the occasion or not.
Day Three
Omegavortex: I know I disagree with everyone else here in this band, but this was a killer set. Probably the closest thing to Necrovore live that we’ll ever get — a maze of chromatic riffing delivered at breakneck pace, held together with re-occurring rhythms giving songs shape through the chaos. Absolutely savage set.
Death Strike: efficient! Curious as to how they’re going to differentiate this from the set they’re playing later as Master.
Magnus: not enough songs from I Was Watching My Death, too much generic speed metal. Should have been a lot better.
Soulburn: holy shit boring. Sometime after Bob and Wannes left, they became the dullest droning black metal ever.
Disma: crushing set of ambient murky death metal, like Autopsy crossed with Desecresy. Played a couple of songs from their upcoming album, which were highlights, making excellent usage of their overwhelming textures in a musical way, so that album will he one to look forward to.
Dead Congregation: I wish these guys songwriting skills matches their riff writing skills and energy. They’d completely own the genre if they did. As it is, the randomness makes this fall just short.
Cruciamentum: I wish these guys had a longer set. They laid down the law, with a set of musically erudite and incredibly dark death metal epics, with a setlist spanning their whole discography. These guys get lumped in with the incanticlones a lot, but it’s not really accurate; they’re more like the first generation of dark metal bands, Ceremonium, Belial, early Darkthrone, etc, with a bit of the musical education of middle period Immolation. Amazing set.
Master: Doing a set of Death Strike classics in the afternoon and then a set of modern songs closer to the night’s climax is such a weird decision — it seems like it should be the other way around. Not bad, but the Death Strike set was a lot better.
Mortem: DEATH RULES SUPREME. A perfect musical incarnation of that scene in every horror movie where the idiots summon a demon they have no hope of controlling, supernatural sinister riffs flying in every direction and wild guitar pyrotechnics from beyond all with demonic intent.
Unleashed: Unleashed are refusing to play anything from their early albums, this is getting really dumb with way too much rock posturing. Ended up leaving a few songs into Unleashed when it became clear that they were just going to play new songs and tediously try to get people to sing along with the choruses.
Overall, a successful fest! I know the organizer is saying this will be the final Metal Threat, but I hope he reconsiders, both editions of this fest that I attended were great.
Tags: absu, adorior, ares kingdom, Arghoslent, communion, crucifier, death strike, demoncy, diocletian, graveland, infernal war, Inquisition, invocation spells, magnus, master, Necrovore, necrowretch, omegavortex, sadistic intent, usurper, weregoat
What no Ledney? Well, next time you see him, be sure to drink that much coveted cum of his.
Maybe the whole festival should have been named Whoredom Rife.
The Purifying Consecrated Ground EP is still the best thing Dead Congregation have done despite the heavy Immolation influence. They’ve been trying to develop their own sound ever since but seem to resort to drone too often in the process. Anyway, I saw them in Toronto on Friday night. Unequivocally GREAT live band with extreme death metal technique and stamina \m/
The Baptanodons
Black Hawaiian raprockzilla
Basilosaurus prime metal
Brimosaurus insect police
Baptanodons kneel before no one!!!!
The black Hawaiian hopi mexhitian shemales from beyond hell
Hey Brett if you were a transformer what would you be?
Any transgender jokes anyone?
And what mud race is smartest
Naggers
Jews
Latinos
Aapi slant eyed fucks
Ok what is it?
Here is that fake troll moron again. Go to the planet of the apes, and let every primate fuck you up the ass, does that make it better for you? Because you can’t stop talking about, so here’s the truth to you all neo-nazi fags: you want [ethnic slur] to prolapse the shit out of you, well, pray for it, because one day it just might happen.
Deport Nick Fuentes. Report him to ICE at (866) 347-2423.
Neo-Nazis are secret furry FemDom supporters, like Republicans.
That saying about “Weak men create hard times, hard times create strong men, etc…” is just a cover for how obsessed most of them are with *hard* men.
Hard times create hard Slavs.
Hard Slavs create hard times
Do you really believe the GOP convention a few years ago really shut down Grindr? I think it’s the homos that lied on the conservatives to make a mockery out of them. I just can’t believe there are that many gays in the Republican party. For sure they exist, but not shutting down an entire gay app.
It seems too convenient, doesn’t it? After all, it is possible, mostly because lower-level staffers have high rates of homosexuality. I am not sure why this is but maybe politics is a “safe” career where one is less likely to run into angry homo-hating bullies?
Very convenient, and I never hear about this happening at gay events. So it’s hard to believe it would happen at a GOP convention. I think this type of behavior from the left (or gay left) occurs because the whole punk rock roots. The trolling efforts seem reminiscent of the Jello Biafra/Dead Kennedys days where Biafra ran for mayor and pushed for nonsensical policies that would never get him elected. This is all happening again with the left. There was guy recently that cane forward saying he would expose Speaker Mike Johnson’s Grindr account if he didn’t seat the elected Democrat winners. The left are forcefully trying to get what they want, and if they don’t get it, they’ll spread fake rumors. It’s all about control with them. They’re so desperate that they’re taking risks that could potentially ruin their career (if they even have careers) or worse.
The left are desperate.
The Left have been calling anyone who criticizes gays “closeted homosexuals” for years. That being said, my policy on homosexuals remains “leave them alone, maybe buy them a couple rounds.” The Christian obsession with gayness is trying to hammer swords into ploughshares again and it is just as unwise.
I agree, bilut it will be hard to convince the Christian conservative right to not be homophobic when it’s in their Bible for man not to lay with man. The neocons may think differently, but tur old school conservatives will always live by that. I think things will shift soon once they die off though.
More likely, newer generations of conservatives will simply not be religious. Christian nationalism is morphing into Western European identity.
Looking forward to it.
Sexual hangups make the world go round
Just like censorship makes banned information valuable, sexual hangups keep weird sexual practices attractive for the normie herd.
You are astoundingly tone deaf
I am an anti-diversity activist. I think diversity in any form wrecks civilization and induces genocide. As far as being a “racist,” it is not in my program. I can make fun of things, but I think I mock my own group the most, at least in daily life. I am not good at cruelty or judgment. I am an ethnicist in the sense that I realize only mono-ethnic societies survive and thrive. I am a eugenicist in that I realize there are some good people, some bad ones, and a bunch of grey areas, so you remove the bad but above all else — all else — you promote the good.
A few years back I started getting shit for defending Israel and Jews, but that’s because I saw the way the rhetoric is going, and I think it is dangerous to think this way. I favor clearing the Palestinians out of Israel and having only Jews and all Jews in Israel. I do not want pogroms or another retarded Holocaust, even if it was just an idiotic slave labor program, and I surely do not want the return of slavery or racial abuse in America. I am culturally progressive and functionally conservative. I am in favor of decriminalized drugs, legal abortion, LGBT acceptance, and actual environmentalism. I think history proved the Confederates and Nazis right about diversity being suicidal, but I do not seek to emulate their methods.
And transwomen are men. Transgenderism is a joke, a psychological malady being treated as a lifestyle choice. Still, if they pay for it on their own, I think it should be left alone. Tyler Robinson shot Charlie Kirk because Robinson’s parents were crazy Christians who could not handle having an obviously gay son. None of us can make people into anything other than what they are, so let’s stop pounding square pegs into round holes (which applies both to diversity and LGBT).
For the rest, consider my manifisto. Yes, it says maniFISTo because it involves fisting.
Stop pounding square pegs into round holes? I thought all kinds of pounding were loved here?
We also support pegging!
Also Mark Ruffalo was really good in Zodiac (2007). Even if I’d deport him.
Deport Max Cavalera
Deport The Mars Volta
Deport Las Cruces
Deport Jennifer Lopez
Deport Brujeria
Deport Prince Harry
Deport Milo
Deport Slash
Time to review the new Vulnificus.
Listening to the two songs available on their bandcamp, these guys need to learn to write songs instead of series of related riffs.
HAHAHA
I’m going to the Filipinos
Philiines or Chinese or Japan
Fuck African shit naggers….
I hate my race proudly…
Glad I didn’t have to endure this event. You’re really gay, thanks man.
When is BLOOD coming back to America? I really need to make up for the ice cream, sleeping rough, and smoking weed of the gaping memory hole of that kick ass concert in November 2017. My best memory is of Martin Witchskinner’s crazy face suddenly in mine screaming.
There aren’t many bands left I’d give a fuck about seeing, I’d like to see Blood before they are shitting in diapers. The original death metalers are about to be pants shitters and have dementia, pretty sure Morbid Angel will be the first to sit all day in a recliner or computer chair and be constantly shitting on it. There will be layers of shit splatters, it has to travel past the deflated saggy ass cheeks then spread into the underwear. Now here is where it gets interesting, the main flow of shit will go down the pants legs, probably shorts or just underwear here but it will clump out around the inner thighs and legs with generous portion filling the area around taint, testicles, penis and gray pubic hairs, it will be like a gelatin mold of shit filled with old man genitalia. Past the underwear the shit has to fight through the tougher and sturdier pant fabric, acting as a filter larger chunks and fecal debris will be caught here, and what remains is brown fecal liquid that will soak into the chair. Over time there will be a drying that will create a flakey crust, must like a baked pie. I think the best death metal bands playing live you can see these days are Sadistic Intent, Autopsy and Cianide (who rarely play). These guys have underwear that has piss stains on it, when you are old you are not done pissing when you think you are. The clock is ticking, the wrinkled on cock is dripping. Music is not even fun anymore, shows were where the rules of the world were left behind, now everyone has a chinese phone spy device, people are lazy and timid so there is no crowd action. There are however semi normie sluts that want to hear loud guitars, and they look better than back then and there is more than the olden days. I have banged a handful of these young women and they have nice bodies and look to older guys that aren’t spastic faggots like all zoomers are. If you can manage to not look like a lumpy angry potato in middle age it’s a new frontier. There is good with the bad, but its mostly all bad.
The real good is that there are no distinct scenes anymore so any thoughts you have about a scene is a stupid waste of energy.