LIST: 10 MOST ANTICIPATED BANDS of MARYLAND DEATHFEST

I love making lists. In fact, that probably why I was offered the role of Oskar Schindler, in Schindler’s List. I said, “Steven [Spielberg], I make lists all the time.” And he said, “That’s exactly what I’m looking for.” (My next list will be HBO shows that I quote from too often, starting with this quip from Liam Neeson in Life’s Too Short.)

Before I let the rabbit out of the hat or the cat out of the bag or whatever other animal cliche fits here with my TOP 50 EXTREME ALBUMS OF THE YEAR, I wanted to start with a list of the bands I’m looking forward to seeing most at Maryland Deathfest. It’s my first year attending, so I’ll be targeting international bands who don’t tour often, and a few North American bands who have evaded me thus far:

10) Noothgrush. Recently missed them playing in Brooklyn, and you never know how long it will be before these West Coast sludge-slingers visit the borough again. If there was a split album you enjoyed over the last 17 years they were probably involved.

9) Bongripper. I love the Chicago doom scene, and there’s nobody in the Midwest who can touch the bleakness of Hate Ashbury and Satan Worshipping Doom.

8) Crowbar. I traded Monster Magnet’s Powertrip album for Crowbar’s Obedience Thru Suffering back in junior high school, and it went down as one of the best trades of all time.

7) Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. With so much screaming and growling, this UK band’s brand of macabre doom rock will be a reprieve from extremity. Great songs that avoid that lazy “retro” tag people love and just provide great hooks and a sense of mystery.

6) The Secret. I still think Solve et Coagula is one of the more underrated albums out there, and I’ve missed my chance at seeing this Italian band several times in Brooklyn. NOT THIS TIME.

5) Coffins. Blurring that line between death metal and sludge, their music seems like the perfect soundtrack for swimming through a pond of entrails. With the government holding up work/travel VISAs to the point where Church of Misery cancelled their NYC show earlier this year, any time a band I dig from Japan heads this way I make sure to attend.

4) My Dying Bride. I always loved the sense of sophistication and drama they brought to doom, and Turn Loose the Swans was one of the first albums that persuaded me to embrace slower-tempo genres back when I was a grindcore maniac in high school.

3) Gorguts. Unfortunately I’ll be missing their show at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn in December, so MDF offers me a chance to see a band whose comeback has given us Colored Sands, an album I feel even surpasses the legendary Obscura in terms of vision, focus, and grandiosity.

2) At the Gates. Since the first time I heard an old Earache records sampler, I was infatuated with Tomas Lindberg’s bark and the melodic savagery of Slaughter of the Soul.

1) The Church of Pungent Stench. Not only does the Been Caught Buttering album art adorn my battle vest, but Martin Schirenc is the culprit for igniting my adoration for death metal. I love his Hollenthon project as well, but it obviously starts with the gruesome excess of Pungent Stench.

Check out the full list of bands over at the Maryland Deathfest website, and tell me how wrong I am about this list:  https://www.marylanddeathfest.com/

REVIEW: DOWN - IV, PART I (THE PURPLE EP)

New Orleans supergroup Down, composed of celebrated members from Pantera, Eyehategod, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, and numerous other immensely talented and incestuous southern bands, have released the first of four planned EPs over the next couple years. The marketing approach seems to me an experiment with relevancy, adapting to a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately mentality that’s settled in with so much music and entertainment so immediately available. Due to each member’s obligations in other bands Down has been notoriously sluggish with releasing new material. Hopefully by focusing on approximately six songs for each release there won’t be seven years between albums, like between their debut and follow-up record. Then again, considering the pedigree of these musicians there should really never be a moment of doubt regarding relevancy. There is enough songwriting starpower in Down to melt the northernmost ice caps just by playing riffs in their direction.

The album begins with ominous chugging guitars lurching forward like the silhouette of a predator in the mist. When the volume escalates and the song is close enough to bite, vocalist Phil Anselmo counts “1,2,3,4” to warn you of the coming attack. But the attack never truly happens. The Purple EP, as it’s been casually dubbed, feels like the equivalent of the hunting animal circling its prey, but when it comes time to feast the album lets the prey off the hook, allowing it to escape into the brush.

Opener “Levitation” isn’t the only song that doesn’t provide a proper pay-off. “Open Coffins” also begins with Anselmo counting off before wobbling into sleepy riffs mixed far below the over-sung melodies before being saved for a mid-song minute by a sneering breakdown offering a glimpse of attitude that’s far too rare on this album. The song stretches past five minutes, relying on a B side riff on an album that only has an A side. “The Curse” also ambles forward with all the energy of a fat somnambulist returning to bed with a belly full of late-night BBQ. Down has built their reputation on riffs that stomp through the mud and solos that soar above the quagmire, but the songs on The Purple EP seem content to mosey the straightest path start to finish.

This album as a whole drips with more 70s psychedelic acid than their prior releases, which seems like an influence Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein could have criminal amounts of fun injecting into the dirty hesher rock Down has made their own since their first album in 1995. Unfortunately, the fist-pumping hook on “Witchtripper” and the doses of dirgey doom on “Misfortune Teller” are the only memorable moments. As a whole it’s one of Anselmo’s weakest vocal offerings, seemingly juicing his voice and squeezing out most of the grit and pulp. Hopefully they’re saving those ingredients for the next EP.

Despite my disappointment in The Purple EP this band is still responsible for NOLA, one of the very best rock and roll records ever recorded, and nearly two decades of top-tier metal. This album may not have satisfied my appetite but I’ll still hungrily await the next EP and just sip on the bright moments from this album until then.

Visit Down’s website over at:  http://www.down-nola.com/

And you can find all their releases on Spotify, including NOLA, which I encourage every fan of rock music to listen to immediately.