Last week EYEHATEGOD played a blistering set at Sonar. I’ve seen this band a half dozen times but they are always awesome… one of my favorite bands that are still playing. Brutal, dissonant, nihilistic sludge metal. Highly recommended. Weirdly enough, TONS of people were stage diving, I guess because it’s fairly easy to in the club room. Not the kind of music I normally associate with stage diving, but it was a fun show anyway.
Two features up at Brightest Young Things today, both metal related, both with my photos.
Last week I got a chance to see (and shoot) the Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax Jagermeister tour. The headliners were playing their 1990-era albums IN FULL (Seasons In The Abyss, Rust In Peace, respectively), plus their other hits… It was a great show and especially fun for me since I was banned from going to see this same tour in 1990 by my parents! Twenty years later, I finally made it…
Before the show, a writer and I showed up to interview Charlie Benante (from Anthrax) and he was great. We also met Joey Belladona and he was nice as well – he asked me if I was shooting the show and I said yes… he said he’d see me out there. I didn’t think much of it at the time but when they played, true to his word, he saw me in the photo pit, waved, and posed for several photos while looking right at my lens. What a great moment! I’ll post the interview as soon as it goes up.
The show itself was great – Anthrax looked like they were having a great time, reunited, and the crowd responded really well. Megadeth were amazing! Dave Mustaine voice seemed a LITTLE strained, but several of the Rust In Peace songs are really vocally challenging and also were never performed live until recently. All in all Megadeth was AWESOME. Then Slayer – who I’ve seen before and generally are always the same live – were Slayer, they slew in their workmanlike way. Nothing ostentatious, but they are a dependably accomplished and always good live.
I shot promo photos/photos for Decibel magazine for the Virginia doom metal band Salome. You can view the rest of the shots we choose here.
I shot a couple of pictures OF Pig Destroyer (mostly avoiding) working on their new record for Decibel magazine. Check out some more photos here.
This year was the eight Maryland Death Fest, a annual music festival at Sonar in Baltimore that is, without a doubt, the best metal/extreme music festival in the US/North America. It is always a great time and has been getting bigger and more well-organized with each successive year. This time around there were TWO outdoor stages, an indoor stage, a merch room, and dozens of vendors… not to mention thousands of devoted metalheads deposited right into downtown baltimore.
It’s hard for me to go to the WHOLE thing, it’s just overwhelming, but luckily it’s located centrally and close to my house so I usually just dip in to check out the bands I want to see. This year that included EYEHATEGOD, Autopsy, Obituary, Entombed, Pentagram, Deceased, and Converge. I also checked out a few new (to me) bands, my favorite being Captain Cleanoff from Australia. For me, the standout shows of the weekend (besides Captain Cleanoff) were Autopsy and Pentagram…
If you like metal, try to make it to this fest next year!!!
Click here to see more Maryland Death Fest pictures!
See also: My post about Maryland Death Fest 2009
A promo shot of death metal band Dying Fetus. Shot for Relapse Records. Talented photographer Rob Brulinski assisted me on this shoot.
Click for the rest of the St Vitus photos. I saw St Vitus a week or so ago at Sonar – great show. It was good to see these guys back on stage. Wino is always amazing, looking forward to his new band, Shrinebuilder.
Also recently caught Sunn 0))) in that same room, and their show was, as usual, captivating. Though more like an art experience than a metal show:
Last sunday, I went and saw GWAR. It was mind-bending. It was really a challenge because Gwar soaks the crowd in fake blood/pus/semen/gore. And those things don’t work well with cameras. So I wrapped my camera in a hastily-assembled plastic sheeting condom, which made it VERY hard to shoot. I think i did okay, though… you can see the rest of the photos here.
Maryland Death Fest 2009 was amazing. I only was there for one day, but it was incredible! So many bands… I never expected to see Bolt Thrower, ever! Much less with Pig Destroyer, Napalm Death and Wolves In The Throne Room! Not to mention Misery Index, Birdflesh… too many bands to name, really. Also the festival was very well run, which was impressive for just how big the scope of it all was. So many metalheads in one place and there were not really any major problems, at least not that I heard about… congratulations to everyone involved at MDF and Sonar!
Click here to see the rest of my Maryland Death Fest 2009 photos. Or, click here to to see a Slideshow from Maryland Death Fest 2009.
View the whole set here. The show was fun, though I miss the days that Mastodon and Kylesa hung out in my house with my old roommate Sonny and played sold out shows at the Velvet Lounge vs sold out shows at the 9:30 Club. Still, times change and both bands are still very talented… I’ll never like Mastodon’s new sound as much as their earlier work, but it suits them and has obviously won them alot of fans, so more power to them.
From a photo shoot I did for them and Relapse Records.