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I showed up a few minutes into Hell Within's set. They played good sounding metalcore and looked so happy to be playing such a big show. The enthusiasm realy shined through their set, which made for a good start to the third day of Metal Fest.
I missed the first few minutes of Gizmachi because I was interviewing Hell Within, but I liked what I heard when I got back. They played metalcore, but it was simple, which made for a good sound that is enjoyable and easy to follow. They ended with a really heavy ballad type song that was incredible. The singer kind of looked like "The Dude" from "The Big Lebowski."
I heard the last two songs of Internal Bleeding, which sounded pretty damn good. They had a lot of great guitar parts.
I watched about a half a song of Howling Syn before quickly leaving because they were pretty fucking terrible.
I thought I was watching Extol, but I learned later in the day that they never showed up, so I guess I was watching Noctuary. They were a super fast death metal band with some killer breakdowns. I left after about ten minutes so I could watch Into the Moat, who were really talented, but sounded exactly like Dillenger Escape Plan. Thats not really a bad thing, but it was so obvious who influenced them that it was almost funny. They were really good though.
I left for a little while to go get some food. I came back and found out that 3 Inches of Blood was running really late, causing a mix up in the line up. Evergreen Terrace had already played and Behemoth had taken the stage. I watched two songs before going upstairs to check out Origin. They were pretty good, and it was cool seeing Behemoth play in full white face paint. It looked very evil.
Origin absolutely killed on stage. Everything was played so fast, which is what I like to hear from a grind band. All I could really hear was vocals and drums, but the guitarists and bassist looked like they were doing some pretty awesome stuff.
I went downstairs to catch the rest of 3 Inches of Blood's set, which was pretty rad. They sound so much like Judas Priest, and it sounds so cool. I can picture this band breaking out in the near future. They ended with "Deadly Sins."
Between the Buried and Me opened up with their new song, "Alaska." The opening guitar line is absolutely killer, and the whole song is ridiculously good. They also played "Shevanel Cut a Flip," "Lost Perfection" ("Coulrophobia" and "Anablephobia"), as well as another new song called "Robo Trimmer." This band absolutely killed and I can't wait for their new album to drop. From the sound of these two songs, its going to be fucking insane.
I wanted to go see Dead to Fall, but the line to get into the upstairs stage went from one stair case to the next, so I decided to watch Black Dahlia Murder, figuring I wouldn't get upstairs. They sounded alright, but I got pretty bored during their set. I decided to try and make my way upstairs in hopes of checking out Cephalic Carnage. To my surprise, there was no line, so I walked right in and got my face torn off by their incredible set. They tore through a good amount of songs in their 30 minute set, including "Dying Will Be the Death of Me" and "Counting the Days," which has one of the greatest breakdowns ever. Before they played their last song, which they said was off of one of their demos, they played the King of the Hill theme song. Cephalic Carnage is so great.
I wanted to watch Dark Tranquility and then go home (watching Nile would have been cool, but I knew I didn't have the energy to get home at close to midnight and then work with kids the next day-plus, I needed to fix my tire which had a hole in it), but I had to sit through Hypocrisy before they came on. I watched a couple songs that were slow and terrible, so I went to hit the merch tables for the last time. They sounded really good when I got back downstairs, for some reason. The songs were a lot faster and they just sounded 100% better.
Matt met up with me at the show before Origin played. He was also the one who had a fix that would fix my tire, so I told him to let me know when he wanted to leave. We stayed for about four songs of Dark Tranquility. The first two were a little too slow, but the next two were full of fast grind. They were pretty good, but the sound on the balcony was very muffled and I couldn't hear the keyboards.
Metal Fest was a good weekend, but it was also a long one. I give props to anyone who managed to stay for the whole thing all three days. I know I couldn't, even though I also know that I missed some killer bands (namely Unearth, Danzing with Doyle and Nile).
Written by: RF