After Mantar Islander and I went out for some more food and refreshments, we ended up sitting out at the restuarant chatting until it was time for Coven to take the stage at Rams Head. In hindsight this was a poor descision, should have gone to see Incantation instead. However I’ve seen the latter before and had never seen Coven, so was curious what it was all about. Now Coven might be an occult band, but it’s by no stretch of the imagination a metal band. So seeing them at MDF was kinda weird, but people seemed to enjoy their 60s psychedelic rock. I shot a short video of their opening song.

Unable to sleep I started Friday morning with a jog around Baltimore’s inner harbour, it was a nice morning albeit a bit muggy. Once I had gotten back and showered it was time for lunch with the gang before heading down to the venue. I got to Rams Head around the time Perdition Temple were about to go on, before walking down to the venue I had quickly listened to a few of their songs, enough to figure I wouldn’t mind seeing them. They didn’t dissapoint live, the bassist/vocalist (which according if metal-archives is session) has a great set of pipes on him and being a fairly big guy was quite impressive on stage. Definately a band I’m checking out in more detail in the future.

Next up were Scorched a young band from Delaware, again a band I had no experience with, but which came highly recomended (by I think MetalBandcamp Max). Regardless they were enjoyable live, but I somehow managed to not get any pictures. After Scorched I decided to get an early dinner so I would be fed and ready for Misery Index which were one of my must sees of Friday. Needless to say they didn’t dissapoint, unfortunaltey my pictures do.

Blood Incantation were on after Misery Index and while we all thought they’d have a hard time matching the ferociousness of the Misery Index set they actually managed to hold themselves high and put on a good show, I somehow seem to have no pictures though.

Next band I caught was God Dethroned which put on a good show, once again I seemed to have been mesmerized by the show and forgotten to take any pictures.

The night ended with Suffocation who put on a decent high energy show, their live vocalist being so full of energy he often almost collided with the other band members.

Saturday started out with Ritual Necromancy followed by Phrenelith. After them Pessimist took the stage and while they put on a good show I think more attention was paid to the guy who came flying from the pit over the barrier and face-planted on the concrete floor between the stage and fence. As there was no security there this early in the evening it took them a while to even notice him, and he was finally trucked off by the paramedics at the end of Pessimist’s set.

I took a dinner break so that I could return just prior to Dødheimsgard taking the stage. Being only familiar with their early work I didn’t know what to expect but they were one of the stand out performances of the festival. They managed to go from their later era avantgarde material back to some earlier blasty stuff. It was quite the performance.

For the first time during the festival I moved over to Sondstage to see Pig Destroyer, having seen them before I knew it would be a fun and grindy time. No one was dissapointed.

I found some more food and beverage to kill some time before Satyricon were due to close out the the day’s festivities. Satyricon is a band I haven’t been into since they started being more of a rock band and less of a black metal band. That said I’d never seen them before so I figured it would be interesting. One thing is for sure that for a band with close to 30 years experience they sure know how to put on a live show. They were quite possibly the tightest band of the festival and despite being unfamiliar with much of what they payed they were very enjoyable live.

Sunday started with Suffering Hour while not my usual cup of tea live it was quite enjoyable with good energy despite being the first band out that day.

The Day continued with Ascended Dead which like Suffering Hour were nothing I knew anything about but were a pretty good live show.

Next up were my Sunday must see Thantifaxath who I’ve been a fan of ever since their first EP, finally getting to see them live was something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. While some people I was with took offense to their annonymity and outfits I couldn’t really care less. They put on an absolutely blistering, but short, set playing songs from their full-length and latest EP, I was a little dissapointed not to hear anything from their first self-titled EP, would have loved to hear Violently Expanding Nothing, hopefully next time.

All the folks in my group were excited about Sinmara and while I wasn’t familiar I stuck around to see them. The little I remember of their set it was good, but didn’t necessarily make a huge impression, however I was interested enough to make a note to check out their back catalog.

After Sinmara it was time for Evoken to take the stage with their funeral doom dirges. I tend to like funeral doom, but live it’s always a bit of a gamble. However they did a good job in keeping it interesting, for the part of their set that I saw.

Towards the end of Evoken’s set I walked over to Soundstage to see Wormrot who flew 22 hours from Singapore to play a 40 minute show. I hope they had some other shows lined up cause that’s a long god-damn flight. Forty minutes flew by as they grinded through more songs than I could count. Grindcore is still tons of fun to see live, and quite the change from the funereal experince at Rams Head.